Accelerating research processes with Scopus AI: A place branding case study

Abstract

Academic databases play a crucial role in advancing science by hosting a vast array of peer-reviewed literature. However, academic database search tools involve a relatively slow and rather unintuitive process of searching and evaluating content. To address these challenges, in January 2024, Elsevier introduced Scopus AI, a generative artificial intelligence that synthesises evidence indexed in Scopus based on prompts. This study assesses the utility of Scopus AI (in its beta version at the time of the research), within the context of a doctoral thesis through a specific case study. By employing a relational prompt and three follow-up questions, the study aims to pinpoint intersections between different topics within the realm of Social Sciences and, more specifically, Communication, with a case on place branding. The consolidated result provides an initial list of references, offers a comprehensive overview, and allows to generate a meta-synthesis based on the summaries provided by each prompt. Scopus AI (beta) presents features that enable researchers to identify influential authors and works, explore relevant keywords, review recent literature, and identify potential research gaps. Although Scopus AI has some limitations, such as the dependence on the abstracts of documents indexed in Scopus, the simplification of concepts, or the relative disconnection between arguments, the results demonstrate the value of this tool in accelerating research processes, as it synthesises research in a given area, maps its main characteristics and allows for information discovery.