Quest, the Series: How to Plan Your Online Research - Introduction (Part 1)

This is the first post in a series designed to help you make the best use of your time as you pursue online research on your technical topic.

This is not rocket science. (Actually, the only thing that’s rocket science IS rocket science. But let’s not quibble.) Many, if not all, of the tips that the posts in the Quest series will offer are techniques that you already know.

The value added by the series lies in helping you to organize your thoughts and align them with online research techniques that will result in the best possible outcome at the least amount of time required by you.

Your first step is to decide what kind of search you need to perform.  There are three broad categories.

• Simple answer to a simple question, such as what conferences are coming up in the next few months
• Following new developments in a given field
• Deep dive into the literature pertaining to your topic of interest, aka a literature search

Each category will require its own peculiar strategy.

The Quest series will address each of the three categories in turn.

Stay tuned.