Paper Of The Day Chrome App
A Chrome app which shows a random trending academic paper from a range of disciplines.
Project Overview
Paper of the Day was my first Chrome extension, created shortly after joining Mendeley. While primarily working as a product manager at the time, I was inspired by Chrome's new tab splash pages and saw an opportunity to create something similar for academics.
Through my role at Mendeley, I became aware of the challenges academics face in discovering relevant research outside their immediate field. Existing solutions like alerts and Twitter were helpful, but I saw potential in combining these ideas with Mendeley's unique dataset.
Mendeley's reference manager provided a unique advantage: readership metrics that served as early indicators for citation potential. This enabled me to create a trending algorithm that could highlight papers gaining traction in the academic community.
The Story Behind the Project
I built Paper of the Day when I first joined Mendeley, a platform for researchers to manage and discover academic papers. At the time, I was focused on my role as a product manager rather than building new things, but I had fallen in love with Chrome splash pages that would set one intention for the day. I saw an opportunity to create something similar, but tailored for academics.
Social Sciences Example
Veterinary Science Example
Working at Mendeley gave me insights into the pain points of academics and researchers. A recurring challenge was discovering new information outside their usual networks. While solutions like Alerts and Twitter existed, I wanted to create something that leveraged Mendeley's unique advantages.
What made this opportunity special was Mendeley's repository of academic content and our readership metrics. We could see how many times a paper had been added to Mendeley's reference manager—a strong early indicator for future citations. This data allowed me to create a trending algorithm to highlight papers gaining momentum in the academic community.
The project also gave me a chance to develop new machine learning skills. I built an algorithm that identified papers with rapidly increasing readership, filtered them for quality, considered publication dates, and applied topic classification to organize them by discipline. I then matched the classifier output with Unsplash's image service to find relevant visuals for each paper.
My vision was simple but impactful: when opening a Chrome browser, users would see a beautiful image alongside an academic paper gaining traction, with easy options to add it to their Mendeley library or access the full text. Users could explore different categories—from philosophy to mathematics to medicine—or use the auto mode for serendipitous discovery.
How It Works
Data Collection
I leveraged the Mendeley Recommender API to fetch trending academic papers across various disciplines, using readership as an early indicator for citation potential.
- •Built an algorithm to identify papers with rapidly increasing readership
- •Filtered papers based on quality indicators and publication recency
Topic Classification
I applied a topic classification model to analyze each paper's title and abstract to determine the main topics.
- •Used natural language processing to extract key topics
- •Categorized papers into disciplines for better organization
Visual Presentation
To create a visually appealing experience, I integrated with the Unsplash API to find relevant background images based on paper topics.
- •Used topic keywords to search for relevant, high-quality images
- •Created a clean, distraction-free interface for reading paper abstracts
The Extension In Action
Paper of the Day presented trending papers across various disciplines with beautiful backgrounds. Users could browse by category or discover random papers to broaden their academic horizons.
Social Sciences
Political research on Brexit
Veterinary Medicine
Research on feline neurology
Each paper was presented with relevant metadata including the journal, publication date, and reader count. The reader count metric—unique to Mendeley—helped identify trending papers before they became widely cited.
Outcome & Impact
Personal Growth
This project helped me expand my skills in:
- Chrome Extension Development
- Machine Learning & Classification
- AWS & Backend Services
- UI/UX Design for Academic Tools
Community Impact
The app reached a significant audience:
- Nearly 10,000 users at its peak
- Numerous positive ratings and user feedback
- Received fan mail from appreciative academics
- Operated successfully for several years
Legacy & Future Potential
While the extension is no longer actively maintained due to Chrome Web Store's evolving security policies, this project had a lasting impact on my approach to product development.
It deepened my understanding of what academics and researchers need when staying current with new information, and set me on a path of building tools that foster interdisciplinary discovery and knowledge sharing. I may revisit this concept in the future with modern technologies and improved discovery algorithms.
Learn More
I wrote a detailed blog post about building this Chrome app, sharing my development process and challenges.