Jane92
[Registered User]
04 January 2018 03:50
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Advice needed on cataloging literature
User: Jane92 - 04 January 2018 03:50
Hi! I'm new to this forum and to the PhD world ( Only started in September 17) and unlike my MSc, as you can imagine, i'm already reading and collecting a lot more literature. How have people found the best method to catalogue their literature? In all honesty, what I used to do for my BA and MSc was either print out the journal article, or make notes in a note book if it was a book (obviously i couldn't print out the entire book). As for my bibliography I used to just add to it as I went. 4 months into my PhD and well ahead with my literature reading, I'm feeling this method may not be sustainable - thus I have been looking at other options, but i'm still stuck at which is potentially the best. What have others found that work well? Several other students I have spoken with have adopted the use of Mendeley and Endnote, however i'm not sure if this would suit me. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance!
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Nad75
[Registered User]
04 January 2018 11:05
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User: Nad75 - 04 January 2018 11:05
Hey Jane92, Yes, I think different methods suit different styles of learning/synthesising. I've tried Endnote and other reference managers, but I've only really progressed once I switched to the traditional notecard method. I've also found out that I actually remember the content of each article/chapter better once I've handwritten it twice and thematised it. If you're curious, this is my method: This works for both physical and electronic sources. For PDFs, and organise them in 'Literature review' folder under the theme/concept I'm exploring. I have a large lined paper notebook in which I list everything I've read by bibliographic information in the back (an un-alphabetical 'works cited' type page), and write down direct quotations of the article that I find useful in the front. I also quickly summarise the article into a short, 5 sentence annotated bibliography. After I have gone through the article and feel like I've sufficiently copied the useful bits, I then put them on notecards. Front top of the index card is author(date), and theme that I'm categorising the index card under later, in a large rolodex type box. I then write the direct quote on the back w/page number and then write a parphrase in my words of the quote on the front of the index card. I file it away, and pull them out when I'm ready to write. That way, I can 'write around' direct quotations if I want, or already plug in my paraphrase of the quote. This method words the best for me, and my supervisors said they're really pleased by how everything is synthesised, rather than a laundry list of (cf....). It also makes a great stack of physical notes in which I can re-theme and use for an article quickly, or presentation. To each their own, and I'm curious what methods work for others, besides the electronic reference managers. I found this method online when I was getting frustrated by not remembering when I just copy and paste.
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TreeofLife
[Registered User]
07 January 2018 18:39
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User: TreeofLife - 07 January 2018 18:39
I think this depends on the subject maybe. For me in a Science subject, I found a searchable reference manager like Mendeley to be all I needed. I annotated the PDFs in it if needed. For me, it's much quicker when I know I've read something somewhere, but can't remember where. I can't see how that would work if I was printing everything.
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Nad75
[Registered User]
08 January 2018 12:07
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User: Nad75 - 08 January 2018 12:07
Quote From TreeofLife: I think this depends on the subject maybe. For me in a Science subject, I found a searchable reference manager like Mendeley to be all I needed. I annotated the PDFs in it if needed. For me, it's much quicker when I know I've read something somewhere, but can't remember where. I can't see how that would work if I was printing everything. Very true, and most people work great with searchable reference managers! I'm the only one that I know of in my humanities/social science department doing this method. I thankfully don't have to work with quantitative literature reviews or data, so I mostly deal with short quotes which work well for index cards. The system I use wouldn't work very well with quantitative papers.
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