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Research is a file you can open, not a chat you can trust
Workplace research is a sequence: a question, a corpus, notes, and a claim someone will repeat. AI can help with the sequence. It cannot be the corpus. Use it to plan the questions, extract from sources you provide, and structure a note with pointers. Lookup stays in search and in the file, not in the model's memory. ChatGPT will still answer as if it had gone to the library. It has not. It does not know whether the report is the 2024 version, whether the figure is in table three, or whether the author walked back the finding. Someone named still has to open the source before the number leaves the building.
If you cannot name the question, the corpus, and the person who will check the figure, do not open the chat yet. You are still hoping for a library.
Four research jobs ChatGPT can do, and one it cannot
It can turn a vague ask into a research brief: question, scope, what would count as enough. It can extract claims from a document you provide, with section pointers. It can cluster notes into themes and dissent. It can list what the pack does not cover. It cannot replace search, cannot be a citation, and cannot know a number that is not in the paste. Give it the files you are allowed to give it, the reader, and the bans: no studies it remembers, no figures without pointers, no authors you did not supply. Ask it to mark gaps. Then you still go to the catalogue, the warehouse, or the web, and you still open the page.
| Research step | Let ChatGPT | You keep |
|---|---|---|
| Plan | Questions and scope from your ask | Whether the question is worth the time |
| Extract | Claims with section pointers | The file you will open next |
| Cluster | Themes and dissent in your notes | Which theme you will brief |
| Gaps | What the pack does not cover | Where you will look, and who |
Extract from the pack. Look up everywhere else.
Write the question first. Gather the corpus in an approved place. Paste or attach only what you are allowed to paste. State the reader and the decision the note must support. Ban remembered studies, undated figures, and quotes without locations. Ask for a note with pointers and a gap list. Then open those pointers. If the section is wrong, the extract is wrong. If the model cites a paper that is not in the pack, delete the cite. Keep a small set of saved briefs: research plan, extraction, dissent clustering. Edit those. Workplace research is a habit of going back to the file. A stable brief is how that habit survives a deadline.
Role: You are a research clerk preparing notes I will check.
Task: Plan, extract, or cluster from the sources I paste only.
Context: The question, the reader, and the decision the note must support.
Constraints:
- Do not use studies, figures, or authors that are not in the sources.
- If a claim has no location in the pack, write [missing] instead of guessing.
- Separate quoted facts from inferences.
Output: The note with pointers, then a gap list of what I still have to look up.
Quality checks: Which lines a sceptical colleague would ask me to open.If the critique list shows a study or a figure you did not paste, you have already been saved a bad citation. That list is the point of the prompt. Save it in a shared note so the next researcher does not start from what does the research say. Keep the version that survived contact with the original page, and retire the one that treated the model as a library. Five briefs the team uses beat a private trick.
Remembered studies, summary chains, and a footnote that does not exist
Remembered studies are the common failure. A model will name a plausible paper because research notes look unfinished without one. If it is not in your pack, it is not a source. Summary chains are worse: notes of notes of a transcript, each pass deleting the exception. Go back one hop to the file before you act. The third failure is a footnote that does not exist, or a URL that almost exists. Fluency is not a citation. Your review is looking for three things: a pointer you can open, a date, and a dissent the model may have smoothed. If any of those is missing, the note is not finished, however tidy it reads.
| Mistake | What it looks like | What to do instead |
|---|---|---|
| What does the research say | No corpus, no question | Paste the pack or go to search |
| Remembered paper | A study the model named | A file you can open |
| Summary chain | Notes of notes of notes | One hop back to the source |
| Footnote theatre | A tidy cite you cannot click | Pointer, date, or [missing] |
A research note that cites a paper you cannot open is not finished. It is a faster way to repeat a finding nobody has. Open the file.
Related reading on StudyGrid
Read next: How to Summarize Documents with AI How to Cite AI Sources What Is RAG for Business. Those essays sit beside this one. Use them when you need the neighbouring skill, not as a substitute for the check you still have to make.
What to do this week
Take one live question this week. Gather three sources before you chat. Extract with pointers. Open every number in the original file before it goes in a memo. Keep the brief if a colleague could follow the pointer without asking you, and share it with the next researcher. Drop it if they still cite a paper nobody can open. That is how AI for research at work stays a clerk beside the file.