Academic research- what are the best tools and workflow techniques?

Posted by Carrot
Nov 16, 2011 at 06:11 AM

I’m working on a PhD and have been a fan of outlining software for some time.
However, now I’m finding myself confused by
a) inefficient work flow
b) lack of proper tools

I know many contributors on this site have a lot of experience and this has been discussed many times. Sorry for not being able to add anything new.

My current workflow and tools:

Citation manager: open source ZoteroHowever, I could switch to something if necessary

Freeplane: I created a thesis outline in FreePlane and use this to guide my writing.
Also, I created an mindmap of my understanding of the religious organization that I am studying.

TreeDBnotes: I have stored my field notes, transcripts, online articles in TreeDBnotes. I began using it first and have stored too much in it to bother switching everything to myBase now.
MyBase: I use mBase 6 for storing clippings and copies of entire webpages. I’ve recently begun using AtlasTI to code my readings, field notes and PDF articles and PDF ebooks.

But now I feel torn. If I write in TreeDB or myBase, there is no way to automatically include citations. I would have to write in TreeDB, then export everything to LibreOffice, and then add citations manually.

LibreOffice: If I write in LibreOffice, I can include citations, but I have no tree-structure to help divide my thesis into various sub-chapters and sub-groupings.

AtlasTI: At the same time as I try to consult my notes and data in TreeDB and myBase, I use AtlasTI running to query my field notes and PDF articles to search for appropriate material.

Is there a better way to to do this? I feel that I’m using too many tools that are not integrated, and scattering my attention.
I would greatly appreciate commenents and would like to hear about how you proceed.

Thank you