Mushtaq Bilal, PhD Profile picture
Nov 30 11 tweets 4 min read Twitter logo Read on Twitter
ResearchPal is a new app designed especially for academic writing.

It has a built-in search engine. You can look up papers, save them to your library, and extract key insights.

It can also help you with literature review and drafting your paper.

Here's how to use it:
Go to researchpal(dot)co and sign up for a free account.

Once you have logged in, click on "Projects" and create a new project.
Open the project you just created. ResearchPal will give you a list of tools in the left taskbar.

Click on "Library" and upload papers relevant to your project. At the moment, ResearchPal only lets you upload papers one by one.

It also has Zotero and Mendeley integrations but I didn't find them very helpful. Mendeley integration didn't work for me. And it retrieved only a few articles from my Zotero library.

Maybe folks at ResearchPal will improve these integrations in the future.
ResearchPal has a built-in search function, which is really helpful.

It's like having Google Scholar inside your MS Word.

Click on "Search Papers" and type in keywords related to your project.

While the idea of a built-in search function is great, it needs some work. I looked up "world literature david damrosch" and it included irrelevant papers on neural networks.

That said, having a search function is awesome.
ResearchPal also lets you save relevant articles. Click on the "Save" button to do so.

All your saved articles and those in your library will show up in the "References" tab. This is very convenient.
Another great functionality ResearchPal provides is it lets you extract insights from papers in your library.

Select a few papers in your library and click on "Add to Paper Insights." ResearchPal will give summaries of the articles.

You can add several additional columns too like Conclusions, Results, Literature Survey, etc.

This can help you go through key insights of a lot of papers very quickly. You can use this feature to figure out papers that are most relevant to your project.
Want to learn how to supercharge your academic writing with AI apps?

I have a complete tutorial for you.

4,300+ academics including those at Harvard, Stanford, and Yale are using it.

You can get it here 👇

efficientacademicwriter.carrd.co
ResearchPal also has a "Literature Review" tab.

I am not a fan of AI-generated literature reviews — they are predictable and lack originality.

That said, this function can help you move in the right direction.

Click on "Literature Review" and type in keywords related to your project. ResearchPal will give you a write-up with references to published papers.

I looked up "pakistani literature and world literature" and found an interesting paper that was published just last week.
7. ResearchPal also has a document editor that lets you draft your paper.
The document editor has a useful function of AI commands that you can use to look up information.

For example, I am writing a paper on 19th century colonial India and needed a brief introduction to East India Company.

ResearchPal gave me a short write-up that I can use an inspiration to draft a few relevant sentences.
Found this thread on ResearchPal 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 regular threads on how to supercharge your academic writing with AI apps.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Mushtaq Bilal, PhD

Mushtaq Bilal, PhD Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @MushtaqBilalPhD

Nov 29
Crafting a strong argument is crucial for any research paper.

But many academics struggle with with.

Here's how AI can help you sharpen and polish your argument (prompts included):
1. First of all, you'd need to have your argument written down in as much detail as possible.

It doesn't matter how basic or unrefined the argument is.

For example, here is a paper that I am working on with a very basic argument. But it's good enough to seek feedback on.
2. Choose one or two authors whose works you have closely engaged with. You may have built on their work or critiqued their arguments.

Take the papers that you have engaged with and upload them to ChatGPT or Claude.

For this thread, I am using Cluade 2 — Anthropic's latest model — through Poe.

Poe gives you access to a bunch of LLMs including GPT-4, Claude 2, and many others.

Please note Poe requires a paid subscription.
Read 8 tweets
Nov 28
Finding relevant papers for your literature review can take a lot of time.

Conensus — an AI-powered search engine — can make your literature discovery process super-quick.

Here's how to use Consensus + Zotero to supercharge your literature review:
1. Open your Zotero desktop app.

Click on "File" and select "New Collection." Choose a name for your collection.
2. Go to consensus(dot)app and sign in to your account. Create a free account if you don't have one already.

Type in your research question and Consensus will give you a list of relevant papers and their one-line summaries.

Neither Google Scholar nor PubMed has this funcationality.

Consensus will show you if a paper is published in a rigorous journal, and the type of paper (observational study, literature review, etc.)

It will give you a snapshot of the paper with its population, sample size, methods, and outcomes.

Instead of reading the whole paper, you can take a quick look at the snapshot to see how relevant a paper is to your project.
Read 9 tweets
Nov 26
Zotero is the best citation and reference management app.

It's totally free.

But many folks don't know how to use it.

Here's a tutorial on how to automate your citations and references with Zotero:
1. Go to zotero(dot)org.

Download "Zotero 6" and install the app on your computer.
2. You will also need to install the Zotero Connector. It will connect your Zotero desktop app with your browser.

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

Once it's added. click on the puzzle-like icon and pin the Zotero Connector to your browser.
Read 14 tweets
Nov 25
Sci Hub is a "pirate" website with 88M research papers freely available.

Using it is not advisable. We should all try to make billion-dollar acdemic publishers richer.

Here's a thread on integrating Zotero with Sci Hub to get free articles.

PLEASE DON'T DO THIS 😉
1. Don't go to this link:

github(dot)com/ethanwillis/zotero-scihub/releases

But if you want to, please change the spelled word "dot" with an actual dot.

Once the link opens, don't click on zotero-scihub file. This will download an xpi (pronounced "zippy") file to your computer.
2. Don't open your Zotero but if you do, click on "Tools."

In "Tools" menu, click on "Add-ons." Zotero wil open its Add-on Manager for you.

Click on the gear-like icon in the top-right corner and then select "Install Add-on From File."

Now navigate to the xpi file that you just downloaded and open it.

This will install the Sci Hub add-on in your Zotero. You shouldn't have done this.
Read 8 tweets
Nov 25
Not many people are paying attention to Google Bard, but it's quickly becoming a very efficient tool.

It can access and summarize your emails and documents in your Google Drive. It's also intergrated with YouTube now.

Here's how to use it to get the best possible results:
1. Go to and click on the puzzle-like icon in the top-right corner. This will open Bard Extensions for you.

Enable Google Workspace. This will connect Bard with your Gmail and Google Drive.bard.google.com

2. In the chat bar, ask Bard to give you a summary of emails sent to you by one of your contacts.

To get the best results, mention the word "email" in your prompt. If you don't mention it, sometimes Bard says it can't access your emails.

This is a great feature that will save you a lot of time.
Read 7 tweets
Nov 24
Presentations — every academic has to give them and nobody likes preparing them.

ChatGPT can help you prepare a presentation in minutes. This will save you a lot of time and labor.

Here's how to do it:
1. Open ChatGPT. Click on the paper clip icon in the chat bar and upload the material that you want to present.

Here I am uploading a draft of a paper that I am working on.

Once uploaded, use the following prompt.

This is a draft of my article. I have to give a presentation based on this article. Please summarize this article for a 10-slide presentation with headings and subheadings.

ChatGPT will summarize the draft with headings and subheadings.
2. Next, you will need to enable the Slide Maker plugin.

Click on your profile photo in the bottom-left corner and select "Settings & Beta." Go to Beat Features and enable Plugins.

Click on ChatGPT4 in the top-left corner and select Plugins.

Open the Plugin store and look a plugin called "Slide Maker." Install the plugin.
Read 7 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

:(