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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

Dec 15

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

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

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!

Read 5 tweets

Mushtaq Bilal, PhD

@MushtaqBilalPhD

Sep 16

Zotero is the best citation management software. It's free and doesn't monetize your data.

But many folks have a hard time starting out on it.

Here's a step-by-step tutorial to get you started on Zotero:

1. Go to zotero[.]org and click on the "Download" button.

Download the app and install it on your computer.

2. Click on Zotero Connector and add it to your browser.

Zotero Connector is available for Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Safari.

Pin the Zotero Connector to your browser by clicking on the puzzle-like icon in the top-right corner.

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Mushtaq Bilal, PhD

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Sep 3

Small businesses can't hire expensive desginers for fancy logos and branding materials..

Genspark AI Designer @genspark_ai can help you with it.

It generated a logo for my coaching business and branded presentation templates — with a single prompt:

1. Go to and ask it to design a logo for your business.

I asked it to design a logo for my academic writing coaching business. It did a wonderful job. genspark.ai/ai_designer

2. Once it generates a design, you can edit with a simple prompt.

Click on the logo and ask Genspark AI to change its background or font color.

And it will do the needful.

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Mushtaq Bilal, PhD

@MushtaqBilalPhD

Sep 2

ChatGPT has a great feature called Projects, which you can use to make it a reliable research assistant with no hallucinations.

Not many academics seem to be using it though.

Here's how to make ChatGPT Project your research assistant:

1. Open ChatGPT and click on "New Project" in the left taskbar.

Choose a name for your project and click on "Create project."

2. Once you've created a project, you will see two options: Add files and Add instructions.

Click on "Add instructions" and type in details about your research project.

Be precise and to-the-point. You can also ask it to not respond to questions related to your project.