---
title: ToolRouter — Use Case
description: Step-by-step guide for a real-world ToolRouter use case with agent-specific instructions.
url: https://toolrouter.com/tools/academic-research/use-cases/search-papers-by-topic
---
# Search Papers by Topic

Academic research starts with finding what has already been published. Searching through millions of papers across disciplines, journals, and preprint servers is overwhelming when done manually. You need targeted results, not thousands of loosely related hits.

The search_papers skill queries academic databases and returns relevant papers ranked by relevance, recency, and citation count. You get titles, authors, abstracts, publication dates, and citation metrics -- enough to quickly evaluate whether a paper is worth reading in full.

Researchers starting a new project, students writing literature reviews, journalists fact-checking claims, and professionals staying current in their field all need efficient paper discovery. Programmatic search means you can explore a topic systematically rather than clicking through web interfaces.

**Tool:** [Academic Research](https://toolrouter.com/tools/academic-research)
**Skills:** search_papers

## Agent Guides

- [How to Search Papers by Topic with Claude](https://toolrouter.com/tools/academic-research/use-cases/search-papers-by-topic/claude): Guide for Claude
- [How to Search Papers by Topic with ChatGPT](https://toolrouter.com/tools/academic-research/use-cases/search-papers-by-topic/chatgpt): Guide for ChatGPT
- [How to Search Papers by Topic with Copilot](https://toolrouter.com/tools/academic-research/use-cases/search-papers-by-topic/copilot): Guide for Copilot
- [How to Search Papers by Topic with OpenClaw](https://toolrouter.com/tools/academic-research/use-cases/search-papers-by-topic/openclaw): Guide for OpenClaw
