We have spoken about how to organise your notes, University work (upcoming article) and your desk. Let’s dive a deeper and learn how do you organise research papers.

Every University student, Ph.D. researcher, and academic will have their own unique system here I am presenting mine.

And for those of you who don't know yes, I am on my Ph.D journey. At the time of writing, I am 2 and a bit years in (a journey that might take 6 - 8 years, we take it easy and enjoy the ride).

I have a system that works in three different parts.

Source material
- Paper-based / Electronic
EndNote or any other referencing system
OneNote

Source materials

For any research project, you will have research papers and books these are your source materials. You tend to read these materials, make some notes on them, maybe highlight and when done. You need to find a “home” for the research paper.

This home can be back to the library
A pile of research papers you have printed and really want to keep (I find 80% of the stuff I read I don’t really need to refer back to in paper-based copy).
An electronic copy on your computer

EndNote or other referencing systems

When you end up reading hundreds of books and/or thousands of articles you need to find a system to hold the details of your readings especially when you need to reference them later. I am currently using EndNote but Zotero and some of the other referencing software can be just as good.

Have a system and use it

It doesn't matter what tools you use, but it is important that you have a system:

that you use
know how to use
through which you know why you use it.

Before you start with any system do some basic training.

Find out if your University Library has some resources or a mini-course of the software.
And find someone who has been using the software for a long time.
You need to have some basics in place, know who to go to for troubleshooting, and then start to create your own system.

My system

The system I have set up is a number based system, this has been thought to me by one of the most organised academics I know. She added a column to EndNote which was the file number for every item that got imported into this system and it automatically got this number. The number is key because you will use the number as your main electronic file name, your key link to your notes (it can be a temporary link in your writing before you complete all references) and you can scribble the number on your printed out journal articles (the very few you will keep).

This is a screenshot of EndNote. All my references are on number. I have references in groups for when I do a sub-project or focus as part of the overall Ph.D. research.

Notes:

Putting references into EndNote can be done through import most of the time. This can be saving you lots of time and effort with a simple click instead of typing in all these small details like the publisher, date, author’s initials, and surnames, etc.
I don't trust EndNote from not breaking (versus programs like OneNote, Evernote and Microsoft). that is why I start the number system and referencing and transfer or double up in OneNote. One note is easier to search and all my stuff will remain here where as EndNote can crash if and when it decides to (it did, luckily I had my 150+ references saved).

OneNote

I’ll explain how this all fits together soon but before I do this let’s talk about note-taking systems. In my article “Best way how to organise your notes”. I argued mainly for Evernote and this is correct for everyday little post-it notes. If you want to create notes for school and learn how to organise research papers OneNote is 10x better. The reason for this is that the system works like notebooks with colour tabs and separate pages. OneNote being electronic means that the difference to a paper based book is that you can change and adjust: the notebooks, tabs, and pages all the time depending on the needs of your studies.

When talking about organising research papers this is how I like to work:

Find source doc. This will be either a book or journal article
Place this source doc into EndNote the document now has a number.
- The electronic file can live in a folder with this number on it (other details can be added in the title but don’t have to).
Write your note based on the number your created in EndNote, copy and paste formatted references in your notes (for both in-text referencing and the full reference list).
Add the formatted reference this is easy when you start writing your work up later
- This has saved me hours as I batch read and make notes in summer. When later in the year I write. I might already have 20 references with formatting and clear notes before I start the assignment. It saves me shifting from the one mode of writing and prevents me from getting caught up with; reading, note-taking or referencing simultaneously as I have done this work already.

What this does is it creates a sequential system from finding the document utilising a referencing software and having a note taking system that helps me organise research papers.

This is a OneNote referencing example, it has a number I use in OneNote and EndNote. The reference is written out, all quotes are under page number. In OneNote there is a fresh page for each reference (see right).

Can’t you make notes in other systems including Endnote?

Yes you can it is however a matter of trust – I don’t trust EndNote to break down somewhere in my Ph.D. journey. And ease of use, EndNote can be organised in a way to suits you today. You can set up templates and it has a very logical structure much more so than what Evernote and Endnote can offer.

You now know how to organise your research papers

I have met people 2 or 3 years into their research degree without a system for their reading to me that is insane and a massive waste of time. I rather read 5 articles in the first 6 months and set up a system that allows me to read 50 articles, retrieve information, and have high-quality notes in the next 6 months than achieve more at the beginning with a system that doesn’t allow me to grow to expand and retrieve my learnings and information.

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How this pays off

In any type of academic study, you need references. I can sometimes write an argument with say 20 or 25 references in a matter of days. This is possible because I have lots of detailed notes of things I read months ago (often during my summer break). I just need to refresh my memory whilst I grab some great quotes or points to use in my current writing. I would argue that this isn’t clever it is simply strategic leaning towards a lazy way (find the most amount of return for the least amount of effort).