How to find information for science or health based literature reviews

Make your literature review stand out and impress your peers and academics!

One way to do this is to show you know who the key researchers, publications and papers are in relation to your literature review.

Databases like Scopus and Web of Science offer search results analysis which can help you do this.

This is a feature of databases that will really help with your literature review. It can save you time and help you connect to the literature very quickly.

You can analyse your search results within these databases to discover:

• Which authors published the most papers in your list of results.
• Which journals contain the most relevant articles related to your literature search.
• Which organisations the authors were affiliated with.
• The geographical distribution of papers across the world.

This can help you identify:

• Authors whose work you may want to read. 
• Journals you should be looking at.
• Organisations you could search for.

How can I find the feature in each database?

• In Scopus, the feature is called - Analyse Search Results.
• In Web of Science, the feature is called Analyse Results.

Databases often have other helpful features to direct you to more literature related to the topic you searched for.

Take a look around the database results screen to see what suggestions the database is making. These are often described as:

• latest articles related articles recommended articles.
• article suggestions.
• top articles. 
• related searches. 
• times cited/cited. 

Using these options can quickly help you find associated literature with no additional searching required!

Congratulations you have completed the seventh step.

Time to take a break - get creative, try drawing!