Keeping Organized: "I know I saw that somewhere"

One of the toughest parts of doing research is keeping track of the many pieces of information you collect. You not only want to find things the first time, but be able to find them months later. You also want to be able to recall your rationale for making the decisions that you made along the way and a timeline of when things were done.

First, let's think about your computer documents. (A warning- I am a windows person, so all of my software info is based on that). It is a really bad idea to just save everything into a single folder, like My Documents. I can guarantee that before long you won't be able to find anything! Instead, create some folders within My Documents. Personally, I would have one folder called Dissertation, within that folder I would have subfolders for Literature, Paper Drafts; later add IRB, and any other major categories you can think of.  I strongly advise saving every paper draft with the date it was written in the name of the file (don’t overwrite your old file – save the draft as a new file). Yes, that means you will have a huge number of files eventually, but (and here is why it is important) if your chair comes back and says – I think you should put back in that section you had on fish guts (or whatever), you still have it and don’t have to rewrite it. You also have a very nice record of the history of the project, and always know what is the most recent draft.

Always, always back up your files. Get an external hard drive, a flash (or thumb) drive, or a subscription to a cloud backup system and back up your dissertation files at least once a week. You can set your computer to backup automatically. Disasters occur. I have seen several students have their hard drive crash with no backup, losing whatever was on it.

I propose that you need (at least) three separate organizing systems: 1) A research journal that keeps track of your day-to-day thoughts on your project. 2) Some way to keep track of references. 3) A future research ideas journal where you can keep track of ideas for future studies. Now I will go into more depth on each of these.

The Research Journal

What will you write in your research journal? Anything you do on the project each day. To whom did you talk about the project, what did they say? What articles did you read, what are the important points from them? What ideas do you want to consider later? You can even get fancy and color code such things. You need to be able track the evolution of your thinking on the project and keep track of the day-to-day info that will cross your desk/ computer/ mind.

There are many ways to approach this- both high and low tech; the main thing is to be consistent with using it. You can certainly use a paper notebook and write things in it. Another alternative is to use Word or One Note (for Microsoft fans). Again more important is consistency of use. I have recently discovered some software that I have been recommending: The Journal http://www.davidrm.com/ (costs about $50). It is not the easiest software to set up, but is great once you do. It has a daily journal as well what it calls notebooks, in which you can easily document your progress. You can set up multiple notebooks and diaries for different topics/projects. You can also copy from other programs into it, allowing you to keep track of emails, citations, etc.

References

The banes of every researcher's existence are reference articles. You have to have them and you have to find a way to organize them. I suggest you think carefully about how you like to read articles- in paper or electronic forms. Use that method when you set up your organization.

If you like to print out the articles, there are two common organizational methods. One is to have a file box (or cabinet) and file the articles in folders; it is often done by authors' names. A second method is to create reference 3-ring binders; these they can be organized by topic, or author.

If you prefer to read electronically on the computer, I have some free software to suggest: ReadCube http://www.readcube.com/. It was designed for researchers. It lets you access all of your pdf files, organize them by topic, search the files, write comments and highlight articles. It does not provide a way to write the reference in your paper. An option for that is bibliography software such as Endnote. I don’t use this, because I am terrible about entering them in the database. You will have to decide such things for yourself.

Future Research Ideas Journal

Believe it or not, someday you will probably want to do more research. If you go into academics as a professor, it will be required. So, make your future-self happy by writing down research ideas, thoughts, inspirations as you think of them in one place. You will find that you will see interesting links between research areas as you read not only journal articles but also other books, movies, in conversations, etc. I use my journaling software for this, but any other method will work, just be consistent.

Now that you are organized, we will move to writing the actual proposal. I always have my students start with chapter 2, the literature review. So that is where we will start next time.

 

Do you have an organizational method or software that you recommend? Reply to this post and share it!