Known Issues

• The latest question is not saved in the research history after a page refresh or after opening Summon Research Assistant with a deep link.

How It Works

Summon 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:

1. 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.

2. Results Retrieval – The Boolean query is sent to CDI to retrieve the results.

3. Re-ranking – The top results (up to 30) are re-ranked using embeddings to identify five sources that best address the user's query.

4. 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.

5. Response Delivery – The overview and sources are returned to the user in the response.

For information regarding AI usage and privacy, see AI Limitations and Warnings.

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.  

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.

• Documents marked as withdrawn or retracted; retraction notes.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 via aggregator collections.

These details will be updated regularly as content providers finish discussing GenAI tools with stakeholder groups.

Interface Overview

The interface for Summon 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 Summon Research Assistant's Search History.

• Right panel – Enables users to enter research questions and view their responses. For more information, see Summon Research Assistant's Response.

Summon Research Assistant's Response

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

1. Sources – This section cites each of the top five sources. Selecting a source displays its abstract at the bottom of the section. From the source's abstract, users can choose from the following options:

   • Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down – These icons enable users to provide feedback regarding the selected source.

   • Download PDF – This button allows users to utilize Quicklinks (if the library has enabled them) to download the article's PDF.

   • Full Text Online – This button enables users to display the full text of the article.

   • More Details and Request Options – This button lets users display the article's full record in Summon.

   

   Sources Section - Displaying Abstract of Selected Source #1

   Selecting the View related results tile triggers a search in Summon. Users can then apply facets, filters, and any other Summon search functionality from the expanded results in Summon to refine the search results for this topic.

   

   Expanded Search Results in Summon

2. 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.

   Summon Research Assistant does not filter out CDI eBooks that have been excluded with the Exclude CDI eBooks option in the Summon Search Profile.

   

   Overview of Sources Section

   In addition, users can select the following options from this section:

   • Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down – These icons enable users to provide feedback regarding the information returned in the Overview section. The Summon Research Assistant is a work in progress. We encourage you to share your thoughts about what can be improved.

   • Copy – This icon enables users to copy the entire topic's text to the clipboard and paste its contents quickly to a file or an email.

   • Try Again – This 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.

3. Related research questions – This section offers additional questions that users may select to find additional research information or learn about a topic.

   

   Related Research Questions Section

Refined Search

Users can refine their searches by resource type (Books, Journal articles, and Peer-reviewed) and date (Last 12 months, Last 5 years, Last 10 years, or a Custom date) by selecting the Refinement icon next to the Search Box to open the refinement options. The default settings are all types and dates.

In addition, users can include these refinements automatically by adding a phrase that includes the resource type and date range after the question in the search box:

In the following example, the question is refined with the resource type (Journal article) and one of the pre-defined date ranges (Last 5 years). These refinements are automatically populated in the search box to use these refinements for follow-up questions:

Summon 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 Summon session are added to a single topic. If you are researching different areas, starting a new topic for each area may be best.

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

Summon Research Assistant saves research topics between sessions and categorizes as follows:

• Today – Lists all topics researched on the current day.

• Last <1-7> days – Lists all topics researched in the last week, excluding topics researched today.

• <Year> – Lists all topics researched per year. The current year excludes the last 7 days.

In addition, the number of questions asked in each topic appears after the topic. Hovering over a topic and selecting its Delete icon enables users to delete a topic when no longer needed.