IDEAS are first communicated informally. scholars use e-mail, conversations with colleagues ("invisible college"), letters. To locate the earliest sources of a new topic, try: electronic discussion lists, information interviews.

PUBLISHED WORKS: EARLY STAGES: Newsletters, conference proceedings, preprints of papers, articles. To locate, try: professional association newsletters, conference summaries, contact authors.

CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS, DISSERTATIONS, articles in newspapers. To locate, try: electronic databases, examine journals to check ads for conferences, ask professors.

JOURNAL ARTICLES: articles begin to appear about 1-2 years after topic initiation Use indexes, abstracts, electronic databases

BOOKS: begin to appear 2-5 years later. Try: Catalogs, electronic databases

SUMMARY: Encyclopedia entries,
Research reviews, Bibliographies,
Literature reviews

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