How to research any topic | Insider tips for easy and fast research

Summary

This video teaches effective research techniques for both academic and everyday purposes. The presenter covers how to define a research question, use tools like Google, Wikipedia, and Google Scholar, and emphasizes the importance of organizing research in folders. The video advises patience in filtering quality sources, highlights the value of review papers, and stresses reading primary sources. A key takeaway is knowing when to stop researching and move forward. Additionally, the video promotes a newsletter with tips and resources for enhancing productivity in research.

Takeaways

• 🔍 Research is essential for both academic and personal pursuits, from PhD research to hobbies like sewing.
• 📁 Organize research materials into folders and use a running document for notes and insights as they come up.
• ⏳ Patience is crucial when researching. Not all information is valuable, and it’s important to filter out low-quality sources.
• 🌐 Use broad resources like Google, Wikipedia, and Google Trends to get an overview of the research field.
• 📚 Google Scholar is a great tool for accessing peer-reviewed academic research, even for non-academic purposes.
• 🔑 Always verify secondary sources by checking the primary research to avoid misinterpretation.
• 📝 Review papers are helpful for summarizing a field and can serve as a great starting point for deep research.
• 🧠 Organize research findings into relevant categories, and don’t be afraid to discard irrelevant information.
• 📊 Abstracts, titles, and figures of academic papers help quickly assess if they are worth reading in full.
• 🛑 Know when to stop researching once you've gathered enough information to answer your research question.

Q & A

Why is having a well-defined research question important?

A well-defined research question is crucial because it helps set boundaries for the research, preventing the researcher from gathering too much unnecessary information and ensuring that the research is focused and relevant.

What simple method does the speaker suggest for organizing research materials?

The speaker suggests starting with a basic folder structure on your computer, creating folders for different categories as you gather information. As you research, you can organize papers and notes into these categories.

How does the speaker recommend handling large amounts of research material?

The speaker recommends creating a running document for notes, sorting material into categories as it comes in, and reviewing abstracts and figures to quickly decide which papers are relevant without having to read every word.

What tools does the speaker suggest using for starting research?

The speaker recommends starting with general resources like Google, Wikipedia, and Google Trends to understand the field. For academic research, Google Scholar is highlighted as a valuable tool.

Why is it important to refer to primary sources during research?

Primary sources provide the original research and are less likely to be misinterpreted. Secondary sources, like journalistic interpretations, can sometimes misrepresent research, so it’s important to verify information by going back to the original work.

What is a 'review paper' and why is it valuable for researchers?

A review paper is a summary of existing research in a particular field. It is valuable because it consolidates multiple sources and provides a broad overview, often referencing hundreds of papers, making it easier to identify key research and gaps in the literature.

How does the speaker suggest filtering search results effectively in Google?

The speaker advises using search modifiers such as including the words 'science' or 'research' in the query. This helps refine the search to focus on more credible and research-oriented content.

How can researchers determine when to stop collecting information?

Researchers should stop collecting information once they feel they have enough to answer their research question and have a clear understanding of the topic. It’s important to know when to stop to avoid overloading with unnecessary information.

What does the speaker say about reading research effectively?

The speaker recommends not reading every word but instead focusing on the title, abstract, figures, and captions to get a quick understanding of whether the paper is worth further reading.

Why does the speaker emphasize patience during research?

Patience is crucial because research can be time-consuming. The process involves filtering through large amounts of information to find credible and relevant sources, and this often takes more time than anticipated.

Outlines

00:00

📚 Importance of Research in Everyday Life

This paragraph emphasizes the universal need for research skills, whether for academic purposes such as PhDs, master’s or undergraduate theses, or for personal hobbies. The speaker shares their own experience with hobbies like sewing and lock picking, explaining how research is vital for learning new skills. The video promises to cover research strategies that apply to both academic and personal projects. Additionally, it includes a sponsored message about the speaker's newsletter, offering valuable resources like planning tools and writing tips for subscribers.

05:00

🛠 Preparing for Effective Research

The focus here is on setting the right foundation for research by clearly defining the research question or topic. The speaker explains the importance of having a system for organizing notes, recommending simple folder structures to categorize information as it is gathered. They highlight the value of keeping a running document to capture initial thoughts and notes that will become more detailed over time. Patience is key, as filtering through information, particularly from primary sources, is crucial for ensuring research accuracy and relevance.

10:00

🌐 Starting Broad with Google, Wikipedia, and Trends

This section discusses starting research with broad sources like Google, Wikipedia, and Google Trends. Wikipedia provides evolving, up-to-date information, especially on fast-moving topics, while Google Trends helps track the popularity of topics over time. These tools help give an overview of the research field and offer a sense of the type of information (academic, blogs, opinion pieces) that’s available. The speaker also notes the importance of sorting information into folders and maintaining a note document to track thoughts and questions as they emerge.

🎓 Using Google Scholar and Other Research Tools

Here, the speaker introduces Google Scholar as an underused but invaluable tool for finding peer-reviewed research papers. The paragraph explains how to use Google Scholar for academic and non-academic purposes, such as writing blogs or conducting business research. It advises filtering search results by date to access the most recent findings. The speaker also suggests searching with the terms 'science' or 'research' in Google to avoid low-quality sources, while secondary sources, like journalistic interpretations, can provide valuable, digestible insights.

📄 Finding and Using Review Papers

This paragraph highlights the importance of finding review papers when conducting research, particularly for in-depth academic topics. Review papers are useful because they compile a wide range of primary sources, making it easier for the researcher to organize information and identify gaps in the field. The speaker advises caution in ensuring the relevance and recency of review papers. The importance of always referring to primary sources to verify claims is reiterated, as even well-cited papers can be misrepresented.

🔍 The Fun and Challenge of Filtering Information

The speaker acknowledges the fun of collecting a large amount of information at the beginning of research but stresses the hard work of categorizing and filtering through it. They recommend focusing on abstracts, titles, and figures to determine whether a paper is worth reading. The process involves creating a 'not yet' folder for undecided papers. This section stresses the need for patience and a careful filtering process to keep the research organized and manageable.

⏳ Knowing When to Stop Researching

Knowing when to stop researching is presented as one of the hardest aspects of the process. The speaker advises constantly referring back to the initial research question and deciding whether enough relevant and timely information has been gathered. They suggest starting the next step, such as writing or conducting physical research, when a sufficient understanding has been reached. Researchers should be disciplined, as continuing to gather unnecessary information can be a waste of time, especially when there are time constraints.

🔑 Key Tools and Strategies for Research Success

The final paragraph summarizes the research process, reiterating the use of common tools like Wikipedia, Google Scholar, and Google, and the importance of effective search techniques. The speaker explains the need for organizing research into categories, reviewing primary sources, and reading effectively to filter information quickly. The importance of knowing when to stop researching is again highlighted as a critical skill. The paragraph ends with a promotional message about the speaker’s website, encouraging viewers to explore additional resources on academic writing and mental health.

Keywords

💡Research

Research refers to the systematic investigation into a topic to gain knowledge or understanding. In the video, the speaker emphasizes the importance of research, whether for academia (like PhD, master's, or undergraduate thesis) or for personal hobbies like sewing or lock-picking. The speaker also outlines steps to improve research effectiveness, such as defining a research question and categorizing information.

💡Research question

A research question is a specific, focused query that guides the direction of one's investigation. The speaker highlights that having a well-defined research question is crucial because it sets boundaries for research and helps avoid the tendency to endlessly seek more information. It ensures that the research process stays on track and is purpose-driven.

💡Primary sources

Primary sources are original materials or direct evidence from the time of study, such as academic papers, patents, or research findings. The video stresses the importance of going to primary sources instead of relying on secondary interpretations, as the latter may misrepresent the original research. The speaker emphasizes the need to verify information by reading the original studies.

💡Google Scholar

Google Scholar is a free search engine that indexes scholarly articles, theses, books, and conference papers. The speaker highlights it as a valuable resource for finding peer-reviewed academic papers. He encourages using it for more in-depth research, particularly when dealing with academic topics, and notes that it's often underutilized even outside of formal academic research.

💡Review paper

A review paper is a type of academic article that summarizes and synthesizes existing research on a particular topic. In the video, the speaker recommends using review papers as a starting point because they provide a broad overview of a research field and can help guide further investigation. Review papers often contain hundreds of references that can be used to explore primary sources.

💡Folder structure

Folder structure refers to the organization of digital files into categories and subcategories. The speaker suggests creating a simple folder structure on your computer to organize research materials effectively. This helps in sorting through information and categorizing it as you find relevant sources. A well-organized folder structure makes it easier to locate specific research materials later.

💡Patience

Patience in the research process is the ability to carefully sift through information without rushing to conclusions. The speaker notes that while tools like Google and Wikipedia make it easy to access information, it is essential to have patience in filtering the quality of that information. Distinguishing between reliable research and misrepresented or irrelevant content requires time and attention.

💡Wikipedia

Wikipedia is an online, free-access, crowd-sourced encyclopedia that provides general information on a wide range of topics. The speaker acknowledges Wikipedia as a great starting point for gathering broad information, especially on quickly evolving topics. However, he also points out the need to verify facts by consulting primary sources and more specialized academic tools like Google Scholar.

💡Review and organize

Review and organize refers to the process of revisiting gathered research, sorting it, and organizing it into meaningful categories. The speaker advises regularly reviewing the materials to categorize papers and notes into relevant topics or subtopics. Organizing research into folders and creating a running document of notes is presented as an essential step to make sense of the gathered information.

💡Stop searching

Knowing when to stop searching refers to the skill of recognizing when you have collected enough information to proceed with your work. The speaker discusses the challenge of over-researching and the temptation to continue looking for more information. He emphasizes that once you have enough data to answer your research question, it's time to move on to the next stage, whether it's writing or conducting further analysis.

Highlights

Learning to research is crucial not only for academic purposes like PhDs, master's, or undergraduate theses but also for everyday life and hobbies.

Defining a well-structured research question is critical to avoid getting lost in the vast information available.

Starting research with a broad overview using Google, Wikipedia, and Google Scholar helps to get an initial understanding of the topic.

Organizing your research by categorizing findings and maintaining a central document for notes is essential for keeping track of insights.

Patience is key in the research process as not all information is valuable; learning to discern between genuine research and opinion pieces is important.

Going to primary sources will always give more reliable information than relying solely on secondary interpretations of research.

Using tools like Google Trends can help gauge how interest in a topic has evolved over time, aiding in understanding the broader context of the research.

Google Scholar is underused but provides access to a wealth of peer-reviewed academic research, making it a valuable tool even outside academia.

When conducting academic research, review papers are especially useful as they consolidate vast amounts of research into one place and are highly cited.

A solid research process includes reading titles, abstracts, and figure captions to quickly filter relevant papers.

It's important to avoid overwhelming yourself with unnecessary papers by focusing strictly on research that aligns with your topic.

Learning to know when to stop researching is critical, especially if you feel that you already understand the topic or have gathered sufficient information.

Going back to refine your research at different stages is part of the process but always keep the original research question as your anchor.

Always prioritize primary sources to ensure accuracy, as secondary sources can misinterpret or oversimplify research findings.

Knowing when you’ve gathered enough information is a valuable skill; once you feel you've covered the necessary ground, it’s time to move on to the next phase.

Transcripts

learning to research is a very important

skill now it doesn't matter if it's for

academia like a phd master's

undergraduate research thesis or it's

just for general life i've got loads of

hobbies sewing lock picking check out

this i made this on the weekend i love

it it's got dashones on it but all of

these things have required me to do some

research about how to do things um and

in this video i'm going to share with

you all of the steps i go through

whether or not i'm doing a phd or

learning how to sew a hoodie all of

these things are super valuable go

through the steps and i assure you you

will know how to research more

effectively at the end of this video

this video is sponsored by my newsletter

go check it out at

andrewsstation.com.edu forward slash

newsletter i'll put a link in the

description and when you sign up you'll

get five emails straight away over two

weeks about

podcasts that i've been on with loads of

valuable information

daily planner tools how to write an

awesome abstract and more so go sign up

and i'll see you over there

preparing for research on any topic just

means you kind of have to just lay the

foundations as in what are you actually

trying to research where are the

boundaries of where you want to research

all of these are important because you

can research forever as academics it's

really hard just to stop and go okay

i've got enough i'm going to move on

with what i know we always want more

information so having a well-defined

research question or topic is very

important and then you need a place to

store your notes store the things that

you find and a little kind of cheeky

place where you can put notes on

different papers now there are plenty of

software options out there for you but

just starting simply just a folder

structure on your computer with the

topic and then a few sort of like blank

sort of folders underneath that just are

ready for you to start kind of

identifying the categories and

organizing research as it pops up into

certain categories you won't know it

just yet but as you start to research

and you get a sixth sense of all of the

things that are involved in this topic

you'll start to be able to go well that

that paper fits here or that bit of

information fits here and having a just

running document of notes that sits in

the sort of highest level folder is very

important just sort of like spill out

all that information into your that

comes out of your head into the file and

it's just a quick scanning file

initially you'll start to get more and

more detailed as we go through but

initially it's just about the broad

level strokes the last thing you'll need

is a bunch of patients researching a

topic you know the google

wikipedia

all of these tools make it incredibly

easy to get research and information at

your sort of like disposal but the

problem is is that not all research is

created equal so having the patience to

go through turn up your filter

and just try to understand a little bit

of whether or not what you're reading is

sort of uh genuine research or it's

someone's interpretation of that

research going to the primary sources

will win out every single time and so

just trying to

get in the mindset that it's going to

take a little bit of time but your

efforts will be rewarded because you lay

the proper foundations of researching a

topic it will accelerate your um your

your feedback and your productivity

towards the end of your uh project okay

here we go

when you are researching a topic you

start with the broadest possible strokes

possible now i'm talking about wikipedia

google those places are just a brilliant

place to start because they just give

you an ability to get an idea of the

sort of information that's out there is

it mainly academic is it opinion pieces

is it blogs all of these places will

help you kind of understand what the

topic has to offer now um a place that i

like to go through and go to right away

is google trends just head to google

trends and what that has done for me in

the past it gives me a

sense of what the field is doing and the

topic is doing over time and it helps me

sort of like calibrate my

barometer because i'm looking at and i'm

going okay well a majority of topics

happened in 2009 so if i see something

from 2009 i know that that was kind of

the peak interest area of this field and

therefore you know it may i can expect

to see a lot of information around there

and then it dies off but whatever you

know you see just gives you an ability

to kind of just understand the field and

how it's moved over time and i find that

very very useful

another place is wikipedia wikipedia is

great because it's always evolving and

it tends to have the most up-to-date

information particularly if it's like a

hot moving topic so solar cells was my

phd background and there was always

useful information people are always

updating it and i think that is a really

great place to go

another place and if this is an academic

research question like if you're doing

your phd your master's your

undergraduate google scholar google

scholar is a really great place to go

and i don't see enough people using it

you know even outside of the research

field if you're writing a blog if you're

trying to understand a business if

you're trying to do some marketing

whatever it is google scholar has got

all of this research that you can scan

quickly and yeah sure you know it takes

you to academic papers which can be a

massive pain in the ass to read but that

is peer-reviewed science and research so

all of that you know you can really

trust as long as it's from a reputable

journal

and you also get an idea of the patents

and the you know the up-to-date

information about where the field is and

you can sort by date all of it's very

important so there we are google scholar

wikipedia and also google search with

google search you have to be a bit

careful i tend to put the topic and then

the word science or research or you know

just to kind of hone in on where

journalists have taken a bit of research

and now you're looking at the secondary

source you're looking at when a

journalist has taken a primary paper or

a research finding and they've gone

brilliant i need to tell the world this

and they've done kind of the hard part

which is translating the research into

the real world language you know

everyday language for the general

audience and general population so those

are the places i'll start and i'll start

collecting information i'll start

putting it into folders that i think

kind of makes sense as i go along if i'm

not sure i'll just dump it all into one

folder but having the note document is

very important and i will put in

questions like oh that's interesting i

found this but what you know where else

is there a gap or what of what questions

are popping into my mind as i'm

researching um and always referring back

to that research question is super

important because if a bit of research

doesn't match your research question you

can just ignore it you know even if it's

a little bit on the edge of the research

question just get rid of it there's

plenty of research out there there's

plenty of information around a topic

that it will be related to your research

question directly and it just takes a

while sometimes to dig through the

rubbish to find out exactly uh where you

need to be playing in order to answer

and research your topic

if you want to start really strong and

accelerate your research into a topic

exponentially i highly recommend that

you look for a review paper a review

paper is essentially when someone has

done all the work for you but you do

have to be careful you have to make sure

it's relevant and recent but a lot of

these papers exist because in the phd

world they get a lot of citations and it

really helps your career later on so

you can take these review papers and

have a look at how they split up the

research field this will give you an

idea of the sort of categories that you

can break down in your folder structure

when you're dragging and dropping

papers into it but a research

paper and a review paper sorry is

incredibly powerful because they have

done all the hard work for you they've

pulled in a whole load of research into

one paper they've referenced it all like

these review papers will often have two

to 300 references that you can then go

oh well that's interesting i'll go check

out the primary source checking out the

primary source is very important never

take anyone's word for something until

you've read it in the original research

paper because uh it you know people

misrepresent stuff all the time even my

papers when they get cited i'm like

that's not what that paper said but a

citation is a citation um so yes looking

for a review paper is very very

powerful and it can give you that

ability to kind of then use that as a

way to branch off into other papers so

check out your research field or your

research topic and type in review paper

into google scholar with your topic and

you may be surprised of what you can

find

researching any topic is actually quite

fun in this stage when you're just like

grabbing articles and be like oh this is

good this looks interesting but the real

hard work comes to when you actually

have to read the information and start

categorizing it so go check out my other

video i believe it was my last video

about how to read research effectively

and quickly now this isn't about

scanning the whole page even if it's a

web page for example you know you don't

have to read it or you can you can

control f and find

bits that you think would be you know

use keywords to search in that web

article um if you've got something like

a research paper if this is much more

academic and you're downloading research

papers from a place like scihub um a lot

of people don't agree with scihub but

it's there nonetheless it's a tool you

can use it

go and read

the

title the abstract look at the figures

and the figure captions and that will

give you an idea of whether or not you

want to invest time in actually reading

this paper or this bit of research if

you don't don't delete it just use a

little folder that's like not yet like a

not yet folder drag and drop it across

and it will just kind of tidy up and

reduce the amount of murkiness and

muddiness as you're going through so

we've been through the massive kind of

hall we've trawled the internet with our

with our uh with our big net and we've

caught everything we can and now it's

about going through and sorting out okay

well this is interesting this is not and

unfortunately there's no shortcut just

go through read title abstract figure

captions and then start to sort out yes

i want to read this more no i don't want

to read this and you'll start to kind of

get a sixth sense of whether or not

something is interesting just from the

abstract

and knowing when to stop is actually one

of the hardest things

so when you're researching a topic

you've got to this stage and you're like

i've got all these papers i'm starting

to sort of like formulate my own ideas

i'm starting to find gaps and you can go

back to any stage and just be like okay

well i need more information on this

certain category or sub topic okay i'll

go back

but knowing when to stop is probably one

of the most important things in this

especially if you're in a sort of like

time constraint like you're doing it for

an undergraduate review paper or

whatever it is um always be referring

back to that that first question that

research topic or question why are you

actually doing this have you been able

to answer the question with relevant

timely information have you been able to

formulate your own conclusions or notice

any gaps in the research all of this is

going to be important for you to say

okay i've had enough and i feel like we

always go too far so if you feel like i

just do a little bit more searching stop

you've probably got enough if you're if

you're still in a position where you

like i have no idea what's going on with

this research continue that search

continue that filtering process

but

if you feel like okay i kind of get this

it's time to start you know normally

you're researching for a purpose so just

start on that next step start on the

research so the physical research in a

lab or

doing your own unique research if you're

doing a phd or your master's

or if you're formulating an essay start

writing that essay you know you'll

you'll start to find the smaller gaps

and you can always go back through the

process to answer questions but knowing

when to stop is super vital because

remember this is a very important part

but normally you're researching for

something else so once you get that

inkling you've got enough move on

so there we have it that's how i

research everything i guess it starts

with a massive broad over stroke using

those kind of tools that we all use no

matter what the topic wikipedia google

scholar and google and then make sure

you understand how to search effectively

in google using the search modifiers

and then i collect that all together and

then i start sort of

reaching out more so i look for a review

paper i look for

research i look for journalist

interpretation of

research or some new findings or some

new information i start bringing that

all together always going back to the

primary source if possible and then i

start reading it and reading it

effectively like i said go check out my

other video that's really important for

speeding up this process not all the

information you find is going to be

correct relevant or even interesting to

your research topic and then knowing

exactly when to stop is going to be your

super power in this once you go okay i

kind of get this i'm starting to

formulate my own ideas or i'm starting

to understand how all this uh all these

moving parts come together that is when

you go okay what's the next step how do

i move on and you have to stop there

sometimes it doesn't feel right you know

you can always get more information but

be strict with yourself and move on

if this video has been useful to you

please remember to check out

academiainsider.com that is where i have

my ebook the ultimate academic writing

toolkit as well as my insider academia

forum so that is a bunch of people

helping each other become better

academics and

mental health stuff along the way as

well it's a great bunch of people so go

check it out and i'll see you over there

until the next video

look after yourself