Data Science & AI Glossary
This section contains links to research tools that are based on AI technology. This is not an exhaustive list but a selection of tools that offer slightly different assistance with desk-based research. Please note some of the tools, like Elicit and Perplexity offer search with generative capability using RAG technology, other tools like Research Rabbit focus on exploration of a topic through citation mapping. Each tool has the potential to be helpful, you need to decide which aspect of your work you need help with.
PLEASE NOTE: Inclusion of a product in this guide does not constitute an endorsement. You should review each product based on how it can help you with your work. Reflect on which product is best for you and remember to evaluate all output from an AI tool.
A generative AI chatbot uses an LLM to create human-like responses to questions or prompts. It is not a search engine. Search engines, like Google use keywords to look for specific information from the internet, whereas the generated responses from ChatGPT are based on statistical predictions of the next most likely work in a sequence. ChatGPT is perhaps the most well known tool, but there are others out there. For example, Claude.ai, Perplexity.ai or Microsoft Co-pilot.
Using a gen AI chatbot (7 min video) to help you get started with your research. Please confirm that you have permission to use any AI tools with your school or lecturer.
Research Rabbit produces interactive visualisations of citation networks based on seed papers. This includes papers published earlier, later or contemporarily to your seed papers. Could be particularly useful in identifying connections between authors or papers you hadn’t noticed before.
Cost to access: Free
Litmaps maps literature based your seed papers or keywords. Creates a visualisation of your literature and could help you to spot gaps in the current research literature.
Cost to access: 1 Litmap for free. Otherwise, there is a subscription for premium services
Scite Assistant combines generative search capability and quantitative and qualitative information about citations. By agreement with some publishers, Scite has access to materials behind paywalls. This gives it an advantage over other tools in the field.
Cost to access: Subscription (free 7 day trial)
Elicit is a research assistant that combines a generative search capability with summarization. It can also extract key information from a text, which could make it helpful for anyone conducting a systematic or scoping review.
Cost to access: Subscription
SciSpace can summarise text, interact with a pdf and explain mathematical functions.
Cost to access: Free version available. Some advanced features will require a subscription
This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
