how to search literature for research

Abstract. Undertaking a literature search can be a daunting prospect. Breaking the exercise down into smaller steps will make the process more manageable. This article suggests 10 steps that will help readers complete this task, from identifying key concepts to choosing databases for the search and saving the results and search strategy.

A literature search is distinguished from, but integral to, a literature review. Literature reviews are conducted for the purpose of (a) locating information on a topic or identifying gaps in the literature for areas of future study, (b) synthesising conclusions in an area of ambiguity and (c) helping clinicians and researchers inform decision-making and practice guidelines.

Specific proximity symbols will vary. Check the 'Help' section of the database you are searching. 4. Improve your search results. All library databases are different and you can't always search and refine in the same way. Try to be consistent when transferring your search in the library databases you have chosen.

Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. Search across a wide variety of disciplines and sources: articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions.

To guide your search development, you can follow the search steps below. For more information on each step, navigate to its matching tab on the right menu. 1. Formulate a clear, well-defined, answerable search question. Generally, the basic literature search process begins with formulating a clear, well-defined research question.

Step 1 - Search for relevant literature. Before you begin searching for literature, you need a clearly defined topic. If you are writing the literature review section of a dissertation or research paper, you will search for literature related to your research problem and questions.

Finding sources (scholarly articles, research books, dissertations, etc.) for your literature review is part of the research process. This process is iterative, meaning you repeat and modify searches until you have gathered enough sources for your project. The main steps in this research process are:

A literature search is a systematic, thorough search of a range of literature (for example books, peer-reviewed articles, etc.) on your topic. Commonly you will be asked to undertake literature searches as part of your Level 3 and postgraduate study. It is important before undertaking any research to fully understand the shape of the literature ...

Combine your search terms logically using AND/OR (Boolean Operators) Find database-specific subject heading(s) and create textword queries for each search concept: Select appropriate database(s) Use a structured, methodologically rigorous approach to conduct your search: Supplement your search with pearl-growing, handsearching, and grey literature

If you are interested in collaborating with a Lane Medical Librarian on a review project, please submit a literature search request. Data management and sharing is a component of Open Science, which aims to make scientific research more transparent and accessible. Proper data management and sharing benefit you as an individual and the research ...

1. Determine a clear and focused question. A systematic search can best be applied to a well-defined and precise research or clinical question. Questions that are too broad or too vague cannot be answered easily in a systematic way and will generally result in an overwhelming number of search results.

Literature Search: Process Flow. Develop a research question in a specific subject area. Make a list of relevant databases and texts you will search. Make a list of relevant keywords and phrases. Start searching and make notes from each database to keep track of your search. Review the literature and compile all the results into a report.

Research databases. You can search for scholarly sources online using databases and search engines like Google Scholar. These provide a range of search functions that can help you to find the most relevant sources. If you are searching for a specific article or book, include the title or the author's name. Alternatively, if you're just ...

Finding The Literature. Research literature is vast. In the English language alone, over 2.5 million articles are published in peer reviewed journals each year. Sifting through the books and journals to find the most relevant research is challenging, but some of the resources on this page can help you. To start, write down your research ...

Five steps for literature search success. There are several steps involved in conducting a literature search. You may discover more along the way, but these steps will provide a good foundation. Plan using PICO (T) to develop your clinical question and formulate a search strategy. Identify a database to search.

Literature search. Fink has defined research literature review as a "systematic, explicit and reproducible method for identifying, evaluating, and synthesizing the existing body of completed and recorded work produced by researchers, scholars and practitioners."[]Review of research literature can be summarized into a seven step process: (i) Selecting research questions/purpose of the ...

A literature search is a systematic, thorough search of all types of published literature to identify a breadth of good quality references relevant to a specific topic, and is a fundamental element of the methodology of any research project. The success of a research project is dependent on a thorough review of the academic literature at the ...

Literature Search • Cites References - the research that a paper cites • Times Cited - more recently published papers that cite the paper • Related Records - papers which share at least one cited reference in common with the paper. If they share citations, they'relikely discussing similar topics. This is perfect for finding ...

So what is a "winning literature search"? Simply put, it is one that provides you with the information you need to find the types of articles that will help you with clinical practice or research. Literature searching is a combination of an art and a science. Understanding the basic anatomy and physiology of searching can get you started on ...

Gray Literature. Gray Literature is the term for information that falls outside the mainstream of published journal and mongraph literature, not controlled by commercial publishers. includes: hard to find studies, reports, or dissertations. conference abstracts or papers. governmental or private sector research.

Please click on the boxes below to get a bit more detail on each step. + STEP 1: Think about your search question 🎬. + STEP 2: Identify your key concepts. + STEP 3: Think about synonyms. + STEP 4: Choose the most appropriate databases to search. + STEP 5: Combine your search terms.

A literature review may consist of simply a summary of key sources, but in the social sciences, a literature review usually has an organizational pattern and combines both summary and synthesis, often within specific conceptual categories.A summary is a recap of the important information of the source, but a synthesis is a re-organization, or a reshuffling, of that information in a way that ...

Although it may provide scholarly or professional articles in a list of search results, the academic publishers that provide content may have a paywall where readers may be asked to pay to see it. Google Scholar is designed to search academic, research, and governmental web pages. However, it has limited ability to directly search specialized ...

Identifying critical research within the growing body of academic work is an essential element of quality research. Systematic review processes, used in evidence-based medicine, formalise this as a procedure that must be followed in a research program. However, it comes with an increasing burden in terms of the time required to identify the important articles of research for a given topic. In ...

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Abstract. Literature search is a key step in performing good authentic research. It helps in formulating a research question and planning the study. The available published data are enormous; therefore, choosing the appropriate articles relevant to your study in question is an art. It can be time-consuming, tiring and can lead to disinterest or ...

This search will also return results for articles within journals. 1. Enter your search terms and click the green "Search" button to search WorldCat Discovery. By default, the system will use a keyword search looking for your terms across the entire catalog of the Lyman Beecher Brooks Library and libraries world-wide.

SURI Block 3 - Leveraging Literature Reviews. Scholarly publications come in many forms and formats. The most well-known is probably the "original research article," for example, a case study. However, literature reviews are different because sometimes they are part of an original research articles, and sometimes they are published on their ...

As such, our objective was to conduct a systematic critical review of the literature on STI disclosure, summarize limitations and omissions within this literature, and identify essential areas for future research. The goal of a systematic review is to search, appraise, and synthesize the research on a given topic (Grant & Booth, Citation 2009).

Further, the study does not provide a comprehensive assessment of the available literature but rather offers an overview of past and present research being conducted in the field of thermoplastic composites. The information provided may be used to identify gaps and help guide future research and development.