Research Tutorial

The 'publication timeline' describes how long it takes for different types of sources to be published after an event takes place. 

You may have trouble finding in-depth resources on a topic if the event has taken place too recently. 

Example: A hurricane touches down in Eastern Canada.

• Immediately - people post videos and photos to social media. News outlets pick up the story and report live.
• Over the next few days and weeks - online and print news sources publish articles discussing the disaster.
• After a few months - researchers publish academic articles linking the event to climate change.
• A year later - an academic book on climate change is published that contains a chapter dedicated to this event.
• Eventually - encyclopedias and reference materials include short descriptions of the event. 

It's important to understand the publication timeline to help you choose appropriate sources for your research topic. 

Interactive Timeline

Click on the Information buttons on the publlication timeline below to learn when different source types are published.

Some sources are listed multiple times because they have various publication cycles.

Unless otherwise noted, this guide is licensed under a CC BY-SA 4.0 (Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License).