Research guides: Academic Integrity: Track Your Research

Pick a Research Tracking Method

Keep track of what you learn from the sources that you use for your writing assignments.

The low-tech way to keep track of your research sources is to use 3x5 or 4x6 index cards. Use one card per source consulted.

Note the source's bibliographic information on the top of the card so you'll have the information ready when you need to cite the source in your bibliography. Make your notes on the remaining space on the card.

We also found some great suggestions for keeping track of your work with sources from UCLA's tutorial Avoiding Disaster: Eddie Gets Organized!

Research Logs: Templates and Tools

You can make a research template using any word processing program that uses tables. We found some ideas of sample templates to track your research:

Research Resource Worksheet (Illinois Eastern Community College)
Sample template for bibliographic details of each resource plus space for notes.
Scholarly Research Log (Capella University)
Compact table-style research log with space for notes.
Keeping Track of the Search (UCLA)
Sample template for keeping track of where you looked, the words you used, and what you found. You can also print a blank copy of the log at the bottom of the webpage.

Research Guides

Academic Integrity

Pick a Research Tracking Method

Research Logs: Templates and Tools

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