Hi y'all,

Can anyone who's well into the PHD game suggest some tips for filing? When do you decide what to print or photocopy? What exactly do you ultimately end up keeping in hard copy? Also, given that people have earlier spoken of numbering their hard copies via endnote, how do you organize your hard copies? In alphabetical folders with authors last names or how else?

This is specifically for UK Phds: how much coursework did you have to do? What kind?

As a rule of thumb, only print off/photocopy those which you intend to use (and scribble notes all over).

Re: filing by EndNote. Don't file by author name. If you did, you'd find that you would regularly have to reorganise ALL of your folders to make room for new articles which have to be inserted within he existing files. Instead, you very simply number 1, 2, 3, 4 and so on using the Record Number ascribed by EndNote (which starts at 1 and counts upwards). Even when you delete a reference, the numbering remains the same so EndNote will never change it's numbering system unless you start combining EndNote libraries. On this basis, have one EndNote library that contains all articles on any subject.

You then start with one lever arch file and file them accordingly 1, 2, 3 4 etc until it is full. Then label the file, say, articles 1-50 if that's how many there are, and start a new lever arch file 51- .... . Essentially, you are getting EndNote to do the hard work, so look after it and keep a backup of the library. So if I'm looking for Humperdinck and Diamond (2005), I can either do a search in EndNote on their name(s) or just sort the list alphabetically and read off the record number so you know which lever arch file to look in. You could even print off a record list which lists what articles are contained in each lever arch file in case your computer goes down.

Just to add to Sylvester's suggestion - you can also add fields in EndNote and then store the record by the specific area (ok, you will have to input the area itself, but a small price). This then allows you to sort the records by the basis of the subject area - yeah, I know this information maybe stored in the Keywords section, but not always.
To do this, go to Edit, Preferences and Display Fields. Select one of the redundant Custom fields and then give this the title "Area" (when updating the record, this will be then shown and you can input the area of your research this article pertains to). This aids searching for papers later.
Sorry to harp on Phdbug, but to augment this, make sure you link the record to the downloaded copy of the paper (under File Attachments field).
The measures seem a bit overkill but do pay off when you have to write up stuff.

P.S. Back up your EndNote reference file regularly.

Ok, bonzo i need help...

I'm a mad and prolific reader who has not bothered to master Endnote all through her Masters. I had a masters dissertation with some 100 references which I hand typed. YES. anyway...My queries are...

1. My topic for the PhD (starting in oct 2008) is within the larger area represented by my Msc work..how do i begin this collosal endnoting task? DO I begin right from here and just put whatever i ever read into EN? or do I try to deal with all my tons of previous reading and urrghh evn the thought is killing me...

2. I cant seem to master EN. Our school has EN Ex 1 on some machines and En 9 on some...I got the guide book but cant manage to learn everythign....

3. finally, can you tell me how to form a good EN "habit"///lemme explain...Everyday i see videos, read list servs, read bits and pieces here and there and all of this shud idealy go in EN, cos most of this i find useful...what do I do? do i turn on EN the moment i turn on my laptop?

Oh I am getting so sick of not being able to fathom EN, and my PhD starts in 2 weeks...urrgh:-s:-(

sylvester - thanks for the tip! i am only 2 months into my phd but already had piles of papers all over the place! i used your system to organise it all and so far it is working great - took me almost an entire day to do it but should be really easy to keep up the system now i've started. thanks! ;-)

I do a version of Sylvester's system. I enter a code into an unused EN field that I use to file into wallets and magazine racks.

The subject bibliography function is also great for keeping summaries of your latest lit search.

Ok stall the digger and back up. You don't realise that you deffo are making a mountain out of a molehill ... It would be different if you were actually in your PhD. Trust me, there is nothing here that a bit of thinking will get ya thro'. Two weeks is ample time to sort it. I know this forum is meant to be anonymous but I've no hassles getting rid of that to help a fellow PhD-er, so if files or a few skype calls have to be made, it'll be done. Anyone else here on this forum into their PhD would agree.

Ok - DON'T FOR A SPLIT SECOND CONTEMPLATE ENTERING EACH PAPER YOU USED FOR YOUR MSC!!! Get all the papers and ruthlessly throw out the rubbish - if you need one of them, you will find it again online. Easy way is to look thro' your Msc itself to identify the crucial papers. Once this is done, using Google Scholar, import all the details of this pile (Ok it won't get all the details but it deffo will get a lot of it). Then as Sylvester suggested, number the printed paper with the Endnote record.

[quote]
2. I cant seem to master EN. Our school has EN Ex 1 on some machines and En 9 on some...I got the guide book but cant manage to learn everythign....[\quote]

Short answer - Get EndNote 9. Seems to be more dependable. Put that on your work PC and your laptop

As for familiarity with EN, your college should run a 1/2 day starters/refreshers course - if they don't, find out why not! The college I am at is nowhere near the Premier League but it has an extensive set of courses for the Post-Grads, from presentation skills (which I clearly didn't attend 8-) ) to how to deal with the pressure of PhDs (absent again).

[quote]
3. finally, can you tell me how to form a good EN "habit"///lemme explain...Everyday i see videos, read list servs, read bits and pieces here and there and all of this shud idealy go in EN, cos most of this i find useful...what do I do? do i turn on EN the moment i turn on my laptop? [\quote]

One tip I would say is once you have found a decent paper, store it RIGHT THERE AND THEN into EndNote. Don't forget any details (URL, attaching of downloaded file to record, General Area ... a field you may have to set up). Might seem extreme but it does get easier. Don't worry about the number of records - you can delete records later of unused papers.


Its Friday, I have part-time stuff to do ... as well as the PhD which I haven't looked at in two weeks (YIKES ... any of ye looking at Decision Support Systems?). I meant what I said about sending on files and so forth but, as I said about the Tips list, everyone is busy so it might take time. Main thing is stop worrying - you are ahead of the game.

oops - messed up that reply a bit, but ye get the gisht. Have a good weekend y'all!

I've got endnote, but also have yet to master its intricacies. I know I will get round to it soon, but just not jet. It doesn't seem to want to produce the right reference pattern, although I know you can make it do this, at the moment everything is in a word document.

However, back to your query. What I have done at the moment is to create a file for each chapter, and when I find an article/journal article etc that I think will go in there, that is where I put it. I will get to grips with endnote before long but this seems to work at the moment for me.

Books from the  library get the same sort of treatment, proper refs and a word document containing quotes, comments etc, saved and printed out and filed. -also saved on CD and on a memory stick, you can never have too many copies :-)

Officially there is no coursework at all, but then there are hoops to jump through which are compulsory and therefore a kind of coursework by a different name. Also there are courses to attend but you don't have to actually hand anything in, just go along. I guess though it depends upon your field of research.