I have begun my literature search and collection of reading materials as of yesterday. The best way to do this is ask your supervisors to supply you with a name of a book to start with or an author to begin with. I follow a very systematic manner to how I read. It does begin with getting a list of recommended articles from my supervisor(s) and then I use the references of these articles (bibliography) to find more authors in the area.

I have decided on the bibliography software I will be using in which I hope it helps keep my collected articles organized and recorded. I did a comparison between EndNote and Zotero. I have decided that Zotero is a better match for me. It is a free bibliography software, it allows you to keep record of all your references as well as attach the pdf’s of your references with your record. It also allows you to take notes/summaries of the articles and attach is in a very neat manner.

So I have recorded the first list of articles which were supplied to me by my supervisor, created a new folder to save all the PDF’s and have started taking notes. I urge all research students to decide on how they will organize their reading way before they start. It helps you save time and limit the “where did I get this quote from” search that is very much time consuming. Also, do explore the available software’s and see which type you find more appropriate for you.

From there, build on your reference library and try keep the habit of recording all your references in the software of your choice.

It is certainly not easy to develop habits, but I do realize this is more than important to achieve the deadlines in hand.

About the Author

Mariam Al Hallami is an Emirati doctoral student working towards a research on evidence-based policy-making & practice at the Institute of Education, University of London. The purpose of this blog is to document the journey as much as possible in hopes it is beneficial to someone.