The final assignment for this class is the Final Research Project which will be handed out on Friday, July 16, and is due on Wednesday, July 28.
This is the time to consider how you plan on documenting your research.
PRINCIPLE 11: A Successful Legal Researcher gathers information through effective and efficient Research Strategies.
Standard D. An information-literate legal professional documents research strategies.
The CALI Lesson, Research Methodology, and Modules 1 and 2 provide some sample documentation tools. You also may want to query your colleagues to see how they document their research progress. You will need to adapt any of the samples to your own use and you may want to use these documents as inspiration to design your own set of documentation tools. The Word versions of these documents are available in Modules and 2.
If you have any questions, contact me!
Before providing links to these samples, you may want to revisit the article, Develop the Habit: Note Taking in Legal Research.
Research Strategy Worksheet & Log
The next three images are from the CALI Research Methodology Lesson.
The first image introduces the research log.
The second is a sample.
And, third explains updating along the way.
And, a few more reasons for written documentation:
Excerpt from the Research Strategy Guide at University of Loyola of Chicago
https://lawlibguides.luc.edu/firstyearlegalresearch/researchstrategy
- It’s helpful to have a written record research log to keep track of sources consulted because, if your question changes slightly as you learn more about your legal topic, you will have a record of what has and hasn’t been searched, what terms or techniques were used, and what the results were so you do not re-create the wheel and waste your own time.
- Keeping a research log will give you some assurance that you haven’t missed anything. You can compare your list of potential sources like treatises, law reviews, annotated codes, case databases, etc. against what you’ve actually researched. This will give you confidence that there isn’t more information lurking out there somewhere that you ought to have found.
- If you need to consult with a partner, professor, or librarian about your research, it would be most helpful to have a written record of what your searches have been and where you have looked. An expert will be able to determine whether there are sources that you should have searched, or whether your search terms need modifying if you have a record.
- In the real world, whether you are clerking, have an externship, or you are a summer or young associate, if the answer turns out to be “I cannot find an answer,” you will need to prove that result is justified. The best way to do that is by presenting the assigning attorney with your research log based on your research strategy and searching.
- If you have to set aside your research project for any length of time, a research log will help you by identifying where you have been, and what you have learned. Again, don’t re-create the wheel. If every time you sit in front of a computer you start fresh, you’re going to waste a lot of precious time, and you will have no confidence that you found everything that there is to find because you have no list or record.
- Finally, as you are researching, you will probably identify sources that seem interesting, or possibly helpful, but that may be outside the scope or focus of your current research. Write those down and keep them somewhere–perhaps in a separate folder labeled “maybe.” Never look serendipity in the mouth. Often times skillful researchers end up finding very good resources or bits of information in places they never thought they’d be. Don’t lose the opportunity to take advantage of this information simply because you failed to record its existence when you had the opportunity.
What a sample research log might look like:
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Sample Research Log |
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| Step | Resource/ Terms | Findings/ Values | Next steps/ Citations Found | Date/Status |
Derived from Robert M. Linz, Research Analysis and Planning: The Undervalued Skill in Legal Research Instruction, Legal Reference Services Quarterly, 34:1, 60-99 (2015).
