ProQuest databases

ProQuest's Research Assistant utilises AI to enrich search capabilities and offer insightful interactions with full text documents. It is currently a beta version and is available in 2 UCL-subscribed ProQuest databases, ProQuest One Literature and ProQuest Black Studies, but is visible in other databases where there is overlap in content with these databases.

• AI-enhanced searching
• GenAI support for engaging with full text documents

If you choose to use GenAI to support your academic work, you should be aware of its limitations and always ensure your assignment or research remains your own work. See our guide to Generative AI and Library Skills.

When you carry out a search, the Research Assistant will suggest synonyms and related terms it has found in your search results. You can click on a term to add it your search, and restrict your results to those which include that term.

Note: While the suggested search terms can be useful, you should consider carefully how to incorporate them into your search string. When you click to add a suggested search term, it is applied to your search string using AND. If you would like to add a synonym, for example, you may need to edit the search string accordingly to use the correct search operator, e.g. OR.

The ProQuest Research Assistant uses Generative AI (GenAI) to summarise and make research suggestions relating to an individual full text document, with insights appearing in a pane to the right of the screen.

If you choose to use GenAI to support your academic work, you should be aware of its limitations and always ensure your assignment or research remains your own work. See our guide to Generative AI and Library Skills.

Features include:

• Key takeaway: The key takeaway provides a summary of the document. It takes information only from that single document, but may be influenced by the search you ran in order to make it more relevant to your area of research. The key takeaway can be useful to get a quick insight as to whether the document might be useful or relevant to inform your academic work, but be aware that AI-generated summaries can be inaccurate or biased. If the document has an abstract provided by the author, it may be a more accurate summary. Always think critically about AI-generated summaries of information, and if the document is of interest, always refer to the original source to inform your academic work. See AI-generated summaries of information to find out more about using AI-generated summaries in your academic work. Key takeaways appear only where the document is more than 150 words and the publisher has agreed to a GenAI summary.
• Suggested sources: Link to other suggested sources which may be on similar or related topics to the document you are viewing.
• Brainstorm research topics: These are suggested topics related to the document that you might want to explore to take your research into new areas. Note: Utilising this feature for idea generation may be considered part of the process of creating your academic work, and you may be required to acknowledge your use of the ProQuest Research Assistant. See UCL's guidance on Acknowledging the use of GenAI and referencing GenAI.
• Important concepts: This feature highlights selected concepts discussed in the document with definitions and explanations as to why they are important in the context of the document. You can click on the terms to run a new search on that concept. In addition to the limitations of using AI-generated summaries of information, be aware that the Research Assistant is identifying concepts without understanding the context in which you are interested in the document, and there may be other concepts discussed in the document that are more relevant to inform your academic work. 

GenAI tools like the ProQuest Research Assistant are developing rapidly. We would like to understand more about how you use tools like this so we can develop our training and guidance to support you to use them effectively. If you would like to help us, please give feedback.