Folllowing Up Old Research

[Spudrick68]

I didn't know where to put this so I stuck it here. I bought all 13 volumes of the original magazine part series 'The Unexplained' recently from E-bay, and I have slowly been ploughing through it. I am finding a lot of what appears to heve been promising leads but don't see able to follow them up anywhere. If they turn out to be false leads, fine, but at least I'd know.

One for example that sticks out at the moment is the experiment into emotional responses to plants from danger. Another is Pye Records helping experiments into EVP's. It seems to me that if you are not a scientist 'plebs' have no chance to find out how thse things panned out. Is that what scientists want with damned data or am I looking in the wrong place? :?

 

[PeniG]

Reliance on secondary sources is necessarily haphazard. If you want to follow up, you can't count on journalists or popular science writers to do it for you, or on your local librarians or newsvendors to select the works you're interested in, if they do.

If, however, you are interested in a particular subject, your library has the tools for you to find out more about it. Information will be available in obscure journals, in pamphlets, in books by small presses, in half-dead websites, and in out of print and remaindered works published half a world away. By searching for authors and subjects, you will be surprised at how many titles you turn up; and by haunting new and used bookstores, reading rooms, and libraries, you will be further surprised at how many obscure but relevant publications fall into your hands - if you are paying attention.

If you don't know where to start, go to your library and talk to the research librarian. She may not know anything about your subject (though research librarians know astounding amounts about random things), but she knows how to find out where you should look to learn more.

Primary research will take you on a journey you can't even imagine right now. Good luck and have fun.

 

[mugwumpaddict]

Following on from what pennig was saying. You dont have to be a member of a university to use their library. These often have years worth of back copies of all sorts of journals etc. It is handy if you know a bit about the research such as the names of people involved, a title or the year it was carried out but, as pennig said, librarians especially research librarians are knowledgeable about a huge range of subjects. You can bet your life if you are interested in a subject somebody else will have asked about that subject sometime in the past. Librarians can also suggest further research methods or publications/places to try next on your search.
Good luck.

 

[Spudrick68]

Thank you both for your kind replies, I shall take your advice and find time to start looking. i haven't replied before now 'cos of work. By Thursday I'll have worked 16 out of the last 17 days and I'm knackered.

 

[PeniG]

Yeah, very hard to do any kind of research properly with a fulltime job! My last book I had to arrange to cut my hours in order to get the work done.

Fortunately, most of the time the books and journals will still be there when you're ready for them.