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#+title: Bog - Extensions for research notes in Org
Bog is a system for taking research notes in [[http://orgmode.org/][Org mode]]. As any Org user
knows, Org handles notetaking beautifully. Bog just adds a few
research-specific features, nearly all of which are focused on managing
and taking notes with Org, not on writing research articles with Org.
The main features include
- Opening a PDF associated with reference citekey
- Opening a BibTeX entry associated with a citekey
- Searching Google Scholar using elements from citekey
- Renaming a newly downloaded PDF based on the current citekey
* Workflows
Many people use Org for taking research notes, and there are some really
nice descriptions of systems people have come up with (for a few
examples, see [[http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.orgmode/78983][these]] [[http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.orgmode/14756][threads]] on the Org mode mailing list).
The workflow for Bog is based on these preferences:
1. I don't want to store a lot of metadata with my notes.
The citekey is the unique identifier that I use to link the notes
with the BibTeX and PDF files. With just the citekey, I should be
able to access this. If desired, more information can be added (such
as bibliographic properties that can be generated with org-bibtex),
but this is not required.
One of the reasons for this is #2.
2. I want to have low friction for adding articles to the notes, but not
mindless.
There is an endless stream of research articles, so it should be easy
to add them. On the other hand, it shouldn't be so easy that I file
them away without giving them any thought. For me, this means
capturing the article and a link in my normal Org notes system. At
some point, I glance over it enough to decide what general topic it
should be in and refile it into a research notes file.
I prefer adding BibTeX and PDF files lazily. My only requirement is
that I put it in a relevant heading and that I name it with a proper
citekey. I make sure to add a link to the study online. I only
retrieve the BibTeX file or PDF file when I need to use them.
Below is a more detailed description of the workflow and what Bog does.
** Adding citekeys
As mentioned above, when citekeys are added, they should be filed under
the appropriate topic. I organize my research notes into a few files
with broad topics then have one level of headers representing topics to
file studies under.
#+begin_example
# In a very general topic file
,* Topic heder
,** name2000word :atag:
<URL for study>
Article notes
#+end_example
"name2000word" is the study header. (The default format for the citekey
is the first author's last name, the year, and then the first
non-trivial word.) Bog expects the study citekey to be the title or
property of a heading.
If the study was added when checking journals online, I tend to add the
URL right under the heading. However, I often add citekeys from the
references of an article that I'm reading. In this case, I often store
only the heading.
** Referencing studies
Within the notes, you can references other studies with their citekey.
#+begin_example
,** name2000word :atag:
Another study (another1999word).
#+end_example
"another1999word" will be highlighted within the text. When the point is
within the citekey, many Bog functions can extract and use the citekey.
** Opening a PDF file
All PDF files are kept in a single directory and are named as
<citekey>-*.pdf. The function =bog-find-citekey-pdf= will open a PDF
associated with a citekey. If the point is on a citekey, it will open
that citekey. Otherwise, it will use the citekey from the first parent
heading that is a study.
** Opening a BibTeX file
The function =bog-find-citekey-bib= will open the BibTeX entry
associated with a citekey.
The citekey is obtained in the same way as the [[Opening%20a%20PDF%20file][PDF citekey]].
BibTeX entries can be stored in one of two ways:
1. As a single file with many entries
2. As single-entry files named <citekey>.bib within a common directory
** Searching citekey on the web
The function =bog-search-citekey-on-web= will perform a search with the
citekey information. By default, Google Scholar is searched. The default
citekey format (first author's last name, year, and first non-trivial
word) usually contains enough information to make this search
successful.
** Renaming a new PDF
New PDF files can be put in a "stage" directory and then renamed to a
citekey. (The citekey can be taken from the notes context, as described
in [[Opening%20a%20PDF%20file][Opening a PDF file]].)
** Renaming a new BibTeX file
If a separate BibTeX file is used for each citekey,
=bog-rename-and-clean-new-bib-files= can be used to rename all new
BibTeX files. =bibtex-clean-entry= is used to clean the entry and
autogenerate the key.
** Generating a combined BibTeX file
If single-entry BibTeX files are used, there needs to be a way to
collect the references that are needed. =bog-create-combined-bib= can be
used to create a BibTeX file that has entries for all the citekeys in
the current buffer.
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