• Introduction
• Searching for research
• Published Sources
• Other Sources
• Being Opportunistic
• Web search skills
• Research organisations
• Electronic libraries
• Gateways
• On-line courses
• Research software

Introduction

The emergence of the' information age' has brought many new opportunities for practitioners, managers and others to share information and ideas. It is probably also true that new technologies can magnify a sense of what we don't know. The world wide web presents apparently limitless opportunities for discovery and this includes finding out about research.

The task of searching can be overwhelming and when time is precious you want to make the most of it to access information about the type of research you are interested in. Later on in this section you will be given ideas for shortcuts to helpful 'clearing points' for current and recent research. Before this it seemed appropriate to provide a few reminders of good habits in conducting searches, whether you are using on-line or off-line sources.

Before starting a search it is suggested you look at Searching for research. You are then offered ideas on Published sources and Other sources.

Reading about a piece of research is one way, but sometimes you want more to make it real or relevant to your situation. Therefore a Being Opportunistic section has been included, which suggests some other ways of accessing research perspectives.