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.
Seminal Works
Seminal sources tend to be the major studies that initially presented an idea of great importance or influence within a particular discipline.
One indication that a particular article is seminal (i.e., of great importance or lasting influence; seminal works are sometimes also referred to as landmark works, classic works, or pivotal works) is that the article has been cited (i.e., mentioned) in many other documents. There are different methods to discover a seminal work or author on a topic.
