Item three of the "5 steps to effective library research" document is "Evaluate your results". The majority of that document discusses how to evaluate the credibility of information. We will briefly consider how to determine the credibility of sources, but most of our focus will be on AIs ability to help you understand complex information.
AI tools are excellent for this part of research, adding a much needed tool to scholarly research for students. Many of the resources that you are asked to find are very technical. Research is typically written for other researchers and experts within a specific discipline. Reading and understanding these publications typically requires specialized knowledge of terms and concepts. AI can help students working with this material by creating simple to read text with background material to ease the transfer of knowledge.
You may be unsure about some of the information you find. The information might seem questionable or you may be unsure of the source. You can use some AI tools to help you find out more about a publication or article.
Tools:
Prompt:
Is this source considered scholarly?
Notes:
Confirm the answer from the AI by doing a standard Google search for the journal title. Look for an "About" page or description from the publisher. You might also consult with a librarian to make sure that the source is credible.
AI is really excellent in this area of research. There are several tools that allow you to upload articles for analysis. Most of the tools will create an easy to read overview of the uploaded article. Some tools will create non-technical summaries of highlighted sentences and paragraphs. Many will also include links for further reading to learn more about a topic.
Tools:
While there are several tools that can help with part of the research process, we have included two that are free and easy to use.
* Chatgpt
* Explainpaper - this AI can simplify complicated text from articles
Prompt:
* Chatpdf
Upload pdf of research article to Chatpdf. Ask questions about the text. The service will provide some example questions to start with.
** How was the study designed?
** What are the main findings of the study regarding the effectiveness of biofeedback?
* Explainpaper
Upload pdf research article. Highlight sentences or paragraphs and select reading level for text output. Choices for reading level include high school, undergrad, graduate and expert. Explainpaper will convert the highlighted area into the selected readling level.
You can ask questions about the converted text selections. It is good for getting definitions of specialized terms in the text.
** What is a meta-analysis?