Dimensions - Short Review

Research Tools

Dimensions is a comprehensive and innovative research data infrastructure designed to accelerate insight and discovery from scientific literature, grants, patents, and other research-related data. Here’s an overview of what the product does and its key features:

What Dimensions Does

Dimensions provides access to the world’s largest connected research database, encompassing millions of publications, conference abstracts, grants, patents, clinical trials, datasets, and policy documents. This extensive database is layered with advanced AI technology and intuitive visualizations to speed up analysis and decision-making processes. It is tailored to meet the needs of various stakeholders, including academic institutions, government organizations, nonprofits, publishers, and life sciences and R&D departments.



Key Features



Search and Discovery

  • Dimensions offers a powerful search interface that allows users to search through full records or limit searches to titles and abstracts. The full-text search capability extends beyond titles and abstracts, ensuring more relevant information is surfaced.
  • Advanced search features include metadata filters, similarity searches, and the ability to define custom groups of entities.


AI-Powered Insights

  • The platform is enhanced by AI-powered solutions, including the Dimensions AI Assistant and AI Summarization features. These tools use extractive and abstractive summarization to provide contextualized synopses, helping users quickly gain insights into large volumes of research content. The AI Assistant leverages models like Dimensions General Science-BERT and Open AI’s GPT to generate summaries and answers.


Data Analysis and Visualization

  • Dimensions allows users to aggregate and visualize data using tools like heatmaps and VOSviewer. It also provides impact metrics based on citations and Altmetric Attention Scores.
  • The platform supports the analysis of networks of organizations, researchers, and concepts, offering a broad and linked view of content relevant to the research process.


Data Export and Integration

  • Users can export Dimensions metadata for further analysis, to build VOSviewer networks, or to import into reference managers. Export options range from 5,000 to 50,000 records per export.
  • Dimensions integrates with various tools such as ReadCube Papers, BibTeX/Ris exports, and supports OpenURL resolver, GetFTR, and LibKey for faster access to full-text publications.


Researcher Workflows and Collaboration

  • The platform supports the management of ORCiD records and integrates with other research tools to streamline workflows. It also facilitates the identification of experts and researchers, as well as the analysis of grant portfolios and funding trends.


Special Instances and API

  • Dimensions Special Instances allow organizations to securely combine their internal data (such as grant applications and project proposals) with Dimensions’ global data in one platform.
  • The Dimensions API provides full-text search and data retrieval capabilities, enabling complex analyses and visualizations. It supports services like text categorization and is designed for use in various applications, including competitive intelligence, horizon-scanning, and innovation landscape mapping.


Access and Authentication

  • Dimensions offers multiple authentication options, including IP whitelisting, EZproxy, and Single-Sign-On (Shibboleth), ensuring users can access data from anywhere.

In summary, Dimensions is a powerful tool that combines extensive research data with advanced AI and visualization capabilities, making it an indispensable resource for accelerating research discovery, analysis, and decision-making across various sectors.

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