Tag: academic writing
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A trilogy of posts on using AI for academic articles
Earlier today I published a short series of posts on some ideas I had for using language models (e.g. ChatGPT and Claude) to help support academic writing. I didn’t plan to write a series of posts. I initially had the idea to test Claude’s capability as a peer reviewer, and as I was finishing up…
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Claude, help me draft the outline of my academic paper
My last 2 posts have dealt with 1) the use of Claude to complete a peer review, and 2) how journals could include this process in their workflow. It follows that authors should be using LLMs as well. There are the obvious use cases; rephrasing passages, summarising, expanding, correcting, and so on. However, I think…
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Claude, you are an expert peer-reviewer…
I recently completed a peer review for an academic journal, and as I was submitting it I wondered how Claude would perform if given the task. Since the article was anonymised, I didn’t think there’d be any problems uploading the PDF and asking Claude to review it. And, I had already submitted my review so…
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AI for research – University of the Western Cape research week
I was invited to give the opening address at the University of the Western Cape’s research week, where I talked about the use of large language models in academia and research. I highlighted the use of generative AI applications for tasks like literature reviews and idea generation, despite limitations like biases and a lack of…
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Using Obsidian for academic writing and creativity
In this conversation with Dave Nicholls, I describe how I use Obsidian to support my academic writing and creative process, in response to Dave’s question: Is using Obsidian worth it? I explain how I’ve set up different vaults in Obsidian, depending on what it is that I’m trying to do, and use examples from my…
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Having a conversation with an article through natural language processing
Thanks to Ben Gordon for pointing me towards explainpaper. In How to read a book (1972), Mortimer Adler says that “Reading…should be a conversation between you and the author.” Which is why I don’t read without a figurative pen in my hand; As I’m reading I want to mark up the text with questions and…
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More than my h-index – African Doctoral Academy
The presentation was given to a group of early career researchers and PhD students as part of the African Doctoral Academy. Download the slides. The main premise of my presentation was that academics are often driven to measure the quality of our work by quantitative metrics and journal impact factors because those are relatively easy…
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Bring on the algorithmic scrutiny of academic work
I’m reviewing a grant application and it’s been… hard. I feel reasonably confident that I can quickly get my head around a research project but sometimes the writing is so poor that I have to read some passages 5 times before (I think) I understand what’s going on. So I was delighted to find explainjargon.com,…
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‘Structured serendipity’ in collaborative writing
In this video I’m talking to Ben Gordon, a physiotherapist in Boston with an interest in the role of machine learning in clinical practice. Ben and I have been working on the very early stages of writing an article together, and quickly became frustrated with the limitations of working collaboratively in Google Docs. We started…
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Why and How Academics Write
Badley, G. F. (2020). Why and How Academics Write. Qualitative Inquiry, 26(3–4), 247–256. …non-academics regard writing as bullshit when it is abstract and vague and full of jargon. Here, academics are accused of hiding behind prose which is dense, exaggerated, obfuscating, overblown, and full of deepities as our frequent claims to profundity have been termed.…
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Twelve tips for getting your manuscript published
Cook, D. A. (2016). Twelve tips for getting your manuscript published. Medical Teacher, 38(1), 41–50. Getting the manuscript ready 1. Plan early to get it out the door. Write regularly – even if it’s for shorter periods – because it’s hard to find large blocks of time, which means that you don’t write very often.…
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Conceptual frameworks to illuminate and magnify
Bordage, G. (2009). Conceptual frameworks to illuminate and magnify. Medical Education, 43(4), 312–319. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2923.2009.03295.x Conceptual frameworks represent ways of thinking about a problem or a study, or ways of representing how complex things work the way they do. A nice position paper that emphasises the value of conceptual frameworks as a tool for thinking, not…
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It’s Time for Medical Schools to Introduce Climate Change Into Their Curricula
Wellbery, C., Sheffield, P., Timmireddy, K., Sarfaty, M., Teherani, A., & Fallar, R. (2018). It’s Time for Medical Schools to Introduce Climate Change Into Their Curricula. Academic Medicine, 93(12), 1774–1777. https://doi.org/10.1097/ACM.0000000000002368 This is a position piece that begins by describing the impact of human beings on the planet (the Anthropocene). The effects of climate change…
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Article: Predatory journals: No definition, no defense.
Everyone agrees that predatory publishers sow confusion, promote shoddy scholarship and waste resources. What is needed is consensus on a definition of predatory journals. This would provide a reference point for research into their prevalence and influence, and would help in crafting coherent interventions. Grudniewicz, A. (2019). Predatory journals: no definition, no defence. Nature, 576,…
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Resource: The Scholarly Kitchen podcast.
The Society for Scholarly Publishing (SSP) is a “nonprofit organization formed to promote and advance communication among all sectors of the scholarly publication community through networking, information dissemination, and facilitation of new developments in the field.” I’m mainly familiar with SSP because I follow their Scholarly Kitchen blog series and only recently came across the…
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Article: Which are the tools available for scholars?
In this study, we explored the availability and characteristics of the assisting tools for the peer-reviewing process. The aim was to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the tools available at this time, and to hint at new trends for further developments…. Considering these categories and their defining traits, a curated list of 220 software…
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Summary: Ten simple rules for structuring papers
Good scientific writing is essential to career development and to the progress of science. A well-structured manuscript allows readers and reviewers to get excited about the subject matter, to understand and verify the paper’s contributions, and to integrate these contributions into a broader context. However, many scientists struggle with producing high-quality manuscripts and are typically…
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Notes on academic writing
Earlier this year (January in fact) I spent a few days away on a writing retreat to help develop academic writing skills for new academics. I made a few short notes during that process that for some reason didn’t make it onto the blog. Here they are… Completed the following articles: Wikis and collaborative learning…