Chatbots like ChatGPT can function as your own personal research assistant. While it shouldn't do the bulk of your research (because it's not capable of doing so accurately!), it is quite capable of helping you get started on research projects! Check out the boxes below for ideas on how to turn a chatbot into your personal research assistant.
There are many different ways you can use ChatGPT and other chatbots (such as Claude, Copilot, Gemini, and others) in your research. There are also many ways in which you shouldn't use them. These chatbots are NOT search engines retrieving facts. If you ask it for a list of books or scholarly articles on a topic, it can (and will) make up results.
Since ChatGPT is good at seeing what people say about different topics, it can be really helpful in figuring out what to research, or how you can research that idea.
For example, you could ask something like: "I am writing a paper for my third year writing class. It can be about anything, but I want to write about something related to my major, which is music therapy. I am especially interested in something to do with children or childhood. Can you suggest 10 possible topic ideas for this paper?". See ChatGPT's answer to this prompt here.
Once you've chosen your topic, you can use ChatGPT to figure out what words scholars use in writing about that topic. This allows you to find the research you need more much effectively and quickly! For example, you could ask something like: "I am writing a paper about the impact of music therapy on children with ADHD. I would like to research on whether or not music therapy improve attention, impulse control, and emotional regulation in children with ADHD. Pretend you're a music therapy or psychology professor, and suggest 25 possible keywords for research on this topic.". See ChatGPT's answer to this prompt here.