Video: AI Tools Demystified: Q&A with Dr. Raffaella Gozzelino

There’s a lot of talk about artificial intelligence (AI) and the use of AI tools in research. While many advocate for integrating AI into the research workflow, several scholars continue to remain skeptic. In this video, we break it down and clarify what ethical AI use is all about! 

Dr. Raffaella Gozzelino (Asst. Professor, NOVA University of Lisbon, Portugal) answers questions asked by researchers like you on one of our live webinar trainings. Here are the excerpts. 

Q: I wrote my research lately, submitted and waiting for approval. I used AI, but in a very limited way. To what limit we can use it in terms of writing out our data? In the discussion section, for example, can we rely on AI for data analysis?
A: You can rely on AI, but you always need to check for accuracy. My suggestion is to write the manuscript entirely, and then use AI to improve your writing, to check whether the data has been analyzed in a proper way, or if you missed something. Similarly, you can use AI to expand your discussion in a way that might be more logical in terms of the data analysis so that a reader easily understands the interpretation. 

Q: Kindly suggest the AI tools for some of these improvements you have mentioned.
A: The AI tools that I mostly suggest are those that I presented: Paperpal, R Discovery, Mind the Graph. Because with those tools, you have all what you need to review the literature, to create a comparative analysis, and to provide the illustrations that you might want to insert as a scheme or as a graphical abstract in your presentation of an article or of a poster. I recommend these tools especially for new researchers.
Another reason I suggest the tools and services offered by Editage is that uploading information into a platform that is not properly licensed or that is not properly designed to protect your data can be risky. You want to keep owning your project. So use authentic platforms and websites only. 

Q: How much similarity is acceptable by the journals? 
A: This depends on the journals, but is very low, it is below 20% or even lower. There are journals that accept 10% and those are more restricted to the material and method section. This is because it’s very unlikely that you provide an introduction or a discussion that is the same as presented somewhere else. But do be careful because similarity is one of the first things that the journal checks when you submit a manuscript. The manuscript goes through the different AI platforms to look for plagiarism.  

However, in addition to similarity, check whether you comply with the journal’s guidelines in terms of providing ethical approval or disclosing the important information. You also need to avoid figure manipulation. If by any chance you have these issues or you incurred in these kinds of practices, then the paper does not go to the editor. It comes back to you to fix the things before reaching the editor. 

Q: Kindly suggest AI tools that are free to use.
A: Well, you can easily find those on a Google search. But again, I’m recommending you not to upload sensitive information on free platforms because licensed platforms are developed to preserve the safety of the data. So, try to use tried and tested platforms, something like ChatGPT. But remember, your information is out. You don’t want that. What you want are reliable AI tools that protect your data. 

Q: Do we need to disclose the use of Paperpal in the acknowledgement while submitting the manuscript? 
A: Yes. Check the guidelines for the specific section of using AI tools. Some people think that if others find out that AI tools were used it implies that the author does not know how to write. But that is not the case. Everything can be used, but everything should be acknowledged. You can acknowledge it in the material and method section if the journal suggests. Or in the acknowledgement by stating saying simply that you made use of this application for reviewing of the paper. This will not prevent your paper from being published. You don’t create a bad impression to the editor or to the reviewers. It’s like declaring a conflict of interest. If people have a conflict of interest and declare it, it does not stop the paper from being published. It’s simply acknowledging, and you can have your paper published. 

Q: Can we review literature and create references with the help of the AI tools?
A: Yes, you can. If you have all the papers that you read, collected, and uploaded in that platform, then it would be easy for you to create a reference list. It allows you to easily manage the numerous papers that you checked or compared on the platform. But you need to acknowledge that you used the tool to create references as well. If you feel more comfortable, you might want to disclose what you used the AI tool for. For instance, in terms of reviewing the paper, interpreting the results, or creating a reference list. 

Q: I’m using Quillbot, Grammarly, and Turnitin. Do I still need the Paperpal as you mentioned that it is better than Grammarly? 

A: It depends on your requirements. In this presentation, I wanted to demonstrate the differences between applications so you can compare the features as per your needs. At times, you might need a quite simple tool to execute a simple task, and you can continue using your tools. But if at some point you would like to consider different features of various tools, you may explore the ones I presented. For instance, if you need to expand your research and check for more articles by going beyond your limited pool in the current tool that you are using, you can compare it with other tools until you come across the one that is satisfactory. Or is you feel that the way of writing is not entirely correct, you may choose to switch to tool that is more appropriate for scholarly writing. 

Q: Does the use of AI for improving sentence structure of the manuscript decrease the weightage or credibility of the paper?
A: Not at all! This is the best use of AI because you can allow the tool to teach you how to write. If AI provides a more elaborated sentence that presents the message in a better manner, it does not diminish either the credibility or the impact or the chance to have the paper accepted. It is the content of your manuscript what makes an editor and the reviewer to accept it or not. 

Q: Which tool is the best out of all?
A: Every tool has specific features that makes it unique. So, it is difficult to find the tool that is the best for all your requirements because tools are specialized for different purposes depending on the user demand. For instance, there are specific tools that can help you prepare graphs or infographics or graphical abstract. But to check for grammatical errors in your manuscript, there are different tools. So, searching for just one comprehensive tool that has everything may be difficult because you might lose the specificity.