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The Scholar's Toolbox
Navigating the academic landscape is often challenging, but the right tools can make the journey smoother.
In case you're new here, I am a full time academic editor with a PhD in human geography and a Masters in anthropology. The following list reviews the tools (quite broadly defined) that I personally use and am happy to recommend to all faculty and graduate students (or anyone else who does a lot of reading and writing).
Fair Warning: I am a strong advocate for digital texts--I'm definitely not a "paper person."
Some of the tools listed here have an affiliate link (i.e., if you purchase through my link, I get a small kickback). Importantly, I sought out links for products I already use and can confidently recommend.
Reading
Writing
Travel
More coming soon!
Reading Tools
PDF Program
I'd bet that social science scholars--especially graduate students--spend more time in their PDF reader than any other program, so why shouldn't it be a beautiful, well-designed app? After all, even the most stringent advocates of physical books likely have hundreds, if not thousands, of articles and reports in their knowledge database.
My recommendation is a native Mac app (sorry, Windows users) that has both subscription and one-time licenses. It even comes with a 50% educator discount for anyone with a .edu email.
PDF Expert
https://pdfexpert.com
Disclaimer: This is an affiliate link. Making a purchase through this link directly supports me and my work.
Early in my Masters, I realized that free PDF readers wouldn't cut it. The scanned book chapters from inter-library loan and seemingly ancient digital course materials (often little more than photos of a book) required text recognition if I was going to properly take notes and actively read.
My first paid PDF reader was an Adobe product that is no longer sold. I somewhat unwittingly bought it from the university bookstore right before the company stopped selling anything that didn't require an expensive subscription. It worked well but, goodness, the program was ugly, clunky, and overpowered as an academic reading app. I finally decided to take the plunge on a new program in the lead-up to my PhD comprehensive exams (which demanded about 8 hours of daily reading for 45 days).
PDF Expert met all my objectives! It is a beautifully designed Mac app that nails note-taking and retrieval. It also has PDF editing features, which can be useful when completing scanned forms. PDF Expert also benefits from continuous development, and I've found the team open to suggestions. They recently introduced a major overhaul that brought OCR/text recognition and the ability to match digital document pages with paginated numbers.
PDF Expert is sold as a yearly subscription or a one-time purchase. They offer a 50% educator/student discount. Using the link above directly supports my work (and doesn't cost you anything extra).
Book Scanning
I prefer to read books digitally! I know I've just lost a whole host of people who swear by paper, but let me make my case:
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Digital books allow for easier searching--you can quickly summon all the keywords, place names, and author references, even if it's been years since you last read the text
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Digital books are easier to splice up when assigning chapters for your undergraduates
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Your library won't be subjected to earthly wear and tear. It's also much more difficult to misplace a digital text (just make sure your computer is backed up!)
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I like to write in coffee shops, which means I can't turn to a physical library for inspiration. However, I can do a quick skim of my digital books while writing. This same problem of physical space is exacerbated during fieldwork--how was I supposed to write my dissertation chapters or publications if my library is in another country?
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Similarly, many academics now regularly move cities or countries on temporary and part-time contracts. Before my biggest move between my Masters in Canada and PhD in Hawaii, I scanned dozens of books that I wanted to keep in my collection.
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Lastly, many scholars around the world don't have access to the physical books they need to advance their work. While they can easily buy the books online, international shipping is often impractical. A PDF is the best option.
After deciding to use a digital library, you need to actually collect digital texts for your project. Some will be easy to find--you can often buy (or otherwise locate) PDFs of classics and new releases. However, many older niche monographs and edited collections were never made into e-books nor scanned by enthusiast readers. Fortunately, such books can often be purchased on Amazon or other online bookstores relatively cheaply.
These books can then be sent to BookScan.US (located in the American Southwest), where they will be turned into high-quality PDFs in a week or so. The best part is that this is totally legal! You're simply swapping a physical copy that you bought for a digital copy that can go wherever life takes you. I've used BookScan numerous times and am happy to recommend their services to all.
Writing Tools
Citation Management
Citation management programs serve two functions: 1) automating referencing/bibliographies and 2) acting as a knowledge database for all the academic texts you've read. There are a number of paid programs, but my recommendation is free for both Windows and Mac.
Zotero
https://www.zotero.org
Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with Zotero.
I learned about Zotero in the second-year methods course of my PhD and immediately recognized it as the purpose-built academic tool I had been searching for. For years, I had been compiling every bibliography by hand and inevitably making human mistakes. Furthermore, I spent hours adjusting biblios when I needed to switch citation styles (e.g., when resubmitting to a new journal). My knowledge database and reading notes were jammed into an overstuffed Excel sheet (and, later, OneNote folders). This system didn't allow me to quickly scan through my entire library or easily surface an article from years ago. Furthermore, I couldn't quickly skim all the titles I'd read on a certain topic. Zotero solved this problem.
Zotero fundamentally changed how I wrote and engaged with sources. It took a few full days of data entry to move all my reading summaries and PDFs over (I did it during the winter holidays). However, my information retention dramatically improved going forward.
Problem: I remember reading a potentially useful article during my Masters but can't recall the author's name or the title. I only remember that the case study was based on fieldwork in Kenya.
Solution: All my Zotero entries are assigned a location tag so I can swiftly pull up all the Kenya-based research and locate the article.
Problem: I'm writing a paper on slum tourism and feminist theory and would like to review the titles I've read on these topics to be sure I'm citing appropriately or to find a new angle.
Solution: I have a Zotero folder for slum tourism, allowing me to quickly skim the titles and my reading notes for each. I can use my theory tag to further reduce the list to only those papers dealing in feminist theory to find my closest fellow travellers (and ensure I do not forget anybody's contribution).
What I Love:
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It is a free, open-source, non-profit program--a refreshing change for corporatized academia.
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MS Word/Google Docs plug-ins automate in-text citations and can compile a complete and correctly formatted bibliography in seconds.
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Lightweight and intuitive
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The "Magic Wand" feature uses article DOIs to auto-import reference data (sometimes it needs a little cleaning, but is generally quite good).
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One-click to open PDFs stored locally on your device
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Free cloud backup for your database and notes
Take Note:
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It looks like a free, open-source program. It's perfectly functional but not beautiful.
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No Scrivener plug-in
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If you're absolutely sure you won't use the automated citations and biblios, Notion will be a more powerful readings database and notebook.
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The MS Word plug-in can be a little glitchy
Editing Services
Okay, so this one is a little cheeky.
If you're looking for social science scholarly editing services, Revise & Resubmit is here to help. I provide affordable line editing, editorial notes, formatting assistance, and word reduction. I am proud to offer significant discounts for graduate students and precarious scholars.
Even if you're not looking for an editor right now, you may be interested in a Revise & Resubmit voucher/gift card. All vouchers are valid for two years from the date of issue.
Use up your grant money: Don't let your expiring grant money go to waste! Revise & Resubmit is happy to provide vouchers that can be used long after your grant has lapsed. I will provide documentation to meet institutional and grantor specifications and help you make the best use of any remaining funds.
Give the gift of language: Get in touch if you'd like to gift editing services to your colleague or grad student.
Lock in today's prices: Revise & Resubmit's prices don't change very often. However, I do occasionally make small adjustments to keep up with inflation. You're welcome to purchase a voucher to secure the best rates.
Travel Tools
Travel Card
The Venture X is the best travel credit card for most US-based academics and graduate students.
This one is only for scholars with access to US banking (sorry!). At first glance, an annual fee credit card may seem like an odd recommendation for academics (or even wildly out of touch with the realities of grad students surviving on 17k stipends).
Here's my case: most academics make at least one trip each year to attend their annual conference. As a PhD student, I flew from Hawaii to New Orleans one year and to Washington DC the next for conferencing. I also flew between Honolulu and Namibia twice for my fieldwork. I think this is a fairly typical (minimum?) amount of travel for most scholars.
Many scholars I know dread travel--expensive airport food, nowhere to charge your phone, slow internet, and long security lines. If you, like me, spend at least $300 on flights each year, just holding the Capital One Venture X card can mitigate some of these issues and make conference, fieldwork, and other travel a little bit easier for a near-$0 effective annual fee.
The credit card rewards rabbit hole goes deep, but the Venture X is the best one-and-done card for people who want the perks of a solid travel card without having to think about it. At this point, I should state the obvious: credit cards only make sense when you pay the balance in full every month. If you cannot do this, do not apply for this or any other credit card.
Capital One Venture X
https://www.capitalone.com
Disclaimer: This is a refer-a-friend link. Applying for the card through this link directly supports me and my work.
Here's the Math:
The $395 annual fee is offset by a yearly $300 travel credit for any flight or hotel booked through Capital One's simple travel portal. You also get the cash back equivalent of $100 every subsequent year you keep the card. Therefore, CapOne is effectively paying you $5 a year to keep the card as long as you take one $300+ flight each year.
Airport Lounge Access
Unlimited access for you and two guests to global Priority Pass lounges, select Plaza Premium Lounges, and Capital One's lounges in DFW, IAD, and DEN.
Most US Priority Pass lounges are not the pinnacle of luxury. However, they do offer free coffee and free food. Most of the time the chairs are comfier than the terminal and the internet is faster. The situation improves dramatically abroad.
The CapOne bespoke lounges have a small footprint at the moment, but are excellent.
2% Cash Back/Points Everywhere
Plus 10% back on hotels/car rental through the Capital One portal and 5% back on flights through the portal.
In practice, this means all your purchases will be 2% cheaper than when using cash or a debit card.
I think most low-spending academics will redeem points for cash back but you can also use them as points to book flights and hotels with a little extra effort.
$750 Intro Bonus
To get the most out of this card, be sure that you can spend $4,000 within the first 3 months from account opening to receive the equivalent of $750 in cash back as an intro bonus. Obviously, don't spend money you weren't budgeting just to hit the spending target. Rather, time the application with an upcoming large purchase (e.g., tuition, conferencing, flights, etc.).
Other Travel Perks
$100 to cover TSA Pre-Check/Global Entry (every 4 years)
$1,600 of yearly insurance if your phone is damaged or stolen (as long as you pay your monthly phone bill on the card)
Trip Delay Coverage (receive up to $500 when you’re stuck for more than 6 hours due to a covered hazard)
Delayed Luggage Coverage (if your checked baggage is delayed for more than 4 hours, you can be reimbursed for necessities you purchase up to $300).
Check Capital One's website for the most up-to-date terms, conditions, benefits, and credit score requirements.
Downgrade Path
If the card stops being useful to you after the first year (e.g., the benefits change for the worse), call Capital One and "downgrade" the card to the VentureOne, which has no annual fee (and therefore costs nothing). This "product change" is not the same as cancelling the card and does not impact your credit score.
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