What does “Batch Processing” look like, in practice?
In a recent blog post, I showed you different strategies not to “stay on top of the literature”, but to “catch up with the literature” in a way that is gentle and still highlight inequities and challenges.
In about 2 weeks, I will be giving a guest lecture on polycentricity for a good friend of mine, Dr. Marcela Lopez-Vallejo at Universidad de Guadalajara. I wanted to “catch up with the polycentricity literature”. Now, this is a literature I have contributed to before (see this book chapter on evolutionary institutional change and polycentric water governance with Andreas Thiel and Liz Baldwin).
I decided to download 5 articles that I am sure will give me good pointers. Here is where my process starts.
I downloaded all articles suggested to me by responders to my query. I put them in a separate folder, and then uploaded them to a folder on Mendeley. pic.twitter.com/3XHH6ixp7X
— Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega (@raulpacheco) February 27, 2021
This is what my empty CSED shell looks like. I still haven’t printed all the 5 articles, but I already have the citations in place for when I read/skim them.
As you can see, I did everything as a batch process: download, organize, upload to Mendeley, copy cites to Excel Dump. pic.twitter.com/VEKl3he75c
— Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega (@raulpacheco) February 27, 2021
Obviously from this point onward you can use my standard methods for reading, scribbling, annotating and then transferring your notes to a CSED (Excel Dump) row.
Once you (I) Process all 5 articles you’ll have 5 rows in your CSED and a good set of notes!https://t.co/rIOIHKOdP9 pic.twitter.com/CpoGDnpEXL
— Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega (@raulpacheco) February 28, 2021
The advantage that using Batch Processing offerss, whether you distribute it over a week with a daily #AICCSED or devote a couple of hours on Fridays to this work, is that it allows you to reach Conceptual Saturation faster: by looking at interrelated papers, who might even be citing each other, you may end up being able to get a overview of the field (or at least, of the gaps you have in what you know about it).
Hopefully this detailed description of my Reading Materials’ Batch Processing method can be of help to my readers.
I really like the idea of using “batch processing” to catch up on literature rather than constantly stressing about staying on top of it. It’ll be interesting to see how you apply this method to prep for your upcoming guest lecture on polycentricity at the Universidad de Guadalajara. Good luck with Dr. Lopez-Vallejo’s class—revisiting a field you’ve already published in sounds like a great way to test out this strategy!
I really appreciate your shift in mindset from “staying on top of” the literature to “catching up” in a more gentle way—it feels much more realistic and sustainable. Good luck with your upcoming guest lecture on polycentricity for Dr. Lopez-Vallejo at Universidad de Guadalajara! I’d love to see a follow-up on how your batch processing workflow actually looks in practice as you prep for this.
The “catch up” framing really resonates—there’s so much pressure to stay current that we forget how useful a deliberate, batch-based approach can be when you’re diving into a new area. The polycentricity lecture for Dr. Lopez-Vallejo’s class sounds like a perfect test case, especially since you’re not coming in cold but can leverage your own chapter to structure what you read. Curious if you found that prior work made it easier to spot which newer pieces were actually essential versus just adding noise.
Using batch processing to catch up on the polycentricity literature sounds like a much more manageable approach than trying to constantly stay on top of everything. I’d love to hear how this preparation goes for your upcoming guest lecture for Dr. Marcela Lopez-Vallejo’s class at Universidad de Guadalajara. It must be interesting to revisit a topic you’ve already written a book chapter on and see how the conversation has shifted since then.
I really appreciate the distinction you made between “catching up” with the literature rather than trying to constantly “stay on top” of it. It’s a much more realistic approach, especially when you’re preparing for a specific event like your upcoming lecture on polycentricity at Universidad de Guadalajara. I’d love to hear more about how you actually structure your batch processing session so it doesn’t become overwhelming before you present to Dr. Lopez-Vallejo’s class.
The “catch up” vs. “stay on top” framing really resonates — it’s easy to feel guilty about falling behind, but treating it as a batch process instead of a daily grind feels way more humane. Also timely to see you revisiting polycentricity for Marcela’s class; curious if your own book chapter will make the reading list for that lecture!
I really appreciate the distinction you make between “catching up” and “staying on top” of literature, as the latter often feels completely unsustainable. Good luck with your guest lecture on polycentricity at the Universidad de Guadalajara in a couple of weeks! Using batch processing to prep for it seems like a great way to update your existing knowledge on the topic without getting overwhelmed by the sheer volume of papers.
It’s so true that even when we’ve already contributed to a field, like your book chapter on polycentricity, we still need a structured way to catch up on the latest research. I’m really interested to see how your batch processing strategy works out in practice as you prepare for your guest lecture at Universidad de Guadalajara. Good luck with the upcoming presentation for Dr. Lopez-Vallejo’s class!
I really appreciate the idea of “catching up” with the literature rather than constantly trying to stay on top of it, which always feels so overwhelming. It makes total sense to use this batch processing approach to prep for your upcoming guest lecture on polycentricity for Dr. Lopez-Vallejo’s class. I’d love to hear how this method worked out for revisiting a topic you’ve already contributed to previously!
The “catch up, not stay on top” framing really resonates—there’s so much pressure to be current in real time, but batch processing feels way more sustainable for actually absorbing a body of work. Interesting that you’re revisiting polycentricity after having contributed to it before; that must give the guest lecture for Dr. Lopez-Vallejo’s students a nice layered perspective, since you’re not just summarizing but bringing your own prior arguments into conversation with newer work.
I really like your framing of “catching up” with the literature rather than the constant pressure of trying to “stay on top” of it. Good luck with the upcoming guest lecture on polycentricity for Dr. Lopez-Vallejo at the Universidad de Guadalajara! It’s always a unique challenge to batch-process and refresh your grasp on a topic you’ve previously published in, especially as the field continues to evolve.