JSTOR’s interactive research tool

With the release of this tool, we aim to equip students, faculty, researchers, and librarians with innovative tools that facilitate engagement with complex content and enrich research and learning. This early release harnesses the power of AI to help users:

• Identify relevant material faster by surfacing key points and arguments from the text being viewed.
• Discover new topics and content within the JSTOR corpus, enabling exploration of additional possible paths of inquiry.
• Be conversational by asking questions about the text being viewed.
• Search JSTOR in a new way with a semantic search-powered capability that works better for natural language queries than traditional keyword search.

JSTOR stays up to date on the latest technologies and applies them in ways that best serve our users. JSTOR has previously applied machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to optimize the research experience. For example, we have created a citation graph to link all articles on JSTOR, and used ML to improve the relevance of search results and recommendations. As we extend our knowledge and application of new technologies to AI, we expect to iterate and evolve as we learn. By volunteering for our limited beta test, you will help us define the long-term scope of this exciting new tool.

At present, the tool can be used with journal articles, book chapters, and research reports found on JSTOR. Images and text-based primary sources on JSTOR are not yet included.

To start, we are using only the contents of the document being viewed to generate responses. Over time, as we learn from and improve upon the accuracy of responses, we might extend this to use the content of other relevant documents in the JSTOR corpus.

The beta release of our interactive research tool uses GPT-4o-mini from OpenAI, Claude 3 Haiku from Anthropic via Amazon Bedrock, and the open source all-MiniLM-L6-v2 sentence transformer model. We are actively exploring alternatives and expect to evolve the models we use as our environment develops.

We are monitoring and continuously improving accuracy using the following methods:

• Subject matter experts from a range of academic disciplines conduct in-depth, ongoing evaluations of the tool’s output. These evaluations help us ensure that generated content is useful and accurate.
• Users provide in-tool feedback that we use to identify areas for improvement. All interactions with the beta tool offer users the opportunity to provide a thumbs up or thumbs down rating. For thumbs down ratings, the user can provide further detail to explain their response.
• We assess model performance for our specific use cases using industry-standard metrics for Machine Learning (ML) and Natural Language Processing (NLP). Additionally, we continuously integrate new evaluation metrics specifically developed for Large Language Model (LLM) use cases.

JSTOR handles all personal information, including information provided to this tool, in accordance with our privacy policy. JSTOR does not sell user data, nor does it share content or user data from its platform for the purposes of training third-party large language models (LLMs). For more information about JSTOR’s privacy practices and the practices of the LLMs used by the tool, see “Data collection and use” in the Legal notices section of this page.

Our goal is to offer the interactive research tool without additional fees. As a nonprofit, JSTOR’s financial model is designed to recover costs and support continued growth to meet the evolving needs of the educational community. We are therefore carefully evaluating the long-term costs of providing this service sustainably. By expanding early access, we are gathering critical usage data to finalize our cost model. This will allow us to make informed decisions about bringing these capabilities forward in an equitable and sustainable way.

JSTOR maintains physical, technical, and administrative safeguards to protect the content we hold. We are a SOC2 compliant organization whose data security practices and measures are audited annually by independent third parties.

Content is only processed internally and with the OpenAI API and Anthropic Claude API via Amazon Bedrock. Please note that OpenAI API and Amazon Bedrock only temporarily store data for the processing purposes and do not use the submitted data to train their models or enhance their services. For more information on OpenAI’s data security practices, please consult the OpenAI Trust Portal and Amazon Bedrock policy.

Technology has always been an incredible accelerator for ITHAKA’s mission to improve access to knowledge and education. As a trusted provider of scholarly materials, we have a responsibility to leverage content, technology, and deep subject matter expertise to chart a path forward that makes the use of AI safe, effective, and affordable for our constituents.

• We honor our values first and foremost. JSTOR provides users with a credible, scholarly research and learning experience. Our use of technology must enhance that credibility, not undermine it.
• We will listen closely and proceed cautiously. We recognize the concerns associated with AI and other emerging technologies, and are pursuing this work mindful of the very real considerations at hand. Our first step is to deepen our collective understanding through research and implementation in close collaboration with our community. We will use these tools safely and well.
• We empower people, we do not replace them. These tools should not be used to “do the work.” They should be designed to help people, especially students, deepen and expand their work.
• We will enable our systems to interact with users in ways that are comfortable. Traditionally, it has been the users’ responsibility to adapt to restricted language and structures to provide computers with inputs; computers can now interact effectively with users in natural language, and we should take advantage of that.
• We will lead with care. We will deeply consider the aspirations and trepidations of the many communities we serve.

As we learn about and pursue this latest technology, we look forward to your engagement and insights to ensure we continue to deliver high-quality, trusted, impactful services that improve access to knowledge and education for people everywhere. Learn more about how ITHAKA is exploring emerging technologies below.