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Artificial Intelligence

The intersection of AI, healthcare, cancer research, ethics, and publishing

What is Generative AI?

Generative AI (GenAI) tools use natural language processing, an AI domain, to respond to user queries. As it has gained increased attention, questions guiding its use in academic, scientific, and other settings have come into the spotlight.

The Ethics and Use of Generative AI

There is the promise that generative AI, like ChatGPT, can cut down on the amount of time it takes to complete a review. But you have to know the strengths and limitations of the tool you are using. 

Before using a generative AI tool, explore its parameters, and be skeptical about anything that seems too good to be true or removes all human intervention from a task.

  • Generative AI tools may use the information you provide as training data.
  • How you ask for information matters.
    • Consider using a framework like CLEAR or PROMPT to frame your question.
    • If you ask AI a question with bias, the response will likely also contain that bias.
  • The information provided by GenAI tools, including ChatGPT, is not always accurate. Learn about:
  • AI can be helpful for generating ideas that you vet and adapt. GenAI tools:
    • Can help you develop your research question.
    • Can help you to brainstorm inclusion and exclusion criteria for review projects.
    • May help determine relevant terms to include in a search strategy.
    • Could assist with writing a structured planning document, like a protocol.
  • Consider how a generative AI tool performs literature searching and summarizing.
    • Does the tool pull from actual publications?
      • If so, does it only include open-access publications?
      • Does it look at the entire publication, or only the title/abstract?
      • Is it limited by date?
      • Does it indicate whether a publication has been retracted?
    • What is left out and how might that impact your work?
  • AI cannot build a systematic search strategy.
    • It may recommend subject header terms that do not exist.
  • Generative AI use can lead to AI-plagiarized writing.
  • Using generative AI tools requires human skill and time to review the information you receive.
    • Information will likely not be the same if you ask the same question on a different date.
    • Consider whether the time you spend reviewing the AI response cancels out any time you save by using generative AI.
  • On a larger scale, generative AI tools have significant environmental impacts,

Should I use GenAI in my literature search flowchart

Click "Website" at the bottom of the list to view all results in PubMed.

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Editorial and Grantmaker Guidelines on the Use of Generative AI

A selection of publishing guidelines and policies surrounding the use of GenAI tools. Most ban GenAI from being given co-authorship credit and require disclosure of GenAI use. The NIH bans the use of GenAI when conducting peer reviews.

This is not a comprehensive list; always read the guidelines of your journals of interest. 

In addition, several publishers have entered into agreements with large language models that allow the use of their content to train generative AI tools. View a list of these agreements via Ithaka S&R.

Generative AI Research Tools

This is not a comprehensive list. For more, visit Ithaka S&R's Generative AI Tracker.
MSK provides access to a number of ChatBots, which you can request here. Note that these bots do not search the published literature.

The listing of a tool does not indicate endorsement by the MSK Library or approval for workplace use by MSK. 
Information is subject to change. Check each tool's website for the latest information.
Chart adapted with permission from Macquarie University Library.

Tool Data source(s) Cost Interactive citation network map Abstract/
full-text analysis and summary		 Generates 
answers to research questions		 Allows 
upload of references/PDFs		 Integrates with referencing software
Ai2 ScholarQA 8 million+ open-access papers and 108 million+ abstracts from Semantic Scholar Open Research Corpus, updated weekly Free No Yes Yes No Yes
AskYourPDF User-uploaded PDFs  Limited free version with paid upgrades No Yes Yes Yes No
Connected Papers Semantic Scholar Limited free version with paid upgrades Yes, creates graphs of connected papers. No No No Export RIS files 
Consensus  Semantic Scholar Limited free version with paid upgrades No Yes Yes No Cite as APA, export BibTeX
Docalysis  User-uploaded PDF, TXT, or CSV files Limited free version with paid upgrades No Yes Based on the uploaded documents No No
Elicit Semantic Scholar Limited free version with paid upgrades No Yes Yes Yes Import/export RIS files 
Enago Read Semantic Scholar, CrossRef, PubMed Central, and others Limited free version with paid upgrades No, but can suggest related papers Yes Yes Yes Import/export RIS files 
EvidenceHunt NICE guidelines, PubMed Limited free version with paid upgrades No Yes Yes Yes No
Explainpaper User-uploaded PDFs Limited free version with paid upgrades No Highlight difficult-to-understand text for a clearer explanation  No, but can ask follow-up questions for further information. Yes No
FutureHouse Platform Unclear. "A vast corpus of high-quality open-access papers and specialized scientific tools." Limited free version, can request limit increase No Yes Yes.  Modules for succinct answers, longer reports, determining gaps in the literature, and cheminformatics. No No
Inciteful Semantic Scholar Free.
Does not work on VPN		 Yes No No No Export RIS files 
Jenni Unclear Limited free version with paid upgrades No Yes Yes. Is also designed as a writing tool Yes Has a built-in citation management tool.
Keenious Open Alex Limited free version with paid upgrades No No No. Recommends papers to cite based on uploaded documents Yes Export RIS files 
Litero Google Scholar Limited free version with paid upgrades No Offers outline, summary, and paraphrasing tools. Also has a plagiarism and AI checker. No, but recommends and summarizes sources. It is designed as a writing tool Yes Has a built in citation generator and formatter
Litmaps Semantic Scholar Limited free version with paid upgrades Yes No No No Export RIS files 
Logically (formerly Afforai) Semantic Scholar, Google search Limited free version with paid upgrades No Yes. Also offers writing assistance. Yes Yes. Also offers a built-in citation manager. Yes, also offers its own reference tool.
Moara Semantic Scholar, ArXiv, PubMed, and other sources. Full list not shared. Week-long free trial followed by paid subscription. No Yes No Yes No, but offers AI writing tools.
NotebookLM User-uploaded files, URLs, images, audio, Google Docs, Google Slides, and more Limited free version with paid upgrades No Yes Yes. Can create a "mind map," study guide, briefing paper, audio discussion, and other outputs. Yes No
Open Evidence Clinical documents, New England Journal of Medicine and JAMA  publications, and more. Full list not shared. Free for verified US healthcare providers No No Yes. Generates patient handouts, prior authorization records, clinical calculations, and more. No No
Perplexity Can limit search to academic sources (which include academic press releases) via Semantic Scholar, Wiley, and other open-source tools Limited free version with paid upgrades No Yes Yes Yes No
Potato User-uploaded PDFs, 

Interpro (Proteins), chEBI (Compounds), NIH Medical Subject Headings (Topics), National Cancer Institute Thesaurus (Topics)

 Limited free version with paid upgrades No Yes, also works to create lab protocols and review uploaded papers. Yes, if the user have uploaded PDFs Yes No
PureSuggest CrossRef, OpenCitations Free Yes No. Suggests related publications No No. Can enter DOIs of content of interest Can export as BibTeX file
R Discovery CrossRef, Unpaywall, PubMed, PubMed Central, Open Alex, and publisher partners.  Limited free version with paid upgrades. No Yes, with the paid version. Yes Yes, you can "chat" with uploaded PDFs using the paid version. Can download citations in multiple formats. The paid version integrates with Zotero and Mendeley.
Research Rabbit Semantic Scholar Free Yes, by early work, later work and similar work No No Yes Sync with Zotero and import/export RIS files 
ScholarAI Semantic Scholar, PubMed, arXiv, Google Scholar Limited free version with paid upgrades Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

 
Scholarcy User-uploaded PDFs Limited free version with paid upgrades No, but compares related research Creates structured summaries of research papers. Yes Yes

Yes. Import/export RIS files. 
Integrated with Zotero
Scholar Inbox Semantic Scholar Free No No No. Learns from your input which articles to recommend and include in regular email alerts No

No
Scinapse Unclear. "Verified academic citation networks and peer-reviewed literature." Limited free version with paid upgrades No, but tracks field trends and has a tool to identify potential collaborators. Yes, with paid version Yes, with paid version No

No
SciSpace Semantic Scholar, CrossRef, and various publishers Limited free version with paid upgrades No Yes Yes Yes

Yes, with paid version

 
Scite Semantic Scholar, CrossRef, and various publishers Cost involved Yes, by supporting and contrasting papers Yes Yes Yes

Sync with Zotero and Mendeley

Export RIS files 
Trinka  N/A Available via the MSK Library No Suggests paraphrases

No

Generates writing, grammar, and proofreading recommendations. 

 No

No
Undermind Semantic Scholar Limited free version with paid upgrades No Yes, based on abstracts for the free version and including full text for the paid version

Yes. Also asks follow-up questions to help you hone your inquiry.

 No

Can export references using the paid version
Zendy Publisher partners. Full extent of coverage unclear. Limited free version with paid upgrades No Yes, with a limit of 5/month in the free version

Yes, with a limit of 5/month in the free version

 Yes, with a limit of 5/month in the free version

No. Can download PDFs with the paid version.