Access Chat GPT and Elicit to start exploring how AI-powered NLP systems and artificial research assistants can augment your investigations.
As students work through these potentialities, we must reinforce that Chat GPT serves as a helpful starting point in the literature review process, but students should always exercise their judgment and engage with librarians and faculty members to ensure a comprehensive and rigorous review of the literature.
AI-driven NLP tools like Chat GPT have the potential to support students throughout their research journey by providing immediate access to information, aiding in literature reviews, and sparking ideas for research topics. These tools possess the capability to analyze extensive volumes of text data, identify fundamental concepts and themes, and offer suggestions for pertinent sources and references. Moreover, they can assist students in refining their research questions, refining their writing abilities, and enhancing the coherence and clarity of their arguments. Furthermore, AI-powered NLP tools can facilitate language translation, assist with grammar and style corrections, and expedite efficient information retrieval, ultimately saving students valuable time and enriching their overall research experience.
Generated by Chat GPT, these questions might help us consider the use of AI, NLP, and tools like Chat GPT in the context of academic research at the community college level.
The AI system Chat GPT contends, "Addressing these questions can help students and faculty make informed decisions about incorporating these technologies into their research practices while promoting critical thinking, academic integrity, and the development of essential research skills."
For a more human-centered exploration of AI-powered NLP tools and their application to academic research, we encourage you to explore some of the resources linked below.
Chat GPT and Elicit are both AI-based tools that can assist community college students in generating research questions. While Chat GPT focuses on interactive dialogue and idea generation, Elicit emphasizes conversational interaction with an AI research assistant, providing recommendations and insights. Both approaches aim to foster critical thinking and independent research skills, enabling students to develop a deeper understanding of the subject matter and produce assignments that reflect their unique insights and analysis.
Define your research area: Identify the broad topic or subject area you wish to explore. It could be a specific field of study, a particular problem, or an area of interest.
Engage in a conversation: Initiate a conversation with Chat GPT by providing a brief introduction to your research area. For example, "I am interested in exploring the impact of climate change on biodiversity."
Pose open-ended questions: Ask Chat GPT open-ended questions related to your research area. Encourage the AI model to provide insights, perspectives, or suggestions by framing questions that start with "What are the effects of...," "How does...," or "What are the potential implications of...," etc.
Explore different angles: Prompt Chat GPT to explore different aspects of your research area. Ask it to consider various factors, variables, or contexts that may influence the topic. For example, "How does climate change affect biodiversity in different ecosystems?" or "What are the economic implications of biodiversity loss due to climate change?"
Refine and iterate: Based on the responses from Chat GPT, refine your questions further. Consider incorporating specific keywords, concepts, or variables to narrow down your research focus. Continue the conversation by asking follow-up questions that delve deeper into the subject matter.
Evaluate and analyze responses: Evaluate the responses provided by Chat GPT critically. Assess the relevance, coherence, and quality of the generated information. Identify key insights, patterns, or potential research avenues that emerge from the conversation.
Reflect and brainstorm: Reflect on the information shared by Chat GPT and brainstorm potential research question(s) based on the insights gained. Consider the gaps, controversies, or unexplored areas highlighted during the conversation.
Formulate the research question: Synthesize the insights and analysis from the conversation to craft a concise and focused research question. Ensure that the question is clear, specific, and aligned with your research objectives.
Iterate and seek feedback: Share the formulated research question with your peers, instructors, or mentors to gather feedback. Revise and refine the question as necessary, considering their input and suggestions.
To utilize Elicit to generate research questions, you can follow these steps:
Define the research topic: Clearly articulate the subject or area of interest for your research.
Engage in a conversation with Elicit: Initiate a conversation with Elicit, the AI research assistant, by posing open-ended questions related to your research topic. For example, you can ask about key concepts, relevant theories, existing studies, or potential gaps in the literature.
Seek recommendations and insights: Request Elicit to provide recommendations for scholarly articles, books, or research papers that are pertinent to your research topic. Ask for insights on current debates, controversies, or emerging trends in the field.
Refine and explore generated questions: Review the responses generated by Elicit and identify potential research questions that align with your research topic and objectives. Refine and explore these questions further to ensure they are specific, focused, and address gaps or aspects of the topic that you aim to investigate.
Reflect and iterate: Reflect on the generated research questions, evaluate their feasibility, and iterate as needed. You can continue the conversation with Elicit to seek clarification, additional information, or alternative perspectives to refine your research questions further.
Document and proceed: Document the research questions generated through the interaction with Elicit. Use them as a foundation to design your research study, develop a research proposal, or guide your literature review.
Using Chat GPT to conduct a literature review involves the following steps:
Define your research topic: Clearly identify the specific area or topic you want to explore in your literature review. It could be a subject within a discipline or a research question you aim to address.
Engage in a conversation: Initiate a conversation with Chat GPT and introduce your research topic. For example, "I'm conducting a literature review on the impact of social media on mental health."
Request relevant literature: Ask Chat GPT for recommendations on scholarly articles, books, research papers, or other relevant sources related to your research topic. Be specific in your queries, mentioning key terms or concepts you want to focus on. For example, "Can you suggest recent articles on the relationship between social media usage and anxiety among adolescents?"
Discuss themes and gaps: Engage in a dialogue with Chat GPT to identify common themes, debates, or gaps in the existing research. Ask questions about emerging trends, conflicting findings, or areas where more research is needed. For instance, "What are the main themes or controversies in the literature regarding the impact of social media on mental health?"
Seek guidance on structuring the review: Request Chat GPT's assistance in structuring your literature review. Ask for suggestions on how to organize the information, such as chronological, thematic, or methodological approaches. Seek guidance on how to highlight important studies, synthesize findings, and present a coherent analysis.
Explore connections between sources: Prompt Chat GPT to identify connections and relationships between different sources. Ask about studies that support or contradict each other and inquire about gaps or areas where further research is required. For example, "Can you find any studies that have explored the moderating effects of age or gender in the relationship between social media use and mental health outcomes?"
Evaluate and analyze responses: Evaluate the information provided by Chat GPT critically. Assess the credibility and relevance of the recommended sources and insights shared during the conversation. Consider the strengths and weaknesses of the research presented.
Document and cite sources: Take note of the recommended sources and their relevant details, such as authors, publication dates, and journal names. Ensure proper citation of the sources you intend to include in your literature review.
Incorporate human expertise: While Chat GPT can offer valuable recommendations and insights, it's crucial to supplement its responses with human expertise. Validate the recommendations by cross-checking them with trusted academic databases or consulting with librarians or subject matter experts.
Synthesize and write your literature review: Use the information gathered from Chat GPT, along with other relevant sources, to synthesize and write your literature review. Analyze the existing research, highlight key findings, identify gaps, and present a comprehensive overview of the literature in your field.
Elicit provides a user-friendly interface and advanced search capabilities to streamline the literature review process. However, it is essential to supplement Elicit's results with other academic databases, library resources, and expert advice to ensure comprehensive coverage of the literature in your field. Using Elicit to conduct a literature review involves the following steps:
Access Elicit: Log in to the Elicit platform or access it through the appropriate channels provided by your institution or organization.
Define your research topic: Clearly identify the specific area or topic you want to explore in your literature review. This will serve as the foundation for your search.
Explore relevant sources: Enter your research topic or keywords into the search bar within Elicit. Elicit will retrieve a range of relevant sources, including scholarly articles, books, research papers, and other academic resources.
Refine search parameters: Utilize the filters and search options within Elicit to narrow down your search results. You can filter by publication date, author, journal, or specific keywords to focus on the most relevant and recent sources.
Assess source credibility: Evaluate the credibility and quality of the retrieved sources. Elicit often provides indicators or metadata about each source, such as citation counts, impact factors, and peer-reviewed status, which can assist in assessing their reliability.
Read and analyze sources: Access the full-text or abstract of the selected sources within Elicit. Read and analyze the content to understand the research findings, methodologies, and arguments presented in each source. Take notes and highlight key points as you go along.
Organize and synthesize information: Use Elicit's features to organize and synthesize the information gathered from the sources. Create annotations, tags, or folders to categorize the sources based on themes or subtopics. This will help you keep track of relevant information and facilitate the synthesis process.
Identify connections and gaps: Identify connections, patterns, and gaps in the literature as you review the sources. Look for recurring themes, divergent findings, or areas where more research is needed. Elicit's visualization tools may aid in identifying these patterns and relationships.
Collaborate and share: If collaborating with others on the literature review, Elicit allows for collaboration and sharing of sources, annotations, and insights. You can collaborate with peers, instructors, or researchers to collectively analyze and synthesize the literature.
Write your literature review: Utilize the information gathered and synthesized through Elicit to write your literature review. Incorporate key findings, debates, and gaps identified during the review process. Ensure proper citation and referencing of the sources used.
To ask Chat GPT to provide summaries and analysis, students should frame questions in a way that prompts the model to generate concise summaries or offer insights. Here are a few example prompts:
To harness the capabilities of Chat GPT, you can direct its responses by posing specific questions that focus on the title or topic you wish to summarize. By doing so, you can leverage Chat GPT's extensive training on diverse texts, enabling it to generate relevant summaries and analyses based on the knowledge it has acquired. Being precise in your queries helps ensure that the generated response aligns with your specific research requirements, enhancing the utility of Chat GPT in supporting your information needs.
Elicit offers an efficient way to access summarized versions of research articles, enabling you to quickly grasp the key points and findings. However, it is important to supplement these summaries with a thorough examination of the full-text articles to ensure a comprehensive understanding of the research. To use Elicit for providing summaries and analysis of research articles, follow these steps:
Access Elicit: Log in to the Elicit platform using your credentials or through the designated channels provided by your institution.
Define your purpose: Identify the specific research article or articles you want to summarize and analyze. Have a clear understanding of the key points or aspects you wish to extract from the articles.
Search for the articles: Enter relevant keywords, author names, or specific article titles in the search bar within Elicit. Utilize the search filters to refine your results based on publication date, author, journal, or other relevant criteria.
Select the articles: Review the search results and choose the research articles that are most pertinent to your topic or research needs. Take note of the article titles, authors, and any additional information provided in the search results.
Retrieve article summaries: Click on the selected research articles to access their summaries within Elicit. These summaries are generated by Elicit and provide concise overviews of the article's content, highlighting key points, methodologies, results, and conclusions.
Analyze the article summaries: Read and analyze the generated summaries to gain a better understanding of the main findings, arguments, and implications of each research article. Take note of any significant insights or connections between the articles.
Evaluate the quality and relevance: Consider the credibility and relevance of the articles by examining factors such as the reputation of the journals, the authors' expertise, the methodology employed, and the article's impact within the research community.
Incorporate insights into your work: Utilize the information and insights gained from the article summaries to support your own research, analysis, or writing. Reference the original research articles when citing or referring to specific findings.
Supplement with full-text articles: If needed, access the full-text versions of the selected research articles through Elicit or other available resources. This will allow you to delve deeper into the details and nuances of the research and verify the accuracy of the summaries provided by Elicit.
Engage in critical thinking: While Elicit's summaries provide a valuable starting point, critically engage with the research articles by evaluating the methodology, considering alternative viewpoints, and assessing the strength of the evidence presented.
Through the strategic implementation of such questioning techniques, you can effectively direct Chat GPT towards generating concise summaries and insightful analyses, drawing upon the extensive knowledge it has acquired during its training on a diverse corpus of texts. It is essential to provide specific details in your queries, explicitly referencing the title or subject matter you desire to be summarized. This specificity ensures that the response generated by Chat GPT remains pertinent and tailored to meet your precise research requirements.
By utilizing Elicit's AI-powered algorithms, you can efficiently explore and access relevant resources and references for your research.To utilize Elicit for suggesting resources and relevant references, follow these steps:
Enter keywords and queries: Enter relevant keywords, phrases, or research queries into the search bar within Elicit. Be specific and precise to generate more accurate results.
Review search results: Evaluate the search results provided by Elicit. These results may include scholarly articles, books, research papers, reports, or other relevant resources.
Explore resource suggestions: Examine the suggested resources and references provided by Elicit based on your search query. These suggestions are generated by Elicit's AI algorithms, taking into account the relevance, popularity, and credibility of the sources.
