16 Best Resources For PhD Students

Writing papers can feel like an endless cycle of research, writing, revising, and editing. As you approach each new project, you might feel a sense of dread or even panic at the prospect of starting over again. With each new project, it is easy to forget what you learned from the last one.

What’s worse, the pressure to publish can feel overwhelming, especially if you’re unsure how to go about it. And if you’re like most PhD students, you’re balancing so many responsibilities that you hardly have enough time to breathe, let alone write. Luckily, as you likely know by now, artificial intelligence (AI) can help alleviate the stress of academic writing.

In this guide, we’ll explore a variety of resources for PhD students that can help improve your research skills and writing. You’ll learn how to enhance your academic writing and be able to write efficient papers, summaries, and articles with AI. One tool we’ll introduce you to along the way is Anara's research assistant. This valuable resource can help you achieve your goals, such as improving your writing and conducting research more effectively so that you can tackle your next academic paper with confidence.

1. Anara: The Smartest Way to Read & Write Academic Papers Fast.

Anara allows you to read faster and write better. Quickly find info in documents, simplify complex topics, take notes and write with the power of AI. Anara is trusted by thousands of researchers and students, from the classroom to the boardroom. Anara generates an AI assistant on top of any document so you can quickly find, summarize and understand info. No more endless skimming.

Anara understands the meaning behind your writing and automatically links you to relevant things you’ve read and written about in the past. Highlight text and Anara will show you the most relevant sources from your library using AI. Never lose a citation again. Generate text with AI-autocomplete to improve and expand your writing, with all suggestions based on the context of what you're working on. Step into a collaborative workspace where everyone can contribute and chat with the same documents in real-time, and much more!

2. Pathverse: Create Custom Apps for Your Research.

Pathverse is a free, no-code software that allows you to build custom research apps. Create intervention studies, send out timed notifications, and create custom surveys or questionnaires for your study participants. Pathverse also hosts a large library of features and an exclusive FREE tier for Ph.D. students and early career researchers.

3. Zotero: Free Tool to Organize Research Materials.

This free reference manager can help you organize and cite your research sources. It’s a valuable tool for keeping track of your research materials, generating bibliographies and saving time in formatting citations.

4. Scrivener: The Best Writing Software for Long Projects.

Scrivener (comes from the Old French meaning ‘to scribe’) is a software created by Literature and Latte. The company calls the software as something created by writers for writers. The software was designed for novel writers and screen-writers but widely used by academics because of the section categorisation, which allows you to work on chapters individually and compile it at the end. Recently, Scrivener came up with their latest update for the Mac (the windows version is expected soon), and they have done substantial visual and features rehaul.

5. Grammarly: Free Writing Tool for Error-Free Papers.

A helpful grammar-checking tool that can identify grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors in your writing. It is an excellent tool for Ph.D. students who want to avoid mistakes in their academic writing.

6. Trello: Visual Task Management Software.

A powerful productivity tool that allows you to organize your tasks and to-do lists visually. You can create cards, add deadlines, and categorize tasks by importance. It’s a great way to keep track of your work and manage your time effectively.

7. Ulysses: Goal-Oriented Markdown Writing Software.

If you like Markdown writing method, you will love Ulysses. It might seem like a simple writing app for your Mac or iPad, but this one packs a punch. The advantage of writing on Ulysses is the clean interface, and it has a goal-oriented approach to writing. Say, if you want to finish 1000 words a day, you can set them with Ulysses.

8. Evernote: Organize Your Research in One Place.

A note-taking app that allows you to organize your notes, documents, and research materials in one place. You can also set reminders, create to-do lists, and share notes with others. It’s an excellent tool for keeping track of your ideas and research materials.

9. EndNote: The Most Popular (and Expensive) Reference Manager.

Endnote is an obvious choice used by many academics, but it’s the most expensive product out there. Endnote was owned by Thomson Reuters, but they spun off all the analytical and academic brands into a separate company called Clarivate Analytics. For example, Clarivate owns the Web of Science Group.

10. Mendeley: A Free Alternative to EndNote.

Mendeley was started by three German students in 2007 as an alternative to Endnote with investors from various companies like Last.fm and Skype, along with academics from Cambridge and John Hopkins. They named the application after Gregor Mendel and Dmitry Mendeleyev. It was considered to be a rebel system to Endnote but lost a bit of that sheen when it was acquired by Elsevier in 2013. But Elsevier acquisition has helped Mendeley to proliferate into different segments of reference management.

11. Papers: Reference Manager for Mac and iOS.

Papers was an independent multi-platform reference manager system developed by two PhD students from the Netherlands Cancer Institute. They wanted to create an iTunes style approach to reference management. It was owned by Springer Nature, an academic group and a couple of years back Readcube acquired Papers.

Readcube had its own reference management system, but they merged everything, and the brand is now called Readcube Papers. Papers, when it was independent, was used by many academicians due to the robustness and the sheer volume of citation styles. Post the acquisition, some of them moved (especially Mac users moved to Bookends), but the new app is as stable and comprehensive as the old one.

12. Bookends: My Favorite Reference Management Software.

Bookends is my favourite reference management software and the one I currently use. I was using Mendeley for my references and moved to Bookends after a careful investigation. Bookends is such a secret that even a google search for the name wouldn’t suffice to find it (search for Bookends reference manager instead). Bookends is a Mac-only reference management system that’s developed by Sonny Software based in Maryland, USA.

13. Smart Academics Blog: Blog for Academic Career Development.

The -> Smart Academics Blog provides a collection of 135+ articles on academic career development, especially on conducting PhD studies, writing and publishing journal papers, PhD supervision, presenting research, career development, and becoming an effective researcher. Many of the articles provide free worksheets and checklists.

14. PhD Career Stories Podcasts: Real-Life PhD Career Advice.

PhD Career Stories is a podcast where PhDs share stories, successes and failures of their career development after completing their doctorate. Here everyone can participate and share their journey and experience so that we can learn and grow with each other. Together, we can inspire you to take the next step in your career development. Available on all major podcast platforms.

15. The Struggling Scientist Podcast.

A Podcast by Scientists, for Scientists, anyone Science adjacent and perhaps even hobbyists. They make biweekly episodes about Science, Life as Scientists and have amazing Guests from all over the world.

16. Papa PhD Podcast.

The Papa PhD Podcast offers valuable insights and advice from experienced PhD graduates and professionals, helping you navigate the challenges of doctoral studies and career planning.