Musings on academia and AI in research.

Using AI in a Literature Review: What University and Publisher Policies Actually Allow

What Cambridge, Stanford, Toronto, Sydney, the Russell Group, Elsevier and the ICMJE say about generative AI, translated into a task-by-task guide for literature reviews, with disclosure statement templates and a record-keeping routine.

Sep 2026

Elicit Student Discount & Other AI Research Tool Discounts

Elicit has academic pricing but no student code. Consensus: up to 40% off. Paperguide: 30%. Wonders: 50%. Each price checked on the tool's own site, 21 Sept 2026.

Sep 2026

How to Check Whether an AI-Generated Citation Is Real

Chatbots invent references that look authentic. A five-step verification routine using DOI lookup, Crossref, Google Scholar, library catalogues and the Retraction Watch database, with worked examples taken from the fabricated citations documented in Mata v. Avianca and from a published study of ChatGPT references.

Sep 2026

Research Tools for Graduate Students: A 2026 Toolkit

A toolkit for MA and PhD students, by job: reference managers, literature search, writing, notes and data analysis. Prices shown only where we checked them, Sept 2026.

Feb 2026

Best Literature Review Tools in 2026 (AI & Traditional)

Literature review tools compared by job: finding papers, managing references, reading and writing. Free tiers and prices checked on each tool's site, Sept 2026.

Feb 2026

Best Elicit Alternatives in 2026: 6 Tools Compared

Elicit alternatives by use case: Wonders (guided workspace), Scite (citation checks), Consensus (quick answers), SciSpace (PDFs), Semantic Scholar (free).

Feb 2026

National University Streamlines Literature Review with Wonders

How National University put Wonders in front of its doctoral cohort — speeding up topic discovery, raising citation quality, and easing supervision load, with students reporting nine hours saved each week.

Apr 2025

El Niño 2026: what it could do where you live, and what to do now

The strongest El Niño since 1950 may be forming. In 1997–98, an extreme El Niño was linked to an estimated more than 22,000 deaths worldwide. Here is what it could mean for your county, and what to do this week.

Sep 2026