1. Paul Mundy www.mamud.com Sources of information Where and how do we get our information?

2. Paul Mundy www.mamud.com Three ways to gather information Direct observations  Field visits, experiments Interviews, surveys  Participatory appraisal, focus groups Documents  Materials already written  Desk study Primary information Secondary information

3. Paul Mundy www.mamud.com Desk studies Advantages Easy and quick to do Based on documents already written Possible to evaluate wide range of evidence Detached, objective Disadvantages Do not meet people affected Depend on what has already been written and published Lack immediacy, personal impact Can be boring!

4. Paul Mundy www.mamud.com Commer- cial info Policy briefs Types of secondary information Gossip Conversations Media reports Phone calls NGO documents Research papers Blogs Conferences Email s Meetings Web- sites Online books Seminars Academic books Conference proceeding s Textbook s Refereed journals Parlia- mentary records P a r l i a - m e n t a r y r e c o r d s Stat- istics S t a t - i s t i c s Laws Laws

5. Paul Mundy www.mamud.com Credibility of sources Reliable, objective, unbiased, accessible Unreliable, putting one point of view, inaccessible Refereed journals Scientific reports Laws Lobbying materials 1-person views Blogs Unpublished materials Non-refereed papers Professionally edited reports Official statistics Self- published information Unedited reports

6. Paul Mundy www.mamud.com Which sources to use? Reliable, credible, objective Do not reflect individual interests Reflect wide range of research, not just a single experiment or case Refereed, published

7. Paul Mundy www.mamud.com Finding sources Internet search  Don’t just rely on Google  Also use specialist search engines Eg, Scirus for scientific info  Get a librarian to help Specialist skills, access to large document collections

8. Paul Mundy www.mamud.com Finding sources Library search Private document collections  Maybe they have just the document you need Full literature survey?  Time-consuming and too much detail?

9. Paul Mundy www.mamud.com Finding sources Phone calls/emails to key individuals Call for information via mailing lists Join a Community of Practice  Group of people interested in the same topic, who share information Contract out review to an expert  Make sure you get the right person!

10. Paul Mundy www.mamud.com Not enough information? Not very likely! Think of other search terms Call some experts Reformulate your question

11. Paul Mundy www.mamud.com Too much information? Use more specific search terms Tie your search terms together with and or + Use quote marks (“ ”) to search for set phrases Exclude items you don’t want (with - ) In Google  Search for Paul Mundy finds an Irish musician as well as a communication specialist  Search for “Paul Mundy” +communication -music

12. Paul Mundy www.mamud.com Too much information? Identify a few key documents Focus on the main points Don’t get bogged down in detail Keep your main questions in mind

13. Paul Mundy www.mamud.com Cite your sources! Use footnotes or references Make it clear who says what  “John Farrington of the Overseas Development Institute, a British research group, says…” Provide balance  “The industry favours XYZ, while NGOs press for ABC”