Learn How to Research Any Topic

publicgeneralist.com/learning-how-to-research/

September 10, 2018

Being able to research things is an important skill. Whether you want to know what kind of
pet food to buy, you are trying to figure out what book you should read next, or you just
need some reliable sources for a school essay. Learning how to research will help with all
of these things and more.

What Research Experience Do I Have?

However, I have never been particularly disciplined in my research. I find it far too easy to
go down a Wikipedia or YouTube ‘hole’. I start off researching the Achaemenid Persian
Empire and then I follow link after link until I end up reading about the reproductive habits
of the short-snouted seahorse(true story).

So, in order to write a recent article about why you should learn a new skill, I wanted to
highlight some of the scientific advantages of learning something new.

To do that I needed to perform some research to find out what the science of learning
actually was. For me to frame the article as anything other than subjective opinion, I
needed some sources that would back up any claims that I made.

Since this blog is all about learning, and considering that research it is an important skill
that I plan on using as the foundation of many posts in the future. It was time for me to
learn how to perform reliable research, effectively.

Why Is Research Important?

To start with, it’s worth talking about why research is important. In order to understand
why research is necessary, you need to examine what your goal is.

Depending on your goal there are at least four distinct types of research. The first and
most common reason most people do research is to make decisions and solve
problems.

For example, if a decision needs to be made and there are two or more possible choices,
then research will help us determine which is the most logical choice.

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Even when using logic though, the solutions to these problems are often subjective as
they come down to personal choice. For this type of research, the importance of the
decision generally determines the amount and depth of research done. If the decision
being made is where to have dinner, you likely won’t spend as much time doing research
as you would when deciding which neighborhood to buy a house in.

The second type of research is used to discover new information or verify existing
information, usually through scientific means.

This is the type of research that is key to the scientific method and it generally aims to
generate answers that are as close to objective truth as possible.

Because of this, the amount of research performed is often much greater than any other
kind. This is the kind of research performed when doing scientific studies that result in
published papers. These papers are often referenced in the next type of research.

The third kind of research is done to help present a conclusion or develop a

This is the kind of research that most people were taught to do in school when writing
reports or essays.

It normally involves gathering information from trusted sources such as published

The fourth and final type is also one of the most common, and that is broad and
sustained research.

This is often necessary in order to stay informed about the industry you work in, or some
other area of interest you have. This can be important to help you keep pace with peers
and competitors, and to make sure you do not miss important developments.

It is also used to deepen your general knowledge. This is likely the type of research you
are doing by reading this post, you have an interest, and you are pursuing it in order to
increase your understanding of that interest.

Quality of Research
Whether you have plenty of experience, or you are just learning to research, it is
important to check the quality of the information you are using and to choose the most
reliable sources whenever possible. Below I will go over the different types of sources
available, and how to go about using them.

The best and most reliable sources of information are primary sources.

These are sources of information that include original or first-hand information.

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For example photographs, speeches, or original documents would be primary sources, as
well as most surveys and scientific studies. Anything where you are not relying on the
opinions or interpretations of someone else. These should be used whenever possible.

Next, we have secondary sources.

Secondary sources are one step removed from the primary sources. They are generally
the analysis or interpretation of someone else.

Examples of secondary sources are textbooks, commentaries, criticisms or blog posts

They can be useful in gaining different perspectives on a topic but are never as reliable as
primary sources. These may be used but ideally in conjunction with primary sources.

Finally, we have tertiary sources.

These are yet another step removed and are generally condensed or summarized
materials that refer to secondary sources.

Examples are encyclopedias and almanacs. These sources should not be relied on
whenever possible.

When researching a topic you have little knowledge about, you will generally start out with
secondary or even tertiary resources, and then use those to hone in on more reliable
primary sources.

A perfect example is Wikipedia which is a tertiary source. It can be a valuable way to gain
context on a subject. But it should be used only to find secondary and primary sources, it
should never be relied on directly.

An important decision to make is how much research you require. Once again this will
depend on the goal of the research.

If you are writing an academic thesis, you will need to present much more research in
support of your analysis, than if you are writing a blog post (like me).

Generally, I find it helps to decide beforehand what you require, in order to stop yourself
from over researching and falling prey to analysis paralysis.

For example, before researching my blog post I decided I wanted at least two strong and
relevant sources of information, and one that was a little broader. I did this because when
writing a blog my primary goal is to inform, but I need to do that while having a personality
and continuing to entertain.

This is a fine line that most secondary sources walk. For example, news media have to
balance being objective and unbiased, with being engaging. Some do this better than
others.

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If you are using your research for something more formal such as an essay, you do not
need to be as concerned with being entertaining. Even so, you should still consider not
over-inflating the number of references you make.

The reason for this that you want to keep focused on your topic, and as such you should
try not to cite a source unless it is critical to your argument. You do not want to risk
diluting your high-quality sources with ones that are less reliable or relevant.

This is not a hard and fast rule of course, and there is no magic number of references you
need to make. Just remember to use references as a supplement to your own
investigation and findings. Also, If you are ever in doubt about whether something you
have presented could be considered plagiarism, then you should definitely cite your
source for that information.

Also, when using scientific studies as sources, if you have concerns about the quality or
reliability of a study, one thing you can do is check the Impact Factor of the journal the
study was published in.

The Impact Factor is a number that represents the yearly average number of citations
made to articles recently published in that journal.

The higher the Impact Factor, the more influential the articles published in that journal
tend to be.

The impact factor will come as a number that can be anywhere from 0 to over 100. It can
be hard to pick exactly what makes a good impact factor, however, as they vary wildly
between fields. As a rule, you can generally trust the journal if it has an impact factor in
the double digits, any lower and it’s worth taking a look at other journals in the same field
to see how they compare.

Also, it is worth mentioning that if a journal does not have an impact factor it does not
definitively discount it from being trustworthy. It often just means it’s new, as the impact
factor is a measure of past performance, meaning they do not receive one until they have
been publishing for a couple of years.

Finally, it is important to remember that this is not a direct measure of the quality of the
article itself, only the journal it was published in.

Research Steps

Identify a Topic

First, you need to identify the topic of research, this will normally dictate which of the
different types of research outlined above you will be doing.

For the purpose of this guide, I will use a recent post as an example.

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In that case, the topic of the post was ‘Why should you learn a new skill?’. However, that
is quite a broad topic when it comes to doing research. So when planning the article I
identified some sub-topics that I think merited further research. Those were:

1. The effect of learning on the brain.

After deciding on these topics it was time to dive in.

First things first, I decided to research the effect of learning on the brain.

This topic is narrow enough that it allows me to stay on track without getting lost in the
weeds. While still not being so specific as to make it too difficult or limited to research.

When doing research of your own. If you have any trouble narrowing down your topic. It
might be valuable to frame your topic as a “this or that”.

For example, if you want to buy a new car, but you are overwhelmed by the options. You
might want to start off researching, “Should I buy an electric car? Or one with a traditional
combustion engine? Then you can use the outcome of that question to inform your next
one.

Decide on the Desired Outcome

Now the topic has been chosen, it’s time to figure out what you are trying to achieve.

In my case, the outcome I wanted was as follows. I wished to find information that will
contribute to a valuable and informative blog post. And if the information provided is not
sufficient, I want to give the readers references that will allow them to perform their own
independent research on the topic.

As stated previously I aimed to provide at least two specific and reliable sources of
information and one that was a little less specific.

Obviously, the desired outcome for other kinds of research can vary wildly. If you are
trying to decide what car to buy, then the desired outcome might be “Buy a car within my
budget, that is also small enough to fit in my garage.” and as such the type and amount of
research you do is likely to be very different.

Also, in that case, you would not need to cite your sources (unless your spouse disagrees
with your decision of course).

Gather the Data

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This is the most time-consuming step to research and the one where you need to be most
disciplined.

It is important to stay focused on your topic and not waste time on researching
unnecessary and unimportant information. It is even more important, however, to not rush
the process and take shortcuts that result in poorly sourced and/or inaccurate information.

When learning how to research it is easy to think that you will not fall into the trap of using
inaccurate information, but the truth is that the vast majority of people only look at the first
result when making a Google search, and neglect to look any further.

This is dangerous as the first result on Google is selected by an algorithm. One that takes
into account many factors such as page load speeds and visitor engagement. Due to this,
it does not always prioritize accuracy.

If you want to narrow down your search to make it more focused you can do so by using
advanced search techniques such as search operators. In order to find out how you can
use my guide on how to use advanced search techniques.

Now for my post, I was researching a very complex topic. And one I was not well versed
in, because of this it required a fairly in-depth level of research.

Following the process mentioned earlier, I began by reading up on various secondary

I made sure that whenever a website or book I was reading cited a primary source, I
found and studied those as well.

Many secondary sources online link directly to the studies that they cite. However, when
reading a physical secondary source or listening to an audiobook, following a link may not
be an option. In those cases, you have to track down the cited source manually.

This can often be done by googling the author or date of publication. However when
working with clinical evidence, as I was when writing my blog post, there is a more
reliable way.

You can instead use a scientific publication index service like PubMed, Google Scholar or
Web of Science.

These allow you to easily search for publications by author or topic, and they give you
valuable information like how many times a publication has been cited in other studies.

I will lay out the differences between the three options in the resources section near the
end of this post.

Compare Opposing Views

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During the process of gathering data, you will likely have come across conflicting reports.
As well as data that runs contrary to the opinion you originally may have held, or the
outcome you expected.

This is important as now is the time when you need to compare all of that opposing data
and figure out which has the most merit.

If you have been unable to find any data in opposition then you have either

A. Stumbled across one of the very few things in life where there is no debate or
contention whatsoever.

Or

B. You haven’t done enough research.

The latter is far more likely.

Now would be a good time to mention the importance of guarding against confirmation
bias. Confirmation bias is the natural tendency of a person to give unequal weight to
information that confirms their preexisting beliefs, whilst closing their mind off to anything
that runs contrary to those beliefs.

This is a particularly difficult habit to fight against as most of the time we are unaware it is
happening.

When researching, make sure to ask yourself every step of the way, “would I believe this
evidence more, or less, if it was presenting the opposite conclusion?”. This will help you
be more balanced and unbiased when learning how to research.

When researching my post, I made sure to keep an eye out for opposing evidence, and in
the end, I put a section in my post about why learning a new skill might not be for you.

In my case, I am writing a post that is clearly an opinion that I attempt to reinforce with
evidence. The potential downside of someone accepting my opinion is fairly low. If
however, you are trying to present something as if it is objective truth, you need to make
far more effort to acknowledge the contrary evidence and explain why it may not be
relevant.

Draw a Conclusion

Now is when you use all of the evidence you have gathered to draw a conclusion.

In my case, the conclusion I drew (while taking into account opposing evidence), was that
learning is actually a valuable thing to do, and it has many potential benefits.

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I drew this conclusion by working through all of my subtopics one by one and then
applying the findings to my broader topic. For me, the conclusion was in support of my
original opinion. If however, it had been contrary to that opinion, I would have considered
changing the topic of my blog post, or perhaps abandoned writing it all together.

Present the Conclusion

Now comes the final step.

For anyone who is attempting to answer a question or solve a problem, this step can be
as simple as choosing a restaurant and making a reservation. For other types of research
though, this step can be much more involved.

For me, this step involved me writing and publishing my blog post. Because I was writing
an article that was published online, I was able to add links to my post that could be
clicked on to lead readers directly to the source.

In an informal setting, a citation can be as simple as mentioning a source or posting a

If I had references particular pages, I would have added them as well.

BibMe. There is more information about it in the resources section below.

Useful Resources

Research tools

There are a number of different search engines that can be used to track down scholarly
literature. Below are three of the most common.

PubMed

PubMed is a free search engine that allows you to search the abstract and citations of
millions of scientific journals and publications.

PubMed, along with a subscription-based alternative Web of Science, is a human-curated

Because of this, compared to its other free alternative Google Scholar, the quality of the
results are generally of a higher standard. However, the quantity is usually much lower.
Unfortunately, unlike Google Scholar and Web of Science, PubMed does not tell you how
many times a study has been cited by other published studies.

Google Scholar

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Google Scholar is a more recent alternative to PubMed.

Unlike PubMed and Web of Science, it uses an algorithm to gather and present results in
a way similar to Google proper.

Because of this, there are many more results available. However, the quality of these
results is lower.

Another reason for the higher number of results is that Google Scholar searches the full
text of articles while its two alternatives only search the citations and abstracts.

Also, like Web of Science but unlike PubMed, Google Scholar tracks the number of times
an article has been cited by other articles.

Web of Science

Web of Science marries a curated database with useful features such as citation counts.

However, it is a premium tool that costs money. As such most people gain access to it
through a place of study or work.

If you need to do academic research it might be worth asking your university or workplace
if they have a subscription. If not, or if you are just doing research for personal reasons,
you are probably better off going for one of the other two options mentioned above.

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