Research Matrix

About the project

A free, open-source app for students and researchers writing a literature review. It turns a stack of papers into one organised literature matrix: each paper’s methodology, sample, theoretical framework, key findings, limitations and relevance to your own thesis, side by side.

The challenge

A literature review means reading dozens of papers and holding in your head how each one’s method, sample and findings compare. Notes scattered across documents make it hard to see patterns, or to spot the gaps your own research could fill.

What it does

• Matrix view. Every paper in one table: authors and venue, methodology and theory, key findings, limitations and gaps, and its relevance to your thesis, with the key citations starred.
• Search and filter. By methodology, reading status or theme, with live counts of papers, key citations, methodologies and themes.
• Add or import. Add a paper by hand, or paste a whole BibTeX library and import it in one go.
• Compare. Pick papers and read them side by side.
• Synthesis Studio. Choose a theme and a synthesis pattern and get a scaffold for a literature review section.
• Export. The matrix as a Markdown or LaTeX table, and all references as a BibTeX file.
• Light and dark themes, and everything stays in your own browser, with nothing uploaded.

What I did

I designed and built the app, from the matrix view to the drafting and export tools.