Ilya Shabanov Profile picture
Jun 20, 2023 β€’ 9 tweets β€’ 5 min read β€’ Read on X
If you are drowning in PDFs for your literature review, you don't have a strategy.

Be a detective and build a dashboard to see the whole picture.

A simple yet flexible paradigm:
πŸ‘‡ Image
1. Project note

Start your project by creating a single "PROJECT" note.

It can be a question, a topic, a chapter or anything "bigger" than an afternoon of reading.

Use it as a control center to quickly remember what you are working on and where you left off.

Set a GOAL. Image
2. Assign a tag to your project

Every paper that you read gets a single note, named like so: "Smith 2020"

Add the tag of your project to this note.

βœ… Find all PAPERS on this subject with one click.

@obsdmd opens a search for this tag if you click on it. Image
@obsdmd I asked 281 of you what I should talk about in my next webinar.

The majority wants: Organization and Structure.

The dashboard is just one such approach.

Pre-register for the webinar:

@obsdmd 3. Reading List

Collecting 50 papers first thing is a bad idea.

Instead: Be selective!

Write down the papers you WANT to read and WHY.

You are a detective carefully investigating a mystery.

βœ… Always know what's the next step in your research. Image
@obsdmd 4. Questions

This is my favourite section.

When reading ideas come: "Can I do X? Has anyone tried Y?".

Write them down, link the relevant notes and papers, where you got the idea from.

βœ… More critical thinking and creativity, plus if you are stuck, look at your ideas! Image
@obsdmd 5. Rabbit holes or Ideas

Sometimes you get bigger ideas for the project.
But researching them often takes days.
So park them - for now.

βœ… Keep track of your rabbit holes, choose which ones to explore - wisely. Image
@obsdmd 6. Link RELATED notes to this project

When creating a note that mostly relates to this project, add a link in the header.

It takes close to no time.

Using BACKLINKS you can now discover all the notes that link TO your project.

Image
@obsdmd The structure of your project dashboard is not set in stone: Experiment and Evolve!

Approach the Lit Review as a project with actionable steps and clues.

See yourself as a DETECTIVE and the dashboard as your OFFICE.

β€’ β€’ β€’

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More from @Artifexx

May 26
Instead of reading papers top to bottom, start with core concepts.

You learn more, because brains work with ideas, not PDFs.

Here is how to do it:
πŸ‘‡ Image
1. Pick 4-5 highly cited review papers on your topic. Use Consensus or Litmaps to identify them. Image
2. Upload the PDFs to Claude and run the obsidian-world-builder skill (link below).

3. The skill extracts every concept across the papers and writes each one to its own note. Claims from individual papers get linked back to their source. Image
Read 7 tweets
Apr 10, 2025
This is what my paper looks like.

It shows every result & decision of 3+ months.

Let me walk you through it:
πŸ‘‡ Image
The blue boxes are questions.

The green boxes are data sources.

Certain data can answer certain questions.Image
I use the data to answer questions.

The result can be a plot, for example.

The arrow labels are very short answers. Image
Read 7 tweets
Mar 14, 2025
What if there was a way to get AI to write like you, not like a robot?

Here's how to train AI to write in your (academic) style in just 3 simple steps πŸ‘‡ Image
πŸ” Step 1: Gather Representative Writing

Get a few pieces of text that contain good examples of how you write and combine them into AI readable text files using . Gobble.botImage
πŸ€– 2. Generate a Style Blueprint

Enter the following prompt into ChatGPT to create a detailed description of your writing style:

"I need you to create a style blueprint based on the text examples I am providing. Describe the style of writing in a few sentences, mention these attributes: Conciseness, Eloquence, Vividness, Assertiveness, word choice, jargon, sentence length, .

Here is the text example:

.

Compact this into a set of instructions for AI that can be used to replicate this writing style. Do not use lists, just a paragraph."Image
Read 6 tweets
Feb 25, 2025
Just tested SciSpace Deep Review AI.

It analyzed 1750 papers and wrote a 3,050-word lit review - in three minutes.

Don't miss this milestone:
πŸ‘‡ Image
While the output isn’t ready for direct publication, the level of detail is remarkable.

AI-assisted tools like @scispace_ are changing how researchers conduct literature reviews

It gets faster, easier and more structured. Image
Start by visiting and typing in a preliminary research question, just as you would for a literature search.

Select "Deep Review" under the search box. typeset.io/searchImage
Read 8 tweets
Feb 19, 2025
I just built a "Research Oracle", an AI that speeds up my research.

Here is how you can build yours:
πŸ‘‡ Image
A "Research Oracle" is an AI that contains a lot of knowledge about your research. Once you built it use it to:

βœ… Find citations
βœ… Polish writing & logical flow in your manuscripts
βœ… Help with lit reviews
βœ… Suggest new ideas for your research
βœ… Check for errors Image
ChatGPT has a new feature called "Projects".

It bundles chats + files + custom instructions.

Create one and give it a few papers as a knowledge base. Image
Read 7 tweets
Feb 10, 2025
I tried 50+ academic GPTs.

Most are just amateur projects.

Here are the top 18 that will actually boost your productivity: Image
If you have never used CustomGPTs:
β†’ Go to ChatGPT
β†’ Click "Explore GPTs
β†’ Search for the GPTs mentioned above
β†’ Start a conversation Image
Leveraging AI for your academic writing will make you super productive.

I will explain how in the upcoming webinar:

Read 4 tweets

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