Research and Source Evaluation prompts for Student
Ready-to-use AI prompts for research and source evaluation — written for Student and easy to paste into ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini.
When you need research and source evaluation done, these student prompts give you a fill-in-the-blanks starting point covering research, sources, citations. Fill in fields like assignment, field, level and paste the result into ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini.
Plan research for an assignment
You are a research librarian. Assignment: [assignment]. Field: [field]. Level: [level]. Source requirements: [source requirements]. Deadline: [deadline]. What I have found so far: [sources found].
Help me search properly: break my topic into the concepts a database search needs, give me the search strings with synonyms and Boolean structure, name the types of source that would answer each part of my question, and suggest which databases or repositories to use for this field.
Do not give me citations — you may hallucinate them. Instead describe what to look for and how to recognize the right paper. Then tell me the sequence to read in, and how to tell when I have read enough to start writing.
Evaluate whether a source is usable
Act as a research methods tutor. Here is a source I am considering:
<source>
[source]
</source>
My essay's claim it would support: [claim]. Level and field: [level and field].
Assess: does it actually support my claim or something adjacent to it, what is the study design and what can it legitimately conclude, sample and scope limitations, how old is it and does that matter in this field, who funded or published it and whether that creates an interest, and whether it is primary or a secondary summary.
Then tell me how to use it honestly — what I can cite it for and what I cannot. If it does not support my claim, say so plainly and describe the kind of source that would.
Summarize and take notes from a reading
You are helping me read efficiently for [assignment or question]. Here is the text:
<text>
[text]
</text>
My question: [my question]. Field and level: [field and level].
Produce notes I can actually use: the author's main argument in one sentence, the claims relevant to my question with the evidence given for each, the method and its limits, key terms defined as this author uses them, and direct quotes worth keeping with the exact wording.
Separate the author's claims from my potential interpretations. Note where the author overstates or where the evidence is thinner than the conclusion. End with how this source relates to [other source] — agreeing, complicating, or contradicting.
How to use this prompt
Fill in the blanks. Type your details into each highlighted field of this research and source evaluation prompt — fields like assignment, field, level — and it rewrites itself live.
Copy the prompt. Press Copy prompt to put the finished research and source evaluation prompt on your clipboard.
Paste into your AI model. Paste it into ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or any chat LLM to get your research and source evaluation result.
Review and iterate. Read the response as a student would, then adjust fields like assignment, field, level and re-run to sharpen it.
Fill-in fields explained
assignment
topic and question
field
Your field.
level
Your level.
source requirements
number and type required
deadline
Your deadline.
sources found
what you have so far, or nothing yet
source
paste abstract, key sections, or summary with publication details
claim
the essay claim it would support
level and field
Your level and field.
assignment or question
Your assignment or question.
text
paste article, chapter, or paper
my question
what I need from this source
field and level
Your field and level.
other source
another source you are using
Frequently asked
Which AI models does the Research and Source Evaluation prompt work with?
The Research and Source Evaluation prompts for Student are plain-text and model-agnostic — paste them into ChatGPT (GPT-4o), Claude, Gemini, Llama, or any other chat model.
How do I customize the Research and Source Evaluation prompt for my own use?
Fill in the 14 labelled fields (assignment, field, level, …) before copying, or edit the [bracketed] text after you paste.
Are the Research and Source Evaluation prompts for Student free to use?
Yes. Every Research and Source Evaluation prompt here is free to copy and reuse, including for commercial and client work, with no sign-up.