Generative AI tools for study and research

The JSTOR AI Research Assistant is an interactive AI tool that appears alongside full text articles, book chapters, and other resources to help you analyse and develop your understanding of the text.

The user can prompt the research tool by asking queries related to the text, such as “What are the key takeaways of this text?”, or “How is my topic of… related to this text?” There are also built-in prompts including “What is this about?”, “Show related content” and “Recommend further readings”

The AI Research Assistant can only generate responses from the current text, so it's helpful for providing insights into that specific document, but not for a broad overview or current trends on a research topic.

Access

1. Access JSTOR via Library Search to ensure your access is linked to Murdoch University.  

2. You must create a personal account to access the AI Research Tool, click the Register button in the top right corner, or log in if you already have an account.

3. Browse or search to find full text content of interest. 

4. After opening the full text, an AI assistant window will automatically open on the right hand side. 

Further information

This video provides more information on how to use JSTOR AI Research Assistant and its features. 

Feedback

Have you tried JSTOR AI Research Assistant? Let us know what you think via this form:

ProQuest Research Assistant is available across the suite of ProQuest databases available in Library Search (excluding Ebook Central). The tool aids in analysing full text documents by providing key takeaways and summarising the important concepts. It also helps direct users in the next steps in their research or study by tailoring recommendations for further research topics and suggested readings.

Functionality of the tool is limited in that the user cannot prompt the tool with their own questions. Instead, the Research Assistant has five built-in prompts to aid in analysing the current document.

Searching ProQuest databases does not allow a natural language search but does provide suggested search terms to help narrow your search.

Access

1. Select your preferred ProQuest database from Library Search.

2. Enter your search topic in the basic or advanced search and click search. ProQuest Research Assistant will generate suggested search terms under the search bar, add any of these if desired.

3. Once you have located a full text document from the results, the Research Assistant window will open alongside the text.

Further information

Watch this video on how to use ProQuest Research Assistant.

Feedback

Have you tried ProQuest Research Assistant? Let us know what you think via this form:

Microsoft Copilot assists users with a variety of tasks but can also be used for analysing open access articles and documents. It is useful for providing overviews summarising the main points and answering questions about the text. Murdoch University has a licensing agreement with Microsoft for the use of Copilot, which provides an extra layer of protection compared to publicly available generative AI tools, such as ChatGPT.

Please note, several issues with Copilot's accuracy and hallucinations were identified during testing, so please check any generated content carefully. The issues included:

• Sources - Copilot provides a list of sources used when it is prompted to analyse documents. The first of these sources is the document itself; the remainder have no relevance to the topic or original document.
• Further readings - when prompted to suggest further readings relevant to the original document or topic, Copilot had various responses. It produced a list of relevant articles with correct citation links; it also produced a list of relevant articles, but with fake citation links; as well as producing a list of fake articles and links.

Access

Microsoft Copilot can be accessed across much of the Microsoft suite of tools or from the dedicated M365 Copilot chat:

Ensure you are signed in with your Murdoch account before entering any prompts. A green shield icon should be visible in the top right to indicate that the chat is protected by Murdoch’s Enterprise data protection.

Full text document analysis

To use Copilot to analyse a full-text document, use Library Search to first locate an open access resource:

1. Enter your search terms into Library Search and click the Search icon. 

2. In the left hand panel, under Availability, check the Open Access box and click Apply Filters. 

3. Locate a relevant document for analysis by clicking Download PDF, if available, or Available Online. Copy the document URL.

4. Open M365 Copilot chat and enter the following prompt: 
   “Analyse the document available at [URL] and provide the top 5 takeaways.”

5. Experiment with other prompts related to your topic or requirements.

Further information

The following resources will provide further help in learning how to use Copilot for your study, research, and work:

Feedback

Have you tried Copilot for study or research? Let us know what you think via this form: