Resources

Dr. Raul Pacheco-Vega

“Write a lit review.”

Professors with decades in the field sometimes forget what they had to learn and discuss tasks at a high level of abstraction when students need a nuts and bolts primer. Dr. Pacheco’s blog is full of step-by-step instructions and tools to do the things that academics just know how to do but I did not. I probably use this resource more than any other. www.raulpacheco.org/resources/ | @raulpacheco

Professor Paul Poast on Twitter

Dr. Poast is a professor of political science at the University of Chicago. His prolific Twitter feed includes long threads that lay out the key literature on various issues in the field. If you need to write a lit review (or a comps question), there’s a good chance he has a thread to lay out the road map. He has started archiving them on his web page, but I set Threadreader App (below) to follow him and just automatically capture and store them. www.paulpoast.com/ | @ProfPaulPoast

Citation Management & Storage

There are a number of citation managers available, all with their pluses and minuses. Personally I prefer Zotero, but it’s awkward off the shelf. It uses a bizarre file storage system and leaves files with their original names. The Zotfile plugin allows users to set a naming convention based on the metadata (I use LastName_YYYY_Title) and to specify a storage location. I have a file called Library that syncs with my cloud storage so I always have access to pdf copies with clear titles wherever I am. www.zotero.org | zotfile.com/

I mentioned cloud storage above–I primarily use Google Drive for personal stuff because I already had it with a large storage plan. However, Dropbox is really common in academia, and I’ve found it necessary to use it frequently. I actually like using both because it allows me to clearly separate things I want to share from things I don’t. Unfortunately, I have found it necessary to have paid accounts with each to get sufficient storage and full functionality. drive.google.com | www.dropbox.com

While Dr. Pacheco-Vega lays out great techniques for taking notes by hand (which I both prefer and recommend), storing paper notes is ridiculous in the 21st century. Evernote will “read” handwritten notes, making them searchable. I take reading and class notes by hand most of the time (which seems to aid retention) and then scan them in batches and store them in Evernote. For reading notes, I put a permalink to the Evernote entry in the Zotero notes, linking them together. www.evernote.com

Research Methods

If you are like me, the scariest part of embarking on a PhD was facing the requirement to learn quantitative methods. This site provides a simple checklist for designing a statistical model. It won’t turn you into a data scientist, but it will provide some confidence that you are not just flailing. www.theanalysisfactor.com/13-steps-regression-anova/

Connecting to the Community

A lot of social science discussion occurs on social media–particularly Twitter–but Twitter does not provide any tools for storing and cataloguing content. Threadreader App rolls up Twitter threads and converts them to .pdf files (annual fee for the download option). www.threadreaderapp.com

Dr. Karen Kelsky exited the tenure track and now runs a for-profit business advising graduate students and junior faculty on the academic job market. I am not on the academic job market, but there is still a lot of good information here on living in an academic ecosystem. theprofessorisin.com/