Center for Advanced Research Training & Innovation (CARTI)
AI Tools for Literature Searches

The AI tools listed below can accelerate literature searches by identifying relevant manuscripts and summarizing key findings. However, it is crucial to critically evaluate AI-generated outputs and always review the original research manuscripts to ensure accuracy, context, and scientific rigor.

 

Tools for Identifying Literature

Consensus

  • Overview: identify and summarize literature
  • Where to Start: review “how to search & best practices” prior to your first search.
  • How to Search: enter clear, plain language research question and generate list of relevant peer reviewed manuscripts.
  • View Summarized Findings: AI extracts and summarizes key findings from selected manuscripts.
  • Consensus Meter: visual indicator to show level of agreement across multiple studies related to the research question.
  • Advanced Filtering: narrow results by field of study, methodology, sample size, duration of study, etc.
  • Interactive Chat with Manuscripts: use AI chat to ask questions and explore content in manuscripts.
  • Subscription Details: free option with limits; premium subscriptions available

 

Semantic Scholar

  • Overview: identify literature
  • Where to Start: review “our product” prior to first search.
  • How to Search: enter keywords, paper titles, author names, or a research question
  • One Sentence Summaries: AI generated summary describes core idea or finings of a paper.
  • Advanced Filtering: narrow results by field of study, publication date, author, or journal.
  • Citation Lists: easily identify additional manuscripts using the citation list.
  • Create Alerts: receive notifications for new citations, papers for a specific author, or recommended papers.
  • Subscription Details: free; can login via UMB to save searchers and receive notifications 

 

Elicit

  • Overview: identify and summarize literature
  • Where to Start: review “getting started” and “tips and best practices” prior to first search.
  • How to Search: enter clear, plain language research question and generate list of relevant peer reviewed manuscripts.
  • View Summarized Findings: AI extracts and summarizes key findings from selected manuscripts in a table format.
  • Advanced Filtering: narrow results by study, study design, population type, sample size, etc.
  • Subscription Details: free option with limits; premium subscriptions available

 

Litmaps

  • Overview: literature mapping and identifying citation networks
  • Where to Start: how to use Litmaps, find research gaps & monitor
  • How to search: enter a source paper to generate a list of related papers based on citations
  • Visual Citation Map: see how papers are connected to identify related manuscripts and influential work.
  • Create Alerts: track new and related work by creating customized alerts.
  • Subscription details: free option with limits; premium subscription available

 

Research Rabbit

  • Overview: literature mapping and identifying citation networks
  • Where to Start: step by step guide
  • How to search: enter a source paper to generate a list of related papers based on citations.
  • Interactive visualization: explore related papers by relevance, date, author, and citations.
  • Create Alerts: receive email updates for related work by creating collections.
  • Subscription details: free

 

Tools for Summarizing Literature

SciSpace

  • Overview: identify, summarize, and chat with literature
  • Where to start: Literature Searches, Chat with PDF, & Live Workshops
  • How to search: enter research question or keywords to identify literature.
  • Summarize and compare: AI generates concise summaries of papers and allows side by side comparison (up to 5 for free account). Podcast button provides audio description of papers.
  • Advanced filtering: narrow results by field, study, publication date, etc.
  • Chat with papers: AI assistant allows for detailed summary of key concepts in manuscripts.
  • Notebook and export tools: save searches, citations, and summaries to personal notebook.
  • Subscription details: free option with limits; premium subscription available.

 

ChatPDF

  • Overview: summarize and chat with literature
  • Where to start: ChatPDF in a Nutshell & Fast & Simple AI PDF Summaries
  • How to search: Upload PDFs, Word documents, and PowerPoint slides.
  • Summarize and chat with papers: AI assistant generates detailed summaries of a document, including linked references to navigate to sections in the document.
  • Advanced features: “read aloud” option to listen to summaries and PowerPoint slides of key concepts.
  • Subscription details: free option with limits; premium subscription available.

 

Google NotebookLM

  • Overview: summarize and chat with literature
  • Where to start: Getting Started with NotebookLM
  • How to search: Upload up to 50 PDFs, Word documents, PowerPoint slides, or links.
  • Summarize and chat with papers: AI assistant generates detailed summaries of a document, including linked references to navigate to sections in the document.
  • Advanced features: create audio summaries, PowerPoint slides, and mind maps of key concepts
  • Subscription details: free option with limits; premium subscription available.