The resources described in the table represent an incomplete list of tools specifically geared toward exploring and synthesizing research. As generative AI becomes more integrated into online search tools, even the early research and topic development stages could incorporate AI. If you have any questions about using these tools for your research, please email us at peabodyreference@vanderbilt.edu
| NAME | WHAT IT DOES | UNDERLYING DATA | IS IT FREE? | MORE INFORMATION |
| Amplify | Vanderbilt’s new private ChatGPT platform. It is a writing tool, idea generator, and code generator. |
It is locally hosted, so data can be uploaded without the purported risk of becoming public. Use caution.
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Free for VU faculty and staff. Requires VU credentials. | Use the Claude, ChatGPT, and Mistral LLMs through this interface. |
| ChatGPT | While the AI chatbot ChatGPT is typically considered a writing tool, it can also be used in the initial idea development phase of research to help find further sources. (Remember to always look up sources to verify their credibility.) | The paid versions of ChatGPT are currently connected to the Internet through Bing. The free version was trained on data last updated in September 2021, but that might change. | There is a free version available. | OpenAI Help Center - ChatGPT |
| Connected Papers | Like Research Rabbit, Connected Papers focuses on the relationships between research papers to find similar research. You can also use Connected Papers to overview an academic field visually. | Semantic Scholar Database | Free (5 graphs/month); paid version allows unlimited graphing. | Connected Papers - About |
| Consensus | Like Elicit, Consensus uses LLMs to help researchers find and synthesize answers to research questions, focusing on each paper's scholarly authors' findings and claims. | Semantic Scholar Database | Free (20 searches/month); Paid version allows unlimited searching. | Consensus FAQs |
| Elicit | Using large language models (LLMs), Elicit finds papers relevant to your topic by searching through papers and citations and extracting and synthesizing key information. | Semantic Scholar Database | Free trial available. Pay for credits after the trial expires. | Elicit FAQs |
| Gemini | Google designed Gemini (formerly Bard), an AI-powered chatbot that responds to natural language queries with relevant information. As with ChatGPT, researchers can use Gemini to aid in topic development and initial source discovery. | Gemini can currently connect to the Internet. | Gemini is currently free to use. A personal Google account is required and does not work with VU accounts. | Gemini FAQ |
| Perplexity | Using LLMs, Perplexity is a search engine that provides AI-generated answers (much like ChatGPT), including citations linked above the summaries. | Internal search index | Free with paid subscriptions available. | Perplexity FAQs |
| Research Rabbit | Research Rabbit is a citation-based mapping tool that focuses on the relationships between research works. It uses visualizations to help researchers find similar papers to those of other researchers. | Research Rabbit uses multiple databases but does not name them (more information can be found on the FAQ page). | Research Rabbit is currently free. | Research Rabbit FAQs |
| Scholarcy | Scholarcy summarizes key points and claims of articles into 'summary cards' that researchers can read, share, and annotate when compiling research on a given topic. | Scholarcy only uses research papers uploaded or linked by the researchers themselves. It helps you read and summarize your research but is not a search engine. | Free (short articles only); Paid version allows articles of any length. | Scholarcy FAQs |
| scite | scite has a suite of products that help researchers develop their topics, find papers, and search citations in context (describing whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence) | Many different sources (an incomplete list can be found on this page). | No. (Pricing information) | scite FAQs; how scite works. |
| Semantic Scholar | Semantic Scholar (which supplies underlying data for many of the other tools on this list) provides summaries (TLDRs) of papers' main objectives and results. | Semantic Scholar Database | Semantic Scholar is currently free. | Semantic Scholar FAQs |
