Adding a citation in Overleaf takes 5 steps. I fixed it.
If you've ever written a paper in Overleaf, you know the pain:
Copy BibTeX from Google Scholar → switch to references.bib → scroll to the end → copy the citation key → switch back to .tex, find your cursor, paste.
Now repeat that 30 times for your Related Work section.
I'm a researcher and I got so frustrated with this that I built PaperPilot — a free Chrome extension that fixes the entire research workflow inside Overleaf.
What it does:
Instant citations — type \cite{, paste BibTeX, click Cite. Keys auto-inserted, duplicates caught. 5 steps becomes 1.
1,200+ conference deadlines — live countdowns for CHI, NeurIPS, ICLR, AAAI, and hundreds more. Color-coded by urgency. Export to Google Calendar.
Kanban boards — track paper submissions from first draft to camera-ready. Drag tasks between To Do, In Progress, and Done.
Chrome side panel — everything lives right next to Overleaf. No tab switching. Your tasks, deadlines, and citations are visible while you write.
It's completely free, no account required. Just install the Chrome extension and open any Overleaf project.
I'd love to hear from other researchers: what's the most annoying part of your paper writing workflow? What would you want a tool like this to solve next?
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