2. Where Are You in the Research Process?
Your instructor has given you an assignment requiring you to do research. Now what do you do? This section of the Guide will give you a brief overview of the research process. Although we’re describing it here as a series of steps to take, the research process is not as rigid as it may appear. You may want to skip certain steps while repeating others, depending on the nature of your assignment. Understanding what is involved in the research process will help you to figure out where you need to go next.
Step 1: Choose a topic
First, you need to define a subject for your research assignment. How broad or narrow your topic needs to be depends on your assignment. If you are having difficulty selecting or refining your topic, discuss the assignment with your instructor. If you need more help, we suggest you schedule an individual research consultation with a Research Contact in your area of study. In addition, Harvard's Writing Center provides extensive, useful advice on how to find or narrow a topic in its guide called Moving from Assignment to Topic.
Step 2: Choose a path
At this point, we suggest asking yourself a few questions about your assignment before you start searching for sources. The answers to these questions and your instructor's advice will help you to choose a path based on how many and what types of sources you need:
You may need to consult magazines or journals or books on your topic. Knowing what types of information you will find in each type of source will help you to decide which path to take.
Popular magazines usually contain brief articles on current topics written by journalists. These magazines, published weekly or monthly, often provide an overview of a topic. Time, the Economist, and the New Republic are examples of popular magazines.
Scholarly journals publish articles written by scholars presenting their research (these usually include bibliographies of sources used in writing the article). The articles go through a peer-review process in which other scholars read them to determine whether or not they should be published by the journal. Scholarly journals, published quarterly or less frequently, generally contain articles longer and of greater depth than those found in popular magazines. Social Forces, the Journal of Black Studies, and the American Historical Review are examples of scholarly journals. For further details, see Popular Magazines and Scholarly Journals: Characteristics and Differences.
Books can be popular or scholarly and will often include bibliographies which may lead you to other sources on your topic. It often takes longer than a year for a book to be published, making books less useful for current topics. Books are generally longer than journal articles and cover their subject in greater depth than magazine or journal articles. You will sometimes find an essay in a book of collected essays relevant to your topic.
If your instructor allows, you may also find useful information on the Web. As with other types of sources, you may find scholarly as well as popular information there. It is particularly important to be selective when using information from Web sites because anyone can publish material on the Web. Our guide to Evaluating Web Sites offers criteria for evaluation.
Step 3: Search
Once you have chosen a path, beginning with either articles or with books, the next step is to search for your sources. For advice on finding articles in the Harvard College Library, refer to "Finding Magazine and Journal Articles," Part 4 of this Guide. For advice on finding books in the Harvard College Library, refer to "Finding Books," Part 5 of this Guide.
Step 4: Review and Evaluate
Review and evaluate the sources you have collected so far. Do you have the number and types of sources you need? Do they provide the information you are seeking? Assess the quality of the articles or books. Do they merit being used in your research paper? Rather than using the first few articles in which your subject is mentioned, you should review the articles to decide which ones will work best for you as you develop your ideas.
Step 5: Consider revisiting steps 1-4
Once you have evaluated the sources you have gathered, you may want to revisit one or more of the steps described above. It may be necessary to find another scholarly journal article that presents a new perspective or an additional article from a popular magazine that provides a relevant fact. At any point in this process, if you are having difficulty finding what you need we encourage you to talk to a reference librarian or with a Research Contact. We are here to help you with precisely this need.
Step 6: Cite your sources
After you've completed your research, you'll probably need to create a bibliography of the works you consulted. Here are some web pages that will help:
- Writing with Internet Sources: From the Expository Writing Program in collaboration with Harvard librarians. Provides instructions and advice on how to cite sources properly.
- Assembling a List of Works Cited in Your Paper: From Duke University Libraries, this site tells you how to cite most formats you're likely to use in your research (articles, books, e-journals, web sites, primary sources, online newspapers, etc.).
- How to Cite Electronic Sources: From the Library of Congress, guidelines on how to construct citations for electronic sources.
- Using Endnote at Harvard: Endnote is a computer program that can help you create footnotes and bibliographies for your research papers.
- Using RefWorks at Harvard: RefWorks is a Web-based program that allows you to collect citations and format them into footnotes and bibliographies for your research assignments.
