Ilya Shabanov Profile picture
Jun 20 9 tweets 5 min read Twitter logo Read on Twitter
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:
👇 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.

✅ 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.

✅ 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.

✅ 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.

✅ 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.

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@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.

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More from @Artifexx

Jun 19
Summarizing papers and making highlights will fail you in the long run.

To complete a literature review for 100+ papers you will need a system.

This is my note-taking and annotation WORKFLOW:
(Best part: linking directly to annotations inside a PDF)
👇 Image
If you haven't tried it yet, download @obsdmd to take your notes.

If I am not in the lab or field, this is where research happens.

It has a powerful plugin for annotating PDFs as well.

(More info under the link in my profile) Image
@obsdmd 1. Source notes for each paper

In science everything needs a reference or else it might be plagiarism!

Create one note for every paper you deal with (even if you haven't read it yet).

Whenever you make a note of something, add a link to this source note. Image
Read 12 tweets
Jun 18
What would you like to see in my next webinar on Literature Review?

Explanations in the thread (read before voting!):
👇
1. Discovering RELEVANT Literature can be a challenge if you just use google.

One of the best ways to discover literature in my opinion is @LitmapsApp.

It has a stunning graph view and very advanced features for quickly finding literature Image
2. AI Tools

To quote every other tweet in my feed. "If you have not heard about AI, you are living under a rock".

AI is a game changer but most tools I tried are more impressive than really useful.

@scite however is a tool that "sticks":
Read 7 tweets
Jun 17
Here is my newest workflow for an Effortless Literature Review.

It uses @perplexity_ai, @scite, @LitmapsApp, @obsdmd and @teampaperpal.

Tutorial with detailed examples & all the tools:
(Updated with new AI tools)
👇 Image
@perplexity_ai @scite @LitmapsApp @obsdmd @teampaperpal The first step is to find a "gateway" paper.

We will use it to get an overview of our topic.

Ideally it has many REFERENCES for us to dig deeper.
And it has many CITATIONS (which we can identify with @LitmapsApp)

The best type is therefore a popular REVIEW paper! Image
@perplexity_ai @scite @LitmapsApp @obsdmd @teampaperpal 1. @perplexity_ai is a perfect academic search engine

Ask questions in plain english to start learning about your topic.

The [ ] button shows the sources in a popup.

Here is a paper titled: "...A review of two decades of research...".

That's what we were looking for! Image
Read 16 tweets
Jun 15
If you aren't using backlinks in your notes, you miss out on 50% of ideas.

Every missed connection is possibly a missed idea.

Here is how to leverage backlinks for ideas:
(even without linking!)
👇 Image
A LINK is something you add manually: A links to B.
A BACKLINK is created automatically: B now has a backlink to A.

Here is an example note.

The 4 outgoing links DESCRIBE details of the note.
So a (forward) link is to dig deeper into a topic. Image
Pretty much all modern note taking tools have a possibility to display backinks too (not MS Word or google docs though).

I use @obsdmd.

Click the 3 little dots at the top
Select "Backlinks in Document".

Backlinks will be displayed at the bottom of the document. Image
Read 9 tweets
Jun 7
ChatGPT has limited academic knowledge and makes mistakes.

But DanteAI will TRAIN ChatGPT using your notes and academic papers!

I uploaded all of my notes and the results are magical.

Train your ChatGPT research assistant like this:
👇 Image
1. Create a FREE account on @DanteTheAI

The free account allows you to upload a good amount of text and ask 30 questions every month.

This will be enough to try it out. Image
2. Create a "Knowledge Base"

Dante AI trains ChatGPT using files (PDFs, text etc) you provide.

A knowledge base is a collection of files on one area of expertise.

On the free account you can create one knowledge base.

Click "New Knowledge Base" to get started. Image
Read 13 tweets
Jun 6
The greatest measure of academic success is novel ideas.

Here are 5 methods to create ideas on auto-pilot:
👇 Image
Creativity is connection

If you read a paper using a novel statistical method.
And another describing an open problem in your field.

What is your contribution?

✅ CONNECT the method with the problem.

In most cases a new idea is a combination of existing information!
1. Link your notes heavily.

Here is an example in @obsdmd - it's "mostly links" or mostly CONNECTION.

- Blue links are links to papers (or books)
- Green links are concepts
- Yellow links are annotations

From this note alone I can zoom into any related concept in no time. Image
Read 12 tweets

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