What is research? To search. To search MORE for deeper truths, answers to questions you are personally interested in.

You don’t research for the sake of doing research. You don’t research for the sake of being a good student or becoming more ‘informed’ or ‘smarter’. No — you research out of personal curiosity.

Or better yet:

Start off with something you’re interested in, THEN think about your personal experiences and write about your personal experiences. THEN do external research at the very end!

My research process

My research process is mine. This is generally my gist:

I have an idea I am personally curious about pursuing, and I pursue it deeper. A little of Googling around, Wikipedia, Wiktionary, etc.

What sources to trust?

Just follow your gut. Follow your taste.

For scientific things, the (least) bad are articles in medical journals. Peer-reviewed stuff is typically less bad than a regular website or blog.

Highly skeptical towards other authors

You can only write what you know, and who you are. Which means:

When an author writes something, they are not an objective researcher or writer. No — all their own art works are their own autobiography.

Which means even in sociology, political science, psychology, philosophy, art, etc … all these people writing on certain topics:

Look deep into the psychology and background of each individual writer to better understand their writing.

Or in other words:

You cannot divorce the writer from their writings.