Build the table your research actually needs

One tool, four research tables

Most research problems are not about finding sources; they are about keeping track of what each source said, where it said it, and how much you trust it. A table forces that discipline: one row per source, the same questions asked of every row. This builder gives you four tables tuned to four kinds of work, saves every keystroke on your device, and exports the result as a spreadsheet, a Markdown table or a bookmark file.

• Source log for reporters, fact-checkers and anyone writing claims that will be checked: what the source is, the claim you took from it, exactly where in the source it appears, and whether you have verified it.
• Quote bank for writers, newsletter authors and podcasters: who said it, the exact words, where they said it, the page or timecode, and where you plan to use it.
• Reading matrix for students, PhD candidates and researchers writing a literature review: citation key, method, findings, limitations and your own analysis.
• Competitor grid for marketers, founders and analysts: the competitor page you read, the claim it makes, what you actually observed, the gap against your own offer, and where it goes in your deck.

Switching presets never mixes data: each preset keeps its own rows, so you can run a source log and a quote bank for the same project side by side.

How to use the research table builder

1. Pick a preset. The first row is a filled-in example of what good entries look like. Edit it or remove it.
2. Add a row per source as you read. Press + Add row and the cursor jumps to the new row's first cell. Paste the source's link into any cell if you want it in the bookmark export later.
3. Fill the columns honestly. Short is fine. What matters is that every row answers the same questions, so you can compare sources at a glance instead of rereading them.
4. Export when you are done, or whenever you want a backup: Download CSV for a spreadsheet, Download Markdown for notes and documents, or Export for Marqly to turn every linked row into a saved bookmark.

How to build a literature review matrix

A literature review matrix (also called a synthesis matrix or reading grid) is the step between reading papers and writing about them. Instead of summarizing sources one after another, you put them in rows and read across the columns, which is how patterns, agreements and gaps become visible. The reading matrix preset uses the columns most methods guides converge on:

• Source / citation key: the short key you use in your reference manager or bibliography, such as AuthorYear, so every row maps to exactly one entry.
• Methodology: design, sample and data source in a few words. This column is what lets you say "the survey-based studies agree, the experimental ones do not".
• Key findings: the result in your own words, with the number if there is one.
• Limitations: what the authors concede and what you notice. Limitations are often where your own research question comes from.
• My analysis: how the source relates to your argument. Supports, contradicts, extends, or is only background.

Fill in a row immediately after reading each source, while it is fresh. When you have ten or more rows, sort the CSV by methodology or by your analysis column in a spreadsheet; the sections of your review usually fall out of those groupings. The guide for PhD students and the page on organizing research with Marqly cover keeping the sources themselves findable alongside the matrix.

Keeping a source log for fact-checking

A source log is a reporter's chain of custody for claims. The point of separating the claim column from the source column is that a source can say many things and you are only vouching for one of them. The locator column, with a page number, a paragraph or a timestamp, is what makes the claim checkable by an editor or by you, months later, without rereading the whole document. Use a small, consistent vocabulary in the status column, for example unverified, checked, corroborated, disputed, so the log can be filtered before you file. For video and audio sources, the YouTube timestamp link generator turns a timecode into a link that opens at the exact moment, which makes a locator anyone can click. More on this workflow for newsrooms is on the Marqly for journalists page.

Running a quote bank

Misquotes usually come from paraphrases that drifted back into quotation marks. A quote bank prevents that by storing the exact wording in its own column, separate from your note about how you plan to use it. Copy quotes verbatim, punctuation included, and record the page or timecode in the locator column so you can check the wording against the original before publication. Keep the speaker's name and role together in the first column; that is the first thing an editor asks about. When the quote comes from a web page, paste its link into the source cell so the Marqly export keeps a saved copy of where it came from.

Building a competitor grid

The competitor preset separates what a competitor claims from what you observed, because those are different kinds of evidence. A pricing page that promises "one-click migration" is a claim; trying the importer and noting which formats it accepts is an observation, and it should carry the date you checked. The gap column is where positioning comes from: not "they have X", but "they say X, we can show Y". Paste the URL of the page you studied into the first cell so every row can be reopened later, and so the bookmark export gives you a dated set of the competitor pages behind your deck.

Exports: CSV, Markdown and a Marqly bookmark file

• CSV opens in Excel, Google Sheets, Numbers or any database. It is saved as UTF-8 with a byte-order mark so Excel keeps accented and non-Latin characters intact, and any cell that begins with =, +, - or @ gets a leading apostrophe so a spreadsheet cannot execute it as a formula. That matters when cells contain text pasted from the web.
• Markdown produces a pipe table with literal | characters escaped, ready for Obsidian, Notion, GitHub or a docs repository. To turn web pages themselves into Markdown, use the HTML to Markdown converter.
• Export for Marqly writes a standard bookmark file containing one bookmark per row that has a link. The title comes from the first column and your last column becomes the bookmark's note. Marqly imports browser bookmark files and keeps each bookmark's title, URL and note, so the table becomes a set of searchable saves with your commentary attached; imported items are dated on the day you import them. Before importing anywhere, the bookmark file viewer shows exactly what the file contains.

Where your data lives

Everything runs in this page. Rows are stored in your browser's local storage on this device only, and every export is generated locally; nothing is uploaded, and the tool keeps working if you go offline after it loads. That also means the table does not follow you to another browser or device, and clearing site data deletes it. Export regularly, especially before a deadline. Each preset holds up to 300 rows and each cell up to 500 characters, which covers an article, a chapter or a semester of reading. Beyond that, a library built for long-running research is the better home: Marqly keeps every source with your notes across the browser extension and the iOS and Android apps.