At some point you must FINISH researching and start writing something or advising your client.
Hopefully you always follow a research process and use a research checklist so you won't miss anything and can easily evaluate whether you have anything left to be done.
How to Tell When You are Finished
- You completed all the steps on your research checklist
- You keep finding the same information over and over again as you go through the steps of your research checklist
- The information you found seems to answer your question
- You have bounced your research strategy (and conclusions) off other people
How to Ensure You Will Never Be Sure That You Haven't Missed Something Important
- Not having a research process which guides your search strategy
- Not using a written research checklist to guide your research and record your results
- Failure to use finding aids such as indexes, tables of contents, and Key Numbers
- Lack of familiarity with a variety of secondary sources
- Over reliance on natural language (Googly) searching
- Failure to effectively use terms and connectors searching
- Failure to take the time to READ the information you find
