Research & KnowledgeDone with custom-built or unnamed agent Aug 1, 2026
Draft a dissertation lit review from uploaded sources
A doctoral writer used NotebookLM, which cites only uploaded sources, to handle citations and draft a literature review without invented references.
- What They Did
- After ChatGPT invented citations, the writer switched to NotebookLM so the model could cite only papers they had uploaded. They renamed files before uploading and gave one standing instruction for citation format, which changed NotebookLM’s bare numbered references into author-year citations; they then used a broader workflow to vet sources, organize them, get synthesis, and manually audit citations before export.
- How It Went
- It cut down a lot of manual cross-checking and helped them draft dissertation literature review chapters without made-up references. It still was not for doing the actual analysis, and they say they had previously lost time rewriting work after false citations slipped through.
- Worth Knowing
- The biggest catch was time: they say they had to rebuild work when bad citations got through, losing progress 60% into their dissertation timeline.
Try it yourself with custom-built or unnamed agent
I'm writing a literature review on [your topic] for my [dissertation or paper]. I'll upload [number] sources. Draft a structured review of about [word count] words grouped by theme, citing only the uploaded sources in [citation style], and mark any claim you cannot support from them instead of guessing. Finish with a list of gaps in the literature and any sources you could not use.