Status: Just getting started: NOTE - with AI tools moving as fast as they are, you should probably just go look at AI tools that can help you conduct research, they will ultimately be the best use of your time, but since you have read this far anyway, have a look below:

Random list (many of which are now AI-powered or AI tools):

Perplexity.AI (potentially simpler LLM-type search and summarizer that appears to avoid hallucinations by pulling all parts of answers from direct source material)

Zotero

Claude.ai

chat.openai.com and ChatGPT Advanced Data Analysis (explainer) and chatGPT scholar

AutoGPT

Quivr

Bard with Workspace

Google Scholar

PubMed

OmniCalculator 

WolframAlpha

Sci-Hub

Ground.news (comparative influence behind news events)

Litmaps

AvidNote - create smart notes on pdfs - really nice single-page user interface for common AI questions: "explain this section", for instance

Finding research papers that are either too expensive or just too hard to find:

If you can't find an affordable copy of a paper or an article any other way:

This reddit article: https://www.reddit.com/r/coolguides/comments/xr7dr0/how_to_get_scientific_papers_for_free/. - saved the flowchart png for posterity

From that list, you might find that you end up using paperpanda to save time.

archive.md

also interesting: 

Melanie Trecek-King is a fantastic science explainer:

Floater is a reminder of the scientific method, and it's a really good way to check yourself when writing.  Check her site out - great free stuff.

Andy Stapleton is really covering a ton of AI research tools.

Just an example from an excellent video on the topic of research tools (for academic research, mostly) by Andy Stapleton (dated at this point - check his latest):