How this list is made. Every tool here is one I demonstrate or recommend in a session; nothing is listed because it pays. None of the links on this page are paid or affiliate links.

Everyday AI assistants

4 tools

The general assistants I use in almost every session. UKM staff and students: use your university Google account for Gemini and NotebookLM.

Free tier

Gemini & Gems

Drafting, summarising and reusable custom assistants (Gems) inside Google Workspace.

Used in Gemini productivity · AI in Research (FEP) · AI in Research & Pedagogy · Bengkel Kajian Literatur AI · Scientific Communication using AI

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Free tier

NotebookLM

Ask questions of your own PDFs and notes, with every answer cited back to the source.

Used in AI for Literature Review clinic · Bengkel Kajian Literatur AI · AI in Research & Pedagogy · AI in Research (FEP) · AI in Clinical Research · Scientific Communication using AI

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Free tier

Claude

Long documents, careful writing feedback and building small tools.

Used in AI in Research (FEP) · AI in Research & Pedagogy · Bengkel Kajian Literatur AI · SIM Builder · Prompt Engineering Architect

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Free tier

ChatGPT

The assistant most participants already have; useful for comparing answers.

Used in AI in Research (FEP) · AI in Research & Pedagogy · Bengkel Kajian Literatur AI · AI in Clinical Research

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Map how papers connect

4 tools

Citation maps show the clusters and gaps a keyword search hides.

Free

Inciteful

Builds a citation network from a few seed papers and ranks what you missed.

Used in AI in Research & Pedagogy · Bengkel Kajian Literatur AI

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Free tier

ResearchRabbit

Grow a collection from seed papers and get alerts as the field moves.

Used in AI in Research & Pedagogy · Bengkel Kajian Literatur AI

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Free tier

Connected Papers

One-click similarity graph around a single paper.

Used in AI in Research & Pedagogy · Bengkel Kajian Literatur AI

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Free tier

Litmaps

Timeline-style citation maps that are easy to show a supervisor.

Used in AI in Research & Pedagogy · Bengkel Kajian Literatur AI

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Screen studies for a systematic review

3 tools

For PRISMA-style reviews, where two people must screen the same records.

Open source

ASReview

Active learning puts the most likely relevant abstracts first; runs on your own machine.

Used in AI in Research (FEP) · Bengkel Kajian Literatur AI

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Free tier

Rayyan

Blind double-screening with conflict resolution, free for small teams.

Used in AI for Literature Review clinic · Bengkel Kajian Literatur AI · AI in Research & Pedagogy · AI in Research (FEP)

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Paid

Covidence

End-to-end review workflow if your institution subscribes.

Used in AI in Research (FEP) · Bengkel Kajian Literatur AI

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Manage and format references

4 tools

Pick one manager and keep every PDF in it from day one.

FreeBuilt by me

Gaya UKM Reference Formatter

My own tool: turns BibTeX, a .bib file or a DOI into a clean Gaya UKM reference list.

Open tool →
Open source

Zotero

Free, open and works with Word and Google Docs. My default recommendation.

Used in AI for Literature Review clinic · Bengkel Kajian Literatur AI · AI in Research & Pedagogy · AI in Research (FEP) · Scientific Communication using AI

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Free

Mendeley

Fine if your group already shares a Mendeley library.

Used in AI for Literature Review clinic · AI in Research & Pedagogy

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Paid

EndNote

Common in clinical and health faculties; use it if your team does.

Used in AI for Literature Review clinic · AI in Research & Pedagogy · AI in Clinical Research

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Write in your own voice

1 tool

A small tool I built for a problem that keeps coming up in workshops.

FreeBuilt by me

Human Voice check

Flags paragraph patterns that read as machine-written and asks what only you can answer. Runs locally.

Open tool →

Run AI on your own computer

2 tools

For sensitive data that should never leave your machine.

Open source

Ollama

Download and run open models locally with one command.

Used in Ollama + Hermes Agent · Evolusi AI · AI in Research (FEP)

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Free

LM Studio

Desktop app for trying local models without the command line.

Used in AI in Research (FEP) · Evolusi AI

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Prototype and build

4 tools

From an idea to a working demo in an afternoon.

Free tier

Google AI Studio

Try Gemini models and build a first app without setup.

Used in MVP Sprint

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Free tier

Lovable

Describe a web app in plain language and get a working, editable version.

Used in MVP Sprint

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Free tier

Bolt

Similar to Lovable; useful to compare outputs for the same brief.

Used in MVP Sprint

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Free tier

Cursor

AI code editor for when the prototype needs real code.

Used in Prompt Engineering Architect

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