7.4: Iterative Searching

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As you are searching, you will find that you hit a lot of dead ends. Sometimes it will feel like you fell down a rabbit hole, chasing articles that feel further and further away from your topic. In the end it can feel like a whole research session is a failure, especially if you don't have a concrete set of resources to show for your hard work.

In the research world, this time "wasted" isn't considered a failure at all. In fact, it is thought of as an important part of the process because each time you discover something doesn't work, you have learned something.

Remember this video from week 2? (Note: I highly recommend you re-watch it!)

In the video, the research process is described as iterative, meaning that you repeat steps of the process as you work toward a final result. Iterative searching is the same idea - you search one way, find a resource, learn something, revisit and revise your search, find something different, learn something, and repeat until you feel like you're "done" with your research.

Good searching for resources isn't something you do once, in one search tool. You do it iteratively, searching with different strategies and in different locations and at different times as you move through the research process.