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Spotted: Reviewing past research is essential for academics, but it can be a slow process, as time is often wasted trying to source appropriate articles or reading content that ends up being irrelevant. This is where Elicit comes in. 

Elicit is an online resource that utilises state-of-the-art AI to streamline academic research, acting as a virtual research assistant. Users type their research questions in plain English into the Elicit search engine and the platform draws from over 125 million articles in its database to create a personalised list of relevant papers, including those involving related keywords. 

Helpful one-sentence abstract summaries allow readers to quickly identify the most relevant resources and findings. To understand an article in more depth, users simply ask specific questions to specific papers, helping them to extrapolate key results and the most relevant information quickly. With the platform, users can also see conclusions from multiple articles synthesised into one easy-to-understand chart, allowing them to keep related findings and themes in one convenient location.

Because the Elicit platform’s responses are all linked to academic papers, users can easily verify the validity of any claims, setting it apart from other AI tools that can hallucinate and generate responses that may sound correct but aren’t based on facts and concrete research. 

Springwise has spotted other tools to make scientific research easier and faster, including one that makes academic writing more accessible and a generative AI chatbot that answers users’ questions on the latest scientific research. 

Written By: Archie Cox