Software for organizing my very important old-timey bike data...

March 9, 2008 8:27 AM

Research Data Organization Software: Does anyone know of a piece of software that will allow me to organize data spread about a bunch of PDF files or web pages?

I am looking for a better way to organize my research data. Currently I print off research papers, annotate them, copy pertinent information into various text files, then store the print-out in a 3 ring binder.

This works, however it is not very dynamic or accessible. I am looking for a way to search for and view pertinent data while at the same time be able to quickly view the source paper.

For example: Say I am researching the history of bikes, and I have a research paper called "Bikes of the 19th Century" which includes data on the wheel size of a penny-farthing.

I'd like to tag this paper with "19th century","Penny-farthing" etc. but I'd also like to link it to a data point "Penny-Farthing-Wheel-Size=5ft".

So when it comes to analyzing the data, I can look at all the Penny-Farthing-Wheel-Size values I have, and also see the various sources these data points come from and possibly view other data points associated with the source like "Handle-Bar-Width" or something.

(Hopefully that example isn't too convoluted)

I know this could be done with a database, but I am wondering if anyone has done it specifically for organizing data found in PDF files or web pages already. So more like a citation index with minimal database capabilities than a full-blown relational database type dealy.

Does such a software beast exist?

posted by toftflin to computers & internet (7 comments total)

I think Devonthink might work for you. My husband and I are using it to organize research for a documentary. You can amass a huge amount of data/files in a very efficient, accessible way.
posted by crunchtopmuffin at 8:39 AM on March 9, 2008

DevonThink. (Steven Johnson explains how he uses it for organising research.)

Yes, you'll need a Mac.
posted by holgate at 9:56 AM on March 9, 2008

Is there anything like this for Windows?
posted by mulkey at 10:00 AM on March 9, 2008

You don't indicate whether you're dissatisfied with prior related posts. Have you searched here for things like pdf organization (looks like that post might do it for you), research notes, reference management?
posted by Dave 9 at 10:04 AM on March 9, 2008

Is there anything like this for Windows?
OneNote is better in some respects (interface) but worse in others (intelligent interpretation of documents, although it will find text in images which is nice).
posted by bonaldi at 11:00 AM on March 9, 2008

I am messing around with the free Zotero which is mainly for academic citation keeping but also allows tagging, note taking and highlighting.
posted by shothotbot at 3:29 PM on March 9, 2008

Zotero will only get better over time, and is already pretty stellar.
posted by singingfish at 12:35 AM on March 10, 2008