Study Resources for

Literature Reviews

Rowena Stewart

rowena.stewart@ed.ac.uk

Academic Support Librarian

Tel: 0131 650 5207

• Thinking about your subject

• Finding academic literature on your subject

• Keeping what you’ve found

AY16-17, v.Oct16

Make your topic into a question you want the academic literature to

answer

What is your literature review on?

Have a think

1) Decide your research focus which may prevent you getting

distracted.

2) Prepare words and phrases, “Search Terms”, which may relate

to the right kind of research for your review.

It helps you to:

Do I have to?

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What sort of work are you producing?

Search Terms - Using what you know

Use the words and phrases which come to mind immediately.

Use papers you have already – vocabulary, authors, references…

Ask around for ideas and advice.

What is the staff and patient experience of the 12 step road to addiction recovery ?

Staff Patient experience 12 step road / addiction recovery

Health personnel

More specific roles.

patient(s) / client(s)

attitude(s) /

satisfaction

Compliance

Dropout(s)

12 / twelve-step(s) program(me(s)) / model(s)

Narcotics / Alcoholics anonymous, NA, AA

self help / support Group(s)

Group therap(y)

substance / alcohol

abuse / addiction

treatment centres(s) / center(s)

Talk through your topic. Put together some search terms

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Using what you know

Using resources you are familiar with can help you get

• a feel for the literature.

• an idea of whether you will find relevant papers for the review

topic you’ve chosen.

Try a couple of your search terms in DiscoverEd

DiscoverEd includes article level

records. Default setting is to what

you can read because the library

has bought it.

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DiscoverEd for Reviewing the Literature

Compare:

Records for articles

etc you may not be

able to read from

the library.

Add some records to eShelf.

Sign-in so they are there for you next time5

Try any links which seem as if they will give you full-text.

If they don’t work, treat the information like a normal reference and use

DiscoverEd incase the library has what you want:

• Online from a different site

• In print

Off-campus access to online collection

Through EASE (authentication) / MyEd (portal)

VPN – access to University network + wireless access www.ed.ac.uk/is/vpn

Eduroam – JANET Roaming Service – secure internet access from eduroam-enabled

institution around the world. www.ed.ac.uk/is/wireless/jrs

Use eduroam not central to connect to “normal” campus network.

www.ed.ac.uk/is/wireless

Wherever you have found something you want to read:

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Add findit@edinburgh and a link to your reference management software tool,

to Google Scholar results view.

Google Scholar

Go to Settings to add:

• Import to Reference Management Software to results view.

• findit@edinburgh to results view.

Have a look at:

• Advanced Search

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Google Scholar

Used because they:

• Include material not found in DiscoverEd or from Google Scholar.

• Contain details of millions of articles from 1000s of publications (abstracts, journal articles, book chapters, reports and standards)

• Are usually subject specific.

• Perform sophisticated searches limited to topics, date, authors or type of publication. Search histories to let you think organically.

Bibliographic databases for reviewing the literature.

Searching bibliographic databases Be specific when you start but, if you are not finding enough to read, usebroader topic search terms.

see what you get and use further search terms from your results

You may like thinking of your research topic in separate chunks, find

sets of results about each chunk and combine the results ways which

make best sense for what you want to read… 9

…Boolean logic for combining search terms

raspberries pests

raspberry pests (x)

insects OR pests

(pests OR insects)

AND

raspberries (x)pests NOT wasps

• Only use NOT if you’re sure it won’t

remove useful records.

• Better to limit by what you want to

read than what you don’t.

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Search HistoryLet’s you:

• Think one concept at a time.

• See the difference (in result numbers) combining makes.

• Know the limiting concept(s) (lowest result number).

• Add another concept easily.

• Know the combination is working the way you want.

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Search strategy - truncation

Truncation allows you to look for all forms of a keyword.

music* = music, musical(s), musician(s), musicianship

Symbols can vary but asterisk* is common.

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…Truncation will give you more results

raspberries pests

raspberry pests (x)

insect* OR pest*

(pest* OR insect*)

AND

raspberr* (x)pest* NOT wasp*

N.B.

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Search strategy – wildcards

• Watch out for UK/US spellings (behaviour, behavior).

A wildcard allows for variation in a letter in the middle of a word and

usually stands for 0 or 1 character

organise/organize: organi?e.

counselling/counseling: counsel?ing

[organise OR organize is more specific]

Go to Web of Science or Scopus to

sensibly use truncation and/or wildcard symbol and the Search History

for some of your search terms.

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Subject specific databases

www.ed.ac.uk/is/databases-subjects

Go to Web of Science or Scopus to

sensibly use truncation and/or wildcard symbol and the Search History

for some of your search terms.

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Search strategy – snowballing

Using one article etc to get to more:

• Search for other work by the same authors.

• Follow up references used in the bibliography.

• Use “cited by” or “more like this” feature if there is one.

• Follow up subject headings/keywords used in database records…

Go to Web of Science.

“Sort” your results by Times Cited – follow up a heavily cited one

WoS’s Cited Reference Search is a good way to follow up a key reference

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Search strategy – subject headings

Database creators often use controlled vocabulary to enrich article

description.

• The vocabulary used matches a discipline’s way of talking about

its subject.

• Database thesauri are where you find what subject terms exist.

Controlled vocabulary may also be used to describe other features

of an article.

• Refine panels or Limits areas show such features well.

Refine one of your Web of Science searches to be of literature reviews.

Try a subject specific database and see if there is a thesaurus of headings

to look up or an option to “mapping” to subject heading option. 17

Knowing what you want to read

Reviewing the literature systematically combines well focussed research

question and search strategy with rigorous appraisal and synthesis of the

literature. Someone reading the review should be able to repeat it.

Inclusion/Exclusion criteria are further to your research question and define conditions research must meet to be relevant to your review

How much of the literature do you read?• Read the literature reviews of a similar type of study to yours.

• You will hopefully see the same references in your search results lists.

Note down criteria which would make a paper relevant to you.

What would a paper have to include to be irrelevant?

• Age … geography … gender … production conditions…study type… methodology/analysis ... previous histories of population … theoretical … field conditions …

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• Record your search strategy(ies) for the databases you’ve used

• You may need to record when you used the databases too

• Outline your inclusion/exclusion criteria.

Help for your methodology

In one of the databases you’ve used, choose the print option to see if you

can generate a search history to copy and paste.

In one of the databases you’ve used, look in the Search History to see

if there is a Save and/or Alert option.

Use ZETOC.

• Saved searches for re-running or generating alerts

• Table of contents alerts

Help in keeping current

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Citing References

• Allow those reading the record of what you’ve done, to read the sources

you have read.

• Credit and show you have read the key relevant work and are able to use it

to support your arguments/move on.

• Avoid plagiarism.

The work of others which you use in your own work is cited to:

• There are manuals for the different styles.

• There is reference management software which may help, eg EndNote.

Different disciplines cite sources in different ways – find out the “style” you

are expected to use.

Look in a database for functions which suggest getting references/results out.

Select references for “Export” (often the function name) to EndNote/ref management s’ware.

Start a Word document and have EndNote insert some citations.

Change the style of your bibliography/references. 20

Help from

Your Academic Support Librarian: www.ed.ac.uk/is/ASL

Introduction to systematic literature searching (pdf booklet):

www.docs.is.ed.ac.uk/mvm/IntroSystematicLitSearch.pdf

This presentation: Rowena StewartAcademic Support Librarian (Chemistry, Health in

Social Science, Maths and Physics)

rowena.stewart@ed.ac.uk

IS Skills Development courses and the online manuals

www.ed.ac.uk/is/skills

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INTER-LIBRARY LOAN (I.L.L.) FOR MATERIAL THE LIBRARY DOESN’T HAVE AT ALL:Register online at https://ed-ac.illiad.oclc.org/illiad/logon.html

You will be asked to select a delivery location which will be the library site (eg Main Library) from where you will collect original items.

You get notified when your registration is successful and thereafter login to submit requests, track their progress and change your contact details on the system.. Copies of articles etc will be sent to your chosen contact address.. You can request they are posted to you.. Scans of articles can also be delivered electronically.

Your first 30 I.L.L. requests in a year will be free [5 for undergraduates].

After that, each successfully supplied request will cost you a (subsidised) £5. For which (probably monthly) you will receive an advice note listing items which have been supplied to you during the previous month. Payment is via the University's e-pay system (www.epay.ed.ac.uk ).. I.L.L.s usually take 2-3 working days to arrive. More information from the link at: www.ed.ac.uk/is/inter-library

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