Maximize Your PhD Efficiency with This Essential Tool
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Greetings! My name is Axel, and I am a psychologist, data analyst, and PhD candidate specializing in Computational and Comparative Neuroscience. Engaging with academic papers is a fundamental aspect of conducting research.
However, locating scientific literature can often be challenging and time-consuming. In this piece, I will introduce you to a website that streamlines this process, allowing you to save significant time each week.
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My PhD Workflow Using Obsidian and Zotero
Eliminate stress with this academic approach
When searching for scholarly articles, there are two primary contexts to consider:
- To deepen your understanding of a subject.
- To look for studies that replicate previous findings.
In the first scenario, you typically seek out review articles to enhance your comprehension of a topic’s research landscape. Review papers are ideal starting points, offering insights into recent discoveries, current advancements, and existing gaps in the field.
The second context involves seeking replication studies, which utilize the same methods to verify the outcomes of earlier research. For this purpose, you would examine the citations from the original work to find relevant replications.
Although these two contexts seem straightforward, it can sometimes take hours to gather all the pertinent articles of interest. But don’t worry; there's a tool that can simplify this process.
Research Rabbit Will Transform Your PhD Experience
Imagine I’m researching papers on animal consciousness. First, I would look for relevant articles on platforms like Google Scholar, Scopus, or Research Gate. After saving some to my Zotero library, I turn to Research Rabbit.
Research Rabbit: The most powerful discovery app for researchers!
Research Rabbit is an innovative tool designed to help you discover related papers based on your inputs. For instance, if I find an intriguing study and want to explore similar works or its citations, I simply create a new “folder” within the app.
After setting up the folder, I can add the paper by clicking the green button and entering its DOI or title.
You can also enter the title of the paper directly. After clicking "add to the collection," you're all set.
Remember, you can add as many papers as you'd like. By selecting the added paper, you’ll see various options displayed on the right side, including:
- Similar works
- All references
- All citations
- And more
If you wish to explore who cited the paper, just click on "All Citations," and a visually appealing graph will appear on the right.
You can easily navigate any citation and view its corresponding abstract and link by clicking on any node within the graph.
It's noteworthy that the citations appear on the left side of the graph, along with their respective links and abstracts. If a specific paper piques your interest, you can add it to your collection with one click.
Simple, right? This tool is incredibly useful!
Connecting Research Rabbit with Zotero
The best part is that you can link Research Rabbit with your Zotero library!
If you haven't yet, I highly recommend downloading Zotero right now.
With Zotero, you can store, organize, and manage your citations and notes efficiently. Connecting it to Research Rabbit is a breeze. There’s an import button for your Zotero collection located at the top left, right above your collections.
Click that button, log in to your Zotero account, and grant the necessary permissions. Once confirmed, your Zotero will be linked to Research Rabbit.
Congratulations! You’ve successfully synced your Zotero collections with Research Rabbit. Now, any paper you add to your Research Rabbit collection will automatically be saved in your Zotero library.
A study from 2017 published in ElSevier indicated that 50% of PhD students experience psychological distress, and one-third are at risk for a psychiatric disorder, primarily due to work-related and organizational stressors.
Thus, finding an effective academic workflow that simplifies and automates tasks is essential for PhD students. I hope this article assists you in easing one of the most tedious aspects of research.
If you are interested, I have also developed a method for automating note-taking using Zotero and Obsidian:
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Thank you for reading!
See you soon!