DeanWuBlog

Research

I would like to offer six thoughts about conducting research. Given the technology that has become available within our lifetimes, anybody can conduct research. Yet as with much else, that has only increased, not decreased, the difference between results that are common and those that are superlative. A strategy is still needed to achieve the best results, and patience is likely to enhance performance. The below tips apply to both scholarly work and traditional legal research.

First, memorialize everything, including especially failure. You write a memo not only for others with whom you are working; you write it for your own future self. Anything you have looked at during the course of your work should be noted in some manner. The dead ends that appear to lead nowhere useful are the most important to remember, both to avoid pursuing the same blind lead once again and because what appeared irrelevant may turn out to be worthwhile in a previously unknown manner.

Second, trust nothing, including primary authorities. The best source of information is also the most unreliable: the internet, including even apparently reputable sources, is a repository of the outdated, the speculative, the malicious, and the fictitious, and the false. It is invaluable, but it also is dangerous. Google, Yahoo, or whatever other search engine you prefer, is the beginning, not the end, of the process (remember that search engines can be manipulated and you typically do not know their algorithm even if nobody is attempting to game the system). Ensure that everything you assert is based on multiple independent sources, the provenance of which you personally would vouch for. Even case law, statutes, and regulations cannot be accepted at face value. Laypeople often make that mistake: they locate a single precedent that supports their claim, and they might not be in error that it indeed is favorable to their cause – but they do not realize it must be checked in a citation service such as Shephard’s for everything subsequent. The decision may have been reversed on appeal or overruled by a later opinion or superseded by further legislative actions. Negative treatment of the best legal authorities is as important, indeed more so, than positive treatment of the same.

Third, document how you found what you found – the methodology as well as the substance. You will want to be able to retrace your course of action, and others will follow. You are likely to need to cite the source of your information, so retain what is needed to do so. When you copy a page from a book, copy the title page and the copyright page.

Fourth, if you conclude there is nothing on point, be prepared, using the above suggestions, to prove that there is nothing on point. Whenever you come up empty-handed, there are two distinct possibilities: (a) that the universe is empty; and (b) that you have not yet looked with enough skill. Novice researchers, asked by those for whom they are performing the work, how they can be confident that they live in the former universe are often frustrated; they feel it is unfair to be questioned, or they would prefer to simply re-do the work anew. To the contrary, a researcher who has memorialized everything, trusted nothing, and documented the methodology is best prepared, and she will be able to report to others and they will be persuaded: if she says there is nothing, then there is nothing. There is no research that is more important than research into the unknown – the other research is merely the collecting of information already available, however difficult it may seem.

Fifth, understand why the research is being done. How does this particular assignment advance the larger effort? It is much easier to perform competently and to offer original insights, if the overall goals are apparent. You should ask yourself, or, if there is a supervisor, ask her. If there is any problem explaining the point of the exercise, it is much less likely to repay the effort it requires.

Sixth, at least in performing work for me, be circumspect about discussing matters with others. I was chagrined to find when I was reviewing a book and preparing to make a critical comment about the author’s claims, and I needed to determine whether the author was novel in his statement or if he was quoting another source, that my research assistant contacted the author on my behalf to pose the query directly to him. Despite her good intentions, she betrayed the very ignorance I was attempting to remedy. Nonetheless, the fault was mine, for I had failed to explain how much I valued discretion. The admonition about confidentiality is all the more urgent in the context of legal work. Most of us are aware that attorneys owe a duty to their clients to maintain the privacy of everything divulged to them. Fewer may recall that the same rule extends to the agents of every attorney.