Being organised is key to creating not only good study habits, but fruitful outcomes. If it isn’t in your DNA to be super organised, achieving that in an activity such as researching can be difficult. Thankfully, there are a number of technological tools that can assist with keeping your research notes in a logical manner.
Let’s get organised!
1. Evernote
This is a fantastic all-rounder tool that has a myriad of features to complement your research sessions. It can be used as an app on both iOS and android devices, as well as online as software through a web browser of your choice. Evernote even has a web clipper extension available to offer additional functions. Overall it is a fantastic system that enables the user to manage information, organise notes and gather information from multiple sources into one easy-to-use program.
Evernote can:
- Create notes on a single page
- Drag and drop information from another program
- Cut and paste information from another source
- Capture both image and text
- Attach multiple tags to any given note/page
- Highlight keywords for organisation and searching
- Create list views
- Offer a high-level search function to find notes/pages easily
2. Foxit Reader
It is a free PDF reader for web browsers that allows you to manipulate and use PDFs easily. PDFs are an integral format of research notes, however, they are not as readily used compared to the likes of web clippings, word documents or basic jpegs. Foxit Reader is a web tool that allows users to manipulate PDFs in multiple ways, both those they are using, as well those they create themselves.
Foxit Reader can:
- Be an advanced PDF editor
- Allow PDFs to be easily collaborated and shared between multiple users
- Offer heightened security
- Solve common PDF issues
3. Zotero
This is a free and user-friendly web tool that enables collection, organisation, citing and sharing of information gleaned from online. It uses sophisticated technology to predict what a user is searching for and support the quest with thousands of ranked websites that are linked to its system for easy web clipping. This information is then stored in one, easily-searchable interface.
Zotero can:
- Add web content to your personal library in one click
- Works with PDFs, images, audio, video and screen shots of web pages
- Indexes library information
- Advanced search tools for collected notes
4. Webnotes
Described as a research management program for professionals, it also lends itself to the avid school-based researcher with advanced features and an easy to use interface. It is a multi-functional tool that allows the user to collate, annotate, share and generate new documents from both online and offline sources. There is a pricing hierarchy so that the user can choose to only purchase the functions they feel will benefit them most.
Webnotes can:
- Annotate web pages
- Organise and search notes created
- Share notes through a variety of platforms
- Annotate PDFs
- Create and monitor RSS feeds of search findings
- Have multiple users
5. iCyte
It is a useful browser extension that enables excellent organisation of all of your online findings in one logical and easy-to-manage space. Using the cloud storage system, this extension means you can research, collect and organise your findings anywhere at any time.
iCyte can:
- Highlight important notes of captured web information
- Keep links to any website forever
- Add both notes and tags to saved web pages
- Use RSS and embed