Whether you're looking to solve work or personal problems, starting your own business or gathering information for your son or daughter's school project you need good, accurate and meaningful information that helps you make informed decisions.

But how do you distinguish good, accurate information from bad, unreliable information? Then how do you keep track of it all?

Well, doing research, either online or offline, requires the use of some basic principles and methods that can help you get more accurate information.

The internet has made finding information a lot easier for people in general than it used to be. Which is both good and bad because not all information you find online is reliable.

Although it is not the ultimate tool, because not all information is available online, its' become an increasingly essential research tool to use.

So how can you do better "Re-Search" and keep track of what you find?

First and foremost good researches stay focused on the problem that they're looking for information about. Secondly most people who do research for a living are skeptics, they don't believe anything they hear, see, touch or feel until they have several confirmed sources saying it's so. You know the old saying "believe only half of what you see and none of what you hear", unleast until you can verify it.

Good researchers ask questions - All Of The Time.

They ask questions about the information they have gathered. If there are statistics - how old are they, where did they come from, are they biased. If there are claims being made are they proveable, who proved them, etc.

What can you do to insure you're gathering accurate information?

Here are some basic guidelines to use in order to succeed at gathering reliable information.

1 - Write a clear, brief description of your problem or question you're trying to answer. The reason for this is if you have a good idea of what you're looking for your chances of finding it are much better and you're more likely to stay focused on the outcome you're after.

2 - Write up a list of questions you would like to have answered through your research.

3 - Decide what are the best resources to use. You may want to use your local library, do interviews, use the internet or a combination of all the resources available.

4 - Set up a system for saving and organizing your information.Whether you're using internet or offline resources a simple system of folders will work best.Your main folder should be your Research Project Title, with as many sub folders as you need to store the data you've located.

Example:

Starting A Business (Project Title)

     |

     |_ _ Online Biz Opportunities

     |                                      |

     |                                      |_ _Affiliate Prgs

     |                                      |_ _Products

     |                                      |_ _ Services 

     |

     |

     |_ _ Offline Biz Opportunities

                                           |

                                           |_ _Gift Store

                                           |_ _Consulting

                                           |_ _ Mail Order

Of course each one of the subfolders could have a subfolder and so on and so on...

5 - Once you've gathered enough information to answer your questions or solve your problem then it's time to get down to the nitty-gritty and begin analyzing the data you've found.

If you're doing research on Business Opportunities and you've saved several items about going on vacation (doing research can make you think of other more enjoyable pursuits), and they're not going to help you solve your problem or answer your questions - eliminate them. 

6 - Review all of the data you've gathered. Remember, there will always be errors to look out for. Look for similarities, differences, half-truths, misinformation, statistics, etc.that will help you make an accurate assessment of the reliability of the information. 

It's best if you take the time to verify that statistics are accurate and up to date, check the references of individuals whose data you have added to your files and verify claims made in any forms including webpages, brochures and advertisements as best you can. If the information is from a deemed reliable source such as a government agency, think tank, research center it may cut down on the time you spend verifying what you've gathered. 

7 - Summarize and draw your conclusions from the data you've saved and analyzed in your file system, then write up a brief report of your findings for future reference.

Gathering information and analyzing it may vary according to each individual persons' needs and the information being sought. But the basic principles and methods I've outlined above should help produce more meaningful and accurate information for anyone needing good information on any subject, problem or question.

Don't worry, with a little focus, attention to details and effort you can find information on almost any subject using the basic resources available to you.