Resources for authors

Amazoniac

It's noteworthy when two guys who are obsessed with workflow optimization are fond of a software:

One of the rare instances where a book author documented and shared his process in video:

@brad said in Resources for authors:

@Amazoniac No problem, done

Thanks, Brad.

Amazoniac

@Amazoniac said in Resources for authors:

Writing in the Sciences | Kristin Sainani (highly recommended)

For convenience:

Writing in the Sciences (YouTube)

Don't be discouraged by title, it has value for life and you will like.

Amazoniac

Zotero released an important update about a month ago. The app is free, and its source code is publicly available. Also:

Zotero Privacy Policy

"Zotero is designed as a local program that saves data to your own computer by default, and it doesn’t require sharing any data with us to be usable. However, some of Zotero’s advanced features require you to supply us with information."

The app has a built-in reader with superior text recognition than some other readers, making it easier to extract passages, which can be done in batches and respecting filters. Sometimes it's able to identify the sequence of a text in another page while excluding unrelated information.

It shows pop-ups when hovering on parenthetical information (figures, tables, references), to dispense frequent page jumps. It's capable of listing specific references with leaps between them [1,3,5-10]. It also has a 'return' feature, to go back to where you left after a click, although many readers have this as well.

It rotates pages individually rather than the entire document.

It has the basic tools for annotation, that spares the original copy by default, but gives the option to modify it as well. Annotation tools include an area selector, in case the person wants to capture a figure or table.

A file can be featured in different folders without duplicating it, and these can be highlighted by holding a key. Power, Strength, Courage, Polygamy. If you had such folders, where would you put Kvothe's biography if it fits in all of them?

When a folder is selected on the navigation pane, rather than showing sub-folders, it shows their content combined. In addition, it's possible to associate related documents.

The search function has the option to screen through the content of PDF files.

For those who are fond of dark modes, it now has the option to apply to content as well, not just the borders of the document.

It saves sessions to resume where you stopped, similar to other apps.

Browser add-ons are available for further ease, if you don't mind the intrusion. Metadata can also be retrieved automatically by adding a recognizable file to the library.

References managers are not necessary tools--I know authors who deal with complex information without relying on them--but they are convenient in helping with organization and saving time. Give it a try in case some function appealed to you.

Amazoniac

Invert colors for improvised dark mode when needed:

Windows:

Start > Settings > Accessibility > Color filters

Mac:

Menu > Settings > Accessibility > Display

Both have shortcuts to enable and disable.

F.lux has a 'darkroom mode' as well.

In Linux, you likely have means to configure the sun and clouds.

Unknown Features in Microsoft Word | Jojo

Amazoniac

The creator of Zettlr shared his work process. You can find throughout his Blog and Resources page.

Amazoniac

Open Knowledge Maps

"Open Knowledge Maps is a nonprofit organization that uses AI to help users discover and visualize scientific literature. Users can map a research topic, find documents, and identify concepts from various databases and sources."

Amazoniac

Learning to successfully search the scientific and medical literature

"[..]truncate with wild card symbols according to the syntax of any given software. An example of truncation is the asterisk used in PubMed to permit a search using any possible permutations of a root term. For instance, if you search PubMed for malignan*, PubMed will retrieve malignant, malignancy, malignancies, etc."

In Google Scholar, it's possible to switch from publications to profiles and find the most cited celebrities related to the searched term. For specific tags, seach using "label:desiredterm". It's useful if you're exploring an unfamiliar field.

Reading and Myopia: Contrast Polarity Matters

Abstract

"In myopia the eye grows too long, generating poorly focused retinal images when people try to look at a distance. Myopia is tightly linked to the educational status and is on the rise worldwide. It is still not clear which kind of visual experience stimulates eye growth in children and students when they study. We propose a new and perhaps unexpected reason. Work in animal models has shown that selective activation of ON or OFF pathways has also selective effects on eye growth. This is likely to be true also in humans. Using custom-developed software to process video frames of the visual environment in realtime we quantified relative ON and OFF stimulus strengths. We found that ON and OFF inputs were largely balanced in natural environments. However, black text on white paper heavily overstimulated retinal OFF pathways. Conversely, white text on black paper overstimulated ON pathways. Using optical coherence tomography (OCT) in young human subjects, we found that the choroid, the heavily perfused layer behind the retina in the eye, becomes about 16 µm thinner in only one hour when subjects read black text on white background but about 10 µm thicker when they read white text from black background. Studies both in animal models and in humans have shown that thinner choroids are associated with myopia development and thicker choroids with myopia inhibition. Therefore, reading white text from a black screen or tablet may be a way to inhibit myopia, while conventional black text on white background may stimulate myopia."

MDCalc - "A free online medical reference for healthcare professionals that provides point-of-care clinical decision-support tools, including medical calculators, scoring systems, and algorithms"
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BioIcons - "A free library of open source icons for scientific illustrations using vector graphics software"
SciDraw - "A website where you can find and share high quality drawings of animals, scientific setups, and anything for scientific presentations and posters"
Chemix - "A free online editor for drawing lab diagrams"

'Hyphens versus Dashes' and 'Using Dashes' by a monster, to not misapply them, as above.

Kilgore

Maybe I'll make an actual post about this but Obsidian came out with a new web clipper that is pretty good. Makes it super easy to save stuff from the web. I use it so expand my own database.

Mossy

@Kilgore I would be curious if you have any experience with Joplin, as compared to Obsidian? I think Obsidian looks better, and after an initial perusing seems to function better than Joplin. But the one glaring issue for me with Obsidian is privacy. My understanding is that it lacks encryption.

Kilgore

@Mossy I have tried Joplin a long time ago but didn't like it. Mainly because the lack of features and If I remember correctly it had a weird way to save things where as in obsidian I just make a folder and that's where my things go. I also like that the markdown files are dynamic so they change as soon as I type the next line. Once they add a pdf highlighting feature it will be perfect for me.

I was looking at the Joplin web clipper, but Obsidian came out with theirs just at the right time. I needed to save about 2000 twitter posts from my likes and it made it so much easier. I also played around with training AI on the data I saved (with chat-gpt in obsidian) It owrks decently.

As for privacy. You store your files on your computer and nowhere else. Not sure what you mean by encryption.

Mossy

@Kilgore said in Resources for authors:

@Mossy I have tried Joplin a long time ago but didn't like it. Mainly because the lack of features and If I remember correctly it had a weird way to save things where as in obsidian I just make a folder and that's where my things go. I also like that the markdown files are dynamic so they change as soon as I type the next line. Once they add a pdf highlighting feature it will be perfect for me.

I was looking at the Joplin web clipper, but Obsidian came out with theirs just at the right time. I needed to save about 2000 twitter posts from my likes and it made it so much easier. I also played around with training AI on the data I saved (with chat-gpt in obsidian) It owrks decently.

As for privacy. You store your files on your computer and nowhere else. Not sure what you mean by encryption.

Good information. Thank you.

I can attest that the Joplin web clipper did not work well for me. That was last year, I can guess they've updated it by now.

I am not an expert with encryption, but my understanding is encryption is where your files/data are scrambled and undecipherable until you work with them and then are re-scrambled when closed. There are multiple areas where your data could be vulnerable. If you're only using Obsidian locally, you arguable are pretty safe. If Obsidian on your desktop/laptop syncs with cloud storage, for multi-device access, that is where lack of encryption could be a factor. If you don't mind that your information is available, then it would be a non-issue.

EDIT - DELETE: I'm deleting these links on Obsidian not being encrypted and providing a newer link from Obsidian's blog stating that user data IS encrypted:

"When you use our online services, your data is protected with end-to-end encryption for maximum security."

https://obsidian.md/blog/verify-obsidian-sync-encryption/