Public Policy & Administration

AI tools can be used to support different aspects of the research process, including:

• Hypotheses Generation: AI can automatically generate research questions based on a given dataset or topic that can serve as starting points for researchers to refine and develop into hypotheses.
• Literature Review: AI can accelerate the literature review process by analyzing and summarizing a body of literature on a topic, identifying relevant trends, patterns, and gaps in existing knowledge.
• Data Analysis: AI can aid in processing and analyzing large datasets, making it easier to identify emerging trends, correlations, outliers, and other patterns.
• Experiment Design: AI algorithms can assist researchers in designing experiments by suggesting variables, methodologies, and potential outcomes based on existing data.
• Communication of Findings: AI can assist in drafting, proof-reading, and editing research papers.
• Collaboration and Networking: AI-driven recommendation systems can help researchers connect with peers, collaborators, and experts in their field, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration and knowledge sharing.

Note: Use of AI is fraught with complications involving accuracy, bias, academic integrity, and intellectual property and may not be appropriate in all academic settings. Students are strongly advised to consult with their instructor before using AI-generated content in their research or coursework.

Source: Rutgers University Libguide: Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Literature Reviews: Finding sources

• Perplexity: A search engine that provides AI-generated answers (like ChatGPT) that include linked citations from a wide range of sources, including scholarly articles. Includes an interactive search mode that asks you clarifying questions to guide the AI search process and find the best answer for you. Free.
• Consensus: A search engine that uses AI to search over 200 million journal articles  from Semantic Scholar and deliver reliable, evidence-based answers tied to actual studies. It also provides summaries of the top articles it analyzes, making it easier to understand complex research. Free for 20 searches per month. 
• Semantic Scholar: AI-powered research tool for scholarly literature. Semantic Scholar helps researchers understand a paper at a glance by extracting meaning and identifying connections from within papers. Indexes over 200 million academic papers sourced from publisher partnerships, data providers, and web crawls. Free.
• Research Rabbit: Described as “Spotify of research”, users can create collections of academic papers that the software can learn from to give them relevant recommendations. It also visualizes scholarly networks in graphs, so it’s possible follow the work of specific authors or topics. Free,

Creating summaries:

• Scholarcy: AI summarization tool that reads your research articles, reports, and book chapters and extracts key information to create a summary flashcard identifying study participants, data analyses, main findings, and limitations. Free for short articles. 

• ChatPDF: AI chatbot designed to help researchers read, analyze, and extract answers from research papers. Simply upload a file and ChatPDF will generate a short summary of the paper and provide examples of questions it can answer based on the full text.