Stage 4: Access & Retrieve Information
Execute your search strategy, and update it as you go!
Try different terms in searches across platforms and use critical reading skills to evaluate whether a source is relevant to your research.
Save sources via permalink / stable link or through a citation management system like Zotero.
Books & Articles
Books are great as a background source, or for covering a larger topic. If you use a book in your research, you don't necessarily have to read the entire thing. If there's a specific chapter that is relevant to you, just read and cite that.
Articles are often much more focused than books, and they can be published faster.
Use a variety of sources to support your research topic!
Information Cycle
There is a general timeline for how long it might take information to be published in a particular form after an event happens.
An Event Happens:
- The day of you may find information in television, radio, and internet.
- The day after you'll get newspaper articles.
- A week after you'll get popular magazine articles.
- Months after you'll get scholarly articles.
- A year after will find books and government publications published.
- Years after the event might show up in reference books.