A-manual-for-writers-of-research-papers-theses-and-dissertations

Skim bibliographies of recent books on your topic; look at any work mentioned in all ormost of them, along with other publications by its author.If you find a source useful, skim its index for authors mentioned on four or more pages.Look for reviews of research in the first few paragraphs of journal articles.Look for recent PhD dissertations even marginally on your topic. Almost everydissertation reviews research in its first or second chapter.New sources are best, but you may discover an old one with data long neglected.3.4 Evaluate Sources for Relevance and ReliabilityYou will probably find more sources than you can use, so you must evaluate their usefulnessby skimming quickly for two criteria: relevance and reliability.3.4.1 Evaluate the Relevance of SourcesOnce you decide a book might be relevant, skim it systematically:If its index lists keywords related to your question or its answers, skim the pages onwhich those words occur.Skim its introduction, especially its last page, where writers often outline their text.Skim its last chapter, especially the first and last six or seven pages.If you have time, do the same for chapters that look relevant, especially those for whichthe index lists many of your keywords.If the source is a collection of articles, skim the editor's introduction.(Be sure that you're looking at a book's most recent edition. Over time, researchers changetheir views, refining them, even rejecting earlier ones.) If you're doing advanced work, readbook reviews of promising sources (see section 4 of the bibliography of resources in yourfield).If your source is a journal article, do this:Read its abstract, if any.Skim the last two or three paragraphs of the introduction (or other opening section) andall of any section called “Conclusion.”If the article has no separate introduction or conclusion, skim its first and last fewwww.itpub.net