Literature Review - Paper Organization

[loveoforganic]

I traditionally have an awful time keeping track of where information I read actually is, leading to my rereading tons of literature, and I'm looking to change that. I can't do my reading on the computer (out of preference), so my current plan for organization is

1) Create a list of main ideas - one idea per cell in row 1 in an excel spreadsheet, leaving the leftmost cell empty

2) Review articles - each article gets the title placed in its own cell in column 1

3) Articles are reviewed with highlighting of main ideas. Each highlighted blurb gets numbered in order of appearance in the article.

4) The gist of each highlighted blurb gets its own cell in the corresponding article/main idea slot, along with the number it was labeled.


Any other tips you all have found to work?

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[O Gurl]

Wow. Kudos on being so organized!

Perhaps I'm just old-fashioned, but I still use an outline approach. I start with a skeletal breakdown of the manuscript and as I read articles, add pertinent statements under the correct heading/subheading. I also add my parenthetical references right then. Another thing I have found useful is to add complete citations to my works cited section as I go along. It saves a lot of headache at the end.

 

[DUintern]

I completely have the same program with organizing and have tried multiple approaches. The latest approach that I am using is an excel spreadsheet/data base. Each column is divided into key points and then I just plug the information in for each of the articles. It is easy to move around. It is working nicely for a meta-analysis, where I am comparing performances on neurospych testing.

 

[loveoforganic]

Kudos on being so organized!

We'll see if it pans out, I'm a chronically disorganized person.

Thanks to both for the advice