Take Better Research Notes with Scrintal
In this tutorial we introduce Scrintal as a new tool to organize literature reviews. Scrintal is a web-based application which allows for taking extensive literature notes. Using the tool, researchers can organize, and visually connect the literature notes with bidirectional links. Scrintal is built upon the Zettelkasten and Evergreen note-taking techniques which aim at building an interconnected personal knowledge system, rather than a collection of ideas and notes.
This tutorial goes through the process of how to organize the literature and research notes according to the three principles of Zettelkasten: 1) creating atomic notes which include only one main idea, 2) creating hyper-textual notes which are linked to the other notes, 3) creating personal notes which are blends of the literature and personal thoughts.
About the Speakers
Ece Kural is the CEO and founder of Scrintal; she started the company while writing her dissertation and out of frustration with current tools that didn’t save any time nor facilitate the overwhelm of information. Ece earned her PhD in International Relations from Stockholm University last year. You can follow Ece on Twitter.
Additional Resources
Sign up for Scrintal HERE
Q&A
+ How does Scrintal work?
Scrintal is a web app that combines mind mapping with the power of networked note-taking. So you get crystal clear in your thinking, write creatively and share your findings easily. Scrintal works best when you use the zettelkasten method developed by Niklas Luhmann.
+ What are literature notes, fleeting notes and permanent notes?
Literature notes are the notes you take while you read the literature. Fleeting notes are essentially anything that pops to your mind, and where you should not worry about format, just note it down before you forget. You don’t have to keep all fleeting notes. Once you have your literature and fleeting notes, you can draft the more robust notes, so the permanent notes that you will use in your paper. Main take-away is that every note you create should contain a single idea.
+ How does Scrintal help me deal with an overwhelming amount of notes?
It uses the basic pillar of Zettlekasten - notes should be retrievable. Scrintal helps you both visualise your notes on the boards, organically organize and connect them by linking the notes with each other. Using Scrintal and Zettlekasten will help you build up your knowledge with each note, you will be placing the note on your board not based on where an idea came from, but rather where it is fitting within all the other notes you’ve already taken. You can also use colors and hashtags to organize the notes further into clusters, boards and metaboards.
+ What happens when you have notes that might be relevant to different projects?
By keeping one idea per card you can then tag that card with different topic names, and link or connect the card with different cards or ideas that belong to different projects.
+ Can you include links on the Scrintal cards?
Yes!
+ Is there a way to add hand written notes either directly via an iPad app with the pencil or import from e.g. GoodNotes?
We don’t have a native tablet app, but if you open Scrintal in the browser on your iPad, you can use your pencil.
+ How is Scrintal different from Miro?
In Scrintal, the notes or cards are not just documents, they can turn into full documents, you can also embed anything into each of these cards. A key difference between the two applications is that in Scrintal, you can easily search through all your notes.
+ How is Scrintal different from qualitative analysis tools like Atlas.ti and Nvivo?
You should not use Scrintal for qualitative analysis, where you need to code reports or interviews line by line. Scrintal is more flexible when creating notes for your literature review. With qualitative analysis tools, the coding is quite specific as you tag line by line, often hirerarchically, with a schema that you might have to set up before reading the literature. As a result it can be difficult to synthesise and move these around as you shelf your ideas as they fit into a structure you are trying to grow organically.
+ Can you export the notes to Microsoft Word?
Not right now. But you can already export to markdown and PDF.
+ Can you import notes from Endnote for example into Scrintal?
Yes.
+ How can you keep track of references in the notes? Does Scrintal integrate with Zotero for example?
You can add your reference to every note you create on Scrintal. The integration with Zotero and other reference management tools is on the roadmap and will be prioritized based on demand.
+ Is Scrintal a web-based or desktop-based system? Is there a Linux version?
Scrintal is a web app. Scrintal works on every browser, but is best on Chrome and Safari. There is a non-native Mac app. All the data is saved on AWS
+ Is there an official Scrintal roadmap?
You can find out all about what we are working on and connect with like minded individuals that use Scrintal by joining our community on slack
+ If your computer gets damaged, are you still able to retrieve all your notes?
Yes. All your notes are saved to the cloud.
+ How can I sign up to use Scrintal and how much does it cost?
Sign up here for the $5/month access. We expect to launch the free version in Q2 next year. If you are working in a team and would like to help us test and improve the collaborative features, you can apply to become a beta tester here. If you want to find out more, check this board.
