Upgrade Your Research With The Scholar GPT Tool

While ChatGPT's Deep Research feature is powerful, it has significant drawbacks, especially when it comes to finding current information. This limitation can slow down study and research projects. Fortunately, a custom GPT called Scholar GPT offers a solution to this very problem.

Finding the Most Recent Information

Initial tests with ChatGPT's Deep Research revealed a mixed performance. Although it performed well in several areas, even outperforming Copilot's similar feature, it consistently failed to retrieve up-to-date information. Often, the search results were limited to sources that were over two years old, undermining the tool's utility for timely research.

In contrast, Scholar GPT excels at sourcing recent information. A simple prompt to find the latest research yields a compiled list of facts, complete with direct links to the original sources, making organization incredibly straightforward.

Occasionally, an initial list of bullet points might appear without direct links. However, scrolling further down often reveals links to valuable online sources. Scholar GPT presents this information in a clean, easily digestible table format.

Reading and Analyzing Research Documents

Beyond just finding timely information, Scholar GPT can read and synthesize research documents. This feature is excellent for creating handy summaries of shorter papers, helping you extract the most essential details efficiently.

This capability also extends to more comprehensive PDFs. After you upload a document, Scholar GPT provides a quick overview of its key findings. The tool also adopts a balanced approach, often questioning whether a noted correlation implies causation.

After its initial analysis, Scholar GPT allows you to delve deeper. You can ask the custom GPT to create mind maps, explain complex concepts in simpler terms, or compare the document's findings with other research. This allows you to process each document thoroughly before combining your ideas for more effective study sessions.

Assessing and Summarizing Links

While uploading files directly to ChatGPT is often reliable, the platform has historically been inconsistent when reading from web links. However, Scholar GPT handles this task quite well. You can preface your request by stating you are about to share a link.

Scholar GPT may then ask if you want to explore specific themes from the link, which helps generate more accurate and relevant responses. Once you provide the link, the tool reads the page or document and provides an overview of the most important concepts, which you can explore further with follow-up questions.

For best results when assessing links, ask Scholar GPT for a critical analysis or to generate alternative viewpoints. This encourages a more balanced and rational understanding, which is particularly useful if the source material appears biased.

Getting Specific Research Tips

In addition to analyzing papers, Scholar GPT can help you become a more effective researcher. You can use it to learn about specific methods to improve your learning. For example, one of the initial prompts lets you ask the chatbot to:

“Type “LS” to list my built-in critical reading skills”

Scholar GPT will respond with several critical reading methods and a short description of each. You can then ask it to elaborate on a specific one with a follow-up prompt like:

“Can you help me learn more about [number]?”

From there, the GPT provides a comprehensive overview and even offers practice tasks. This interactive learning process is one of the best ways to integrate ChatGPT into your schoolwork.

Building Custom Research Strategies

Standard study frameworks don't work for everyone, so developing a personalized strategy is key. Scholar GPT can assist with this. Start by entering the prompt:

“Can you list some of the [number] most common research strategies with a quick description for each?”

After Scholar GPT provides a list, you can ask it to help you develop a specific strategy based on your needs. It will generate a comprehensive overview that you can use as a foundation and customize further.

Is Scholar GPT a Full Replacement for Deep Research?

Scholar GPT is packed with helpful features and is particularly strong at finding the latest research. It's also an excellent tool for developing comprehensive study strategies to advance your academic work.

For academic purposes, Scholar GPT is significantly better than Deep Research. It delivers more accurate, up-to-date information and operates much faster. However, ChatGPT's Deep Research still has its place. While Scholar GPT excels at analyzing research papers, Deep Research is more adept at general, day-to-day tasks like finding shopping recommendations or everyday information.