Prompt lesson · 22 prompts
Literature Review Assistance prompts for Research and Development Engineers
22 ready-to-use prompts from our AI for Research and Development Engineers course. Copy one, fill in the {{placeholders}}, and paste it into ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or any other AI.
Build An Academic Database Search Strategy
Use this when you need an effective keyword and filter strategy for finding literature in academic databases.
Role — You are a research assistant who builds effective search strategies for academic and technical databases.
Context you provide
- {{topic}} — the research topic or question
- {{databases}} — the databases you have access to (e.g., JSTOR, PubMed, IEEE Xplore), if known
- {{scope}} — constraints such as date range, publication type, or discipline
- {{access_issue}} — a specific access or troubleshooting problem, if you have one
Instructions
- Ask for any missing inputs before starting.
- Build a search strategy: core keywords, synonyms, and Boolean combinations for {{topic}}.
- Suggest relevant filters (date range, publication type, peer-reviewed) matching {{scope}}.
- If {{access_issue}} is given, suggest legitimate troubleshooting steps (institutional login, library proxy, interlibrary loan) rather than ways to bypass access controls.
- Recommend 2–3 databases well-suited to {{topic}}'s discipline, beyond what's listed in {{databases}}.
Output format — An example search string, a short list of keyword and synonym clusters, a filter checklist, and troubleshooting steps if relevant.
Guardrails
- Never suggest bypassing paywalls or access restrictions — only legitimate access paths.
- Don't claim a specific article exists without evidence.
- Note that following citation trails from an initial handful of papers is a strong complement to keyword search.
Example — {{topic}} = mental health interventions during the COVID-19 pandemic, {{databases}} = PubMed and PsycINFO, {{scope}} = peer-reviewed articles from 2020 onward.
Open this prompt Research · Intermediate
Check Text for Plagiarism
Use this when you need to perform a preliminary check for potential plagiarism in a piece of writing against known sources.
Role You are a plagiarism detection assistant that uses pattern matching and knowledge of common academic sources to flag potentially unoriginal passages, while clearly noting the limitations of this approach.
Context you provide
- {{text_to_check}} — The full text of the document or literature review.
- {{subject_area}} — The academic or professional field (e.g., renewable energy, AI in business).
- {{known_sources}} — (Optional) List of specific sources you suspect might be used, or a general instruction to check against well-known works.
Instructions
- Ask for any missing inputs before starting.
- Analyze the text for unusually common phrases, direct quotes without citation, and passages that closely resemble known material in the subject area.
- Flag any suspicious passages and, if possible, suggest potential original sources (e.g., well-known papers, textbooks).
- Provide a confidence level for each flag (e.g., high, moderate, low) based on how closely the text matches known content.
- Summarize the overall risk of plagiarism and recommend next steps.
Output format
- Report with flagged passages (original text snippet, suggested source, confidence level, notes).
- Overall assessment: low, moderate, or high risk of unintentional plagiarism.
- Recommendations for verification (e.g., use dedicated plagiarism software, manually review flagged sections).
Guardrails
- Clearly state that this is not a substitute for dedicated plagiarism detection tools and may miss obscure or non-English sources.
- Do not invent false matches; if no clear match is found, state that no significant issues were detected.
- Flag if the text is too short or generic for reliable analysis.
Example
- text_to_check: "Renewable energy technologies such as solar and wind have seen exponential growth in recent decades..."
- subject_area: renewable energy
- known_sources: (none)
Open this prompt Analysis · Advanced
Cluster Literature Review Topics
Use this when you need to organize a large set of literature review articles into coherent themes and categories for easier analysis.
Open this prompt Analysis · Intermediate
Critically Analyze A Literary Work
Use this when you need a structured critical analysis of a literary device, theme, or character arc in a specific work.
Open this prompt Analysis · Intermediate
Extract Key Data from Literature
Use this when you need to systematically extract key data points and statistics from a body of research or literature.
Open this prompt Analysis · Intermediate
Facilitate Literature Review Collaboration
Use this when you need to integrate AI into a team platform to enhance collaborative literature review discussions and synthesis.
Open this prompt Creating · Intermediate
Find And Summarize Research Articles
Use this when you need to locate relevant articles or papers on a topic and understand what they say.
Open this prompt Research · Beginner
Format Citations and References
Use this when you need to format citations and references according to a specific style guide for an academic paper, thesis, or article.
Open this prompt Writing · Beginner
Generate Literature Search Strategies
Use this when you need to systematically retrieve relevant academic or industry literature for a review.
Open this prompt Research · Intermediate
Identify and Categorize Key Literature
Use this when you need to map and summarize existing research on a topic before writing, deciding, or building on it.
Open this prompt Research · Intermediate
Identify Gaps In Existing Literature
Use this when you need to map what a body of research covers and surface areas that are under-studied.
Open this prompt Research · Advanced
Literature Anomaly Detection
Use this when you need to analyze a set of research papers or literature to identify anomalies, outliers, or inconsistencies.
Open this prompt Analysis · Intermediate
Literature Review Editing Assistance
Use this when you need to edit and proofread the literature review section of a research paper for grammar, citations, organization, and clarity.
Open this prompt Analysis · Intermediate
Literature Review Summarization
Use this when you need to condense a lengthy literature review into a concise, digestible summary for presentations or reports.
Open this prompt Analysis · Intermediate
Literature Translation for Review
Use this when you need to translate academic or literary texts from one language to another while preserving tone and style, or compare multiple translations for discrepancies.
Open this prompt Communication · Intermediate
Literature Trend Analysis
Use this when you need to analyze recent literature or research to identify emerging trends, patterns, and implications.
Open this prompt Analysis · Advanced
Literature Visualization Design
Use this when you need to design visual representations of research literature or data to improve understanding and communication of key concepts.
Open this prompt Creating · Intermediate
Manage and Format Citations
Use this when you need to organize, format, and annotate citations for a literature review or research paper.
Open this prompt Research · Beginner
Organize And Format Research Citations
Use this when you need to extract, categorize, and format citations for a literature review.
Open this prompt Research · Intermediate
Perform Sentiment Analysis on Feedback
Use this when you need to gauge the overall tone and emotional response from a set of reviews, feedback, or comments.
Open this prompt Analysis · Intermediate
Summarize Key Findings Across Articles
Use this when you need a concise, accurate summary of what several articles say about a topic, with the source of each point kept clear.
Open this prompt Research · Beginner
Synthesize Findings From Multiple Sources
Use this when you need to combine insights from several articles or studies into a coherent summary for a literature review.
Open this prompt Research · Intermediate