用AI查文献，怎样避免得到一份漂亮但失真的清单？ / How Do You Stop an AI Literature Search Becoming a Polished but Distorted List?

Geoffrey Chen

Judgment in the Age of AI · Article 25

AI can rapidly suggest research topics, keywords and apparently important papers, but it may omit contrary evidence, favour easily accessible English material or invent citations. It is useful for widening the entrance to a search, not for deciding by itself what a field contains.

Build a funnel rather than asking once

  1. Concept: Ask for synonyms, older terminology, related concepts and exclusion terms.
  2. Database: Take the search string into specialist databases, library catalogues or scholarly search tools.
  3. Publication: Verify title, authors, journal, year and DOI.
  4. Evidence: Read the abstract and methods to decide whether the study answers your question.
  5. Network: Follow references and later citations along both supporting and opposing paths.

Create a source matrix

Paper Population Method Finding Limitation Relevance
One row each More than topic Experiment, survey or review In your own words What authors concede Why include or exclude

Finally inspect who is absent

Ask whether the results contain only one language, institution type, method or position. A complete search does not merely collect support; it actively seeks evidence that would make the conclusion more careful.

References

Discover more from Geoffrey Chen

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.