Research and draft a social science paper with Deep Research
Author used ChatGPT Deep Research and Agent Mode for research help and writing assistance while writing an academic social science paper.
Done withChatGPT Agent
- What they did
- The author used ChatGPT 5.5, Deep Research, and Agent Mode while writing a social science paper, mainly to get past writing blocks and support their thinking. They had it analyze papers, suggest phrasing, compare political actors’ demands with a final law, and help with citations and rewriting, but the person still had to judge and correct the output because it mishandled sources and theory.
- How it went
- It was useful for momentum and thought support, but the author says it was mostly ineffective for core academic work. They report wrong or invented sources, dropped citations, weak scientific wording, poor grasp of basic political and social theories, and even Deep Research pulling Wikipedia despite instructions to use reputable scientific sources.
Try it yourself with ChatGPT Agent
I am writing a social science paper on [topic] for [field or journal]. Find the key recent and foundational studies, summarize their methods and findings, and identify gaps my paper could address, citing real sources with links. Then draft an outline and a rough literature review section based on my argument: [your argument]. Finish with a list of every citation so I can verify each one myself.
Source: Reddit · Jul 7, 2025
Five of these in your inbox every morning
The best things people got an AI agent to do, each with the prompt to try it.
More like this
Plan a family trip and pre-fill bookings
A reporter had ChatGPT Agent plan a 4-day San Diego trip: it searched flights, compared hotels, built an itinerary and pre-filled booking forms, stopping before purchase.
Plan Saturday errands and book haircuts
ChatGPT Agent planned errands, found salons with online booking and worked on booking kids' haircuts, with some steps needing human confirmation.
Play Pokémon Silver on an emulator via Computer Use
A user had ChatGPT with Computer Use control a Pokémon Silver emulator, picking a starter and starting a playthrough, though usage limits were consumed by setup and repetitive dialogue.
Find connections across 100 non-fiction books
Claude Code browses a personal library with CLI tools and surfaces trails of related excerpts across books.
Turn YouTube videos into cited research notes
The author uses Claude Code with NotebookLM and Obsidian to turn 20 videos into cited notes, audio overviews, a knowledge graph and flashcards.
Use Cursor for academic paper writing with citations
Forum users write papers in markdown with Zotero citations and a bibtex file for Cursor to pick references from, converting to Word with pandoc.