DOING AN EFFECTIVE SEARCH

FOR A LIT REVIEW:

SAVING TIME & MONEYMatthew Von Hendy MA/MLS

Green Heron Information Services

WELCOME!

Owner—Green Heron

Information Services

Professional

Librarian—National

Academies of Science,

EPA, NASA

Birder, cyclist, runner—

recent Alaskan

adventurer

BIGGEST BARRIERS FOR EVALUATORS: (TIME

AND MONEY)

GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

Provide an easy three step process for conducting

and organizing the initial searching for your

literature review

Suggest research resources to use for each step

Discuss tips and techniques to help you save time

with each step

THREE STEP DANCE

STEPS IN THE PROCESS

Major search engines and consult with experts

Search major citation databases to see who is

citing those works

Look at major research databases that cover the

particular fields that you are looking at

SEARCHING GOOGLE AND CONSULTING

EXPERTS

Google #1 tool that evaluation professionals used

to find research based information and consulting

experts #2 method

Be aware of limitations– Google filters results and

with the flood of information no one person can

keep up to date

TIP: Use more than one major search engine

(Duck Duck Go, Blekko) and consult with more than

one expert

Good place to start your research but not to end

BUILDING ON WHAT YOU STARTED…

MAJOR CITATION DATABASES:

Find out who is citing the works you have found and

what articles are most cited that are relevant to your

search

Scopus and Web of Knowledge (maybe called ‘Web

of Science’)– two major citation databases

Searching both databases provides coverage of

90+ percent of peer-reviewed journal literature and

some conference papers and grey literature

Expensive—many universities have access—if you

don’t have access—alternatives do exist

STEP 3: SEARCHING SUBJECT SPECIFIC

DATABASES AND OTHER SOURCES

Each subject area has high quality research

database that is free or low-cost

Examples: PubMed, Medline, PsycINFO, ERIC

Other resources: (grey literature) AEA library,

academic and non-profit think tanks

NO REASON FOR YOUR CITATIONS TO LOOK

LIKE THIS…

CITATION MANAGERS

Allow you to store, organize and search your

citations

Can be shared between people and teams,

download PDFs and attach them to citations

Many quality free and low-cost tools:

Zotero (www.zotero.org)

Mendeley (www.mendeley.com)

Endnote Web (www.endnote.com)

QUESTIONS?

CONNECT WITH ME

Matthew Von Hendy

Green Heron Information Services

(240) 401-7433

info@greenheroninfo.com

www.greenheroninfo.com

LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/vonhendy

Twitter @GreenHeronInfo

Skype: vonhendy