Three years into my PhD program, I think I've finally figured out a paper reading system that works well for me.
There are 4 main steps in my workflow: finding papers, storing papers, reading papers, and annotating papers.
A brief 🧵 on my what I use:
There are 4 main steps in my workflow: finding papers, storing papers, reading papers, and annotating papers.
A brief 🧵 on my what I use:
For finding papers, I primarily use @feedly, an RSS aggregator. I have feeds for the major journals in my field, as well as a few PubMed keywords. I scroll through my feed every morning, which takes ~5 min. Any papers that seem interesting I'll add to the "Read Later" list. 2/
I also use Twitter to find papers. This is particularly useful for preprints, as you can't currently set up @biorxivpreprint keyword alerts in Feedly. To avoid distractions on my main feed, I made a Twitter list of scientists in my field. 3/
Step 2 is storing papers so that I can easily find and cite them later. For this I use @zotero. Its browser plugin allows me to store papers to my database with a single click. The Microsoft Word plugin makes citing papers super easy. 4/
It also use @zotero for reading papers. It has a built-in PDF viewer where you can make notes, highlights, etc. It also extracts any text you highlight and pastes it into an easily accessible notecard. Unlike Mendeley or Endnote, Zotero is completely open-source! 5/
After reading/highlighting a paper, I like to type up some notes summarizing its key points, file it under a specific project, and maybe add a screenshot of some important figures. For this, I use @NotionHQ. 6/
Specifically, I use the excellent Notero plugin developed by @dvanoni. It allows you to sync Zotero references to a Notion database. If you're a Notion lover, I highly recommend checking this out! 7/ github.com
When I add a paper to my Zotero database, it appears in Notion. I can add tags on its status, link it to specific projects, add notes and screenshots... it's amazing! 8/
Here's how the database looks when I filter for a single project. It's super easy to tell at a glance which papers I should prioritize reading first, and I can easily access all my notes when I'm ready to write a paper. 9/
Is this step necessary for organizing and annotating papers? Definitely not! But I definitely think having a highly structured database with detailed notes like this will be super helpful when I go to write my dissertation. 10/
It look me a long time to figure out what works best for me, and I wish I had known about these free tools when I first started grad school. I now read a ton of papers and have a huge, organized database with all my notes.
I hope this info is helpful for others! 12/12
I hope this info is helpful for others! 12/12
This got a lot more attention than I expected! Someone suggested I write this up as a @Nature Careers article, and I just might.
My Notion template is available here for free!
Hello from 3 months in the future! An expanded version of this thread is now published in Nature Careers:
If you enjoyed this thread, you might consider hiring me for a seminar or workshop!
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