Research Assistant Artificial Intelligence Tools

What is it?

OneSearch (Primo) Research Assistant is a generative AI-powered tool designed to help users conduct research. It enables users to search academic content in natural language and utilizes its collection pinpoint five articles that can aid in answering your question. The tool finds the relevant information from the descriptions/abstracts of each article to craft the response's overview that includes in-line references to the sources to provide transparency in how each source contributed to the response. Beneath the overview, these sources and additional sources are available for further exploration of the subject and for verifying the tool's responses.

What does it not do?

Research Assistant does not generate in-depth content that can be used in place of a paper or essay. This tool only finds and summarizes five sources related to a search.

Faculty and Staff: Register for upcoming professional development sessions in March and April 2025 on the Office of Professional Development website.

Students: For assistance using OneSearch Research Assistant, use our Ask the Library service to chat with or email a librarian.  

• Begin a new search using University Libraries OneSearch
• Make sure you have signed in with your CCU account. Click the Sign In button if prompted to do so. 
• In the top left of the menu bar, click on Research Assistant (Beta)
• Type your search as a question, in natural language. No keyword searches are necessary. 

What is being searched?

RA pulls from Ex Libris’ "Central Discovery Index," which includes materials from libraries world-wide. This means that occasionally, the five sources that show up in RA may include material only available at CCU through a PASCAL Request or Interlibrary Loan.  

What is excluded from the search?

Excluded Databases

• APA, DataCite, Elsevier, JSTOR, and Conde Nast are not included. Sources published or aggregated in these databases and publishers do not show up in OneSearch Research Assistant.

Excluded Source Types

• News: newspapers and newsletters will not show up in OneSearch Research Assistant.  
• Retracted: Articles marked as withdrawn or retracted will not be included.