I have difficulty finding what I need in the abundance of material I have collected (A11).


Three principles help you to organize your files:

Principle #1: Categorise Start organizing your files in terms of categories that are linked to your interests or research topics you are working on. Create sufficient files, the initial overcapacity you create is bound to disappear in due course. You can choose any area you like, but to begin with, it is helpful to organize your files into three reference areas:

• Topics
• Actors
• Countries

Principle #2: Be selective Collect and store only those sources that are difficult to get in libraries, which might not re-appear on the Internet or which you consider to be basic reading for your general interests. In case you want to store hard copies, it is good to have the following sources readily available:
• Copies of articles from newspapers and magazines, which you cannot obtain from libraries or that you are not allowed to copy information from. Use a personal code to note the sources of the information.
• Chapters of books that you consider to be important. Write the basic bibliography on your copy. As a general rule: do not make copies of whole books.
• Original sources: white papers, transcripts of speeches by managers of politicians.

Principle #3: Register bigger sources separately Create a separate system of paper or electronic ‘index cards’, on which you note the full bibliographical information of larger sources.

 

Back to Doing research

  

 

About the book

Seven core skills

Table of contents

About the author

Bibliographic information