Microsoft Academic

Microsoft Academic was a free web-based academic search engine developed by Microsoft Research. It was designed to help users discover scholarly literature, including papers, authors, institutions, journals, and conferences. The service was part of Microsoft's efforts to support the research community by providing tools for exploring academic knowledge. However, Microsoft Academic was discontinued on December 31, 2021, and its website is no longer Operational. This article describes its features and intended use based on publicly avAIlable Information before its retirement.

What it does

Microsoft Academic provIDEd a search interface for academic content. Users could search for topics and receive results that included publications, citations, and related entities. The tool aimed to make academic research more accessible by offering a comprehensive index of scholarly works and enabling users to explore connections between authors, papers, and fields of study.

Key capabilities

• Academic Search: Search for papers, authors, institutions, and journals by keyword or field of study.
• Citation analysis: View citation counts and references for papers to assess impACT and find related work.
• Entity exploration: Navigate between authors, institutions, and publications to underStand research networks.
• free access: The service was available at no cost to users.

Who it is for

Microsoft Academic was intended for a wide audience, including students, researchers, academics, and anyone interested in exploring scholarly literature. It could be useful for Literature Reviews, finding specific papers, or discovering new research areas. The tool was particularly helpful for those who needed to quickly assess the inFluence of a paper or find works by a particular author or institution.

How to get started

As the service has been discontinued, new users cannot access Microsoft Academic. The original website at academic.microsoft.com is no longer active. For those who used the tool in the past, no migration path is officially provided, though some data may be available through other Microsoft services or third-party archives. Users seeking similar functionality may explore other academic search engines such as Google Scholar, Semantic Scholar, or PubMed.

Pricing and access caveat

Microsoft Academic was Free to use and did not require a subscription. However, the service is no longer available, and any references to features are based on its historical operation. Microsoft has not announced a replacement product under the Same name. Details about the service's final veRSIon or specific developer infORMation may vary and are not officially documented in this description. This overview is provided for informational purposes only.