AI: Tips & Tools from Your Librarians: Resources, Tools & More

Overview

Here you will find a list of librarian picks of useful tools, resources, blogs, and more!  Each entry will have a brief description, including advantages and limitations when present.

Note: These lists are not designed to be comprehensive and instead the most helpful resources our librarians have for you. Expect them to be added/edited every semester!

 

**See here for Virginia Tech's Library access to the NY Times: https://guides.lib.vt.edu/new_york_times
  • Microsoft Copilot (previously Bing Chat): designed for many tasks including generating media, understanding topics, creating task lists and more, free at Virginia Tech, approved only for low-risk data (see link for details on access)
  • ChatGPT (includes DALL-E 3): probably the most well-known GenAI tool today and can handle everything from writing a bio to helping with code, but may give incorrect information (hallucinate) when asking about searching​​​​, free and subscription options
  • Claude: another GenAI tool, although is designed around complex tasks like multi-lingual content and higher-order math, free and subscription options
  • Google Gemini (formerly Bard): be sure to check their FAQs, similarly to ChatGPT, it can get things wrong sometimes, but can still be a powerful tool, free and subscription options for personal Google accounts only (in select countries)

 

And for a more comprehensive list see this from information science professionals, by Ithaka S+R:
Generative AI Product Tracker
     (Plus check out There's an AI for That)
There are many tools now too specialized for academic research, especially supporting literature reviews.  Make sure to analyze your outputs - verify and validate to ensure trust in the results as many are not quite fully mature yet.
  • Connected Papers: visualization options based on keywords, title, DOI, etc. to explore literature, based on Semantic Scholar database, free and subscription options
  • Consensus: powered by ChatGPT, this AI-powered search engine specializes in extracting and condensing scientific insights from peer-reviewed sources, free and subscription options - VT email should provide subscription access (trial was last February)
  • Dimensions Research GPT: also powered by ChatGPT, uses Dimensions' database (broad research database with articles, data, clinical trials, patents and more) to provide answers to research questions and content links, VT subscription to Dimensions includes this add-on - sign up for Dimensions first using your VT email
  • elicit.com: another academic-focused tool, can even upload papers to analyze, free and subscription options
  • Litmaps: designed to support literature reviews using citation networks to promote literature discovery and research gap identification plus automated alerts, includes research network visualization, very limited free starter and subscription options
  • Perplexity.ai: works to give up to date information with sources from academic literature, news, websites and more, free and subscription options
  • Research Rabbit: specializes in analyzing citations and helping users explore related publications, free
  • SciSpace (typeset.io): designed to support reading research articles with connections to other papers, can search or ask a question with articles included to support answers, free and subscription options
  • scite.ai: similar to Perplexity, but is designed for researchers, providing journal articles and more as sources, subscription only (can do free trial)
  • Undermind.ai: designed to be a personal research assistant for specific research topics, will walk you through asking a research question and provide curated results, free and subscription options
 
Coming soon: Web of Science's research assistant AI - see here clarivate.com/blog/beyond-discovery-ai-and-the-future-of-the-web-of-science/ for details.
Also of note that includes machine learning: Covidence - free for Virginia Tech users, designed for literature reviews, especially those in evidence synthesis, learns from your screening of papers as you use it.
Looking to just analyze and/or visualize literature?  There are also many options outside of the above AI tools such as Biblioshiny (designed for non-coders too) or VOSviewer, which allow for more customization and detailed analysis.

Contact

Have something else we should add?  Or have a question?  Reach out to our AI Support Group!
     Are you an instructor?  We also have a Canvas module available that is used in our GRAD 5124 course!