Basics to conducting a literature search

Dennis Donovan, Ph.D.Alcohol & Drug Abuse InstituteDepartment of Psychiatry & Behavioral SciencesUniversity of Washington

What is a Literature Search?• A literature search is a well

thought out and organized 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.

7 tasks in the Research Lit Review

1. Selecting research questions2. Selecting your sources3. Choosing search terms4. Running your search5. Applying practical screening

criteria

6. Applying methodological screening criteria7. Synthesizing the results

Purpose of a Literature Search

• Broadens your knowledge on a topic

• Shows your skill at finding relevant information

• Allows for critical appraisal of research

Purpose of a Literature Search

• Such searches are critical when preparing research papers or projects.

• A good literature search ensures that the researcher is not duplicating work already done, and is also giving credit where it is due.

• Authors of review articles often note that a prominent study very pertinent to the topic was NOT noted or cited anywhere.

• A good search helps indicate you know your topic and how it adds to the body of knowledge.

Guiding principles

1. A good and thorough search takes a LOT of time. There is no way of getting around this. Any database takes time to learn. If you determine from the beginning that you are willing to put multiple hours into the process, it may help your mindset.

Guiding principles

2. A good and thorough search is best done by YOU. There are people and services that can assist in searches, but you (and co-investigators) are the one who knows the topic best. Your intimate knowledge of the subject and what you are trying to accomplish will assist in the identification of relevant articles.

Guiding principles

3. A good and thorough search is on-going. The time between project conception and publication will likely take a minimum of 12 months (and may take several years). Research on your topic by others occurs during this time. It is important to make sure that your submitted product is as up-to-date as can be reasonably expected.

Starting point• We need an idea…

– Simple enough, but we’ll need some specifics in order to narrow the search.

• So, our topic might be a condition such as HIV and alcohol use in Kenya

– Some specifics (“key words”) might be: HIV; AIDS; alcohol; Africa; Kenya;

– Knowing some of the important authors, or terms specific to your interest, will narrow the search

• Our search will focus on risk factors associated with HIV and alcohol use in Kenya.

Search engines• These are very useful and

there are several to choose from. They have different capabilities and personal preference will determine which you are most comfortable with:

– PubMed– Cochrane– FirstSearch – Hinari

Other Engines good for searching multiple databases in one search

• EBSCO– http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/search/

advanced?sid=3f18f6c2-c0a7-4be5-abf2-9403974a451e%40sessionmgr13&vid=1&hid=23

•  WEB OF SCIENCE– http://apps.webofknowledge.com/

WOS_GeneralSearch_input.do?product=WOS&search_mode=GeneralSearch&SID=2FmX8hoCfF99ZIBEa4h&preferencesSaved=

• Google Scholar– http://scholar.google.com/

 

About HINARI

• HINARI Access to Research in Health Programme, set up by WHO, provides free or very low cost online access to the major journals in biomedical and related social sciences to local, not-for-profit institutions in developing countries.

• Enables low- and middle- income countries to gain access to one of the world's largest collections of biomedical and health literature. Up to 13,000 journals (in 30 different languages), up to 29,000 e-books, up to 70 other information

http://www.who.int/hinari/en/

PubMed• PubMed provides access to

citations from biomedical literature.

• Free to anyone with a computer and accessible anywhere.

• Limited full-text article access.

• PubMed is one of the easier search engines to learn, with good online tutorials and help available.    

Search Tools

• Truncated search words

•Marr* = married, marriage, marry

• Boolean logic

• Use OR, NOT, AND

Narrowing down the search: Number of PubMed “hits” based on key words

• hiv aids: 113,139

• hiv aids and alcohol: 2,598

• hiv aids and alcohol and Africa: 350

• hiv aids and alcohol and Africa and Kenya: 30

• Can sort by date, author and journal

• Scroll to an article that looks relevant and click to get the abstract.

• There are Related Links to the right of the abstract. These are often relevant.

• Clicking an author’s name pulls up all the articles by that author.

• Iterative listing/searches by topic, Related Links and authors give a good overview of what is out there.

Cochrane Library database• From the homepage: “The Cochrane Library

contains high-quality, independent evidence to inform healthcare decision-making. It includes reliable evidence from Cochrane and other systematic reviews, clinical trials, and more.”

• “The Cochrane Collaboration is an international non-profit and independent organization, dedicated to making up-to-date, accurate information about the effects of health care readily available worldwide.”

• The thrust here is evidence-based information and reviews. Single research projects are unlikely to be here, but such things as reviews, meta-analyses and clinical trials will.

FirstSearch• Search engine open to all topics

and an incredible number of journals, book and other publications.

• One of the widest-searching of the engines reviewed here.

• Especially useful for clinical research involving aspects not directly related to medicine (e.g. obesity interventions).

• Provides electronic full-text article links such as the host institution has purchased access.

• Allows searches by journal, author, title, keyword, date, etc.

FirstSearch• OCLC Firstsearch is an online

reference search tool that delivers quality content from OCLC’s WorldCat and other quality, respected databases. 

• The UW Library uses Worldcat as the platform for its book catalog and other databases.  Using Worldcat, you can select, then search multiple databases with one combined search session.

Now what?

Critique the Literature

• Is it relevant to my research?

• Is the study significant? – Strengths &weaknesses

• What theories or methods are used?

Critique the Literature

• Is the research biased by emotions or public opinion?

• Who is the target reader?• Public, academic peers, policy makers

Final thoughts

• Literature is an iterative process: find an article, investigate associated links and other works by the author, search specific journals.

• Be inclusive, but not exhaustive, in citations. You don’t need to list all articles, only those you actually draw data and ideas from.

• Rule of thumb – stick to references from the past 5 years unless particularly noteworthy.

Adapted from Materials available online by:

• Wiley D. Jenkins, PhD, MPH– Research Associate Professor

Department of Family &Community MedicineAssociate Director/Center for Clinical Research

Southern Illinois University

• Nola du Toit– Center for Family and Demographic Research Bowling Green State University