Can you find what you've read?

You know you have read the paper that makes your point. The question is whether you can find the sentence, the page and the evidence behind it before the deadline, and whether you would trust an agent to help.

Eight questions place you on the ladder, from a pile of PDFs and a good memory to a literature held as linked notes, each claim tied to its source and page. Answer for how you actually read, not how you would like to. Nothing is recorded until you choose to send it.

1. Q1Where do your papers and highlights live?

   In folders and downloads. The highlights are in the PDFs, if anywhere.In a reference manager. The highlights stay inside each PDF.In a reference manager, plus notes of my own on the papers that matter.Each paper is one record with a stable key and one note summarising it.
2. Q2After reading a paper, what do you write down?

   Not much. I remember the gist.Highlights and the odd comment in the margin.A short summary in my own words.What it claims, on what evidence, and the page where it says so.
3. Q3You remember a sentence from a paper. How long to find it?

   An evening, if I find it at all.Half an hour of searching through PDFs.A few minutes, if I made a note of it.Seconds. The note points to the paper and the page.
4. Q4Two papers contradict each other. Where is that recorded?

   In my head.In a tag or folder they share.In my notes on one of them.In a link between their two notes, saying how they disagree.
5. Q5How do the papers connect to your own ideas?

   Through what I remember when I sit down to write.Through a reading list for each project.Through a notes file for each project, with citations.My ideas are notes too, linked to the papers that support or challenge them.
6. Q6How do you check a reference before it goes in?

   I cite from memory and check if there is time.The reference manager formats it and I trust the entry.I check the key claims against the papers near the deadline.I check every citation against its source and page as I write.
7. Q7Could an agent read your library?

   No. It is PDFs and my memory.It could read the PDFs, but not what I made of them.It could read my notes, though they are loosely structured.Yes. Plain-text notes with stable keys, claims and pages.
8. Q8An AI suggests a source for your argument. What happens next?

   I don't use AI for sources. It invents references.I look up what it suggests and cite it if it fits.I read the passage it points to before I cite it.It can point only to records in my library, and I check each one.

The button opens an email to us, copied to Rabbie, our robot, who keeps the diary. Your result travels in it so we can prepare. You can change or delete it before you send, and nothing leaves your browser until you do. This self-assessment relates to Research Reconstructed, and if you want to know how your own ideas are kept, try Slip box or shoebox?.

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