Prerequisites: Tools & Setup
Required tools (AI assistants, research databases, Zotero), skills, and time commitment
Required Tools
AI Research Assistants
Choose one AI assistant: Claude Pro (recommended for 200K context window to upload entire papers), ChatGPT Plus (good browsing capabilities), or Gemini Advanced (excellent autonomous research). All cost $20/month.
Research Databases
Free access to Google Scholar (all disciplines), ArXiv (CS/physics/econ pre-prints), PubMed (medical/life sciences), and SSRN (social sciences). No subscription required.
Citation Management
Zotero (free, open-source) is essential for organizing sources and generating bibliographies. Install Zotero Connector browser extension for one-click citation saving.
Required Skills
Essential Knowledge: Three skills are necessary to use this workflow effectively. First, basic familiarity with academic paper structure (abstract, introduction, literature review, methodology, results, discussion). Second, comfort using AI chatbots through conversational prompting. Third, understanding of citations and bibliographies (when and how to cite sources).
Optional Tools
Helpful but Not Required: A PDF reader with annotation capability (like Adobe Acrobat, Preview on Mac, or Xodo) can help mark up papers before feeding them to AI. A text editor (Notepad, TextEdit, VS Code) is useful for saving prompt templates you reuse frequently.
Time Investment
Realistic Time Commitment: Initial setup is a one-time investment of 15 minutes (installing Zotero and browser extension). The first research project using this workflow takes 60-90 minutes as you learn the process. Subsequent projects drop to 45-60 minutes once you master the workflow and build a prompt library.
AI Assistant Comparison
Each AI assistant has distinct strengths for research:
Claude Pro offers the largest context window (200,000 tokens), allowing upload of multiple full-length academic papers simultaneously. Ideal for literature reviews and comparative analysis across papers.
ChatGPT Plus includes web browsing and DALL-E integration. Strong for finding recent sources and generating visual diagrams from research findings.
Gemini Advanced excels at autonomous research tasks with extended context retention. Particularly effective for exploratory research and brainstorming research questions.
Research Database Access
All required research databases are freely accessible:
Google Scholar indexes academic papers across all disciplines. Search by keywords, author names, or paper titles. Provides citation counts and "Cited by" links for tracking influence.
ArXiv hosts pre-prints in computer science, physics, mathematics, economics, and statistics. Papers available before journal publication, offering cutting-edge research.
PubMed covers medical and life sciences literature. Maintained by the National Library of Medicine with 35+ million citations.
SSRN (Social Science Research Network) provides working papers and published research in social sciences, including economics, management, and law.
Zotero Setup
Download Zotero
Visit zotero.org and download the desktop application for your operating system (Windows, Mac, or Linux). Install the application by following the standard installation process.
Install Browser Extension
Download Zotero Connector for your browser (Chrome, Firefox, Edge, or Safari). This extension adds a save button to your browser toolbar that detects academic papers on webpage and saves them directly to Zotero.
Create Account (Optional)
Create a free Zotero account for cloud sync across devices. This allows access to your library from multiple computers and provides 300MB of free storage for PDFs.
Verification Checklist
Before proceeding to the workflow chapters, verify the following:
- AI assistant subscription active (Claude Pro, ChatGPT Plus, or Gemini Advanced)
- Zotero desktop application installed
- Zotero Connector browser extension installed and enabled
- Can access at least two research databases (Google Scholar and one other)
- Understand basic academic paper structure
- Comfortable writing prompts and conversing with AI chatbots
Complete these prerequisites before moving to Chapter 2: Finding Sources.