What belongs in research notes
A research notes template has to survive the gap between reading and writing. That gap is usually weeks, and in it you forget which source said what, how closely you read it, and which sentences were the author's and which were yours. Every section above exists to close one of those gaps.
- A question and what it feeds. Without one, notes become a collection. With one, you can tell in a second whether a finding belongs.
- Sources with full references. Write the full citation the first time. Reconstructing it later from a half-remembered title costs more than writing it now.
- Findings tied to a source and a confidence level. "Most companies continued" is a note. "Most of about 60 companies continued after six months (source 1). Confidence: high, check the current figure" is research.
- Contradictions and gaps. The places where sources disagree are often where your own contribution lives.
- Next steps and a last-checked date. So the next session starts where this one stopped, and so you know how old each claim is.
Keep evidence and interpretation apart
The most common failure in research notes is not missing information. It is losing track of which statements are the source's and which are yours. Three weeks later, an inference you wrote down reads like a fact, and it ends up in a paper with a citation that does not support it.
The fix is mechanical. Mark every line as observed or interpreted, or keep them under separate headings as the template does. In field and observation notes this matters even more, because the observation is the evidence. "Lucía scanned the bin label and saw a green tick" is evidence. "The screen confuses new staff" is a hypothesis that needs more evenings.
Research log, field notes and observation notes
These are the same habit with different emphasis:
- A research log is one dated entry per session, with what you searched, found and ruled out. Use it when research spans weeks, especially in archives and databases.
- Field notes put conditions first (time, place, weather, method) because results are meaningless without them.
- Observation notes record what people did, with timestamps, before any explanation. They are the raw material for user research, classroom observation and ethnography.
The template on this page works for all three. Rename the sections to fit, but keep observed and interpreted apart.
Keeping research notes true over time
The top research notes templates stop at the moment the notes are written. Research notes have a second life: they get reused for the next paper, quoted in a report, or picked up by a colleague. By then a figure may have been revised, a preprint published with different numbers, or a report updated.
Two habits help. First, the Last checked date at the bottom of every note, so age is visible. Second, a re-check step in Next steps for any claim that comes from something that changes: datasets, annual reports, pricing, policy, software documentation. Before you publish, run those checks again. It is a small cost compared with a correction notice.
Common mistakes
- Copying paragraphs instead of writing findings. You end up rereading the source anyway.
- No page numbers. Every citation becomes a search.
- Mixing your ideas into source summaries. Mark them, every time.
- Not logging dead ends. You will search the same place again in a month.
- One giant document. Fine for a weekend. For a long project, one note per session, linked to a project note, stays navigable.
When to use a different template
When your notes are ready to become a written synthesis of a field, move to the literature review template. If you need a short evaluated summary per source for submission, use the annotated bibliography template. Lab experiments with protocols and results belong in a lab notebook, and interviews with users have their own structure in the user interview notes template.
Research notes you can still trust when you publish
Start from the built-in Research Notes template in Scribelet, attach photos and PDFs so their text is searchable, and on Pro let verification flag claims that no longer match the web. Encrypted, free to start.
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