https://arxiv.org/list/cs.LG/recent https://arxiv.org/list/cs.LG/recent from there I look for papers 1. Immediately relevant to my current interests 2. by

https://arxiv.org/list/cs.LG/recent https://arxiv.org/list/cs.LG/recent from there I look for papers 1. Immediately relevant to my current interests 2. by people I who know write good papers. For chaff-vs-wheat some of my friends use arxiv sanity? to find popular articles I go to -google scholar page of someone well known for a topic and look at their highly cited papers -look at citations of highly cited papers edit: just a warning-short term popularity of a scientific paper is almost surely not a good indicator of long term value.