Brian has conducted invited workshops and presentations on LLMs for staff, postgraduate students, and external stakeholders internationally. He has delivered his “Introduction to LLM” workshop to early‑career researchers and postgraduate students across Australia, Europe, and the United States on more than 40 occasions and has advised organisations from the University of Tasmania and Aarhus University to NBNco on AI policy and implementation. His work on effective AI use has led to invitations from Oxford University, UK financial regulators via the Digital Regulation Cooperation Forum (DRCF), IEEE Silicon Valley, and multiple Australian universities to present and consult on policy, research, and practical pedagogy.
And if you want to hear me giving a lecture to a graduate research methods class: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUHXpnZF_8I&feature=youtu.be
]]>CT coordinators must communicate results to participants in plain language (National Statement 3.1.72). This exercise demonstrates two techniques: (1) using AI as a statistical checker before translation, and (2) copy-editing the source to identify unclear sections—avoiding propagating confusion into the plain language version.
In a new chat, upload the Ramnarayan et al. study and prompt the AI as follows:
Hi Claude. Please take the role of a highly meticulous copy-editor. We are preparing a plain language final letter communicating research results to participants. Before we do that though, we want to perform a final check of our preprint paper for the correct use of statistics, clarity, consistency, and flow.
You will take extra time and be extremely thoughtful in your discussions and considerations. The user, above all else, requires thoughtful and reasoned editing and discussion. We need to ensure that everything is in a single, consistent, and clear register. We also need to remove some words, where possible.
I would like you to highlight issues rather than making corrections. Then, for each issue, please thoughtfully discuss the issue. Do not suggest issues, but rather highlight your concerns, especially in items that may be confusing to a non-expert reader.
To begin, please provide a functional decomposition of these tasks and give me a readback of the headers of the document.
Attach the Ramnarayan et al. study or copy/paste from PubMed. Once you run it, make sure that you see all the headers!
Good.
Please make these specific checks:
Extract statistical claims: List the main quantitative findings with their statistics (e.g., effect sizes, p-values, confidence intervals)
Statistical appropriateness check: Are the statistical methods appropriate for the claims being made? Are there any red flags or overstatements?
Methodology and results in plain language: How would you explain what they did to someone without statistics training? What are some concerns around communicating nuance that we should be aware of?
Clarity issues in the original: Are there any sections of the original paper that are unclear, inconsistent, or have flow problems? Highlight these issues rather than making corrections.
Present this as a reference document I can check the final letter against.
First, make a new system prompt. System prompt:
You are a plain language specialist helping draft final letters to research participants. All communications must meet RCH Plain Language Adviser standards: Grade 6-8 reading level, short sentences, active voice, no jargon without explanation. Be warm but not patronizing.
User prompt:
Now, I need to write a plain language final letter communicating research results to participants. This letter must meet RCH Plain Language Adviser standards.
Before writing, we will need to consider what makes an effective final letter, quote components from the attached RCH Plain Language Guidance, Example, and Style Guide. Please functionally decompose these documents with constraints to the appropriate register.
Attach the RCH Plain Language Guidance, Example, and Style Guide.
Using the statistical analysis from Step 1 and the outline from Step 2, make an outline, then draft the letter in plain language appropriate for participants with no medical training. Use the register, tone, and structure from the attached RCH examples.
2019 Survey of Research Culture in Australian NHMRC-funded institutions (200pp PDF)
Configure Gemini 2.5 Pro with this system prompt:
You are a research assistant for a researcher. Ensure that all responses with regards to the document are directly quoted from the document, and all quotes from the document should be in blockquotes, with page number.
If something is unclear indicate that you are unsure. If things are poorly operationalised, ask one question at a time until things become clear. There is no penalty for pausing and asking questions. There is no penalty for returning no results. There is a high penalty for seeking to please and returning false results.
Set temperature to 0
Make sure your model is Gemini 2.5 Pro
Hi Gemini. We will be extracting blockquotes salient to specific kinds of responses from this study. However, to begin, please extract all of the question headings from this document.
Attach the PDF.
For each question, please find all responses which speak to a theme of: “Time pressures affecting research quality”
Return question code, comment number, the blockquote, and page number. Ensure that you list each header, and if there are no responsive items in that header, indicate a null set.
Pick 2 quotes and use Ctrl+F in the PDF to verify they exist exactly as quoted.
Hi Claude.
I work as a [ROLE] at a research institution conducting clinical trials. My goal is to draft a standard operating procedure for [SPECIFIC TOPIC] that complies with Australian regulatory requirements and ICH-GCP.
Before drafting, please:
- Functionally decompose what makes an effective SOP for this topic
- Identify relevant requirements from the three attached documents (National Statement, ICH E6(R3), Australian national SOPs)
- Ask me one specific, pointed, and critical question at a time about my site’s context until you have enough detail to draft a practical SOP
Do not assume—if things are unclear about my site’s procedures, push on the words I use.
To begin, please give me a readback of this task.