PaperLabSee how the papers in your library connect
PaperLab’s Graph page draws your library as a network. Each kind of link is a layer you switch on or off: what cites what, papers in the same workspace, a note anchored on two papers, a shared author or topic, and papers that simply read alike. Click a paper to focus it and list its connections, draw your own labelled link like “builds on”, and switch between five views: 2D, 3D, Matrix, Timeline and Rings.
What you can do
- Layers: citations, shared workspace, shared note, shared author, shared topic, similar content.
- Click a paper to focus it and list its connections.
- Draw your own link between two papers, with a label like “builds on”.
- 2D map, and a 3D one you can turn when clusters overlap.
- Matrix: exactly which papers connect and how, as a table a screen reader can read.
- Timeline by year published or date added, and Rings of distance from one paper.
Tips
- Turn on one layer at a time: citations first, then similar content, to spot papers that read alike but never cite each other.
- Use Rings around your key paper to find what is two links away.
Questions people ask
Is the graph accessible?
Yes. The Matrix view shows every connection as a table a screen reader can read cell by cell.
Where does “similar content” come from?
From the same embeddings search uses, so it needs a search model.
How is this different from Connected Papers?
Connected Papers maps papers from an online database. PaperLab graphs the papers you actually have, with your notes and workspaces, on your machine.
Works well with
Guides
- How to map the literature on a topic — Citation graphs, co-citation and coupling, and tools that draw the map.
- PaperLab vs Obsidian — Notes on the passage vs linked Markdown notes, and using both.