An academic search engine built into your reading app
Tailo’s Source Search tool finds credible academic papers, journals, and sources for any topic, directly inside your reading workspace.
Everything Source Search can do for your research
Tailo’s Source Search covers over 200 million peer-reviewed papers, giving you a powerful academic source finder without leaving your reading workflow.
Search academic databases
Run a single search to get results from trusted academic databases, without switching between multiple library portals and search services
Search by topic, keyword, author, or essay brief
Tailo’s Source Search accepts natural language inputs, not just keywords. Paste in an essay brief, type a topic, search by author, or use specific search sources to find exactly what you need.
Save sources directly into your library
Find a source and save it to your Tailo library or a specific Project in one click. Every source you save for searches is immediately available to summarise, annotate, and reference inside Tailo.
Check relevance before you commit to a full read
Finding sources is only useful if they are actually relevant. Source Search shows you abstracts and key details so you can find source material that fits before spending time on the full paper.
The gap between finding sources and using them, closed
The standard research process involves a lot of switching. You search for sources in one tab, open them in another, download the PDF, upload it somewhere else, and then try to remember what you were looking for in the first place. Tailo’s Source Search closes that loop. Use it as your academic source finder, save directly to a Project, and move straight into reading, summarising, and referencing without breaking your workflow. Finding sources and using them becomes one continuous process.
See Source Search find and save academic sources in real time
Watch Tailo’s Source Search find relevant academic papers and save them to a Project in seconds.
FAQs
Finding sources is just the start. Here is everything students ask about Source Search.
What does Tailo's Source Search actually search?
Tailo’s Source Search covers over 200 million peer-reviewed papers across major academic databases. It works as both an academic source finder, so you can find journal articles, research papers, and credible sources in a single search without switching platforms.
What can I use as a search input?
You can search by topic, keyword, or author name and let Tailo identify the most relevant sources. The Source Search accepts natural language as well as specific academic search terms, so you do not need to know how to phrase a database query to get useful results.
Can I save sources directly from Source Search into Tailo?
Yes. Any source you find through the Source Search can be saved directly to your Tailo library. From there it is immediately available to read, summarise, annotate, and reference without any additional steps. Finding sources and using them are part of a continuous workflow.
Which academic databases does Source Search cover?
Tailo’s Source Search covers over 200 million peer-reviewed papers across a wide range of academic databases and disciplines. It is designed to give students access to the same depth of research resources you would expect from a university library portal, without having to navigate separate database interfaces. Specific database coverage is shown within the Source Search tool in the Tailo app.
How does Tailo's Find Sources feature help with disability-specific barriers?
Find Sources helps with a wide range of barriers to academic research — whether that’s struggling to know where to start, finding it hard to judge which sources are actually relevant, or getting overwhelmed switching between multiple library portals and search services. You can search in plain language rather than needing to know academic search syntax, and add a source straight to Tailo with one click, so you spend less time hunting for reading and more time working with it. For more on the specific barriers Tailo supports, see our Who We Help page.
Trusted by students at universities across the UK
Thousands of students are already using Tailo’s Source Search feature to search for reading in plain language, from first-year undergraduates to postgraduates managing heavy research loads.
Tailo is used across UK universities and is available to all students, including those accessing support through the Disabled Students’ Allowance.
Francesca
I’ve been doing really well at uni – Tailo helps me focus on what matters.
Chase
I use Talio all the time now for all of my reading, I'm no longer skimming the reading lists in a panic before classes to get a vague idea of what's going on.
Jesse
I was sceptical because I didn’t think that Tailo would change the way that I engaged with information as much as it did. Just try it and you won’t uninstall it.
Megan
I have used ChatGPT to summarise a piece of text before, however Tailo is much better. I prefer how Tailo works and I feel it is more reliable.
