Step by step
Start a project with the guided interview
Go from a working title to a problem statement, objectives and research questions, then a ready workspace, in about five minutes.
- Time
- 5 minutes
- Steps
- 6
A project is where you work on one study: a thesis, a literature review, an article or a grant proposal. Setting one up takes five short steps: Title, Interview, Problem statement, Objectives & RQs and Set up workspace.
The AI can help you shape the problem statement and the research questions, but you decide what stays. Everything it writes is Suggested until you accept it. You can leave at any point: the draft is saved as you go, and opening it from Home brings you back to the same step.
Step 1Choose New project
On Home, choose New project.
Step 2Give it a title, a type and an AI language
Answer What is your study about? with a Working title. Plain language is fine, and you can change it later.
Pick the Project type (Thesis, Literature review, Systematic review, Article, Grant proposal or Qualitative study) and the AI language, English or Bahasa Melayu. The interview, drafts and suggestions are written in that language. See The project's AI language.
Then choose how to go on:
- Start interview: the AI asks you six short questions. The cost is shown beside it.
- I already have my research questions: skip to writing your own questions.
- Set up without AI: go straight to the last step.
Step 3Answer the six interview questions
The AI asks about your context, the people you study, the problem you have noticed, what is already known, why it matters and how you would like to study it. Type your answer, or start from one of the suggested answers, then choose Next question. Skip passes a question.
On the right, Problem statement · forming shows each answer filling one part of the statement. You can change an earlier answer at any time with Edit.
Step 4Draft and accept the problem statement
When all six parts are in, choose Draft my problem statement. The AI writes it from your answers only, marked Suggested.
Make it yours: choose Edit to change the words, or ask the AI to Make it more concise, make it More formal, Emphasise the gap, or write it in the other language. Regenerate writes a new version; earlier versions are kept.
Already have a statement? Choose Paste my own problem statement instead.
When you are happy, choose Accept and suggest objectives (or Accept and write my own questions).
Step 5Choose your objectives and research questions
The AI suggests pairs of an objective and a research question, each with a method. Tick the ones to keep, Edit any of them, or add your own with + Add your own pair. Drag the kept pairs into order: they become RQ1, RQ2 and so on.
Choose Continue to go on (the button says how many pairs you kept).
Step 6Set up the workspace
The last step builds your workspace:
- Matrix columns: the first columns of your literature matrix, chosen from your research questions' methods. Untick any you don't want.
- Also add papers from your Global Library: papers that already match your keywords, title and questions, at 0 credits. None are ticked; tick the ones you want. Edit keywords changes what they are matched by.
Nothing is charged until you fill columns. Choose Create project: the project opens, ready to work in.
What's next
- Add papers to a project
- The project overview page: your statement, keywords and research questions, editable at any time.
- The literature matrix