For example: say I want to find out about using bright light therapy to attenuate afternoon energy dips… How would you approach such an inquiry
For example: say I want to find out about using bright light therapy to attenuate afternoon energy dips… How would you approach such an inquiry
Universities and maybe colleges offer courses on how to do scientific research. It’s part of academic study to learn how to find information and also judge it. Maybe you can find one of those courses? Or at least the literature they use… Other than that there are databases, libraries, journals, Google Scholar, …
Can you give me a workflow you’d use to pursue such a question based on the details I gave?
I think properly looking for texts is called “Literature research”. I’d go to the local library and ask the person at the desk. They probably studied being a librarian. They’ll either recommend you a book, or happen to have a yearly course in the library.
Second possibility: Ask a friend who did a masters degree if they can give you their lecture notes. I think my university of applied science has one book with several chapters on that. (It’s in German so I can’t really recommend it here.)
Third possibility: Find online material on “literature research”. Google it, look at links on wikipedia. There might be online courses, paid or unpaid. And some big universities have some of their lectures available to the public.
I’d probably get a book. I think that’s a great way to learn things. Usually they’ve been written by smart people. And you can read them at your pace. Whatever that is in a given day.
The previous commentor already did that.
Assuming that you don’t have enough information on the topics that you want to learn about to even begin this journey without asking for guided help, then the place you need to start is understanding research methodologies.
There are plenty of free online resources that can teach you those skills for free. I am partial to MITs Open Course Work, but many universities offer comparable services.