How to collect information?

(1) Types of documentation

1. According to the degree of information processing, we can divide documentation into three categories: primary documentation, secondary documentation and tertiary documentation. .

Secondary documents such as catalogs, bibliographies, indexes and abstracts are extracted from primary documents, while tertiary documents such as reviews and reviews are processes such as processing and screening of secondary documents and primary documents. obtained through processing. Generally, the author's point of view cannot be obtained from the index and table of contents. They only provide you with the convenience of retrieval, so that you can find what you are looking for faster. In a review, what you see is also something that has penetrated the reviewer's thoughts. To truly see the original author's thoughts, you still have to read the original documents, that is, primary documents.

Primary documents

Primary documents include books, journals, conference documents, dissertations, patent documents, government publications, product samples, scientific and technological reports, standard documents, archives, etc. What you probably look for most in your research studies are books and journals.

The scope of books is very wide, including classics, general monographs, textbooks, popular science books, information reference books, etc.

Masterpieces

Masterpieces refer to the most influential and authoritative works of an era, a discipline, and a genre. Such as French Danner's "Philosophy of Art", Darwin's "Origin of Species", etc. They are treasures of human culture and the cornerstone of scholarship and research. Researchers can often find theoretical basis for research from famous works.

Monograph

A monograph is a systematic, comprehensive, and in-depth discussion of a certain subject or a certain specialized issue. The content is specialized and is mostly the result of the author's years of research. For example, Darwin's "The Origin of Species" is a monograph. Monographs generally discuss the development history and current situation of a certain issue, research methods and results, views and debates of different schools of thought, as well as existing problems and development trends, and are accompanied by a large number of references and bibliographies. For high school students, due to the limitations of existing knowledge, they often have difficulties when reading monographs. Therefore, when reading a monograph, it is best to have a teacher to guide you.

Textbooks

Textbooks are professional books that are strictly scientific, systematic and logical. In the process of people's learning, certain concepts that they cannot understand often appear, which requires reading relevant textbooks, which will help to understand the concepts and the relationships between concepts.

Popular science books

Popular science books are popular books for the general public with the purpose of popularizing scientific knowledge. Generally, the text is simple, but the latest information content is low. However, for students doing research for the first time, these popular science books can provide background knowledge on many research topics.

Newspaper

Newspapers are serial publications. They are periodic serial publications that mainly publish news and comments. Such as "Wen Wei Po", "China Education News", etc. Newspapers have a wide circulation and deliver information quickly, but the materials are scattered and unsystematic and difficult to preserve.

Journals

Journals are regular or irregular serial publications, including weekly, monthly, bimonthly, quarterly, etc. It can be divided into academic and theoretical journals, information journals, technology, career journals and popular journals. There are three common types of journals. One category is magazines. The magazine publishes relevant scientific papers, research reports, abstracts, reviews, reviews and developments, with strong compatibility. One category is reports, collections, series, journals and university journals. Journals generally publish articles that are professional, theoretical, and academic. There is also a category of abstracts and photocopied materials. This is an index publication of a data and information nature. It is carefully selected by specialized personnel and published regularly in volumes. It contains important articles and is accompanied by a catalog index of the main articles in a certain period. It can help Researchers have a timely overview of the literature on a specific topic.

Manuals

Manuals often bring together the most commonly used literature in a certain profession or aspect that often needs to be referenced. The manual has the characteristics of clear categories and examples, concrete information, concise description, small size and practicality, and easy reference. If we want to find various antipyretic and analgesic drugs, we can search them in the "Drug Booklet", a professional manual of a specific subject; and if we want to check the ingredients of the developer, we can find the answer in the "Photography Manual". Therefore, the manual is a reference book that records the most common knowledge related to professional materials.

Ci (lexicon) dictionary

Ci (lexicon) dictionary is a reference book that collects words, arranges them in a certain way, and explains them one by one. It mainly provides information on terminology in corresponding disciplines. The statements of these materials are standardized, accurate and precise, and appear in the form of entries. Dictionaries can be roughly divided into Chinese dictionaries, specialist dictionaries, comprehensive and encyclopedic dictionaries. A specialist dictionary (i.e. specialist dictionary) is a reference book that collects professional vocabulary in one or several disciplines and focuses on explaining the concepts and professional knowledge of things. Such as "Philosophy Dictionary", "Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Dictionary", "Chinese Art Dictionary", etc. Name dictionaries are a type of specialist dictionaries and are used more frequently. Such as "Dictionary of Chinese Names", "Dictionary of Chinese Artists", etc. The comprehensive and encyclopedic dictionary contains both general words and professional vocabulary. "Cihai" is a typical representative of this kind of dictionary.

Encyclopedia

Encyclopedias, like manuals and dictionaries, are also informational reference books.

It is a complete reference book summarizing all categories or a certain category of human knowledge, and is known as the "King of Reference Books". Encyclopedias can be divided into two broad categories. One type is comprehensive encyclopedias, such as "Encyclopedia of China" and "Encyclopedia Britannica". The other type is professional encyclopedias, such as "Encyclopedia of Education" and so on.

Yearbook

The Yearbook is edited and published year by year. It is a reference book summarizing the important events, subject progress and various statistical data that occurred in the year. There are many types of yearbooks, including comprehensive yearbooks and professional yearbooks. The "China Encyclopedia Yearbook" published by China Encyclopedia Publishing House is a comprehensive yearbook. It reflects major events in China and the world year by year as well as new developments, new results, new knowledge and new materials in various disciplines. The "Education Yearbook" and "Philosophy Yearbook" are professional yearbooks. Yearbooks can be large or small: as small as the yearbook of a certain school, as large as the yearbook of a certain province or city, such as the "Beijing Statistical Yearbook" and "Sichuan Statistical Yearbook". These statistical yearbooks contain rich statistical data, which truly record the social, economic and technological development and changes of each province and city over the past year. They are important information tools for people from all walks of life at home and abroad to understand the provinces and cities.

Secondary documents

There are countless primary documents published every year. In this ocean of documents, it is impossible to quickly and effectively find the information you are looking for by simply reading them one by one. Therefore, information workers provide researchers with secondary documents, namely bibliographies, indexes and searchability. Digest etc. From these secondary documents, you can quickly achieve the purpose of finding information.

Bibliography

Bibliography is a catalog that counts and reflects the books, journals and other documents published nationwide in a certain period. For example, reference books such as "National General Bibliography", "National New Bibliography", and "China Publishing Yearbook". They each have their own characteristics. The "National General Bibliography" is published once a year, with a reporting time difference of four years. In order to make up for the shortcomings of untimely publication, the "National New Bibliography" was published in the form of a monthly magazine. These two books relatively systematically and quickly reflect the appearance of book publishing in our country, and are the main reference books for retrieving domestic books.

Index

An index is to excerpt the contents or items in books or newspapers, compile them into brief entries, arrange them in a certain order, and indicate their sources. According to the search content and approach, the index can be divided into categories such as bibliographic index, word and sentence index, proper name index (organized by names of people, place names, book titles, etc.), subject index, etc. "National Newspaper Index" (monthly) is a magazine that counts and reflects newspapers and periodicals published nationwide in a certain period. It is compiled and published based on important information from newspapers and periodicals received that month. The index is divided into natural science and technology edition (Science and Technology Edition) and philosophy and social science edition (Philosophy Society Edition). The author's point of view cannot generally be obtained from the index and table of contents. They only provide readers with the convenience of retrieval.

Searchable abstract

Searchable abstract is to condense the documents within a certain range, briefly summarize the main content, describe the title, author and source of the document, and press A search tool arranged in a certain direction. This kind of abstract usually contains excerpts from the original text, including main arguments, arguments, and conclusions. Searchable abstracts state without comment, state without discussion, and truly reflect the true nature of academic opinions, such as the "Chemical Abstracts" published in the United States, which enjoys an authoritative reputation in the world. At present, the more important comprehensive abstracts in the liberal arts mainly include the "Abstract Abstract Card" edited and published by the Book and Newspaper Information Center of Renmin University of China, and the "Loose-leaf Abstract of Chinese Social Sciences Academic Papers and Dissertations" compiled by the Documentation and Information Center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Abstracts can help you judge whether the retrieved documents are suitable. Abstracts can save you time and energy in reading documents. Abstracts can help you gain a general understanding of some documents that cannot be found. After reading the abstract, you can generally grasp the main content of the document.

Tertiary literature

Tertiary literature is mainly review and review literature. It is the literature that the author obtained after sorting out the primary literature and secondary literature and includes his own opinions. material. The overall situation of a certain topic (or issue) can be roughly understood from the three literatures.