AI Use in Academic Research

This page provides background about Generative AI and considerations for use in higher education

Finding and Analyzing Scholarly Articles

 

Scite.ai

 AI platform for discovering and evaluating scientific articles via Smart Citations. Smart Citations allow users to see how a publication has been cited by providing the context of the citation and a classification describing whether it provides supporting or contrasting evidence for the cited claim.

Elicit

 Combines LLMs with scholarly sources; Acts more as a research assistant and can help locate material for literature searches; Shows you connections between papers. You can upload pdfs of papers you have found and have it do extracts for you.

Research Rabbit

 

 Search for papers and authors, monitor new literature, visualize research landscapes, and collaborate with colleagues.

Semantic Scholar

 

 A search engine that reads the literature on its own, picking out topics and influences, ranking citations, and making it much easier to find both the latest and what you’re looking for.

Web Tutorial: Using Scite to speed up literature reviews and critical analysis

https://scite.ai/blog/recite_using-scite-to-speed-up-literature-reviews-and-critical-analysis

with helpful screenshots

  • There's An AI for That - a search engine of current AI tools.

  • Future Tools another good place to find AI tools.

  • Explain Like I'm Five - Summarize complex topics. 

  • Ask Your PDF - Upload a pdf article or book chapter and have an AI-assisted conversation with it about its content.

  • LitMaps - uses citation chaining to identify additional articles; see article relationships through citations. 

  • AI Reviewer (Hey Science) - reviews manuscripts and provides immediate feedback that mimics peer review.

  • Consensus – summarizes articles into interactive flashcards. 

 

These online research platforms have or are developing GenAI in their academic databases:

  • PubMed

  • EBSCOHost

  • Web of Science

  • UpToDate

  • Scopus (Scopus AI Beta) – looks and acts similarly to Scite.ai

Library Research Skills

Ideation

  • You could prompt a chatbot to provide some ideas based on the assignment directions given by your professor.
    • Ex: Please give me five ideas for a college-level essay on the cultural changes that contributed to the demise of the Hollywood studio system in the 1950’s. 

Topic Discovery

  • You could prompt a chatbot generate some broad topics in a subject area.
    • Ex: Provide some suggestions for a business major research paper about modern venture capital

Search terms

  • Identify keywords (search terms) for your subject. These keywords can lead you to alternate search terms and give you ideas for topics or suggestions for deeper focus of your subject.
    • Ex: What are some important keywords to use in research in studies of American economic demographics?
    • Some sample results from Gemini (May 2024):
      • Income inequality
      • Wealth distribution
      • Labor force participation
      • Racial disparities
      • Ethnic enclaves
      • Gender gap (wages, wealth)
      • Intergenerational mobility
      • Retirement security
      • Aging population
      • Regional economic disparities
      • Geographic mobility
      • Access to capital
      • Social safety net
      • Automation and jobs
Ask your GenAI which library databases are most relevant to a search in your area of interest. Bear in mind that our library may not have access to all the databases suggested. Here is a Gemini sample:

      prompt:  

 

 

Verify research results

Do a search on the results to make sure they match up with authoritative and credible sources such as information in academic databases and peer-reviewed literature.

 

from McGill University

[https://libraryguides.mcgill.ca/ai/literacy]

The ROBOT Method

  • Determining if you should use a given source in your research output.

  • Apply the ROBOT (Reliability, Objective, Bias, Ownership, Type)

[source: https://thelibrairy.wordpress.com/2020/03/11/the-robot-test/ (developed by McGill University Librarians S. Hervieux and A. Wheatley, 2020)]
 

Reliability

How reliable is the information available about AI technology?

If it’s not produced by the party responsible for the AI, what are the author’s credentials? Bias?

If it is produced by the party responsible for the AI, how much information are they making available? 

Is information only partially available due to trade secrets?

How biased is the information that they produce?

 
Objective

What is the goal or objective of the use of AI?

What is the goal of sharing information about it?

To inform?

To convince?

To find financial support?

Bias

What could create bias in AI technology?

Are there ethical issues associated with this?

Are bias or ethical issues acknowledged?

By the source of information?

By the party responsible for the AI?

By its users?

Owner

Who is the owner or developer of AI technology?

Who is responsible for it?

Is it a private company?

The government?

A think tank or research group?

Who has access to it?

Who can use it?

Type

Which subtype of AI is it?

Is the technology theoretical or applied?

What kind of information system does it rely on?

Does it rely on human intervention? 
Permission

  • Are you allowed to use AI tools as part of your research?

  • Students - this may be stated in your syllabus, if not, consult your professor first.

  • Researchers - this may be stated on a journal website, if not, consult the editor.

Limitations

  • ChatGPT4 (offered only by paid subscription) has access to the internet, but ChatGPT3 (which is free) is not connected to the internet and does not function like a search engine. It was trained on a massive dataset that was collected prior to 2021 and so it cannot source answers to questions after that date. 

Citations

SMC Library | Citation Guide 

Including APA, Chicago & Turabian, MLA, ACS, ASA, Bluebook, CSE, and NLM.
You can append the conversation (prompts and responses) you’ve had with the GenAI to your paper for full transparency.

Subjects: Faculty Services
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