kareina

When I first started my first PhD the university provided EndNote free to all students, and I was delighted not to need to worry about doing the formatting for citations myself. At the time I thought it enough to just download the citation details for each paper as I got them, adding a "label" that matched the name of the folder I had downloaded it to, so I could find them later. Over time I realized that it would make sense to add a note telling my future self when and why I had downloaded each paper.

When I started my second PhD and also started using Scrivener I exported all of the citations I had in endnote and made scrivener cards for each, so that I could link to the card if I cited them in something I was writing. I also started taking reading notes directly on the cards (I was really bad about taking notes before, since if I did they would wind up being hard to find later, so I wouldn't look at them anyway, so I didn't see the point).

The longer I use Scrivener the more and more organized I am becoming. Therefore I thought I would record my current work flow for adding a new card for a paper:

1) find out about a paper. (the three most common reasons are A) seeing a scopus alert mentioning it from a previous search I had set up, B) Doing a new database search on a specific topic, C) seeing it cited in a paper I am reading.

2a) If the source is scopus (or any other on line source with the option to export the citation information export it and import the data into EndNote. Add a "label" for the primary topic, add "research notes" stating today's date and why this paper is interesting enough to make note of (this will include mentioning how I found out about it). Copy-paste the "preview" of the citation, including the research notes onto a new Scrivener card.

2b) If the source is a paper I am reading copy-paste (or re-type if the paper is so old the pdf doesn't have copyable text) the relavant quote into my reading notes for today, then make a new scrivener card, copy the citation information from the reference list of the articles and, in the notes about why I am adding the card, copy the citation quote, and add a link to the paper containing the quote. Then, add a link on the first card to the new citation. At this point either leave the new citation's card with a note that says "card added, but not downloaded", and give it a status "add to endnote" and resume reading the first article, or go looking for the article on line, download it, add it to endnote.

3) once the new paper has a card give it a list of topics, linking each one to a topic card of the same name. On each topic card include a link back to the card for the new article. Add a parenthetical note next to the link. For example my topic card "3D images" has the following list:

* Badiu, et al 2015 (pottery profiles)
* Williams et al 2019 (poster Roman cattle skulls/target practice) (see also our Email exchange on the topic)
* Williams et al 2019b (paper Roman cattle skulls) (see also our Email exchange on the topic)
* Frangione et al 2019 (automated scaling techniques-photogrammetric micro measurements)

Were each author/date is a link to that card, and the "see also our email exchange" is a link to that card. A single paper may have quite a few topics.

This is all a fair bit of extra work, but my future self will thank me for it. Indeed, I am already thanking my past self for having done this--if I am writing a grant proposal and need a citation for why a specific technique is perfect for the proposed project I need only look at the topic card for that technique, click on the links to see which of the papers that address that topic is the best one to make my case.

However, since at first I wasn't using topic cards, I am finding that as I work on my literature review and start papers I am having to go back and add topics to papers I have had for a longer time. I also have a topic card for "papers I have cited", which has come in handy when writing new papers, as I can quickly go look "what did I say last time I cited this paper?"

I suspect that my work flow will continue to evolve as I get even better at keeping good records. However, even at the first stages of using Scrivener it was already so much better than anything I had tried before. Sometimes I wonder how I managed to do research without these tools.

Many of my work hours on the second PhD project have been spent delving in the database of the Swedish Historical Museum. I had been sent a link to a database search showing the 300-some odd steatite objects in their collection when I first started my project, and I have been slowly working my way through that list, creating cards in Scrivner for the various objects (plus photos, when they are available), and sorting the cards into folders for each location, and importing the locations from the database into Google earth, so I know where the objects are located.

The new icon, which I plan to use for posts related to my Durham uni work, comes from one of the finds from Lappland It is a "täljsten kärl", or soapstone vessel, which was part of a collection of objects sold to the museum in 1947, and supposedly found in Nautasjaure (today Nautijaur), Jokkmokk parish, Lappland.

My plan for this part of the project is to have a thesis section summarizing all of the Swedish soapstone objects from the collection, and then focus in on the Viking age objects that I will (I hope) be analyzing.

Parallell with this I need to get my hands on either published compositions or actual bits of soapstone from all of the outcrops which were or could have been used as quarries back then and analyze them to see what their trace element compositions are, and how to tell one quarry from another based on composition, in order to have a hope of being able to determine where the various objects came from before they were transformed from a bit of rock in the ground to a useful object.

From where I sit right now, this project looks like it will be fun and fascinating, but I am somewhat concerned about getting it all accomplished before my funding runs out in four years, given that I still have to work half time, and would like to have a life, too.

I am making tiny progress on preparing my application for a 2nd PhD through the University of Durham. Today I actually started filling in the on-line application form, so that the basics are ready when I finally have my project proposal and budget ready to attach. I have exchanged a number of letters with my potential advisor, who has written to various people in her network and forwarded me their replies. She sent me a copy of a very interesting PhD thesis by one of her colleagues who studied "war booty" from the Roman Iron Age, using LA-ICP-MS to study the weapons that had been deposited in a heap in a lake. What really amazed me about his thesis is that he did his data processing by hand, in a spreadsheet, since his department didn't have a licence for a program like iolite, which is what I use for my LA-ICP-MS data processing.

I also looked at the web page for the Swedish student financial aid people. It looks like it is possible for me to get a stipend from them to study in the UK, but only until I am 57, so I had better do it now and not wait. The stipend isn't huge, but it will make a difference in paying for lab work and possibly even getting to Durham now and then to actually see my advisor in person.

The only reason I don't already have a project proposal is that there are too many cool project ideas that we have been tossing back and forth at one another. The good news is that I will enjoy whatever project we settle on, the bad news is that I can only pick one. garnets? glass? soapstone? beads? cooking toys? Something Viking Age, anyway, and using Swedish artifacts. That much we know.

Some of you who have been reading this since I first got hired to run the LA-ICP-MS lab might remember that while waiting for the delivery of the machines I had contacted some archaeologists in Uppsala wondering if they might be interested in doing some collaborative research on some garnet-bearing sword hilts etc. It turns out that my potential advisor knows them, and is good friends with one of them.

The more letters we exchange, the more convinced I am that this is a chance of a lifetime, and I should go for it.

And, to make things even better, AMT was fun tonight, as always! I love the gymnastics training. Never mind that I am the worst kid in the class, I am showing improvement every week, and enjoying it.

I stopped by an open house today--one of the houses in our neighbourhood is for sale--the third since we bought our place (if you count ours). That house is slightly older than ours (1964 vs '66), not as big, weirdly laid out (who sets it up so that one has to go through the kitchen into and then through a bedroom to get to the garage and laundry area? Why did they take off the back door? They also have much, much, much less land than we have--just a small yard suitable for little kids to play in. I am so happy we got the house we did. The highlight of the house was a wall mounted can-opener in the kitchen, that, from the look of it, must have been put up when the house was brand new. but probably hasn't been used in years, since most "canned" food in Sweden comes in cardboard boxes, and those few items that are in metal cans have a self-opening lid.