8 Best AI Tools for Research in 2024
AI-powered research tools and AI language models seem to be transforming academia, and scientists now have much more time on their hands to focus on the most interesting tasks—until we are all eventually replaced by robots.
So, what is "AI for research writing"?
AI research assistant tools are applications or systems that leverage artificial intelligence to perform tasks, solve problems, or provide insights for research that would typically require a human being. These tools can analyze large volumes of data, recognize patterns, make decisions, or generate content based on learned information.
If you are still wondering how exactly using an AI for academic research life easier or if you are overwhelmed by the endless output of new apps and bots and simply don't know where to start, we have got you covered. The following is a list of some of the best AI research tools.
1. Wordvice AI - Overall Best AI for Researchers
The Wordvice AI Writing Assistant, powered by the most up-to-date AI technology, is a real-time, all-in-one text editor. This AI research tool aims to improve the overall quality of written work, making it more concise, clear, and impactful. Wordvice AI stands out for its focus on academic and research writing, catering to the writing needs of students, researchers, and professionals who require high-quality editing to meet the standards of academic journals, conferences, or professional publications. These features make it the best AI for researchers.
It features the free AI Proofreader, which fixes spelling, punctuation, and style errors and improves the clarity and flow of your text. It also provides suggestions and explanations to improve your writing. Additionally, Wordvice AI offers a suite of AI revision tools, including the free AI Paraphrasing Tool and AI Text Summarizer, to ensure originality and natural expressions. The AI Translator offers wide-ranging language support, extracting relevant information from non-English sources. The AI Plagiarism Checker allows researchers to analyze text and identify instances of plagiarism. Lastly, an AI Detector is available to check the percentage of writing generated by popular AI tools.
You can try Wordvice AI for free or sign up for Wordvice AI Premium to unlock its more sophisticated features.
Key features
- Grammar and spelling check, style enhancements,and feedback on overall fluency
- Thesaurus-like feature that suggests alternatives to diversify your vocabulary
- Assists with citation format, academic tone, adherence to scholarly writing conventions
- Plagiarism check that scans millions of academic articles to ensure originality in your work
2. ChatGPT - The Original Popular Chatbot
ChatGPT, the OpenAI chatbot released in November 2022, is designed to understand and generate human-like text, enabling engaging conversations and providing informative responses across various topics. But if you use ChatGPT for research, it might require some playing around with prompts and fact-checking since although ChatGPT articles will provide ample information in response to your questions, it may sometimes be inaccurate.
ChatGPT can assist academic researchers in a variety of ways. It can answer specific questions related to your research topic. It can also assist in the initial stages of a literature review by suggesting key papers, authors, or trends (but remember that a comprehensive literature review using trusted scholarly sources needs to follow). The AI chatbot can then help you generate ideas on research questions, hypotheses, or experimental designs, offer simplified explanations for complex concepts, and correct the grammar and word choice of your manuscript.
Key features
- Quick information retrieval
- Literature review support
- Easy-to-use interface to assign many kinds of tasks
- Idea generation and writing assistance
3. Typeset.io - Streamline the Writing and Publishing Process
Typeset.io is a comprehensive platform that provides predefined manuscript templates and automated formatting tools to help you meet the specific guidelines of target journals and publishers quickly and efficiently.
Typeset.io is especially useful for research collaborations because it lets a group of people work on the same document simultaneously. It also features a citation management system and supports various styles, automatically generating in-text citations and bibliographies. Additionally, it includes a plagiarism detection feature and AI research writing AI tools to improve the quality of your manuscript.
Key features
- Predefined formatting templates
- Citation and reference management
- Simultaneous collaboration and version control
- Journal selection and recommendations
- Writing assistance and plagiarism check
4. ChatPDF - Ask Everything about Your PDF
ChatPDF is an AI tool for research designed for interaction with PDFs through chat-based commands, it is an AI that reads pdf and answers questions about the texts.
Using ChatPDF is like having a conversation with a PDF document. You upload an article in PDF format into the research software, and ChatPDF gives you a summary and suggests questions it can answer based on the full article. The AI also creates a semantic index for each paragraph, which makes it one of the best AI tools for academic research.
Key features
- Upload files directly or find a pdf file using URL
- Easy-to-use chat interface
- Detailed responses based on the PDF file
- Export chat history as a txt file
5. Scite.ai - Never Waste Time Searching for Literature Again
Scite.ai is a platform offering citation analysis, plagiarism detection, and literature review tools. The citation finder not only gives you real citations to actually published papers, this AI research tool can provide you with exact numbers of publications that refute or corroborate a specific claim.
If you have used ChatGPT to find citations, you have probably seen it “hallucinate” and make up sources or generate text that is not based on factual information (a problem that even the best AI research tools fight with). You will find Scite.ai a more trustworthy AI academic research tool to fit your academic needs.
Key features
- Search citation statements
- Create dashboard
- Journal and institution metrics
- Interactive visualizations
6. Scholarcy - The AI-powered Article Summarizer
Scholarcy uses AI to summarize research papers, articles, reports, and book chapters for you to help you keep up with the latest research and quickly assess how relevant any document is to your work. It identifies key information and breaks data down into relevant categories.
Scholarcy creates a summary flashcard of any Word or PDF document and includes links to open-access versions of cited sources. It can also be configured to extract figures, tables and images from articles to display information in an easier-to-understand way.
Key features
- Automatic extraction of references
- Chrome and Edge extensions that connect to open-access repositories
- Figure, table, and image extraction
- Searchable database of summary cards
7. ResearchRabbit - Never Miss Another Paper!
ResearchRabbit is another AI tool for researchers that allows you to explore scientific papers quickly and efficiently. The "Spotify for Papers" lets you create collections of papers and regularly recommends new literature to you, based on your personal interests. ResearchRabbit also visualizes networks of papers and co-authorships and lets you share your collections with colleagues to improve collaboration. While it might not be the best AI for research writing, it is certainly one of the best AI research tools overall.
Key features
- Create collections of relevant literature
- Receive recommendations based on your interests
- Visually explore connections between fields, authors, and camps
- Share collections with collaborators
8. Consensus - A Search Engine Tool for Researchers
Consensus is an advanced AI-driven search engine specifically designed to deliver accurate, unbiased information sourced from a wide array of credible academic publications. It efficiently sifts through millions of research papers to uncover relevant data, helping users answer questions, locate references, and cite studies with ease.
Leveraging GPT-4 technology, Consensus generates clear, concise summaries of the most pertinent research papers related to your queries. Additionally, when posed with a yes or no question, the Consensus Meter offers a comprehensive overview of the research consensus, categorizing the response as yes, no, or possibly, depending on the strength of the supporting evidence. This makes it an invaluable tool for researchers seeking precise and well-supported answers.
Key features
- Evidence-based answers and summaries from peer-reviewed sources
- Analyzes and presents research consensus on yes/no questions
- Concise summaries of top research papers using advanced AI technology
- Helps users efficiently locate, cite, and reference credible academic studies
| AI Tools for Researchers | Key Features | |
|---|---|---|
| Wordvice AI | Best AI writing tools for researchers | - A grammar and spelling checker suggests alternatives to diversify your vocabulary- A suite of writing tools, including a plagiarism checker |
| ChatGPT | The original AI chatbot | - Quick information retrieval- Idea generation and writing assistance |
| Typeset.io | A journal formatting tool | - Predefined formatting templates- Simultaneous collaboration and version control |
| ChatPDF | A PDF file summarizer | - Detailed responses based on the PDF file- Upload files or use URLs of PDF files directly |
| Scite.ai | Literature finder | - Journal and institution metrics- Search citation statements |
| Scholarcy | AI-powered Article Summarizer | - Automatic extraction of references, figures, tables and image |
| ResearchRabbit | Scientific paper explorer | - Create collections of relevant literature- Receive recommendations based on your interests |
| Consensus | Academic search engine | - Evidence-based answers and summaries from peer-reviewed sources- Helps users efficiently locate, cite, and reference credible academic studies |
Other Resources For Researchers
Still unsure about the best AI for research writing? Perhaps you just need to learn a bit more about how to use them in your own writing. To improve your own writing skills, have a look at our 5 Free Apps to Improve Your Academic Vocabulary or our Guide to Verb Tenses in Academic Writing. Or learn How to Outline an Essay to make sure you use the information you gathered with the AI research tools we introduced above in an optimal way.
You can also make use of Wordvice's Paper Editing Services after using the AI tools for research writing to apply nuanced revisions only a human editor can achieve.