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R0023/2026-03-25/Q001/S01

WebSearch — Meta-analyses and empirical studies on counterproductive prompt engineering advice

Summary

Field Value
Source/Database WebSearch
Query terms prompt engineering advice counterproductive meta-analysis empirical study 2024 2025
Filters None
Results returned 10
Results selected 4
Results rejected 6

Selected Results

Result Title URL Rationale
S01-R01 The Prompt Report: A Systematic Survey of Prompt Engineering Techniques https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.06608 Systematic PRISMA review of 1,565 papers — the most comprehensive survey of prompt engineering techniques
S01-R02 I Studied 1,500 Academic Papers on Prompt Engineering (Gupta) https://aakashgupta.medium.com/i-studied-1-500-academic-papers-on-prompt-engineering-heres-why-everything-you-know-is-wrong-391838b33468 Secondary analysis summarizing counterproductive findings from the academic literature
S01-R03 Comparative evaluation of CoT for medical question answering https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0010482525009655 Domain-specific empirical study on CoT limitations in medical contexts
S01-R04 Prompting Techniques Survey (Emergent Mind) https://www.emergentmind.com/papers/2406.06608 Summary/discussion of the Prompt Report findings

Rejected Results

Result Title URL Rationale
S01-R05 Smarter AI Through Prompt Engineering (arxiv PDF) https://arxiv.org/pdf/2602.00337 General prompt engineering overview, not focused on counterproductive findings
S01-R06 Survey of Techniques in Education (Preprints.org) https://www.preprints.org/manuscript/202503.1808 Education-specific, not focused on counterproductive techniques
S01-R07 Papers - Prompt Engineering Guide https://www.promptingguide.ai/papers Index page, not a primary source
S01-R08 Prompt Engineering in Education (SAGE) https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/07356331251365189 Education domain systematic review, tangential to query
S01-R09 1,500 Papers (36kr translation) https://eu.36kr.com/en/p/3433401195974277 Duplicate content — translation of S01-R02
S01-R10 The Prompt Report (ADS) https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2024arXiv240606608S/abstract Duplicate listing of S01-R01 in different database

Notes

The search yielded the foundational systematic review (Schulhoff et al., 2024) as the primary source. The Gupta Medium articles provide accessible summaries but are secondary. Direct empirical studies on counterproductive techniques were sparse in this search — more targeted searches (S02, S03) were needed to find specific technique-level evidence.