Once you know the topic, find the expert vocabulary for your topic. Experts use precise words. They have chosen words carefully to point out minor distinctions in ideas.

Wikipedia is a good starting point to find the ordinary language that points t...

Once you gained some understanding in a field, follow citation trails. There will often be dozens of other papers cited and can result in an extensive reading list. Thus it is helpful to limit yourself to the few most promising ones.

Citations need two factors: fre...

Once you've found the keywords and some main papers or authors everybody cites on the topic, try to find reviews.

• Literature reviews qualitatively review all the papers on a topic.
• Meta-analyses try to collect effects from multiple papers to...

There's always something more to read that can potentially give you more insight. There is seldom a point that will tell you you're done.

Because research is open-ended, it can be hard to keep up It is helpful to decide upfront how much time you want to commit to r...