How to Use Elicit AI, Literature Reviews + More: Beginner Tutorial and Research Tips!
People & Blogs
Introduction
Elicit AI is a powerful research assistant designed to streamline literature reviews and enhance your research capabilities. In this article, we'll explore how to utilize Elicit AI effectively, navigating its features and maximizing its potential for your research needs.
Getting Started with Elicit AI
Upon logging into Elicit AI, you'll find a user-friendly interface centered on the concept of notebooks. Both free and pro versions are available, with the pro version offering more credits for extensive use. To begin utilizing the platform, create a new notebook by clicking on the "New Notebook" option and providing a title that represents your research focus. Notebooks are saved in the sidebar for easy access, helping to organize your thoughts and references around specific topics.
Interacting with the Data
Elicit AI allows you to interact with research papers in three primary ways:
Find Papers: Use Elicit as a search engine to address specific research questions. It's crucial to formulate clear and unambiguous questions. For example, rather than simply searching "hair oil," ask, "What is the best way to maintain a healthy scalp?"
Extract Data from PDFs: If you already have PDF documents, you can upload them and extract relevant data directly using the AI's features.
List of Concepts: This feature allows you to explore broad concepts within your research area, perfect for getting a comprehensive view of the topic.
Conducting an Effective Search
When searching for papers, clarity is key. A well-defined research question generates better results. After you input your question, Elicit AI will create a notebook with your inquiry and start finding relevant research papers. You'll receive a summary of the top papers, which includes references that link to the original papers.
The results are displayed in a table format, making it easy to navigate through the papers, abstracts, and AI-generated summaries. You can also apply various filters to refine your search based on publication year, study type, and keywords.
Custom Columns and Analysis
Elicit allows you to add custom columns to collect and analyze specific data from the research papers. For instance, you might want to know if studies contained human trials. It’s recommended to provide descriptions for these columns to guide the AI's extraction process effectively.
Furthermore, there is a high-accuracy mode that minimizes errors in AI responses, making it a valuable feature for users with the pro version.
Chat with Papers
Once you have selected relevant papers, you can engage in a more interactive analysis by chatting with the papers. This consists of asking questions about the content of the papers, which allows for a deep exploration of the literature. You can reference either abstracts or full texts, depending on your needs.
Exploring Research Concepts
The "List of Concepts" feature is useful for gaining insights into a research field, especially at the beginning of a project. By inputting a broad term, like “treatment for hair loss,” Elicit AI will compile unique concepts gathered from various sources, helping you build a strong foundation for your research.
Final Thoughts
Elicit AI significantly optimizes the research process, allowing you to gather necessary information efficiently and effectively. Whether you’re conducting a literature review, extracting data, or exploring new concepts, Elicit AI has the tools to enhance your research experience.
If you find this guide helpful, consider checking out other resources to dive deeper into advanced AI tools like Julius AI for unlocking research data!
Keywords
Elicit AI, research assistant, literature reviews, data extraction, research concepts, academic papers, AI-generated summaries, research questions.
FAQ
1. What is Elicit AI? Elicit AI is a research assistant designed to simplify literature reviews and assist researchers in finding and analyzing academic papers.
2. Do I need a paid version to access all features? While many features are available in the free version, the pro version offers additional credits and capabilities for more extensive research tasks.
3. How can I structure my research questions in Elicit AI? It’s essential to ask clear, specific, and unambiguous research questions to ensure relevant results. For example, instead of generic phrases, frame them in a question format.
4. Can Elicit AI chat with the research papers? Yes, Elicit AI allows users to interact with selected papers by asking detailed questions and receiving responses based on the paper's contents.
5. How does the "List of Concepts" feature work? This feature helps you explore broad concepts related to your research topic and can reveal unique keywords that can be used for further searches.
