Top 10 Free Academic Research Templates

Streamline your academic research, save time and get organized with structured pages for note-taking, task management, and research planning. With features like tags and databases, you'll be able to easily track your progress and collaborate with others on your research journey.

What Should Academic Research Templates Include?

Choosing the right Academic Research Template in Notion can streamline your study process and enhance your productivity. Here are some key components to look for:

  1. Comprehensive Literature Review Section: This part should offer a structured way to organize all your literature findings, with space for summaries and source evaluations.

  2. Research Question and Hypothesis: A clear section to articulate your main research question and hypothesis, helping to guide your research focus.

  3. Data Collection and Analysis Tools: Look for templates that include integrated tools or methods for data collection and analysis, ensuring that all your research data is easy to manage and access.

  4. References and Citation Management: A good template should have a system to manage your citations and references efficiently to maintain the integrity of your academic work.

Selecting a template with these components will not only organize your research effectively but also save you time and effort, allowing you to focus more on the content of your research.

What Should Academic Research Templates Avoid?

Choosing the right Academic Research template in Notion can streamline your study process, but it's equally important to know what to avoid. Here are three key elements to steer clear of:

  1. Overly Complex Structures: Templates with too many nested pages or intricate tagging systems can complicate your research rather than simplifying it. Opt for clarity and ease of use.

  2. Generic Content Fields: Avoid templates that do not cater to specific academic needs. Templates should offer specialized fields for citations, research questions, and hypothesis tracking.

  3. Fixed Layouts: Flexibility in a template is vital. Steer clear of templates that don't allow you to customize sections as your research evolves and expands.

Remember, the best template is one that serves as a helpful tool rather than a hindrance, allowing you to focus more on your research and less on managing the template itself.

1Research Paper Planner

Make this your homepage for planning and writing a research paper or dissertation. It can help you brainstorm and evaluate potential topics. Keep a full list of sources bundled neatly with your notes on each one (all quickly searchable). And stay on track with a timeline of due dates, where you can also draft all your content โ€” all in the same space.

A template preview for Research Paper Planner

2Thesis Writing Companion

Complete your thesis with this guide:
- Resources: A place to keep all resources needed for the thesis
- A guide through ideation to final presentation
- Task overview to manage the tasks you have ahead and finally
- A Feedback section to gather important notes from lecturers or friends

A template preview for Thesis Writing Companion

3Research Paper Tracker

It's a simple tool to help early researchers, and students keep track of the research papers they're reading and take notes from them. The template includes basic information about each paper, such as the title, DOI, reading status, notes, and remarks. This focus on the reading allows users to track their papers efficiently and effectively.

A template preview for Research Paper Tracker

4Workspace Template for Ph.D. Students

A Ph.D. student's life is usually broken down into four blocks: Research, Coursework, Teaching, and Personal/Service. This template helps separate these blocks, so the tasks related to them seem less daunting. Also included in this template is a research page, where users can organize their ideas and the stage at which their research and manuscripts are.

A template preview for Workspace Template for Ph.D. Students

5Dissertation/Research Planner

Plan and organize your dissertation/research activities at one place.
- Literature review
- Research documents
- Tasks and progress
- Notes
- References
- and much more

A template preview for Dissertation/Research Planner

6Research resource list

It helps me to gather everything I read or watch for my research. There are several categories which are easy to navigate, update and expand if needed. It's easy to categorise and keep track of the neverending stream of knowledge.

A template preview for Research resource list

7Writing Tracker focus Thesis


Your Writing Tracker is an organized and comprehensive document that assists you in the process of writing an academic thesis. It includes a detailed overview of your thesis, including sections for objectives or hypothesis, literature review, methodology, data collection, implementation, results and findings, discussion and conclusion, references, and appendices.

Each section has a dedicated space for you to fill in relevant information and details. There are also callout boxes for you to insert important notes or additional details.

In addition to the main thesis sections, your Writing Tracker also includes a section for references, a guide on writing a hypothesis, a task section, a space for random ideas, ongoing chapters, and collected information.

There's also a unique feature for recording each statement you make in your thesis to help keep track of your points throughout the document.

Overall, this Writing Tracker serves as a comprehensive tool to keep your thesis writing organized, focused, and consistent.

A template preview for Writing Tracker focus Thesis

8Literature review template

A literature review can be used to explore best practices, answer questions without conducting studies, validate an assumption or product decision, and cover gaps in research.

A template preview for Literature review template

9dissertation organisation

Get started getting organised to write your dissertation. You can make yourself a long term calendar and set weekly tasks to stay on track. Source organisation allows you keep your notes and citations in one convenient place while also keeping track of topics associated with specific papers. Happy writing!

A template preview for dissertation organisation

10Thesis Dashboard

Writing a thesis can be a daunting task, and it can be difficult to stay on track and organised throughout the process. However, with the Thesis Dashboard, you can easily keep all of your tasks, documents, and meetings in one place, allowing you to focus on the important work of writing your thesis.

### Features

- **Brain Dump**: A separate database in kanban style to organise and keep track of articles that you can use as inspiration for certain parts of your thesis. You can sort articles according to sections where you want to use them.
- **Master To-Do List:** This feature allows you to manage tasks related to your thesis. You can set due dates, add notes, and relate a task for specific chapters with Notionโ€™s relations property.
- **Meeting Notes:** This feature allows you to document important discussions and decisions made during meetings with your thesis supervisor, manage files such as slides and reading, track meetings for future reference if something comes to your mind.
- **Literature Review:** This feature helps you keep track of relevant literature on your topic. With pre-build template you can analyse each article and organise articles according to their themes, authors, publication year, journal, methodology and sample.
- **Data Analysis:** The data analysis feature enables you to keep track of and organize your data analysis process. You can analyze your findings according to the properties required for your data analysis and later compile a table that shows your approach to analyzing data.

### Benefits

- **Stay Organised:** The template helps you stay organised and keep track of your progress. With its comprehensive set of features, you can easily manage your tasks, documents, and meetings in one place.
- **Save Time:** The template streamlines the thesis writing process, saving you time and effort. You can easily locate and access all relevant documents, and keep track of important deadlines and meetings.

Notion Thesis Dashboard is an essential tool for any student working on a thesis. This template can help you stay organised, save time, and improve the quality of your work.

A template preview for Thesis Dashboard

Closing Thoughts

Utilizing these templates streamlines the research process, allowing you to organize and access information swiftly. This efficiency saves valuable time, especially during tight deadlines.

Adopting these tools not only enhances productivity but also improves the quality of your work. Start integrating them into your studies today to experience these benefits firsthand.

What is a Literature Review?

A literature review is a comprehensive survey of scholarly sources on a specific topic, providing a summary, synthesis, and critical evaluation to inform readers about what is known and not known.

What is a Methodology?

Methodology refers to the systematic, theoretical analysis of the methods applied to a field of study. It comprises the theoretical analysis of the body of methods and principles associated with a branch of knowledge.

What is an Empirical Study?

An empirical study involves original research in which data is collected from experiments or observations, as opposed to theories or opinions, to answer specific research questions.

Keep reading