Beginning your research
The following may help you navigate your research. However, it may not help you choose a research problem.
Tracking Research
Subscribe to the table of contents of the journals of your area. Most journals allow you to subscribe to the table of content alerts. It might be a good idea to subscribe to the tables of contents of science, social science, and philosophy journals (in your areas of interest) to keep you updated with the latest research.
For a list of journals and ranking. Please note that there are limitations to journal ranking and impact factors. Sabine Hossenfolder, a theoretical physicist offers a good discussion of the limitations of the ranking system here. I could not find anything on philosophy, but Hossenfolder’s discussion gives some reliable clues.
Use Google Alert to get a notification of the published research in your area of interest. You can place alerts for particular keywords. You will get a notification in your inbox when anything on that topic pops up online.
Connected papers provides interconnections among various papers. It might be a good idea to start with a keyword search on this site to learn about papers related to your topic.
Useful Repositories for Philosophy
https://philpapers.org/ (PhilPapers is a comprehensive index and bibliography of philosophy maintained by the community of philosophers.)
http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/ (Provides preprints)
https://thephilosophypaperboy.com/ (This works like a search engine)
You can also use https://www.researchgate.net/ and https://www.academia.edu/ to learn about people’s research. Nowadays, most scholars put their research on these sites.
Use https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/ to get a good start. It will provide you with an updated bibliography to start your research on most topics.
Note-taking
Do take notes: Always take short notes of whatever you read. Ideally, the note should state both the main points of the work and the interesting aspects of it. ( The main point may not always be interesting for you). If possible, you should also state your response to the paper.
See practice – writing field notes | Patter for a helpful take on note-taking.
The way you take notes matters. I find “The Cornell Note-Taking System” very useful. Check out the details of the Cornel system here The Cornell Note-Taking System
You can keep a diary or digital tools for taking notes. If you are using a laptop or desktop, always keep a backup. Here is a post on digital tools for taking notes. https://thesiswhisperer.com/2021/04/07/perfectnotes/ I haven’t tried any of them. So either you trust the author or decide for yourself (maybe after some experimenting).
Where to start reading.
The following places will give a good starting point on most topics.
Wikipedia (Yes! Wikipedia, too, is a good place to start. However, consider the article's quality at the top of the page. Wiki usually specifies if a post is not up to the mark.)
Very Short Introduction, Guide for the Perplexed, and Cambridge Companion can give a decent start. Cambridge Elements is another series of introductory works to check out. These are of varying difficulties.
For an extremely useful guideline for starting your research, consider reading John Norton’s Point of Intractability Though Norton’s focus is the philosophy of science, the general guidelines may be useful to study any area of philosophy.
How to Start Reading
Deciding what to read from the pile of work you have amassed is difficult. The easiest way, probably, is to start from SEP and get acquainted with the main themes and major works on your topic. After that, read the original works cited in the SEP entry. You will always be led to various works when you read a research paper or book through its citations. Initially, you may not be familiar with most of the works cited. You would want to read them all, and the task appears daunting. Don’t worry. Just start at whatever you like. Gradually, you will know enough and find the references in the new papers familiar to you. That means you have covered the field of your research pretty well. However, you will still find papers you haven’t read but realize you still understand the major points discussed. That's fine. You can read that paper too. Unfortunately, there is no easily identifiable stopping point for reading. You will know when to stop once you have read enough. Do remember two things. First, no one can go through everything published on a topic, and there will be some old works you haven’t read. Never mind. Second and most importantly, our (research) life is not just about reading what others wrote.
Citation Practice
As a beginner, start examining how citation is provided in the work you read. Check the Chicago Manual, APA Manual, or MLA Handbook for a better understanding. Each journal provides its style sheet, which includes the method of citation. Check any journal of your interest to know more.
Plagiarism.
Do not plagiarize.