Subject Guides

Generative Artificial Intelligence

An introduction to generative AI, guidance on using AI tools, and additional resources

Guide Contents

Bloom's Taxonomy

Bloom's Taxonomy is a hierarchy of learning to frame educational goals and outcomes. The infographic below incorporates GenAI into each stage of Bloom's taxonomy. When using GenAI tools, it is important to consider AI capabilities and how they compare to distinctive human and critical thinking skills.

Oregon State Ecampus. (version 2.0 2024) Bloom's Taxonomy Revisited. https://ecampus.oregonstate.edu/faculty/artificial-intelligence-tools/blooms-taxonomy-revisited/ . Retrieved April 21, 2025

Brainstorming or Rewriting

The research process is highly iterative, and generative chatbots provide an open and creative space to explore ideas, learn about topics that are entirely new to you, generate research questions, and discover new directions of interest. When you have a new assignment, and don't know where to begin, asking chatGPT to summarize the current state of research on a topic may be just what you need to begin the brainstorming process.

Good for:

  • Entry-level knowledge on a topic, domain or discipline
  • A conversational and iterative brainstorming session
  • Prompting you to think about a direction you may not have previously considered
  • Creating basic outlines or tables based on text you input

Use Caution for:

  • Highly niche or emerging fields and technologies. The training data for chatGPT is no longer transparently reported, so users don't have key information needed to know if the information you see is up to date. 
  • Asking for the names of prominent researchers in a field. chatGPT has been known to display a gender bias for this type of question, entirely make people up, or list people who are deceased even if you ask for living researchers.

In addition to the more well-known chatbots like chatGPT, Bing, and Google Bard, there are new and specialized research discovery platforms being developed to help brainstorm research questions, specifically. One such tool is Elicit.org.

Brown University Library.(2/5/25) Generative Artificial Intelligence. https://libguides.brown.edu/c.php?g=1338928&p=9868284. Retried: April 21, 2025

Topic/Keyword Generation

Using ChatGPT to generate a research paper topic can be an interactive and structured process. Here’s how to do it step by step:

Step 1: Identify Your General Area of Interest

Start with a broad subject related to your course or personal interests. Example prompts:

  • "I need to write a research paper in environmental science. Can you suggest some broad topics?"
  • "I'm interested in artificial intelligence. What are some research areas I could explore?"

Step 2: Narrow the Focus

Once you have a general direction, refine it by considering a specific aspect, debate, or application. Example prompts:

  • "Can you suggest research topics on AI ethics?"
  • "What are some current issues in renewable energy policy?"

ChatGPT can help by identifying emerging trends, controversies, or underexplored areas within the field.

Step 3: Consider Feasibility & Research Scope

Ask ChatGPT to evaluate your topic for depth and researchability:

  • "Is [Topic X] too broad or too narrow for a 10-page paper?"
  • "Are there enough academic sources available on [Topic X]?"

Step 4: Generate Keywords for Literature Search

Once you have a topic, ask:

  • "What keywords should I use to find scholarly sources on [Topic X]?"

Step 5: Refine with a Research Question or Thesis

Once you've settled on a topic, turn it into a strong research question or thesis:

  • "Can you help me turn [Topic X] into a strong research question?"
  • "Can you suggest a thesis statement for an argumentative paper on [Topic X]?"

How to do Literature Review Using AI

Writing and Editing Your Work

ChatGPT can be a useful tool when it comes to deciding what your topic should be for a research paper.

It’s not good for doing the actual searching because it makes up sources. See I can’t find the citations that ChatGPT gave me. What should I do?

But you can use it to help you:

  • Narrow down your topic ideas.

  • Come up with keywords for searching in library databases.

  • Construct a search strategy for those databases.

  • Recommend possible library databases to use for your topic.

Here’s how.

  1. Sign up for a free account on ChatGPT (if you haven’t already). Or go to https://chat.openai.com and log in to your account.

  2. To prompt ChatGPT effectively, use this example:

Act as an expert academic librarian. I’m writing a research paper for [course] and I need help coming up with a topic. I’m interested in topics related to [subject]. Please give me a list of 10 topic ideas related to that.

Here’s an example:
Act as an expert academic librarian. I’m writing a research paper for Sociology and I need help coming up with a topic. I’m interested in topics related to climate change. Please give me a list of 10 topic ideas related to that.

  1. Now go to ChatGPT and paste in your prompt.

  2. Look over the list it gives you and find one topic that you’re interested in. If there isn’t one, ask ChatGPT to give you more topics. Keep going until you find a topic you like.

  3. Now tell ChatGPT which of those topics you want to use. 

Example: I like the topic, Climate Change Denial and its Societal Influence.

Then it will give you some sub-topics or research questions. If it doesn’t, ask for some.

  1. Choose your specific research question from the list. If you don’t like any of them, ask for more. Keep going until you find one you want to use.

  2. Now you can tell ChatGPT which research question you’re going to use. Ask it for some keywords to use when searching library databases.

    Example: My research question is going to be this: Investigate the role of social media and online communities in propagating climate change denial and misinformation. Please list some keywords I can use when searching library databases.

  3. You can use the keywords and phrases it gives you in Google Scholar, Google, and in library databases.

  4. For more specific research, you can ask ChatGPT to give you some Boolean search strings to use in library databases.

Example: Please construct a few Boolean search strings I can use when researching this topic in library databases.

NOTE: ChatGPT will save all of this information for you, so next time you visit, you’ll see this conversation in your chat history on the left side.

  1. Now that you have some search strings, keywords, and phrases, you can ask ChatGTP for advice on which library databases will work best for your topic.
    Example:
    Thank you! Now I'd like you to recommend 2 or 3 library databases that would be good to search for this topic.

  2. Go to our list of library databases and check to see if our library has the databases it recommends.

If we don’t have some of them, ask ChatGPT for more databases that would work for your topic. And Ask Us for help for more specific advice on the best databases for your topic.
 

Now you can use your search strings in those databases. If you need help with search strategies, see our tutorial: How Do I Create a Search Strategy?

University of Arizona Libraries (April 16, 2025) Student Guide to Chat GPT. https://libguides.library.arizona.edu/students-chatgpt/. Retrieved: April 21, 2025

AI tools can help you improve your text at the sentence level. While sometimes simplistic, AI-generated text is generally free of grammatical errors. You can insert text you have written into an AI tool and ask it to check for grammatical errors or offer sentence level improvements. If this draft will be turned into your instructor, be sure to check your instructor’s policies on using AI for coursework.

As an extension of editing and revising, you may be curious about what AI can tell you about your own writing. For example, after asking AI tools to fix grammatical and punctuation errors in your text, compare your original and the AI edited version side-by-side. What do you notice about the changes that were made? Can you identify patterns in these changes? Do you agree with the changes that were made? Did AI make your writing more clear? Did it remove your unique voice? Writing is always a series of choices you make. Just because AI suggests a change, doesn’t mean you need to make it, but understanding why it was suggested may help you take a different perspective on your writing.

  • Polishing your writing. If your writing seems awkward, you can try using generative AI tools to suggest different ways of phrasing the passage that's causing problems. Similarly, it can help people who are writing in a language they are not entirely familiar or comfortable with.
  • Summarizing or paraphrasing. Generative AI can be used effectively as a tool for summarizing or paraphrasing other people's work or creating abstracts of your own papers.

How to Evaluate

It can be difficult to know how if the content AI produces is from a valid source that can be used for research. The Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) provides these steps on evaluating sources found from AI tools.

"1. Are the citations actually real? Does such a journal/website/book exist? State which are not real, and which are real. State whether any website used in a real citation where you found it is credible and why.

2. State where those specific real citations are available full text (check our library databases too). List the names of the places you found them (for example, name of such-and-such website, name of database, etc...).

3. Check the credentials of the lead author by doing a google search of their name in quotes. Are they trained in the field of the topic? State their credentials and/or academic degrees.

4. Now run their name (in quote marks) in a library database (like ProQuest or EBSCOhost), use a drop down to search for AUTHOR - do they appear? IF YES, what are their other article/s (provide the permalink URLs) about?

5. Now run a search for your same chosen topic in a library database. What are the top four most relevant (provide the four permalink URLs)? Note if they match any of the original four generated.

References

Brown University Library.(2/5/25) Generative Artificial Intelligence. https://libguides.brown.edu/c.php?g=1338928&p=9868284. Retried: April 21, 2025

 

University of Arizona Libraries (April 16, 2025) Student Guide to Chat GPT. https://libguides.library.arizona.edu/students-chatgpt/. Retrieved: April 21, 2025

  • Last Updated: Sep 29, 2025 2:42 PM
  • URL: https://libraryguides.binghamton.edu/ai
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