An updated list of 60 apps for academic writing and research:

[Please like and repost if you bookmark this list.] Finding Research Gaps

• Research Kick Start
researchkick[.]com/start
Pricing: $9/m, $99/year

Intergrating AI with Academic Databases

• Research Kick Chat
researchkick[.]com/chat
Pricing: $30/m

A list of 60 apps for academic writing and research:

[Repost if you find this list useful.] Finding Research Gaps

• Research Kick Start
researchkick[.]com/start
Pricing: $9/month, $99/year

Intergrating AI with Academic Databases

• Research Kick Chat
researchkick[.]com/chat
Pricing: $30/m

Just got access to ChatGPT's Deep Research function and tried it with a long prompt👇

The prompt asks ChatGPT to collect data from a specific database, analyze it, and write a report. Also mentions a website that shouldn't be used.

Took a while but the results are very impressive🤯 The first time you run a prompt like this, Deep Research asks you for certain clarifications.

I answered its questions and then it got to work.

It looked up 57 sources before it started compiling its answer.

Looking up relevant sources took it around 10 minutes. But compiling took it around an hour. It's a bit slow at the moment but that's expected. It will surely become more efficient.

How to organize and summarize research papers with Zotero and Scholarcy:

You can learn this workflow in 15 minutes. 1. Open your Zotero desktop app and click on "File" and select "New Collection."

Choose a name for your collection. Keep the collection open.

ChatGPT just rolled out updated custom instructions.

This makes it very easy to customize ChatGPT for academic work.

And also to get rid of fake citaitons to papers that don't exist.

Here's how to customize ChatGPT (template included): 1. Open ChatGPT and click on your avatar in the top-right corner.

Select "Customize ChatGPT" from the drop-down menu. Then enable custom instructions for new chats.

You will see four questions.

Trump is threatening Denmark over Greenland.

I lived in the US 🇺🇸 for several years and now I live in Denmark 🇩🇰

Here's a comparison of the two countries (based on my experiences):

1. Free Health 🇺🇸You or your employer have to pay for health insurance. The US is the only country in the developed world without universal healthcare. More than 100 million Americans are in medical debt.

🇩🇰Denmark has universal healthcare. Anyone living in Denmark — citizen or alien — is issued with a yellow-colored health card with the name of their primary care doctor. You can see your doctor at no charge.

If your doctor refers you to a specialist and they have a long waitlist, you can see a private doctor. In that case, the municipality (kommune) will pay for your treatment.

Dental, chiropractic, and prescriptions are also subsidized.

China's Deep Seek is as good as ChatGPT o1.

Plus, it's open source and free to use.

Here are eight ways you can use Deep Seek for academic purposes: 1. Brainstorming Ideas

Ask a couple of "warm up" questions.

Do you know about X or Y. Then ask how X can be used in a specific case.

Since it's connected to the internet, it will also give you relevant links.

ChatGPT just introduced Operator, an AI Agent that can do browse the internet on its own and do tasks for you.

This means literature reviews will soon be outsourced to customized AI Agents supervised by experts. Plus, little to no hallucinations.

Here's a review of Operator👇 1. To use it, go to operator[.]chatgpt[.]com

Operator requires a ChatGPT Pro subscription for $200/m. It's available only in the US at the moment.

I asked Operator how it can help in my academic work. It gave me a short list of things.

NotebookLM lets you create podcasts based on research papers.

Now you can also join these podcasts as a guest.

Here's how to do it: 1. Go to notebooklm[.]google[.]com and click on "Create new."

Upload a paper and NotebookLM will give you its summary.

Ten ethical ways to use ChatGPT for academic purposes that do not involve any plagiarism: 1. Project Management and Scheduling:

Sample Prompt:

Project Title:
Project Type:
Expected Start Date:
Expected Finish Date:

Follow very carefully the steps given below:

1. Carefully consider the scope and type of the project (if it is a journal article, conference paper, dissertation, presentation).

2. Consider carefully the primary and secondary academic fields relevant to the project.

3. Act as if you are a leading expert in the primary and secondary fields relevant to the project. You can proficiently explain the project using adequate technical knowledge and language.

4. Act as if you are an award-winning teacher who can break down extremely complex ideas into easily understandable language.

5. Keeping in mind the scope, type, and the academic field of the project, break it down in tasks that can be scheduled weekly. Do this very carefully. This breakdown should optimize for speed without compromising on authenticity of the project.

6. Breakdown the weekly tasks into subtasks that can be completed within a normal workday of six to eight hours.

7. Every subtask should be accompanied by one to two pieces of clear and actionable advice to carry out the subtask. Remind me constantly to focus on progress and not perfection.

8. While giving the schedule of the project, you must consider the importance of both mental health and the ability to meet deadlines. Strive to have a work-life balance.

ChatGPT still generates fake references to papers that don't even exist.

And Google just launched Gemini Deep Research.

It generates well-researched articles with references to published sources.

This will change the way we do literature reviews.

Here's how to use it: 1. Open your Google Gemini.

Click in the top-left corner and select "1.5 Pro with Deep Research."

Dr. Ally Louks's PhD thesis is set to be one of the most influential theses of 21st century. Puts forward an original argument with remarkable clarity.

Already has 85M+ views on X/Twitter.

Most people criticizing her don't understand her argument at all.

I have a PhD in literary studies, and in this thread, we'll do a close reading of her abstract to understand her argument in simple English.
Before we jump in, we need to keep in mind that a PhD thesis is written for a small group of 3-5 scholars.

These scholars serve as a candidate's supervisor and examiners. They are the only audience of a PhD thesis.

If you think you can't understand a PhD thesis, it's because you are not its intended audience.

Sci-Hub — a "pirate" website with 85M research papers freely available.

Here's how to integrate Sci-Hub with Zotero to get paywalled papers for free. This will take you just 5 min.

Billion-dollar academic publishers would get mad at you. So, do it at your own risk🤷 1. Go to this link: github[.]com/syt2/zotero-scipdf

Scroll down and click on "latest release xpi file."

This will download an "xpi" file to your computer.

☹️Google Scholar is a great tool. But it doesn't show you how papers are connected with each other.

😀Here's how to fast-track your literature review with visual search using Google Scholar's database:

(And export papers to Zotero, Mendeley, or EndNote.)
1. Go to litmaps[.]com and log in to your account.

Sign up if you don't have one already.

Chinese company DeepSeek recently introduced R1-Lite, a large language model.

Some people are saying it's cheaper, faster, and better than ChatGPT.

Here's an overview of DeepSeek R1-Lite and its comparison with ChatGPT: 1. Go to deepseek[.]com and click on "Start Now."

Then sign up for a free account.

Finding relevant papers for literature review takes a lot of time.

So, MIT researchers built Undermind, an AI-powered search engine.

It can generate well-researched overviews on any topic and is 10-50 times better than Google Scholar.

Here's how to use it: 1. Go to undermind[.]ai and sign up for a free account.

Nature recently asked me if AI could conduct a literature review.

I wrote 1,000-word piece to think through it.

The article that came out yesterday contains a few quotes.

Thought I'd share my detailed answers here:

Can current AI tools produce an accurate literature review? I am not sure if the current generation of AI tools can produce accurate reviews of scientific literature autonomously without any supervision by a qualified scientist.

That said, AI tools can certainly make your review and writing processes efficient.

Let’s say, you are working on a literature review and you come across a certain article. You want to find out studies supporting and refuting the claims of that particular article.

You can do it manually, which will take a lot of time.

Google has launched "Learn About" — an AI tool designed specially for students and teachers.

You can use it to create interactive articles and guides on any topic.

Here's how to use it: 1. Go to learning•google•com/experiments/learn-about

(If you are outside the US, you will need to use a VPN.)

Type in your topic and it will give you:

• Introduction to the topic
• Relevant terms
• Topic's significance
• Suggested topics (on the left)

Don't ask ChatGPT for any references or citations. It generates fake references to papers that don't even exist.

Instead, use Scite — an AI-powered app designed for researchers.

It answers your questions with references to real, published papers.

Here's how to use it: 1. Go to scite[.]ai and sign up for an account.

Scite gives you a 7-day free trial.

Limitation of Google Scholar: You can only look up articles with keywords. It doesn't work if you paste a sentence or a paragraph.

Sourcely is an AI-powered app that lets you look up papers using whole paragraphs.

Here's how to use it: 1. Go to sourcely[.]net and click on "Find Sources Now."

Log in to your account or sign up if you don't have one already.

ChatGPT generates fake references to papers that don't exist.

So, researchers at Stanford built Storm.

It's an AI-powered app that generates well-researched articles with references to published sources.

Here's how to use it: 1. Go to storm[.]genie[.]stanford[.]edu and click on "Get Started."

Create a account and log in.