Automated Academic Paper Metadata & Variable Extraction with Gemini to Google Sheets

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Built by OwenLee OwenLee
Created on June 13, 2026

Description

๐Ÿ“šIn the social and behavioral sciences (e.g., psychology, sociology, economics, management), researchers and students often need to normalize academic paper metadata and extract variables before any literature review or meta-analysis.

๐ŸงฉThis workflow automates the busywork. Using an LLM, it processes CSV/XLSX/XLS files (exported from WoS, Scopus, EndNote, Zotero, or your own spreadsheets) into normalized metadata and extracted variables, and writes a neat table to Google Sheets.
๐Ÿ”— Example Google Sheet:ย click me

๐Ÿ‘ฅ Who is this for?

๐ŸŽ“ Undergraduate and graduate students or researchers in soft-science fields (psychology, sociology, economics, business)
โฑ๏ธ People who donโ€™t have time to read full papers and need quick overviews
๐Ÿ“Š Anyone who wants to automate academic paper metadata normalization and variable extraction to speed up a literature review
โš™๏ธ How it works
๐Ÿ“ค Upload an academic paper file (CSV/XLSX/XLS) in chat.
๐Ÿ“‘ The workflow creates a Google Sheets spreadsheet with two tabs: Checkpoint and FinalResult.
๐Ÿ”Ž A structured-output LLM normalizes core metadata (title, abstract, authors, publication date, source) from the uploaded file and writes it to Checkpoint; ๐Ÿ“ง a Gmail notification is sent when finished.
๐Ÿงช A second structured-output LLM uses the metadata above to extract variables (Independent Variable, Dependent Variable) and writes them to FinalResult; ๐Ÿ“ง youโ€™ll get a second Gmail notification when done.

๐Ÿ› ๏ธ How to set up
๐Ÿ”‘ Credentials
Google Sheets OAuth2** (read/write)
Gmail OAuth2** (send notifications)
Google Gemini (or any LLM you prefer)**
๐Ÿš€ Quick start
Connect Google Sheets, Gmail, and Gemini (or your LLM) credentials.
Open File Upload Trigger โ†’ upload your CSV/XLSX/XLS file and type a name in chat (used as the Google Sheets spreadsheet title).
Watch your inbox for status emails and open the Google Sheets spreadsheet to review Checkpoint and FinalResult.
๐ŸŽ› Customization
๐Ÿ—‚๏ธ Journal lists: Edit the Journal Rank Classifier code node to add/remove titles. The default list is for business/management journalsโ€”swap it for a list from your own field.
๐Ÿ”” Notifications: Replace Gmail with Slack, Teams, or any channel you prefer.
๐Ÿง  LLM outputs: Need different metadata or extracted data? Edit the LLMโ€™s system prompt and Structured Output Parser.

๐Ÿ“ Note
๐Ÿ“ Make sure your file includes abstracts. If the academic paper data you upload doesnโ€™t contain an abstract, the extracted results will be far less useful.
๐Ÿงฉ CSV yields no items? Encoding mismatches can break the workflow. If this happens, convert the CSV to .xls or .xlsx and try again.

๐Ÿ“ฉ Help
Contact: [email protected]

Nodes Used (7)

AI Agent
@n8n/n8n-nodes-langchain.agent
Auto-fixing Output Parser
@n8n/n8n-nodes-langchain.outputParserAutofixing
Code
n8n-nodes-base.code
Gmail
n8n-nodes-base.gmail
Google Gemini Chat Model
@n8n/n8n-nodes-langchain.lmChatGoogleGemini
Google Sheets
n8n-nodes-base.googleSheets
Structured Output Parser
@n8n/n8n-nodes-langchain.outputParserStructured