Why you need this
Research is time-intensive. Literature reviews, source evaluation, summarization, synthesis—a comprehensive research project can take weeks of reading, note-taking, and analysis before you even start writing. And the volume of published research keeps growing exponentially, making it impossible to stay current manually.
The problem: Researchers spend 60-70% of their time on mechanical tasks—finding sources, reading abstracts, extracting key findings, tracking citations, organizing notes. This leaves limited time for the high-value work: critical analysis, insight generation, and original thinking.
This guide solves that. It provides systematic workflows and AI prompts that accelerate research tasks while maintaining rigor and accuracy, helping you process information faster without sacrificing quality.
Perfect for:
- Graduate students conducting literature reviews and thesis research
- Academics staying current with research in their field
- Market researchers synthesizing industry trends and competitive intelligence
- Business analysts gathering data for strategic recommendations
What's inside
Literature Review Workflow
Source Discovery Prompts:
- Generates comprehensive search queries for academic databases
- Identifies seminal papers and recent developments in a topic
- Suggests related fields and interdisciplinary connections
- Recommends Boolean search strategies to narrow results effectively
Abstract Analysis Template:
- Extracts research questions, methodology, key findings, and limitations
- Compares findings across multiple papers
- Identifies consensus views vs. contested areas
- Flags methodological concerns and potential biases
Citation Mapping:
- Traces influence networks (who cites whom)
- Identifies foundational papers frequently referenced
- Spots emerging research directions from recent citations
- Suggests gaps in your citation coverage
Reading & Synthesis Tools
Paper Summarization Prompts:
- Creates tiered summaries (one sentence, one paragraph, detailed)
- Highlights methodology strengths and weaknesses
- Extracts data, statistics, and quotable findings
- Identifies implications for your research question
Comparative Analysis Framework:
- Builds comparison matrices across multiple sources
- Identifies agreements, contradictions, and nuances
- Synthesizes findings into coherent themes
- Suggests original research questions from gaps
Note Organization System:
- Tags and categorizes findings by theme, methodology, or date
- Links related concepts across different papers
- Creates searchable knowledge base from your reading
- Generates bibliography entries in multiple formats (APA, MLA, Chicago)
Critical Evaluation Checklists
Methodology Assessment:
- Sample size and selection bias evaluation
- Control variables and confounding factors
- Statistical significance and effect size interpretation
- Reproducibility and transparency of methods
Source Credibility:
- Journal impact factor and peer review process
- Author credentials and institutional affiliations
- Funding sources and potential conflicts of interest
- Publication date relevance (is it still current?)
Research Writing Support
Argument Structure Templates:
- Organizes your synthesis into logical flow
- Identifies supporting evidence for each claim
- Suggests counterarguments and responses
- Creates topic sentences for each section
Gap Analysis Prompts:
- Identifies what's been studied thoroughly vs. what hasn't
- Spots methodological approaches that haven't been tried
- Finds populations or contexts that need more research
- Generates research questions from identified gaps
How to use it
- Literature reviews — Process 50+ papers systematically, creating comprehensive synthesis in half the time
- Grant proposals — Quickly demonstrate thorough knowledge of existing research and justify your contribution
- Market research — Synthesize industry reports, competitive analysis, and trend data into actionable insights
- Policy analysis — Review evidence from multiple disciplines to inform recommendations
Example workflow
Research Task: Literature review on AI adoption barriers in healthcare
Using the guide:
- Discovery phase: AI generates search queries → finds 80 relevant papers
- First pass: AI summarizes all abstracts → you identify 25 high-priority papers
- Deep reading: For each paper, AI extracts methodology, findings, limitations → you focus on critical analysis
- Synthesis: AI creates comparison matrix → you identify three major themes (cost concerns, clinician resistance, data privacy)
- Gap identification: AI spots that few studies examine small/rural hospitals → you have a research direction
Time saved: Literature review completed in 3 days instead of 3 weeks. More importantly, AI handles mechanical tasks so you spend time on thinking, not copying quotes.
Want to go deeper?
This guide covers research fundamentals. For comprehensive guidance on AI research tools:
- Guide: AI at Work Basics — Best practices for AI tools in professional settings
- Guide: Prompting 101 — Get better results from AI research assistants
- Guide: AI Safety Basics — Verify AI-generated information before use
- Glossary: Prompt — Understanding how to communicate with AI effectively
License & Attribution
This resource is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC-BY). You're free to:
- Share with your research group or academic department
- Customize for your research methodology
- Integrate into graduate student training programs
Just include this attribution:
"AI Research Assistant Guide" by Field Guide to AI (fieldguidetoai.com) is licensed under CC BY 4.0
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