Pearl growing is a research technique that uses one relevant article as the basis for finding other relevant articles.
If you found only a few good articles on your topic, take a close look at their references (citations). A single good article is much like a precious pearl. Its subject headings and sometimes the words in its title or abstract may give you ideas for making more and better searches.
Step One
The first thing you do is find one relevant article, using either a keyword search or a subject search in the database of your field.
Step Two
As you read the article you chose, highlight new keywords, the names of frequently cited researchers, book titles, related theories, unique phrases, associations, assessments, and websites.
Use new keywords, unique phrases, assessments, and related theories as keyword searches in your database of choice. They may lead you to other articles of interest.
To find other articles written by frequently cited researchers, open the database of your field, go to the advanced search page, and type in the researcher's last name and first initial. Change the drop-down menu to "Author" and search. Your results will include articles written by that researcher.
To find books whose titles appear in your article, open the library catalog, type in the title of the book, change the drop-down menu to "Title" and search. If we have the book, write down the call number and check the book out. If we don't have the book, use ILL to borrow the book from another library.
Step Three
Return to your original article. Read the article again, highlighting pertinent passages that include in-text citations. Follow each highlighted citation to its partner in the reference list.
Use Journal Finder to find out if the library has a referenced article. You will need the title of the journal and the year the article was published in it. If we have the journal, there will be a link to the journal and you can search it for the article you need. If we don't have the journal, you can request an interlibrary loan.
To find books whose titles appeared in the reference list, open the library catalog, type in the title of the book, change the drop-down menu to "Title" and search. If we have the book, write down the call number and check the book out. If we don't have the book, use ILL to borrow the book from another library.
Your next step is to pearl grow another relevant article, and then another.... By the time you're done, you'll have a clear understanding of the literature surrounding your research problem.
Title: Provides an Overview
Paper titles are usually succinct, stand-alone overviews of a paper's contents. So, if you are new to a field and/or subject, it is useful to take note of the words used in the title as they may provide you with useful keywords to use in any literature searches you may perform.
Keywords: Key Phrases for Study
Some journals include key phrases. Key words often provide additional information about important parts of the study, such as subject population, outcome measures.
Abstract: Summarizes the Article
The purpose of the abstract is to provide the reader with a succinct summary of the article. Thus, the abstract should provide information about the specific research problem being investigated, the methods used, the results obtained, and what the results of the study mean in the larger context of the research study and in some cases the field of study. This means that the abstract is a good place to look first if you are trying to decided whether or not the paper is relevant.
Introduction: Introduces the Paper
The introduction section generally provides an overview of the research problem being studied. Hypotheses (both explicit and implicit) should be clearly presented here.
Literature Review: Provides Context for the Paper
The literature review discusses past research on the topic in order to give readers a sense of why the research is important, what has been written on the topic in the past, and how this paper will add to the research.
Methods Section: Details the Research Methodology
The experimental section will provide detailed information on how the authors accomplished the experiments/surveys described in their paper.
Results: Presents the Research Findings
Data obtained from the study are introduced. Results are typically presented either in the text or in figures/data tables. Be sure to look at text, figures and tables to see all results.
Discussion/Conclusion: Interprets the Research Findings
Results are interpreted. Results are usually put into a broader research context and incorporated into current knowledge in the field.
Bibliography
Even the bibliography represents the scholarship of this article’s author(s). You may not know the field intimately, but you can glance and get a few ideas quickly.
Note: The structure of the article will be affected by the nature of the research being reported. For example, research papers in science typically follow a standard format that includes sections for introduction, literature review, methods, results, and discussion. A hands-on look at the different sections of a research article can be found here: "Anatomy of a Scholarly Article."
However, the nature and range of research approaches related to information technology produces articles with more variation in structure. For example, a design science research article, reporting on the development and evaluation of an artifact, will have section labels appropriate to that type of research.
Research articles have a formal structure that allows you to move from section to section easily. The key to effective reading of research articles is to use this formal structure to your advantage.
Tip 1. Do not read the article sequentially from first page to last. This will only get you bogged down in the details, and make it difficult to make overall sense of it.
Tip 2. Do read the following sections in order: abstract, introduction, discussion, and any tables and graphs.
Tip 3. Do read the entire article sequentially, after you have scanned the sections above and have decided to include it in your literature review.
