Review professional literature to maintain professional knowledge
Most of the output can be produced by software today.
An agent can find, read and summarise the sources this work depends on, and it can cover far more of them than a person would ever open. What it does not do is decide which sources deserve trust, or what the findings mean for your situation.
| How automatable | Mostly automatable |
|---|---|
| Kind of work | Research and retrieval work |
| Jobs that do it | 18 occupations |
| Tool categories that apply | Web, data and docs, Generalist agents |
| O*NET activity | Updating and Using Relevant Knowledge (4.A.2.b.3) |
What this looks like on the job
Not our paraphrase. These are real task statements recorded against this activity, spread across the 18 occupations that perform it.
- Conduct research to extend mathematical knowledge in traditional areas, such as algebra, geometry, probability, and logic.
- Review research literature.
- Stay up to date on new regulations and current events regarding food science by reviewing scientific literature.
- Conduct literature reviews.
- Keep abreast of new biochemistries, instrumentation, or software by reading scientific literature and attending professional conferences.
- Attend clinical and research conferences and read scientific literature to keep abreast of technological advances and current genetic research findings.
- Review scientific proposals and research papers.
- Review research literature to maintain knowledge on topics related to industrial ecology, such as physical science, technology, economy, and public policy.
- Locate and review research articles or environmental, historical, or technical reports.
- Attend meetings or seminars or read current literature to maintain knowledge of developments in the field of remote sensing.
- Study economic and statistical data in area of specialization, such as finance, labor, or agriculture.
- Review research literature to remain current on psychological science issues.
- Maintain current knowledge of relevant research.
- Read current literature, talk with colleagues, and participate in professional organizations or conferences to keep abreast of developments in neuropsychology.
- Keep informed about economic or legal issues involved in zoning codes, building codes, or environmental regulations.
- Maintain current knowledge of government policy decisions.
- Read from sacred texts, such as the Bible, Torah, or Koran.
- Search scientific literature to select and modify methods and procedures most appropriate for genetic research goals.
What we would actually use
One recommendation rather than a shortlist, because a shortlist is just your problem handed back. This is what we would buy for research and retrieval work, and what it costs.
Research is the one shape of work that needs no integration at all, so a single $20 assistant with browsing is the whole stack. Add a crawler only once you are pulling hundreds of pages on a schedule rather than reading a few.
Chosen for the cheapest thing that does the job, not the best funded. Nothing on this site is sponsored, and the full landscape is there when you want to disagree with us.
The rest of the category
Context, not alternatives to weigh up. We name the layer rather than promise a named product does your specific task.
Generalist agents
Matched from the kind of work, not from vendor marketing. Check any of them can reach the system your records actually live in — that connection, not the model, is where these projects stall.
How people actually do it
No workflow names this activity yet, but these automate the same kind of work, with the prompts to paste and what to keep for yourself.
Who does this work
18 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity. Each one has a full breakdown of its other tasks.
- Astronomers
- Bioinformatics Scientists
- Clergy
- Clinical and Counseling Psychologists
- Clinical Neuropsychologists
- Economists
- Food Scientists and Technologists
- Geneticists
- Geoscientists, Except Hydrologists and Geographers
- Industrial Ecologists
- Industrial-Organizational Psychologists
- Mathematicians
- Neuropsychologists
- Operations Research Analysts
- Political Scientists
- Remote Sensing Scientists and Technologists
- Urban and Regional Planners
- Zoologists and Wildlife Biologists
Work that goes with it
O*NET groups these under “Maintain current knowledge in area of expertise”. In practice they tend to be done by the same person, in the same sitting.
Method. The activity, its taxonomy placement and the occupations that perform it come straight from the public-domain O*NET 30.3 database. The automatability band is ours: we map each of O*NET’s 41 generalized work activities to how much of its output current software can produce, assuming a person still reviews and owns the result. It is a coarse three-way judgment on purpose. A precise-looking percentage here would be invented.