I’ve just started my PhD journey this February. As other new students might feel, I’m excited yet nervous at the same time: will I survive? is this the best lab for me? what would I be after this journey? I’m also nervous as it’s almost 2 years since I left formal school. But, here I am trying to prepare this journey as best as I can.
One thing I try to prepare is how to keep track of my reading list. In my past experience, I’ve never tried to keep a tidy list of papers I’ve read yet I was too lazy to learn using a reference manager. Whereas, my PhD journey is planned to last for 4 years. There is no reason for me to keep the laziness, and so I come up with my kind of reading system.
I try to make it as simple as I can, so I use 2 software/apps: Zotero and a spreadsheet. I also synchronize Zotero in my work and private pc, as well as use googlesheet so I could modify them anywhere.
- Zotero. As I read through a paper, I summarize the paper. It’s okay if this summary is a bit long, not really a summary, but I try to write anything that is interesting for me/future research. If it’s too long, I’ll just write: ‘read it in the paper’. The most important rule: only put the paper I’ve finished reading in this list. I don’t put paper I haven’t read in this zotero list, as it will ‘destroy’ my reading list. I have another folder in my pc for ‘to-read’ papers.
2. Google sheet. After finish summarizing the paper in Zotero, I move those summaries in a google sheet. The reason I’m doing this because it’s easier for me to see the list in a table. In this table, I just write the ‘main findings’ of those papers. If I need further information, I’ll just go to my reading list in zotero. I also categorize the papers, such as original research, review article, or other categories that I think necessary for my own research.
Next, I plan to summarize those papers into a ‘manuscript’ (that might be a background for my future thesis? I hope so), and update the manuscript once a month. Let’s see how I would manage this and I’ll update in this blog as well whether this system could last long 🙂
So, do you have other strategy to manage your reading list? Please let me know!
yonika's journal 
gokil mbak yon, abis baca tulisan ini ak langsung garep pake excel reading listku ehhee, biasany ak manual aja mbak, jd kek bikin rangkuman aja d ms.word, baru kefikiran kayaknya klu d bikin d ms.excel bsa lgsg to the point buat dapet intinya. thanks for sharing ny mbak. btw semoga sukses studi Ph.Dnya mbak.
Hai Fajar! thanks dah baca semoga bermanfaat hehe
iyaa aku dulu juga gitu, nge-ringkes pake word aja. Sukses juga sekolahnya ya! 🙂