Forum Posts Feed
PIM for academic research and mind mapping (alternatives to Qiqqa)
< Next Topic | Back to topic list | Previous Topic >
Posted by milnehouse
Jan 4, 2013 at 03:04 PM
Hi, I’m a graduate student looking for PIM software. I’ve tried a few options (Mendeley, Qiqqa, EverNote, Zotero, Docear) but haven’t found exactly what I was looking for, so I thought I’d ask the experts.
Ideally, I’d like to find a tool (or suite of tools) that will let me manage this workflow:
capture information - in notes (handwritten/graphical would be a plus), pdfs, and bookmarks
organize information - by tags (with nesting), and mind maps (but this might be best handled by another tool)
cite parts of the database - predominantly in academic papers, but it would be really neat if I could publish some of my knowledge base online (I’m imagining a wordpress plugin that will pull part of an sql database to a blog).
Qiqqa does all of these things (except the blog posting), but it seems a little bit rough at times, so I wondered if there were other options.
Thanks for the advice!
Posted by Dr Andus
Jan 4, 2013 at 03:37 PM
Citavi (http://www.citavi.com/en/features.html) seems to be able to do much of that (although I don’t use it).
It would be also possible to reconstruct much of that process in ConnectedText, although it’s more of a DIY job and there is a learning curve. In CT you can export an outline (with links to CT topics) into a Freeplane mind map with the links to CT topics preserved, which is a handy feature. There is no direct citation tool though (such as an EndNote add-on to Word), though you can certainly construct an internal bibliographic database (see Glen Coulthard’s example: http://www.connectedtext.com/movies.php). I usually insert my EndNote citations at the very end of the writing process once the draft is exported into Word.
Posted by Dr Andus
Jan 4, 2013 at 03:42 PM
Actually someone has just sent me this link today but I haven’t had a chance to check it out yet. It might be relevant:
QUOTE:
“If you aren’t into your final stage, you might think of using a Drupal website as your outliner. I can send you a link so you can download a portable website into a folder (includes the server) and you have a look. We call it ScholarWriter. Drop me a line if you want one.
For your visitors reading this, it’s best to start using ScholarWriter early. It keeps all your notes, drafts and outlines in one place and eases the messy recursive bit that this blog talks about.” [referring to my blog: http://drandus.wordpress.com/]
Posted by Alexander Deliyannis
Jan 4, 2013 at 07:21 PM
I knew I had posted about an academic tool based around the Freeplane mindmapper; then I realised it is Docear which you have already tried…
I would agree with Dr Andus that Citavi should be able to do most of what you want with the exception of the publishing bit. I don’t expect any desktop program to be able to do this conveniently—at best they will provide some kind of HTML export which means that you should each time re-publish a set of folders via FTP.
There is a noteworthy exception to the above which, depending on the importance of publishing might be of interest: Evernote. I know you’ve already tried it and that it is not often cited in discussions on academic tools, but in my view it can work quite well. I had tried it when working on my MBA and I found it quite powerful. At the time I chose Surfulater for other features, but today I might have chosen differently.
Evernote provides a powerful infrastructure for capturing and finding information, though less obviously so for organising it. Re your workflow:
- Capture: I can’t think of anything more convenient than Evernote, whatever the format of your input, including written notes. The premium version will even index non-textual PDF attachments via OCR.
- Organise: nested tags are there. There is no integral mind mapping, but you can get the permanent links Evernote info items and copy them as a URL to the mind mapper of your choice.
- Publishing: just create a public notebook and copy there the items you want to share. Example: https://www.evernote.com/pub/alx/news.public
The one point where you will probably find Evernote not very supportive of academic material is in citation/referencing. Evernote maintains information as free form text and this may not be ideal. However, you can create templates to make things easier.
That said, I suggest you also search in the forum for “academic workflow” (without the quotes). I expect you’ll find quite a few interesting postings. Often it is not the tools, but the way you use them. You should definitely also check out Dr Andus’ blog :-)