AI Tools from ProQuest
ProQuest Research Assistant
ProQuest Research Assistant uses AI to suggest search terms, as well as to summarize documents and suggest topics for further research.
"ProQuest Research Assistant" is available in: ProQuest Disserations & Theses Global and ProQuest One Business
- On the search results screen, you can click on a suggested term (listed below the search box) to add it to your search query to narrow your search.
- Click on a search result to take you to the full record and to the rest of the research assistant features.
On the full record screen, the features of ProQuest Research Assistant differ between the Dissertations database and the Business database. We will treat each in turn.
ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global
The Research Assistant will generate a brief Key Takeaway based only on the author abstract; a list of additional topics discussed in the abstract; and an assessment of how relevant the document is compared to your search terms.
- For some documents you may also see "Foundational research" listing documents frequently cited by documents on this topic.
Two additional features are available:
- "Brainstorm related research topics" that can be searched in the database.
- Describe the important concepts — offers a brief definitions of the major concepts from the document.
More Information about ProQuest Research Assistant
ProQuest One Business
The Research Assistant will generate a brief Key Takeaway from the document; a list of additional topics discussed in the document; and an assessment of how relevant the document is compared to your search terms.
At the bottom of the page are five options for generating additional information:
- What are the findings or conclusions?
- Brainstorm related research topics.
- Describe the important concepts.
- What are the essential details?
- Visualize this document's topics.
The "findings or conclusions" option generates a brief but detailed summary of the main points of the document.
The "Brainstorm related research topics" option generates potential new searches related to this document.
The "Describe the important concepts" option generates definitions of key concepts from the document.
The "essential details" option generates key document facts based on the document type, with links to the relevant sections of the document.
- For example, the details for a scholarly article might include the hypothesis and methodology.
The "visualize" option generates a hierarchical map of the document's topics and links each topic to a new search.
More Information about ProQuest Research Assistant
Ebook Central Research Assistant
Ebook Central Research Assistant uses AI to summarize book chapters and identify key concepts.
"Ebook Central Research Assistant" is available in: ProQuest Ebook Central
The Ebook Central research assistant is available on books owned or subscribed to by the library. Open access titles are not included, and some publishers may opt out as well.
- Perform a search and select a book title from the results.
- Click on a chapter or subsection to view (the Research Assistant works at the chapter level).
Ebooks in PDF format will show the Research Assistant on the left.
- Click the Research Assistant icon if necessary.
- The Research Assistant will initially display information about the book as a whole.
Ebooks in EPUB format will show the Research Assistant on the right.
- Click the Research Assistant icon at the top of the page if necessary.
- The Research Assistant will initially display information about the book as a whole.
At the bottom of the Research Assistant Display, two buttons will offer to generate Key Takeaways, and Concepts, respectively.
- Key Takeaways will generate a brief summary of the main points of the book chapter.
- Concepts will define the major concepts included in the chapter.
Key Takeaways, and Concepts.
Ebook Central Research Assistant FAQ
Under the Hood
What powers ProQuest's AI tools?
ProQuest’s Research Assistant and Ebook Central Research Assistant both run on large language models (LLMs) sourced from OpenAI (GPT series, most recently GPT-4o-mini). These AI tools use a Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) architecture, where answers, document summaries, and suggested terms are generated based only on actual ProQuest database and ebook content—not from external or open web sources. They provide features like key takeaways, term recommendations, brainstorming prompts, and chapter-specific insights, and are routinely updated as newer versions of LLMs become available.
AI-assisted, human-verified text