AI, Ethics, & Academics

Research Assistance

Use AI to clarify concepts, generate new ideas, narrow or expand a topic, suggest outlines that you can then edit and expand upon. Ask questions for clarification and greater understanding. Explore diverse perspectives. Get feedback on ideas.

Simply put, AI generated text is a collection of words and phrases pieced together by algorithms, trained to recognize language patterns and context, resulting in responses that are coherent and contextually relevant.

Academic Honesty and Plagiarism

The use of AI in academic research requires honesty and accountability. Most writing and citation styles ( e.g., APA, MLA, Turabian) require disclosure of AI assistance for transparency and to avoid plagiarism. For style recommendations and guidelines see the following

APA Style - opens new windowHow to cite ChatGPT
MLA Style - opens new windowHow do I cite generative AI in MLA style?

Always follow your professor's instructions on the scope of using AI in your course.

See:  opens new windowAI (ChatGPT & Othere Generative AI) - Includes  pros & cons, AI tools for student research, ethical considerations for students, citing AI, and AI and LIBBIs

Selected AI Tools

Be aware that AI functionality in the tools listed below may overlap. Prior to your research assignment, explore features and functionality to identify the most useful AI tools for your research. As you incorporate into your research and writing information and insights you discover with AI tools, always fact-check and verify the accuracy of information.

ChatGPT
opens new windowhttps://chatgpt.com/

AI question and answer, conversation generating tool.

- Large language model that generates text, answers questions, engages in conversation and provides assistance with various topics.
- Uses information from books, articles, websites, and other publicly accessible texts available up to January 2022.

  • Use natural language to key in an idea or topic and ask for a lists of keywords, subject headings, databases to search, Boolean search strings, or important scholars relevant to a topic.
  • Key in a prompt for a sample outline or PICO, then expand relevant points or sections.
  • Continue to build and extract information using effective prompt engineering.

NOT effective for gathering research articles, creating citations, or reference lists.

 v3.5 is free.
elicit
opens new windowhttps://elicit.com/

Machine learning platform for extracting and analyzing text data from more than125 million academic papers through 2021. Specializes in natural language understanding (NLU) and aids researchers in text analysis.

Highlights:
- Summarizes, in paragraph form, the first four research paper abstracts.
- Offers various data extraction and summarizing options, including main findings, methodologies interventions, outcomes measured and limitations.Includes options to sort, filter and export.

  • Use natural language to ask a research question or key in a PICO.
  • Create new columns of selected data to categorize and summarize research articles.

See: opens new windowElicit Tips and Best Practices

 Free
consensus
opens new windowhttps://www.consensus.app/

AI Research Assistant and search engine with integrated blockchain technology. Consensus uses AI to get conclusions and find answers by searching more than 200 million peer-reviewed scientific research papers. Researchers can access individual and organizational datasets within the decentralized network

Highlights:
- Aggregates information from multiple sources for a comprehensive view of a topic.
- Provid a "Study Snapshot" that includes population, sample size, methods, and outcomes.
- Identifies articles type and quality indicators, such as RCT, Large Human Trial, or Systematic Review. Identifies Highly Cited articles.
- Provides summaries, responses, answers, and overviews on various topics.
- Provides diverse perspectives to gain a deeper understanding of a concept or topic.

  • Ask a research question using natural language, do a keyword search, or key in a PICO question.
  • Use the "Synthesize" option to get an analyzed summary of several research papers

See: opens new windowHow to Search & Best Practices

 Free
Research Rabbit
opens new windowhttps://www.researchrabbit.ai/

AI tool that that searches through academic literature up to January of 2022 and helps you discover relevant scholarly resources.

Highlights:
- Provides visualizations of papers and co-authorships.
- Visualizations show subfields, geographical distribution of research articles, key researchers, research collaboration, and threads within the research literature.
- Filter results by citation count or journal impact factor.

  • Add your papers to a collection for a various visualization.
  • Search a keyword or key concept to get a list of related articles.
  • Filter results by date for a list of research on recent advances.
  • Search for articles authored by specific researchers or published in a specific journal
  
Semantic Scholar
opens new windowhttps://www.semanticscholar.org/

Ai tool that focuses on scientific literature.

Highlights:
- Utilizes natural language.
- Provides summaries of research papers.
- Provides tools for citation analysis.

  

Combine AI Tools:

  • Use Research Rabbit to find relevant research articles and studies, then aggregate the information in Consensus AI for a comprehensive overview or to identify common patterns on a topic.

The key to maximizing AI program usability and performance is effective prompt engineering, which is crucial to ensure effectively obtaining desired results. For assistance, contact Professor Myra Bloom or set up an opens new windowappointment.

Articles

Abdellatif, H., Al Mushaiqri, M., Albalushi, H., Al-Zaabi, A. A., Roychoudhury, S., & Das, S. (2022). Teaching, Learning and Assessing Anatomy with Artificial Intelligence: The Road to a Better Future. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(21). opens new windowhttps://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192114209