Ilya Shabanov Profile picture
Jan 13 14 tweets 9 min read
The first time I did a literature review, it took me months.

Now i can do it in a week.

How?

I spent 500+ hours refining a system for my notes. Here's is the end result:
👇

#AcademicChatter #AcademicTwitter #ScienceTwitter
1. Get one tool.

I use @obsdmd, as an "academic operating system".
It contains everything: My notes, PDFs, annotations, mind maps, writing.

Don't get stuck in the past with MS Word.

@obsdmd 2. Create a simple structure for your notes. Simplicity will determine how much you use it.

"Don't make me think" is the core principle here.

Here's is a system I have been using for 100s of notes – effortlessly.

It relies on 4 types of notes:
@obsdmd 3. Read a paper, make a SOURCE NOTE.

► One PDF = One "Source note"

► Add a summary or a "quoatable" (a sentence mentioning this paper, that you could use as is)

► Write down core contributions

► BUT: Don't put the "facts" in here. They will go into "Collection Notes".
@obsdmd 📝 Example: Source Note

• Contains a summary
• Contains a quotable (something I can directly drop into a piece of writing)
• Can contain figures
• Short & succinct
• Contains the PDF with key highlights
@obsdmd 4. Atomic bits of information go into COLLECTION NOTES

► Always add a link to the original paper (i.e. not the review you read it in)

► Quickly access the original source and catch up on it, even the PDF.

► Be succinct

► Split large notes into multiple.
@obsdmd 📝 Example: Collection Note

• Collection of atomic "facts" or "claims"
• Link to the original note - allows me to double check
• Very succinct short statements.
• Cites original source, not mention, even if I haven't read it yet. (e.g. "Hutchinson 1959 in Connell 1964")
@obsdmd 5. Questions and Ideas go into THINKING NOTES

► All (absurd) ideas, questions, suggestions go here.

► Birthplace of "synthesis" as multiple sources will naturally come together in these notes.

► Don't "think so much" here, creativity is spontaneous. Jot. Jot. Jot.
@obsdmd 📝 Example: Question note

• Questions AND ideas
• Note simple questions, that will resolve by more reading
• Be critical and ask "what if..."
• Link Sources 1️⃣ and Collections 2️⃣ to start understanding.
@obsdmd 6. Gather Collections and Ideas to start an OUTLINE NOTE

► Use Collection facts as "lego stones" for writing

► Questions and Ideas are "writing prompts".

► Write Outline notes as you would publish in a journal
@obsdmd 📝 Example: Outline Note

• Based on questions (3️⃣) and facts (2️⃣)
• Uses only primary sources (1️⃣)
• Aims at "publication grade", readable text
• References can be extracted automatically by Obsidian
@obsdmd This process is a RECIPE for academic writing. 🥘

The more often you "cook it", the easier and more effortless it becomes. 👨‍🍳

Practice, to be fast:
"Chop your knowledge up – cook it around a question – serve in an outline – repeat"
@obsdmd Summary

► 1 PDF = 1 SOURCE note (contains summaries)
► Facts from papers go as blocks into COLLECTION NOTES
► Fill THINKING NOTES with questions and ideas as you go
► Use collections and thinking notes to create OUTLINE NOTES

► Use @obsdmd to glue it all together.
@obsdmd Play around, create your own method.

I put 500+ hours into mine.
If you want all my learnings, join on Jan, 28th.

⚡️ A 2 hour workshop + starter kit + 1on1 support

My first time, so I'm looking for feedback and offering it very cheap.

buff.ly/3H0hrMA

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More from @Artifexx

Jan 12
Failing to plan – is planning to fail.

Whether you start a PhD, secured a grant or have a project,
you'll probably make a plan.

As an ex-CEO I did a lot of planning.
Now I apply it to my PhD, here's how:
👇
#ScienceTwitter, #academicWriting
The first step is to zoom out as far as you can.

See your strategy. See the end goal. See each milestone.

Now zoom into your next milestone.

And make a new strategy on how to achieve just this.

Do the tasks seem doable?
Then it's time to use a board to organise yourself.

Read 6 tweets
Jan 11
Read less – learn more.

Cut down your PhD or literature review reading list by 75%:

Here is a simple 3-step workflow:
🧵👇

#AcademicChatter #ScienceTwitter #AcademicTwitter
We will use the 80/20 principle and identify the 20% top papers from these 3 categories:

► Most Cited: Foundational, often dated work

► Most Recent: Cutting edge, often no citations

► Most References: Review papers

It's super easy with @LitmapsApp. (free acct is enough)
@LitmapsApp 1. Navigate to "Your Library" in Litmaps.

Your library is organised in collections, or folders containing your papers.

(If you're using Zotero, Mendeley etc, I'll show you how to import into litmaps in a second. )
Read 18 tweets
Jan 10
Turn your research papers & PDFs into audio using AI.

It takes 1 minute with this tool, here's how:
👇 Image
1. Make a free Audemic account.

This is the wonderful tool we are going to use: @audemic_co.

The address is: audemic . io

It will also summarise the PDFs and possibly translate them.

Awesome, eh? Image
@audemic_co 2. You will be asked to personalise your experience.

Just enter whatever you like here – it is inconsequential. Image
Read 13 tweets
Jan 8
This is what AI can do today, #ScienceTwitter:

⏵ Discover new literature
⏵ Understand and summarise, even math
⏵ Write your papers

The game is changing – fast.

Here's my list of the 9 essential AI tools in research:
(With prices and use-cases)
👇
🧭 | @LitmapsApp

Discover similar papers from one ore more publications.
Will often display fewer (more relevant?) papers, compared to other apps.
Intuitively guides through the discovery process.

✔︎ Effortless Literature Discovery
💲Free for small maps, then 10$/mo
@LitmapsApp 🧭 | @RsrchRabbit

Upload your research library and ask to find similar papers.
Very thorough and fast but results in huge amounts of results.
The software takes some time to get used to.

✔︎ Thorough literature review
💲Free
Read 12 tweets
Jan 7
Finding 200 papers for your research is easy.

What is NOT easy:
• Make sense of it 🤔
• Finding holes in the literature 🕳️
• Making a novel contribution 😵

I just learned about "Discourse Graphs".
A super powerful, visual technique, that helps.

Here's how I use it:
👇
Chefs use recipes to get from ingredients to dinner.

Your ingredients: papers & books,

Your dinner: the publication.

How do we prepare, marinate, cook and arrange our ingredients to get a great publication?

That's what we need the Discourse Graph for!
1. What is it?

A visual way of thinking, developed by @joelchan86

We represent information as: a statement, claim, question or context.

We connect information e.g. "a statement can inform a question"

Just these simple rules.

Visually it looks something like this:
Read 19 tweets
Jan 6
Declining Disruption.

#ScienceTwitter is abuzz with this recently published nature article.

I read into the study and 100s of comments.
Consensus: Grants and journals are to blame.

But the authors give a much better, more personal insights.

Here's what I learned:
👇
💡Define Disruption:

Suppose I publish a study S that cites X,Y,Z.

If disruptive:
Subsequent work will cite S primarily, as X,Y,Z are "obsolete".

Consolidating:
S,X,Y and Z will be cited. As all are still relevant.

They validate it using many studies from 20th century.
Reason 1: Decline in Diversity

We become "super nerds".
It makes our steps safer, but smaller.

Read "The Age of Insight" to learn how artists, psychologists and doctors all mingled in salons more than a century ago.

Maybe it's time to rediscover the connection to the arts?
Read 9 tweets

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