To be a productive advisor: project bank and reference library

I've tried all kinds of organizations to be a productive advisor and thus have a good research group. It's not an easy task, but – as a teacher – it's something you need to face head-on. Otherwise, he will be demanded repeatedly, always providing the same information, with each passing semester, to different advisees.

Tool-based organization is essential in the preparation of orientation meetings. If this is done, the advisor becomes agile in providing the sources so that the advisee can read them before this personal meeting. And the advisee will have a more productive meeting, which is exactly what everyone wants. This way it is possible to advance in the research more quickly.

Project bank

In my opinion, for the initial phase of the research, it is essential to maintain a project bank that can be easily updated and shared with the advisees. While I've tried in the past to automate this part of the workflow with a database (including a query link and publicly available filters), it doesn't seem like a good idea anymore.

Today my option is to personally manage the project bank and only send to each new one guiding a block of 10 to 20 projects related to the theme of their interest. After reading 20 good projects, it is very likely that the advisee will return, for a second meeting, with a project of the same quality.

This is my first conclusion: in order for the student to write a good project, he needs to read several others.

Without reading dozens of projects, the student does not internalize what he needs. He is left without reference, because his own project is practically the only one he will read in his life. The effort in this part really pays off, no matter if you supervise a graduation paper or review a thesis project. So, if you are a teacher, my suggestion is that you keep this bank from the selection of all the projects you read. It takes work and time, but the return is guaranteed.

There are several options to help maintain this bank. You can use Airtable to create a document database and share the link with your mentee. If you need inspiration, check out this template . Although the template is from a book catalog, you just have to adapt it to become a project catalog. If you want any options, see the Zenkit , which is practically a clone of Airtable. That's all you need.

Reference Library

It is nostalgic to think that someone can develop any research just by visiting the library to make copies of paper books. In fact, we all started the search on the internet. This also leads us to a common problem, consisting of the challenge of maintaining an electronic collection of books and articles ready for consultation and citation.

If, on the one hand, it is true that an undergraduate student does not need all this sophistication to finish a final paper, it is very likely that a professional researcher has, whatever it may be, his way of organizing a digital library.

Let's evaluate some scenarios. The person has a folder full of pdf files on their computer. It certainly works, despite the obvious limitations. A popular variation is the shared folder in Dropbox. But these options are just ways to store files. What a professional researcher - and one who is modern - demands is beyond that. After all, you need to manage the citations in an integrated way with your text editor or, at least, generate the bibliography with one click.

I think there are pretty consistent options on the market for this type of task. The most popular (and which has an affordable paid premium plan) is the Mendeley . In the past, I think that the Endnote It was once a serious option, but it's even more expensive. I prefer the alternative to open source, called Zotero . For me it is the definitive solution.

This is my second conclusion: in order for the guidelines to be able to provide references quickly, its reference library needs to be organized.

Conclusion

For the advisor, it is worth investing in the organization of a project base, as this saves work and increases the quality of the project to be prepared by the advisee. Once the project has been prepared, it is worth investing in the organization of a reference library to help improve the text.

Together, these tools prevent each orientation process from becoming the reinvention of the wheel. And we certainly don't need that.