Aaron Tay
@aarontay.bsky.social
I'm librarian + blogger from Singapore Management University. Social media, bibliometrics, analytics, academic discovery tech.
Pinned
Aaron Tay
@aarontay.bsky.social
· Nov 28
I'm an academic librarian blogger at Musings about librarianship since 2009.
To get a taste of what I blog, see "Best of..." Musings about librarianship - Posts on discovery, open access, bibliometrics, social media & more. Have you read them?
musingsaboutlibrarianship.blogspot.com/p/best-of.html
To get a taste of what I blog, see "Best of..." Musings about librarianship - Posts on discovery, open access, bibliometrics, social media & more. Have you read them?
musingsaboutlibrarianship.blogspot.com/p/best-of.html
Amazed by the volume of last minute submissions... Still a little birdie tells me unofficially the form will be open for a few more days...
📣 Registration OPEN for #FORCE2026 (3–5 Jun, Singapore). A conference on the future of research communication & open science.
Early-bird: by 28 Feb 2026.
Call for Proposal: Ends 9 Nov 2025. Authors get a special rate. Details & CFP force11.org/force2026/
#FORCE2026 #ScholarlyCommunication
Early-bird: by 28 Feb 2026.
Call for Proposal: Ends 9 Nov 2025. Authors get a special rate. Details & CFP force11.org/force2026/
#FORCE2026 #ScholarlyCommunication
November 10, 2025 at 1:10 PM
Amazed by the volume of last minute submissions... Still a little birdie tells me unofficially the form will be open for a few more days...
Oh joy.. Yet another comment wanting to debate definitions.... Maybe actually studying the tool and critiquing it on concrete points would be more useful?
November 9, 2025 at 2:40 PM
Oh joy.. Yet another comment wanting to debate definitions.... Maybe actually studying the tool and critiquing it on concrete points would be more useful?
So there apparently is a distinction between 'ai literacy' (explain why hallucination occurs) and 'ai fluency' (know ways to reduce hallucinations) ? Problem is ...
November 9, 2025 at 9:17 AM
So there apparently is a distinction between 'ai literacy' (explain why hallucination occurs) and 'ai fluency' (know ways to reduce hallucinations) ? Problem is ...
Looks like cognitive offloading is the new buzzword people are throwing around....
November 9, 2025 at 4:56 AM
Looks like cognitive offloading is the new buzzword people are throwing around....
tried again with "research mode" so it thinks harder.
November 8, 2025 at 7:40 PM
tried again with "research mode" so it thinks harder.
Trying out the Wiley Scholar Gateway - a MCP server that allows claude to search Wiley full-text directly as a tool. Currently in beta, Claude can send queries to the MCP server which will return chunks of texts (the usual vector embedding match) to help Claude answer the question. (1)
November 8, 2025 at 7:13 PM
Trying out the Wiley Scholar Gateway - a MCP server that allows claude to search Wiley full-text directly as a tool. Currently in beta, Claude can send queries to the MCP server which will return chunks of texts (the usual vector embedding match) to help Claude answer the question. (1)
How to be innovative knowledge.csc.gov.sg/how-to-be-in... so much "innovative theatre" . I agree.
How To Be Innovative
knowledge.csc.gov.sg
November 8, 2025 at 11:01 AM
How to be innovative knowledge.csc.gov.sg/how-to-be-in... so much "innovative theatre" . I agree.
Reposted by Aaron Tay
A week after the arXiv was forced to tighten down on submissions because of overwhelming volumes of AI slop, bioRxiv is throwing the doors wide open.
disappointed that @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social is implicitly endorsing the use of LLMs to replace scientific thought
@richardsever.bsky.social this is a short-sighted move and a net negative for science
@richardsever.bsky.social this is a short-sighted move and a net negative for science
IT'S HAPPENING! 💥 I'm psyched to launch the collaboration between @qedscience.bsky.social & @openrxiv.bsky.social @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social! Preprint + q.e.d = your science is out there, and anyone can appreciate it. Let's care about making discoveries, and not on “getting published” (1/3) 👇
November 7, 2025 at 1:59 PM
A week after the arXiv was forced to tighten down on submissions because of overwhelming volumes of AI slop, bioRxiv is throwing the doors wide open.
This is very controversial of course.. Even as a option you see people threatening to boycott already
IT'S HAPPENING! 💥 I'm psyched to launch the collaboration between @qedscience.bsky.social & @openrxiv.bsky.social @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social! Preprint + q.e.d = your science is out there, and anyone can appreciate it. Let's care about making discoveries, and not on “getting published” (1/3) 👇
November 8, 2025 at 9:08 AM
This is very controversial of course.. Even as a option you see people threatening to boycott already
I've been on a few panels/podcasts lately & a point raised as been how much people actually use specialised ai research tools like Elicit, Undermind, or even ai from established players like Scopus Ai Vs using chatgpt/Gemini maybe+ deep research. After all we see much more use of Google scholar (1)
November 8, 2025 at 2:25 AM
I've been on a few panels/podcasts lately & a point raised as been how much people actually use specialised ai research tools like Elicit, Undermind, or even ai from established players like Scopus Ai Vs using chatgpt/Gemini maybe+ deep research. After all we see much more use of Google scholar (1)
Reposted by Aaron Tay
![Text Shot: The real solution, according to digital literacy expert Mike Caulfield, is for us all to start thinking differently about what we see online. Looking for the clues AI leaves behind isn't "durable" advice because those clues keep changing, he says. Instead, Caulfield says we have to abandon the idea that videos or images mean anything whatsoever out of context.
"My perspective is that largely video is going to become somewhat like text, long term, where provenance [the origin of the video], not surface features, will be most key, and we might as well prepare for that," Caulfield says.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:rhkcyc46ubi523e47bhnkpbb/bafkreiadqwzkrzntz5pad36chwyawixlie7uqwyyer4uzcjlbqsrv7q5ua@jpeg)
November 6, 2025 at 2:49 PM
academic.oup.com/pages/using-... Oxford Academic Discovery assistant and how it works. It claims to have implemented a RAG retrieval augmented generation system over metadata but arguably and this is nitpick I think they didn't. This is what they did (1)
AI Discovery Assistant
Al tools should work alongside human input. Our Al Discovery Assistant is designed to find the most relevant content for your research, making your discovery of
academic.oup.com
November 6, 2025 at 2:18 PM
academic.oup.com/pages/using-... Oxford Academic Discovery assistant and how it works. It claims to have implemented a RAG retrieval augmented generation system over metadata but arguably and this is nitpick I think they didn't. This is what they did (1)
[blogged] ResearchRabbit’s 2025 Revamp: iterative chaining without the clutter aarontay.substack.com/p/researchra...
ResearchRabbit’s 2025 Revamp: iterative chaining without the clutter
ResearchRabbit shipped its biggest update in years: a cleaner iterative “rabbit hole” flow, a more configurable citation graph, and an optional premium tier.The company now “partners’ with Litmaps, wh...
open.substack.com
November 4, 2025 at 6:22 PM
[blogged] ResearchRabbit’s 2025 Revamp: iterative chaining without the clutter aarontay.substack.com/p/researchra...
Seriously I think we should be past just saying "AI is not just (transformer based) LLM" and expecting applause. Good you discovered traditional ML/NLP techniques. Now go deeper, how are these different ai techniques both traditional and new used in your domain of interest eg retrieval etc
November 4, 2025 at 1:24 AM
Seriously I think we should be past just saying "AI is not just (transformer based) LLM" and expecting applause. Good you discovered traditional ML/NLP techniques. Now go deeper, how are these different ai techniques both traditional and new used in your domain of interest eg retrieval etc
[blogged] Recording - implications of ai powered search youtu.be/Ju-JS_sp73U?...
Implications of Ai powered academic search
YouTube video by Aaron Tay (Aaron Tay)
youtu.be
November 3, 2025 at 1:14 PM
[blogged] Recording - implications of ai powered search youtu.be/Ju-JS_sp73U?...
Very interesting web of science now as "Research Commons" clarivate.com/academia-gov... Add 32M more metadata records, +21% more journal content! This pulls from open sources like OpenAlex @crossref.bsky.social ! (1)
November 3, 2025 at 9:47 AM
Very interesting web of science now as "Research Commons" clarivate.com/academia-gov... Add 32M more metadata records, +21% more journal content! This pulls from open sources like OpenAlex @crossref.bsky.social ! (1)
Cool web of science smart search is now more transparent , shows how it interpretes your input (Boolean part). webofscience.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/art...
November 3, 2025 at 9:30 AM
Cool web of science smart search is now more transparent , shows how it interpretes your input (Boolean part). webofscience.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/art...
[Read] Implicit reporting standards in bibliometric research: what can reviewers' comments tell us about reporting completeness? arxiv.org/abs/2508.162... - Did not realise web of science has a "Open publisher-invited reviews" filter for open peer review reports! (only manuscript one journals?)
Implicit reporting standards in bibliometric research: what can reviewers' comments tell us about reporting completeness?
The recent surge in bibliometric studies published has been accompanied by increasing diversity in the completeness of reporting these studies' details, affecting reliability, reproducibility, and rob...
arxiv.org
November 3, 2025 at 7:53 AM
[Read] Implicit reporting standards in bibliometric research: what can reviewers' comments tell us about reporting completeness? arxiv.org/abs/2508.162... - Did not realise web of science has a "Open publisher-invited reviews" filter for open peer review reports! (only manuscript one journals?)
Moara.io or "mother of all research assistants" is surprising to me. Point 2 (not training on content is standard), but #1, #3 & #4 is a conservative stance on AI. In fact, it looks more like Covidence competitor than Elicit competitor. (1)
johnfrechette.substack.com/p/the-bottom...
johnfrechette.substack.com/p/the-bottom...
November 3, 2025 at 4:10 AM
Moara.io or "mother of all research assistants" is surprising to me. Point 2 (not training on content is standard), but #1, #3 & #4 is a conservative stance on AI. In fact, it looks more like Covidence competitor than Elicit competitor. (1)
johnfrechette.substack.com/p/the-bottom...
johnfrechette.substack.com/p/the-bottom...
📣 Registration OPEN for #FORCE2026 (3–5 Jun, Singapore). A conference on the future of research communication & open science.
Early-bird: by 28 Feb 2026.
Call for Proposal: Ends 9 Nov 2025. Authors get a special rate. Details & CFP force11.org/force2026/
#FORCE2026 #ScholarlyCommunication
Early-bird: by 28 Feb 2026.
Call for Proposal: Ends 9 Nov 2025. Authors get a special rate. Details & CFP force11.org/force2026/
#FORCE2026 #ScholarlyCommunication
November 2, 2025 at 6:41 PM
📣 Registration OPEN for #FORCE2026 (3–5 Jun, Singapore). A conference on the future of research communication & open science.
Early-bird: by 28 Feb 2026.
Call for Proposal: Ends 9 Nov 2025. Authors get a special rate. Details & CFP force11.org/force2026/
#FORCE2026 #ScholarlyCommunication
Early-bird: by 28 Feb 2026.
Call for Proposal: Ends 9 Nov 2025. Authors get a special rate. Details & CFP force11.org/force2026/
#FORCE2026 #ScholarlyCommunication
As a librarian, I had a hazy understanding of terms like keyword vs full-text search. Part of it is the multiple ways people use "keyword search". Notably I used to think keyword search must be Boolean.
November 2, 2025 at 6:26 PM
As a librarian, I had a hazy understanding of terms like keyword vs full-text search. Part of it is the multiple ways people use "keyword search". Notably I used to think keyword search must be Boolean.
[blogged] “We’re Good at Search”… Just Not the Kind That the AI era Demands - a Provocation aarontay.substack.com/p/were-good-...
“We’re Good at Search”… Just Not the Kind That the AI era Demands - a Provocation
I might be exaggerating slightly, but if you look at the few new evaluation matrices for AI-powered search circulating, “relevancy” is often just one of several categories, evaluated in a highly subje...
aarontay.substack.com
November 2, 2025 at 6:07 PM
[blogged] “We’re Good at Search”… Just Not the Kind That the AI era Demands - a Provocation aarontay.substack.com/p/were-good-...
The next new feature release of Google notebooklm look insanely good.
November 1, 2025 at 8:18 AM
The next new feature release of Google notebooklm look insanely good.
“Generative AI / large language models have added to this flood by making papers – especially papers not introducing new research results – fast and easy to write. While categories across arXiv have all seen a major increase in submissions, it’s particularly pronounced in arXiv’s CS category‘’
blog.arxiv.org/2025/10/31/a...
FYI the blog post for the updated policy is out. Our llm future is dire:/
FYI the blog post for the updated policy is out. Our llm future is dire:/
October 31, 2025 at 9:44 PM
“Generative AI / large language models have added to this flood by making papers – especially papers not introducing new research results – fast and easy to write. While categories across arXiv have all seen a major increase in submissions, it’s particularly pronounced in arXiv’s CS category‘’
Spent a couple more hours playing. I think I finally get the hang of it. It's requires a slightly different mental model from the original research rabbit which needs some adjustment, but basically you have to grasp the "rabbit hole" icon/mechanic they are using, what triggers it, what doesnt
ResearchRabbit big updates www.youtube.com/watch?v=St4C... - first impression much better interface , a lot of the new features are similar to LitMaps (there is a partnership). Sadly some features are now under paywall (advanced search) unlike researchrabbit in the past. (1)
Welcome to the new ResearchRabbit
YouTube video by ResearchRabbit
www.youtube.com
October 31, 2025 at 8:02 PM
Spent a couple more hours playing. I think I finally get the hang of it. It's requires a slightly different mental model from the original research rabbit which needs some adjustment, but basically you have to grasp the "rabbit hole" icon/mechanic they are using, what triggers it, what doesnt