You might have already tried brainstorming with a conversational artificial intelligence (AI). Try using AI in search engines as well, and experiment with different types of questions. However, keep in mind that most well-known conversational AIs, such as Microsoft Copilot and OpenAI ChatGPT, are based on generative language models, so not all the answers you receive will be accurate.
In addition to casual conversation, AI can assist you in finding scientific information. Some databases, such as UEF Primo, Scopus, and Web of Science, include their own AI tools that search within scientific publications. Make use of these tools as part of your information retrieval process to find scholarly articles, research studies, and other academic materials.
Always remember to use AI ethically, securely, and in compliance with copyright regulations! Do not provide confidential or private information to AI. Organisations usually have their own AI guidelines that must be followed.
Try using AI to brainstorm your search topic Clarify and expand your topic and research questions. AI can be especially helpful when analysing a new or unfamiliar subject.
Let AI suggest keywords AI can assist in analysing your topic and generating keywords and search phrases. It can also translate keywords—for example, from Finnish to English.
Example prompt: Can you suggest keywords for this topic: “your topic”?
Ask for synonyms of key concepts AI may sometimes struggle to separate keywords from full sentences or topics, which can lead to inaccurate suggestions. However, it’s worth trying AI for listing synonyms of individual keywords.
Example prompt: What are synonyms for the word “artificial intelligence”?
As your information retrieval and AI skills develop, review AI-generated suggestions carefully, apply them thoughtfully, and test their effectiveness with a critical mindset.
Creating a Search Query with a Conversational AI
You can ask AI to generate more advanced search queries
Example prompt: Can you create a database search query with keywords and Boolean operators for “own topic”?
Refine the suggested search words and queries based on your results and knowledge. Often, the search terms may be too long or imprecise and need adjustment.
Your organization may have access to AI assistants embedded in scientific databases, which retrieve information from scholarly sources. These tools provide answers supported by relevant literature references.
You can try using these AI assistants in the following way:
Enter your search topic into the AI assistant of a scientific database (see above), in either Finnish or English.
The AI will suggest a search query, from which you can extract useful search words and concepts to refine your own topic and search query.
It’s also worth reading the abstracts, keywords and index terms of the articles suggested by the AI assistant. Can you find new ideas for your own search topic? Do the reference lists of the publications contain useful additional sources?
