Create a Research Journal
Tip: It's good practice to start a research journal to organize the articles, books, websites, and data you find useful during your research. Also keep track of the interesting arguments and ideas that come to you as you're searching. It's less important how and where you keep track than that you do keep track.
- Elements of a Research Journal LogWhat to include in a log-style research journal with an example entry.
Keeping Track of Sources
Bibliographic management tools organize your citations, PDF documents and also help format the citations in the style you choose. I or any reference librarian can help with these.
Zotero
- ZoteroSave everything from online journal articles to records for books to plain old web pages. Then you can categorize them and export them as bibliographies formatted in any of the major citation styles.
- Carleton's Zotero Guide
Our guide has instructions for using Zotero with lab computers and getting the most storage space possible.
EndNote
- EndNoteAvailable to Carleton people, this is a fully featured bibliographic management system. Import citations from catalogs and databases or type them in by hand, embed PDFs, search, sort, export as a bibliography in any one of hundreds of citation styles, and manage long papers with Cite While You Write.
- EndNote OnlineEndNote's online version has the great advantage of being accessible from anywhere that has an internet connection and of allowing you to share folders with collaborators.
NOTE: You'll need to create your own login and password. Be sure to use your Carleton email address.
Mendeley
- MendeleyMendeley, owned by Elsevier, lets you save and annotate PDFs. You can also search across your own and others people's collections.
Papers
- Papers (Mac & IOS only)Search, annotate, organize, and share PDFs.
Saving What You Find Online
Nothing's worse than copying down a URL incorrectly, or putting a bunch of web sites into one browser's bookmarks and then moving to another computer with no access to what you saved. These tools help you keep track of your work, especially when you use multiple lab computers.
- EvernoteSave entire web pages or just pieces of them, type in your own notes, search through everything, create categories, and have access from your computer, any computer, or your mobile device. Best option for saving notes and links and files in one place.
- DiigoA free bookmarking, reading, and annotating tool that lets you easily save what you find, tag it, and describe it. Diigo has powerful outlining tools that integrate your bookmarks into your outline. Save web articles, PDFs, images, and more.
- PocketSave a web page (or image or video) now and read it later, whether you're online or not. Works well an all devices. Minimal organizational strengths - use for its offline abilities and lovely distraction-free reading.
- PinboardSimple and fast bookmarking tool, allows you to save and organize links to the things you find online from any browser. Ad-free, tracker-free, but not free to you.
- RaindropA bookmark manager with an optional app, Raindrop captures the URL and associated content (when possible) when you bookmark. Lovely email-like interface allows you to drag and drop organize into folders and read both a distraction-free or original version. Free for most features, but small fee includes nested collections, backup to Dropbox, and more storage.
- PapalyWeb-based bookmark tool for visual thinkers. Drag and drop your bookmarks to organize into categories, lists, and boards. Share and keep private what you choose. Good for arranging your readings into a workflow for read/unread or for how you will use resources in your research. Excellent interface but you see lots of ads.
