September E-Resource Roundup
The four AIRAs that we will be introducing in this Roundup are:
- Mintel Leap
- Ask JoVE
- Optica AI -Optica Publishing Group
- OED AI Search Assistant – Oxford English Dictionary
Mintel
Provider: Mintel
Name of AIRA: Mintel Leap
Status: Enabled, included in subscription
URL: https://www.mintel.com/products/leap-market-intelligence-ai/
Additional Information: Users must authenticate with their VCU email address for access and confirm work is for educational purposes.
Brief Summary:
Mintel Leap is an AI-powered research platform designed to help users access and explore Mintel’s proprietary market intelligence, consumer research, product data, and industry analysis. Built on a closed-loop AI framework, Mintel Leap combines Mintel’s data assets with expert-generated insights to provide responses to research and business questions.
Users can ask natural-language questions across topics including consumer behavior, product innovation, category trends, and market dynamics. The platform synthesizes relevant information from Mintel’s research to deliver concise answers and direct users to supporting analysis and data sources. By drawing exclusively from Mintel-owned content and intelligence, Mintel Leap is designed to provide transparent, source-based responses grounded in Mintel’s research ecosystem.
Leap training for Academic – video:
https://vimeo.com/reviews/d68e54c2-2546-4dbe-8681-9357778c1e42/videos/1204253121
JoVE
Provider: JoVE
Name of AIRA: Ask JoVE
Status: Enabled, included in subscription
URL: https://help.jove.com/hc/en-us/articles/31956894309524-AI-Powered-Search
Additional Information: Users can access subscribed JoVE content through their institution’s authentication (such as IP recognition or institutional login). A personal JoVE account is not required simply to access subscribed content and the Ask JoVE AI assistant; however, creating a free personal account enables additional personalized features such as saved playlists, bookmarks, and other customization options.
Brief Summary:
Ask JoVE is an AI-powered assistant designed to help researchers, educators, and students discover and navigate JoVE’s scientific video and educational content more efficiently. Users can ask questions in natural language and receive responses that guide them to relevant JoVE resources.
When a query is submitted, the AI Search feature returns content based on the topic or question entered. Results may include a brief AI-generated summary, a recommended video, and additional related videos and resources that align with the query. Content details such as product type (for example, Research or Education), article titles, review counts, video duration, and view counts are displayed to help users evaluate the relevance of the results.
Search results also indicate content accessibility. Open-access videos are identified separately from content that requires a subscription or institutional access. Users can continue refining their searches or asking follow-up questions within the same session, with the search experience maintaining the context of previous queries to support ongoing topic exploration.
Users can access Ask JoVE directly within the JoVE platform while using their institution’s subscription (it can typically be found in the top right corner on any page) or through the platform at: https://www.jove.com.
Optica Publishing Group
Provider: Optica Publishing Group
Name of AIRA: Optica AI
Status: Enabled, included in subscription
URL: https://opg.optica.org/
Additional Information: The tool is found at the upper right side of the journal webpage beside the search icon.
Brief Summary:
Optica AI is an experimental discovery tool that uses a Large Language Model (LLM) to help users explore content from the Optica Publishing Group collection, including journals and conference proceedings published since 1917. The tool is currently in beta and continues to be developed and evaluated.
Optica AI may assist users with:
- Discovering and summarizing journal articles and conference papers published since 1917
- Finding and interpreting policy-related information
- Identifying Optica Publishing Group journals that may align with a manuscript’s topic and scope
- Interacting with the tool in multiple languages
Because Optica AI is powered by generative AI technology, its responses may contain inaccuracies, omissions, or outdated information. Responses should be considered informational only and should not be regarded as authoritative sources. Users are encouraged to verify important information using the original published content and other relevant resources.
Optica AI can provide summaries and insights related to individual articles or groups of articles to support content discovery. However, it does not generate new scientific findings, perform original research, or replace expert review and interpretation.
Optica AI performs best with English, but it can also understand and respond in most languages commonly found on the Internet.
As an evolving beta service, Optica AI’s capabilities and performance may change over time. User feedback helps inform ongoing evaluation and improvement efforts. Feedback can be submitted through the available rating and comment features.
Oxford English Dictionary
Provider: Oxford English Dictionary
Name of AIRA: OED AI Search Assistant
Status: Enabled, included in subscription
URL: https://www.oed.com/information/using-the-oed/ai-search-assistant/?tl=true
Additional Information: The AI Search Assistant is located at the top of each page to the right of the Advanced Search. When you click in, you will be prompted to enter your query. Just like the Advanced Search, the AI Search Assistant is currently available to anyone and allows users to submit a question and then receive a URL to a prefiltered search results page.
Brief Summary:
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) AI Search Assistant is a tool designed to help users navigate OED.com resources by translating natural-language questions into relevant OED search queries and information-page links. The Assistant can be used to generate links to pre-filtered Advanced Search results pages based on a user’s query. For example, a question such as “What words relating to dining entered the English language during the twentieth century?” may result in a link to an Advanced Search page with relevant search parameters applied. Users can review the generated search criteria and further modify or refine the results using the OED’s search tools. The Assistant can also direct users to information pages about the Oxford English Dictionary and its editorial processes. For example, questions about how words are added to the dictionary may be answered by providing links to relevant explanatory content.
The OED AI Search Assistant is trained on OED.com’s URL structure, including search-result and information pages. It is not trained on OED dictionary content itself and does not interpret, summarize, analyze, or generate definitions, entries, or other dictionary content. Its responses are limited to directing users to relevant OED resources through URLs. The Assistant may not be able to respond to all queries. In some cases, a question may not correspond to available OED search functionality or information resources. When this occurs, the Assistant may suggest rephrasing the query or using the OED’s search tools directly. Like other AI-based systems, the Assistant may occasionally generate incorrect, incomplete, or irrelevant results. Responses should be reviewed and verified by users before being relied upon. Feedback on the relevance and accuracy of Assistant responses can be submitted using the thumbs up and thumbs down controls available within the chat interface. User feedback may be used to support ongoing evaluation and improvement of the tool.
Categories Journals, Publishing, Research support, Technology and collections