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Mushtaq Bilal, PhD

Mar 2, 2024 • 10 tweets • 4 min read • Read on X

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Starting a new research project is always challenging.

Here's a Research Kick+Elicit workflow to help you with it.

It'll help you:
• Craft an interesting research question
• Collect relevant papers for literature review
In a fraction of time.

You can learn it in 10 min:

1. Go to researchkick(dot)com and click on "Get started."

Create an accoun and upgrade to a paid plan.

Once you've upgraded, you will be take to Research Kick's main user interface.

(Research Kick costs $9/month and $99/year.)

2. Start by selecting the database relevant to your field. Click on "Change Database" in the top right corner and select your research field.

Next, type in the title of your project or any relevant keywords.

Research Kick will give you several research questions. Read through them and select the one you find most compelling.

3. Paste the question you found most compelling in the chat bar.

Then ask Research Kick to refine it for you. You can also include parameters like location, age, sex, etc.

Research Kick will give you a refined set of questions. Read through them and again select the one you think is most interesting.

4. Again paste the refined question you found most interesting in the chat bar.

Ask Research Kick if this question has already been addressed in published literature.

If the selected question has not been directly addressed, Research Kick will tell you so. If it has been, Research Kick will give you links to the relevant papers.

In this case, the selected question has not been addressed.

5. Copy the selected research question and go to elicit(dot)com and paste it there.

Elicit will give you a list of papers relevant to your research question. It will also give you a summary of top 8 research papers.

6. In Elicit, you can also add further columns like "Main findings," "Interventions," etc.

This will help you figure out very quickly which papers you should read for your literature review.

7. You can also export papers from Elicit to Zotero, Mendeley, and EndNote.

Click on the "Export as" button and select "RIS." This will download an RIS file to your computer.

Next, go to Zotero and click on "File" and then "Import."

Import the RIS file you just downloaded. Zotero will create a new collection and put all the papers in it.

8. Select all the papers in your Zotero library and right click.

Select "Find Available PDFs" and Zotero will retrieve all open source PDFs of papers as you can see here.

Double click on the paper and Zotero will open it for you. Now you can start reading and taking notes.

And that's it.

You can craft a compelling research question, gather relevant papers, and start reading them. You can all this in a matter of minutes.

Found this thread helpful?

1. Scroll to the top and repost the first tweet to share it with your friends.

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

3. Follow me for more threads on how to use AI apps for academic purposes.

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More from @MushtaqBilalPhD

Mushtaq Bilal, PhD

@MushtaqBilalPhD

Mar 5

A lot of academics still think AI apps generate fake references to papers that don't exist.

They are living in 2023.

You can easily integrate a database of 280M research papers with Claude and ChatGPT to get answers with references to published papers.

Here's how to do it:

1. Go to scite[.]ai/mcp and select Claude ai

Copy the URL given in the second line. Then click on the blue "Add Scite" button.

This will open Claude Connectors. Type in the name Scite and paste the URL in the "Remote MCP" field.

Then click on "Add."

2. This will add a Scite Connector to your Claude.

Scroll down a little and you will see a Scite Connector. Click on "Connect" and log in to your Scite account.

Give Claude permission to access Scite. And that's it.

You will need a paid subscription for Scite to do this.

Read 7 tweets

Mushtaq Bilal, PhD

@MushtaqBilalPhD

Mar 4

Claude Code will fundamentally change the nature of academic research.

But most academics don't know how to use it.

Here's how to get started on Claude Code (even if you've never coded).

Claude Code for Academics 101:

Before getting started, we need to understand what Claude Code (CC) is.

It's not a simple chatbot.

Think of it as a general-purpose work enviroment that lets you create customized features for your own specific purposes.

It'll become clear by the end of this thread.

1. To get started, go to claude[.]com/download and download the Claude desktop app.

You will need a paid plan.

Select the $20/m one. That'll be enough to get you started.

Read 17 tweets

Mushtaq Bilal, PhD

@MushtaqBilalPhD

Mar 3

Academics are abandoning ChatGPT for Claude, and for good reason.

Claude is way better than ChatGPT for intellectual work.

But moving to Claude risks losing your work history and memory in ChatGPT.

Here's how to move all your work history and memory from ChatGPT to Claude:

1. Open Claude and click on your profile in the bottom-left corner.

Then click on "Settings" and select "Capabilities."

In Capabilities, look for the "Start Import" button.

Click it and then copy the prompt given on the top.

2. Open ChatGPT and put it on "Thinking."

Then run the prompt you just copied from Claude.

ChatGPT will give you an answer. Copy that.

Read 6 tweets

Mushtaq Bilal, PhD

@MushtaqBilalPhD

Mar 2

Claude Cowork is set to revolutionize intellectual and academic work.

But most academics don't know how to use it.

Here's how to set up Claude Cowork as your research assistant:

(This workflow will take you only 15 min.)

1. To use Claude Cowork, you'll need to download Claude desktop app.

Go to claude[.]com/download

and download the Claude desktop app.

You'll also need a paid plan for $20/m or $100/m.

Start with $20/m plan.

2. Once you've installed it, open Claude desktop app.

On the top, you will see three options: Chat, Cowork, Code.

Click on "Cowork."

Read 13 tweets

Mushtaq Bilal, PhD

@MushtaqBilalPhD

Jan 5

How to build an academic writing habit (to write a lot and publish a lot):

In his book "Atomic Habits," James Clear writes about habits that are so small we don’t even notice them, but the power they have over us is immense.

He calls them atomic habits.

Although they are small, building atomic habits is VERY DIFFICULT.

Why?

Clear calls the time between the point we start a habit to the point we start seeing its first results "the plateau of latent potential."

Most people remain stuck within this plateau.

To see the results of any habit, we must cross the plateau of latent potential.

Read 21 tweets

Mushtaq Bilal, PhD

@MushtaqBilalPhD

Dec 25, 2025

Don't use Sci-Hub — it's a "controversial" website with 84M+ research papers freely available.

We should all try to make billion-dollar academic publishers richer.

Anyway, here's a thread on how to integrate Sci-Hub with Zotero to get free papers.

🚨DO NOT DO IT!

1. Don't go to this link:
github(dot)com/syt2/zotero-scipdf

But if you do, replace the word "dot" with an actual [.]

Don't scroll down and click on "latest release xpi file."

This will download an "xpi" file to your computer.

2. Don't open your Zotero. But if you do, click on "Tools."

In "Tools," click on "Plugins." This will open Zotero's Plugin Manager.

In the Plugin Manager, click on the gear-like icon and select "Install Plugin From File."

Navigate to the XPI file you downloaded and add it.