Research Assistant
What you can learn from this page:
- What is Research Assistant?
- Accessing Research Assistant
- What does Research Assistant do?
- Considerations about using this AI tool for your research
What is Research Assistant?
Research Assistant is an AI-powered tool within UOW Library SEARCH. It allows users to make natural language queries and receive AI-generated summaries of academic resources.
Accessing Research Assistant
- From the Library homepage, select 'Sign in for complete results'.
- A pop-up window will appear, select 'Students & Staff' and sign in using your UOW username and password.
- Select 'Research Assistant', located at the top of the Library website.


What does Research Assistant do?
Research Assistant enables you to conduct a search, similar to Google, for academic content sources found within Library SEARCH.
When you enter a question into the search bar, Research Assistant will provide:
- An overview of its top five ranked academic resources related to your query. This will provide you with a starting point and big-picture view of your research topic.
- 'Overview of Sources' is created from summarising the top five source descriptions and abstracts.
- You can select 'View more results' within the Library SEARCH catalogue for further resources and to refine their initial search.
- 'Related research questions' option to adjust your question and search terms to yield more targeted search results.


Considerations to Note
- As with any AI-generated summary, its important to verify the sources yourself and critically evaluate the content to deepen your understanding of the topic.
- Use Research Assistant to generate ideas as you begin your search. For more comprehensive strategies, see the Effective Searching guide.
- Research Assistant does not search everything within Library SEARCH.
Further Information
Contact the Liaison Librarian team at: lib-liaison-services@uow.edu.au, for further questions regarding using Research Assistant to support teaching and learning in your subjects.