If you have spent some time searching and have worked through the following information with no success, ask the Library staff for some help. The Library staff are all qualified Librarians and are experts in searching. We can help you look at your key words, find suitable databases and help you refine (or broaden) your topic. We can also obtain articles and books from other Libraries for you to use.
The more precise your topic, the easier it will be to complete a literature review.
| A literature review of: | Is.... |
| alcohol consumption by students | too broad and will lead to many results. |
| alcohol drinking by Australian university students in the 1990's | still a broad topic, but has a geographic and time focus that will help narrow the scope of the research and the literature review. |
| consumption of spirits by Sydney University students in the 1990's | too narrow and will lead to either no results or only one or two articles |
Also consider:
Boolean Operators: Boolean logic is a system that allows a searcher to set relationships between keywords or concepts when searching. The most commonly used Boolean commands are AND, OR, and NOT. Using these operators can make your searches more precise and save time.
AND NARROWS:
Tells the database that you only want articles that contain ALL of the search terms
Searching e. coli AND hamburger will only find articles that contain both words.
OR EXPANDS:
Tells the database that you want all articles that contain EITHER of the terms
Kidney OR renal will find articles that contain either word. Some articles may contain both words.
NOT EXCLUDES:
Tells the database that you do not want any articles that contain a certain term
Lead poisoning NOT children will find articles about lead poisoning that do not also contain the word children
JOINING NARROWS:
(Smoking OR Nicotine) AND cancer
Tells the database that you want articles with EITHER of two terms AND another
Placing a search in brackets means that it will be performed first. This can then be combined with another search. In the example the search found everything that contained smoking OR nicotine and then selected only those articles that also contained the word cancer.
Databases usually allow you to limit or filter your search results in various ways. These may include:
Most databases use the symbol * or # for truncation or wildcard symbols. Use the database's Help tab for verification of the correct symbol.
Truncation Symbol: Uses root of the word…
Example: pharm*
Finds pharmacology, pharmacy, pharmaceutical, etc.
Wildcard Symbol: Allows for multiple spellings of a word...
Example: sul*ur
Finds sulphur and sulfur
Exact Phrase: Use quotation marks to search for an exact phrase.
Example: "public health"
Finds information where those two words appear together and in that order.
Proximity operators: Proximity (or adjacency) operators allow you to search by phrase or with two or more words in relation to one another. Use the database's Help tab for to verify what symbol to use.
Near (n): if it does not matter which word appears first.
Example: Prozac n3 adverse effects
Finds Prozac within three words of adverse effects
With (w): if your terms must be in the same order in which they are entered.
Example: physical w1 therapy
Finds records where the word physical is listed first, followed by the word therapy, and where no more than one word separates the two terms.
Stop words: Stop words are very common words that are automatically ignored by most databases.
Examples: and, if, or, the, a, for, to, an, as, by
Use quotation marks if you need to search for a term that has a stop word in it, such as "Out of Africa" or "The Who".
You know you've exhausted a literature review when you see the same articles and books over and over again as you search - in databases, in reference lists, etc. Then it's time to begin reading and synthesizing all that you've collected.