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[waterlogged]

I'm a first year PhD student in the social sciences. Between 4 classes (including 2 separate research projects) I'm reading upwards of 30 journal articles a week. Does anyone have strategies for keeping everything straight - authors, year, journal, other details?  I'm pretty good at looking for common themes/seeing the "big picture", but need to figure out some strategies for dealing with the details.

Also, what do you do with printed copies of articles? File them (how?), toss them, etc? Do you keep a master bibliography?

[cc_and_grad]

Waterlogged,

There are a number of software packages out there that are designed to do what you describe. I don't use them myself, but from what I understand Endnotes is one. If you search the fora for Endnotes you will come across several discussions related to these kinds of packages and the best way to use them as well as general discussions about how to do what you are describing.

[prof_smartypants]

Look for "getting things done" software. I use omnifocus, and it's amazing. It is, however, mac only (I believe).

Otherwise, endnote or zotero are good bibliographic tools that keep a database of everything you've read. You can add notes and comments, and when you write papers, you can create bibliographies automatically with your existing data.

See if your school computer store has a deal on endnote. Otherwise, it can be very expensive (although I still think it's worth it)

[seniorscholar]

See if your school computer store has a deal on endnote. Otherwise, it can be very expensive (although I still think it's worth it)

Though I come from the 3 x 5 card era and have never used endnote, our IT department has it available for free download to your office or home computer if you go over and show them your student ID and current course schedule. So definitely check.

[shrek]

author(s) (year) is how I save printed copies of articles, I can find them easily
I also use endnotes to maintain my library-- I don't love it, but have been using it for about 15 years (yes, since about version 1 or 2) and my colleagues all use it so I'm pretty stuck.

[waterlogged]

I have Zotero installed. I probably just need to get in the habit of actually using it (certainly a good first step).

I think the bigger issue is keeping the references straight in my head - getting fluent enough to be able to reference the right research in discussions and papers.

[anon99]

For organizing I use the endnote reference number as I can file batches of new hard copies of articles much more quickly than if I did it by author. For pdf copies, I organize those by year with each year having its own folder and then grouping those together in 5 year periods.  Each pdf is named with first author, year and journal, so I can find it quickly.  Endnote will let you keep comments in the program itself (for each reference) or you can annotate a pdf (PDF viewer is what was recommended to me).

[lohai0]

I've been keeping my dissertation articles in Mendeley. It's like a cross between Dropbox and Endnote.

[learningalong]

Either in a Word document or on the article (if I printed it out or can put comments on it in Adobe), I write down the main research questions, population, main findings, and main implications--all of these are just a few words, enough so that if I was flipping through a pile of articles, I would be able to get the main ideas/remember it.

[peagreen]

I find that actually entering the citations into EndNote helps me keep the information in my head. I often do this while unwinding and watching TV some evenings. Or I tackle a whole stack of articles at the end of the semester with a large glass of wine and a movie marathon. If you physically type in your hand-written notes there might be more potential for mental recovery. Also, one of the best functions of EndNote is running a search function on all your sources and then you can retrieve that desired information by just typing one word.

In my first semester of school, I made EndNote my "hobby". It was something productive to do while I had some down time. I'm a few years into my grad program now and I have thousands of sources and notes in one location. To me, it's priceless.

Best of luck! The most important thing is that you are starting an organization process during the very first semester. Starting early is key.

[waterlogged]

To follow up...I'm working with Zotero (standalone with the Chrome extension) and am saving all the PDFs into a file on my hard drive. I've developed a naming convention (author, date, keywords) so I can get to stuff quickly (if I don't have internet access). I'm getting better at referencing author/date in class discussions (though that's still the hardest part of this for me)...

[geo_rock_hound]

I find EndNote (EN) quite useful, since I can easily export bibliographic information directly from the vast majority of on-line journal articles. Also, thanks to the formatting function, a simple copy-and-past from EN to the references/works cited section results in each reference basically pre-formatted so all I need to do is "clean up" work. Saves a lot of time from my experience.

~GRH

[tanglesandwaves]

I use RefWorks online.  Not all university's subscribe to it, but my school does... I can export citations and links from an article I've looked up on our school library's database and send them straight to the website, and then stick my articles in folders I've created to figure out what goes where.  It will also create APA reference pages for me, which is quite nice, although it is best to double check them in case someone has messed up a citation on the site you are exporting from.  It has made my life a thousand times easier as someone that's more accustomed to a) a lot less articles to have to deal with and b) MLA over APA.