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Mushtaq Bilal, PhD

Aug 7, 2024 • 10 tweets • 4 min read • Read on X

Scrolly

Google NotebookLM is a powerful tool for academic writers.

It can help you summarize papers, extract relevant data, and find common across multiple papers. And it's free to use.

But many academics don't know about it.

Here's how to use NotebookLM for academic writing:

1. Go to notebooklm(dot)google and click on "Try NotebookLM" in the top-right corner.

This will open NotebookLM for you.

2. To get started, click on "New Notebook."

NotebookLM will ask you to upload sources. You can upload from your Google Drive or from your computer.

As soon as you upload a paper, NotebookLM will summarize it for you.

3. NotebookLM will suggest a few questions relevant to the source. You can use these suggestions or ask your own questions.

NotebookLM will answer your question with references to the selected paper. It will not consult any other source to answer your question.

Click on a citation and NotebookLM will take you to the relevant passage in the paper.

4. If you find an answer helpful, you can convert it into a note.

Click on the pin in the top-right corner of a answer and NotebookLM will convert it into a note.

You can also add notes of your own.

Click on "Add note" and write your own note.

5. You can find common themes across multiple papers.

Open a new notebook and upload multiple papers relevant to your project.

Then simply ask NotebookLM to find common themes across them.

Here you can see NotebookLM has found common themes across 12 papers.

This will save you a lot of time.

Want an AI-powered personal research assistant.

Try Research Kick Chat

Integrate ChatGPT-4, Claude 3.5, and Gemini with databases like Semantic Scholar and PubMed.

And build custom AI Assistants for all your research needs.

Tutorial 👇

6. The great thing about NotebookLM is it will not go beyond the sources you upload.

For example, I asked it to tell me a joke.

NotebookLM said the sources did not contain any jokes.

7. If a paper is open source, you can simply paste its URL and NotebookLM will retrieve and summarize it for you.

Found this thread on NotebookLM helpful?

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

2. 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

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.

Read 6 tweets

Mushtaq Bilal, PhD

@MushtaqBilalPhD

Dec 24, 2025

10 books to help you become a better academic writer so you can write a lot and publish a lot:

1. Academic Writing as if the Reader Matters by Leonard Cassuto

Practical tips on how to make your academic writing more engaging and readable. Examples from the arts and sciences.

2. The Clockwork Muse by Eviatar Zerubavel

Helpful advice on how to organize your writing process in terms of time.

A-Time: for writing new material (deep work)
B-Time: for shallow work like compiling bibliography, etc.
C-Time: for house chores

3. Write Your Dissertation in Fifteen Minutes a Day by Joan Bolker

Excellent tips on how and why you should write zero drafts.

Teaches you how to understand different stages of the writing process from ideation to drafting to revision.

Read 11 tweets

Mushtaq Bilal, PhD

@MushtaqBilalPhD

Dec 15, 2025

Dr Ally Louks's viral PhD thesis (130M views) on the politics of smell redefined the way people talk about smell.

Everyone wants to read her thesis, but it's unavailable until 2028

Here are 10 books on the politics of smell that you can read right now:

1. The Smell of Slavery

1. The Smell of Slavery by Andrew Kettler

Shows how white slave owners defined Black, African bodies as noxious and deserving of enslavement.

Smell was used to dehumanize Black folks who were equated with animals by white slave owners.

2. The Foul and the Fragrant by Alain Corbin

Considered a foundational text in smell studies.

Shows how the bourgeois nose associated bad smells with the poor and how deodorization became a tool for state control in 18th and 19th century France.

Read 11 tweets

Mushtaq Bilal, PhD

@MushtaqBilalPhD

Dec 2, 2025

Getting past peer review is a challenge every researcher faces.

Stanford researchers recently launched a free AI-powered Agentic Review that can help you with it.

It gives you a human-level mock peer review so you can polish your paper before submitting it.

Check it out 👇

1. Go to paperreview[.]ai and upload your manuscript.

Enter your email and specify your target venue (conference or journal).

You may also want to copy the "Review Token" in case you don't receive an email.

2. A few minutes later you will receive an email with a link to the review report.

Go through the review report and revise your paper according to the suggestions you think are most relevant.

Read 4 tweets

Mushtaq Bilal, PhD

@MushtaqBilalPhD

Oct 6, 2025

Libgen, Sci-Hub, and Z-library had millions of pirated academic books and papers.

So, they were shut down. We shouldn't use them anyway.

We should help billion-dollar academic publishers get richer.

Anyway, here's how to access these libraries:

Don't do this!

1. Don't go to open-slum[.]org.

Because there you will see links to LibGen, Anna's Archive, Z-Library, and Sci-Hub.

2. Don't click any link because that will open your desired library.

Don't type the title of a book you want to read because it might show up.

Look at this, someone has pirated my own book. I'm livid!