How to find information for science or health based literature reviews

One you have chosen your literature review topic, you need to carry out initial searches.

Use Library Search to run an initial search. Type a few keywords into Library Search that relate to your proposed topic.

Here are two searches - one for honey and one for silver:

• honey AND wound*
• silver AND wound*

Use search techniques to make your searches as comprehensive as they need to be.  Use the * symbol at the end of words that have plurals or alternative word endings:

• wound* will find wound, wounds, wounding - this technique is called truncation. 

We may decide that truncation adds too many irrelevant items and choose not to use it in additional searches but we only know this if we try the approach.

• AND between keywords narrows your search and will only find information with both keywords.

You can see how the search looks in the Simple Search below:

When you search Library Search, you are searching almost everything within the Library collections and this is why the search results can be so large.

Both searches were run on the 11th July 2024 and we now have an idea of how much literature has been written in relation to silver and honey.

 Activity 1: Find out how much literature is available related to silver and wound*  /   honey and wound*.

You can do this by clicking on the search links below.

Our initial search show us that there are more results about silver than there are about honey.

We can now filter our search and improve its relevancy.

Try the following approaches and you can apply multiple filters.

• use the Library Search filters to focus on the information you need.
• use the article filter to limit your results to journal articles.
• use the online filter to limit your results to online articles.
• use the peer-reviewed journal filter to restrict your results to peer reviewed articles.
• use the publication date slider. Think currency of content and do you need to find everything back to 1600?!

Scoping searches are those first set of searches for information you run to find out more about your topic.

We use scoping searches to experiment with different search terms and techniques to see what returns the most relevant results. These are important searches as the results of these searches should help you answer the following questions:

• Is there enough literature to write a literature review? Sometimes, there is not enough literature and it may be necessary to adjust your literature review. If you find yourself in this position, get advice from one of your academics!  

• Can you access the information you need? Use the free Document Supply Service to request books and articles we do not have in the Library Collection.

• Does the information you need exist? Is the information in public domain? If you need academic papers, has the topic been covered by academics?

• Are you still interested in the topic after reading a few papers?

You may need to amend the focus of your literature review. For example, there may be too much literature to review or there may be too little literature to review... but we will not know until we run those scoping searches!

Our scoping search

We have used Library Search as the search covers almost all the resources the Library provides access to. We could have chosen other resources like Web of Science, Scopus or Cinahl to run the scoping searches but for these initial searches we wanted to use Library Search. 

It is wise to choose a resource that has a lot of content to help gauge the volume of information that exist  in our chosen subject.

Library Search, Web of Science and Scopus are our three largest databases and this makes them a useful starting point for searches.

Please bear in mind, it is not possible to use Library Search to search within SciFinder. If you need to use SciFinder, you would have to go to the database and search it individually. This database is a key resource for chemists.

The search cycle

Researching for the literature review information has different steps and we may been to refine a search before you find the information you need to write your review. 

 Activity 2: Watch the one minute video which takes you through literature searching steps.

From your search results, choose a couple of resources to read.

We recommend you read around before confirming your literature review topic to make sure you are still interested in the topic and understand the literature you are working with.

Depending on your level of subject knowledge about your literature review, you could choose:

• relevant section of a textbook.
• specialist book.
• review article.
• original research paper.
• another resource type in your search results that is relevant.

When you begin searching, you will may find new article types. The database, PubMed, has a really useful Help page that describes the range of article types within PubMed. The list is not definitive but it will provide a good overview!

We would choose a couple of review articles in relation to honey or silver from our search results. 

A review article on a subject is particularly useful at this point as it will give you a snapshot of what is happening in this field of research. Remember if there are concepts or terms you are unsure about - look them up in Access Science!

We recommend you engage with your reading by making notes and highlighting useful information. 

Here are a few books to help you find out more about making notes and using your reading in your writing.

After searching Library Search, we recommend you carry out in-depth searches in relevant specialist databases.

We recommend this as the search features in the databases allow you to search in depth and have additional features that can help with your literature review.

Some databases allow you to refine your search by different criteria.  As well as selecting the search terms, you may also need to consider the date range of material, type of research, the population involved and where possible peer review articles should be selected.

You can also sort and view your results in different way.  Different databases will offer different sort features for example: 

• cited by values
• relevancy
• date
• title of publication
• usage
• author order

What is a specialist resource e.g. a database?

A database is an online resource that organises information in a way that makes it possible to search the information easily and effectively. You have access to many databases through the Library, each of which let you carry out sophisticated and thorough searches within particular subject areas. Many of these databases concentrate on journal articles, but others include or focus on other sources. 

Information from many of these databases can be searched via Library Search. However, searching individual databases will usually let you carry out much more precise or complex searches than a general purpose search tool like Library Search or Google Scholar. You may find running your literature searches in the databases yields fewer results but the results may be more specific and relevant!

How can I find my specialist databases?

Take a look on your subject guide. These guides are written by your subject librarian and are designed to help you find and use specific academic resources. 

Be selective and read what you need.

Reading is a life long skill but reading for academic purposes is different to reading for fun:

• You don't always read the textbook from cover to cover. You may only need to read one or two relevant chapters.

• You sometimes dip into sections of the journal article before you decide to commit to reading the full paper.

• To help you decide if the paper is something you need to read, read the abstract, the conclusion and the discussion. If it still is relevant, read the first and last lines of each paragraph. Still relevant, make a drink and start reading!

• If you are planning to cite and referencing a piece of information,  we do recommend you read it in full!

• To help with understanding, you can make notes or you may highlight sections or words to help you remember the key points.

  Activity 3: Choose a resource focusing on helping you with academic reading.

Books have multiple uses - great for consolidating understanding and helping decode journal articles!

Books tend to represent established theory and state of knowledge. However this may not always be the case as some books may be written to challenge established theory or may be suggesting alternative models, highlighting new findings or trying to persuade you to change or modify your view! 

Books are useful to use in tandem with journal articles. We can look back to textbooks to make sure we understand a concept or process that a journal article has referred to but not covered in detail.

Books are great places to get an overview of a subject but tend not to be as up to date a journal articles. The publication process for books tend to be slower than the publication cycle for journal articles.

From looking in Library Search, here are a few books, we may take a look at to check developments in the field:

You many need more than academic papers and need to explore other sources of information. Technical, regulatory or legal information can be found quicker if you search the resource which hosts the information.

Here are are a range of sources that commonly appear in literature reviews depending on the literature review topic:

• Grey literature.
• Clinical guidelines, evidence pathways or clinical trials.
• Manuals, handbooks and other technical data.
• Law reports and legislation.
• Standards or patents.
• Professional trade- or industry- specific magazines.
• Government publications.
• Statistical data.

In addition, some research may appear as a work-in-progress before it is formally published and/ or peer-reviewed. Sources that allow you can give you an advance view of upcoming research include: 

• Conference proceedings.
• Preprint servers and open access repositories.

Remember, whatever you use, you will still need to evaluate the information you find before you use it.

Use Library Search and databases with these and dissertation content.

The Library has two types of dissertation collections. We have a small selection of print dissertations which can be found using Library Search and online collections in specialist databases linked below.

You can find out how to search Library Search for dissertations and theses using the guide below: How to find dissertations within Library Search. You can also search for theses within the databases listed below.

Remember to check the degree level of the material you are referring to as this can vary.

You can find a concise overview of literature reviews in a range of study and research books.

Congratulations you have completed two steps.

Time to take a break - maybe time to grab a snack! You can get some cooking inspiration from the Get cooking with the Library curated list!