Ilya Shabanov Profile picture
Mar 8 β€’ 13 tweets β€’ 18 min read
Upgrade your browser to an academic research tool.

8 Chrome plugins to help with your literature review.
πŸ‘‡
This tweet is part of a series on the "Effortless Literature Review" (ELR).

The ELR combines tools and best practies.

A central tool: Your browser.

Let's upgrade Chrome to a perfect research browser!

1. @scholarcy

Scholarcy turns dense abstracts into readable articles.

The key is to use it wisely!

First read the key 10% publications in your field as they are. No matter how long it takes.

β†’ Understand the subject matter.

Now use @scholarcy with the remaining 90%.
@scholarcy 2. @scite

Adds citation counts as 3 values: Supports (S), Contrasts (C), Mentions (M).

Directly in the search results!

Here's a paper about myrtle rust, a plant pathogen. I study it in New Zealand.

Scite found a supporting paper from Mexico!

Question: Is myrtle rust global?
@scholarcy @scite 3. ArxivGPT

This plugin integrates the power of ChatGPT into Arxiv.

Arxiv is a repository for preprints.

Often a paper will be available in a journal and as a preprint.

Search for "Arxiv + <Name of Paper>".

If you find it, here is what you can do:
@scholarcy @scite 4. @zotero, @paperpile, @citedrive

Choose your reference manager. All of them have browser plugins.

Zotero: Wins at features
Paperile: Wins at usability
Citedrive: Wins at simplicity

Save time adding papers into your library.
@scholarcy @scite @zotero @paperpile @citedrive Speaking of Zotero and plugins!

Zotero has numerous plugins to translate or auto tag PDFs.
It can integrate with todoist and @obsdmd.

If you're a Zotero user, check out this review:

@scholarcy @scite @zotero @paperpile @citedrive @obsdmd 5. Pubmed Impact Factor (IF)

The IF can be a measure of prestige for a journal (controversial!).
It's calculated on the basis of citations.

High-IF journals are often harder to publish in.

This plugin allows you to FILTER BY and DISPLAY the IF.

(Pubmed searches only)
@scholarcy @scite @zotero @paperpile @citedrive @obsdmd 6. Scholar H-Index

-For index nerds: Calculate different indices (like the IF in 5.) for sets of papers or authors.

- Correct citation counts. (Google counts are always too high).

- Author clusters - Identify who publishes together.
@scholarcy @scite @zotero @paperpile @citedrive @obsdmd 7. @ReadwiseReader

One of my favourite plugins.

Save anything on the web and import it into @obsdmd to take notes.

- Transcribes videos.
- Text-to-speech for anything.

I am using it daily.

@scholarcy @scite @zotero @paperpile @citedrive @obsdmd @ReadwiseReader 8. @unpaywall

As the name suggests: Unlocks access to PDFs, that others pay for.

As opposed to (you know what), this one is LEGAL.

(Sometimes clicking on the plugin is also just faster than logging in through your institution.)
@scholarcy @scite @zotero @paperpile @citedrive @obsdmd @ReadwiseReader @unpaywall Trouble fining the right tools for your literature review?

March 18th I am giving a workshop on the "effortless literature workflow".

Click the link in my profile or see pinned tweet for details!

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More from @Artifexx

Mar 9
Automate the literature discovery/review process.

These 3 tools can monitor keywords, publications or labs.
πŸ‘‡ Image
This workflow assumes you have a collection of papers.

The collection is either in @LitmapsApp or @zotero.

Here is how we got them:
@LitmapsApp @zotero 1. Keyword monitoring

Go to Google Scholar Alerts (see last tweet).

Type in your topic (e.g. "Myrtle rust" a plant pathogen)

Tick the checkbox for more, but less relevant results.

Google will send you notifications.
The results aren't always relevant, but generally useful. Image
Read 11 tweets
Mar 7
Your literature review is not just a hunt for PDFs.

Become an expert by finding important SCHOLARS and JOURNALS.

Here is how to do this with @zotero, Google Scholar, @LitmapsApp.
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@zotero @LitmapsApp Science is made by people and published by people.

To really polish your understanding of the field, get to know these.

This tweet we discovered papers with @LitmapsApp (Step 3).

Let's start there and analyze their authors and journals!

@zotero @LitmapsApp @LitmapsApp is an app for discovery.

It will discover publications that you add to a growing colleciton.

When done, export this collection as CSV (will download a file).

Open the CSV file with Excel.

Copy the DOI column (usually the first)...
Read 15 tweets
Mar 5
Here is my method to conduct (and automate) a literature review.

Using Google Scholar, @scite , @litmaps , #ChatGPT, @zotero and @obsdmd.

Tutorial with examples and best practices:
πŸ‘‡
@scite @LitMaps @zotero @obsdmd We start with a search.

But: Without domain knowledge, it's hard to tell what is relevant.

We might collect too many.

Instead: Find SEED papers and explore their relevant references/citations.

β†’ Fewer but more relevant papers.

(I will show a tool for this)
@scite @LitMaps @zotero @obsdmd Google Scholar is google but for scientific papers.

But:
- the domains are mixed up.
- it ranks mostly by # of citations β†’ older papers prioritized

Use it to find SEED papers, not for an exhaustive search.

Its strength: @zotero and @scite integration
Read 16 tweets
Mar 3
Take notes to ADD to your knowledge.

Connect them and you MULTIPLY your knowledge.

How connected notes unlock your FULL potential:
πŸ‘‡ Image
For every paper you read you take a note.

Every time you do this your "database" grows.

But it grows linearly.

To your existing knowledge N you add one paper 1.

β†’ N + 1 Image
But how many connections can you make with N notes?

Each note can be connected to the N - 1 remaining notes.

β†’ N * (N - 1) connections for N notes.

The number of connections grows MUCH faster. Image
Read 9 tweets
Feb 24
Every academic takes notes on literature.

But many struggle with new ideas or writer's block.

It won't happen to you, if you prepare your notes *right*.

Use this strategy: πŸ‘‡πŸ§΅
The ingredients of a lit note:

- Summary of the relation to your research
- Authors' intentions
- Quotable sentence
- Tags & links to concepts
- Title with linked PDF
- Metadata

We'll use them to create the mentioned benefits.
I use @obsdmd, but other tools will work too.
@obsdmd 1. Summary

Most people summarize the content.
But why? It's in the abstract already!

Better: Critically describe the RELATION to YOUR reserach.

Point out what you find USEFUL and what needs improvement etc.

βœ… Understand the paper's RELEVANCE to your research.
Read 14 tweets
Feb 22
Graphs of notes are a powerful research tool.

They generate ideas as you browse through your notes.

If you think it's just a "pretty graphic of my notes"...

...this tutorial will change your mind (and help your research):
πŸ‘‡πŸ§΅
First: What is a graph?

A graph is dots (one for each note) connected by lines (one for each link).

You might have seen "global knowledge graphs" like this image (i.e. all my notes in one graph).

It is like studying insects from a skyscraper. Hard to gain any insight.
A LOCAL graph visualizes only my open note's connections.

Showing notes I link to (1 step) and notes those notes link to (2 step).

e.g I am studying the FMRP protein (molecular biology).
Graph shows:

β†’ Its interaction partners (red)
β†’ Mechanisms it is related to (gray)
Read 15 tweets

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