Dear librarian...

...when have I got enough references?

There's three or four questions I get asked every year by every group I see;

1. Why haven't we got every book ever written?
2. Why don't you answer my emails within 10 seconds of me sending them?
3. Where do you buy your fabulous clothes?

And 4. When have I got enough references?
That's the tricky one.

The answer I give is always imprecise and maddening- "when you've got enough academic sources to answer the question originally posed". And that is the only answer I can give. The reason for this is simple in that for some assignments 10 references might do the job, whereas others may require four times that amount.

What I will say is this - if, during the searching phase, you reach the point where no matter what keywords you use you're still not finding anything new, then you've probably found everything useful already.

At that point stop looking for anything else and get on with writing the thing.

As a final piece of advice remember the 'find stuff, read stuff' suggestion.

Oh, and the answer to question 3 is Next. You're welcome.