How I Take Notes As A PhD Student | Is the new Zotero app for iPad better than Goodnotes?

→ How I Take Notes In Grad School
→ The new Zotero app for iPad
→ My PhD Note-Taking Work Flow in Zotero and Notion
→ Bye bye Goodnotes?
In this video, I explore the ways in which the new Zotero app for iPad has changed how I take notes in grad school. I've been a staunch user of GoodNotes, but now that I can take notes within the Zotero app, and then sync them neatly into my Notion, I've stopped using Goodnotes completely.
That being said, the two apps - Zotero and GoodNotes - have traditionally served two different functions. Zotero is a reference manager, and GoodNotes is not. Goodnotes is a note-taking app, while Zotero - up until now - has not. While I am LOVING the new annotation features in Zotero, it will be a while before the iPad app for Zotero is as sophisticated as Goodnotes when it comes to annotation features. For now though, I am happy to transfer my note-taking for my PhD over to Zotero, and leave Goodnotes for some personal journalling activities.
What do you think? Have you been using the new Zotero app for iPad? Do you like it? What tips should also be included in a video like this? Let me - and others in our PhD community - know!
Thanks, as always for watching, and see you again soon!
Holly x
Current Subscriber Count → 3,276
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00:00 - 00:20 → Introduction
00:20 - 01:32 → My current PhD Work Flow
01:33 - 03:28 → Downloading references into Zotero for both Desktop AND iPad
03:28 - 07:05 → Annotating PDFS on my iPad using Zotero
05:38 - 08:02 → Syncing my annotations to Notion
✨ MENTIONED/SHOWN IN THIS VIDEO ✨
These links are a FREE way for you to support my channel (seriously, it doesn't cost you a thing), so if you are keen to purchase something you might have seen on my channel, and are in a position to support me, just find the item below and click on the link! I earn a very small commission from any purchases made via an affiliate link, so thank you in advance for your support 😇
→ Ana Luisa NY Jewellery shop.analuisa.com/so-hollyjane
→ My iPad stand The Magflött Magnetic iPad Stand: bit.ly/hollyjane_CJP
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✨ OTHER AFFILIATE LINKS ✨
→ My Vlogging Music from Epidemic Sound: bit.ly/holly_janeES
→ Sync your Google Calendar BOTH WAYS with Notion-Automation: bit.ly/hollyjane_NA
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✨ FAQ ✨
What type of content do you make on this channel?
I started off making Study With Me videos, then the channel evolved with some PhD Vlogs and Advice Videos, and then I started to document a little bit of my cancer journey... So now I make an unequal amount of all three :)
How old are you?
I'm 31 in theory, but thanks to cancer/the pandemic putting life on hold for a couple of years, I genuinely only feel about... 26?!
Where are you based?
I'm Irish, and a PhD student at an Irish university but I am currently in MANHATTAN, BABY!!!!!
GIRLLLLL, WHERE did you get that fancy iPad stand?!! (actual question I've received multiple times)
The iPad stand I use is the Magflött Magnetic Stand designed by the family-owned CharJenPro company out in California. You can check out their stunning designs by clicking here:www.charjenpro.com/hollyjane, or you can support my channel - at no extra cost to you! - if you purchase a stand and use the code hollyjane at the checkout. Thank you in advance for your support!
What type of cancer are you getting treatment for?
Stage IV oesophageal adenocarcinoma
What drug are you on?
An immunotherapy drug, called Nivolumab (Opdivo)
What type of PhD research are you carrying out?
Historical research into records of children's musical culture in Ireland
Which university are you carrying out your PhD research at?
All Hallows, College, Dublin City University

[@Vivian-pz7yx]

Zotero is really good at this, but there is a certain GB limit for your PDF uploads. To go over this limit and upload more PDFs, you need to upgrade to a paid package.

[@HollyJaneYT]

I did not know this - thank you for the heads up!

[@KentuckyFriedTendies]

What I do is keep all my PDF's on Google Drive and just link to the files instead of storing them on Zotero. You can use any cloud service for this.

[@alvarojesusbecerragonzalez6673]

@@mustafac.8346 what is webdav? how can i use it and what limitations does it have?

[@alvarojesusbecerragonzalez6673]

@@HollyJaneYT thanks for the video! it would be great if you do another one about this storage issue :)

[@hauslerful]

@@alvarojesusbecerragonzalez6673 You need your own Cloud Storage that supports WebDav. It's a standardized protocol for data transfer so that any WebDav supporting app can access your files. I have a NextCloud instance that does all my cloud stuff, and Zotero also accesses it.

[@hollie3105]

Thank you for all your helpful and fun videos Holly! It’s so nice to learn how a fellow non-science PhD student does things. 😊

[@HollyJaneYT]

Thank you for the lovely words, Holly! Glad to share some tips I pick up along the way 🙂🙂

[@senoritachapman]

I use Zotero and am so happy they added the annotation features. I also love your videos! They are so colorful and informative.

[@HollyJaneYT]

Thanks, Amberly 🙂 Glad you like them!

[@michelleserralva]

Great video, Holly. I already knew and used notes in Zotero, but add this annotation file ... WOW!!!! Thanks for sharing!

[@HollyJaneYT]

Glad it was helpful, Michelle! X

[@1sbrum]

Thank you so much for this video. I am just starting my DBA journey. While DBAs are known for not being research degrees per se, there is still a lot of research and the need for a reference manager. I found your channel this weekend while researching how to take better notes as a doctoral student. I have binge watched all your PhD videos. Not only have I gotten great tips for keeping track of my references for my DBA, but I also started using Zotero to keep track of my personal library I accumulated through my undergrad and Masters programs.

[@HollyJaneYT]

Best of luck with the DBA, that is awesome! :)

[@user-ds2ug3wb6z]

Amazing. Can't thank you enough for sharing this. This video and your Zotero/Notion integration video have totally streamlined my research process. I feel like I can study now rather than spending all my time staying organized. Thank you!

[@HollyJaneYT]

You’re welcome!

[@paulabologna1327]

OMG!!!!! this was mind-blowing!! just loved! thanks for sharing it!

[@HollyJaneYT]

So glad that you enjoyed it! 🤩

[@paulabologna1327]

@@HollyJaneYT "i've just found out that Notero syncs the annotations straight into notion now! Is it Xmas?? it seems so :)

[@LaLidoLoca]

Very helpful. New to Zotero and just starting my research studies. Thanks!

[@HollyJaneYT]

Glad it was helpful!

[@yasminkelley8797]

Thank you SOOOO much for the wonderful advice!

[@HollyJaneYT]

Glad it helped, Yasmin! X

[@Cheeerxlove]

Ooh! This looks really good, definitely adding it to my paper reading workflow, thanks for sharing! :)

[@HollyJaneYT]

You're so welcome!

[@sharmithatom9301]

Thanks for the video..very helpful

[@HollyJaneYT]

You’re welcome!

[@Cassie776]

I always love your videos they’re so helpful and have really brought my productivity to the next level. I was wondering though if you knew anything about the outline feature in Zotero and if you could do a video on it and how you use it?

[@HollyJaneYT]

Great suggestion! I'll try do one soon :)

[@minjiechen5994]

very nice and helpful video!

[@HollyJaneYT]

Glad it helped!

[@nattynoodlenutkin]

Dang girl, you're on the ball! Thank you!

[@HollyJaneYT]

Thanks Natty 😀😀

[@prashant2840]

keep up the great work 👍

[@HollyJaneYT]

Thank you!! :)

[@Java-fj3mk]

Thanks a lot for sharing this great intro! Would you mind sharing your notion template for research. I found it really attractive.

[@dorcasmarie]

This is so helpful. I feel like I found you and your channel at the perfect time. I'm going into my third year as a PhD student this fall and this is a game changer as I start researching. Are there any other tech tips or general tips you have for students starting to research?

[@HollyJaneYT]

Hey Dorcas! I’m sorry for the late reply, thank you for the lovely message. I’m knee deep in writing right now so I have put the PhD advice videos on pause until the end of May but you’ll find more tech/general tips in my PhD Years 1 and 2 playlists on my channel homepage. Hope they help a little! X

[@dorcasmarie]

@@HollyJaneYT Hi Holly! Thank you so much for responding. I will definitely be checking those out and sharing them with friends!

[@officialegemen]

I fell in love with Zotero the minute I started using it. I’m going to get an iPad just for Zotero no kidding 😂

[@HollyJaneYT]

Honestly… I endorse this life choice 😈😝

[@yasminjobim731]

Thank you! Your videos are helping me a lot with organizing my master's thesis. I love your notion setup. May I ask how you created those colored boxes around your page list?

[@HollyJaneYT]

Thank you! Yes, you basically highlight an entire block (with no text in it) and right click - select highlight and the whole block should highlight!

[@itznoodlez1370]

Hi loved the video and i hope to incorporate this in my workflow as an undergraduate. I had a question however on how to setup the date added filter. Thanks!

[@HollyJaneYT]

Yes, absolutely! What's the issue?

[@itznoodlez1370]

@@HollyJaneYT id like to have the property of date added from the zotero database added/copied automatically to notion but im not sure how to go about this

[@HollyJaneYT]

I’ll research it and see what can be done :) @ItzNoodlez

[@lauraviana9178]

Your videos are so helpful, thank you!! What really annoys me about Goodnotes is that it doesn’t have a feature to export my annotations or filter annotations by colour….so Zotero app was a godsend 🤩

[@HollyJaneYT]

Happy to help!

[@oemerpetek1829]

What I find great about annotating with Zotero is that it keeps your pdf files clean, it stores them on zotero not on pdf file. You can even delete your annotations within the pdf file, the annotations in the note file will be kept associated and linked with the pdf and it’s relevant section. Also when you create note from annotation you can search and see it when reading another pdf from the menu on right. 😮

[@HollyJaneYT]

Yes, its so handy!

[@djhp1990]

I nearly dropped my coffee when I heard you say musicology! I thank the KZbin algorithm for bringing me to your channel 😁 I'm in my third year

[@HollyJaneYT]

Yay! Musicology for the win! :)

[@dogcatdoc]

Thanks!

[@HollyJaneYT]

Thank you very much!

[@Asceticyogi]

When Mendeley announced they are dropping I pad app, I felt so devastated. I tried to be on Zotero but the love for Mendeley was huge. This time after seeing your video I am sure I could marry with Zotero. Thanks Holly and Namastey from India.

[@HollyJaneYT]

Good luck with Zotero!

[@Kate.Nkechi.O]

I too made the switch and could be happier

[@amirshehata5999]

Many thanks Holly for this great video. I noticed you have Zotero | notion folder and Notion | Zotero folder, Is that mean you can sync from notion to Zotero also ?

[@HollyJaneYT]

Hey Amir! No, you can't sync back, unfortunately. I have that folder in case I come across new readings while making notes in Notion from existing references. I go back to that folder when I need to transfer them over!

[@amirshehata5999]

Thank you so much

[@noneliadf]

Holly, I have a doubt related to space. Do you need to have the PDF to use these features, don't you? I've already reached my limit and atm I cannot afford to pay for more space, so I'm taking notes through other apps (I don't use Apple ecosystem) and then sending my notes from articles to both Notion and Obsidian through Readwise. However, since I've sync both apps to Zotero, having the ability of carrying out the majority of my workflow in the fewer apps as possible would be great. Thank you for these kind of videos. I enjoyed them so much and I always take some ideas. Hope you have a great week. See you on the next study session. 🤗😘

[@HollyJaneYT]

Noelia, so sorry for the delay here - kzbin.info/www/bejne/lXfNmZSaYr9pZ9E check out this guy's content, he shows how he uses a different storage space so he doens't pay for the Zotero upgrade!

[@noneliadf]

OMG, @@HollyJaneYT, you're the best! Thank you for keeping this in mind. Hope you're doing great. 😊😘

[@yosotattoo]

Still new to this. But I love the Zotero's workflow. Have you tested Obsidian for your own writing/research?

[@HollyJaneYT]

Hey! Yeah, I’ve tried obsidian. It’s super impressive and powerful. Can highly recommend it. Personally, I prefer the Notion user interface but to each their own :)

[@rebeccajones3458]

LOVE your stufff--fellow 2nd year PHD student. :) Do you have a link for the notes/inbox notion template? thanks!

[@HollyJaneYT]

Thanks Rebecca! You’ll find it in the description box for the following tutorial kzbin.info/www/bejne/bnqmaWCjhcededE

[@HollyJaneYT]

Hope that helps!!

[@AmeltonGsairus]

Zotero is absolutely underrated app. I prefer it instead if notability since of its amazing sync and reference futures

[@HollyJaneYT]

Agreed!

[@DrDrGerhard]

Do you know how to use OneDrive storage for pdfs in Zotero and access them on your iPad?

[@daniellemegaffin6163]

Your videos are so so so helpful for my technophobe brain!

[@HollyJaneYT]

I'm glad they've helped!

[@fabiespinoza852]

Thanks for the video! Do you know if there's an equivalent for android tablets? The zotero app is not available for android I think

[@HollyJaneYT]

I'm afraid I don't know - sorry!

[@daniels.4732]

Jane, can you create a biography with zotero on your ipad? Maybe in pages or word? :)

[@HollyJaneYT]

Not sure about a biography - did you mean bibliography?

[@daniels.4732]

@@HollyJaneYT Yes! Sorry 😅

[@trish87563]

I'm still waiting on the Zotero Android app to do PDF reading on my Galaxy tablet. :( But this is helpful.

[@ghiyatsdewantara8790]

Hi. Could you search your handwriting on your macbook via annotation? I am using windows laptop and I can't search my handwriting notes on annotations, only highlighted annotations are available.

[@HollyJaneYT]

I’m not sure about this - whatever device you are using, it would depend on its OCR abilities. Hope it worked out for you!

[@dhritimankakati7714]

Hello ma'am. Love from India! When a file is synced from zotero in notion through notero, does it automatically sync the parent metadata? I am on Windows11 machine with Zotero 6.0.

[@HollyJaneYT]

Hi friend. I'm afraid I don't know the answer to that question as it applies to Windows... I am a Mac user myself, you see. I'm sorry to not be able to help!

[@javiernavas4001]

Hi Holly, I have a question for you. I've found that Zotero has the free limitation of 300 mb. How do you deal with it? You pay for the subscription or you store your media in the cloud? I think the best for me would be to have a folder in my Google Drive to store all this data and i've done it, but it doesn't work on my iPad. The only way to have access to the files on iPad is by the official Zotero storage or there is also a free way? Thanks, I hope to have been clear enough.

[@HollyJaneYT]

There is definitely a free way - check out this creator's workflow, he goes through it, even though he uses Obsidian. It should help! kzbin.info/www/bejne/lXfNmZSaYr9pZ9E

[@davidtod6436]

PDF Expert allows you to read and annotate PDFs on a Google Drive with the annotations properly syncing, including to Zotero.

[@amdomweldeabezgi2407]

what is the efficient way of inserting notes with their respective references from Zotero, say into word or overleaf?

[@HollyJaneYT]

For MS Word, you can use their Microsoft plug in. I've never used Overleaf so I cannot comment on that, I'm afraid.

[@literarystudies1861]

What size is your ipad? 11 inch or 12.4?

[@rebekkahhart3259]

Any thoughts on why the "add notes from annotation" option is not showing up for me?

[@HollyJaneYT]

Hmm, no. That’s strange. Are you using the latest update from all the apps?

[@rebekkahhart3259]

@@HollyJaneYT Ok it looks like I have to turn my attachment into a parent item in order for it to work. A zotero forum admin member said they would change it in the future so that they can also do it on attachments. Thank you for a great video and for responding!

[@owaisathar6225]

The free version of the zotero does not sync everything. So do we need to pay in that case for extra storage ...

[@HollyJaneYT]

That’s a super point, and it’s discussed in other parts of the comments, I believe. There’s another content creator who shows you how to change the storage space from Zotero to a cloud-based folder which I believe helps with the storage space issue if you don’t pay for Zotero premium. Let me find that for you and let me know if it helps!

[@HollyJaneYT]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/lXfNmZSaYr9pZ9E

[@alvesphiri3938]

Hie im currently having challenges in using my Zotero on iPad 2020. Please assist

[@HollyJaneYT]

Try the Zotero community page on their website - hope that helps!

[@zj7396]

the annotations on Zotero are not readable from other apps

[@HollyJaneYT]

🤨

[@Heyu7her3]

OH MY GOODNESS. Please be possible in Android 🤞🏽🤞🏽🤞🏽

[@Heyu7her3]

UGH they're still in the process of hiring an Android developer

[@HollyJaneYT]

Ugh. I’m frustrated on your behalf.

[@resasna]

Dear Holly, Would you think writing one’s thesis on iPad is a good idea? Or MacBook is the better option?

[@HollyJaneYT]

MacBook! Definitely!

[@resasna]

@@HollyJaneYT love you Holly. Thanks so much for the words.

[@garydomaz1849]

Hi! Studying political science. Just coming to say I’m dedicated to GoodNotes and I think you’d like it too

[@HollyJaneYT]

I love goodnotes too :)