My processes for academic research have changed dramatically since the beginning of the semester. I used to research without structure, no outlining. I now have a plan of attack of you will which means that I lay out each section one at a time and determine exactly what I need, how I will find it, and who it will be presented to. The layers of the research are more structured and allow me to keep organized by not aimlessly searching the web for what I may or may not need, but rather focusing on the exact section and data I need to obtain and relaying it in a way which can be understood by someone who may have no knowledge on the matter.
I added and changed countless sources for my research experiment. Ones which I thought were filled with helpful data turned out to be not quite as reliable as other sources I found later on. I generally chose sources from educated, peer reviewed journals and articles written by scholarly professors who are doing research of their own. The data found in their research was then compared to that of others to determine if it was reliable or not. If I found data to be inconsistent with others’ I would have to dig deeper and determine whether to go with the original source or find another which was more supported. This process was not quick and requires many different ways of finding like changing what you type into google scholar, rewording your research question, and even looking for authors which may have researched on topics which have to do with something closely related to your topic.
The biggest challenge for my research was finding credible sources which were more than simply news articles reporting the data of real experiments. I needed to find those original research experiments which others completed and determine if they were credible or not by comparing them to others’ work. This process was long but with consistent research comes eventual results. Finding the work of others which was similar or the same to the original work was very important to make sure that what I was including in my own research was true. A way I found to make this process easier was to look at the authors. Authors/Researchers usually tend to stick to the same area of research so by looking at the authors’ work and typing those authors’ names in you will usually find some of their other work. The work is usually with different researchers which allows for comparison of data. I found that the author will have done research on a topic which is in the same area and has something closely related with what I am looking for based on their expertise.
I would say that I am more confident in my ability to find credible data supported by a wider array of scholars. However, I am in no way perfect or as fast and efficient as I would like to be. Research takes time, but I believe with practice it can become easier and second nature to carry out as long as you keep it up. To think like a researcher is to question, question why things are the way they are. For example the world did not become itself by itself, social interaction and changes in the way humans think and interact with each other causes the change. Asking questions like why and how rather than simply accepting things for the way they are is to think like a researcher.