One of the earliest tasks when writing a thesis, dissertation or capstone project is to find out what is known about your topic. You start by searching the literature and trawling through material related to your topic. This is known as secondary or desk research. It requires you to unlock answers to three critical literature search questions.
The first question is ‘what do you want to search for first?’ The answer is to concentrate on acquiring relevant originally published (primary) sources of literature. These provide the initial occurrence of a piece of work and are detailed in nature. You commence your literature search with these sources, as they help you become comfortable with your topic. Such sources can be publicly available (like published papers, conference proceedings, and some industry and government reports). Or they may be privately held (like unpublished manuscripts, minutes of committee meetings, private correspondence, emails and social media chats). As their emphasis is on new content, they may be challenging to access. For example, they may only be obtainable offline from specialist collections. Therefore, consider who could assist you with tracking them down, such as your research supervisor or your institution’s librarians.
The second question is ‘who publishes the literature you seek?’ The answer lies in getting hold of previously published (secondary) sources of literature. These chronicle the new material which has already been disseminated in original (primary) sources. Such sources come in four formats. They can be academically focused (like journal articles), report-based (like local and national government publications), practitioner oriented (like consulting firm reports) or multipurpose (like general books, newspapers and magazines). As published sources are typically aimed at a broad audience, they tend to be extensively circulated. Consequently, they are likely to be easier to get than original source material.
The third question is ‘where is the best place to search for this literature?’ The answer revolves around identifying effective ways of securing primary and secondary literature sources. This is achieved by using retrieval tools to locate material from what are known as tertiary sources. Examples of virtual tertiary sources are online academic database platforms (such as JSTOR and Scopus) and online publishing house platforms (such as Elsevier and Springer). Examples of physical tertiary sources are printed archival records, hard copy catalogues, typed registers, contents of databanks and card indexes. Nowadays, most students opt for the convenience of searching virtual, rather than physical, tertiary sources of literature.
In addition to their locator function, tertiary literature sources and their associated retrieval tools act as a graduated funnel for your search. As they possess sophisticated features and functionality, they offer the opportunity of searching along a comprehension continuum. At one end, you can conduct loose (basic) literature searches. This is beneficial when you have limited knowledge and understanding of your topic, so your keyword search can be broad, but shallow. When you become familiar with your subject matter, you move to the other end of the continuum. Your emphasis shifts to refining your criteria and performing an advanced keyword search by immersing yourself narrowly, but deeply, into the literature.
To summarise, original (primary) literature sources generate fresh material that is then reported in published (secondary) literature sources, both of which are accessed in tertiary literature sources using retrieval tools. So, to unlock answers to three critical literature search questions, recognise ‘what’ and ‘who’ are answered by seeking out originally published and previously published material. The ’where’ is answered by accessing the originally published and previously published material from tertiary literature sources using retrieval tools.