Organization is key to creating the best workflow.
However, organizing scientific articles takes a lot of work.
There are just many different topics we should read about!
How much time do we waste searching for that article we read a few days ago?
I fixed that with this methodology.
🦜 Follow me to learn more about Science: Axel
Wait, What Is Zotero?
If you haven't heard about Zotero before, it is a reference management software to store, organize, and take notes of your research work.
I love Zotero.
But I won't go into detail here, as I value your time :)
I already wrote an article arguing why you should download it to know more about it.
Oh, and it is completely free!
Link to Zotero: https://www.zotero.org/
1. I Use The P.A.R.A Method
Instead of creating a Zotero collection/folder for every topic, I use the P.A.R.A Method proposed by Tiago Forte.
In a nutshell, this works by organizing your work in 4 folders only:
- Projects: your top-priority work.
- Area of Responsibility: work you must do week per week.
- Resource: work that may be useful in the future.
- Archive: finished projects.
Next, organize your work based on its priority.
For example, in my case, reading papers about animal cognition and behavior is a responsibility.
However, working on social cognition in pigeons is a project for my PhD.
If I find an interesting topic that is not related to my work, I save it to Resource as it may be useful in the future.
Finally, all my finished projects will be placed in the Archive folder.
Note: as I'm working on other projects, I have an extra folder specifically for my PhD
My Zotero. Screenshot by the author.3 Benefits Of Organizing Your Folders With The P.A.R.A Method
- It is faster to find your projects.
- Easier to share with your team.
- Efficient retrieval.
2. I Use Emojis As Tags
Zotero allows you to have tags for every paper.
So I used this to create emoji tags to categorize all my papers.
This allows me to find my papers super fast!
I decided to use these emojis for my workflow:
- ✅: a paper read.
- ❌: not read.
- 🐥: important paper.
- 🌱: seed paper.
- 🤯: mind-blowing.
- 👎: read but not relevant paper.
- 📚: reading.
My Zotero library. Screenshot by the author.To do this in your library, follow these steps:
- Click on a paper (anyone).
- At the right tab, click on "Tags". A lot of tags will be displayed.
- Click on "add".
- Put the emoji you want.
The tag window is at the top right. Screenshot by the author.4. Now at the bottom left, you will see a small window with tags. Click on the search bar and paste your emoji to find it faster.
The tag window is in the bottom-left. If you can´t find your tag, search it using the search bar. Screenshot by the author.5. Right-click on the emoji tag and choose "Assign a color". You can choose a number to select the tag in the future.
Click on "Assign color". Screenshot by the author.6. Click on set color.
7. Done!
Now you can press the numbers you specified to tag your papers :)
This is how I organize my papers in Zotero:
- I use the P.A.R.A method to store all my work in 4 folders that are easy to organize and find.
- Emoji tags to categorize my papers easily.
Would you like to know more about how to use Zotero?
Leave a clap to write more about it :)
