Academic research has traditionally been slow and labour-intensive. AI research tools are changing that. Here is what actually helps.
Consensus
A search engine for scientific evidence. Ask a research question and it finds relevant peer-reviewed papers and generates a consensus summary from the evidence. Free for 20 searches per month.
Elicit
Automates parts of the literature review process. Finds papers related to a research question, extracts key data into a structured table (methods, results, sample size), and identifies research gaps.
Perplexity AI
Perplexity AI is the best general research tool for students. Ask any research question and get an answer with cited sources. The Pro plan gives access to academic paper access via Semantic Scholar.
Research Rabbit
Visualises connections between research papers. Start with one foundational paper and Research Rabbit maps out all related work - seminal papers, recent citations, and key researchers. Free.
Academic Integrity Guidelines
- Use AI for finding and summarising sources, not for writing your arguments
- Always verify AI-suggested citations against the original source
- Disclose AI tool use per your institution guidelines