My favorite tools for managing, organizing, and reading research papers

Reading research papers can be daunting at first. It is easy to get lost in the numerous words, diagrams, conclusions, references, and whatnot. In this article, I'd like to share a few tools I use to organize my favorite research papers and keep up to date with the latest ones. This isn't an exhaustive list but is a good starting point for those new to research and literature overview.

1. The Three Pass?method

This method devised by S Keshav is called the three-pass method. The idea is not to read research papers in one go but instead in three different passes wherein:

?. During the first pass, scan the paper to get a high-level idea of the paper

?. During the second pass, read the paper in more detail, skipping over the mathematical proofs and intricate details

? During the third pass, try and virtually re-implement the paper. Infact, by this time, a reader should be able to find unique points as well as fallacies in the paper.

Link to the paper: https://lnkd.in/dsd4htEX

2. Andrew Ng's Lecture on reading research?papers.

Andrew Ng's Lecture lecture on reading research papers.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=733m6qBH-jI&t=2605s

3. Connected Papers

Connected papers is a visual tool created to address this specific point. It creates a graph of the papers with the strongest connections to the paper of interest.

Link: https://www.connectedpapers.com/about

4. Research Rabbit

Research rabbit is a tool that literally makes you go down the rabbit hole. Like Connected papers, you can visualize networks of papers and co-authorships. Enter a paper of choice, and you get all the relevant papers associated with it. Click on this newly generated list of associated papers, and you can see another list of relevant papers and continue the process forever.

Link: https://www.researchrabbit.ai/

5. ArXiv Sanity Preserver

Arxiv Sanity Preserver is a web interface to help you find your favorite papers and what is trending in the field. The site provides a search engine to find papers on any topic. You can then save your favorite papers in your library and access them later.

Link: ArXiv Sanity Preserver

6. Arxiv Vanity

Arxiv Vanity renders an arXiv paper in a more readable format that is pleasing to the eye.

Link: https://www.arxiv-vanity.com/

Wrap Up

The tools and sites mentioned in the article above have helped me immensely. I now make it a point to take notes while reading papers and then use the notes to create articles and posts. If you have any additions to want to make to this list, feel free to comment below.