There are a wide variety of AI tools available to use, covering a wide range of functions, and the number is growing all the time. This page is therefore not intended to be an exhaustive list of AI research tools, but an overview of the most common / popular ones and ones you may be recommended.
As always please remember AI use is determined by your course, so check with your tutor and assignment brief before utilising any of these. The University is utilising a traffic light system for assignments, which will indicate to you the level of acceptable AI use, if any.
Please also be aware of issues surrounding data protection and AI. There are ongoing concerns over data protection when using AI tools. This is because there is no way of knowing what information may be stored and used in training the AI tool.
Avoid using your University email address to register for non-work-related websites and systems. Where this is unavoidable never use your University password. If an external website is compromised your credentials may be stolen and used to gain access to University systems.
Do not share any confidential or private information about yourself or others. Do check if there is an option opt out of data collection.
What is a Research Tool?
AI has many applications when it comes to research, from helping to keep your work organised, to identifying themes in your work, to helping with referencing. On this page we will list a selection of the most popular ones, organised by application.
This is not intended to be an exhaustive list as there are a huge amount of tools available, with new ones being added all the time. As with any AI tool please exercise caution when using any of these, as they all come with potential disadvantages, such as incorrect or biased information.
Research Rabbit - Research Rabbit is a "citation based literature mapping tool". By adding one or more 'seed' papers to your account, the tool will find more papers for you based on the papers and topics you have added, making it a useful tool for literature searching and reviewing.
Getting started with Research Rabbit.
Rayyan - This is an AI powered tool for systematic reviews. This is most useful for researchers and not for students who may be carrying out a literature review in a systematic style. Rayyan allows users to organise, manage and collaborate on systematic reviews.
Scholarcy - Scholarcy is an AI summarising tool. It can read through books, research papers, journal articles PDF's and Word documents and break them down into bite sized sections (or 'flashcards'), to help you quickly assess the information within, such as themes, findings limitations and data.
Getting started with Scholarcy.
Audemic - This tool creates short written summaries or audio files from academic articles. It aims to breakdown research articles to make them more accessible to a wider audience.
Microsoft Designer - Image Creator ca be found within Microsoft Designer. It allows the user to input ideas and it will transform them into images, posters etc. It is beneficial to be precise and include details regarding colours, style etc.
DALL·E 3 - Powered by Open Ai and currently accessible through ChatGPT Plus. This tool generates images through your free text.
Canva - The Magic Design feature within Canva creates templates for presentations, social media posts and posters based on the images and text uploaded. Canva also provides an AI image generator which allows users to input text to create images.
