Research Skills

When you’re completing a piece of research for your coursework or a project, it’s important to make sure you use sources that are relevant for the work you’re doing.

Finding free resources

If you’re looking for resources to use as part of your research, here are a few places you could start.

Introduction to the Dewey Decimal System

Learn how the Dewey Decimal System works.

Play the Dewey Decimal Game

Test your knowledge of the Dewey Decimal System.

Evaluating resources

Once you’ve found a resource, you need to make sure it’s reliable and relevant for your work.

Types of resources

Learn about different types of resources and how you might use them in your studies.

Resource evaluation checklist

A tool to help you work out whether your resources are relevant and reliable for your purposes.

Choosing appropriate resources

Consider how useful different resources might be for answering these academic questions.

Drag and drop

Drag and drop the statements about different resources into the correct category.

Pros and cons

Consider the pros and cons of the resources available to you.

Resource	Pros	Cons
Academic books	Usually written by experts Can be freely accessed via a library Usually informative and reliable	Can be outdated Can be time-consuming Sometimes difficult to understand
Journal articles	Usually written by experts Often peer-reviewed, which means checked by other experts Some are open access, making them free to read Usually focused and concise	Sometimes difficult to understand Many require a paid subscription Can be very specific
Reports	Usually focused and concise Can cover a range of fields, from company and legal reports to medical and lab reports Some are open access, making them freely available	Can be difficult to find Can be very specific Sometimes difficult to understand
Newspapers	Can be both current and historical Gives an indication of what happened at a certain time and how the media responded Can usually be accessed freely via a library or the British Newspaper Archive	Can be biased Can be sensationalist Can be limited
Images	Widely available online Can help visualise something Usually easy to access Can come in a range of formats, from photographs and film stills to political cartoons and maps	Can be easily manipulated or edited Can be limited Can be protected by Copyright
Data and statistics	Reliable and factual Supports qualitative research Can come in a range of formats, like graphs and tables Some data is freely available to the public (like Census data for example)	Can be difficult to find Can be difficult to understand and digest Can easily be manipulated
Audiovisual resources (videos, podcasts etc)	Accessible Usually easy to digest and navigate Can cover a range of content, from documentaries and newsreels to music videos and movies	The origin is sometimes unclear (for example, on YouTube or social media platforms like TikTok) Can be biased Easily made by non-experts
Websites	Usually easy to access and navigate Provides content on just about anything Can cover specialist subjects reliably (for example, the National Geographic website)	Easily made by non-experts Can be biased Can be factually incorrect Constantly changing

Sixth Form Study Skills