Web tools for my PhD: Zotero and others

So I was going to work on my PhD proposal today, but instead I spent the entire day trying to ascertain whether there is a quick and easy way to do a PhD - there isn't. Or if there is, google does not know about it. Although I did come across someone who said that one of his student finished a PhD in 6 months. That is inspiring!

I also spent the day researching web-based research tools to make PhD life easier. I found that although there are lots and lots of research tools, most of them are annoying and do not do exactly what I want them to. Here is what I discovered and decided about research tools:

Citation Manager: Zotero
I decided to use zotero to manage my citations. And maybe syncing to citeulike and connotea in order to take advantage of community/sharing functions that zotero does not have. The main reasons I chose Zotero is that it is the best at easily capturing citations while browsing the web, and it can store associated documents (pdfs, snapshots). In addition, it allows tagging, multiple folders, saved searches, and has a playlist like functionality, and you might almost persuade yourself that you are listening to music. Other good things: it integrates with Word and OpenOffice, it it is open source.

Downsides of Zotero are that the citation database is stored on the local computer (or portable drive). Apparently they have plans to allow online storage, but that hasn't been implemented yet. Also it only works in Firefox and some other browser (not Internet Explorer). And another (minor) problem I have with Zotero is not seeing an ID number associated with each reference. I like to write these on any printouts so I can find them easily.

I think I will buy myself a new flash drive and install portable Firefox and Zotero on it and backup to both computers.

Must be careful to back things up and not overwrite the wrong files.

Working Online: Zoho or Google

Not quite sure on this yet. I am trying out both for writing, note-taking etc. I wonder if anyone has written a PhD in Google Docs? Probably not yet. I think I will have to write the actual PhD in Word, but could use google or zoho for drafts and notes and intermediary bits and pieces. Although the major drawback is that there is no integration with any of the citation managers.

Blog: Wordpress

Why Wordpress? Cause I didn't have a Wordpress blog. Although I do now: who where why. As you can see I don't have a thesis title yet, and the topic needs refining, but I figured whatever I choose it is going to relate to who where and why. And whowherewhy is easier to remember than really-long-convoluted-thesis-title.

Other

I will continue to use:

• gmail for email


• del.icio.us for bookmarks (wonder if it can integrate with Zotero?)


• rememberthemilk for todo lists (integrated with google calendar and twitter)


• google calendar (synced to Outlook)


• twitter for who knows what! I might start a special PhD twitter account though. I am not quite sure how useful twitter will be, but that is no reason not to try and see!


• LinkedIn for networking