ChatGPT is often thought of as a tool that will replace human labor in tasks such as writing papers for students or professionals. But ChatGPT can also be used to support human work, and research is an excellent example.
Whether you’re working on a research paper for school or doing market research for your job, starting the research process and finding the right sources can be challenging and time-consuming.
Also: 5 handy AI tools for school that students, teachers, and parents can also use
ChatGPT and other AI chatbots help by reducing the time spent searching for sources, allowing you to jump faster into the actual reading and research part of your work.
Choose the right chatbot
Before we begin, it is important to understand the limitations of using ChatGPT. Because ChatGPT is not connected to the internet, it cannot give you access to information or resources after 2021, nor can it give you a direct link to the source of the information.
also: The best AI chatbots: ChatGPT and other great alternatives
Being able to ask a chatbot to give you links for the topic you want is invaluable. If you want to do that, I recommend using an internet-connected chatbot, such as Bing Chat, Claude, ChatGPT Plus, or Perplexity.
This guide on how to use ChatGPT is an example of how prompts can be used, but the principles are the same for any chatbot you choose.
When you are assigned research papers, the general part of the topic is usually assigned, but you need to identify the exact topic that you want to choose for your paper or research. ChatGPT helps the brainstorming process by suggesting ideas or even tweaking your own.
Also: How ChatGPT (and other AI chatbots) can help you write an essay
For this sample research paper, I will use the general topic of “Monumental technological inventions that caused significant changes in history.” If I don’t have a specific idea to write about, I’ll tell ChatGPT the general theme of the task with as much detail as possible and ask it for some suggestions.
My prompt: I have to write a research paper on “Monumental technological inventions that caused significant changes in history.” It should be ten pages long and sourced from five different primary sources. Can you help me think of a specific topic?
As seen in the screenshot (below), ChatGPT has produced 10 practical topics, including “The Printing Press and the Spread of Knowledge”, “The Internet and the Digital Age”, “The Telegraph and the Communication Revolution” , and so on.
Also: How to use the new Bing (and how it differs from ChatGPT)
You can follow up on ChatGPT to ask for more information. You can even tweak these topics to an angle you prefer, and continue the feedback loop until you have a topic you’ve settled on.
Once you’ve chosen a topic, you can ask ChatGPT to create an outline, including as much detail for your assignment as possible. For this example, I used the first topic suggested by ChatGPT in the previous step.
My prompt: Can you give me an outline for a research paper that is ten pages long and should use five primary sources on this topic, “The Printing Press and the Spread of Knowledge”?
ChatGPT has created a 13-point outline that carefully describes the areas I should touch on my paper, as seen in the photo (above). You can use this outline to build your paper and use the points to find sources, using ChatGPT as described below.
Now that you have a topic and outline established, you can ask ChatGPT about the topic of your project and ask it to provide sources for you.
My prompt: Can you give me sources for a ten page long paper on this subject, “The Printing Press and the Diffusion of Knowledge”?
ChatGPT has released a list of five primary and five secondary sources that you can include in your paper. Remember, since ChatGPT can’t provide you with internet links, you’ll need to find specific resources yourself, whether that’s by Googling or visiting your school library.
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When I asked Bing Chat the same question, it provided sources with clickable links you could use to more easily access the material you needed. For that reason, I will use Bing Chat for this step.
Instead of describing the entire topic, you can also use a chatbot to find sources for a specific aspect of your paper.
Also: How (and why) to subscribe to ChatGPT Plus
For example, I asked ChatGPT for sources for a specific bullet in the outline of the paper it created above.
My prompt: Can you give me sources for the social and intellectual climate when the printing press was created?
As in the first example, ChatGPT generated five primary and five secondary resources for the topic.
Using this feature for small chunks of your essay is a good alternative because it gives you more choices of sources and provides tailored insight that you can use to improve your piece.
I use this prompt in my workflow because sometimes I remember something specific happening, but can’t pinpoint what it was or when it happened.
This tool can also be used when you need to find a specific example to support your topic.
Also: How to use ChatGPT to write an essay
In both cases, you can ask ChatGPT to help you identify a specific event or time period, and include those details in your article.
In our essay example, if I wanted to include a rebuttal and describe a time when technology implementation had negative effects, but I couldn’t think of an incident myself, I could ask ChatGPT to help me identify one.
My prompt: What was a time in history when the implementation of technology backfired on society and had a negative impact?
Within seconds, ChatGPT generated 10 examples of incidents that I could include in the research as a rebuttal.
Creating a works citation page, while valuable and necessary for integrity, is a pain. Now, you can ask ChatGPT to generate citations for you by simply dropping in the link or the title of the work, and asking it to generate a citation in the style of your paper.
Also: How to make ChatGPT provide sources and citations
I asked ChatGPT to create a citation for this article for ZDNET. As seen in the photo (above), the tool asked me to include the access date and the style for the citation, and then quickly generated a complete citation for the piece.
ChatGPT enabled:
Nice, here’s the MLA citation for the web link “How to Use ChatGPT to Write an Essay” from ZDNET, accessed September 15:
“How to Use ChatGPT to Write an Essay.” ZDNET, https://www.zdnet.com/article/how-to-use-chatgpt-to-write-an-essay/. Accessed 15 Sept. 2023.
If you use something other than a website as a source, such as a book or textbook, you can still ask ChatGPT to provide a citation. The only difference is that you have to input some information manually.
