Research Guides: AI Tools for Research: Home

Overview

Temple Libraries is here to support your use of AI-powered features and tools in research and finding information.

We encourage you to test out the many tools available. Our AI Tools Report Card assessment rubric suggests questions to ask when you are evaluating AI-powered research tools.

The tools recommended on this guide are either free to Temple users or have some significant free usage tier. Other paid-only tools, and free trial tools without meaningful free access, exist but are not listed here.

SmartSearch database and tool comparison
Identify the best places to search based on disciplinary coverage and desired keyword and citation search features. This website is updated regularly with details on major academic databases and tools (including those with AI features) and allows you to build your own custom comparisons.
ITHAKA S+R Generative AI Product Tracker
From the non-profit higher ed think tank ITHAKA S+R, this Generative AI Product Tracker lists generative AI products that are either marketed specifically towards higher ed faculty or students or are actively used by them for teaching, learning, or research. This list is a living document that is updated regularly. See this issue brief for more details.

Best bets with a free access tier

Dimensions Research GPT
A freely available, tailored version of ChatGPT that is connected to Dimensions data and offers answers based on Open Access publications. Results include references to source material.

ProQuest One Academic This link opens in a new window
ProQuest One Academic offers scholarly journals, ebooks, dissertations, news and video content across all disciplines in a unified and seamless user interface. ProQuest's AI-powered Research Assistant appears when a search is initiated from the ProQuest One Academic landing page, or when viewing item record pages in most of the databases within ProQuest Central. See the PQ Central landing page for a list of individual databases included. Read more about the AI Research Assistant on their blog and in this FAQ.

Research Rabbit
Always free, non-profit citation chasing literature mapping and visualization tool. Searches a very large literature corpus covering >90% of academic databases, plus grey literature. Start with uploaded citations, or link to Zotero citation manager. Clear FAQ and help documentation.
Scispace
Multi-functional research assistant tool with a free tier. Includes AI summarizing, information extraction, personalization features, Chrome browser extension, Zotero integration, and other utilities. Literature search draws on a corpus of >150 million items. Writing assistant portion has a freemium model.

Temple AI course policy

Students: Temple policy prohibits the use of generative AI tools in a class, unless the instructor explicitly grants permission. Temple’s Student Code of Conduct defines unauthorized use of generative AI as academic misconduct (see section C.1.B.5. of the Student Code of Conduct). Different instructors may have different rules related to the use of generative AI. Students should read their syllabi carefully to learn what is permitted in a class.

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