ProQuest platforms now feature AI-generated summaries and recommendations
Subject: Multidisciplinary
The new AI assistant helps you read more efficiently, with a summary of main takeaways and definitions of key terms.
Expand and refine your search with the suggestions provided by the ProQuest search assistant
ProQuest databases, one of the Library's largest sources of scholarly information, have recently introduced features based on generative artificial intelligence. For anyone not yet familiar with them, ProQuest Central and the Ebook Central collection of digital books contain thousands of journal articles, books, reports and theses spanning all areas of knowledge.
An AI assistant in each document
The main new feature is the Research Assistant, an AI assistant that is automatically activated in a side window when you open a document.
Unlike general-purpose AI assistants, this assistant is limited to academic content from the same database, which is carefully vetted and verified by the publishing group
As with all tools based on generative artificial intelligence, we recommend that you always review the output and compare it with the information from the original sources.
What can it help you with?
The AI assistant analyses the text of the document you have open and shows you several options to make it easier to read and to help expand and refine your search:
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Key takeaway
A summary outlining the central ideas in the text, which is useful for deciding if you're interested in reading the entire document in depth.
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Suggested sources
Suggests articles and other documents related to the topic of your search. You can view a summary before deciding whether to open them.
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Indexing terms
Terms that might be of interest to broaden your search. You can select the ones you're interested in and start a new search.
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Findings and conclusions:
A more detailed explanation of the key takeaways from the document, with excerpts from the original text so you see how the response was created.
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Research topics
Suggestions on new topics to explore within the platform. If you click on one, you can do a new search within the platform.
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Important concepts
A list of the terms the tool considers most relevant, with an explanation of each. You can click on it to start new searches.
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Key aspects
A structured abstract that covers the hypothesis, methodology, results and limitations of the study. Again, excerpts from the original text are added so you can check how the response was generated.
Before you start using the tool, it's important that you take into account two aspects:
- The features may vary depending on the platform or the type of document in question (book, news item, etc.). For example, in Ebook Central some of these options are not yet active.
- Availability of the assistant in the document: if the document's author has restricted the use of these tools, the assistant may be disabled.
Which platforms include these AI options?
How can you try them out?
- Log in to the Library search engine with your Campus credentials by clicking on the log in button in the upper right-hand margin.
- You can access these resources in two ways. The first is by going to the Library's search engine, typing "ProQuest" or "Ebook central" in the search box, clicking on the title of the first result and pressing the blue Available online Another option is to go directly to Digital collection by field, search for "ProQuest", choose the one you're interested in and click on the Resource access button.
- When you have logged in, click on the Research AI tab at the top to start asking questions.
Want to know more?
Come and try the new search assistant!