Literature searching for your research project
2016/17
[email protected]
Focus of this session
• What is a comprehensive literature search?
• Planning your search
• Defining your research question
• Building your search strategy
• Techniques to improve your search and results
• Obtaining documents
• Keeping up to date/recording your searches
• Further help
What is a comprehensive
literature search?
• A thorough search of all
different types of literature
• Identifies the breadth and
depth of the existing evidence
• Exhaustive – doesn’t miss key
evidence
Stages of a literature search
1. Define your research question
2. Select appropriate databases/other
sources.
3. Build & save search strategies (iterative
process)
4. Run search strategies & export results
to reference management software e.g.
EndNote.
5. Record, record, record!
6. Keep up to date
Planning your search
Planning where you are going to search
• What type of literature review?
• Methodological? Qualitative? Quantitative? Systematic? Mixed?
–Books/journal articles/dissertations/government websites…
• What subject disciplines the research question includes
• Where do you need to look?
–Search@Library/catalogue/databases/web?
• Make a list of sources and search tools to work through methodically – and keep
track of what you do!
Where to search?
Building your search
Developing your search strategy
• Take your research question and break it down into its key
concepts.
• Find keywords for each major concept.
Is hypnotherapy a successful treatment for quitting smoking?
Breaking your research down into main concepts
Concept 1
Hypnotherapy
Concept 2
Smoking
Thinking of keywords
• Write down all the synonyms you can think of for each concept (including variant
spellings/endings, abbreviations) e.g.
–Smoking, tobacco, cigarettes etc.
These words and phrases will become the search terms you type into the
database
• If you need help thinking of synonyms:
–Use an online thesaurus
–Use basic search in a database (or Google Scholar) to look for relevant
papers > skim read to spot other language they use
Breaking your research down into main concepts
Concept 1
Concept 2
Hypnotherapy
Smoking
Hypnotherapy
Hypnosis
Trance
Smoking
Tobacco
Cigarettes
Nicotine
Combining search terms using Boolean – AND, OR
• Combine all the related keywords within one concept with OR
• Smoking OR cigarette OR tobacco…..
• To get a final collection of references on smoking and hypnosis,
combine the 2 concepts with AND
Advanced keyword searching – truncation and wildcards
• * (asterisk) truncates words to help you find variant endings
– hypno* = hypnosis, hypnotherapy, hypnotic
• ? Searches for a variable single character or no character at all.
Useful for British/American spellings
– behavio?r = behaviour or behaviour
• # Searches for a definite but variable single character
– organi#ation (may be z or s)
Advanced keyword searching - Adjacency searching
• Adjacency searching – finds words within a given distance from each
other
• Medline:
–adj1 – searches for 2 words next to each other in either order
–adj3 – searches for 2 words within x words of each other
• Hypnotherapy adj4 smoking will search for hypnotherapy and smoking within 4 words of
each other
• Web of Science:
–NEAR/x searches for two words within x words of each other
–NEAR defaults to searching within 15 words of each other
Finding full text
• Use the Check@Leeds button to see whether you can get access to
the article through the Library
Document
Supply
• Request books, journals, papers
and reports
• £5 contribution to cost (added to
your Library record)
SCONUL
• Use other University libraries
• Register online at
http://www.sconul.ac.uk/sconulaccess
• Visit the Boston Spa Reading Room
British Library to view items
(Boston Spa) • Before you visit, register online and
order up to 10 items to view
Recording your
searches and
keeping up to date
Saving your database searches and setting up alerts
• Set up personal accounts in databases and save all your searches
• You can select to have new articles, matching your saved search,
emailed to you when you save your searches
Reporting your search methods
As you search each source:
• List the names of sources, provider & date range searched.
• E.g. Medline (OVID) 1994-present.
• Note down the date you ran the search.
• Note any search limits applied: E.g. limited to English language.
Search methods text example
In July 2014 I searched for literature on opioid/opiate use and their effects on
shortening life in cancer patients. I searched ,Embase Classic+Embase (Ovid)
1947 to 2014 July 31; Ovid MEDLINE(R) 1946 to July Week 4
2014;…….. Please see Appendix 1 for full search strategies for each database
searched.
The electronic searches identified 737 references, 22 references were also found
from the research team’s own library. After duplicates were removed there were
494 references.
A further X studies were identified from citation tracking activities and scrutinising
the reference lists of included studies
Next steps
Consider using LUCID
• A specialist team of expert Information Specialists who are part of
the Library Research Support Team
• We work for researchers across the University on literature searches
for funded projects
• Cost us into your research bids
• We develop and execute searches and manage references through
EndNote including de-duplicating library.
• https://library.leeds.ac.uk/lucid
In your own time
Select appropriate databases/sources
to search
Remember each database is different
– check guides.
Keep saving and perfecting your
search strategies until you’re happy
with the results!
Further help
• Researcher@Library webpages:
https://library.leeds.ac.uk/researcher
• EndNote support webpages:
https://library.leeds.ac.uk/researcher-endnote
• Your library subject page
Further help
• Library workshops:
• EndNote
• Open Access
• SDDU support:
• http://www.sddu.leeds.ac.uk/researchinnovation/research-development-for-academicstaff/
Please give us your feedback on this session
https://leeds.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/literature-searching-for-staffsurvey
Practical – develop your own search strategy
• Review databases on your subject page
• Use the keywords from your search question concepts to build your
search strategy
• Search a relevant database
• Use flow chart to refine results
15 mins