English: Using AI for your literature search

Before you start

Before you use any Generative AI as part of your research or writing, you should read the University's  Student guidance for using Generative AI in learning

We would also recommend that you read the information on Critical use of AI to give you an understanding of the tools that you are using.

Always ask yourself: am I still the author of this work?

Generative AI tools can sound very plausible, even when fabricating false information. This is why you must always check any information you take from a Gen AI tool, as the accuracy of any work you produce is ultimately your responsibility. 

Invented sources

Gen AI tools, including ChatGPT, are prone to "hallucinating" - providing incorrect or misleading responses to prompts.  This includes the sources and quotations they might provide to back up the information they give you.  As Yee et al. explain, "One common result of a request for citations or sources is the acknowledgement of a real scholar... but with publication titles or journals listed that sound realistic, yet do not exist" (2023).  You may well find that what sounds like the perfect source for your dissertation has been invented just for your query.

Steps to take:

1. Copy and paste the article/book title into Library Discovery or a search engine to check it actually exists.  Use "quotations marks" to search for the exact title, and perhaps add in the author's name too.
   • If you don't find the article, try searching for the author to see if they have written something else similar that you could use
   • If you do find the article, check the publication details match the information the Gen AI gave you.
2. Read the article or book chapter! You can't be sure that ChatGPT has interpreted your query correctly in providing this resource. And you will be able to use the source far more effectively if you engage directly with what the author has said.

Using AI for your literature search

It is likely that you already use a range of tools to find resources for your assessments and dissertation.  Each of these works in a slightly different way and provides you with different types of information. In brief:

• Course Resource lists contain readings recommended by your module tutors. They are a good starting point but usually won't contain everything you need for an assessment.
• Library Discovery and journal databases tend to search through academic sources which contain high quality information.  They also generally work by matching the words you type in with the resources available to them
• Google and Google Scholar (and other search engines) will search a far wider range of resources and will interpret the information you type in to provide the results they think you want to see, ranked by "relevance" based on complex algorithms.

None of these tools is neutral.  All of them in some way make decisions about what to show you and in what order they will rank any search results. It is always worth asking yourself "which voices am I hearing and which voices are missing from these search results?" 

In her book Algorithms of Oppression, Safiya Umoja Noble emphasises the importance of search and result ranking in the distribution of information to the public.  Noting that this has passed from public to private commercial ownership, and that journalists are under pressure to "modify their content for the express purposes of increasing advertising traffic," (2018, p.154), she explains that: 

"Search does not merely present pages but structures knowledge, and the results retrieved in a commercial search engine create their own particular material reality. Ranking is itself information that also reflects the political, social, and cultural values of the society that search engine companies operate within..." (Noble, 2018. p.148)

Gen AI also makes decisions about what to show you and how it is displayed, and also contains bias.  There is an added danger that because you are reading the output of one "voice" it can seem more authoritative.  When you view a list of results from an internet search you instinctively make decisions about which to use, which to trust, and with Gen AI some of that process is taken away from you.

We would recommend that whatever use you make of Generative AI to find resources for your assessments, you use library search tools and search engines alongside it to provide a broader set of results and to check what you are being told.

References

Noble, S.U. (2018) Algorithms of oppression : how search engines reinforce racism. New York: New York University Press. 

Yee, K. F., Whittington, K., Doggette, E., & Uttich, L. (2023). ChatGPT assignments to use in your classroom today. Available at: https://stars.library.ucf.edu/oer/8/ (Accessed: 13 August 2024)

How can I use Gen AI to help with my research?

The examples below each idea are prompts I entered into the free version of ChatGPT. As this is a conversational tool, I will amend my prompts, or ask further questions, if ChatGPT doesn't quite give the answer I need.

• Use Gen AI to help you to organise your time and plan your dissertation
  I have to write a 7000 word dissertation by Feb 2025. Please could you help me plan my time. I work on Friday evenings and Saturdays.
   
• Use Gen AI in the early stages of research to help you to break down your topic.  (Bear in mind that this is just one "friend" offering advice and find information elsewhere as well)
  I am writing an essay on the use of images in communicating climate change. Can you help me break down the topic?
   
• Use Gen AI to find specific examples of the themes you want to write about.  
  Which photographs have been most important in raising awareness of plastic pollution?
   
• Use Gen AI to find details of key authors writing on your topic. (Beware hallucinations - see the Invented Sources section for more details and use any information you find to search further on library search tools)
  Who are the most significant academics researching body image and social media today?
   
• Use Gen AI to find keywords and academic terminology which you can use to search Library Discovery and/or journal databases
  Can you suggest search terms for a literature search on bias in graphic novels?
   
• Use Gen AI to find out which sources are best for your topic.  Check the suggestions against our A-Z to see which of them we subscribe to
  Which academic databases are best for finding articles about #metoo ?

All of these prompts will provide you with information which you can then take back to other search tools and develop.  Don't ever take the information from Gen AI and drop it straight into your work.

A number of AI based search tools are being developed to search and present results in different ways. Some of these are free to use while others require a subscription.  University of Gloucestershire libraries do not specifically endorse any of these tools, but offer them as suggestions for further exploration:

Visualization and mapping

Can be used to create a map or graphic to identify associations between published research through citation mapping and analysis.  They primarily use either Google Scholar or Semantic Scholar as their data source.

Literature research tools

Semantic Scholar is used as a data source by many academic AI literature searching tools. Elicit uses Semantic Scholar as its data source and then uses its own AI to summarise evidence and provides a range of filters and tools to extract types of content (e.g. research methodologies, objectives, limitations). Does not critique.