Academic Workflow
An overview of my academic workflow
Links » Note-taking | Exocortex
Input
It all starts with something fascinating I read or hear about. Next, I will either start a note of it directly in my exocortex and/or store the material as a reference in Zotero for later digestion. In order to not forget about all the interesting things in this world, I will usually schedule a time at which I can engage with the material.
At some later point, you have to answer the question of what to do with this material. Am I happy just leaving it as a note in my exocortex? Or do I want to write more extensively about it (i.e. in the form of a paper or a thesis). In making this decision, the following rules by the Italian grandmaster of intellectual endeavours, Umberto Eco, offer some clarity (Eco 2015, 23).
Eco’s Four Rules for Choosing a Thesis Topic
- The topic should reflect your previous studies and experience. In other words, do something that you care about and that pertains to your political or cultural experience.
- The necessary sources should be materially accessible. Is there material that I can conveniently access in order to research my chosen topic.
- The necessary sources should be manageable. Do you have the time, ability and experience to understand the sources.
- You should have some experience with the methodological framework that you will use in the thesis.
System
Zettelkasten
Emacs org-mode
org-roam
org-roam-bibtex
Zotero
- Zotfile
-
BetterBibTex
Add accessdate, url for BibTeX, from here
if (Translator.BetterBibTeX && item.itemType === 'webpage') { if (item.accessDate) { reference.add({ name: 'note', value: "(accessed " + item.accessDate.replace(/\s*T?\d+:\d+:\d+.*/, '') + ")" }); } if (item.url) { reference.add({ name: 'howpublished', bibtex: "{\\url{" + reference.enc_verbatim({value: item.url}) + "}}" }); } }
Output
Notes
Papers
Resources
Bibliography
Eco, Umberto. 2015. How to Write a Thesis. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.