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Mushtaq Bilal, PhD

Oct 3, 2022 • 18 tweets • 6 min read • Read on X

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Research Rabbit is an incredible tool that FAST-TRACKS your research. Best part: it's FREE.

But most academics don't know about it.

Here's how to get started 👇

Research Rabbit 101: A step-by-step guide with visuals 🧵

Go to researchrabbit.ai and sign up with your email.

Once you've signed up, this is how Research Rabbit's interface will look like.

Click on "New Collection" in the top left corner.

Or click on "+Collection."

Choose a name for your collection.

I'm using "World Literature" for illustrative purposes.

As soon as you create a new collection, Research Rabbit will open it up and give you the option to add papers.

Click on "Add Papers."

Research Rabbit will open a screen-wide search bar for you.

Enter the title (or keywords) of a paper/book related to your project.

You can also use identifiers like DOI and PMID to look up sources.

For the purposes of this tutorial, I'm using the title of a paper, "World Literature, Indian Views: 1920s-1940s."

After you click "Search," it will open up a list of relevant sources.

You can start adding papers to your collection one by one.

Research Rabbit will show you a green box towards the bottom of your screen to tell you it has added the paper to the collection.

Close the window once you are done adding paper(s).

Research Rabbit will show you the paper you just added. It will give you an option to write a comment about the paper.

Up to this point you may find Research Rabbit not too different from a usual search engine.

But the REAL MAGIC starts from here on.

As soon as you add a paper, Research Rabbit will retrieve its abstract.

It will also show you if a PDF of the paper is freely available. It can't retrieve a PDF if it's behind a paywall.

It will also give you an option to see "Similar Works." Click on that.

Research Rabbit will give you a list of similar works.

It will also an INTERACTIVE VISUALIZATION OF the SCHOLARLY NETWROK this particular paper/author is a part of.

Click on a blue circle and it will open that source and retrieve its PDF.

You can keep doing this and Research Rabbit will keep on finding newer and newer scholarly networks for you.

You can also look up these networks using references an author used or a paper's citations.

You can also use this feature to see if two or more authors are part of the same network.

For example, here it shows Orsini and Damrosch are in the same network along with a bunch of other scholars whose works could be relevant to my project.

You can also use this feature to see what network YOU are a part of.

For example, by adding one of my own papers, I can see I am in the same network as Orsini and Damrosch.

This is useful because I want to be a part of this network.

Research Rabbit has many cool features like importing/exporting collections from/to Zotero.

That I will write about in another thread.

@MushtaqBilalPhD

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More from @MushtaqBilalPhD

Mushtaq Bilal, PhD

@MushtaqBilalPhD

Jan 5

How to build an academic writing habit (to write a lot and publish a lot):

In his book "Atomic Habits," James Clear writes about habits that are so small we don’t even notice them, but the power they have over us is immense.

He calls them atomic habits.

Although they are small, building atomic habits is VERY DIFFICULT.

Why?

Clear calls the time between the point we start a habit to the point we start seeing its first results "the plateau of latent potential."

Most people remain stuck within this plateau.

To see the results of any habit, we must cross the plateau of latent potential.

Read 21 tweets

Mushtaq Bilal, PhD

@MushtaqBilalPhD

Dec 25, 2025

Don't use Sci-Hub — it's a "controversial" website with 84M+ research papers freely available.

We should all try to make billion-dollar academic publishers richer.

Anyway, here's a thread on how to integrate Sci-Hub with Zotero to get free papers.

🚨DO NOT DO IT!

1. Don't go to this link:
github(dot)com/syt2/zotero-scipdf

But if you do, replace the word "dot" with an actual [.]

Don't scroll down and click on "latest release xpi file."

This will download an "xpi" file to your computer.

2. Don't open your Zotero. But if you do, click on "Tools."

In "Tools," click on "Plugins." This will open Zotero's Plugin Manager.

In the Plugin Manager, click on the gear-like icon and select "Install Plugin From File."

Navigate to the XPI file you downloaded and add it.

Read 6 tweets

Mushtaq Bilal, PhD

@MushtaqBilalPhD

Dec 24, 2025

10 books to help you become a better academic writer so you can write a lot and publish a lot:

1. Academic Writing as if the Reader Matters by Leonard Cassuto

Practical tips on how to make your academic writing more engaging and readable. Examples from the arts and sciences.

2. The Clockwork Muse by Eviatar Zerubavel

Helpful advice on how to organize your writing process in terms of time.

A-Time: for writing new material (deep work)
B-Time: for shallow work like compiling bibliography, etc.
C-Time: for house chores

3. Write Your Dissertation in Fifteen Minutes a Day by Joan Bolker

Excellent tips on how and why you should write zero drafts.

Teaches you how to understand different stages of the writing process from ideation to drafting to revision.

Read 11 tweets

Mushtaq Bilal, PhD

@MushtaqBilalPhD

Dec 15, 2025

Dr Ally Louks's viral PhD thesis (130M views) on the politics of smell redefined the way people talk about smell.

Everyone wants to read her thesis, but it's unavailable until 2028

Here are 10 books on the politics of smell that you can read right now:

1. The Smell of Slavery

1. The Smell of Slavery by Andrew Kettler

Shows how white slave owners defined Black, African bodies as noxious and deserving of enslavement.

Smell was used to dehumanize Black folks who were equated with animals by white slave owners.

2. The Foul and the Fragrant by Alain Corbin

Considered a foundational text in smell studies.

Shows how the bourgeois nose associated bad smells with the poor and how deodorization became a tool for state control in 18th and 19th century France.

Read 11 tweets

Mushtaq Bilal, PhD

@MushtaqBilalPhD

Dec 2, 2025

Getting past peer review is a challenge every researcher faces.

Stanford researchers recently launched a free AI-powered Agentic Review that can help you with it.

It gives you a human-level mock peer review so you can polish your paper before submitting it.

Check it out 👇

1. Go to paperreview[.]ai and upload your manuscript.

Enter your email and specify your target venue (conference or journal).

You may also want to copy the "Review Token" in case you don't receive an email.

2. A few minutes later you will receive an email with a link to the review report.

Go through the review report and revise your paper according to the suggestions you think are most relevant.

Read 4 tweets

Mushtaq Bilal, PhD

@MushtaqBilalPhD

Oct 6, 2025

Libgen, Sci-Hub, and Z-library had millions of pirated academic books and papers.

So, they were shut down. We shouldn't use them anyway.

We should help billion-dollar academic publishers get richer.

Anyway, here's how to access these libraries:

Don't do this!

1. Don't go to open-slum[.]org.

Because there you will see links to LibGen, Anna's Archive, Z-Library, and Sci-Hub.

2. Don't click any link because that will open your desired library.

Don't type the title of a book you want to read because it might show up.

Look at this, someone has pirated my own book. I'm livid!