Organizing references into meaningful groups
As I mentioned in my post about choosing a reference management system, an essential feature of a reference management system is the capability to put references into groups, and, furthermore, into multiple groups. I believe being able to put references into multiple groups is critical for two reasons: individual references might fit in multiple groups and your needs for grouping will vary over time. Here I open the hood of my own reference management system to share examples of how I’ve organized references into groups. I hope seeing how another researcher does it will spark your own ideas.
Organizing by theme
Here’s a screenshot from my current EndNote library. I’ve collected A LOT of references since I started using EndNote as a PhD student in 2010. Over time, I’ve developed a big set of working groups (on the left column) based on themes I write about, such as doctoral identity development, doctoral student support, and doctoral writing groups.
I sometimes use “0” at the beginning of a group name to keep it at the top when I’m actively reading and adding to a group.
Organizing by document section
When I was working on my dissertation, I found it useful to set up groups based on my chapters and sections within those chapters. I just added a numbering system to the topic names to keep everything in order.
Making use of group sets
I’ve also set up group sets for specific research projects (here, “advice + self help,” “Gender and scholarly publishing,” and “COVID research”), and I’ve made a group set called Methods where I squirrel away methods sources I may want to use in the future.
Whether your reference management system is structured around folders, sets, or tags, there are many ways you can use those grouping systems to make sense of all the reading you’ve collected. Grouping and organizing is a useful analytic step in itself. As you sort a library of sources into groups, you are not only making it easier to find and review sources you’ve read; you are also noticing patterns that you can share with readers in your literature reviews.
What groups are emerging for you in your reference management system? Screenshots welcome!