What is research?

You are currently in the module on "Research is a Process" in a larger tutorial. Each research tutorial includes modules of topics related to the overall tutorial learning objectives. Please go through all the pages in this module by clicking on the “Next” button on the bottom of the page in order to progress. If you would like to track your progress, be sure to log in with your UNCG credentials at the top right of the module. Each module includes Quick Checks on every page. These Quick Checks do not produce a certificate; they are optional and do not track your progress. Certificates are created by completing a whole tutorial, so be sure to complete all the modules within a tutorial in order to generate a certificate. You can also take a screenshot of your progress page. 

UNCG Libraries Research Tutorials Help

Time needed to complete this module: 10 minutes

Learning Objectives:

By the time you complete this lesson, you should be able to:

1. Recognize that research is an iterative, non-linear process. 
2. List reasons that people engage in research in both academic and non-academic contexts.

As you can see in the video on this page, the word “research” has many definitions. Research can mean anything from doing a quick Google search to going out in the field to conduct an original experiment. When we talk about research in the context of a library, we often mean secondary research, which involves finding, reading, and synthesizing sources of information that already exist.