ScholaraBB — PubMed Search Engine

A Next.js 14 web application that searches PubMed, filters results by Journal Impact Factor and quartile rankings, and provides AI-powered summarization and citation export — across all research disciplines.

Features

Search & Filter

• Cross-discipline search — medicine, biology, engineering, social sciences, physics, and more
• 12 article types — RCT, Meta-Analysis, Systematic Review, Cohort Study, Case Report, and more
• Journal Impact Factor filtering — Q1/Q2/Q3/Q4 or all journals (7 000+ journals, JIF 2024)
• Author country filter — narrow by first-author country
• Access filter — All / Open Access / Closed
• Date range — 1, 3, 5, 10, or 20 years back
• Humans only toggle

Results Panel

• Article selection — checkbox on each card to select specific articles; Select All / Deselect All
• Client-side sort — re-sort instantly without re-searching:
  • Relevance (PubMed default)
  • JIF high → low / low → high
  • Quartile Q1 → Q4 / Q4 → Q1
  • Year newest / oldest first
• Expandable abstracts — inline abstract preview per card

Export

Export all results or only selected articles in four formats:

Format	Output
CSV	All metadata columns + formatted citation
Excel (.xlsx)	Same as CSV with column widths
Word (.docx)	Numbered bibliography document
BibTeX (.bib)	For Zotero / Mendeley / LaTeX

Citation styles: Vancouver/NLM · APA 7th · AMA · BibTeX

AI Summary (/ai-summary)

Bring your own Google Gemini API key to summarize selected articles:

• Individual Summaries — 2–3 paragraph academic summary per article with full citation
• Literature Review — all articles synthesised into a structured mini literature review with inline [N] citations and a reference list
• Configurable model — Gemini 2.5 Flash (default) · Gemini 2.5 Pro · Gemini 2.0 Flash
• Copy to clipboard or download as Word document
• API key stored locally in the browser; never persisted on the server

Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
Framework	Next.js 14 (App Router) + React 18
Styling	Tailwind CSS + Radix UI
Backend	Next.js API Routes (serverless)
Data source	PubMed / NCBI E-utilities API
Journal database	Static JSON — ~7 000 journals with JIF + quartile
Excel export	SheetJS (xlsx)
Word export	docx
AI	Google Gemini API (user-supplied key)
Deployment	Vercel

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+
• npm

Local development

git clone https://github.com/jaannawaz/pubmed-search-engine.git
cd pubmed-search-engine

npm install

# Optional: add NCBI API key for higher rate limits (3 → 10 req/s)
cp .env.local.example .env.local

npm run dev

Open http://localhost:3000.

Environment variables (optional)

Set in .env.local or the Vercel dashboard:

NCBI_API_KEY=           # Raises NCBI rate limit to 10 req/s
NCBI_TOOL_NAME=pubmed-search-engine
NCBI_CONTACT_EMAIL=[email protected]

Deploying to Vercel

Connect the GitHub repo at vercel.com for automatic deploys, or:

npm i -g vercel
vercel

Project Structure

pubmed-search-engine/
├── app/
│   ├── api/
│   │   ├── search/route.ts         # PubMed search endpoint (eSearch + eSummary + eFetch)
│   │   └── ai-summarize/route.ts   # Gemini API proxy (server-side, user key)
│   ├── ai-summary/page.tsx         # AI Summary page
│   ├── journals/                   # Journal View page
│   ├── layout.tsx
│   ├── page.tsx                    # Main search page
│   └── globals.css
├── components/
│   ├── SearchForm.tsx              # Filter panel
│   ├── ArticleCard.tsx             # Result card with checkbox selection
│   ├── ResultsPanel.tsx            # Results list, sort, export toolbar, AI Summary button
│   └── ui/                         # Radix UI components (select, button, tabs, …)
├── lib/
│   ├── journalData.ts              # Journal lookup (JIF + quartile), cached at init
│   ├── export.ts                   # Citation formatters + CSV/Excel/Word/BibTeX export
│   └── utils.ts
├── data/
│   └── top_journals.json           # ~7 000 journals (JIF 2024)
├── vercel.json                     # 30 s serverless timeout
└── .env.local.example

API Reference

GET /api/search

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
query	string	required	Search terms
articleType	string	""	Filter by publication type
yearsBack	int	5	Date range (max 20)
maxResults	int	20	Result limit (max 150)
showAllJournals	bool	false	Include journals not in JIF database
sortBy	string	relevance	jif-desc, jif-asc, quartile-asc, quartile-desc
humansOnly	bool	false	Adds AND Humans[MeSH] filter
accessFilter	string	all	all, open, closed
authorCountry	string	""	Filter by author affiliation country

POST /api/ai-summarize

{
  "apiKey": "AIza...",
  "model": "gemini-2.5-flash",
  "mode": "individual | synthesis",
  "articles": [...],
  "citationFormat": "vancouver | apa | ama",
  "query": "search query"
}

Returns { "result": "<markdown text>" }. Maximum 30 articles per request.

Acknowledgements

• PubMed / NCBI for the free research API
• Journal Impact Factor data 2024
• Google Gemini for AI summarization

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Built for researchers across every discipline.