3 Best Chrome Extensions for Research

As researchers, we’ve all become inured to spending precious hours slogging through Google Scholar, ProQuest, and other databases. We must find those articles to read and cite. But, if we can save just one or two minutes per article, it can add up to more time for…whatever else you do.

There are a few useful Chrome extensions available to help. I’ve been using these to find, download, and manage references and PDFs. Each of the following becomes activated when you visit an article’s webpage.

3 Best Chrome Extensions for Research

1. I use Zotero for reference management and it has a Chrome extension for inserting a reference into Zotero, so you don’t have to type in the citation information. Sometimes it also downloads the PDF, if it is available to you on the webpage. When you use this tool, make sure to manually check that the citation is correct. I use a custom label in Zotero called “citation-verified” that I mark once I’ve confirmed a citation is correct. This allows me to use the citation in the future and never have to second guess whether I checked if it is correct: https://www.zotero.org/download/connectors
2. The Google Scholar button pops up an article’s abstract, citation count, etc. It will also provide a link to download the PDF if it is publicly accessible: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/google-scholar-button/ldipcbpaocekfooobnbcddclnhejkcpn
3. Finally, Kopernio finds the PDF for an article whether it is publicly available or only available via your university’s databases, e.g. Proquest or WoS: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/kopernio-powered-by-web-o/fjgncogppolhfdpijihbpfmeohpaadpc

These are the best chrome extensions for research I have found. They save me minutes per article. I hope they help you finish your article or dissertation with less hair-pulling.