Mushtaq Bilal, PhD Profile picture
Oct 17, 2022 23 tweets 8 min read Read on X
Zotero's inbuilt Note Editor can REVOLUTIONIZE your note-taking and writing processes.

But most academics don't know much about it.

Here's how to supercharge your writing using Zotero's Note Editor 👇

A step-by-step guide with visuals 🧵
Let's start by adding a PDF to our library.

You can add a PDF using its DOI, or you can simply drag it into your Zotero library. A screenshot of Mushtaq's Zotero library. A yellow arrow poi
Once added, double click on it to open the PDF in Zotero's PDF reader. A recently added PDF in Mushtaq's Zotero library. A red box
Zotero will open the PDF in a new window.

To your left, you will see an Annotations pane, and to your right, the PDF's metadata.

You will also see Annotation Options on the top of the PDF.

In the top right corner, you will see a small Notes button. Zotero's inbuilt PDF reader showing a PDF. To the left is th
Let's add a couple of annotations before we start taking notes.

Here I have added two annotations using the "Highlight Text" button.

You can also add your own comments under these annotations. Two annotations added using the "Highlight Text" o
Now to the Notes Editor:

Clicking on the Notes button in the top right corner will open the Note editor for you.

Click on the "+" sign under the Notes Button and in front of "Item Notes."

Select "Add Item Note." Zotero's inbuilt Notes Editor displaying two options: "
Zotero will open its Note Editor with a toolbar on top. There are six tools in the toolbar:

1. Format text
2. Highlight text
3. Clear formatting
4. Insert Link
5. Insert Citation
6. Find and Replace A screenshot of Zotero's inbuilt Notes Editor. A yellow arro
Let's start with the basics - formatting text: The "Format Text" menu box open in Zotero's inbuil
Here I am composing a note with a heading (Heading 1) and a one-line paragraph. A note composed using Zotero's inbuilt Notes Editor.
Now I am adding a numbered list of three sources that I should read to take my project further.

I have used the "Numbered List" function here.

And I highlighted this part in purple using the "Highlight Text" option to remind myself to read these sources. A list of three sources composed using the Notes Editor's &q
I obtained the three sources, added them to my Zotero library, and read them.

I selected one relevant quote from each source, and manually added them to the note.

I also highlighted the word "national" because it's crucial to my project. Three quotes from three sources added to a note composed in
In the Note Editor you can also insert an in-text citation.

Click on the "[+]" (Insert Citation) button, and Zotero will open a search bar.

The search bar shows "Orsini and Zecchini, 2019" because that's the source currently open. Click on the "Insert Citation" button and Zotero w
I am going to delete "Orsini and Zecchini, 2019" and instead write "Damrosch," the author whose book I obtained the first quote from.

Zotero shows me all items by Damrosch in my library.

I select the relevant source: "What is World Literature?" Zotero showing all items by Damrosch in Mushtaq's library.
Zotero prepares the citation for insertion. It also lets you edit it to suit your requirements.

To edit, click on the citation in the search bar.

Here I'm adding the page number of the relevant quote. An in-text citation prepared by Zotero for insertion in the
Here you can see the three citations I added along with page numbers, which I manually added.

The in-text citations in Zotero Note Editor is a really POWERFUL feature.

I'll show you why: Three in-text citations added in Zotero's inbuilt Notes Edit
If you click on an in-text citation, Zotero will give you three options:

1. Go to Page
2. Show Item
3. Edit Citation

Click on "Go to Page" and Zotero will take you to the page in the original source from where you lifted the quotation 🙀 Clicking on an in-text citation gives you three options: Go
Here you can see Zotero opened page 283 of Damrosch's book "What is World Literature?" after I clicked on the in-text citation in the Note Editor.

This is something that can SUPERCHARGE your note-taking and referencing. Zotero opened page 283 of Damrosch's book "What is Worl
Now that we have taken a bunch of notes, it's time to start composing a draft of our paper.

Open a blank document MS Word, and click on the Zotero tab.

Then click on "Add Note." A blank document in MS Word with the heading "Location,
Zotero may or may not open "Zotero - Document Preferences" with a list of available citation styles.

If it does, select the citation style you want to use.

I am going with MLA 9th edition. "Zotero - Document Preferences" menu open in MS Wo
After you choose a citation style, Zotero will open a yellow search bar with a list of all your notes.

Select the note relevant to your current project. Zotero's "Add Note" search bar open in MS Word.
Click on the relevant note and Zotero will import the note into your Word document.

Notice, the citations are all correctly formatted according to the MLA 9th editon.

Now, you have your notes and citations in MS Word.

Start writing. A note imported into an MS Word document from Zotero's Notes
Do a couple rounds of writing and editing and you will have a decent draft.

Below is the first page of one of my forthcoming articles.

---

And that's how you can use Zotero's Note Editor to conceive, develop, and execute a project. The first page of Mushtaq's forthcoming article. Four citati
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More from @MushtaqBilalPhD

Mar 28
Google Scholar is useful, but it's stuck in the past.

Ai2 is building a new AI-powered search engine for researchers.

It looks for papers, follows citations, evaluates relevance, runs follow-up queries, and shows you only relevant papers — and it's free:
1. Go to paperfinder.allen(dot)ai/chat and sign up for a free account.

Type in your question and hit Enter/Return.

Ai2 will start a search. It will mimic a human researcher in looking up papers, and then evaluating/ranking them for relevance.
2. Once it's done, Ai2 will give you a list of papers.

Under every paper, it will show you if it's perfectly relevant, relevant, or somewhat relevant to your query.

It will also show you evidence of what makes a paper perferctly or somewhat relevant.
Read 8 tweets
Mar 28
NotebookLM is (probably) the best reading assistant for research papers.

It's free and you can use it to:

• Summarize papers
• Ask question about papers
• Prepare study guides
• Create mind maps
• Generate podcasts based on papers

And it's very easy to use:
1. Go to

Click on "Create new" and upload a paper.

NotebookLM will give you a summary of the paper. notebooklm.google.com
2. You can ask questions about the paper.

It will answer your question with reference to the contents of the paper.
Read 8 tweets
Mar 24
AI generates fake references to research papers that don't even exist.

Google is on course to solve this problem.

Gemini Deep Research generates well-researched articles with references to published sources.

And it's free!

Here's how to use it:
1. Open your Google Gemini and click on "Deep Research."

Type in your question. Gemini will understand your question and create a research plan based on the question.
2. You can edit the research plan.

Click on "Edit plan" and give Gemini additional instructions.

Gemini will revise the research plan.
Read 8 tweets
Mar 23
How to make mind maps for any research paper:

This will take you 5 minutes and you can do it for free. A mind map based on Mushtaq Bilal's paper, "Genre Communities."
1. Go to ChatGPT and upload the paper you want to make a mind map of.

Paste the prompt below and hit Enter/Return. ChatGPT will give you a code block. Copy it.

Prompt:
Act as an expert academic and go through this document very carefully and understand it as best as you can. Based on your understanding, build a mind map in which you organize the document hierarchically into main topics and subtopics.

Once you are done, write markmap.js code for the mind map with nodes organized hierarchically. The mind map should be visually appealing, easy to follow, and should make the document digestible. Don't give me anything other than the markmap.js code.
2. Go to markmap.js[.]org/repl

You will see two columns.

Delete whatever is in the left column and paste the code you copied from ChatGPT.

It will give you mind map. Download it.
Read 6 tweets
Mar 18
One of the biggest challenges while doing a literature review:

How to find common themes across multiple papers and synthesize available information.

Lateral is an AI app that can help you with it.

Best part: It doesn't hallucinate at all.

Here's how to use Lateral:
1. Go to lateral[.]io and sign up for a free account.

Lateral gives you 500 page credits for free.
2. In your Lateral Dashboard, click on "New Project" and type in the name of your project.

You can also choose a project color to color-code your projects.

Then click on "Create and Launch Project."
Read 15 tweets
Mar 15
Finding research gaps takes a lot of time and labor.

Research Kick Start is an AI app that can help you with it.

It analyzes millions of papers in Google Scholar, Semantic Scholar, and PubMed to help you find research gaps — in minutes.

Here's how to use it: A screenshot of Research Kick Start showing that a research question has not been adequately answered in published literature.
1. Go to and click on "Get started" to sign up for an account.

You'll need to buy a subscription to use the app. researchkick.com/start
2. Choose an AI model you want to use.

It has latest models including ChatGPT 4.5, Claude 3.7, and Deep Seek.

Type in a few key words related to your research project. Then click on "Generate."

It will generate multiple research questions to help you brainstorm ideas.
Read 10 tweets

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