By Sana Gupta, Peer Research Ambassador
Staying organized is an important part of being an effective student and researcher. Throughout my time as a student and an undergraduate researcher, I have had the opportunity to try out different tools that have allowed me to keep my ideas, to-do lists, and resources organized and easy to access. These tools not only help me keep my life less cluttered, but they also me to effectively communicate my work and ideas with others.
1. Reference Management Tools
A reference management tool is a program that allows a user to save papers and articles from literature reviews in folders with notes and annotations. After downloading PDFs of papers you have read or plan to read, you can upload these PDFs to the program and save them along with metadata about the paper that can be used to generate bibliographies. I personally use Zotero, which has a corresponding Safari and Google Chrome extension which can be used to save articles directly from your browser. Zotero also integrates with Google Docs and Microsoft Word, which makes it easy to add citations when drafting your own paper. Zotero folders can be shared with others so they can add papers for you to read.
2. Physical Notebook
Even though it is extremely easy to take notes quickly on your phone, carrying a small physical notebook can be useful for lab meetings, conversations with professors, and personal note-taking. I bring a notebook with me to all conversations with professors and meetings about research in order to write down important things others say and tasks I need to complete. I have also been taking a notebook to internship interviews and graduate school informational meetings so I can write down important details and answers to questions I ask. I also use a notebook to make to-do lists and jot down ideas and questions to bring up in the future. By not using my phone for this, I prevent myself from losing focus and clicking through other apps after taking my notes.
3. Github
Github is used for version control for code, but it is not limited to just Computer Science majors! Github can be integrated with plenty of popular research tools such as R, Stata, and Overleaf. Using Github along with any of these tools will allow you to save your work and have those saved versions accessible later on. This is extremely helpful if you ever want to refer back to something you might have deleted a few saves ago, or to simply show your progress. Github projects can also be shared with others on your research team, allowing them to see your work and run it themselves.
As you go through your journey as an undergraduate student and researcher, staying organized and keeping track of your progress is crucial, especially if your work is more independent. I have used these tools for personal projects and class projects as well, and I recommend trying out some of them this semester in order to potentially grow your research toolbox.
Sana is a senior majoring in Statistics. Click here to learn more about Sana.