This course is asynchronous, with content organized into five weekly modules. Each module includes videos, presentations, readings, and discussion forums covering different topics.

Introduction Module – What do reporters and editors need to know about research?

Welcome! In the introductory module, you will get an overview of the course structure and meet the instructors, Barbara Gray and John O’Neil. They will provide an overview of the course and will discuss how research should be part of the work of every reporter and editor, how it can play a role in breaking news coverage as well as features, and how it can cover everything from pinning down the spelling of a name to wading into academic journals. You can also review the course’s introductory reading materials.

This module will cover:

• What do we mean by research?
• Research can fulfill several crucial roles in journalism: patch up narrative gaps, verify facts amid conflicting accounts, generate leads and story concepts, and enrich stories with valuable context, historical perspective, and intricate details.
• Key concepts like a research plan, a document mindset, interrogating one’s sources
• A brief history of research in journalism (scarcity to overflow, plus what hasn’t changed)
• How research fits into newsroom business models and into the fight against misinformation

Module 1: Everyday research, tools and concepts

Research shouldn’t be thought of as something “special” or “extra” that’s rolled out only for big projects. Regular news stories benefit from robust research skills as well. After all, the goal is to find out as much as you can in the time you have. This module looks at techniques you can use day in and day out, and habits that will bolster all of your reporting. We’ll discuss research you can do before news breaks to speed research when it does. We’ll talk about creating a research plan and specific tips and tools for getting the most out of search engines. And we’ll go over what you might call a research version of the five W’s: What am I trying to find out? Where can I look? Who can help me? What do I do with what I’ve learned (especially when it’s not when I expected)? What do I do if I’m stumped?

This module will cover:

• Research prep: Building a roster of experts, sources and resources on your beat
• Making a research plan
• Search engine tips (Google) and search tips on using commercial resources (available via libraries)
• Mixing ‘cocktails’ of sources
• Finding academic articles and experts
• Adaptability – changing directions as you learn more
• Organizing your research – Try Anybox: https://anybox.app/getting-started. If you are working on investigations, use a folder system on your computer.

Module 2: Data and statistics

Maybe the biggest change that’s come with the internet is access to oceans of data and statistics, but making sense of those possibilities requires a different set of skills and tools. And a different approach: data searches can be used to plug holes in stories or add depth, but also as a springboard for coming up with new questions and new lines of reporting. We’ll talk about using open data, often from government sources, but also about how to use various kinds of freedom of information requests to free data up, and how to tap into non-governmental sources. Finally, we’ll discuss how to interrogate your data: how to evaluate its credibility, assess its methodologies and figure out what questions to use it to ask.

This module will cover:

• How datasets are compiled
• How to evaluate datasets and data sources
• Finding the data you need
• Using data to come up with new story ideas

Module 3: Deeper dives: documents and creating your own datasets

What does it mean to have a document mindset? It’s the idea of using public records and paper trails to expose systemic problems and hold people accountable. And it’s crucial to most projects that try to go deeper than you can with most daily or even standard enterprise stories. Documents provide greater clarity and certainty – if you know how to find them, evaluate them and use them. We’ll discuss including documents in your research plan and see what critical thinking skills we need to apply here. And we’ll share practical tips on finding documents on companies, both public and private, on people, organizations, and governments.

This module will cover:

• What documents are – how who produces them, and why, can shape their content
• Getting a sense of what questions in your coverage documents might answer
• Finding documents: court records, archives, SEC filings, nonprofit form 990s, government documents
• Filing Freedom of Information Requests.
• Annotating documents and other ways to share them with readers
• Creating your own datasets

Module 4: Fact-checking your research

You want to get the story, but you want to get the story right. Especially because nothing feels worse than having weeks of work undermined by a minor error – or a major one! – that could have been caught. And this hard truth has never been truer: You are your own fact checker. It’s rarer and rarer to have the kind of safety net that at least some writers had to fall back on. So let’s learn how to do this right, starting with building fact checking into your research plan and with some key steps: challenge your hypothesis at the outset to find its weak points; correct errors as you go; double-check the basics (numbers, dates, names), and keep great records of your research.

This module will cover:

• How to avoid inadvertent plagiarism
• Fact-checking secondary vs primary sources
• How to corroborate a source
• Fact-checking on deadline
• What to do when sources are in conflict
• Being transparent
• The importance of corrections (especially correct corrections!)
• Newmark J-Schools Accuracy Checklist for Reporters