Draft a dissertation lit review from uploaded sources
Community report: 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 The builder-year citations; they then used a broader workflow to vet sources, organize them, get synthesis, and manually audit citations before export. It cut down a lot of manual cross-checking and helped them draft dissertation literature review chapters without made-up references.
- Agent or tool
- Custom agent
- Topic
- Productivity
- Reported on
- Added
- 2026-10-15
Why it matters
Small, repetitive tasks eat more of the week than anyone likes to admit. Cases like this show an agent taking a chore off someone's plate end to end, not just suggesting what to do. It is one of 196 sightings filed under Productivity on Agent Sightings (number 74 by interest), and one of 182 involving Custom agent.
How you could try it
Here is a reusable prompt, written by us in our own words, that captures the task. Paste it into your own agent or any similar agent and adjust the details to your situation.
Help me draft a dissertation lit review from uploaded sources. Break it into steps, show your work, and wait for confirmation before anything irreversible, paid, or outbound.
Tip: Start small: run it once on a low-stakes example, read what the agent did, and only then let it run on real work.
Source
Read the original first-hand account on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingWithAI/comments/1uzecdt/i_managed_to_use_ai_saf…. Our summary is a paraphrase; details are in the source.