Academic AI-powered research assistance now available in ProQuest Central

ProQuest Research Assistant is now integrated into ProQuest Central, one of the world's largest and most widely used research databases. ProQuest Central from ProQuest, part of Clarivate, offers a vast array of resources, including newspapers, magazines, dissertations, working papers, market reports and thousands of full-text scholarly journals, all aimed at supporting academic research.

ProQuest Research Assistant integrates AI-powered capabilities into research workflows, offering suggestions and prompts at critical points. It helps users formulate next steps and boosts productivity by providing document insights instead of simple generative answers to research questions. With thousands of colleges and universities providing access to ProQuest Central, institutions can leverage AI to enhance academic outcomes while maintaining traditional scholarly standards.

Evolving AI tools with input from the academic community

ProQuest Research Assistant has been in beta with users of the ProQuest One suite of products, including ProQuest One Academic, since mid-2024. Developed in partnership with librarians and users, ProQuest Research Assistant seamlessly integrates AI-powered capabilities within the users’ research and learning workflows. As users reach typical trouble spots, such as interrogating documents, ProQuest Research Assistant acts as a companion with suggestions and prompts that help them formulate next steps. AI powers users’ journeys forward, rather than feeding them answers.

The user experience team behind ProQuest Research Assistant is continually enhancing the tool based on user feedback and behavior, often gleaned directly from classroom experiences. As a result, librarians and faculty can keep pace with students’ needs in a rapidly changing technology environment.

Academic AI that boosts engagement with documents

Understanding and working with documents such as scholarly journal articles is an essential academic skill and a typical hurdle for undergraduate students. ProQuest Research Assistant uses AI to help students conquer that challenge. AI features are embedded within full-text documents, supporting their review, analysis and interrogation. Here’s how:

• • A key takeaway of the full-text document is presented, allowing users to quickly determine relevance and then guide the next steps in their scholarly journey.
  • Important concepts in the document – explaining each term and why it’s relevant – are instantly available. Users can search any key concept in one click, propelling deeper research and investigation.
  • Tailored recommendations act as idea generation partners, suggesting relevant research topics and prompting students with a pre-defined Boolean search that can be activated in one click.

Helping students think forward

ProQuest Research Assistant is part of the larger initiative at Clarivate to improve student outcomes and support different learning styles. With a growing set of Academic AI tools, Clarivate is leveraging its broad range of assets – curated content, learning and teaching workflow tools and mobile campus solutions – to connect students and faculty to trusted resources, make the learning experience more affordable and build greater classroom and campus engagement.

Adhering to rigorous academic principles

The Clarivate AI-powered assistants include Web of Science Research Assistant, Primo Research Assistant, Ebook Central Research Assistant, and Alethea, which along with ProQuest Research Assistant, are being developed in partnership with our customer communities. They will continue to evolve and be shaped by librarians, users and the academic community, expanding with new capabilities over time, while adhering to rigorous academic principles and the responsible application of AI.

Learn more about our approach to the responsible use of academic AI by registering for our webinar on March 6, “The impact of AI in the classroom: Experiences and learnings.”