Webinar: Humanizing the Research Writing Process

Most of us can imagine the academic who effortlessly turns caffeine into written words and might actually be a machine. It’s easy to think that everyone else is finding it easier to write than you do. But most academic writers don’t enjoy the writing process every single day. They often find that committing their research to paper is an unnecessarily slow and painful process. 

Created by: – Published on: 12/15/2022

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Overcome Writing Barriers with Rich Furman

The fear of the blank page, the stress of self-imposed writing goals, perfectionism—all of these can prevent academics from engaging in productive writing sessions. An academic himself as well as a former clinical social worker and therapist, Rich Furman has a flourishing career helping scholars overcome those obstacles. He’ll share his techniques in our free Writing Groups for Academics series, which run through to December. 

Created by: – Published on: 9/15/2022

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What’s New in Citavi in 2022?

Since the beginning of the year there have been a lot of changes made to Citavi, which we're excited to tell you about in this features roundup.

Created by: – Published on: 9/2/2022

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Publish and Persevere: Top Tips for Qualitative Writing and Publication

November is Academic Writing Month (AcWriMo)! Along with the bounty of resources and advice that Academic Writing Month brings, it is important to acknowledge the frustration and deep worry about failure that is part of the process. Towards that end, I advocate getting rid of the saying publish or perish and replacing it with Publish and Persevere!

Created by: – Published on: 2/9/2022
Tags: Good to know

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10 Tips for Writing a Literature Review

Conducting a thorough critique of the literature is incredibly important, but as a writer, you may feel daunted by the enormity of the task. Following these 10 tips can help you focus your writing efforts. These tips can also help you write a literature review that moves beyond summarizing the research and toward critiquing it well.

Created by: – Published on: 11/29/2021
Tags: Good to know

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A Process Approach to Writing Productivity

I have been helping academics and others on their writing and writing productivity for over twenty years (and over ten years as a coach--time flies!!). While I have many technical tips and tools that explore with folks, much of what I do is helping scholars maximize their psychosocial resources and resilience.

Created by: – Published on: 11/19/2021
Tags: Good to know

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Book Building: Room by Room

I have been helping academics and others on their writing and writing productivity for over twenty years (and over ten years as a coach--time flies!!). While I have many technical tips and tools that explore with folks, much of what I do is helping scholars maximize their psychosocial resources and resilience.

Created by: – Published on: 11/15/2021
Tags: Good to know

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Ade mitenand - Goodbye for now

All good things must come to an end at some point. Our blog co-author Jennifer will be leaving Citavi this Friday, so we've decided to put the blog on pause until there is someone to step in. In today's post, Jana and Jennifer take a look back at some of their favorite insights and moments when writing the blog.

Created by: Jana Behrendt, Jennifer Schultz – Published on: 6/22/2021
Tags: Good to know

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Taking a look back

The blog team is taking a break this week, but we dove into our archive to find some posts from our very first year that we think are still worth a first or second look.

Created by: – Published on: 6/1/2021

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Talking to the screen

Want to lead a webinar but unsure about what you need to consider from a technical standpoint or otherwise? With our tips you'll soon be comfortable talking to your screen.

Created by: Jana Behrendt – Published on: 5/4/2021
Tags: Good to know

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What is QDA software?

Many of our readers are likely aware that Citavi was recently acquired by QSR International, an academic software company that makes the leading QDA software NVivo. If you want to learn more about what QDA software is, when it's used, and how reference management software can be used with it, this post is for you.

Created by: Jennifer Schultz – Published on: 4/20/2021
Tags: Graduate students Good to know Workflow

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Creativity on demand?

Every two weeks for over three years, Jenny and Jana have published a new blog post on the Planned Accidents blog. In this interview, they discuss their process: how they come up with new ideas, how they research and organize their work, what their writing process looks like, and how they deal with creative blocks.

Created by: Jana Behrendt, Jennifer Schultz – Published on: 4/6/2021
Tags: Creativity Organization Time management Writing tips Workflow

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Creativity tools for academics

Creativity tools can help you generate new ideas, capture ideas, and get unstuck. In our new blog post, we look at some of the tools out there and explore how even your reference manager can help with creativity (yes, really!).

Created by: Jennifer Schultz – Published on: 3/23/2021
Tags: Creativity Good to know

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How to become more creative in your academic work

Creativity is imperative for original work, but in the many books and blogs for academics, it's barely mentioned. The book Creativity in Research is one of the few exceptions. It draws on creativity research and the authors' experience leading creativity workshops to help academics establish the conditions for new ideas to flourish. In this post, we share our takeaways from the book that can help any academic become more creative.

Created by: Jennifer Schultz – Published on: 3/9/2021
Tags: Graduate students Creativity Good to know

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How to formulate a research question

Is your paper deadline looming, and you still don't know what your central research question is or how it relates to your paper topic? Our latest blog post can help with tips and examples for formulating a research question.

Created by: Jana Behrendt – Published on: 2/9/2021

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A tool like any other

Like a hammer, reference management software is a tool. And just like a hammer won't help you build a house if you don't have a foundational knowledge of building, you won't be able to use reference management software successfully without some knowledge of basic citation and academic writing principles. Learn what you need to know in this blog post.

Created by: Jennifer Schultz – Published on: 1/18/2022

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7 Tips for Citing Links

Are the links in your footnotes or bibliography wrecking your formatting? Do you wish you could shorten long links? Read on for helpful tips for working with links.

Created by: Jana Behrendt – Published on: 1/12/2021

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Dealing with writer’s block

Writer's block happens to nearly all of us at some time or another. The next time you get stuck, take a look at this blog post for eight strategies to try depending on which type of writer's block you're experiencing.

Created by: Jennifer Schultz – Published on: 11/17/2020
Tags: Writing tips Writing

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What is #AcWriMo?

For many academics, the month of November is associated with making progress on a writing goal. We discuss why that is, how Academic Writing Month started, and why so many academics find it useful in our new blog post:

Created by: Jana Behrendt – Published on: 11/3/2020
Tags: Time management Writing Good to know

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Digital Object Identifiers

For the past 20 years DOIs have been assigned to academic journal articles. These identifiers make it possible to automatically import citation information into Citavi. But what are DOIs and how exactly do they work?

Created by: Jana Behrendt – Published on: 10/20/2020
Tags: Good to know

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Bored? Channel your beginner's mind

When you've been working on a dissertation or other long-term project for a while, you can feel like you already know your project inside and out. Taking a beginner's mind approach can help you find new ideas and view your project with fresh eyes.

Created by: Jennifer Schultz – Published on: 9/8/2020
Tags: Creativity Writing

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How to write a proposal

Need to write a proposal? Lucky you! Even though it might seem like a lot of extra work, this document can help you save time and stay on track when writing your thesis or working on another type of research project. We share some tips for what to include in this week's blog post.

Created by: Jana Behrendt – Published on: 8/11/2020
Tags: Graduate students Good to know Writing tips

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What’s up with in-house styles?

With tens of thousands of different citation styles already available, why are new citation styles still being created by universities, departments, and individual professors? In this blog post we attempt to answer this question.

Created by: Jana Behrendt – Published on: 6/30/2020
Tags: Citation Good to know

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Digital highlighting done right

Have you ever marked up a text with highlighters only to realize at the end that you didn't understand it at all? You're not alone! Thankfully, there are a number of approaches you can use to help you better analyze your readings. Learn about five effective methods you can use with Citavi in this blog post.

Created by: Jana Behrendt – Published on: 6/2/2020
Tags: Reading tips

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Build a search engine for your courses

Sick of hunting around for presentation slides, a syllabus, readings, or other documents from your courses?
Our latest blog post describes how you can create your own system to keep track of all of the paper and electronic handouts you get in your classes.

Created by: Jana Behrendt – Published on: 5/5/2020
Tags: Work better Knowledge organization

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All about boredom

Stuck at home and bored out of your mind? Why not learn what's behind the emotion we all try so hard to avoid, strategies for dealing with it, and why boredom might actually have some positive effects.

Created by: Jennifer Schultz – Published on: 4/21/2020
Tags: Work better Time management

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Home office "how-to's"

It can be tough to adjust to working at home if you were previously working somewhere else. In this post, our Citavi team members who have worked at home for years share some of their experiences and recommendations.

Created by: Jana Behrendt – Published on: 4/7/2020
Tags: Work better

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Tips for online learning

This blog post is for any students whose courses have suddenly been moved online. Our veteran online course taker shares her top tips for getting the most out of the format.

Created by: Jennifer Schultz – Published on: 3/24/2020
Tags: Learning Good to know

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Why doesn't Germany use a standard citation style?

In a country where there's a law for the amount of beer that should be poured in a glass, you might expect citation practices to be similarly uniform. In fact, there have been some attempts at standardizing citation guidance over the years. But how successful have they been? The answer might surprise you.

Created by: Jana Behrendt – Published on: 2/11/2020
Tags: Good to know Citation

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Is it okay to cite social media?

A carefully researched YouTube video on quantum mechanics from a university professor and your friend’s Instagram picture of his lunch are both examples of social media. So, when and when should you not cite social media in a paper? Find out in this blog post.

Created by: Jennifer Schultz – Published on: 1/28/2020
Tags: Beginning students Evaluating sources

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Reflecting on the past year

Already made your resolutions for 2020? Fair enough, but before moving on to the next year, we invite you to sit back and take stock of all the positive moments from the year that was.

Created by: Jennifer Schultz – Published on: 12/31/2019
Tags: Good to know

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7 last-minute gift ideas for academics

Has the holiday season crept up on you all-too-soon? Are you still looking for a present for the students, professors, and researchers in your life? We've got you covered! Check out our blog post for some ideas.

Created by: Jana Behrendt – Published on: 12/17/2019

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APA – The most popular citation style in the world?

How did the APA citation style become one of the most popular in the world? In this blog article we attempt to answer this question by tracing the history of the style from its humble beginnings on up to the just released 7th edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association.

Created by: Jennifer Schultz – Published on: 12/3/2019
Tags: Citation Good to know

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A treasure trove of tags

The humble tag can be immensely useful when organizing your references or other documents. But just how should you go about creating a tag or keyword system?
Read on for some best practices from the Citavi team.

Created by: Jana Behrendt – Published on: 11/19/2019
Tags: Knowledge organization

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The (academic) messy middle

Does it feel like there's no end in sight to this semester? That's because you're smack dab in "the messy middle". Also known as "the mid-semester slump" or "mid-semester blues", our latest blog post examines this phenomenon and offers some tips to help keep you moving forwards.

Created by: Jennifer Schultz – Published on: 11/5/2019
Tags: Beginning students Graduate students Good to know

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What is open science?

Magicians never reveal their tricks, but for academics it's a different matter. They can and should reveal how they reached their conclusions!
The open science movement takes this transparency one step further by helping make knowledge directly accessible to the public.

Created by: Jana Behrendt – Published on: 10/22/2019
Tags: Good to know

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Show your readers the way

Can you imagine going on a hike with no signs to guide you? You'd likely feel a bit lost.
It's the same for the readers of your thesis if you don't include some common "signposts" to help guide them in – and back out – of your writing.

Created by: Jana Behrendt – Published on: 10/8/2019

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The outline

Like an itinerary for a vacation, the humble outline can help keep you from meandering off course and wasting valuable time – whether you have a two-page essay or a dissertation ahead of you.

Learn how you can use outlines throughout your writing process and which apps can help in our latest blog post.

Created by: Jennifer Schultz – Published on: 9/24/2019
Tags: Writing tips

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Make this your year

A new academic year is a great chance to say goodbye to the bad habits that may have plagued you in the past and start developing good ones to help you succeed.

We’ve culled some of our top learning and productivity tips from past blog posts to help you hit the ground running. Whether you’re a first-year student or a seasoned professor, we're confident you’ll find some strategies you can use to make this your best year yet.

Created by: Jennifer Schultz – Published on: 9/10/2019
Tags: Time management Writing tips Reading tips Good to know Beginning students Graduate students

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Channel your inner librarian

Librarians are experts at identifying and describing sources. Take a cue from them when adding items to your reference management software! Our latest blog post shows you how to add difficult reference types using examples from Citavi.

Created by: Jana Behrendt – Published on: 8/27/2019
Tags: Citation Reference management

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