Best Program for Planning a dissertation?

[Throne777]

I'm wondering if there are any good open source (and free) programs for Ubuntu that are for writing dissertations/academic papers/etc. I don't mean something like Open Office, but something where I can write loads of notes and links ideas together. The sort of program you'd plan one on.
Tomboy Notes is alright, but doesn't give you the bigger picture of what you're working on very well.
I've had a bit of a look round, but nothing has sprang up so far, so I'm turning to the community to see if anyone has any recommendations.
I'm using Zotero for the bibliographic side, so I just need something for the planning/preparation stage where I start to commit all my notes into some form of (structured) plan, maybe with some sort of mind-map type stuff to help get an idea of what links to what, etc.
Suggestions would be very welcome.

[Elfy]

maybe something like https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Kdissert

I did mine with paper and pen(cil) I'm afraid.

Freemind is in the repos.

[johnnybgoode83]

Good old fashioned pencil and paper worked for me

[3Miro]

For my thesis, dissertation and all the following papers I use LaTeX and TexMaker editor. I am not sure about the "link" of ideas and sch, but you have a programming language (with the ability to put your own comments), you can embed fancy graphics, handle special fonts (like Math formulas) and this is the best thing for editing huge documents.

[Throne777]

Good old fashioned pencil and paper worked for me

The only thing is I hate writing (I don't have the best hand writing ever, for one) and find it much easier to word process things. Also, it makes editing (and countless rewrites) a hell of a lot easier.

[3Miro]

Good old fashioned pencil and paper worked for me

+1

I guess organizing your thoughts on paper is better. Writing it up for others, I would recommend LaTeX.

[Elfy]

The only thing is I hate writing (I don't have the best hand writing ever, for one) and find it much easier to word process things. Also, it makes editing (and countless rewrites) a hell of a lot easier.

I found that while I was formulating 'the plan' having a bit of paper with me as I went about my day worked - always had it to scribble on when I thought of things :)

[lobralleo]

+1 to LaTeX for writing the actual dissertation/paper - although a little clunky at first, it beats any office suite hands down :)

If you want to use BibTeX for your bibliography (which I recommend), I found Pybliographer to be a powerful interface to manage BibTeX entries (it's in the repositories).

As for keeping track of your notes and ideas, here is a short list of some mind-mapping software (the first list in particular is free and mostly cross-platform):



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_concept_mapping_and_mind_mapping_software


You might also want to check out Nevernote, an open-source clone of Evernote.

Hope this helps!

[DZ*]

As for keeping track of your notes and ideas, here is a short list of some mind-mapping software (the first list in particular is free and mostly cross-platform):



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_concept_mapping_and_mind_mapping_software


You might also want to check out Nevernote, an open-source clone of Evernote.

Are these programs being actively utilized by anyone for working on scientific projects?

I just installed and fired up freemind. I'm staring at it right now but nothing happened yet ;)

I usually start with LaTeX right away and then slowly turn it into a manuscript (by converting plain language and condensed lists of ideas into a pompous journal style). I also use paper & pencil for deriving and scan those into PDFs so they don't get lost. Occasionally, I use zim for note taking, it has a LaTeX plugin, useful for embedding equations. A lot of times stuff is born off a whiteboard scribbling too (must be the marker fumes).

[wojox]

I did mine with paper and pen(cil) I'm afraid.

You can not go wrong with this. :P

[lobralleo]

Are these programs being actively utilized by anyone for working on scientific projects?

I just installed and fired up freemind. I'm staring at it right now but nothing happened yet ;)

I usually start with LaTeX right away and then slowly turn it into a manuscript (by converting plain language and condensed lists of ideas into a pompous journal style). I also use paper & pencil for deriving and scan those into PDFs so they don't get lost. Occasionally, I use zim for note taking, it has a LaTeX plugin, useful for embedding equations. A lot of times stuff is born off a whiteboard scribbling too (must be the marker fumes).

I've seen people using Nevernote/Evernote and Freemind for scientific purposes, however I never used any of these myself, so I can't provide any directions - sorry about that.

I follow roughly the same path: LaTeX and scribbling on paper, plus various notes scattered here and there - perhaps I should really consider using a mind-mapping software... :)

[keithpeter]

Hello Throne777 and All

I think we have to find a personal style for these tasks.

What has worked well for you in the past? Could that be 'scaled up' to dissertation length?

Zotero has a notes facility with (I think I remember) a search and tagging function. Might make some sense to use what you have installed and use already. Tagging would give you a freeform database type access to notes and ideas.

Freemind works as a mind mapper and allows you to link to documents and keep notes and export to odt format (which can then save as LaTeX).

I personally used a large number of post-it notes and a wall when recently writing around 25K words as part of an academic authoring contract! I also had lots of notes on a shorthand pad (can rip the pages out and re-arrange). I'm looking at the blue-tack marks now...

The post-it notes were grouped into themes, which became chapters, as I developed the argument. The shorthand pad sheets got stuck under the post-it notes as I filled in the ideas.

[FreeTheBee]

I write in latex using vim, but I would also like some software that makes the planning part easier. I looked into sciplore a while back. It's sort of a fork of freemind with bibtex support and some pdf features, but it doesn't seem full functional in linux.

I think the yellow note idea should work for me as well, but I would like it digital. Perhaps theboard for gnome is useful, if it is in working condition yet. I only looked at it once and it wouldn't install at the time, but that was a while ago.

http://live.gnome.org/TheBoardProject

[koenn]

Are these programs being actively utilized by anyone for working on scientific projects?

I just installed and fired up freemind. I'm staring at it right now but nothing happened yet ;)

Errr, it doesn't work by staring (read the manual, it says nothing about staring).

You also need a brain (not in the repos) to produce ideas and relations between them.

The software is just a tool to visualize them and help you organize them.


;)

[juancarlospaco]

attitude...

[Dr. C]

LaTex. I used LaTex to write my dissertation 24 years ago and it is still the way to go today.

[drawkcab]

Working on mine right now. Nothing beats pen and paper for planning and outlining.

My experience is that working with complex mapping/outlining technologies can contribute to the agony by funneling effort into planning and away from writing. You can plan forever but, at some point, you just have to sit down and hammer out a draft of a chapter and begin to rework it.

The soundest advice that I ever received is that the best dissertation is a finished dissertation. It is the worst book you will ever write so just finish it, publish what parts you can, get a job. Once you are able to feed yourself, write the book that you wish you had written drawing on the lessons learned during the dissertation writing process and that will help you achieve tenure.

[DZ*]

Working on mine right now. Nothing beats pen and paper for planning and outlining.

My experience is that working with complex mapping/outlining technologies can contribute to the agony by funneling effort into planning and away from writing. You can plan forever but, at some point, you just have to sit down and hammer out a draft of a chapter and begin to rework it.

The soundest advice that I ever received is that the best dissertation is a finished dissertation. It is the worst book you will ever write so just finish it, publish what parts you can, get a job. Once you are able to feed yourself, write the book that you wish you had written drawing on the lessons learned during the dissertation writing process and that will help you achieve tenure.

In many places, books or book chapters don't count significantly, as far as academic promotions go, because books don't get the same level of peer review scrutiny as do articles in good journals. So, dissertation may well be the best book one had written until tenure :)

[mixint27]

zoho notebook?

[Jacobonbuntu]

no one using Xmind?
The free version is great, and very easy to use to get control over ideas, plans etc.
You can also create links, notes, attachments, markers etc, etc
and.... cross platform.
http://www.xmind.net/

[edit: in case you might try it, use this command to start it, as the global menu does not work yet in Unity:
env UBUNTU_MENUPROXY= /usr/local/xmind/xmind]
*In Oneiric, the global menu works well without the modified command!

[DZ*]

LaTex. I used LaTex to write my dissertation 24 years ago and it is still the way to go today.

And that is how he did it!
http://americanhistory.si.edu/vote/small/6_03_sm.jpg

[hilled]

I would definitely use Mendeley over Zotero. Works great with Ubuntu and LibreOffice. It's much more powerful, and lets you take advantage of research found by others with similar interests.

[gnusci]

gedit

[Elfy]

Closed