Getting Started with Primo Research Assistant

Overview

Primo Research Assistant is a generative AI-powered tool designed to streamline time-intensive tasks. It enables users to query academic content in natural language and utilizes the breadth of your library to pinpoint five articles that can aid in answering your question. The tool distills the most pertinent 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.

Primo Research Assistant is available to all Primo VE customers. Users must log in to use it.

Primo Research Assistant (6 min.)

Research Assistant Response Page

Primo Research Assistant is available to all Primo VE customers. We may need to set a limit on the number of searches an institution can perform within a certain timeframe.

How It Works

Primo Research Assistant uses a Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) architecture to combine the language capabilities of the LLM (Large Language Model) with the knowledge from material indexed in the Central Discovery Index (CDI). Responses are generated as follows:

Query Conversion – The user's question is sent to the LLM, where it is converted to a Boolean query that contains a number of variations of the query, connected with an OR. If the query is non-English, some of the variations will be in the query language, and the other variations will be in English.
Results Retrieval – The Boolean query is sent to CDI to retrieve the results.
Re-ranking – The top results (up to 30) are re-ranked using embeddings to identify five sources that best address the user's query.
Overview Creation – The top five results are sent to the LLM with the instructions to create the overview with inline references, based on the abstracts.
Response Delivery – The overview and sources are returned to the user in the response.

For information regarding AI usage and privacy, see Research Assistant Privacy.

Language Support

Users can ask questions in their local language. The Research Assistant will search for material in both, the local language and English, the overview will be in the local language.

Support for local languages may vary. Currently, we use OpenAI’s GPT-3.5, but we plan to upgrade to GPT-4o mini soon.

Content Scope

We use the entirety of CDI metadata and abstracts with the following exceptions:

News content (Newspaper articles, Newsletters, Text resources).
Collections that are not marked as “free for search” in the CDI collection list (subscription A&I databases).
Sources with insufficient metadata and abstracts to effectively run the tool.
Documents marked as withdrawn or retracted; retraction notes.
Any collections from the following content providers: APA, DataCite, Elsevier, JSTOR, Conde Nast.
Any content published by the providers above coming via aggregator collections.

These details will be updated regularly as some content providers are in active discussions with their stakeholder groups about GenAI tools.

Primo Research Assistant uses your expanded search and does not filter by availability to provide a comprehensive initial overview.

Enabling Primo Research Assistant

Primo Research Assistant is enabled at the view level by setting one or both of the following fields in the General tab of the View Configuration page (Configuration > Discovery > Display Configuration > Configure Views):

Enable Research Assistant Using Icon – Displays the Primo Research Assistant icon in the Main Menu links, enabling users to access the Primo Research Assistant page from any page of the UI.
Enable Research Assistant Using Widget – Displays the Primo Research Assistant widget on the right edge of the Brief Results page, enabling users to ask a question without having to leave the results. After entering the question, users are taken to the Primo Research Assistant page to view the answer.

By default, this functionality is disabled. For additional configuration options, see Additional Configuration Options.

Modifications to all fields on the General tab require you to select the Save button to apply the changes to the UI.

Accessing Primo Research Assistant

Signed-in users can access Primo Research Assistant in the following ways:

Main Menu – On any page in Primo VE, select the Primo Research Assistant icon in the Main Menu to open Primo Research Assistant.
Brief Results page – Select the Primo Research Assistant widget to open the widget's dialog box.

Access Options for Primo Research Assistant

Users must be signed-in to use Primo Research Assistant.

Using Primo Research Assistant

To make the most of Primo Research Assistant, it is essential that you ask clear and detailed questions about academic or scientific topics. Be as specific as possible and phrase your query in the form of a question/request. The following example questions can be found under the search box on Primo Research Assistant's Start Page:

How does vitamin D deficiency impact overall health?
Did Picasso's time in Paris influence his artistic style?
How can we improve diversity in Clinical Trials?
Discuss the reception of Machiavelli's The Prince in modern times.

Requests for materials of a particular type (for example, give me peer reviewed articles about bird migration) or from a certain time or period (for example, give me the newest research on climate change) are not currently supported.
Follow-up questions are not currently supported. Each question stands by itself. For example, if you ask the question what is the most important work of Simone de Beauvoir, you cannot ask the follow-up question and what is the content of that work and expect the system to understand its context with the previous question. At this time, you will have to include all relevant information in each question, for example: what is the content of Beauvoir’s The Second Sex.
Currently, there are no restrictions on the number of searches. However, we are monitoring usage to control costs for the Large Language Model and may need to set a limit on the number of searches an institution can perform within a certain timeframe in the future.

Interface Overview

The interface for Primo Research Assistant consists of the following panels:

Left panel – Enables users to start a new search or view previous sessions that may include multiple questions. For more information, see Primo Research Assistant's Search History.
Right panel – Enables users to enter research questions and view their responses. For more information, see Primo Research Assistant's Response.

Primo Research Assistant Start Page - No Response Shown

Primo Research Assistant's Response

After entering a research question in the right panel, Primo Research Assistant returns a response that includes the following sections:

Overview of Sources – Provides an overview of how the top five sources answer the question, including inline references. Note that this section may not utilize all top five sources, but all five sources are listed under the Sources section. Selecting a source number moves the focus to that reference in the Sources section.

Overview of Sources Section

In addition, users can select the following options from this section:
- Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down icon – Enables users to provide feedback regarding the information returned in the Overview section. The Primo Research Assistant is a work in progress. We encourage you to share your thoughts about what can be improved.
- Copy icon – Enables users to copy the entire topic's text to the clipboard and to paste its contents quickly to a file or an email.
- Try Again icon – Enables users to ask the same question again. Answers to the same question are not always the same because there may be more than one possible answer that references resources differently.
Sources – This section provides a citation for each of the top five sources. Selecting a source displays its abstract at the bottom of the section.

Sources Section - Displaying Abstract of Selected Source #5

Selecting the View more results tile expands the user's research to all matching records in Primo by opening the institution's default Primo view and running the same Boolean search that was used by Primo Research Assistant. From the expanded results in Primo, users can then apply facets, filters, and any other Primo search functionality to refine the search results for this topic.

Expanded Search Results in Primo

From the source's abstract, users can choose from the following options:
- Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down icon – Enables users to provide feedback regarding the selected source.
- Download PDF button – Enables users to utilize Quicklinks (if enabled by the library) to download the PDF of the article.
- Full Text Online button – Enables users to display the full text of the article.
- More Details and Request Options button – Enables users to display the article's full record in Primo.
Related research questions – This section offers additional related questions that users may select to find additional research information or to learn about a topic.

Related Research Questions Section

Primo Research Assistant's Search History

The Research History section in the left panel lists the first question asked for each topic, which may contain many questions. Unless you use the Start a new topic option, all questions in a Primo VE session are added to a single topic. If you are researching different areas, it may be best to start a new topic for each area.

You may select a topic to view all the questions and responses researched in the current Primo VE session.

Research History - Left Panel

Currently, research history is not retained between Primo VE sessions. We plan to enhance this feature in November to include questions/topics from past sessions.

Additional Configuration Options

The following table lists additional configurations that are associated with Primo Research Assistant:

Element	Description
View Configuration page (Configuration > Discovery > Display Configuration > Configure Views)	On the Links Menu tab, you can customize/translate the link's label, which appears in the first position of the Main Menu.
Research Assistant Labels code table (Configuration > Discovery > Display Configuration > Labels)	This table configures the labels that appear in the Main Menu tile and the Primo Research Assistant widget: nui.primo_research_assistant.title.tooltip – Research Assistant nui.primo_research_assistant.widget.title – Research Assistant nui.primo_research_assistant.widget.subTitle – Ask research questions. Explore relevant research. Discover new connections. nui.primo_research_assistant.widget.searchBox.placeHolder – Ask a research question nui.primo_research_assistant.widget.openNewWindow.tooltip – Open in new window nui.primo_research_assistant.title – Research Assistant nui.primo_research_assistant.widget.collapse.tooltip – Collapse Research Assistant widget nui.primo_research_assistant.widget.expand.tooltip – Expand Research Assistant widget nui.aria.primo_research_assistant.submit – Submit nui.primo_research_assistant.beta – BETA nui.primo_research_assistant.widget.tooltip – Submit
Research Assistant Search Screen Labels code table (Configuration > Discovery > Display Configuration > Labels)	This table configures the various labels that appear in the left and right panels of Primo Research Assistant. Please see the table for a listing of the codes and their descriptions.
View Labels code table (Configuration > Discovery > Display Configuration > Labels)	This table configures the Research Assistant labels that appear in the Main Menu tile: mainmenu.label.researchAssistant – Research Assistant nui.mainmenu.description.researchAssistant – Research Assistant

Analytics for Primo Research Assistant

The following actions in the Action Usage subject area are related to the usage of this tool:

Group	Subgroup	Action	Description
ResearchAssistant	Access	Users invoked the RA via Main menu link	User invoked Primo Research Assistant from the Main Menu.
		Users invoked the RA via Widget	User invoked Primo Research Assistant from the widget.
		User invoked the RA via deeplink	User invoked Primo Research Assistant from a deep link.
	Answer	User clicks the Copy option for RA answer	User selected the Copy option for an RA answer.
		User clicks the thumbs up option for RA answer	User selected the Thumbs Up icon for an RA answer.
		User clicks the thumbs down option for RA answer	User selected the Thumbs Down icon for an RA answer.
		User invokes a Primo search using RA enhanced query	User invoked a library search from RA.
		User clicks related research question in RA answer	User selected a related search question from RA.
		User clicks the Help function	User selected the Help link from RA.
		User clicks the AI disclaimer	User selected the AI disclaimer link from RA.
	Search	User runs a RA Search	User asked RA a question.
	Search	User reruns a RA Search using button	User re-executed an RA search using the Try again link.
	Source	User clicks to display source in RA answer	User selected to display source in RA answer.
		User clicks PDF Quicklink in RA source	User selected PDF Quicklink in RA source.
		User clicks HTML Quicklink in RA source	User selected HTML Quicklink in RA source.
		User opens full record display for Source in RA answer	User selected to display the full record of a source in the RA answer.
		User clicks the thumbs up option for Source in RA answer	User selected the Thumbs Up icon for source in RA answer.
		User clicks the thumbs down option for Source in RA answer	User selected the Thumbs Down icon for source in RA answer.

Data Privacy Protection

Your data is treated with utmost confidentiality. We strictly adhere to data privacy policies and regulations, ensuring secure handling of your information. Clarivate genAI tools operate in a secure environment and do not share your data with third parties except as allowed under our privacy policy or with your explicit consent.

Use of Large Language Models (LLMs)

Our tools utilize LLMs to process your input and Clarivate’s licensed content for real-time responses. Neither your input nor the licensed content is stored by the LLM and used for any purpose other than the immediate interaction session. Clarivate does not use your data to directly or indirectly train LLMs.

AI Limitations and Warnings

While powerful, LLMs have limitations and may generate responses that are not accurate. Biases present in training data or in research literature can lead to biased responses. We recommend users to check for accuracy and verify the responses against the source materials provided.