You are welcome to re-use/remix this guide and its components. Please give credit using Creative Commons TASL style.
AI Tools for Academic Literature Research by Kimberly S. Grotewold is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0
Note: In addition to responses to user prompts, these tools provide notes and/or links to source materials. You can ask for specific types of sources, and sometimes the results will align with those source types, but not always.
Similar to doing a broad web search for background information about a topic, you can use a GenAI chatbot to ask a question about what is known about a topic in your field of interest. You can then ask what is still not fully understood about the same topic.
After identifying a potential research gap, you can continue working with a multipurpose genAI chatbot to brainstorm possible narrowed topics or specific research questions. This example explores the topic idea of supporting the academic success of neurodivergent students further.
Using the following topic suggestion, please generate three specific, relevant research questions for which information and data could be collected:
[Copied from Response to Prompt 3]
Evaluating the Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)-Powered Apps to Provide Real-Time Feedback on Social Interactions for Students with Social Communication Challenges
This research could examine the feasibility and effectiveness of using AI-powered apps that analyze social interactions (e.g., through video or audio input) and provide real-time feedback on social cues such as body language, tone of voice, and proxemics. It could explore the types of feedback that are most helpful and how these apps can be personalized to meet individual needs.
When you have a research question that you believe is sufficiently narrowed you can ask a genAI chatbot about recommended databases to search for relevant academic resources to support your literature review.
In the ongoing Gemini 1.5 example about supporting neurodivergent students, Gemini added information about possible keywords and phrases to use when it recommended databases to search. The result to Prompt 5 can be built upon as shown here.
To do my searches for relevant academic resources to include in my literature review, I plan to use the following databases: APA PsycINFO, ERIC, PubMed, Web of Science, and IEEE. For the following topic, please generate 4-6 keyword or phrase searches that I could input into the databases to potentially retrieve useful results:
What types of real-time feedback provided by an AI-powered app (e.g., visual cues, auditory prompts, text-based explanations) are perceived as most helpful and least disruptive by students with autism spectrum disorder during naturalistic social interactions (e.g., classroom discussions, lunch breaks)?