u/Dry_Entertainer_3111

Hey, I would like to hear your guys' opinions on this subject of how I currently do research. When I start doing my research I usually use AI tools like ChatGPT to help with search terms to then create Boolean search strings, Research Rabbit to help create research maps of the current field and to help find relevant articles, Consensus to help find papers I otherwise would have missed, and Google Scholar Labs sometimes to help find papers within Google Scholar that I might have missed with all of these other AI assistants. I have found this to be helpful, as well as using AI to help create emails for researchers that I then modify and personalize in my own voice. I never trust the AI's output for anything unless I have verified the information from the original source, which is usually a scientific study or review.

I have found this to be very successful and has helped me immensely with my research workflows, but I have heard counterpoints, such as:

• The traditional research workflow is better because of taking more time to complete research papers, has more serendipitous occurrences, and is the way research has been done for centuries before my time.
• People would rather talk to people, such as librarians, rather than using an AI bot to help them with starting search terms and sample search strings to build off of to find research papers.
• People do not fully understand what AI really is, and are saying that people should use their brains, as some of them don't fully understand that it requires a lot of trial-and-error and strategic and critical thinking to use the AI properly and ethically.
• People who are outright against AI and use the most vulgar language to describe either me and/or AI simply because I decided to use the buzzword in my post.

I wanted to post this in this subreddit to see the people who are for AI's viewpoints on the matter and how they see AI's role in conducting research in the future, as AI will become an ever-present force within the medical and veterinary fields, which I am researching. I hope you all remain civil and polite in the comments, and I will share more information about me, my workflows, and opinions in the comments.

Note: most of my personal experiences for these counterpoints are from academic subreddits and communities, so I wanted to hear from a broader body of people on their opinions about this topic matter.

More specifically, I currently use AI tools like ChatGPT to help with search terms to then create Boolean search strings, Research Rabbit to help create research maps of the current field and to help find relevant articles, Consensus to help find papers I otherwise would have missed, and Google Scholar Labs sometimes to help find papers within Google Scholar that I might have missed with all of these other AI assistants. Do you guys have any other tools and/or where that I could utilize the ones I am already using to help me on my research journey?

Hi everyone, 

I either want to be an animal scientist and/or start my own independent business creating oral bait machines for feral felines to prevent the spread of disease and other ailments within their colonies. My specific question for this post is, as the title says, how do modern researchers use AI tools in their current research field, and what are the pros and cons of using such tools against or with traditional methods?

For those who don’t know who I am, please visit my previous post: https://www.reddit.com/r/UndergraduateResearch/comments/1se3mb8/comment/otvcpsc/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

I want this to be a civil, proper discussion and hope that researchers within the animal sciences fields and/or other researchers can help me gain more insights into this pretty contentious topic within the academic community. So sorry for the hassle.

Hi everyone, 

I either want to be an animal scientist and/or start my own independent business creating oral bait machines for feral felines to prevent the spread of disease and other ailments within their colonies. My specific question for this post is, as the title says, how do modern researchers use AI tools in their current research field, and what are the pros and cons of using such tools against or with traditional methods?

For those who don’t know who I am, please visit my previous post: https://www.reddit.com/r/UndergraduateResearch/comments/1se3mb8/comment/otvcpsc/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

I want this to be a civil, proper discussion and hope that researchers within the animal sciences fields and/or other researchers can help me gain more insights into this pretty contentious topic within the academic community. So sorry for the hassle.

Hi everyone, 

I either want to be an animal scientist and/or start my own independent business creating oral bait machines for feral felines to prevent the spread of disease and other ailments within their colonies. My specific question for this post is, as the title says, how do modern researchers use AI tools in their current research field, and what are the pros and cons of using such tools against or with traditional methods?

For those who don’t know who I am, please visit my previous post: https://www.reddit.com/r/UndergraduateResearch/comments/1se3mb8/comment/otvcpsc/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

I want this to be a civil, proper discussion and hope that researchers within the animal sciences fields and/or other researchers can help me gain more insights into this pretty contentious topic within the academic community. So sorry for the hassle.

Hi everyone, 

I either want to be an animal scientist and/or start my own independent business creating oral bait machines for feral felines to prevent the spread of disease and other ailments within their colonies. My specific question for this post is, as the title says, how do modern researchers use AI tools in their current research field, and what are the pros and cons of using such tools against or with traditional methods?

For those who don’t know who I am, please visit my previous post: https://www.reddit.com/r/UndergraduateResearch/comments/1se3mb8/comment/otvcpsc/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

I want this to be a civil, proper discussion and hope that researchers within the animal sciences fields and/or other researchers can help me gain more insights into this pretty contentious topic within the academic community. So sorry for the hassle.

Hi everyone, 

I either want to be an animal scientist and/or start my own independent business creating oral bait machines for feral felines to prevent the spread of disease and other ailments within their colonies. My specific question for this post is, as the title says, how do modern researchers use AI tools in their current research field, and what are the pros and cons of using such tools against or with traditional methods?

For those who don’t know who I am, please visit my previous post: https://www.reddit.com/r/UndergraduateResearch/comments/1se3mb8/comment/otvcpsc/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

I want this to be a civil, proper discussion and hope that researchers within the animal sciences fields and/or other researchers can help me gain more insights into this pretty contentious topic within the academic community. So sorry for the hassle.

Hi everyone, 

I either want to be an animal scientist and/or start my own independent business creating oral bait machines for feral felines to prevent the spread of disease and other ailments within their colonies. My specific question for this post is, as the title says, how do modern researchers use AI tools in their current research field, and what are the pros and cons of using such tools against or with traditional methods?

For those who don’t know who I am, please visit my previous post: https://www.reddit.com/r/UndergraduateResearch/comments/1se3mb8/comment/otvcpsc/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

I want this to be a civil, proper discussion and hope that researchers within the animal sciences fields and/or other researchers can help me gain more insights into this pretty contentious topic within the academic community. So sorry for the hassle.

For more context on who I am, you can visit this link: https://www.reddit.com/r/UndergraduateResearch/comments/1se3mb8/comment/otvcpsc/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

In my experience, AI deep research tools (except Consensus) waste more time for me than what I would normally gain through using another AI tool, such as Google Scholar Labs, Research Rabbit, and/or ChatGPT-generated search strings. I know the entire premise of using these deep research assistants is to save time now, and on the surface, with what it outputs appears to meretriciously accomplish this purpose; however, upon closer examination, most of what it says comes from news articles, Wikipedia, and/or blog posts when I ask for more reliable academic sources. Additionally, when I view what the original literature argues, it appears that these models will cherry-pick their facts and claims, while the literal abstract or summary says the exact opposite of what the AI says.

The only reliable one that I can find currently is Consensus Deep Research, which, I believe, has RAG and retrieves its information from scholarly databases, and that’s it. These are the only reasons why this is the only deep research AI tool on occasion that I utilize in my research workflows, and I wish that others would become better at academic research, so that there’s more competition in the space and more reasons for the models to improve. As for now, I will be predominantly using non-deep research tools, as I again don’t believe that they are worth the time saving at the start, only to pay for it later, kind of like the term cognitive debt, except it’s more of a time debt.

Though, it’s not like using these tools will actually get me out of validating these AI tools' outputs based on their primary sources; however, it would be helpful if these assistants could actually output correct information for me to find relevant articles that the AI cited, so that I could spend less time finding these specific papers that pertain to my research niche, and have a more efficient and effective research workflow.

Hi everyone, 

I apologize for being so rude and haughty in past Reddit posts and comments when discussing my thoughts about how current AI tools can help make my research workflow more efficient and faster. I wanted to use Reddit as a way to test my critical thinking and reasoning skills through debating with others because, as I thought that those skills would help me as I progress in my future research career; however, I want to say that I’m very sorry and that I wasn’t trying to be arrogant, but instead, trying to find discussions where I can learn how to debate and critically think better. I now know that this is not the proper way to debate in arguments on a platform such as Reddit, and I want to apologize.

For those who don’t know who I am, please visit my previous post: https://www.reddit.com/r/UndergraduateResearch/comments/1se3mb8/comment/otvcpsc/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

If you want to know more about how I feel about deep research AI tools, you can visit this post: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskScienceDiscussion/s/uGSyCzamsE

And if you want to know more about what specific search engines and AI tools that I use, you can visit this page: https://www.reddit.com/r/UndergraduateResearch/s/NdmJaDNMFX

Again, I’m so sorry for my past behavior, and I will try to keep it in check in the future and ask more questions and for guidance on how to use such tools, instead of being so defensive about my current research methods. I either want to be an animal scientist and/or start my own independent business creating oral bait machines for feral felines to prevent the spread of disease and other ailments within their colonies. My specific question for this post is, as the title says, how do modern researchers use AI tools in their current research field, and what are the pros and cons of using such tools against or with traditional methods?

I want this to be a civil, proper discussion and hope that researchers within the animal sciences fields and/or other researchers can help me gain more insights into this pretty contentious topic within the academic community. So sorry for the hassle.

For more context on who I am, you can visit this link: https://www.reddit.com/r/UndergraduateResearch/comments/1se3mb8/comment/otvcpsc/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

In my experience, AI deep research tools (except Consensus) waste more time for me than what I would normally gain through using another AI tool, such as Google Scholar Labs, Research Rabbit, and/or ChatGPT-generated search strings. I know the entire premise of using these deep research assistants is to save time now, and on the surface, with what it outputs appears to meretriciously accomplish this purpose; however, upon closer examination, most of what it says comes from news articles, Wikipedia, and/or blog posts when I ask for more reliable academic sources. Additionally, when I view what the original literature argues, it appears that these models will cherry-pick their facts and claims, while the literal abstract or summary says the exact opposite of what the AI says.

The only reliable one that I can find currently is Consensus Deep Research, which, I believe, has RAG and retrieves its information from scholarly databases, and that’s it. These are the only reasons why this is the only deep research AI tool on occasion that I utilize in my research workflows, and I wish that others would become better at academic research, so that there’s more competition in the space and more reasons for the models to improve. As for now, I will be predominantly using non-deep research tools, as I again don’t believe that they are worth the time saving at the start, only to pay for it later, kind of like the term cognitive debt, except it’s more of a time debt.

Though, it’s not like using these tools will actually get me out of validating these AI tools' outputs based on their primary sources; however, it would be helpful if these assistants could actually output correct information for me to find relevant articles that the AI cited, so that I could spend less time finding these specific papers that pertain to my research niche, and have a more efficient and effective research workflow.

hay guys. i need help with writing research and can a person guide me through how to write a research paper step by step. ive tried using ai to create all of the steps for me and it has come up with research questions that i do not feel fine using because i believe that they are too generic. they also sound too sophisticated and i'm confused about how to start researching in the veterinarian field and/or ecology. should i start with a single topic as my main or just do research and make multiple for my paper. it would be very helpful if someone would also give me a research question to start with so that i can build from it through my research work.

I saw someone struggling with how to use AI, but the post was shut down on the academic subreddit it was posted on, as many academic subreddits view AI as useless for academia; however, I have a different take.

I'm an undergrad research fellow who has been doing research since January, so take my words with caution if you want an actual expert's opinion.

How to create a good prompt or instructions for using AI tools so that I can find the information I'm looking for.= Go into ChatGPT and place it in thinking mode, and ask for search strings for the specific topic you are interested in. Plug those search strings into Google Scholar and/or any other academic search engine, such as PubMed. You can find more information on your topic and chat with the Google Scholar Labs feature, which is an LLM in the Google Scholar ecosystem. Click the Labs button on the left-hand side of your screen.

Other AI tools I use are Liner Scholar and their Liner search engine, Gemini (website, in Chrome, and AI mode), Consensus, NotebookLM, Undermind, Bohrium, SciSpace, Research Rabbit, and very rarely, Perplexity.

2. Where should I look for papers that are relevant to my topic?= Some search engines you can use are Google Scholar, PubMed, and Semantic Scholar.

3. And more importantly, what AI tool can I trust the most?= Use AI to assist you in finding relevant sources, but you yourself have to make the final conclusions and read the primary literature yourself. I often read the sources as a form of brain rot, because I love to learn, and finding new information gives me a weird dopamine release. DON'T OVERRELY ON AI!!!

Also, if you are having issues receiving recently published articles, then try to email the authors, which are commonly available through the publisher's website if you see a mail icon next to the numbers seen after an author's name and affiliations, and can also be found in their affiliations section.

Note: not all researcher emails are available, so you might be out of luck for certain articles unless you want to do some really deep digging.

I saw someone struggling with how to use AI, but the post was shut down on the academic subreddit it was posted on, as many academic subreddits view AI as useless for academia; however, I have a different take.

I'm an undergrad research fellow who has been doing research since January, so take my words with caution if you want an actual expert's opinion.

How to create a good prompt or instructions for using AI tools so that I can find the information I'm looking for.= Go into ChatGPT and place it in thinking mode and ask for search strings for the specific topic you are interested in. Plug those search strings into Google Scholar and/or any other academic search engine, such as PubMed. You can find more information on your topic and chat with the Google Scholar Labs feature, which is an LLM in the Google Scholar ecosystem. Click the Labs button on the left-hand side of your screen.

Other AI tools I use are Liner Scholar and their Liner search engine, Gemini (website, in Chrome, and AI mode), Consensus, NotebookLM, Undermind, Bohrium, SciSpace, Research Rabbit, and very rarely, Perplexity.

2. Where should I look for papers that are relevant to my topic?= Some search engines you can use are Google Scholar, PubMed, and Semantic Scholar.

3. And more importantly, what AI tool can I trust the most?= Use AI to assist you in finding relevant sources, but you yourself have to make the final conclusions and read the primary literature yourself. I often read the sources as a form of brain rot, because I love to learn, and finding new information gives me a weird dopamine release. DON'T OVERRELY ON AI!!!

Also, if you are having issues receiving recently published articles, then try to email the authors, which are commonly available through the publisher's website if you see a mail icon next to the numbers seen after an author's name and affiliations, and can also be found in their affiliations section.

Note: not all researcher emails are available, so you might be out of luck for certain articles unless you want to do some really deep digging.

I saw someone struggling with how to use AI, but the post was shut down on the academic subreddit it was posted on, as many academic subreddits view AI as useless for academia; however, I have a different take.

I'm an undergrad research fellow who has been doing research since January, so take my words with caution if you want an actual expert's opinion.

How to create a good prompt or instructions for using AI tools so that I can find the information I'm looking for.= Go into ChatGPT and place it in thinking mode and ask for search strings for the specific topic you are interested in. Plug those search strings into Google Scholar and/or any other academic search engine, such as PubMed. You can find more information on your topic and chat with the Google Scholar Labs feature, which is an LLM in the Google Scholar ecosystem. Click the Labs button on the left-hand side of your screen.

Other AI tools I use are Liner Scholar and their Liner search engine, Gemini (website, in Chrome, and AI mode), Consensus, NotebookLM, Undermind, Bohrium, SciSpace, Research Rabbit, and very rarely, Perplexity.

2. Where should I look for papers that are relevant to my topic?= Some search engines you can use are Google Scholar, PubMed, and Semantic Scholar.

3. And more importantly, what AI tool can I trust the most?= Use AI to assist you in finding relevant sources, but you yourself have to make the final conclusions and read the primary literature yourself. I often read the sources as a form of brain rot, because I love to learn, and finding new information gives me a weird dopamine release. DON'T OVERRELY ON AI!!!

Also, if you are having issues receiving recently published articles, then try to email the authors, which are commonly available through the publisher's website if you see a mail icon next to the numbers seen after an author's name and affiliations, and can also be found in their affiliations section.

Note: not all researcher emails are available, so you might be out of luck for certain articles unless you want to do some really deep digging.

In my opinion, for early researchers, I would also suggest cold emailing PIs and researchers in your field of interest (they can also be lesser-known ones) and asking them if you could do a research project with them or if they have any open spots that you can join. Initiative has helped me immensely when it comes to research, and I think more people should learn to have more of it, though I love research and was more focused on it when I got accepted early for a Research Fellow's Scholarship and got accepted into a research lab around the same time. Even though I was lucky enough to have this opportunity, I still believe that it should be important for more early researchers to gain initiative and pursue their dreams through actions such as this, as growing your self-direction and incentivization will eventually pay off in their future research careers. For example, currently I'm a pre-freshman doing a research project with a friend and have cold-emailed at least 30 different researchers and have gotten five responses, three paywalled papers from the authors, and two researchers who are happy to review and give an informal peer-review once me and my friend are done with the rough draft of our paper. And no, I am not suggesting spamming researchers until they respond, as this will ruin your reputation before you have even begun to grow one. I suggest creating a personalized message for the researcher based on the paper you cited in your work and/or want to obtain and sending it. Then, a week later, if they haven't replied, I would suggest sending a follow-up asking if it was received, and then, if they don't respond, let them be because they are probably very busy with their work. Here are some templates that I use for researcher outreach:

Outreach Email for Paper Assessment:

Hello Dr. ____,

I am a/n (state your current academic position and title, such as a high school student and so-and- so high school) creating a/n (type of research project) on (state your current topic no matter how bare bones it might be so that the researcher can know what topic you are trying to address). I found your article “(article title)”  and thought your research may speak directly to the diagnostic gap my review will address.

Specifically, my goal is to (state research goal and/or the reason for why you are interested in researching what you are currently. One example I gave was because my cat died of stomach cancer and that’s why I’m interested in researching it). I am synthesizing and writing the paper myself and have utilized AI technology for literature discovery, which I have stated according to my university's/school’s disclosure agreement/ethical guidelines (optional if you are using AI assistance for your paper).

With that being said, are there elements you can advise me on for my selected research topic and review so far? I am hoping for a quick email conversation, not a co-authorship, would allow me to evaluate if my framing of this gap makes sense, and if there are sources or details I'm overlooking.

Attached is a research outline of my hypothesis and outline. Please let me know if you have any insights you are willing to share. 

Sincerely,
Name
Academic Position 
Your school/university
Gmail address
LinkedIn profile link

Outreach Email for Article Request:

Hello Dr. ____,

I am a/n (state your current academic position and title, such as a high school student and so-and- so high school) creating a/n (type of research project) on (state your current topic no matter how bare bones it might be so that the researcher can know what topic you are trying to address). I found your article “(article title)”  and thought your research may speak directly to the diagnostic gap my review will address.

Specifically, my goal is to (state research goal and/or the reason for why you are interested in researching what you are currently. One example I gave was because my cat died of stomach cancer and that’s why I’m interested in researching it).

With that being said, can you please send me your article in question so that I can possibly review it and cite it in my paper? 

Sincerely,
Name
Academic Position 
Your school/university
Gmail address
LinkedIn profile link

Please let me know your thoughts and opinions, as I'm still in the early stages of learning how to do this.

In my opinion, for early researchers, I would also suggest cold emailing PIs and researchers in your field of interest (they can also be lesser-known ones) and asking them if you could do a research project with them or if they have any open spots that you can join. Initiative has helped me immensely when it comes to research, and I think more people should learn to have more of it, though I love research and was more focused on it when I got accepted early for a Research Fellow's Scholarship and got accepted into a research lab around the same time. Even though I was lucky enough to have this opportunity, I still believe that it should be important for more early researchers to gain initiative and pursue their dreams through actions such as this, as growing your self-direction and incentivization will eventually pay off in their future research careers. For example, currently I'm a pre-freshman doing a research project with a friend and have cold-emailed at least 30 different researchers and have gotten five responses, three paywalled papers from the authors, and two researchers who are happy to review and give an informal peer-review once me and my friend are done with the rough draft of our paper. And no, I am not suggesting spamming researchers until they respond, as this will ruin your reputation before you have even begun to grow one. I suggest creating a personalized message for the researcher based on the paper you cited in your work and/or want to obtain and sending it. Then, a week later, if they haven't replied, I would suggest sending a follow-up asking if it was received, and then, if they don't respond, let them be because they are probably very busy with their work. Here are some templates that I use for researcher outreach:

Outreach Email for Paper Assessment:

Hello Dr. ____,

I am a/n (state your current academic position and title, such as a high school student and so-and- so high school) creating a/n (type of research project) on (state your current topic no matter how bare bones it might be so that the researcher can know what topic you are trying to address). I found your article “(article title)”  and thought your research may speak directly to the diagnostic gap my review will address.

Specifically, my goal is to (state research goal and/or the reason for why you are interested in researching what you are currently. One example I gave was because my cat died of stomach cancer and that’s why I’m interested in researching it). I am synthesizing and writing the paper myself and have utilized AI technology for literature discovery, which I have stated according to my university's/school’s disclosure agreement/ethical guidelines (optional if you are using AI assistance for your paper).

With that being said, are there elements you can advise me on for my selected research topic and review so far? I am hoping for a quick email conversation, not a co-authorship, would allow me to evaluate if my framing of this gap makes sense, and if there are sources or details I'm overlooking.

Attached is a research outline of my hypothesis and outline. Please let me know if you have any insights you are willing to share. 

Sincerely,
Name
Academic Position 
Your school/university
Gmail address
LinkedIn profile link

Outreach Email for Article Request:

Hello Dr. ____,

I am a/n (state your current academic position and title, such as a high school student and so-and- so high school) creating a/n (type of research project) on (state your current topic no matter how bare bones it might be so that the researcher can know what topic you are trying to address). I found your article “(article title)”  and thought your research may speak directly to the diagnostic gap my review will address.

Specifically, my goal is to (state research goal and/or the reason for why you are interested in researching what you are currently. One example I gave was because my cat died of stomach cancer and that’s why I’m interested in researching it).

With that being said, can you please send me your article in question so that I can possibly review it and cite it in my paper? 

Sincerely,
Name
Academic Position 
Your school/university
Gmail address
LinkedIn profile link

Please let me know your thoughts and opinions, as I'm still in the early stages of learning how to do this.

In my opinion, for early researchers, I would also suggest cold emailing PIs and researchers in your field of interest (they can also be lesser-known ones) and asking them if you could do a research project with them or if they have any open spots that you can join. Initiative has helped me immensely when it comes to research, and I think more people should learn to have more of it, though I love research and was more focused on it when I got accepted early for a Research Fellow's Scholarship and got accepted into a research lab around the same time. Even though I was lucky enough to have this opportunity, I still believe that it should be important for more early researchers to gain Initiative and pursue their dreams through actions such as this, as growing your self-direction and incentivization will eventually pay off in their future research careers. For example, currently I'm a pre-freshman doing a research project with a friend and have cold-emailed at least 30 different researchers and have gotten five responses, three paywalled papers from the authors, and two researchers who are happy to review and give an informal peer-review once me and my friend are done with the rough draft of our paper. And no, I am not suggesting spamming researchers until they respond, as this will ruin your reputation before you have even begun to grow one. I suggest creating a personalized message for the researcher based on the paper you cited in your work and/or want to obtain and sending it. Then, a week later, if they haven't replied, I would suggest sending a follow-up asking if it was received, and then, if they don't respond, let them be because they are probably very busy with their work. Here are some templates that I use for researcher outreach:

Outreach Email for Paper Assessment:

Hello Dr. ____,

I am a/n (state your current academic position and title, such as a high school student and so-and- so high school) creating a/n (type of research project) on (state your current topic no matter how bare bones it might be so that the researcher can know what topic you are trying to address). I found your article “(article title)”  and thought your research may speak directly to the diagnostic gap my review will address.

Specifically, my goal is to (state research goal and/or the reason for why you are interested in researching what you are currently. One example I gave was because my cat died of stomach cancer and that’s why I’m interested in researching it). I am synthesizing and writing the paper myself and have utilized AI technology for literature discovery, which I have stated according to my university's/school’s disclosure agreement/ethical guidelines (optional if you are using AI assistance for your paper).

With that being said, are there elements you can advise me on for my selected research topic and review so far? I am hoping for a quick email conversation, not a co-authorship, would allow me to evaluate if my framing of this gap makes sense, and if there are sources or details I'm overlooking.

Attached is a research outline of my hypothesis and outline. Please let me know if you have any insights you are willing to share. 

Sincerely,
Name
Academic Position 
Your school/university
Gmail address
LinkedIn profile link

Outreach Email for Article Request:

Hello Dr. ____,

I am a/n (state your current academic position and title, such as a high school student and so-and- so high school) creating a/n (type of research project) on (state your current topic no matter how bare bones it might be so that the researcher can know what topic you are trying to address). I found your article “(article title)”  and thought your research may speak directly to the diagnostic gap my review will address.

Specifically, my goal is to (state research goal and/or the reason for why you are interested in researching what you are currently. One example I gave was because my cat died of stomach cancer and that’s why I’m interested in researching it).

With that being said, can you please send me your article in question so that I can possibly review it and cite it in my paper? 

Sincerely,
Name
Academic Position 
Your school/university
Gmail address
LinkedIn profile link

Please let me know your thoughts and opinions, as I'm still in the early stages of learning how to do this.

In my opinion, for early researchers, I would also suggest cold emailing PIs and researchers in your field of interest (they can also be lesser-known ones) and asking them if you could do a research project with them or if they have any open spots that you can join. Initiative has helped me immensely when it comes to research, and I think more people should learn to have more of it, though I love research and was more focused on it when I got accepted early for a Research Fellow's Scholarship and got accepted into a research lab around the same time. Even though I was lucky enough to have this opportunity, I still believe that it should be important for more early researchers to gain initiative and pursue their dreams through actions such as this, as growing your self-direction and incentivization will eventually pay off in their future research careers. For example, currently I'm a pre-freshman doing a research project with a friend and have cold-emailed at least 30 different researchers and have gotten five responses, three paywalled papers from the authors, and two researchers who are happy to review and give an informal peer-review once me and my friend are done with the rough draft of our paper. And no, I am not suggesting spamming researchers until they respond, as this will ruin your reputation before you have even begun to grow one. I suggest creating a personalized message for the researcher based on the paper you cited in your work and/or want to obtain and sending it. Then, a week later, if they haven't replied, I would suggest sending a follow-up asking if it was received, and then, if they don't respond, let them be because they are probably very busy with their work. Here are some templates that I use for researcher outreach:

Outreach Email for Paper Assessment:

Hello Dr. ____,

I am a/n (state your current academic position and title, such as a high school student and so-and- so high school) creating a/n (type of research project) on (state your current topic no matter how bare bones it might be so that the researcher can know what topic you are trying to address). I found your article “(article title)”  and thought your research may speak directly to the diagnostic gap my review will address.

Specifically, my goal is to (state research goal and/or the reason for why you are interested in researching what you are currently. One example I gave was because my cat died of stomach cancer and that’s why I’m interested in researching it). I am synthesizing and writing the paper myself and have utilized AI technology for literature discovery, which I have stated according to my university's/school’s disclosure agreement/ethical guidelines (optional if you are using AI assistance for your paper).

With that being said, are there elements you can advise me on for my selected research topic and review so far? I am hoping for a quick email conversation, not a co-authorship, would allow me to evaluate if my framing of this gap makes sense, and if there are sources or details I'm overlooking.

Attached is a research outline of my hypothesis and outline. Please let me know if you have any insights you are willing to share. 

Sincerely,
Name
Academic Position 
Your school/university
Gmail address
LinkedIn profile link

Outreach Email for Article Request:

Hello Dr. ____,

I am a/n (state your current academic position and title, such as a high school student and so-and- so high school) creating a/n (type of research project) on (state your current topic no matter how bare bones it might be so that the researcher can know what topic you are trying to address). I found your article “(article title)”  and thought your research may speak directly to the diagnostic gap my review will address.

Specifically, my goal is to (state research goal and/or the reason for why you are interested in researching what you are currently. One example I gave was because my cat died of stomach cancer and that’s why I’m interested in researching it).

With that being said, can you please send me your article in question so that I can possibly review it and cite it in my paper? 

Sincerely,
Name
Academic Position 
Your school/university
Gmail address
LinkedIn profile link

Please let me know your thoughts and opinions, as I'm still in the early stages of learning how to do this.