Keeping a research log
University of Massachusetts honors students are taught a great method for tracking their research. Their version of a research log is less formal than an annotated bibliography but more extensive; it includes crucial notes about how the researcher found the sources. This is great because if you’ve ever searched library databases, you know how valuable it is to hit upon productive key terms. A log also places your question or working thesis at the top so you remember to evaluate the sources in light of your focus.
Here’s a link to templates and a student sample research log from UMass: Guide to Keeping a Research Log. Notice how cryptic some of the student’s notes are? That’s because the log is for her use — there’s enough here that she’ll be able to decode her notes and find the original page numbers when she’s writing. AND she’ll be able to reuse her key terms for new searches.