Research is better
when it's shared

Discuria is a free, open platform where researchers from every discipline and every corner of the world come together to read, annotate, and discuss academic papers — openly and collaboratively.

The problem

Finding the right paper is a maze

Academic papers are scattered across dozens of databases — arXiv, PubMed, Semantic Scholar, CrossRef, OpenAlex — each with its own interface. Researchers waste hours jumping between platforms, re-running the same query in different search engines, just to track down one relevant paper.

Discussion stays trapped in small circles

When you read a paper, the only people you can talk to about it are the handful of colleagues down the hall or in your lab's Slack channel. There is no open forum where a graduate student in São Paulo can debate methodology with a postdoc in Seoul — the conversation simply never happens.

Papers are intimidating to read alone

Academic writing is dense by nature — packed with domain-specific jargon, terse derivations, and implicit assumptions. Reading a paper in isolation, with no one to ask "what does this term mean?" or "is this assumption justified?", makes the learning curve steeper than it needs to be. That's why discuria includes a Read Aloud feature — click anywhere on the page and the paper is read to you from that point, so you can follow along at your own pace instead of getting lost in walls of text.

What we're building

One search, every database

Search over 200 million papers across arXiv, Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, CrossRef, and PubMed from a single search bar. No more tab-juggling.

Discuss any paper, with anyone

Every paper has a shared annotation layer. Click anywhere on the PDF to start a threaded discussion that anyone in the world can join. Question a method, flag an error, or share an insight — and get responses from researchers across institutions.

Annotate as you read

Pin annotations directly on the PDF, right next to the sentence or figure they reference. Your notes live on the paper itself, not in a separate document that you'll never reopen.

Learn from the community

When experienced researchers annotate a paper, their explanations become a public resource. A first-year student can open a paper and immediately benefit from the questions and answers left by others — making dense research accessible instead of gatekept.

Our vision

We believe that the best ideas in science don't come from reading in silence — they come from conversation. A comment that challenges an assumption, a question that reveals a gap, a link to a related paper you hadn't seen. These small interactions compound into real understanding.

discuria exists to lower the barrier between reading a paper and talking about it. We want every researcher — regardless of institution, country, or career stage — to have a seat at the table when the scientific community discusses new work.

The platform is free and always will be. Research should be discussed openly, not behind paywalls or within walled gardens.

Ready to join the conversation?

Start reading, annotating, and discussing papers today — it's free.