Generative AI tool launched on Elsevier's platform to help researchers summarise study findings

New Delhi, Mar 13 (PTI) Elsevier has launched a generative AI tool, allowing researchers to "extract, summarise and compare" insights from research articles and books published on its platform, the academic publisher said in a statement.

The 'ScienceDirect' platform, owned and managed by Elsevier, hosts over 2,900 peer-reviewed journals, including 'The Lancet' and 'Cell'. Access to ScienceDirect is subscription-based, via institutions and organisations involved in performing academic or corporate research.

The generative AI tool 'ScienceDirect AI' has been designed to help researchers, who grapple with a constantly growing, overwhelming volume of information, the Netherlands-based scientific information disseminator said.

Generative AI is trained on huge amounts of data and can create new text, images, music or video content in response to requests framed in the natural language that people use for everyday communication.

ScienceDirect AI can help researchers quickly get accurate, reliable insights, by instantly producing summaries and highlighting key findings of a study, along with providing references, the statement said.

"Users can search and get answers from within the full text of 14 million articles and book chapters, using their own words to describe what they need and why," it said.

Over 30,000 researchers and librarians from 70 universities and R&D-intensive corporations the world over were involved in testing and developing the AI tool.

"Building on the feedback received, the tool can save 50 per cent of time spent on literature research and help to enhance their research," the publisher said.

Judy Verses, Elsevier President of Academic and Government Markets, said the new generative AI tool will "seamlessly integrate into their current ways of working, enabling them to dedicate more time to research and achieve results." "We are committed to working with researchers to continually develop innovative solutions to help them advance science and human progress," Verses said.

The generative AI tool also comes with a conversational feature, which can answer a researcher's questions about the content of a specific article, again supported with references.

Further, equipped with a 'Compare Experiments' feature, ScienceDirect AI can compare experiments across multiple research articles and create a table that breaks them down, and shows the key aspects of each, such as goals, methods and results, Elsevier said.

ScienceDirect AI is built on principles of 'Responsible AI'. The concept involves an ethical use of an AI system and includes ensuring transparency and accountability in its results. PTI KRS RHL