So Many Resources - Where do I Start?

Throughout my schooling and career, I have developed a process to curate information. Researching a new topic can be daunting as there is unlimited knowledge easily available through the world wide web. I go through the following process to organize my thought process and find the most updated information. Please note that steps may be skipped if they do not apply to the project.

Step 1

Researching a new topic starts with an environmental scan with my colleagues to determine what, if any, resources currently exist. This step is completed if I am researching a work project or if I know key contacts for the topic.

Step 2

Next, I gather research articles. Through Alberta Health Services and Athabasca University, I have access to several databases and utilize them to delve further into a topic. When researching databases, I look for peer-reviewed articles less than ten years old and have the full article available. These guidelines have been developed over several years of schooling and work research and are my preference. I organize each topic in folders on a shared drive, which makes retrieval easy. I can also save the searches completed in the databases through AHS and Athabasca University. Google Scholar is another great resource as you can tailor your research requirements and save your information – though it is difficult to organize by theme (Google Scholar, n.d.).

Step 3

Third, I review any pertinent legislation via the Government of Alberta and Canada websites. Statistics Canada is a powerful resource for recent statistics on several topics, and most can be tailored to individual provinces and territories.

Step 4

Finally, I will review “grey” literature. “Grey literature is any information that is not produced by commercial publishers.” (University of Leeds, n.d.). This includes websites, blogs, social media posts, policy documents…etc. I review the legitimacy of websites by looking at the authority, timeliness, coverage/relevance, purpose/audience, accuracy/documentation, and objectivity/thoroughness (Concordia University, 2022).

Conclusion

After gathering all the pertinent information, I organize everything into themes and start planning my project/paper. I often find I have to look up other topics or resources as I work. Do not limit yourself to what you originally find.