I have a confession: I'm a decent writer. Once I have my sources and my argument, I can put the words together pretty well. But the research part? The part where I have to find the sources in the first place? I am completely lost.
My process right now is: go to Google Scholar, type in some keywords, get 10,000 results, panic, click on the first few that look relevant, download the PDFs, and hope for the best. By the time I start writing, I have 20 random articles and no idea how they fit together. My paper ends up being a mess of quotes that don't really connect.
I need a system. How do you actually do research in an organized way?
I've seen some people talk about a "research log" or a "synthesis matrix." Does that actually help? What does it look like?
My idea for a new process (please critique):
My process right now is: go to Google Scholar, type in some keywords, get 10,000 results, panic, click on the first few that look relevant, download the PDFs, and hope for the best. By the time I start writing, I have 20 random articles and no idea how they fit together. My paper ends up being a mess of quotes that don't really connect.
I need a system. How do you actually do research in an organized way?
I've seen some people talk about a "research log" or a "synthesis matrix." Does that actually help? What does it look like?
My idea for a new process (please critique):
- Start broad: Use library databases (not just Google Scholar) to find 5-10 really good, recent review articles on my topic. Use their bibliographies to find more sources. (This is called "citation mining," right?)
- Get organized: Use Zotero or Mendeley to save everything from the beginning, not just before I write the bibliography.
- Read with a purpose: Don't just read. Skim abstracts and conclusions first. Take notes on one thing: how does this source relate to my research question?
- Make a matrix: Create a table with columns for each source and rows for key themes. Then I can see at a glance who says what about each theme.