How To Keep Track of Your Scientific Reading as a Molbio PhD Student
Last time, we talked about how to efficiently read scientific papers daily as a life science PhD student. But reading scientific literature is only half the battle. If you don’t have a system to keep track of what you’ve read, the ideas that came up, or your key learnings, you end up wasting a lot of time and energy.
And we all know how limited time and energy are during a PhD.
Having a dedicated system to organize your reading isn’t just beneficial - it’s essential.
Why you should track every read
Whether a paper is directly focused on your current project or not, you still want to track it. Why?
Because you might need it later - for thesis writing, your defense, or even if you switch labs and need to dive into new topics. Having a complete record of your reading will save you countless hours down the road.
Where to keep your records
You can use a simple Excel sheet, Google Sheets, Notion, or - like I did - Anytype.
Here is why I chose Anytype (a tool similar to Notion): I built an interconnected system linking my daily lab logs directly to my experiments, projects, background literature, and meeting notes. Everything was linked, so I never lost context. This is incredibly powerful. You might start with one small project, but your work will grow quickly, and projects often span years.
I have since rebuilt this entire system in Notion, but for privacy and data security reasons, I personally recommend Anytype over Notion (I’m currently working on an Anytype template to share with you!). That said, if you prefer Notion, feel free to check out the Notion version - this system kept me focused and efficient throughout my PhD and beyond, so it’s truly bulletproof.
What to record
Let’s get into the details. Here are the key properties you should track for every paper:
Must Read: A simple checkbox for key literature - essential papers for your field, your project, or high-impact studies.
Name: The full title of the research paper.
Rating: The overall quality of the study (high, medium, low).
First/Last Author: I like to highlight the first and last authors, while keeping a separate field for the full author list.
Journal: The name of the publishing journal.
Topics: Tag key topics covered in the paper. I recommend keeping a master list of tags so you avoid typos or duplicate tags.
Research Project: In my system, I linked papers directly to a project page, but adding a project name or number in a dedicated column works just as well.
Reading Status: If you want to track papers you plan to read later, use a status tag like To Read, Currently Reading, or Read.
Research Question: Keep it short and simple - focus on the main question the authors asked.
Key Insight: A quick one-liner summarizing the primary takeaway.
Inside the page itself (or in a linked Google Doc if you use spreadsheets), add these deeper notes:
Detailed Research Question: A expanded summary if needed.
Take-Home Messages: Bullet points summarizing the main findings. If summarizing feels overwhelming, just copy and paste the key sentences directly from the paper!
Interesting Figures: Take a screenshot of key figures and drop them in.
Experiment Ideas: Any thoughts or ideas that pop up for your own lab work.
With a system like this, you’ll always have a clear overview of your literature. Whenever you need to revisit something you read months ago, you can easily search your database using keywords instead of hunting through endless browser tabs or PDF folders.