Can you recommend a citation search tool for building references and summarizing studies?

Yes — a few good options depending on what you want:

Best all-around citation search tools

• Google Scholar – Free, broad coverage, great for finding references quickly.
• Semantic Scholar – Excellent for discovering related papers and getting concise AI-generated summaries.
• Connected Papers – Great for visually exploring citation networks and finding foundational studies.
• Scite – Useful because it shows how papers are cited, including whether later work supports or disputes them.

Good for building references

• Zotero – Best for collecting, organizing, and exporting citations. Pair it with a browser connector for fast saving.
• Mendeley – Similar to Zotero, with strong PDF organization and citation management.
• EndNote – Powerful, especially in academic or institutional settings.

For summarizing studies

• Semantic Scholar – Often the best free option for paper summaries.
• Elicit – Very good for literature reviews, extracting key findings, and comparing studies.
• Scite Assistant – Helpful for citation-based summaries and checking claims.

My quick recommendation

If you want one practical setup:

• Semantic Scholar for discovery and summaries
• Zotero for reference management
• Connected Papers for citation chaining and related work

If you tell me your field and whether you need free tools only, I can recommend the best exact setup.