How I Keep My Research Papers and Bibliography Organized
Keeping your paper library well-organized is essential for finding the right document at the right time. A good organization system helps you stay focused on your research, save time, and improve productivity. Over the years, I have experimented with several digital tools for managing bibliographies and taking notes. I’ve read blogs, watched tutorials, and incorporated advice from others, adapting these methods to fit my personal workflow.
My requirements are quite common: organizing papers, taking notes, and accessing them seamlessly across devices such as my laptop and tablet.
There are many sources for discovering research papers: recommendations from supervisors, references within papers I’ve read, and social media posts about new studies—both on general platforms like X (formerly Twitter) and research-specific networks like ResearchGate. This results in a massive collection of interesting papers to read and organize.
My primary tools are Zotero and Notion. I followed Holly Jane’s suggestion on YouTube to connect these two services and create a Notion database. This integration has been incredibly effective for maintaining my organization system.
In my Notion database, I use the following reading statuses: To Find, Requested, Ready to Start, To Memo, To Revisit, In Progress, and Done. These categories are practical and versatile. I mostly use the To Memo and To Revisit statuses for papers that are particularly important for my work. For these, I often annotate PDFs directly and write summaries in Notion. When a paper’s status moves from To Revisit to To Memo, it indicates its significant relevance to my research.
As I don’t upload files directly to Zotero’s cloud services, I synchronize files with my tablet using Google Drive and ZotFile. Unfortunately, ZotFile is no longer actively developed, but it remains a useful tool. Additionally, I use Paperpile, particularly for collaborative projects, and MyBib when I need to quickly create a bibliography.
In recent years, new AI-powered tools have emerged, quickly gaining popularity for their ability to simplify research and connect ideas. Among these, ChatGPT is the most famous. While it doesn’t focus on academic research specifically, it can be a helpful assistant for brainstorming and refining ideas.
These tools can be incredibly useful for finding new connections and improving the organization of your work:
Typeset.io: A tool where you can ask a question, and it responds with a curated bibliography tailored to your query. It’s ideal for exploring new topics and discovering relevant references efficiently.
Jenny.ai: This AI assistant helps streamline research by generating summaries and suggestions for your academic writing. It’s especially useful for synthesizing large amounts of information.
Connected Papers: A visual tool that helps map the relationships between papers. By creating a graph of related works, it makes it easier to find new research directions and uncover influential studies.
Perplexity.ai: A powerful AI-based search engine that not only answers your questions but provides reliable sources and references. It’s great for quickly diving into a new research topic or clarifying complex concepts.
Organizing research papers and managing bibliographies can feel overwhelming, but with the right tools and strategies, it becomes manageable ( and maybe enjoyable). Tools like Zotero and Notion, combined with a clear categorization system, streamline the process, allowing you to focus more on your research and less on searching for documents.
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