3. Build an exploratory information search

3.1 Iterative search method

Boolean information retrieval, encouraged by documentalists, presupposes the ability to formalize the purpose of the search. However, researchers don't always have a precise idea of what they're looking for from the outset, especially when they're doing a state-of-the-art study: their objective is bound to change over time. It is through successive investigations that he will gradually evolve his representation of the problem [2].

Iterative research methods allow the researcher to build up his query step by step, suggesting new avenues to enrich it. Like an orienteering race, at each stage the researcher is guided towards an objective that was unknown to him at the outset, or at least that he had difficulty in specifying....