What are you trying to do?
Research Trail records the development of an investigation without pretending that questions, ideas, hypotheses, findings and claims existed in finished form from the beginning.
Start a new investigationBegin with a question or problem and record what happens as the investigation develops.
Capture something that changed my thinkingA source, AI exchange, observation or analysis produced a new question, idea, assumption or interpretation.
Develop or test a hypothesisTrace where a hypothesis came from, what it predicts, what evidence tests it and what happened.
Audit a claimWork backwards from a finding or manuscript claim to the evidence, analysis and reasoning that support it.
Research Trail does not decide whether an idea is true. It keeps provenance (where something came from) separate from epistemic status (what grounds currently support it).
Define the investigation
Investigation
What happened?
Capture the event in the terms that fit it now. Its status can change later without erasing its history.