Skip to Main Content

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Literature Searching

Using AI in your search

Generative AI can be useful at the start of research to quickly gain an overview of a topic and identify gaps in research. It can help you find relevant papers and explore new connections between topics. 

It can also be very confidently wrong - it might miss important sources, show bias, or give results that aren’t fully accurate. It’s important to use these tools critically and alongside traditional databases, and to be mindful of how your data is used.

  • Make sure you are following University Guidance on Artificial Intelligence.
  • Ensure you don't share personal, sensitive or copyright material.
  • Consider your use with the BU Evaluative Framework, including - Do you need to use this tool? Are you preventing yourself from developing research skills by using an AI tool for this task? Where has the information come from?

These example videos use the free versions of Copilot and Elicit.

Starting your search

Example prompt used: “You are an experienced academic researcher at a UK university. Suggest some research areas I could investigate on the topic of digital wellbeing and social media use among university students. I am an undergraduate student writing a 10,000-word dissertation, so the topics should be suitable for that level.”

Finding information

If you have a question you need to answer, but you're struggling to develop a search strategy that finds relevant academic literature, Copilot can help suggest search terms you might use. 
 

Example prompts used: 1. "I am doing a literature search on this topic for a UK undergraduate degree dissertation: How can wearable health technologies, powered by AI, improve early detection and management of chronic conditions like diabetes or heart disease?  I've done some searches using the search terms 'AI and wearable health tech' and 'chronic disease monitoring with AI' but I'm getting a lot of irrelevant results. How do I improve my search strategy?"
2. “Suggest some other search terms I could use to search for academic literature on: How can wearable health technologies, powered by AI, improve early detection and management of chronic conditions?”

Generating references and citations

Using an "act as" prompt can give you ideas about where to start your reading. If you are new to a field, you can ask the AI to act as a professional in your field and answer your questions about where to look.

Example prompts used: 1. "Acting as a research support librarian, list 5 peer-reviewed scholarly journals I can use to find research in the area of cybersecurity. The output should include a brief description of the scope of each journal and cite your sources". 2. "Create a reference in APA 7th for ACSM's Guidelines for Exercise Testing".

Using Elicit to search the literature

Elicit logoElicit is an AI research assistant. Elicit uses language models to help you automate research workflows, such as undertaking parts of literature reviews.

Elicit can find relevant papers without perfect keyword match, summarize takeaways from the paper[s] specific to your question, and extract key information from the papers. [@elicit-research].
 

Elicit searches within a limited set of full-text results (Semantic Scholar), although if a DOI is provided in results, you can retrieve full-text from external sources. "Elicit tends to work best for empirical domains that involve experiments and concrete results. This type of research is common in biomedicine and machine learning." (Elicit Help Centre). Elicit currently has a biomedical focus. (Edinburgh University).
Note:

  • We cannot recommend the paid version of Elicit for health systematic reviews .e.g. it may generate something resembling a PRISMA diagram that does not meet actual PRISMA standards. See Reporting and Conducting Guidance on the SHSC LibGuide.
  • Elicit may include results from large language models like ChatGPT - it is up to you to be wary of possible hallucinations, and check sources!
Pros Cons
Speeding up the literature review process.  Searches a limited database – Elicit uses Semantic Scholar.
However, if a DOI is available, you can often access the full text through other platforms. 
Automating parts of the evidence-gathering process. Limited features and easy to hit the paywall in the free version.
It works best with studies that report concrete findings. Not ideal for theoretical or non-empirical research

Get started with Elicit:

  • Go to: elicit.com
  • Click on 'Sign Up'
  • Create a Basic* (free) account - add your email address and create a password.

 

 

Find help and support:

References
Many thanks to Edinburgh University guidance around Using Generative AI Tools in Academic Work (2025).