When you are looking for references to use in your paper, the internet is a natural place to start; for example, you can use it to search for hardcopy materials in our own library system or find literature, data or information online. However, far from all websites and databases contain sources of an academic nature, and it is important that you take a critical approach to evaluating the material you find online.
High-quality resources within specific fields
Academic databases are specialised databases that provide access to scientific and scholarly journals, articles, publications and other sources relevant to specific fields. By searching these academic databases, you get access to carefully selected, high-quality sources.
You need a license to access the full-text versions of the materials. As a student,you can access these databases by signing into the AU library system.
Use search criteria
Academic databases allow you to add a search criterion, such as ‘peer-reviewed’. This means that multiple impartial experts have assessed the quality of the material. Peer-review is a guarantee of the highest degree of credibility for a source and is crucial to the validity of academic writing and research.
Find the right databases
You can find relevant academic databases on your degree programme's website. You will also find relevant websites, databases, links to public authorities and selected sources.
Large selection of sources, but requires a critical eye
Google Scholar is an easily accessible search engine for academic literature. It scans the internet for a wide range of sources, such as scientific and scholarly articles, dissertations, reports and conference papers from different fields. Google Scholar is user-friendly and often provides direct access to the material.
Please note, however, that Google Scholar does not perform any kind of quality control of the content it searches. It is important to evaluate the sources carefully and vet their credibility, as the search results Google Scholar turns up will not always be sources from reputable journals, websites or publishers.
Provide a general introduction to a topic, but are not reliable sources
User-generated encyclopedias like Wikipedia can be useful for getting a general introduction to a topic. But although Wikipedia is comprehensive and easily accessible, it is important to keep in mind that content is written by users and is not reviewed by experts. This is why you should always verify the information you find here using reliable sources; consider Wikipedia a place to start your search, not an authoritative source.
You can use AI (Artificial Intelligence) to help you search for information and knowledge when you’re writing a paper. There are number of different systems on the market that are based on AI in one way or another.
A good place to get inspiration and an overview of your topic
AI systems are useful in the early stages of writing a paper when you are open to exploring what literature is available and before you have narrowed down your approach to your topic. Such systems are often good at summarising information, and they display your search results in a various way.
Limits on access to material
AI systems search materials that are openly accessible online, and they cannot always draw on data from databases that are protected by paywalls, which is the case for a number of academic databases. On the other hand, there are some systems that have agreements with publishers which give them access to metadata about certain materials; you may not be able to access full-text versions.
AI systems can be a good supplement to the academic databases you can get access to through your university library, where you can also find the materials AI systems can find references to.
Watch out for fictitious references
While you can ask generative AI systems such as ChatGPT for references to relevant literature on your topic, the titles and authors the system comes up with may be fictitious. Generative AI systems are machine-learning models trained to generate output on the basis of the dataset they are trained on. In other words, the answers are based on statistical models, and the AI system does not know whether the answer is right or wrong. Read more about AI and chatbots here.
Make sure you follow AU’s rules about the use of AI in connection with exams.
Referencing AI systems
How you reference different AU systems depends on which referencing system you use. Find out more on the AU website and read more about the use of AI and chatbots.
ChatGPT | You can ask ChatGPT to suggest search terms and synonyms that you can use while searching for literature and information. Remember to always take a critical approach to these suggestions. Check to make sure central concepts are not missing and that the system has not included concepts that do not make sense in the specific context. You should also be critical if you ask for ‘controlled’ keywords, the system might generate terms that do not work. |
Perplexity | In Perplexity.ai just as with ChatGPT, you can also chat and discuss research questions. Perplexity generates answers to your question by searching the web for both regular web pages and academic sources. You can select a 'co-pilot', which allows you to direct Perplexity to only find / use academic sources. |
Elicit | Elicit works by searching through lots of articles and literature reviews. Elicit provides you with abstract summaries of relevant literature that can help you assess how relevant the material is. You can also ask Elicit questions or upload an article and ask it to find similar literature. |
Non-transparent AI systems | There are also other types of AI tools you can use to search for literature to use in your paper, such as iris.ai, Keenious, Research Rabbit and Connected Papers. These are just a few of the many systems that use AI to suggest relevant literature based on a keyword, a scientific paper or a passage of text. These systems search for materials based on non-transparent algorithms, so you can never be quite sure why you get the results they give you. |
This short video in Danish will help you understand the technology behind many of the information systems we surround ourselves with:
If you want to know more about reference management have a look at AU Library's page on reference management. You can find information about different reference systems and advice on how to manage a large amount of sources for longer assignments.
AU Library is regurlarly offering courses on the reference management tools that you have acces to as a student at Aarhus University. Read more about the courses and sign up.
The content of this page is written in collaboration with AU Library.
