It's worth noting that advanced search is a relatively new feature, developed for the premium account. The majority of discovery on Academia happens via social mechanisms on the site: seeing what people you follow are uploading/sharing/commenting on/recommending.
Even though advanced search was requested quite a bit by our users during our research around what features to build for our premium account, other premium features have been more heavily used than advanced search. The social mechanisms have remained the primary way that people discover research on Academia.
Even though advanced search was requested quite a bit by our users during our research around what features to build for our premium account, other premium features have been more heavily used than advanced search. The social mechanisms have remained the primary way that people discover research on Academia.