Organizing your research

How do you keep track of your reading?

As you’re reading through various books, articles and papers, you’ll come across an abundance of important and not so important information. Keeping track of where you found what information is key to efficient and productive research. Always keep your research question(s) in mind to ensure that you stay on topic.

You need a system in order to navigate your sources, so that you can easily relevant information again. How you keep track of important passages is up to you. There is no single best way of organizing your research but there are some common practices. Maybe one of them will work for you:

• Highlight important passages: Be it digitally or on paper, highlighting important information will help you find it again at a later point. You can even use a color system to categorize different kinds of information.
• Leave comments in the margins: Leave comments in the margins as you go. This helps you find your own stance on a topic and you can later revisit these comments to come up with an argument.
• Collect important passages in a document: You can copy and paste important information in a Word document. This way, you can easily organize facts and findings from different studies. Be careful not to use these passages as they are for your paper and always make a note of the source to avoid plagiarism.
• Live bibliography/list of references: You can easily keep track of your sources by keeping  your bibliography or list of references up-to-date from the start. You can do this manually or use a reference management program to do so. This is a tidy way of keeping everything in one place and you won’t have to deal with your reference section at the end of writing your paper.

Mix and match these and other methods to your liking. It’s crucial that you find a way that works for you!

How do you connect different research findings?

It’s easy to treat studies individually but in order to draw meaningful conlusions, you have to connect research findings. This requires critical thinking, i.e. you have to question and challenge the knowledge presented on the basis of different research findings. In other words, you have to contextualize and situate the information you find to then draw important connections.

This means that you have to critically engage with the content of your reading material. Make notes of your thoughts and comments as you are reading. You can note them down in the margins, collect them in a document or take voice recordings. Whatever works best for you!

One important thing to be aware of is our tendency to look for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms or supports our’s prior beliefs or values. This is called confirmation bias. Here are some questions you can ask to avoid confirmation bias:

• Is this research presenting novel knowlegde?
• How does this study relate to existing research?
• Does this research have a solid theoretical foundation?
• Is this study representative?
• Does the chosen methodological approach suit the research question?
• Are the research results evaluated as objectively as possible?
• Is this study biased?
• How do other researchers rate this study?

The list goes on and on. The bottom line is: Don’t blindly trust a source. Even after you’ve deemed it reliable, question it’s content. Try to find gaps or interesting angles in its logic and use these points as fuel for your argument.

Then, you have to sort your thoughts. This can be done in many ways, but we recommend mapping your thoughts in a mind map. This allows you to connect and oppose ideas and establish how they are related. Moreover, a mind map is a great visual aid. You can use colors and different shapes to organize your argument before you start wiriting your paper.

How do you formulate an argument based on existing research?

You’ve done your reading and organized your thoughts, you can start writing your paper. To do so, you need to know what your research question(s) and your argument are. But how can you formulate an argument after having poured through so many books, articles and research papers?

Don’t worry! You don’t have to reinvent the wheel! It’s totally valid to investigate a topic that has been researched before. You can even ask similar research questions, but for instance, investigate a different group of people. Or you can replicate already existing research to find out whether you’ll achieve the same results.

Broadly speaking, there are two ways of formulating an argument:

1. You can confirm or strengthen existing knowledge.
2. You can debunk existing knowledge.

These approaches aren’t mutually exclusive. For example, some research might be based on knowledge that has been proved to be untrue, but it may still have produced relevant results. So, it’s worth thinking in broad terms but be open for subtleties as well.

Test yourself: Do you know how to organize your research?

Why is it important to keep track of your research?

1. To collect your sources in one place and be able to formulate your own argument
2. To use up lots of paper
3. To make your supervisor happy

    Solution:

   A – To collect your sources in one place and be able to formulate your own argument.

What is a good way to organize your thoughts?

1. Paint an expressive picture
2. Call all your friends and tell them about your research
3. Come up with a mind map

    Solution:

   C – A mind map allows you to connect and oppose ideas and establish how they are related. Moreover, a mind map is a great visual aid.

What should you avoid when researching?

1. All-nighters
2. Confirmation bias
3. Reading outside

    Solution:

   B – One important thing to be aware of is our tendency to look for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms or supports our’s prior beliefs or values. This is called confirmation bias.

What skill is crucial to good research?

1. To be able to work with little sleep
2. To be able to read very fast
3. To be able to think critically

    Solution:

   C – You have to question and challenge the knowledge presented on the basis of different research findings.

What approach can you take to formulate your argument?

1. Confirm or debunk existing research
2. Roll a die and let fate decide
3. Ask your supervisors for their point of view

    Solution:

   A – You can confirm or debunk existing research, but these approaches aren’t mutually exclusive. For example, some research might be based on knowledge that has been proved to be untrue, but it may still have produced relevant results.