Protocol
Keep source, locator and access date beside a material claim
A claim ages better when verification is one step away.
When it fits
- A useful claim survives in your notes after the path back to evidence disappears.
When to avoid it
- Not every casual note needs formal provenance; raise rigor with consequence, volatility and likelihood of reuse.
Why it matters
For externally sourced material that may influence decisions, store the source, enough locator to find the relevant passage, and access or publication date when freshness matters. Keep your paraphrase separate from copied wording.
Steps
- A future reviewer can reach the supporting evidence without repeating the whole search.
An example
A statistic about labour-market skills includes the report chapter and 2025 survey scope rather than only a naked percentage.
Check your result
A future reviewer can reach the supporting evidence without repeating the whole search.
Keep this limit in mind
- Not every casual note needs formal provenance; raise rigor with consequence, volatility and likelihood of reuse.
Connected ideas
Useful withSeparate what the source says from what you infer
Evidence and sources
Supports
Personal information management research frames the job as a lifecycle of acquiring or creating, keeping, organizing, maintaining, finding or re-finding, using and distributing information in support of future needs.
The lifecycle is descriptive and does not prescribe one folder, tagging or note-taking system.
Personal Information Management · Abstract and overview