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Mushtaq Bilal, PhD

@MushtaqBilalPhD

Nov 18 • 14 tweets • 6 min read Twitter logo

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Literature review is one of the most time-consuming parts of any research project.

Here's a new Zotero+SciSummary workflow to supercharge your literature review.

It'll help you collect, organize, and summarize papers in a fraction of a time.

You can learn it in 15 min:

1. Go to zotero(dot)org. Download and install it on your computer.

You will also need to install Zotero Connector. This is a tool that connects Zotero with your web browser. (I am using Chrome.)

Click on "Install Chrome Connector" and add it your browser.

Once it's added, click on the puzzle-like icon and pin the Zotero Connector to your browser.

2. Open your Zotero and click on "File" and then select "New Collection."

Name your collection.

3. Go to Google Scholar or PubMed (or your university's online library). Look up papers relevant to your project.

Click on the Zotero Connector in the top-right corner. It will open an "Item Selector" with all the items on the page.

Select the papers you want to read and click on OK. Then choose the collection that you just created and click on "Done."

Zotero will add the selected papers to your library. It will also retrieve open source PDFs of those papers.

If you are logged in through your university's library, Zotero will even retrieve PDFs of paywalled articles.

4. Register for a free Zotero account. This will do two things.

First, it will give you an online backup of your library.

Second, it will help you integrate Zotero with SciSummary.

Go to zotero(dot)org and click on "Log In." Then click on "Register for a free account."

Log in to your acocunt after creating it.

5. To read these papers efficiently, we will use an AI-powered app SciSummary.

Go to scisummary(dot)com and register for a free account.

6. Next we need to integrate Zotero with SciSummary.

Log in to your SciSummary account and click on your name in the top-right corner and select "Profile."

Scroll down to Zotero and click on "Login with Zotero." You will be asked to sign in to your Zotero account.

Zotero will tell you that SciSummary wants to access your account. Click on "Accept Defaults."

This will integrated Zotero and SciSummary.

7. Go to your SciSummary dashboard. Click on "Add Articles" and select "Import from Zotero."

SciSummary will show you a list of articles that were recently added to your Zotero library.

Select the articles you want to summarize and click on "Submit."

SciSummary will open an article you have just uploaded.

Click on "Request New Summary" and SciSummary will summarize the article for you.

SciSummary will also hyperlink all important words and terms to Wikipedia entries. This feature alone can save you a lot of time and effort.

8. You can export these summaries as notes to your Zotero library.

Click on the "Actions" button and choose "Add As Zoteor Note."

SciSummary will export summary to your Zotero. It will automatically attach the summary to the relevant article for better organization.

Want to learn how to supercharge your academic writing with AI apps?

I have a tutorial for you.

4,000+ academics including those at Harvard, Stanford, and Yale are using it.

You can get it here👇
efficientacademicwriter.carrd.co

9. If English is not your first language, you can ask SciSummary to summarize articles in your own language.

In the "Summaries" tab, click on "Language" and select your language. Here I have selected Urdu.

Then click on "Request New Summary" and SciSummary will summarize the article in your language.

And you can export this summmary to Zotero.

10. SciSummary can also help you with research questions.

Click on the "Summary Mode" and select "Opportunities for Future Research." Then click on "Request New Summary."

SciSummary will give you a list research questions.

You can export these questions to Zotero and take notes on them.

11. SciSummary offers several pricing plans.

The free plan lets you summarize 10,000 words a month.

If you are interested in a paid subscription, you can buy one month's subsciption for $0.99 only with the code FIRSTMONTH.

Found this workflow helpful?

1. Scroll to the top and hit "Like" on the first tweet.

2. Bookmark it so you can come back to it later.

3. Follow me for more tutorials on how to supercharge your academic writing with AI apps.

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More from @MushtaqBilalPhD

Mushtaq Bilal, PhD

@MushtaqBilalPhD

Nov 20

One of the reasons journal articles get rejected: poor language and grammar.

Trinka is an AI-powered tool that will help you edit and proofread your work — in minutes.

Think of it as Grammarly but designed especially for academic writing.

Here's how to use it:

1. Go to and register for a free account.trinka.ai

2. Once you have logged in to your Trinka account, this is how your screen would look like.

Click on "New File." Choose a name for your document and select "Academic Writing."

You can also mention your subject area and the type of paper you want to edit/proofread.

Save your preferences and paste the text of your article you want to edit/proofread.

Trinka will give you suggestions for editing and proofreading. To accept a suggestion simply click on it.

Not all suggestions would be equally useful. You can simpy ignore the suggestions you don't find helpful.

Read 9 tweets

Mushtaq Bilal, PhD

@MushtaqBilalPhD

Nov 19

ResearchGPT is a custom GPT especially designed for researchers.

It has a database of 282 million research articles and it answers your questions with references to published articles.

No fake citations.

Here's how to use it:

1. Go to and click on "Try now on ChatGPT."

This will open ResearchGPT for you. Please note you need access to GPT-4 to use it. researchgpt.com

2. Simply type in your question and ResearchGPT will answer with references to published books and articles.

As you can see here, the references are all clickable and real.

Read 8 tweets

Mushtaq Bilal, PhD

@MushtaqBilalPhD

Nov 11

One of the biggest challenges researchers face — how to find research gaps?

Here's how ChatGPT can help you identify research gaps (prompts and instructions included):

1. Start by creating a custom GPT called "Research Gap Identifier."

Open your ChatGPT and click on your profile photo.

Select "My GPTs" and then click on "Create a GPT."

2. You will see two options: Create and Configure. Click on Configure.

Name your GPT "Research Gap Identifier."

For Description, use the following template:

Identifiers research gaps in literature published in the fields of [your primary field of research] and [secondary field]

After you have named and described your GPT, click on the + sign.

ChatGPT will ask you if you want to upload a photo or you want DALL-E to create one for you. I am using DALL-E.

Read 9 tweets

Mushtaq Bilal, PhD

@MushtaqBilalPhD

Nov 10

ChatGPT just introduced custom GPTs. Now you can make ChatGPT a reliable research assistant.

Here's how to create your personal AI-powered research assistant in less than 10 minutes:

1. Open ChatGPT and click on your profile photo.

You will see "My GPTs" in the menu.

2. Click on "My GPTs."

You will see "Create a GPT" on the top of your screen.

Click on it and ChatGPT will open a "New GPT" for you.

You will see two options: Create and Configure. Click on Configure.

Read 12 tweets

Mushtaq Bilal, PhD

@MushtaqBilalPhD

Nov 3

Abstract is one of the most important parts of any research paper — it's the first thing anyone reads.

But a lot of folks struggle with writing good abstracts.

ChatGPT can help you draft quality abstracts in a matter of minutes.

Here's how to do it (prompts included):

1. Start by training to act as your research assistant. You can do this with Custom Instructions.

Open ChatGPT, click on your profile photo, and select Custom Instructions.

Paste the following Custom Instructions in ChatGPT along with your relevant details and a short writing sample.

What would you like ChatGPT to know about you to provide better responses?

I am an [your title such as academic researcher, etc] with a PhD in [your field]. I work as [position] at the [name of your university]

My current research project looks at [details about your research project]. I also teach undergraduate and graduate courses on [details about course you teach]. In the past, I have published work on [details about your past work].

You are going to act as my research assistant. You will help me with brainstorming research questions, simplifying complex topics, mock peer review, and polishing academic prose. You will help me with critiquing drafts of the papers I am working on.

You will also engage with me in a Socratic dialog and challenge my opinions so that I am aware of any blind spots I may have. Based on our conversations, you will suggest new and exciting directions that I can develop my work in.

How would you like ChatGPT to respond?

You will respond like an academic colleague. Any claims, opinions, or figures that you cite in your responses must be cited with reference to an authentic and published source.

You will never make up any sources of your own. If you are unsure about a source, you will say that you don’t know.

You will never say you are an AI model since I already know that. Repeating it is a waste of both time and resources.

Your responses should be clear and precise, and you will never use more words than are necessary. You will always be very economical with words, but you will not compromise on clarity and precision of your answers.

You will follow my instructions strictly. If I ask you to limit your answer to two sentences, your answer must be two sentences only.

You will answer all questions in the following style [include a short passage that you have already written. This will help ChatGPT respond in your own style]:

"When it comes to using AI apps for academic writing, understanding the difference between structure and content is crucial. It’s a bit tricky to understand this difference because structure and content are intricately intertwined. Content can’t exist without structure, and we will have no structure if we don’t have any content. We always have a lot of content based on the research that we are doing. But that content doesn’t mean much if we don’t structure it in the form a research paper or a monograph."

2. Google "How to write an abstract for a research paper."

Google will give you a lot of free resources developed by some of the leading universities in the world.

Choose a resource that is relevant to your field. [Here I am going with the guidelines developed by Goerge Mason University's Writing Center.]

Copy these guidelines and paste them in an MS Word document and save it.

Read 10 tweets

Mushtaq Bilal, PhD

@MushtaqBilalPhD

Oct 30

Reading research papers takes time — a lot of time.

Google Bard can summarize research papers for you in seconds. And you can ask Bard questions about them too.

Best part: Bard is totally free.

Here's how to use Bard to supercharge your academic reading:

1. Go to bard(dot)google(dot)com

Click on the puzzle-like icon in the top-left corner to open Extensions.

Enable Google Workspace. This will give Bard access to your Google Drive.