Science & Technology
Literature Search
Conducting a literature
review –
Very important part of what we do, write many papers, not
much time to waste reading things that is not important
-
Doing a lit. search well will save you time in the long run
ALSO, A LIT SEARCH WILL
Broadens your knowledge on a topic
Exposes you to new research in your area of interest
Expands your knowledge on a topic
Shows your skill at finding relevant information
When doing a lit. review
Shows ability to stay focused on research question
Not get side tracked
Allows for critical appraisal of research
Identify valid research studies
Weed through non-relevant articles
BUT BEFORE YOU START YOUR SERACH THERE ARE A FEW THINGS
YOU HAVE TO KEEP IN MIND
FIRST begin with . . . . .
Clear idea of what you are researching
Keeps you focused – on track
too often we get sidetracked with other things that are
interesting
ALSO researchers differ in their
terminology
if
you search only one term you may miss out some more things
for
example:
Unmarried fertility =
out-of-wedlock childbearing = single mothers = non-marital births
So, it is important to have a search strategy….
FIRST
Set limits on your search
What is your perspective?
Theoretical
If the end product is a theory paper - look at article that are more theoretical
not is says
“explore new methods”
ON THE OTHER HAND
Methodological approaches
Stay away from articles that says “theoretical perspectives’
ALSO important
to consider….
Will it it
tie to policy
Does it use
any new statistical procedures?
Macro or
micro level
What are you going to contribute to the literature?
What makes your work important – different?
If it a new method?
Are you incorporating different measures?
Is it a better dataset?
SO important to know what others have done before you
in terms of what is relevant to your paper
Check syllabus from classes
Who are the big players?
If you have to read 20 articles - do not waste your time reading some random work
First read the big names
Searching tools TO MAKE IT EASIER
Truncated
Marr* = married, marriage, marital, marry
Boolean logic - Can
narrow search to specific terms or broaden to include variations on terms
Use OR, NOT, AND to be specific in search
Eg. marriage NOT t divorce
SO WHAT TYPES OF LITERATURE ARE YOU LOOKING FOR?
THERE ARE MANY DIFFERENT TYPES OF LITERATURE
INCLUDE: Articles
Peer-reviewed
so know they are good
Current
Ground
breaking/new methods/etc
Short
Easier
to find than books because most online
Reviews and commentaries
Respond
to article
Critique
articles
Show
limitations and other perspectives
Reviews
Condense
most important research in area
Organizes
by categories
Provides a
reading list
e.g.
American Review of Sociology,
Journal of Marriage and the Family Nov 2004
Another type ….
Books
Topic books (e.g.
Delinquency, migration, etc)
Tend
to cover one subject completely
More
specific
SIMILARLY
Handbooks (e.g. Handbook of the Family)
Cover
the general ideas in the area
Includes
some theory relevant to the area
Includes
prominent methods
Includes
examples of works that illustrate the methods and theory used in area
Theory books (e.g. Social
Learning Theory)
Theory
specific
Applied
to many areas (family, delinquency, etc)
ALSO….
Online reports
Census
Research institutes,
Gov agencies NSFG, etc
Report on datasets
Be careful!
Check sources for biases
SO WHERE
DO YOU FIND LITERATURE?
Library
Hard copies of books and journals -
Interlibrary loan
The library is also Online
Download articles
Search for citations of popular articles
Academic search premier
Search for articles in journals
Search by journal name
If you only want articles published in Social Forces
Search by journal name
Online catalog
Find out what books we have
WEbOPAC catalog
If we do not have a book . . . . .
Get it from another library
Not interlibrary loan?
Add to folder and print later or add to reference tool
Click on the title opens an abstract
ALSO “Find more like this”
Times cited in database -
See which
articles are good - cited 200 times
also see what was done with the article
Narrow by subject
CLICK ON Find It!
Links to full version of the paper
Looking for the Wilson
article in social forces - can search just for social forces
CHECK DATES!!!!!
Not all links cover the same years
Eg..
JSTOR = only up to 2005
Project
MUSE only goes back to 2000
Internet
Online journals
Shortcuts to articles
Eg.
Google scholar
Limited to only scholarly articles,
books
Websites
Can give reports, summaries of findings, and links to
important documents
Eg. Government websites
Census reports
Eg. Department of health
Department
of education
Eg. Research Institutes
Find
reports from prominent data sources
Eg. . NSF reports
Be
careful with information from internet
Check
source of information
NEXT, A VERY HELPFUL SITE…
Sometimes the title opens to a full text link
But best to find it
with Online Links
Also
Try opening all versions
Some may link to full text
CAN ALSO
Link to articles that cited the work
Link to related articles
Can also
Does a general web search?
Perhaps find article on the author’s website?
Is it relevant to your research?
Interesting, but does it help
Is the study significant?
Contributions
Clearly defined focus, research question?
Strengths and weaknesses
Study’s
components?
Adequate
data,
Sample
size,
Limitations,
Conceptualization
of the concepts, etc
Theories, methods used?
ARE THEY RELEVANT TO YOUR RESEARCH?
Other perspectives that apply?
Other methods that could be use
Different theoretical approaches
Is the research/researcher biased by emotions or public
opinion?
Language = emotions
Who is target audience?
Public, academic peers, policy makers?
Might influence the way the data and results are presented
There may be others that show a different perspectives
How to conduct an effective and valid literature search
A literature search is a well
thought out and organised search for all of the literature published on a
topic. A well-structured literature search is the most effective and efficient
way to locate sound evidence on the subject you are researching. Evidence may
be found in books, journals, government documents and the internet. This
article describes the key principles involved in conducting a literature
search.Harvard, L. (2007) How to conduct an effective and valid literature search. This is an extended version of the article published in Nursing Times; 103: 45, 32-33.
Lori Havard BSc, MLS, is Subject Librarian, School of Health Science and School of Medicine, Swansea University
Creating a question
Creating a well-focused question is the first step in a literature search. Having a clear idea of what you are researching will keep you on track with your searching, saving you valuable time. A focused question will give you a better start with your search because it will help you determine appropriate keywords and limitations for your topic.
When forming your question, make sure you are specific about your research topic. Things to consider are:
·
The
type of your topic
·
The
condition or situation you are researching;
·
The type
of intervention or actual procedure you are investigating.
This is a good time also to
determine limitations to your search, such as:
·
How
many years you want to go back in the literature; you may want to limit the
years to make the search more manageable or up to date, while capturing key information
for your research.;
·
Language:
are you limiting the search to sources in the English language?
·
Geographical
specifity, for example, limited to eg. ; Sri Lanka or EU or to include international
literature.
Sources of informationInformation can come from many sources, in print or electronically.
Books
Books can be a good start on a topic, giving you general or specific information. Check that the book you are referring to is up to date – generally, this means published within the last five years – especially if you are looking for clinical or drug information.
You can find books on your area of research in an Academic or Special library. Consult with the Librarian to help you find any books that you need.
Journals
Journal articles are one of the best sources of information as they can be selected for being current and specific. Additionally, most of the important and ground-breaking research is published in journals. Journal articles are best found using citation databases, such as HINARI and EBSCO
Your search strategy can be used in all databases. Each database has some unique searching features. Your local library may hold sessions on how to search these databases or have guides to help you get started. Many databases have help screens or tutorials to help you familiarise yourself with their searching interface.
There are many types of articles and you need to be aware of the differences:
·
Research
articles, including systematic reviews, are the best source of evidence;
·
Review
articles give a summary of research articles on a topic;
·
Commentaries
and opinion pieces can include interpretations on research or letters to the
editor and editorials;
·
Case
studies are a type of research that focuses on one person or situation, as
opposed to a group of studies.
It is important to look for
research in peer-reviewed journals. This means that the articles published have
passed through peer critiquing before they are accepted for publication. This
ensures that the articles have had some quality control.Internet
Internet sources are an invaluable source of evidence. A lot of research and statistics are published on the internet, especially those sponsored by government, academic and non-for-profit agencies.
Useful information, such as clinical guidance and government policy, is available in full and is free to download.
Be extra careful in evaluating sites, as anyone can put information on the internet. There are good Web Portals, such as Intute (www.intute.ac.uk) which serve as Gateways to the Internet. These Portals provide links to websites that have been reviewed by subject specialists in a particular subject.
The internet is an excellent source to find official publications in full. Sites such as British Official Publications Current Awareness Service / www.bopcris.ac.uk/bopcas (BOPCAS), The Stationery Office (www.tso.co.uk) and the UK Department of Health (www.dh.gov.uk) provide links to government documents.
The National Library for Health (www.library.nhs.uk) gathers guidelines, standards and various sources of evidence, as do NHS sites from home nations, for example, Health of Wales Information Service (HOWIS) (www.wales.nhs.uk) and Scottish Health on the Web (www.show.scot.nhs.uk).
Statistics are an important part of research and are widely available on the internet. The Office of National Statistics (www.statistics.gov.uk) contains a lot of information on health and social conditions in the UK.
Creating a search strategy
A search strategy is a well thought out plan to search for information. It is particularly important when using electronic citation databases, for example, CINAHL, BNI, Medline or ASSIA, as it keeps you focused on your topic and within the boundaries of what you want to search.
Key words and phrases
Your search strategy will take your research question and break it into keywords or phrases. Keywords and phrases are very important to your search. Sometimes it is best to think around a topic as much as possible to identify useful terms.
Many people find it useful to create a chart with the keywords and any synonyms you can think of or similar terms. You can also truncate your words or insert wildcards to expand your search (Box 1).
Box 1. Truncated and wildcard words
Truncate means finding the base of a word to find any
words that begin with that base: Nurs* = nurse, nurses, nursing, nursery.
Wildcards are symbols you use to replace one or more
characters in a word: Wom?n = woman or women.
|
Box 2 provides an example of a chart used to explore handwashing compliance by nurses.
Box 2. Example of chart for researching handwashing compliance by nurses
| Handwash* Complian* Nurs* Hand wash* Non-complian* Hand hygiene |
Now that you have your terms along with their synonyms, truncations and wildcards, you can start putting them together.
Boolean logic is the way to put terms together in a search by using AND, OR, NOT.
AND
Narrows your search by making sure that all your terms show up in an article.
Example: handwash* AND complian* AND nurs* would bring back articles that relate to handwashing and compliance and nursing - including all the truncated forms of the words.
OR
Broadens your search by allowing any of the terms to show up in an article; it is also useful for linking together synonyms.
Example: handwash* OR hand wash* OR hand hygiene would bring back articles with handwashing and its synonyms.
If you are using terms and synonyms together in a database or Internet search, you must put these in brackets.
Example: (handwash* OR hand wash* OR hand hygiene) AND (complian* OR non-complian*) AND nurs* .
NOT
Narrows your search by eliminating a term from your search.
Example: handwash* NOT alcohol gel would bring back articles on handwashing, but not articles on alcohol gels used in handwashing
Phrases
Phrase searching will help you if you are looking for a specific phrase or title. You need to put the phrase in quotation marks.
Example: “NHS Code of Practice” .
Critiquing tools
Critiquing a paper or a website is an important skill. Many published papers have gone through a peer review before publication but it is always important for you to do your own critiquing to determine the quality of the article and if it is relevant to your research.
There are various tools to help you critique a paper. One is the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) from the Public Health Resources Unit in the NHS.
Below are two checklists that you can download from CASP:
·
Qualitative
research - CASP looks at ‘rigour, credibility and relevance’. www.phru.nhs.uk/Doc_Links/Qualitative Appraisal Tool.pdf
·
Quantitative
research - CASP looks at the validity of the research, examines the results and
if the results can be used locally to answer your research question. A number
of tools are provided to critique a variety of quantitative research, such as
systematic reviews, randomised controlled trials, cohort studies, case controlled
and diagnostic test studies. www.phru.nhs.uk/Pages/PHD/resources.htm
There are also checklists for
critiquing a website. One is the DISCERN checklist (www.discern.org.uk/index.php).Key points
·
A
well-designed literature search will include a research question that will
provide keywords and phrases to begin creating a search strategy;
·
Your
search strategy will include keywords and synonyms, along with any truncation
or wildcards. You will also apply limits to your search, such as language or
publication years.
·
There
are many resources that you can use to search for information, including print
and electronic resources. All literature that you retrieve should be critically
appraised in order to determine its quality and relevance to your search.
·
Librarians
at local Public, Academic and Special libraries can be a valuable source of
information and support during your literature search. They can advise you on
resources to search and which databases, journals and books you have access to.
ReferencesBopcas/Bopcriswww.bopcris.ac.uk/bopcas/
Department of Healthwww.dh.gov.uk
DISCERNwww.discern.org.uk/index.php
Health of Wales Information Service (HOWIS) www.wales.nhs.uk
Intutewww.intute.ac.uk
National Library for Healthwww.library.nhs.uk
The Office of National Statisticswww.statistics.gov.uk
Scottish Health on the Webwww.show.scot.nhs.uk
The Stationery Officewww.tso.co.uk
How to conduct a
literature review
First, understand the information cycle:
If you are
unfamiliar with your assigned topic, don't begin your search looking for
research articles in bibliographic databases. Even if your instructor
wants you to use only primary literature or research articles in your paper,
that doesn't mean you can't begin by using other sources. Investing 20 or 30
minutes reviewing background information on your topic may dramatically
reduce the time you spend searching databases.
Research articles often have a
very narrow focus and may not provide enough background information for you
to be comfortable with the topic. In addition, there may be hundreds of
articles that fall under your topic, making it difficult to decide how to
focus your search. |
|
As the diagram on
the right illustrates, information has a life-cycle. Notice that at some time
after journal articles are published, the information from them makes its way
into "secondary sources".
|
 |
Secondary sources include such things as handbooks, encyclopedias, monographs, and review articles. Secondary sources compact, condense, synthesize, or integrate the information about a topic that is scattered and fragmented in the primary literature. In addition, they often include bibliographies of classic or important articles on the topic. Don't forget that other sources besides databases provide access to the research literature!
Strategy tip:
Focus your database search on the
period since the publication of your secondary source. If your source was
published two years ago, focus on the research literature from the last two
years.
Don't assume secondary sources are
"too old". Many handbooks are published annually and electronic
sources are often updated quarterly or even continuously. Since science and
research often proceed methodically, with occasional break-through discoveries,
it may also be the case that even "old" information is still very
relevant. Don't discount the information found in a secondary source just
because it may be four or five years old.The fastest and easiest way to get started on a literature review is to ask a Reference Librarian what sources they have for background information on your topic.
Finally, look for primary sources (e.g. research articles):
Because effective database searching is a skill you have to learn, don't hesitate to ask for help. Ask a reference librarian which database is the most appropriate for your topic. Don't be afraid to ask them for help or advice on how to search.
Effective database searching is usually a matter of finding the right combination of search terms. Begin by making a list of important terms or phrases you see in your secondary sources. Pay special attention to synonyms and word variations: does your drug or disease have several names (e.g. tylenol/acetaminophen, cancer/neoplasm), have you considered the various forms of your search terms (therapy, therapies, therapeutic)? Be sure to discuss these with the librarian.
Understand how to combine terms in the database you are using. For example, do you understand how to search for the combination of words fracture and either radius or ulna and either child or boy or girl? If you don't know, ask for help.
Many databases include special subject-search functions. Ask if that feature is included in the database you want to search.
Getting started:
If
you are an inexperienced searcher, go to the library and ask a reference
librarian for help. If you are off-campus, call the reference desk and ask for
advice on database selection and search strategies.
Try
resource guides.
Look
for information on search techniques in "quick tips" guides.
Important Website of Presentation on
Scientific Research Methodologyhttp://www.scribd.com/doc/939968/Research-Methodology-Part-1-Introduction-to-Research-Research-Methodology
