After you find your sources, the next step is to organize your sources, read your sources, and take notes on your sources. Depending upon the size and scope of your review, you may have many sources to organize and read, so you will need to develop a strategy for how you will tackle this part of the project. Some possible methods include:
Three other strategies are described below.
Another strategy that you can use for organizing and note-taking is to use a citation manager. Citation managers are software programs that allow you to save and organize your sources, take notes in PDFs, and instantly format bibliographies in a citation style of your choice. Some citation managers require a paid license, while others have free options.
One excellent free citation manager is Zotero. To get more information about using Zotero, see the links below:
As you collect your sources, you can create a basic outline of the topics and subtopics that you plan to address.
Once you have created a basic topic outline, you can use a topic matrix, which is a table that allows you to match the sources you find to the topics and subtopics that you've identified. As shown in the example below, some articles may be associated with several topics and/or subtopics.
| Arkham, 2021 | Kennedy & Diaz, 2020 | Koeppe et al., 2023 | |
| Subtopic A1 | X | ||
| Subtopic A2 | X | ||
| Subtopic B1 | X | ||
| Subtopic B2 | X | X |
As you begin reading your articles and taking notes on them in detail, consider reading them according to the topic groups that you've established, which will help you better understand the information.
One strategy that you can use to take notes on your sources is to create a notes table that contains detailed information about each of your sources. In your table, you can include information such as the publication information, participants, setting, methods used, main results, and implications, but you should tailor your categories to the information you need for your review.
A notes table can be a valuable tool for evaluating and comparing your sources. You can use a notes table to help you better understand similarities and differences among sources, as well as methodological strengths and weaknesses across a set of studies.
| Authors | Title | Year of Publication | Participants & Setting | Research Design | Findings | Implications |
| Li et al. | Teens’ Vision of an Ideal Library Space: Insights from a Small Rural Public Library in the United States | 2023 | 27 8th grade students in a rural community in the U.S. | Qualitative; data collected through drawings, written responses, and semi-structured interviews | Four themes: (1) The teens were interested in engaging library activities that were fun, social, and represented their interests in study, entertainment, and gaming. (2) etc. | Teens hold some negative perceptions of library spaces and services. Need for teen advisory councils. Implications for those working in rural areas regarding issues such as transportation. |
Some tools can also help with note-taking, such as Elicit, an AI research tool that allows you to search for research sources and extract information from those sources into a table format.
