A Guide to AI Tools for Research

The Web of Science AI Research Assistant is a generative AI-powered tool built to work within the Web of Science database. It is designed to help researchers, students and faculty explore topics, start literature reviews and identify key experts in a certain field. 

The AI Research Assistant allows users to ask conversation-style research questions and receive referenced responses from the Web of Science database. It categorizes queries as either:

1. Summary Queries, which provide explanatory answers to conceptual or topic-based questions, generated from abstracts. 
2. Document Search Queries, which retrieve the eight most relevant documents based on semantic similarity and keyword relevance. 

The AI Research Assistant is intended to support the research process by enhancing discovery and improving efficiency.

Accessing the Web of Science Research Assistant is available on and off campus to McMaster University students, faculty and staff with a MacID. 

Click Here to Access the Web of Science AI Research Assistant!

• To access it, follow the link and click on the Research Assistant tab at the top. 
• To take advantage of the full range of Web of Science Research Assistant services (like storing your search history), be sure to sign up for a personal account with your McMaster email.

Before using any AI research tool, be aware of university policies and best practices:

• Follow University Guidelines
  • University AI Policy & Principles
    • Use AI responsibly, safely, and ethically. 
  • Guideline on the Use of Generative AI in Research
    • Critically evaluate and personally verify any outputs used in the research process.
  • The Academic Integrity Policy (Page 10) specifies:
    • It is considered as academic dishonesty to use generative artificial intelligence, entirely or in part, for submitted academic work without the explicit permission of the course instructor.
• Verify Information
  • AI-generated summaries are based on abstracts or limited datasets and may not reflect the full context. Always check original publications.
• Citing AI Use
  • If you use AI to discover resources, follow this Library Guide on Citing Generative AI. 
• Protecting your Data
  • Do not input personal, confidential or unpublished information into AI tools.
• Publishing Considerations
  • If you plan to publish your work, consult publisher policies on AI use to ensure compliance.

1. Document Search & Summarization: retrieve relevant research papers, summarize articles by title, DOI or PubMed ID. 
2. Guided Workflows: built-in tasks for literature reviews, understanding a topic and journal matching for publication.
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3. Analytics & Trends: identify top researchers, institutions or highly cited papers in a field.
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      1. Researcher profiles that show top categories, an AI-generated summary of the author, and a visualization of co-authors.
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      1. An example showcasing what an answer to the most cited papers looks like
4. Multilingual Search: ask questions in many supported languages.
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5. Contextual Expansion: follow-on prompts and related questions help refine or broaden research exploration.
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Capabilities of the Web of Science AI Research Assistant:

• Provides concise, AI-generated summaries grounded in Web of Science sources.
• Returns ranked lists of relevant publications for focused searching.
• Supports multiple disciplines and languages.
• Provides citation data for fact-checking and reference.

Limitations of the Web of Science AI Research Assistant:

• Summaries are generated from the abstracts of a limited set of articles and may not capture full detail.
• Results are limited to Web of Science content and do not include other databases.
• As with all AI tools, outputs should be verified against original sources.
• Users should avoid entering personal, confidential or unpublished information.