While you can use AI for searching, it is probably better to use it to find the best databases or search engines to use for your research. AI LLM tools like Gemini, Perplexity, Chat GPT are prone to fabricating information and citing non-existent sources.
Search engines and databases are more reliabile. They usually contain information from publications such as journals, newspapers, books and web sites. They also provide a url or citation information for each result.
Some of the AI tools such as Perplexity are good are providing links back to sources. Most of the AI tools will provide you with sources if you specifically ask for citations to be included. Always double check each source provided to make sure that they exist and are correctly intpreted by the AI tool.
There are some specialized AI tools geared toward finding scholarly content though. They can help you find and analyze research published in journals. They are similar to search engines, but you can ask the AI for information in the form of question. The AI will provide a written analysis for an answer along with a list of links to relevant articles.
We recommend using AI specifically developed for academic research when you are ready to search. Below are some tools to get you started.
Tools:
* Elicit
Prompt:
Prompts dependent on AI tool used
Notes:
Each of the tools above will help you find scholarly research, but they are designed to operate in different ways. Some search by question or keyword, while others can help you find similar research by uploading papers. Tryout each of the sites above to get an idea of the various options available. There are many more of these tools available on the Internet with new ones being regularly created.