InsightHub

Academic article search made simple.

InsightHub is a full-stack web application that allows users to search for scientific articles using the Semantic Scholar API. Users can sort, favorite, and revisit previous search queries — a lightweight research assistant at your fingertips.

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Tech Stack

• Frontend: React (Create React App)
• Backend: ASP.NET Core 8 Web API
• API Source: Semantic Scholar (unauthenticated mode)

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Getting Started

1. Backend (.NET API)

Requirements:

• .NET 8 SDK
• Visual Studio 2022 or newer

Steps:

1. Open InsightHub.sln in Visual Studio.
2. Make sure the launch profile is set to InsightHub.ArticleFetcher.
3. Hit F5 or click the green Play button.
4. Swagger should launch at: https://localhost:7186/swagger/index.html

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2. Frontend (React UI)

Requirements:

• Node.js v18+
• npm v9+

Steps:

cd insighthub-ui
npm install
npm start

The React frontend will launch at: http://localhost:3000

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3. API Proxy Setup

The frontend uses a proxy to avoid CORS issues during development. This is already set in insighthub-ui/package.json:

"proxy": "https://localhost:7186"

No further configuration is needed.

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Features WiP

• Search articles by topic
• Results include: title, author(s), year, publisher and source to article
• Profile setup inlcuding:
  • Favorite articles with a checkbox
  • Prefered referencing style
  • View and reuse recent searches
• Sort by title, author, year, or publisher
• Clean, accessible layout styled in Figma
• Pagination (planned): 20 results per page
  • Potentially consider auto loading instead of pagination?

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Development Notes

Recommended VS Code Extensions (for React work):

• ESLint
• Prettier
• React Developer Tools

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License

MIT © 2025