Research is a collaborative venture, be that directly or indirectly. Some researchers work in large teams in laboratories, while others work alone. All research, however, is inspired and supported by the work done by generations of scientists and scholars, seeing further because we stand upon the shoulders of giants. All scientists and researchers must rely on these resources, especially high school students, just starting out in their first research ventures. The problem so many students encounter is finding these sources, and evaluating them once they do. The internet has made many resources available, but there are plenty of bad ones as well as good, and many are only well known to those already versed in a field. Usually, novice researchers are introduced to resources by their mentors, but high school students don’t always have access to this. In this article, we’re going to lay out some of the most helpful repositories of research knowledge, and explain how to evaluate the quality of the sources you find.
How to Find Quality Sources
Searching for information online is always hit and miss, especially as search engines add poorly sourced and often incorrect AI summaries to search results. There are repositories of sources, all of which are academic in nature. Not all of these are of the same quality of course, but these are the best places to start looking for sources. We’ll go through these here; note that some are broader, while others are focused on a specific discipline.
Google Scholar
This is perhaps the largest way to search for academic articles and books. Something being referenced on Google Scholar does not necessarily make it legitimate, but it is one of the best places to begin a search for sources. The biggest downside is that not every resource archived in Google Scholar is freely accessible, indeed, many of them are locked behind journal paywalls.
We’ll discuss getting past paywalls later, but you will at least be able to read the abstracts of these papers, and determine if they are relevant to your investigations. You can sort results by year published, or cut them off so you only see results from a certain timeframe. In general, you should be more wary of results that are too old (more than forty years for most fields), but it does take significant time for work to be done or published. This does also vary based on field.
There is a button to generate citations of a source, we recommend doing this as you go, to build a database of works you have consulted and may wish to return to; this makes the eventual construction of a bibliography much easier. You can also see works which have cited a particular piece; this can be quite helpful for finding additional, related, sources.
When searching, begin with keywords related to your chosen research topic, to see what work has been done on that or similar questions in the past. Refine the search terms and parameters as you refine your question, and as you shore up the needed pieces of background to ground your research.
IDEAS RePEc
This is Research Papers in Economics, a massive free database of economics papers, almost all of which can be downloaded free of charge. If you are doing research in economics topics specifically, this is an ideal way to start looking for resources. While this isn’t every paper and book on economics, it will contain a significant number that are of use to you.
The search function is in some ways more limited than what you can find on Google Scholar, but if you find something interesting on Google Scholar, then this is a good place to follow up, searching by author to see if any of their other work also contributes to your current topics of exploration. The biggest benefit of this site is that so many of the articles it archives are free to access and download.
ArXiv (and other preprint repositories)
ArXiv is a pre-print repository for articles and other works which have not been peer-reviewed or published. This can make sources less credible, but it also serves as a way for scholars to share and disseminate work which is otherwise paywalled. Many scholars will publish a work through a journal, and also upload a slightly modified version to an archive or preprint site to increase accessibility.
We do not recommend beginning your research here, but if you find an interesting article on Google Scholar and are unable to access it, then seeing if it is available on ArXiv is a good next step. Beginning your research on ArXiv is not ideal for new scholars; none of the work on it is peer reviewed, and so while some is of quite high quality, it is all intermingled with sources of less repute.
ArXiv focuses on math, physics, and computer science. There are other preprint repositories preferred for other fields; medRxiv, bioRxiv, SocOpen, all fo which share the same basic traits as ArXiv. These are all a great way to access articles, but are perhaps not where you should begin your investigations.
Libraries
Libraries are a good source for many things, though depending on where you live, what they have access to will vary widely. Most public libraries will have access to some background books, but won’t have access to the latest journals and research. You may be able to get some good background reading. If you are researching history or the humanities, libraries are much more likely to have some useful literature for you to use.
College libraries will have access to all of these and more, but these are unfortunately generally not accessible to the general public. You can ask of course; librarians do enjoy being helpful. If there is a particular book or resource you wish to access, then reaching out directly to a college library by email to request access to their collection can be a useful way to gain access. They may still say no, butt here is no harm in the attempt.
Asking Professors Directly
Professors generally love to share what they’ve learned, and most have a somewhat dim view of both journals and paywalls. If you respectfully and formally reach out to a professor by email, outlining the research you are doing and which of their works you wish to access, most will be quite happy to share a copy with you. This works best for articles you find on Google Scholar, and are not otherwise able to access.
Other Websites
There are a few websites which contain vast archives of illicitly attained articles, books, and other publications for free, without paywalls. This is piracy, much as exists for movies and other media. We do not advise students to search out these sites, because this sort of thing is illegal. You can learn more about these sites from that font of all basic knowledge: Wikipedia.
Evaluating Sources
Once you have found a source, it’s time to evaluate it. Not all sources are created equal, and many things which are published are not of high quality. Especially recently, with the advent of AI and an increasing number of paper-mill journals, it is easy to be overwhelmed by low-quality sources. To avoid that, we’re going to give you the steps researchers got through to evaluate how credible a source is.
When was it written?
A more recent paper is not necessarily better, but fields change and develop over time. A paper on virology written in 1984 will look rather different from one written in 2005. This does not mean older sources must be discarded in favor of newer ones; some studies were and remain foundational. If you find an old paper first, then you should look for later ones which cite it, either building on the work it did, or refuting it, or refining in another direction.
Where was it published?
Bad science can turn up in good journals, but there are some journals which publish little except poor scientific work. It can be hard for students to determine the quality of a journal, especially because some publishers run both highly accredited and utterly worthless journals under similar labels.
We advise checking a journal’s impact factor. This is not an exact parallel to quality, and good journals can have low impact factors; what counts as a good one also varies by field. It is, however, a good sieve to make sure you’re only seeing higher quality research, though it can lose some good articles in the process.
Who wrote it?
Most academics are little known, but easily findable. If you look up the author of an article, you can usually find which university they work at, and a list of their other publications. If they regularly publish in the field, then they are more likely to be a reliable source. If they are publishing outside of their field, or have notable academic issues, then maybe consider finding other sources. You don’t have to look up every author, but if an article seems questionable, this can be a good step to see if you should be suspicious.
How was their methodology?
The prior steps are all outside of the article itself; this one examines the meat of what you are reading. It can be hard to dissect the methodology of a paper, especially for a student, but as you read it, consider the following points (which are things scientists and reviewers look at when judging the credibility of research):
- How big is their sample set? How much data did they collect, and is this enough to reliably draw conclusions from?
- How was this data collected? Are there potential errors in their collection or sampling process?
- How did they analyze the data? Are there trends they missed? Does it look like they’re trying to match their results to a specific pattern?
- Do their conclusions match the data and analysis?
This can be quite hard to puzzle out, especially for students reading serious academic papers. It is something to be aware of though, especially if you’re reading results that seem too good to be true, or which veer outside the realm of plausibility.
What do reviewers say?
Not all articles are reviewed, but particularly noteworthy and controversial ones are, as are most academic books. These reviews are generally written by academics as well, and are a good way to double-check the work done by a particular source. Now, academics do occasionally have longstanding feuds, and those can color reviews, but personal issues live in footnotes; the reviews themselves, if reputable, focus on issues of methodology and rigor, exactly what we’re looking for to determine the viability of a source.
Making Your Evaluations
It may or may not be clear cut if a particular source is reliable; it can be a spectrum of how much you trust a source. This is why you should gather a variety of sources, to understand the path that research has taken. One source may be suspect, but if you can find multiple different studies over time with similar results that build on each other from different authors, then each becomes more credible.
This difficulty in finding good sources, and evaluating them, is often easiest to fix by working with a research mentor. This is part of what students learn in college, and a major part of what you determine as you attain a PhD. If you are looking for a research mentor to work with, an expert to guide you through this process, then you may enjoy an Ivy Scholars Research Mentorship. All of our mentors are PhDs who are well versed in pursuing research and in guiding students through the process.
Final Thoughts
It is hard to fully describe the entire research process in a single article, but we hope that this has helped you understand one very important aspect of research. Most researchers are doing their best to put out good, helpful, well-founded research; but scientists are people too, and part of being a good scientist is evaluating the sources you rely on.
If you are interested in learning more about the research process, or in helping to build your college candidacy through research or other projects, then Ivy Scholars can help. Our mentors are experts at every aspect of the research and admissions process. Schedule a free consultation today to learn more about how we can help; we’re always happy to hear from you.
