Lishu: A Real-Source Research Workbench for Elite Business Journal Search, Analysis, and Writing Support

TL;DR

Lishu is a web-based research workbench tailored for elite business journal search, analysis, and writing support, integrating multiple data sources and offering tools for sensemaking and drafting.

Contribution

It introduces a deployable system specifically designed for high-status management journals, combining data integration, interpretative tools, and a modular architecture for scholarly research.

Findings

Supports comprehensive literature search and monitoring.

Enables generation of citations, previews, and draft production.

Provides a modular, low-cost infrastructure for scholarly discovery.

Abstract

This paper presents Lishu, a deployable web artifact for searching, monitoring, and interpreting literature from elite business and management journals. The system integrates the UTD-24 and Financial Times 50 (FT50) journal pools and combines Crossref, OpenAlex, Unpaywall, and optional CORE enrichment to support a broader research workflow than article retrieval alone. In the current implementation, users can search across curated journal pools, apply multi-journal filters, preview open full-text excerpts when available, generate citations and exports, inspect topic and affiliation structure, produce review drafts, simulate virtual peer review, and assemble grant-oriented research narratives. Unlike static journal directories or general-purpose academic search engines, the artifact is explicitly scoped to high-status management outlets and is designed to support sensemaking tasks that matter to researchers, doctoral students, and lab managers: identifying recent work, surfacing topical concentration, comparing themes, and converting search output into actionable research material. Architecturally, the system emphasizes source transparency, modularity, and low-cost public deployability through a lightweight Node.js service layer, a multi-page client interface, optional large-language-model enhancement for interpretation and writing support, and a free-tier persistence path through Supabase. The paper contributes both a functioning design artifact and an extensible architectural pattern for journal-pool-specific scholarly discovery and writing support, with implications for digital research infrastructure in information systems and business scholarship.