What tools do you use in academia to jointly review a thesis?

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Solution 1

Adobe Acrobat has a feature called Shared Review.

It lets multiple people in real-time comment on a single PDF so long as the PDF is hosted in a single place (e.g., if your department has network storage or there are services online to host such files).

It works pretty well and is already built-in.

Alternatively, you can email them each the PDF and then use the merge comments features to combine them, then send out that PDF. Not as nice but it doesn't have to be hosted.

Solution 2

This is a good question and I don't want to discourage you, but let me explain what you will likely find most of the time.

They each already have a preferred way of giving you their feedback and some or all of them will not want to use whatever tool you choose. Since they are doing you a favor, you will need to respect their preference. For instance, I prefer to take a hard copy and a red pen and go to a coffee shop or library in order to focus.

Also, when I review a thesis I do not want to see comments from other reviewers before I form my own opinion.

Solution 3

Not really a tool for commenting, but very useful for review: if you go through many iterations, you might want to consider using a tool to generate a "track changes" PDF file, which shows the supervisors what parts of the thesis have changed since the previous version. Especially if you are at some point making many changes scattered throughout the thesis.

I would recommend latexdiffcite for this purpose. It's an improvement over the earlier latexdiff program. latexdiffcite even understands git and can give you diffs between different commits. Illustration:

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Solution 4

I've been a reviewer for many thesis, and here is my 2 cents:

  1. It is preferable that you ask each reviewer for her review process and stick to it. For instance, I will always print the thesis and write my comments with a couple of pens (color value = type of the comment) and then send back the annoted manuscript (paper or a scanned version). Why? Because I read and comment mostly in transportation, in the waiting room at the doctor/local administration, etc. All places where it is not convenient/possible to use a laptop or similar device.
  2. I don't need and want to see the comments by other reviewers. As an author, it is your responsibility to arbitrate in case of contradictory comments
  3. About grammer/spelling/etc. Those errors must be anecdotal in a manuscript sent to reviewers. My policy is that if there is too many typos/grammatical mistakes in a sample of 5 pages, I'll send a message to the author saying that I will wait for a "more final version". As a reviewer my job is not to correct the spelling, but to assess the quality of the work.

Solution 5

My preference, as a reviewer, has been to print a hard copy from the pdf file and then attack it with a red pen. As my handwriting becomes less legible ("benign essential tremor"), I'll switch to the second-simplest system: Ask the student to send me the TeX file and insert my remarks into it. (I have some simple macros defining an environment for my remarks, causing them to show up in red in the pdf file.)

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Updated on August 01, 2022

Comments

  • Chris
    Chris over 1 year

    I am giving a thesis for review by several supervisors, who will comment and request changes. It's written in LaTeX, but I don't want to bother the people involved with having to compile that themselves. Instead, I would send a PDF as it'll represent the final product most accurately.

    My question is, what can I use / do you use for the review process?

    I know they can just comment inside the PDF, but maybe there is a tool that allows everyone to see everybody's comments?

    If supervisor A and supervisor B disagree on something or don't want to have to correct the same mistakes, then it'll be easier for them to see the other persons comments. Kind of like a shared Dropbox file, but something that's a bit smarter about keeping the history of all comments.

    Have you used anything like this or do I just have to rely on built-in PDF highlights / notes?

    • Azor Ahai -him-
      Azor Ahai -him- over 7 years
      Haven't written a thesis, so I don't know how it works, but can you send it to them sequentially so that you aren't doubling up on grammar comments, etc?
    • Chris
      Chris over 7 years
      Technically, yes, but practically I would prefer to send all at once, since review might take a few weeks for everyone and if they don't do it in parallel, then I have to wait a few months rather than weeks...
    • Azor Ahai -him-
      Azor Ahai -him- over 7 years
      Fair enough, I also agree with David's answer that many reviews probably don't want to see other's comments anyway.
    • Chris H
      Chris H over 7 years
      You may be able to send it chapter-by-chapter so every supervisor sees every chapter but they're not looking at the same chapter at the same time. Either: pipeline it (so that every chapter goes you->A->(you?)->B->(you?)->C->you; or send a chapter to each supervisor, make your revisions from those comments, send each chapter out to the next in turn. But whatever you do, aim to maximise how much the supervisors' wishes are accomodated. Also try to have colleagues (newish PhD students in your group who may learn some background, postdoc coauthors) read it first for grammar/spelling/sense.
    • Rick Henderson
      Rick Henderson over 7 years
      I work in academia but don't review theses, but I'm pretty sure you'll have to do it the way they darn well tell you to do it. :)
    • Chris
      Chris over 7 years
      @RickHenderson as I said before - it depends on your relationship with the supervisor - sure, if they are people, who don't care for such considerations - don't make them. But if your Prof. is curious in trying something new sometimes as well... why not suggest it?
    • user2768
      user2768 almost 7 years
      Print a hard copy and get your supervisors to write on it.
  • Chris
    Chris over 7 years
    I'll check it out - do you actually use it :) ? I asked the question that way to see if people also actually consider that tool useful (and got their peers / supervisors / professors to use it as well)
  • Chris
    Chris over 7 years
    It looks like features requires a subscription, correct? Do you know if everyone involved needs that subscription or just me (the person initiating the review) acrobat.adobe.com/us/en/landing/…
  • Austin Henley
    Austin Henley over 7 years
    @Chris I do not have a subscription and have used it. I'm guessing that is actually just for hosting.
  • Austin Henley
    Austin Henley over 7 years
    @Chris Added an alternative option, which is a simpler but not as convenient way.
  • Austin Henley
    Austin Henley over 7 years
    Would this work for people who don't know how to use LaTeX (some of my collaborators do not)?
  • jakebeal
    jakebeal over 7 years
    They'd have to learn at least very small amount by rote---I have found this isn't a problem for people who aren't ideological about their document editors.
  • Chris
    Chris over 7 years
    It's a very good suggestion, but I didn't want to share the LaTeX source, probably very useful for collaborative writing, though.
  • Chris
    Chris over 7 years
    I'll see if I can merge comments, but trying to use the Shared Review feature always sends me back to that annual subscription website.
  • Chris
    Chris over 7 years
    I understand your concerns - this of course depends on the people you work with and your relationship with them. Your last point is one I had not considered - maybe I'll revery to a network / dropbox download link that'll I'll update along the way and anyone can get the latest copy (without comments) whenever they want.
  • Dirk
    Dirk over 7 years
    I generally dislike if people want me to make use a specific software. Note also that people may have different workflows and needs. It may well be that some of the guys wants to read the thesis on paper and send back a feedback on paper! If they do you a favor, make the work most easy for them and go with everything they propose.
  • Chris
    Chris over 7 years
    Definitely good for one of my reviewers, who always wants to see all the changes I made since the last iteration :) !
  • Bernhard
    Bernhard over 7 years
    I laughed at "Two many typos" :)
  • Adam Martin
    Adam Martin over 7 years
    There are a few products that do this... pdsurf is a free one that just started, I forget what the bigger online one is called,
  • Sylvain Peyronnet
    Sylvain Peyronnet over 7 years
    @Bernhard Indeed ^^
  • JaBe
    JaBe over 7 years
    Also see rcs-latexdiff for differences between latex files github.com/driquet/rcs-latexdiff
  • gaborous
    gaborous over 7 years
    Also LyX and LibreOffice provide similar diff capabilities, and you can change how the content is highlighted. I use it to review and merge the changes the reviewers have done on my paper!
  • Orion
    Orion over 7 years
    Since they are doing you a favor. Is it really a favor or duty?
  • Chris
    Chris over 7 years
    Agreed, it depends a little what kind of review you are thinking about. If we are referring to the Prof, who took you on and initiated the project, they surely have an obligation to review your work, but there are obvious limits to this. In the end - you are still the author.
  • Chris
    Chris over 7 years
    @DavidKetcheson I assume you don't always get to do reviews the way you want to, though, right? At least when looking at journals / conferences, everyone also has to agree to a common review system and they can't possibly accomodate every persons preference. So I think it's save to assume that everyone does have some flexibility with the reviewing process.