I read a lot of research papers. And like most people, I found myself constantly:

Googling terminology mid-read

Losing track of what each section was arguing

Forgetting what I'd understood by the next day

So I built Research Notes — a free, open-source web app that sits alongside any PDF and helps you actually understand it.

Live: https://researchpaprereadingdoc.vercel.app

GitHub: https://github.com/faith250/researchpaprereadingdoc

What It Does

1)Highlight → Explain / Ask

2)Select any text in the PDF and a tooltip appears with two options: ✨ Explain (plain-English breakdown) or 💬 Ask (type your own question). The AI response includes the full paper as context — not just the isolated sentence.

3)Chat with the Paper

4)A chat panel lets you ask anything about the paper without highlighting first.…