What is the Research Assistant?

The Ebook Central Research Assistant is an AI tool designed to support research in the following ways:

- provides a quick and easy way to assess the relevance of ebooks and chapters,

- fosters a deeper engagement with resources; and

- strengthens research skills by generating easy-to-understand descriptions and contextual explanations.

Where can I find the Ebook Central Research Assistant?

The Ebook Central Research Assistant displays when opening some ebooks in the Ebook Central database. You can locate some further information via the FAQ: How do I use the Ebook Central Research Assistant.

What types of features are included?

Ebook Central Research Assistant provides:

• Insights on Individual ebook chapters (not entire ebooks) with subject headings and the options to generate:

   

  • Key Takeaways: The main ideas from the selected chapter; and
  • Concepts: Generated from within the selected chapter, providing additional search functionality to explore similar content within Ebook Central.

• Accessibility Features  

The Ebook Central Research Assistant is compliant with WCAG 2.2 guidelines (levels A and AA) and can be used with:

• A screen reader
• Keyboard-only navigation; and
• Devices of various sizes and zoom levels.

Do all ebooks in Ebook Central have the Research Assistant enabled?

No. The Research Assistant is only available on certain ebooks within the Ebook Central database. Publishers and authors can opt out of this feature and as a result, the Research Assistant may not appear on some books.

How does the Ebook Central Research Assistant reduce bias and hallucinations?

Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) technology is used to ensure the responses are generated from the book chapters themselves, reducing hallucinations and bias. It is recommended, as with any AI, that facts are verified. Use the thumbs up and thumbs down option to provide feedback on the response generated.

How is privacy protected?

Visit Clarivate's Academia Policy for information on how the Ebook Central Platform protects your privacy.