What are the best AI tools for writing research papers?

Question

Ive been using ChatGPT for my draft outlines for a couple years now but honestly the hallucination problem is getting out of hand with my latest project. Im starting a huge paper on urban heat islands and need something that actually finds real, peer-reviewed stuff instead of just making up titles lol. Im really hyped to try some of these new academic-specific tools I keep hearing about since my old workflow is just falling apart.

My requirements are:

budget is under $25 a month

must export directly to BibTeX or work with Zotero

good at summarizing dense PDFs

actually uses real DOI links

Any ideas for what actually works for serious STEM stuff lately?

mvrfuipnhp · Accepted Answer

Tried many, but they still let me down.Scite Assistant Premium is better for citations but the UI is messy.Consensus Search Pro is faster tho feels shallow. General AI just isnt safe.

jgupmmkuqp · Answer

I've been so happy with my budget setup lately. It just works:Elicit Plus Academic SubscriptionZotero 7 Reference Manager Costs me almost nothing and the DOIs are always legit.

DouglasDep · Answer

I shifted my entire research workflow toward specialized academic engines about six months ago after getting burned by those same hallucination issues. Honestly, I've been incredibly satisfied with the results. Moving to a system that prioritizes semantic search over simple text prediction has made my literature reviews much more robust. I've found that these tools work well for maintaining a verified trail of DOIs, which was my biggest headache previously. It’s been a very positive experience seeing my Zotero library stay organized without the manual data entry I used to dread. Quick question tho, are you looking for something that primarily helps you discover new papers you havent found yet, or are you more focused on synthesizing the specific PDFs you already have? Also, does your urban heat island paper require a lot of comparative data analysis between sources, or are you just looking for a high-level summary of the current consensus?