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NeoPhi

Semantic Search

Find the most relevant scientific papers to your research question

NeoPhi uses semantic search to understand the meaning, context and scientific intent behind your question. Explore relevant publications without depending on exact keyword matches.

Try semantic search
1 questionin natural language to explore an entire scientific topic
89 millionrelevant publications scanned per search
Top 100 Most relevant papers / search

What is semantic search for scientific literature?

Semantic search for scientific literature is a method of finding publications based on the meaning of a research question rather than only matching individual keywords.

NeoPhi analyses the concepts, context and relationships expressed in your question to identify publications that may remain invisible in a traditional keyword search. This makes it easier to explore unfamiliar terminology, interdisciplinary topics and research questions that can be expressed in several different ways. Instead of manually testing multiple keyword combinations, you can describe your research objective in natural language and progressively refine the resulting corpus.

Once your corpus is built, you can explore relationships within your publication corpus or generate a structured synthesis from the selected papers without leaving the platform.

Search by meaning

State your research hypothesis, not just a list of keywords

  • Describe the phenomenon, population, method or technology you want to investigate in plain language
  • No Boolean operators required
  • A more detailed question gives NeoPhi more context and returns a more focused scientific corpus

Discover relevant research

Go beyond exact keyword matches

  • Identify publications using different terminology, synonyms or related concepts
  • Explore adjacent and interdisciplinary research connected to your question
  • Reduce repetitive keyword reformulation across databases
  • Results ranked by semantic relevance to the complete research intent

Refine your corpus

Apply scientific filters without losing the context of your search

  • Define a publication period, focus on selected authors or venues
  • Combine semantic relevance with citation indicators
  • Your query history is saved, so long-running explorations stay organised
  • Review source metadata before moving on to synthesis
The interface allows users to refine a topic, define a range of years, and keep a history of queries for easy access (…) particularly useful for students and teachers involved in research projects.
Eric PepinTeacher, Cegep Shawinigan

Designed for research-grade exploration

Keep control over every publication included in your search

  • Review the title, authors and publication metadata of every result
  • Understand why a publication is relevant to your question
  • Refine the corpus before generating a synthesis
  • Your searches stay private and are never used to train public AI models
  • Up to 10000 relevant publications retrieved for exploration
NeoPhi is impressively efficient and an excellent research tool across all fields.
Étienne Le MaroisPsychologist, Liberal Professional

Semantic search vs. Keyword search

A different way to explore scientific literature

Search input

Traditional keyword searchIndividual keywords and Boolean operators
NeoPhi semantic searchComplete natural-language research questions

Matching method

Traditional keyword searchExact or close keyword matches
NeoPhi semantic searchMeaning, context and conceptual relevance

Terminology

Traditional keyword searchRequires the correct vocabulary in advance
NeoPhi semantic searchCan identify related terminology and concepts

Interdisciplinary discovery

Traditional keyword searchDepends on manually testing several terms
NeoPhi semantic searchHelps surface conceptually related publications

Result refinement

Traditional keyword searchDatabase-dependent filters
NeoPhi semantic searchSemantic ranking combined with research filters

Next step

Traditional keyword searchResults reviewed across separate tools
NeoPhi semantic searchCorpus can be used directly for sourced synthesis

A research workflow, not a simple search box

Move from a question to a structured scientific corpus

Semantic search is the entry point of the NeoPhi workflow: find the right publications, explore how they connect, then transform them into a cited synthesis.

Semantic Search

Search, explore, synthesize. Every step is designed to answer a researcher’s concrete question — not to raise new ones.

> 89M+ papers indexed

You are here !

Knowledge graph

Explore relationships within your publication corpus: concepts, papers and research directions on one map.

Connected context

Explore the knowledge graph

Synthesis with sources

Generate a structured synthesis from the selected papers, with citations connected to the original publications.

Source-grounded

See synthesis with sources

Used by researchers and professionals

A faster way to enter a scientific field

  • NeoPhi gives students a faster and thorough way to approach scientific literature. They can move from a question to a structured corpus while keeping the original publications visible throughout the process.
    Martin BARBET
  • NeoPhi helped me structure my literature review much faster. I could explore a broad topic, identify the most relevant papers and progressively refine my research question without losing track of the sources.
    Nyota KUNYUPharmD, Hospital pharmacy resident
  • The interface allows users to refine a topic, define a range of years, and keep a history of queries for easy access (…) particularly useful for students and teachers involved in research projects.
    Eric PepinTeacher, Cegep Shawinigan

Semantic search FAQ

What is semantic search for scientific papers?

Semantic search finds scientific papers by analysing the meaning and context of a research question. Unlike a search based only on exact keywords, it can identify publications that discuss the same concepts using different terminology.

How is semantic search different from keyword search?

Keyword search primarily looks for the terms entered by the user. Semantic search considers the complete intent of the question and the conceptual similarity between the query and each publication. The two methods can be complementary, but semantic search is particularly useful when terminology varies across disciplines or authors.

Can I search NeoPhi using a full research question?

Yes. NeoPhi is designed to work with detailed natural-language questions. Including the scientific context, population, method, period or expected outcome can help the platform identify a more focused set of publications.

How many scientific publications can NeoPhi retrieve?

NeoPhi can retrieve up to 100 relevant publications for a research question. The results can then be reviewed and refined using the available filters and ranking options.

Can I filter the scientific search results?

Yes. Researchers can refine the result set using the scientific and bibliographic filters available in NeoPhi, including publication period and other metadata exposed by the platform.

Does NeoPhi replace academic databases?

NeoPhi complements academic databases by providing a semantic exploration and synthesis layer. Researchers should continue to verify the coverage of the selected sources and use specialised databases when required by their research protocol.

Are my search queries used to train AI models?

No. NeoPhi does not use your queries to train public AI models, and offers deployment options designed for institutions with strict data requirements, in line with GDPR.