Thread: Academic tool suggestions
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Old 07-12-2010, 04:21 PM   #34
davidspitzer
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Quote:
Originally Posted by nekokami View Post
As I've commented elsewhere, I'm a doctoral student, and I'd like to use an eBook reader as a tool in my academic work. I spent a little bit of time thinking about what my "ideal" software for this purpose would look like. Here are my suggestions. I post them here in the hopes that others with similar interests and needs can help refine them further (or possibly suggest existing software that can be used for these purposes).

Purpose of tool: to allow review of literature, as well as entry and analysis of qualitative data, entry (and possibly analysis) of quantitative data, and possibly creation and/or editing of drafts of research reports

Literature review/analysis:
  • Read PDF, txt, rtf, html, and (perhaps with conversion) doc
  • Allow each document to store metadata sufficient for generating MLA and APA formatted references (i.e. author, title, year of publication, publisher, etc)
  • For paginated documents, maintain awareness of original pagination. The easiest way to do this is probably to ensure half-page views of PDF, e.g. A5 size screen, with automatic page panning. Also allow entry of a start page offset number.
  • While reading a document, the reader should be able to:
    • highlight text for quotes, with metadata tagging
    • make notes (e.g. in margins), also with metadata tags
  • Export mode allows selection of specific metadata tags, and within those tags, specific entries may be selected/unselected
  • Export mode produces output list of all comments and quotes with MLA or APA formatted references
  • Bonus: include a decent RTF (at least) text editor so drafts can be created or edited on the device

Entry/analysis of qualitative data:
  • Freehand note writing, including sketches - will require HWR either on device or on base computer
  • Ability to highlight notes and tag with metadata, including multiple tags per entry and overlapping highlight "chunks"
  • Tool/view to search, group and sort entries by metadata, including hierarchical groups, boolean search, context search, and "sounds like" search, with search logs
  • Tools to search for strings in text and count occurrences of strings, create concordances, etc.
  • Tools to create cross-links between categories of metadata, classify codes/metadata
  • Bonus: semantic network tool allowing entries to be linked to nodes and nodes to be developed into networks illustrating relationships
  • Bonus 2: apply coding tools to audio data as well as text
  • Bonus 3: export to a wiki-compatable format for sharing with the research community

Entry/analysis of quantitative data:
  • creation and implementation of entry forms
  • Data-collection mode using entry forms, simple database to hold results
  • export to standard statistical packages (export field headers/codes as well as data)
  • Bonus: port R to the device (http://www.r-project.org)

It seems to me that the iLiad has the hardware necessary to meet these needs, because it has a stylus entry mechanism, but other vendors may also have (or be developing) appropriate devices.

Comments?
I may have missed it in one of the posts but I did not see anyone mention the ipad. I am a law student and it has been pure manna from heaven - all my pdf's and books in one location with full annotation, real web browsing, text creation, Bluetooth keyboard support, tons of third party apps, the list goes on. I love eink for linear reading, but for asynchronis activities like researching, annotating and combining multiple data streams, I feel the iPad is far superior.

Perhaps the ipad would fit your bill it seems to me it is the closest of what is currently available other than a full blown tablet. With regards to tablet PC's, to be pragmatic though most of the tablets especially the cheaper ones have dismal battery life. I have found the ipad outlasts them buy a factor of 5 or more. I have a motion tablet I use for work that set my company back $3000, it has dual batteries weighs in significantly more than the ipad and does not even last half as long. If i go all day with intense reading and internet, I am usually at about 60% still at the end of the day on my ipad - i would be happy to demo any of your pdf's on the ipad if you want to see what they look like

ps since I purchased my iPad my Motion tablet has not left its doc on my desk and has now become an overpriced and underperforming desktop

David
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