Artificial intelligence (AI) helps streamline operational tasks in various fields, and research is no exception.
Thanks to AI research tools, you can now let go of routine tasks and funnel your time, effort, and energy into more cerebral work.
Whether you’re a professional researcher or a scholar working on your thesis or dissertation, we’ll discuss the best AI research tools to make your life easier.
How Can AI be Used as a Tool for Research?
Here are a few ways AI research tools can help streamline your research process:
- Sift through vast amounts of data
- Identify data patterns
- Get insights into data
- Review literature
- Extract data
- Analyze papers
Just like AI in programming and AI social media manager tools, your AI research tools list can take data processing off your shoulders so you can focus on critical thinking.
Best AI Research Tools to Try
Here’s a list of the AI research tools you can use:
1. Research Rabbit
ResearchRabbit is one of the free AI tools for research that helps you find and track:
- Scholarly articles
- Papers
- Research trends
Think of it as a personalized research assistant that suggests relevant papers based on your field. It can also organize information into collections and provide updates when new papers are published.
How it Helps in Research: ResearchRabbit enhances literature review processes by curating and updating a personalized library of research papers. It allows you to follow specific topics or authors and get notifications about new, relevant publications. This feature saves time and ensures you stay updated with the latest research.
- Pricing: Their website mentions that ResearchRabbit’s core discovery functionalities are accessible forever. However, you can donate a custom amount to the platform or opt for recurring contributions starting at $3 per month.
2. ChatGPT
ChatGPT also falls on the list of the best free AI for research tools. Developed by OpenAI, this AI language model can assist in a wide range of tasks, including:
- Drafting text
- Answering questions
- Brainstorming.
How it Helps in Research: ChatGPT can aid researchers by making summaries, answering complex queries, and helping draft research proposals or papers. It can also provide explanations for complex concepts. For instance, you can input text on it and ask it to explain it to a fourth grader. It can even generate hypotheses based on existing data.
- Pricing: ChatGPT offers both free and paid versions. The paid version, which costs $20 monthly, offers faster response times and access to the latest models.
3. Semantic Scholar
Semantic Scholar is one of the free AI tools for research paper writing that is growing in popularity. Developed by the Allen Institute for AI, this platform helps users quickly find and understand relevant research papers by using the following:
- Machine learning (ML) and
- Natural language processing (NLP)
How it Helps in Research: Semantic Scholar enhances literature searches by providing smart filters, citation graphs, and influential citations to find key papers in a field quickly. It also offers tools for discovering connections between research papers that might not be immediately apparent, thereby helping researchers to uncover hidden insights.
- Pricing: Semantic Scholar is free to use.
4. Elicit
Elicit is another AI research assistant designed to help with evidence synthesis, particularly in the context of systematic reviews and meta-analyses. It helps researchers:
- Find references
- Assess literature
- Summarize relevant studies
You can use Elicit to answer specific research questions when analyzing research papers.
How it Helps in Research: As one of the popular AI research tools for literature review, Elicit accelerates the research process by automating the identification and synthesis of relevant studies. As a result. researchers can focus on higher-level analysis and interpretation.
- Pricing: Elicit is free to use, but offers paid tiers starting at $10 monthly.
5. Scite
Scite is an AI-powered platform that helps researchers evaluate the reliability and influence of scientific articles by showing how they have been cited—whether supported, contradicted, or mentioned neutrally. It provides context to citations, helping users quickly assess the impact of a paper.
How it Helps in Research: Scite aids in assessing the credibility of research by providing citation contexts, which show whether subsequent papers support or refute an article's findings.
- Pricing: Though Scite offers free subscriptions for basic features, they also provide premium plans starting at $10 monthly.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Here are a few frequently asked questions related to AI research tools:
What AI tool is best for research?
The best AI tool for research depends on the specifics of your project. Some AI tools excel in finding literature, others in citation analysis, and some in working with large datasets. It’s important to choose a tool that aligns with your research goals.
What is the AI tool for reviewing research papers?
Several AI tools are excellent for reviewing research papers. For instance, Scite can help assess the credibility of papers by showing how they are cited in other works. At the same time, Semantic Scholar provides smart filters and citation graphs to identify key research quickly. Elicit, meanwhile, assists in synthesizing evidence and reviewing studies. ResearchRabbit, on the other hand, helps you discover and organize scholarly articles.
Is ChatGPT good for research?
ChatGPT is useful for generating ideas, summarizing information, and drafting content. However, it should be used in research cautiously, as it may not always provide accurate or updated information needed for scholarly papers.
