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Harnessing GenAI in Your Academic Journey

Literature review is an indispensable step in academic research. To accelerate this process, AI OneSearch Lite and Scite are two of the available GenAI tools for PolyU students:

Features of AI OneSearch Lite

  • Quick answers from credible sources
  • AI-enhanced search query
  • New directions for research
  • Multilingual support
  • Research history

Learn more about the details of the above key features and how AI OneSearch Lite complements OneSearch!

Features of Scite

Getting Started with Scite Assistant

Scite Assistant allows you to ask questions in natural language and refine your search with customizable settings. Here's how to get started:

  1. Ask your question in natural language and click the search button.
  2. Refine your question, and adjust the response settings as below if necessary, to get a better response.
  3. Refresh your results to re-run the search.

⚠️Importance of critical thinking when using Scite Assistant⚠️

Scite Assistant's responses are not guaranteed to be 100% accurate. Never copy Scite Assistant's responses and submit as your own work. You are accountable for your work and should use these responses responsibly.

Strengths Weakness

Efficiency

Quickly synthesizes information from a vast amount of search results

Example:
What is procrastination? Is this common among students?

Incomplete Information

  • Does not cover all journals, specialized information and topics
  • Potentially Skewed response as it is based on the information available in their database

(Tip: Check whether the important journals in your field are indexed and what is covered in Scite before using)

Complex Queries 

  • Enables users to ask questions that may be challenging to phrase as keywords in traditional search engines
  • Suggests initial keywords for search strategies from simpler wordings

Example:

What are the unexplored areas in the study of student procrastination?
Any emerging trends have not been extensively covered?

Citation Accuracy

Although citations are included, they do not always accurately support the claims made.

Here is an example of a misleading indirect citation.

 

Personalized UX

Tailors information to your specific needs

Example:

What are the most effective strategies for undergraduates to combat procrastination? Provide a summary of the top 5 approaches and rank according to their effectiveness.

  
To ensure the accuracy and validity of the information, always read the original sources cited to verify the claims. Then, decide whether to use the original source to support your claim. If you choose to use it, make sure to cite it properly. 
A list of references is provided beside the response. You may also access the full-text via the library's collection from the in-text citations or references.


Customize your Experience

To optimize the outputs of Scite Assistant, read Scite's free e-book, AI Prompt Handbook For Scite Assistant: Optimize AI Outputs & Accelerate Your Research, to understand how it works and compare prompts used at Scite Assistant.

Additionally, Scite Assistant also offers features to enhance your experience. Find out how:

  1. Click the button on the left-hand side of the panel.
  2. Adjust the setting to expand or narrow down the reference, then click Apply.

  1. Click Export References on the left-hand side of the panel.
  2. Select the file format and click Export.

(Refer to Reference Management Tools for Academic Writing for a hands-on guide on EndNote.)

What are citation statements?

A citation statement refers to the sentence(s) surrounding a citation within a publication. It provides context for the citation with the search term and illustrates how other authors are citing another source. 

Why do I need to search for citation statements? How can they help with my research?

Citation statement search not only helps you retrieve relevant works, but also directly shows the relevant citation statements within those works. This can help speed up:

  • Selection of works for in-depth reading: Assess relevance by viewing search terms in context and the paper sections they appear in.
  • Discovery of potential works to cite: Identify useful sources by seeing what others cite for similar claims.
  • Tracking research development: Observe how ideas and findings are built upon, supported, or challenged over time.

Further Reading: How does Citation Statement Search work?

What are these on the search result page?

For each publication on the search result list, there are indices that categorize citation statements into three types: (1) supporting, (2) mentioning, and (3) contrasting, to help researchers quickly grasp how the work has been cited by the others and hence the impact of the work. The  number of publications citing the work is also shown. 

For example, for the following work, there are 2,219 publications citing this work, 


 

From the search result list, each of the retrieved citation statements is also categorized, with a confidence percentage reflecting how certain Scite is about its classification. 


Further Reading: How are citations classified?

After clicking into a publication from the search results, you will arrive its report page.

The report page helps researchers to quickly evaluate a publication and understand its impact. It shows a paper's citation count, and how it is cited by others, including the citation statement and smart citations. 


Further Reading: How do I use the scite report page?

Other Tools

Here are some lists of popular AI-powered research tools that can also assist you in literature discovery. Please note that these tools are currently not subscribed to by the library, so access may vary.