Documentation

Everything you need to know about using PhD Progress Tracker. This guide covers all features for both students and supervisors.

Getting Started

Welcome to PhD Progress Tracker! Here's how to get started: 1. Create an Account: Sign up with your email address and choose your role — Student or Supervisor. 2. Set Up Your Profile: Go to Settings to customize your name, avatar, and theme preference. 3. For Students: Create your first Milestone to define a major research goal, then add Tasks under it to break down your work. 4. For Supervisors: Wait for a student to send you a collaboration invitation, or ask your student to invite you through the Collaborators page. 5. Connect with Your Team: Once linked, you can view your student's progress, provide Viva feedback, and communicate via real-time Chat.

Dashboard

The Dashboard is your home base. It provides an at-a-glance overview of your research progress. For Students: • A visual timeline of your milestones and their deadlines. • Statistics cards showing total tasks, completed tasks, in-progress tasks, and overdue items. • Progress bars for each milestone. • An upcoming deadlines panel highlighting what needs attention soon. For Supervisors: • A consolidated view of all your students' milestones and progress. • Quick access to each student's tasks and submissions. • Overview of pending Viva reviews.

Milestones

Milestones represent major research goals or phases of your doctoral journey (e.g., "Literature Review", "Data Collection", "Thesis Writing"). Creating a Milestone: • Click "New Milestone" and fill in the title, description, due date, status, and priority. • Choose a milestone type (PhD Thesis, Grant, Publication, Conference, etc.). • Assign one or more supervisors from your accepted collaborators. • Optionally share with co-students who are working on the same project. Managing Milestones: • Track overall progress which is automatically calculated from task completion. • Edit milestones at any time to update status, dates, or collaborators. • Delete milestones when they are no longer relevant. For Supervisors: • View milestones created by your students. • Monitor progress and deadline adherence. • Milestones appear on your Dashboard with progress indicators.

Tasks

Tasks are the actionable work items within each milestone. Creating Tasks: • Navigate to the Tasks page and click "New Task". • Assign the task to a specific milestone. • Set a title, description, due date, priority, and estimated hours. • Tasks start with a "To Do" status. Kanban Board: • View your tasks organized in a Kanban board with columns: To Do, In Progress, and Completed. • Drag and drop tasks between columns to update their status. • Filter tasks by milestone, priority, or date range. Task Details: • Click any task to view its full details including description, comments, and progress percentage. • Add comments to discuss the task with collaborators. • Track time invested and completion status.

Literature Review

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The Literature section helps you organize and track your reading. Adding Citations: • Manual Entry: Fill in author, title, year, journal, and other fields. • DOI Import: Paste a DOI and we'll auto-fetch metadata from CrossRef. • BibTeX Import: Paste BibTeX entries to bulk-import citations. • Zotero Import: Connect your Zotero account to seamlessly import your personal library and collections. • AI Chat Import: When discussing papers with your supervisor in Chat, the AI can extract citations automatically. Organizing Literature: • Create folders to group citations by topic or research area. • Tag citations and filter by reading status (Unread, Reading, Summarized). • Rate papers on a 1-5 scale for relevance. Fiche de Lecture: • For each paper, create a structured reading summary ("fiche de lecture") capturing the research question, methodology, results, and relevance to your work. • These summaries are used in automated progress reports.

Manuscripts

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The Manuscripts section is your academic writing workspace. Creating Manuscripts: • Click "New Manuscript" and choose a template (IEEE, ACM, Springer, etc.) or start blank. • Add an abstract, title, and organize into sections. Editing: • Write in Markdown or LaTeX — the editor supports both. • Sections can be reordered with drag-and-drop. • Word counts are tracked per section. Live Collaboration & File Sharing: • Experience real-time collaborative editing with your supervisors. • Share files directly via a peer-to-peer WebRTC connection. • All files and manuscripts are saved entirely locally in your browser for ultimate privacy. • Optional Cloud Sync add-on available for cross-device backup. PDF Preview: • Preview your manuscript as a compiled PDF directly in the browser. • The built-in SwiftLaTeX engine compiles your document without any local installation. Export: • Export your manuscript as a .tex file for submission to journals or conferences.

Viva Submissions

The Viva system structures the feedback loop between students and supervisors. For Students: • Submit a Viva for any task that you've made progress on. • Fill in a self-evaluation: summary of work done, key findings, methodology used, challenges encountered, and planned next steps. • Record your time invested and give yourself a self-rating. • Your supervisor will be notified to review your submission. For Supervisors: • Review submitted Vivas from the Viva page. • Provide structured feedback: verdict (Approved, Revisions Needed, Rejected), overall rating, strengths, areas for improvement, and suggested next steps. • Your feedback is immediately visible to the student. The Viva process creates a documented record of academic progress and mentorship.

Chat & Messaging

Real-time messaging keeps students and supervisors connected. • Direct Messaging: Chat one-on-one with your supervisor or student. • File Sharing: Attach files directly in chat conversations. • Citation Extraction: The AI can detect paper references in messages and offer to add them to your literature library. • Message History: All conversations are preserved and searchable. • Notifications: Receive real-time notifications for new messages.

Calendar

The Calendar provides a visual timeline of your research activities. • View tasks and milestones plotted on a monthly calendar. • Color-coded events: tasks by status, milestones by priority. • Click any event to view its details or navigate to the full task/milestone page. • Deadlines are highlighted for quick identification of upcoming due dates.

Meeting Requests

Schedule meetings with your supervisor or students. For Students: • Request a meeting by proposing one or more available time slots. • Add an agenda or topic for discussion. • Your supervisor will be notified and can accept or propose alternatives. For Supervisors: • Review meeting requests from your students. • Accept a proposed time, or suggest alternative slots. • Keep track of upcoming and past meetings. Meeting requests integrate with the Calendar for easy scheduling.

Progress Reports

PhD Progress Tracker automatically generates comprehensive monthly progress reports. • Reports are generated on the 1st of each month as LaTeX documents. • Choose your preferred report language (English, French, or Japanese) in the Reports page. • Reports include: Executive Summary, Milestone Overview, Task Analysis with Viva evaluations, Literature Review Progress, Manuscript Development status, Risk Assessment, and Recommendations. • View the compiled PDF directly in the browser or inspect the LaTeX source. • Reports are generated per milestone and shared with your supervisors automatically.

Collaborators

The Collaborators page manages your academic network. For Students: • Send invitations to supervisors by entering their email address. • View the status of your invitations (Pending, Accepted, Declined). • Once accepted, your supervisor can view your milestones, tasks, and provide Viva feedback. • Share milestones with co-students for collaborative projects. For Supervisors: • Accept or decline collaboration invitations from students. • View all your connected students and their research progress. • Pin frequently-accessed students for quick Dashboard access.

Settings

Customize your PhD Progress Tracker experience. • Profile: Update your display name and avatar. • Appearance: Toggle between light and dark themes. • Notifications: Enable browser push notifications. • Security: Change your password. • Onboarding Tips: Enable, disable, or reset the guided tips. • Account: Permanently delete your account and all associated data.

AI Assistant

The AI Assistant is available as a floating widget throughout the application. • Click the glowing orb at the bottom of your screen to open the assistant. • Enter a milestone name (and a student name if you are a supervisor) to generate an AI summary of research progress. • The assistant analyzes your milestone goals, task completion status, and viva evaluations to provide a structured markdown summary. • Usage is limited to 4 summaries every 15 minutes to manage AI resources.