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Research Database Part 2: Lessons Learned and Next Steps

Hi all, finally following back up again. The Research Database did a great job in helping me organize my readings for my qualifying exam, but it wasn't all up to specification.

So this second post is me standing back and thinking about how to progress. The database definitely came a little bit earlier than necessary and did not improve my reading habits so keep the following recommendations in mind.

When to start a reading database: 

If you have completed your literature review

I ran into this without really best defining what's going on in my literature review. Consequently, I constantly needed to change things and it kept on expanding. In the end, I was reworking more than working. Think it through and check this out before making a full on SQL database. Its a great resource for anyone starting their literature and how to be systematic. 

I now am working on a whole slide deck that keeps me focused on what to read and how. 

If you know what needs to be captured

I've now gotten around to understanding what needs to be captured with my lit review (and developing worksheets for this process), but rushing into making a SQL database for reading without knowing made me do a lot of rework again. 

An example caption that's also some of my summary material

I ended up needing to spend a lot of time getting to the philosophical foundation of what a complexity measurement is, but it was helpful. In the near future, I'll be posting that soon!

If you have summary material 

The most infuriating and frustrating thing so far is having to go back and reread papers when all you want to do is just try out different ways of cutting the material and synthesizing. Work on having summary material on hand of papers to make the adding of new columns to set up new comparison and synthesis easier and quicker. Nothing takes the wind out of my sails if I have to spend a day quickly skimming instead of making a code book and evaluating. 

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