ResearchTwin: Federated Agentic Web of Research Knowledge

ResearchTwin is an open-source, federated platform that transforms a researcher's publications, datasets, and code repositories into a conversational Digital Twin. Built on a Bimodal Glial-Neural Optimization (BGNO) architecture, it enables dual-discovery where both humans and AI agents collaborate to accelerate scientific discovery.

Live at researchtwin.net | Join the Network

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Project Vision

The exponential growth of scientific outputs has created a "discovery bottleneck." Traditional static PDFs and siloed repositories limit knowledge synthesis and reuse. ResearchTwin addresses this by:

• Integrating multi-modal research artifacts from Semantic Scholar, Google Scholar, GitHub, and Figshare
• Computing a real-time S-Index metric (Quality × Impact × Collaboration) across all output types
• Providing a conversational chatbot interface for interactive research exploration
• Exposing an Inter-Agentic Discovery API with Schema.org types for machine-to-machine research discovery
• Enabling a federated, Discord-like architecture supporting local nodes, hubs, and hosted edges

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Architecture Overview

BGNO (Bimodal Glial-Neural Optimization)

Data Sources          Glial Layer          Neural Layer         Interface
┌──────────────┐    ┌─────────────┐    ┌──────────────┐    ┌────────────┐
│Semantic Scholar│───▶│             │    │              │    │  Web Chat  │
│Google Scholar │───▶│  SQLite     │───▶│  RAG with    │───▶│  Discord   │
│GitHub API     │───▶│  Cache +    │    │  Claude API  │    │  Agent API │
│Figshare API   │───▶│  Rate Limit │    │              │    │  Embed     │
└──────────────┘    └─────────────┘    └──────────────┘    └────────────┘

• Connector Layer: Pulls papers (S2+GS with deduplication), repos (GitHub), datasets (Figshare), and ORCID metadata
• Glial Layer: SQLite caching with 24h TTL, rate limiting, S2+GS title-similarity merge (0.85 threshold)
• Neural Layer: RAG with Claude — context assembly, prompt engineering, conversational synthesis
• Interface Layer: D3.js knowledge graph, chat widget, Discord bot, REST API

Federated Network Tiers

Tier	Name	Description	Status
Tier 1	Local Nodes	Researchers run python run_node.py locally	Live
Tier 2	Hubs	Lab aggregators federating multiple nodes	Planned
Tier 3	Hosted Edges	Cloud-hosted at researchtwin.net	Live

Inter-Agentic Discovery API

Machine-readable endpoints with Schema.org @type annotations:

Endpoint	Schema.org Type	Purpose
GET /api/researcher/{slug}/profile	Person	Researcher profile with HATEOAS links
GET /api/researcher/{slug}/papers	ItemList of ScholarlyArticle	Papers with citations
GET /api/researcher/{slug}/datasets	ItemList of Dataset	Datasets with QIC scores
GET /api/researcher/{slug}/repos	ItemList of SoftwareSourceCode	Repos with QIC scores
GET /api/discover?q=keyword&type=paper	SearchResultSet	Cross-researcher search

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Getting Started

Hosted (Tier 3) — Zero Setup

1. Visit researchtwin.net/join.html
2. Register with your name, email, and research identifiers
3. Your Digital Twin is live immediately

Local Node (Tier 1) — Full Control

git clone https://github.com/martinfrasch/researchtwin.git
cd researchtwin
pip install -r backend/requirements.txt
cp node_config.json.example node_config.json
# Edit node_config.json with your details
python run_node.py --config node_config.json

Docker Deployment

cp .env.example .env  # Add your API keys
docker-compose up -d --build

Required API keys: ANTHROPIC_API_KEY (for Claude RAG) Optional: S2_API_KEY, GITHUB_TOKEN, DISCORD_BOT_TOKEN, SMTP credentials

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Repository Structure

researchtwin/
├── backend/
│   ├── main.py              # FastAPI endpoints (REST + Discovery API)
│   ├── researchers.py        # SQLite researcher CRUD + token management
│   ├── database.py           # SQLite schema, WAL mode, migrations
│   ├── models.py             # Pydantic models for all endpoints
│   ├── rag.py                # RAG context assembly for Claude
│   ├── qic_index.py          # S-Index / QIC computation engine
│   ├── email_service.py      # SMTP service for profile update codes
│   ├── connectors/           # Data source connectors
│   │   ├── semantic_scholar.py
│   │   ├── scholarly_lib.py  # Google Scholar via scholarly
│   │   ├── github_connector.py
│   │   └── figshare.py
│   └── discord_bot/          # Discord bot with /research and /sindex
├── frontend/
│   ├── index.html            # Main dashboard with D3.js knowledge graph
│   ├── join.html             # Self-registration page
│   ├── update.html           # Email-verified profile updates
│   ├── privacy.html          # Privacy policy
│   └── widget-loader.js      # Embeddable chat widget
├── run_node.py               # Tier 1 local node launcher
├── node_config.json.example  # Local node configuration template
├── docker-compose.yml        # Docker orchestration
├── nginx/                    # Nginx reverse proxy + SSL
└── whitepaper.tex            # LaTeX manuscript

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Ecosystem

This repository is part of the ResearchTwin Ecosystem project:

Repository	Description
researchtwin	Federated platform (this repo)
s-index	S-Index formal specification and reference implementation

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Embeddable S-Index Widget

Show your S-Index on your lab website, Google Sites page, or personal homepage:

<iframe
  src="https://researchtwin.net/embed.html?slug=YOUR-SLUG"
  width="440" height="180"
  style="border:none; border-radius:12px;"
  loading="lazy">
</iframe>

Replace YOUR-SLUG with your researcher slug (e.g. martin-frasch).

Google Sites: Edit page > Insert > Embed > "By URL" tab > paste https://researchtwin.net/embed.html?slug=YOUR-SLUG

WordPress: Add a Custom HTML block and paste the iframe code.

The widget displays the researcher's name, S-Index score, h-index, citation count, and paper count. Data updates automatically from live API sources.

See it in action | Full embed instructions

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Documentation

Document	Description
API Reference	Full REST API documentation with schemas and examples
Self-Hosting Guide	Tier 1 Local Node setup and configuration
Hub Federation Guide	Tier 2 Hub architecture and setup (planned)
Security Policy	Vulnerability reporting and security best practices

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Contributing

Contributions welcome! See the project board for tracked issues.

• New connectors (ORCID enrichment, PubMed, OpenAlex)
• Affiliation-based geographic mapping
• MCP server for inter-agentic discovery
• UI/UX improvements
• Bug fixes and optimizations

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License

MIT License. See LICENSE.

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Contact

• Platform: researchtwin.net
• Email: martin@researchtwin.net
• Issues: GitHub Issues

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Empowering researchers and AI agents to discover, collaborate, and innovate together.