Proper Research Methodology

One of the bare basic fundamentals of any practice is- or at least should be- proper research. Unfortunately, few people know what “proper research” actually entails.

Legitimate online research involves much more than 10 seconds with Google and copy-pasting the Wikipedia links. Legitimate research is called re-search for a reason: patient repetition, careful filtering, and the separation of drivel from verified content, all performed with a critical and skeptical mindset.

There are over 86 billion web pages published, and most of those pages are not worth quoting. To successfully sift it all, you must use consistent and reliable filtering methods. You will need patience to see the full breadth of writing on any single topic. And you will need your critical thinking skills to disbelieve anything until it is intelligently validated.

1. Determine your subject

Think of a topic you’d like to know more about. It doesn’t matter where you start or what the topic is, just start with whatever interests you. Maybe that’s protection magic. Maybe you need to know if something’s cultural appropriation. Maybe you need to actually know what cultural appropriation even is. Pick something and go with it.

2. Determine your context

For instance, maybe you want to know if Smudging is cultural appropriation (it is), or you are only interested in Irish Magic; maybe you are specifically looking for data from the 10th Century. Whatever you are researching, think of the cultural or other framework you’d prefer if that information is available, or if you are only interested in one aspect of your topic.

3. Preliminary Searches

Start with broad initial research at Internet Public Library, DuckDuckGo, Clusty / Yippy, Wikipedia, and Mahalo. This will give you a broad sense of what categories and related topics are out there, and give you possible directions to aim your research.

4. ‘Hard Research’, ‘Soft Research’, or Both

Once you complete your preliminary searches, you’ll have a much better idea of what is out there and what keywords you will need to use. After that comes the advanced searching using that data- but advanced searching is split into two main groups: ‘Hard’ research and ‘Soft’ research. These two types of research have very different expectations of data and proof, and yield very different results. As a result, they are better for different topics.

‘Hard research‘ describes scientific and objective research, where proven facts, figures, statistics, and measurable evidence are absolutely critical. In hard research, the credibility of every resource must be able to withstand intense scrutiny and topics require hard facts and academically-respected evidence. An opinion blog will not cut it; you will need to find publications by scholars, experts, and professionals with credentials. The Invisible Web will often be important for hard research. Accordingly, here are possible content areas for your hard research topic:

• Academic journals (a list of academic search engines is easy to find)
• Government publications (Google’s ‘Uncle Sam’ search)
• Government authorities (the NHTSA)
• Scientific and medical content, sanctioned by known authorites (Scirus.com)
• Non-government websites un-influenced by advertising or obvious sponsorship (Consumer Watch)
• Archived news (Internet Archive)

‘Soft research’ describes topics that are more subjective, cultural, and opinion-based. Soft research sources will be less scrutinized by the readers and topics are often about collating the opinions of respected online writers. Many soft research authorities are not academics, but rather writers who have practical experience in their field. Soft research usually means the following sources:

• Blogs, including personal opinion blogs and amateur writer blogs (ConsumerReports, US politics)
• Forums and discussion sites (Police discussion forum)
• Consumer product review sites (ZDnet, Epinions)
• Commercial sites that are advertising-driven (About.com)
• Tech and computer sites (Overclock.net)

Combined soft and hard research requires the most work, because this hybrid topic broadens your search requirements. Not only do you need to find hard facts and figures, but you will need to debate against very strong opinions to make your case. Politics and international economy topics are the biggest examples of hybrid research.

Most Pagan stuff at its foundation is “hard research” when pertaining to things with historical context and use. Because of this, attempt to stick to Archeological, Scientific, and historical data and texts when they are available.

5. Figure out Where to Search

Narrow and deepen your Visible Web searching with engines like Google and Ask.com. Once you have experimented with combinations of 3 to 5 different keywords, these 3 search engines and more will deepen the results pools for your keywords.

Go beyond Google, for Invisible Web (Deep Web) searching. Because Invisible Web pages are not spidered by Google, you’ll need to be patient and use slower and more specific search engines like Scirus (for scientific searching); Internet Archive (to backwards-search past current events); Advanced Clusty Searching (meta searching specific parts of the Internet); Surfwax (much more knowledge-focused and much less commerce-driven than Google); US Government Library of Congress.

6. Repeat with new keywords

Use more than one search term. Think of all possible names or other words or concepts that may be similar to, the same as, or on par with your chosen topic. Use anything relevant that you can think of and never stick to just one keyword or search term. In fact, pay attention to the notes you write and information you find. Sometimes it will help give you new keywords to search, or different areas to look into that you hadn’t considered.

Switch things up, mix it around, exhaust every relevant word combination until you can’t think of any more. When you can’t think of any more, congratulations… Your research has likely ended (for the time being).

7. Results and Compilation

Read through those results and take notes while doing so. Make sure to cite your sources in your notes- including any book names, authors, and page numbers, or websites where the information was found. Once you have a fair amount of data, compile it into easily digestible, coherent bits. Record it somewhere for further reference, and draw your final conclusions.