Taming the Literature
How to Read a Scientific Paper
We show you how to read a scientific paper efficiently to make the most of your reading time.
Read MoreZotero Reference Manager: A Super Simple Guide for Busy Researchers
Organizing your files is simple with Zotero; we’ve got the lowdown on functionality, usability, and access.
Read MoreHow Does Peer Review in Science Work?
If you’re unsure as to how the peer-review process works, the difference between open and double-blind peer review or are wondering if peer review is broken, read on.
Read MoreHow To Get Organized With Reference Managers for Science—ReadCube Papers
Discover more about how ReadCube Papers can help you keep on top of your references.
Read MoreHow to Get Organized With Reference Managers for Science—EndNote
Learn more about the key features of EndNote to work out if it’s the right reference manager for you.
Read MoreHow To Get Organized With Reference Managers for Science—Mendeley
Learn how Mendeley allows you to organize a library containing your favorite articles and generate citations and bibliographies while writing papers.
Read MoreUsing PubCrawler: How to Speed Up Your Literature Searches by Crawling
PubCrawler automatically searches PubMed and GenBank for queries that you specify, and emails you the results, helping you stay on top of your literature searches.
Read MoreUseful Tips to Keep on Top of New Literature
Keeping track of new literature can be a time-consuming process. Here are some helpful hints and tips to help you keep up to date.
Read MoreKeeping Track of Your Literature
We show you how to get organized and develop a system to stay on top of your literature reviews.
Read More18+ Ways to Improve your PubMed Searches
Are you getting the most out of your PubMed searches or are you wasting lots of time slogging through pages of results? We’ve compiled some top tips to help you refine your searches.
Read MoreOut With the Old: New PubMed Search Tips
PubMed has had a makeover. Find out where your favorite features have moved to and what’s changed in this shiny new version.
Read MoreThree Cool Things You Didn’t Know You Could Do On PubMed
This article provides interesting insider PubMed tips, including how to use search filters and how to set up automatic search alerts.
Read More7 Tips to Improve Your Literature Survey
Read our top tips to help you get the most out of your scientific literature surveys.
Read MoreMaking an impact: Pros and cons to impact factor
How do we decide whether our research is having an impact or not? Is there a way to quantify the effect or judge the quality of the articles? Read on to find out about the nuances behind “impact factor.”
Read MoreHow to get Organised With Reference Managers for Science- Papers
My previous posts on reference mangers have discussed Mendeley and ReadCube. Today I will be discussing Papers, the reference manager I first encountered and the one favoured by many academics, including my PhD supervisor. For anyone who is a fan of Apple products, Papers is likely to be the software you are most familiar with.…
Read MoreHow To Get Organized With Reference Managers for Science – An Overview
Check out our rundown of the key features of the most popular reference managers to work out which one will be best for you and your research.
Read MoreHow Not to Miss (Almost) Any Article on PubMed
Reading papers (still) remains the standard way to follow advances in our field(s), to track our collaborators/competitors, or to enjoy some digressive but scientifically entertaining moments. As scientists, we read all the time. However, reading can become a highly chronophagic activity, especially when we need to perform experiments, attend conferences and write grant applications at…
Read MoreSetting up a PubMed Alert in 3 Easy Steps
The easiest way to keep abreast of what’s going on in your scientific field is to set up a PubMed alert. We show you how.
Read MoreHow Text-Mining Tools Can Improve Your Literature Searches
Before starting any new research project, it’s essential that you have as complete an understanding as possible of the current research literature. Knowing what other people have done will prevent you from duplicating existing work, and will perhaps indicate under-explored niches. If you work in the same subject area over a number of years, you…
Read MoreUsing GoogleDocs to Write Collaborative Research Papers
When it comes to writing up a research paper, there are many ways to go about it. If it’s just you doing most of the writing, with your supervisor, it is quite straightforward – you can just maintain a single copy of the document and exchange it by email. Software like Microsoft Word can track…
Read MoreHow To Read Manuscripts (and Anything Else) Twice As Fast
Learning how to speed read can save you a bunch of time; we’ve outlined some simple steps that will dramatically improve your reading speed.
Read MoreReading Papers On-Screen
Reading papers on-screen is not something that everyone likes but if you can get used to it, it will help save you time and paper and make filing your literature a breeze. If you use a wide flatscreen monitor, something that is 17inch or bigger, then this tip could make your on-screen reading more pleasurable.…
Read MoreWhy You Should Never Trust a Patent
If you search the literature using a comprehensive search engine like Google Scholar, you will get several types of articles listed. Most of them are peer reviewed journal articles and many are patents. But beware of an important distinction between the two: Although patents can contain useful information, they are not authoritative because they are not…
Read MoreOpen Access to Science
The Public Library of Science (PLoS) defines the issue of Open Access Publication as: An Open Access Publication[1] is one that meets the following two conditions: 1. The author(s) and copyright holder(s) grant(s) to all users a free, irrevocable, worldwide, perpetual right of access to, and a license to copy, use, distribute, transmit and display…
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