Collaborative Academic Writing with Yomu.ai • CustomGPTs for Academics


Tool Review: Yomu.ai for Academic Writing

Dear Scholar,

I am currently refining my latest paper and experimenting with various tools to enhance my academic writing. Today, I want to present a deep dive into Yomu.ai​, which might be the most collaborative academic writing tool.

In my opinion, Yomu is more targeted at younger career researchers or academics who are pivoting to a new domain or doing cross-disciplinary research. A ​recent Nature study I was reading proposes that there is a "pivot penalty" when researchers publish in a new domain, which is partially caused by a lack of experience. Lowering these penalties and boundaries is where I see AI's potential. Tools like Yomu can help you find influential papers and, to a degree, propose ideas you might not have yet thought of, especially in a new domain.

Yomu is an academic writing platform that integrates drafting, editing, citation management, formatting, and plagiarism checking into a single interface. Give it a try. As always there is a discount code in the article.

Building an Academic Helper GPT Repository

CustomGPTs are AI helpers that I use for almost every part of research. They skim papers, read, write, fact-check or search and are useful from conception to polishing of a manuscript. (If you have never built one, head over to ChatGPT and follow this simple tutorial.)

I am hoping to learn from you today: What GPTs do you use and which ones have you built?


Here's a GPT I recently built and frequently use:

GPT Focal Question Extraction: This GPT has a simple idea: Scan a paper for evidence on a short very narrow statement or question (a focal statement). It prints out the quote related to your focal statement and gives an interpretation as well as a summary of all quotes and a final verdict.

This turned out to be incredibly useful during the final stages of my newest paper.

Try out the current version (upload a paper and ask a focal question)

I want to create a repository of GPTs for academics to use and have created a small form where you can submit your GPTs or even just ideas.


The ​EffortlessAI course​ is an in-depth course on GPTs and their potential - check it out if you haven't seen it yet. It will receive an update soon and I am keen to implement some of the idea submissions as well.

Wishing you a wonderful weekend,


Ilya Shabanov, The Effortless Academic

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The Effortless Academic

Literature Review Tools, Note-Taking Strategies and AI tutorials for the modern academic. Publish more with less effort and supercharge your career.

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