In the Fall 2023 semester, Clemson Libraries began offering access to scite, an AI tool to help users search and discover scientific content. Since then, use of the resource has nearly doubled, going from 270 users in December to more than 470 users in mid-March.
The scite database contains more than 1.8 billion references, for which they have indexed more than 1.2 billion citation statements from full-text articles, making it a powerful tool with the potential to transform the learning and research experience for students and faculty alike. Researchers can check Smart Citation metrics at the level of articles, journals, organizations, and funders. Students can ask research questions in plain language and get answers directly from the full text of research articles. A browser extension enables users to see Smart Citations anywhere they are reading a scientific article online.
“At the Clemson Teaching Excellence Conference 2024: Teaching in the Age of AI, participants asked about campus wide subscription to AI-enhanced tools that can help with learning and research activities. Scite is an example of those type of resources available to everyone at Clemson,” said Elias Tzoc, associate dean for teaching, learning and research. “As we end the first-year subscription, we invite everyone who has used scite, to complete the feedback form and let us know what you think of it. Leveraging AI technologies ethically and responsibly has the potential to transform and tailor learning and research experiences.”
The most popular feature is the scite Assistant, which is similar to using ChatGPT. More than 5,000 assistant queries have been submitted by Clemson users so far. Report Views, which allows users to read full reports on specific publications and their research impact, is another popular feature, with more than 2,000 reports viewed.
Undergraduate students make up the biggest percentage (42%) of scite users at Clemson, and they come from a variety of majors, from psychology to construction science and management to computer science to PRTM. Graduate students (33%) are the second-largest group, and they also come from a variety of disciplines, including teaching and learning, business administration, and wildlife and fisheries biology.
The subscription is open to all Clemson students, faculty and staff. To get started, users can visit the scite guide on the Clemson Libraries website. Once they have an account, users can start searching or using their scite Assistant feature, which is similar to ChatGPT. For help, check the Getting Started and Tutorials/Guides pages or view their short videos.
