How to Use AnswerThis to Enhance Your Research Process

AI literature review generators and other research assistant technology have become essential tools for researchers, thanks to the massive amount of academic papers that exist. Conducting research can often be overwhelming, especially when attempting to identify gaps in existing literature, as well as keeping track of sources. AnswerThis is a powerful tool designed to streamline the research process, from finding gaps to writing a structured literature review. Serving as a comprehensive literature generator, with proper use, researchers can feel confident they are creating accurate and well supported deliverables. This guide aims to provide an example use case for AnswerThis, to help users understand its main purpose and functions.

Step 1: Identifying Research Gaps

Start by choosing a broad topic - more specific topics can be used, but may not generate as good responses.

1. Enter "Find me gaps in research related to (Your topic) and suggest a research topic."

2. Select Structured Literature Review.

3. Set your filters to:

4. Submit the search and review the suggested gaps.

5. Choose a particular gap to explore that looks most promising and read through the analysis.

Once the tool provides a list of research gaps, select a topic that interests you or seems promising. You may also consider refining the topic further by focusing on a specific industry, such as healthcare or finance, to make your research more targeted and impactful.

Step 2: Gathering and Organizing Sources

Now that you have a research topic, gather sources:

1. Use interesting questions generated by “AnswerThis” gap analysis for exploration

2. Use AnswerThis to retrieve relevant papers by asking targeted questions.

3. Save important sources to a dedicated research project in your library.

4. Use the Chat with Papers tool to:

5. Use Dynamic Research Assistant for brainstorming a topic

6. Use Structured Literature Review when you are ready to finalize your target for research

7. For a quicker response, use Turbo Mode

As you collect sources, you can save them to your library and categorize them based on their relevance, methodology, and key insights. This will make it easier to find and reference them later on in your writing process.

Step 3: Extracting Key Insights

To streamline literature review writing:

1. Use the Extract Data feature to compile key findings from all saved papers, or select a few for specific use

2. Toggle between list and table views for easier analysis

3. Export data as a CSV file for further organization

4. Identify common themes and patterns among the collected sources

5. Note any methodological limitations or biases present in the studies

Step 4: Expanding Your Research

Enhance your research collection using:

1. Citation Maps – Identify foundational and frequently cited papers that are critical to your topic.

2. Search Paper function – Find additional sources with natural language queries and refine your search terms for better results.

3. Sorting and filtering options – Prioritize papers by citation count and relevance to ensure you’re relying on well-regarded studies.

4. Reviewing references in key papers to find additional relevant studies that might not have surfaced in your initial search.

Step 5: Writing the Literature Review

Now, compile your insights into a structured literature review:

1. Return to AnswerThis’s home page and enter your research topic.

2. Select “Use My Library” to reference only saved sources for a more focused review.

3. Enable Precise Search to extract information directly from PDFs, ensuring accuracy in citations and interpretations.

4. Use the tool to generate an initial draft of the literature review.

5. Edit the generated draft using Edit with AI for refinement, ensuring coherence, logical flow, and proper academic tone.

6. Add critical analysis by discussing the implications of your findings, identifying research gaps, and suggesting future research directions.

Make your first Literature review for free today with AnswerThis