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Book ↔ Tool Alignment Matrix

This matrix shows how each chapter in AI Tools for Doctoral Research in Social Science connects to its dedicated AI tool(s), and what each tool is designed to help you do. Use it as a roadmap: read the chapter, scan the QR code / follow the short link, run the tool, and paste the output back into your ongoing Project Profile.

Chapter & Focus	Core Learning Goal	Linked AI Tool(s)	Primary Function of the Tool
1. Getting to Know Your Ideas	Establish a clear Project Profile and persistent AI memory.	Project Profile Builder	Captures your research details and builds a stored “Project Profile” for continuity across all other tools.
2. From Inspiration to Workable Project	Refine ideas, test feasibility, and balance risk vs originality.	Research Proposal Developer Feasibility Checker	Guides you from initial spark → structured proposal; then audits feasibility, timescales, and practical risks.
3. Asking Good Research Questions	Craft answerable, aligned, and significant doctoral research questions.	Research Questions Advisor	Evaluates your draft questions, checks them against common pitfalls, and then engages you in a short Socratic-style dialogue to strengthen them.
4. Questions Examiners Ask About Your Research Design	Build a coherent, defensible, and examinable research design.	Methodology Advisor	Checks alignment, robustness, ethics, and theory–method fit. Helps you prepare defences for examiner-style challenges.
5. Ontological & Epistemological Positioning	Clarify your stance on reality and knowledge, and keep it consistent.	Ontology & Epistemology Explorer	Probes your assumptions about what is “real,” what counts as knowledge, and whether those beliefs align with your design and claims.
6. Engaging with the Literature	Mobilise existing research critically rather than just listing it.	Literature Navigator 7 Deadly Sins Literature Checker	Recommends appropriate AI platforms for finding and organising literature; diagnoses problems like “just summarising” or weak critical stance.
7. Making Theory Work	Integrate and deploy theory as an analytical tool, not decoration.	Engaging with Theory Conceptual Gateway Theory in the Literature	Helps you clarify what work theory is doing in your thesis, examine your key concepts, and see how your chosen lens is being used (and critiqued) in the field.
8. Answering the “So What?” Question	Strengthen and justify the significance of your project.	Significance Evaluator	Tests your claims to contribution (theoretical, empirical, practical, etc.) against your design and data. Then helps you sharpen them.
9. Achieving Alignment Across the Thesis	Ensure the moving parts of the thesis genuinely hang together.	Argument Aligner Golden Thread Weaver	Checks for internal contradictions (e.g. RQs vs data vs claims) and maps how your key concepts and arguments connect.
10. Writing an Introductory Chapter	Produce a clear, balanced, examiner-facing introduction.	Introductory Chapter Enhancer	Reviews coverage (rationale, questions, significance, design snapshot) and checks academic register.
11. Writing the Contextualisation Chapter	Frame the study’s context without turning it into a descriptive dump.	Contextualisation Chapter Enhancer	Assesses relevance, balance, and consistency with your ontological/epistemological stance.
12. Writing the Research Design Chapter	Present a credible, defensible design that an examiner can trust.	Research Design Chapter Enhancer	Evaluates methodological coverage, ethics, robustness, and coherence.
13. Writing the Concluding Chapter	Articulate your original contribution and answer the research questions directly.	Concluding Chapter Enhancer	Checks for clear answers to RQs, defensible truth claims, and an explicit statement of originality/significance.
14. Writing an Abstract	Communicate the whole thesis in half a page, with clarity and integrity.	Abstract Advisor	Optimises clarity, internal consistency, level of claim, and distinctiveness of contribution.
15. Writing Great Titles	Craft precise, distinctive, examiner-friendly titles using TOPCAF.	Title Builder (TOPCAF)	Generates multiple defensible title options, then works with you to refine wording, stance, and scope.
16. Questions Examiners Ask (Viva)	Prepare calm, defensible answers to examiner-style questions.	Examiner’s Gaze	Simulates questioning from different examiner personas and pushes you to justify design choices, claims to originality, and truth claims.
17. Building Your Doctoral Support Ecology	Build and maintain a sustainable support structure around your doctorate.		Uses supervisors, peers, structured writing practice, and selective AI use to create a healthy research ecology that will actually sustain you.