Sharing My Method for Organizing 20 Papers with ChatGPT

I’m a grad student, and since reviewing papers always took way too long, I put together my own workflow.

First, I extract the PDF into text, paste in only the abstract, methodology, and conclusion, and ask: "Summarize this paper’s key claims, limitations, and differences from prior work in three lines each." If you just say "summarize it," it gets too vague and isn’t useful.

Next, I have a separate step for comparing the 20 papers all at once. If I have it organize the study subjects, sample sizes, and conclusions in a table, the output is almost good enough to transfer directly when writing the review section.

One thing to watch out for is the numbers. It keeps misquoting citation statistics or sample sizes. In the end, cross-checking against the original text is essential. Still, it has definitely cut down the time it takes to draft.