| Library Search Research Assistant | Scite | Elicit | Litmaps | Inciteful | Research Rabbit | Semantic Scholar | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Purpose | Identifies and summarizes relevant content from library sources to answer research questions | Analyzes citation patterns for literature reviews | Automates research workflows, especially empirical research | Visualizes article connections through interactive maps | Provides related papers and shows citation relationships | Discovers and visualizes relevant literature and authors | AI-powered search tool for scientific literature |
| Key Features |
Provides an overview answer that includes reference links to most relevant sources and connects users to additional helpful content |
Citation analysis | • Displays relevant papers • Summarizes key information |
• Interactive maps • Citation tracking |
• Citation relationships • Multidisciplinary research support |
• Visualizations • Personalized recommendations |
• Summarizes articles • Identifies highly influential citations |
| Best For | Discovering literature, exploring research connections, simplifying reading and engagement with research articles | Literature review and critical analysis | Streamlining empirical research | Exploring research connections | Multidisciplinary research | Discovering literature and author connections | Simplifying reading and engagement with research articles |
| Cost |
Free access via PFW's Library Catalog |
Subscription required Free access via PFW Library |
Free with sign-up; Pro subscription available | Free for limited use; Pro subscription for unlimited access | Free | Free | Free |
Primo Research Assistant is a generative AI-powered tool embedded into the library's catalog. It allows you to explore library content by asking questions. Employing LLMs (Large Language Models), the Research Assistant identifies five documents from the library's content (largely online articles and book chapters) that can help answer your question. It extracts the most relevant information from the description and abstracts of each source to provide an overview or summary that attempts to answer your question. Also provided are a list of sources used to generate the answer as well as in-text references that let you clearly see which source was used to generate each part of the answer. Because Research Assistant works within the library's catalog, it is much less likely to make up false sources and more likely to generate answers from credible resources than tools like ChatGPT.
This generates content and list of sources can help you jumpstart your research by sparking ideas, providing a general overview of a topic, helping explore and refine a research question, and giving a path for delving deeper into a topic.
Due to the nature of LLMs, answers to the same question are not always the same. There may be more than one possible answer and different resources that are relevant. If you are not satisfied with your answers, use the “Try again” button. Or try one of the suggested related research questions.
Note: When using Research Assistant, your personal data and answer results are not stored from session to session. However, your questions and feedback are used to train the Research Assistant to better respond to research queries.
scite is a citation database that indexes more than a million articles and has access to more than a billion citations.
To be indexed in scite, journals must be registered with Crossref or Datacite (two DOI registration agencies) and have functional DOIs and active ISSNs for indexing. scite has access to the full text of many of those articles from both open access sources and from publishers who have indexing agreements with them. scite is adding articles and citations each day, but not all publishers participate. scite also indexes other resource types with DOIs, such as preprints, government reports, etc.
Examples of participating publishers include Wiley, Sage, Cambridge University Press, American Chemical Society, and The Royal Society. Examples of data sources include OSF, PubMed, and Unpaywall.
scite citations are divided by AI into supporting, mentioning, and contrasting citations (i.e., "smart" citations)
scite also has a ChatGPT-like generative AI tool that lets you ask questions in plain language and get answers with references.
Features
Citation Statements (sometimes known as citances or in-text citations) - sentences surrounding a citation or reference within a publication.
For example, the following is a citation statement from Determining Data Information Literacy Needs: A Study of Students and Research Faculty by Carlson et al (2011), citing Incorporating Data Literacy into Undergraduate Information Literacy Programs in the Social Sciences by Stephenson & Caravello (2007):
"Stephenson and Caravello extol the importance of data and statistical literacies as components of information literacy in the social sciences, arguing that the ability to evaluate information essentially requires that one understand the data and statistics used in an information resource."
scite Assistant - scite's ChatGPT-like generative AI tool that lets you ask questions in plain language and get answers with references.
Smart Citations - provide contextual information about cited articles, helping researchers understand whether the cited work supports or contradicts the current research.
Examples of supporting, contrasting, and mentioning citations, from scite: A smart citation index that displays the context of citations and classifies their intent using deep learning by Nicholson et al (2021):
