Problem-first guide
How to research a topic fast and get sources you can cite
Last updated September 3, 2026
Start with a narrow research question and a list of claims you need to support. Use an AI or search tool to find candidate sources, then open the original paper, report, book, dataset, or official page and verify that it supports your sentence.
Save the author, title, date, publisher or journal, page or section, URL, and access date while the source is open. Never cite an AI answer, search snippet, or citation you have not checked against the original.
Or hand it to Pally
Free to start. No app to install.
A practical approach
What to do.
- 01
Narrow the question
Rewrite the topic as one answerable question with a population, place, time, or comparison when those details matter. Then list the background facts, definitions, evidence, and competing explanations your answer will need. This outline becomes a search plan and exposes terms that require definition. Narrowing can exclude useful adjacent material, so keep a parking-lot note for sources that may matter later without letting them pull the first search away from the assigned question.
- 02
Search for source types
Search for the kind of evidence each claim needs. Use scholarly databases for peer-reviewed work, government or institutional sites for official data and rules, and primary documents for what an organization or person said. Add exact phrases, dates, file types, and site filters to reduce noise. AI search can suggest terms and candidate links quickly, but it may mix strong and weak evidence, so treat its result as discovery rather than authority.
- 03
Open the original
Read the abstract or summary, methods, relevant result, and limitations before using a source. Check who produced it, when it was published, what population or data it covers, and whether the quoted finding matches your claim. Follow citations backward when a news article or review points to earlier evidence. This verification is the slowest part of fast research, but skipping it creates citations that look credible while supporting a different conclusion, year, or group.
- 04
Capture citation details
Save the full citation as soon as a source earns a place in your work. Record the exact page, table, figure, or section beside a one-sentence note explaining what it supports. Store the file or stable link in a citation manager or organized folder. Import tools can misread names, dates, and capitalization, so compare every generated citation with the source before submission. A clean record now prevents a last-minute search for a passage you remember but cannot locate.
- 05
Build claims from notes
Draft from your source notes rather than from open browser tabs or an AI summary. Put a citation immediately after the sentence it supports, distinguish your inference from the source's direct finding, and include disagreement when credible sources conflict. Before submitting, open every citation from the draft and confirm the link, author, date, and supporting passage. This final pass takes time, but it catches broken links, citation drift, and confident statements that outran the evidence.
The Pally option
The short version: text Pally
Pally can search the live web and work through real websites from a text request, which makes it useful for finding an initial set of sources or answering a focused factual question. It also connects to Docs and Drive for context you choose to provide. Open every original source yourself and verify the citation before using it in academic work.
Options
Other tools people use
Fair alternatives, including ones that overlap with Pally.
Google Scholar
Google Scholar fits students who need broad discovery across papers, books, theses, and citations.
Search results still require access checks and careful evaluation of source quality and relevance.
Zotero
Zotero fits students who need to collect sources, attach notes, and generate bibliographies across projects.
Imported metadata can be wrong, so every citation still needs a comparison with the original source.
ChatGPT
ChatGPT fits students who want strong general research help, file analysis, and explanations while developing a question.
Its output must be checked against the original sources before any claim or citation enters an assignment.
Perplexity
Perplexity fits students who want web answers with links that make source discovery faster.
A linked page may not support the exact wording of the generated answer, so verification remains necessary.
Questions
Frequently asked questions.
Can I cite ChatGPT or another AI assistant?+
Follow your instructor's policy for disclosing AI use. For factual claims, cite the original source that you read and verified rather than treating the generated answer as evidence.
How can I tell whether a source is primary?+
A primary source presents the original data, document, testimony, artifact, or official statement you are analyzing. A summary of someone else's work is secondary even when it links to the original.
What if a paper is behind a paywall?+
Search your college library, the author's institutional page, and repositories for a lawful copy. Ask a librarian or use interlibrary loan when access remains blocked.
How many sources does an assignment need?+
Use the instructor's requirement as the floor. Beyond that, include enough independent evidence to support the claims you make and address meaningful disagreement.
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