1.4b | The flow of information
What is the flow of information?
Knowing when something happened will help you determine how much and what type of information may be available to you. This concept is called the flow of information.
The flow of information
How the information available about an event accumulates and evolves over time.
The flow of information, when placed on a timeline, roughly looks like this:
Within the first few days of a newsworthy event, you will find information on the internet, television, and newspapers. Most of this information will come from primary sources. If you're researching a current event, you'll likely rely on primary sources.
More details about the event will emerge from secondary sources as time passes. These sources add new perspectives, commentary, and more information. Because research studies and the peer-review process take time to produce, scholarly information appears months to years after the event.
If your instructor requires you to use only peer-reviewed journal articles, you might consider selecting a less recent topic, since the peer review process requires additional time before publication.
Knowing when an event happened gives you insight into whether primary or secondary sources are available on your topic and whether these sources are popular or scholarly. Depending on your research needs, using one or the other may strengthen your project (Elder et al., 2021).
Elder, A.K., Marupova, R., Stacy-Bates, K., Stone, C.B., & Thomas, E. (2021). Library 160: Introduction to college-level research. Ames, IA: Iowa State University Digital Press. DOI:10.31274/isudp.2021.72
Review: How well do I understand the flow of information?
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Key takeaways
Your research assignments may draw from a variety of information formats.
Understanding the flow of information (when primary, secondary, popular, and scholarly information tends to appear on a timeline) will help you pick a topic with enough sources of information for your project.