Search across guide titles, topics, keywords, and content throughout the Researcher's Field Guide.
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Time already spent on a research idea is not evidence that the idea remains worth pursuing. Evaluate the project using what you know now, the resources still required, and the scientific value you can reasonably expect from continuing.
Read Guide →A promising research idea becomes a viable project only when you can explain how it will actually be carried out. Learn how to turn your question into an aligned, feasible research plan.
Read Guide →A research project becomes easier to manage when you divide it into stages based on meaningful outputs and dependencies rather than creating one enormous task list. The stages will vary by study, but each should move the project toward a clear readiness point or deliverable.
Read Guide →Research milestones are meaningful checkpoints that show whether a project has reached an important state of readiness or completion. The right milestones depend on the study, but they should be observable, consequential, and useful for deciding what happens next.
Read Guide →A fixed submission or graduation deadline should determine when earlier research milestones need to happen. Work backward from the true final requirement, account for dependencies and review time, and identify early when the proposed study no longer fits the available time.
Read Guide →Research delays often occur in the less visible work surrounding data collection, including approvals, access, recruitment, data preparation, analysis, review, and revision. Identifying these uncertainties early can make your timeline considerably more realistic.
Read Guide →When several parts of a study depend on decisions that have not yet been made, do not try to finalize everything at once. Map the decision dependencies, identify the earliest unresolved choice that blocks the others, and determine what evidence you need to resolve it.
Read Guide →A research protocol is the operational blueprint for how a study will actually be conducted. Create it once the research question and broad design are sufficiently developed, and before activities that require a stable, reviewable, or approved study plan begin.
Read Guide →You have planned enough when the next stage can proceed scientifically, ethically, and feasibly without relying on consequential decisions being improvised later. Some uncertainty can remain. The question is whether the uncertainty that remains is acceptable for what you are about to do.
Read Guide →A research idea is ready to move into study design when it is clear enough to specify what needs to be learned, why the question matters, what evidence could answer it, and whether obtaining that evidence appears realistically possible. You do not need every methodological detail yet, but you need enough conceptual stability for design decisions to become meaningful.
Read Guide →A literature search is not simply an exercise in finding as many papers as possible. Its purpose depends on what you need the literature to help you understand, decide, or establish in your research.
Read Guide →Starting broad can help when you are still learning a research area, while a focused question becomes increasingly important when you need to identify a defined body of evidence. The most useful approach is often progressive focusing rather than choosing one strategy for the entire project.
Read Guide →You do not need to understand a research topic thoroughly before you begin searching. You need enough orientation to start intelligently, then you can use exploratory searching to develop the vocabulary and conceptual understanding needed for more rigorous searches.
Read Guide →A literature search can legitimately change your research question when it reveals better terminology, existing evidence, conceptual problems, feasibility constraints, or a more meaningful problem. The key is to distinguish evidence-informed refinement from arbitrary or outcome-driven changes.
Read Guide →A search strategy is more than a list of keywords. It is a deliberate plan connecting your research question to searchable concepts, appropriate terminology, information sources, query structure, and decisions about how the search will be tested and documented.
Read Guide →Not every literature search needs to be systematic. The appropriate level of rigor depends on what the search is supposed to accomplish, how the literature will be used, and how strongly your conclusions depend on identifying the relevant evidence.
Read Guide →There is no universal number of databases, papers, or search results that makes a literature search good enough. Adequacy depends on the study, the role the literature plays in it, and whether the search can support the claims you intend to make.
Read Guide →You do not need systematic-review-level documentation for every literature search, but keeping a proportionate record can make your research easier to revisit, update, explain, and defend.
Read Guide →A practical step-by-step guide to searching the research literature effectively. Learn how to turn a research question into a reproducible search strategy, choose databases, find search terms, refine results, and document what you did.
Read Guide →A good research question is written to express what you want to know, not necessarily how a database stores that knowledge. Learn how to translate your question into searchable concepts without losing its meaning.
Read Guide →For systematic reviews, eligibility criteria should normally be defined before the formal search and study-selection process. Preliminary searching can still help you understand the literature and refine defensible criteria before they are finalized.
Read Guide →There is no universal five-year or ten-year rule for a literature search. Your date range should follow from the research question, history of the topic, eligibility criteria, and purpose of the search.
Read Guide →There is no universal number of years you should search backward. Learn when to search from database inception, when a historical cutoff is defensible, and why older literature can still matter.
Read Guide →Peer review can be useful when evaluating research, but restricting a literature search to peer-reviewed publications can exclude relevant evidence. Learn when broader searching matters and how to decide what should ultimately be included.
Read Guide →There is no universal number of databases that makes a literature search comprehensive. The right combination depends on your research question, disciplines, study types, and the unique coverage each source contributes.
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