The AI Turn in Academic Research is a book I co-authored with Dr. Johanathan Woodworth, written for faculty, research students, and anyone in academia who is trying to understand how AI fits into the everyday work of doing research.
The project didn’t start as a book. It started with conversations. Over the past two years, we kept hearing the same questions from colleagues, graduate students, and research supervisors. How do we use AI without losing our own voice? Which tools genuinely help with literature reviews, note taking, interviews, or data analysis? How do we keep ethics at the center when everything around us is changing so fast? Those questions shaped the direction of this work. Instead of writing about AI in general terms, we decided to create something grounded in practice and informed by real research workflows.
Inside the book, you’ll find clear strategies for using AI as a research partner. Not a shortcut, not a replacement for scholarly thinking, but a companion that can support note taking, help you analyze transcripts, assist with interview planning, refine writing, and strengthen your interpretation of data.
Related: Teaching with AI: A Practical Guide for Teachers
We also curated a full ecosystem of AI tools, organized across the research cycle. If you’ve been looking for a structured overview of what tools can support literature reviews, reading, data collection, analysis, communication, or writing, this book brings them together in one place.
One thing we insisted on from the beginning is ethics. There is a full section dedicated to authorship, privacy, accuracy, data protection, and the judgement calls researchers need to make when AI is involved.
The structure reads more like a textbook than a traditional book, and that was intentional. We wanted something faculty can bring into their methods courses, something research students can keep open while working on their projects, and something universities can rely on when they start building or revising their AI guidelines. Each chapter stands on its own, which makes it easy to integrate into teaching or workshops.
And the part I’m happiest about: the book is free. Thanks to the support of Mount Saint Vincent University, especially the library team, The AI Turn in Academic Research is available through PressBooks. You can read it online or download your own copy. There are no paywalls, no restricted chapters, nothing hidden behind institutional access. If you want to use the book in your courses or share chapters with your students, you can do so freely.
We wrote this book to support researchers and educators who are navigating a fast-changing landscape. If you decide to use it in your teaching or share it with colleagues, we would love to hear how it supports your work and the kinds of conversations it sparks in your classrooms and research groups.
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