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Mushtaq Bilal, PhD

Jun 25, 2025 • 14 tweets • 5 min read • Read on X

Scrolly

Genspark's Downlaod Agent is a great and reliable tool to outsource your academic labor.

Give it details like your topic, citation count, time period, publisher, etc. and it will download the relevant papers for you.

Here's how to outsource your labor to Genspark:

1. Go to genspark[.]ai and sign up for a free account.

2. Above the chat box, click on "Download for me."

Type in your topic and mention the time period (e.g. papers published from 2000 to 2025). You can also ask it to only download papers published in rigorous academic journals.

The Download Agent will do the needful.

3. Once it's done downloading, it will give you a link to the collection in AI Drive.

Click the link and it will open the collection for you. Now you can read papers and take notes.

4. You can also specify citation count and publishers.

I asked it download papers on the impact of social media marketing published in Taylor & Francis journals with at least 50 citations.

It will look up papers, evaluate their citation count, and put them in a folder.

5. Click the link to open the collection and read the papers.

❌ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini cost $20/m each. But NO integration with academic databases.

✅Chat Academia cost $15/m. Offers integration with multiple academic databases with millions of research papers. Also helps you find research gaps.

Check it out at chatacademia.com

6. Genspark can also help you extract relevant information from a bunch of papers.

Click on "All Agents" in the left task bar and select "Deep Research."

Click on the paperclip-like icon in the chat bar and upload the papers you want to extract information from.

7. Ask Genspark to generate a table with separate columns for summaries, objectives, interventions, etc. using the attached papers.

8. Genspark will generate the table with required columns.

If you click on "See more" at the end of the table, it will show you relevant videos too.

9. One of the biggest problems for researchers in the age of AI is how to ensure citations are fake or not.

Gensparks' Fack Check Agent can verify citations for you.

In the left task bar, click on "All Agents." Select "Fack Check" and click on "Tasks."

10. Copy and paste the citation you want to check and ask Genspark if the paper mentioned exists or not.

Fack Check Agent will run the citation through academic databases and give you a detailed. report.

11. As you can see here, the report shows that the cited authors and their academic work are real. But the referenced papers themselves do not exist.

This feature can save you a lot of time.

Found this thread on Genspark helpful?

1. Check it out genspark[.]ai

2. Repost the first post to share it with your friends.

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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!