How to find a research supervisor in 5 minutes (free, for any country and topic)

Finding the right supervisor is the most important decision of a Master's or PhD. The right person shapes your topic, your skills, your network and often your first job. Yet most students still pick one by scrolling department websites — pages that are often years out of date.

There is a faster way: look at who is actually publishing on your topic right now. ResearchBoard's new Find scientists page lets you do exactly that, for any country and any research topic, in a few minutes and for free.

The numbers behind it

Every day, the world adds about 25,000 new research papers to the scientific record, and those papers cite earlier work about 340,000 times — more than 10 million citations in the last 30 days alone, as counted on our live dashboard.

Behind those papers are researchers. OpenAlex, the free and open index of over 250 million research papers that ResearchBoard uses (and which also covers PubMed), holds about 97 million author profiles. In Bangladesh alone it lists 66,354 researchers with 3 or more papers, including 17,869 medical researchers with 5 or more. ResearchBoard shows you the ones who are still active — with at least one paper in the last 5 years.

You don't need to read through all of them. You just need to search.

Step 1 — Search your topic, not a name

Open Find scientists and switch to 🔎 Topic (find a supervisor). Type your research interest in plain words:

arsenic groundwater
dengue
machine learning in medicine
climate-smart rice
solar cells

Then choose a country. ResearchBoard searches every paper on that topic since 2022 with an author in that country, and ranks researchers by how many of those papers they wrote.

Real example: searching arsenic groundwater in Bangladesh finds 952 papers since 2022. At the top are researchers from Begum Rokeya University, the University of Dhaka, the Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (BCSIR) and Jashore University of Science and Technology — the people actively working on this problem today. The side panel shows which institutions publish most on the topic, so you can see which labs are strongest.

Step 2 — Narrow it down

Use the filters to match your plans:

Country — where you want to study.
Research field — all 26 fields, from Medicine and Engineering to Economics and the Arts.
University or institute — start typing a name (for example Rajshahi) and pick it to see only researchers there.

Every search has its own link, so you can save it or share it with a friend.

Step 3 — Read the numbers the right way

Each researcher shows a few numbers. Here is what they mean:

Papers (last 5 years) — how active they are now. A supervisor who publishes regularly can usually involve students in new projects.
OpenAlex citations — how many times other papers indexed in OpenAlex have cited their work, across the whole career.
OpenAlex citations (last 5 years) — recent influence. Fairer to younger researchers, who are often the most available supervisors.
h-index — an h-index of 30 means 30 papers each cited at least 30 times.
i10-index — the number of papers cited at least 10 times.

A note on citations: numbers on Google Scholar are usually higher than OpenAlex (Scholar also counts theses, slides and duplicate copies), while Scopus and Web of Science are usually lower. None of them is "wrong" — they just count differently. Compare researchers using the same source. Citations and the h-index explained.

Don't chase the biggest number. A famous professor with 50,000 citations may have no time for new students. A mid-career researcher who published 20 papers on your topic in the last 5 years is often a better match.

Step 4 — Open the profile

Click a name to open their ResearchBoard profile. You'll see:

their current institution and ORCID link,
papers per year (are they still active?),
their main research topics,
the people they publish with most — often their own students and close collaborators,
their latest papers and most-cited papers, with links to read them.

Read two or three of their recent papers, at least the abstract and conclusions. This is the most important step, and most students skip it.

Step 5 — Write a short, specific email

Supervisors receive many generic emails. Yours will stand out if it is short and shows you read their work:

Subject: Prospective PhD student — [your topic]

Dear Dr [Name],

I read your recent paper "[title]" ([journal], [year]) with great interest, especially [one specific point]. I am a [degree] graduate in [subject] from [university], and my thesis on [topic] used [method].

I would like to apply for a PhD in [year] and would be grateful to know whether you are accepting students, and whether a project around [idea linked to their paper] might fit your group.

My CV is attached. Thank you for your time.

Kind regards, [Name]

Keep it under 200 words, attach a one-page CV, and send it to 5–10 well-chosen people rather than 100 random ones.

Quick checklist

Search your topic on Find scientists and choose a country.
Shortlist 10 researchers who published on it recently.
Open their profiles and check they are still active.
Read 2–3 of their recent papers.
Send a short, specific email to your top 5–10.
Not sure which field fits you? Try our 2-minute Research Compass quiz first.

Frequently asked questions

Is it free? Yes. ResearchBoard is completely free, with no sign-up.

Where does the data come from? From OpenAlex, a free and open catalogue of the world's research. Numbers load live each time you search.

Why can't I find a particular person? Their profile may be under a different spelling, or OpenAlex may have split their papers into two profiles. Try searching by name with 👤 Name, or search by their university.

Can I search universities too? Yes — see every university by country on the Universities page, each with its own research profile.

Start your search now: researchboard.net/scientists — find the people already working on the questions you care about.