AQA 7042 · C3.08 - Independent research: finding, checking and using a range of resources
Learn how to find, verify and consult a useful range of historical resources, then make your own decisions about using them. You will practise by auditing a wholly fictional research trail, keeping that exercise separate from any live Historical Investigation.
Finding is not consulting
Historical research moves through four different states. Keeping them separate prevents a promising lead from turning into a false citation.
| State | What has happened | What may honestly be recorded |
|---|---|---|
| Found | A title, catalogue entry, abstract, footnote, search result or AI suggestion has pointed towards an item. | “Lead located”; record where it was found and the next check needed. |
| Checked | The item has been independently confirmed: its author or creator, title, date, edition or repository record and access route agree. | “Existence and details verified”; this still does not claim the whole item was read. |
| Consulted | The student has personally opened or obtained the relevant material and engaged with it. | State exactly what was consulted: for example, a whole article, a named chapter, specified pages, an abstract or a catalogue description. |
| Used | The student has decided how verified material bears on the historical question and has acknowledged it accurately. | Record the relevant claim or evidence, its precise location, its function and any limitation that matters. |
These four labels are a practical note-taking aid, not separate AQA assessment categories. Record uncertainty honestly: a failed verification means an item is not yet usable evidence, not proof that it can never exist.
An abstract may be consulted without the article being consulted. An archive catalogue description may be consulted without the document in the archive being consulted. Precise wording protects both the accuracy of the research record and the student's authorship.
Build a purposeful range
AQA expects students to consult a range of resources, which may include textbooks, course books and work by academic historians. Range is not a quota of impressive-looking titles. It is useful when different resources do different jobs and when one item can expose the limits or errors of another.
| Resource role | What it can contribute | A sensible caution |
|---|---|---|
| Orientation | A textbook, course book or reference work can establish terminology, chronology and starting bibliographies. | It is a route into research, not automatically the strongest authority for every disputed claim. |
| Academic debate | A scholarly book, chapter or journal article can reveal an historian's argument, evidence and engagement with other scholarship. | Confirm academic authorship and publication details; do not trust a citation merely because it looks scholarly. |
| Primary or contemporary material | A library, archive, museum or digitised collection can lead to evidence produced in or close to the period. | A catalogue description is not the document itself, and access must be checked before use. |
| Discovery and verification | Bibliographies, footnotes, library catalogues and academic databases can lead from a broad overview to more specialised material. | A discovery tool identifies possibilities; it does not replace the underlying work. |
A practical search normally widens before it narrows. Begin with the key concepts and date range of a fictional or practice question, use reliable overview material to learn alternative terms, follow bibliographies and catalogue subjects, then check which items are genuinely accessible. At each step, ask what new function the item would serve. Five books repeating the same overview may provide less useful range than a smaller set that supplies orientation, differing scholarship and traceable evidence.
Verify before use
Before material can support historical reasoning, check both its identity and the claim you intend to make from it.
- Confirm the item exists. Match author or creator, full title, publication or creation date, publisher, journal, edition, DOI, library record or repository reference as appropriate.
- Open the relevant material. Do not rely on a search snippet, an AI summary, a quotation aggregator, a contents page or a catalogue description as though it were the underlying item.
- Check the exact location. Record the chapter, page, folio, document reference, stable URL and access date needed to find the material again.
- Read around the point. A sentence separated from its surrounding argument can reverse or flatten what the author meant. Note what the item actually claims or shows, not what a discovery tool says it claims.
- Cross-check consequential claims. If a date, quotation, attribution or striking claim will carry part of the reasoning, test it against the underlying source and, where appropriate, another authoritative work.
An honest blank research record might use these fields:
| Date | Exact item and location | Status | What I personally checked | Possible function | Next action |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| lead / checked / consulted / rejected | orientation / scholarship / evidence / verification |
Complete records as the work happens. Never add page numbers, consultation dates, quotations or reading claims later merely to make a trail look complete. If access failed, record that failure and the next step rather than pretending the item was read.
AQA publishes further Historical Investigation guidance and exemplar material through its official subject pages. Use the current documents alongside your centre's instructions when checking the requirements.
AI has a narrow place inside this sequence. Current AQA History guidance permits uses such as preliminary background research, identifying possible sources and producing a summary to aid understanding, subject to the centre's policy. The named sources must still be independently found, opened and verified; AI must not select or evaluate the primary sources or historical interpretations for the assessed investigation, and AI-generated wording must not replace the student's own analysis. Any AI assistance must be acknowledged using the current AQA, JCQ and centre requirements, including the tool and version, access link and date, prompts or searches, annotated screenshots showing the tool's use and generated outputs, relevant settings and an explanation of how the assistance was used.
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