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Literature Review Guide

Overview of the iterative steps involved in using library databases to search & review the scholarly literature

Step 1. Select a Library Database to Search for Journal Articles in Your Field of Study

Adler Library subscribes to many databases that index the scholarly literature in a particular field.
An alphabetical list of library databases (Databases A - Z) can be found on the library webpage.

Below is a sample list of the library's subject-specific databases.
Think about which field(s) of study might be talking about your topic and select a subject database for that discipline.


PSYCHOLOGY

ORGANIZATIONAL
LEADERSHIP

HEALTH SCIENCES

EDUCATION

GENDER STUDIES
APA PsycInfo Business Source Premier PubMed Central ERIC GenderWatch

ProQuest Psychology Journals

 MEDLINE  SocINDEX

Note: There are also "multi-disciplinary" or interdisciplinary article databases which index the scholarly literature across multiple fields of study.  Examples of multi-disciplinary databases are:  Academic Search Complete and Google Scholar.

It is important to search in several databases. No one database contains all the scholarly literature on a topic.

Step 2. Search Words to Use in Library Databases

Refer to the Venn diagram you created. These key concepts will be your database search terms.
Each of the 3-5 key concepts will be searched individually and in relation to one another.
Now, you're ready to insert your key concepts, each on a separate line, into a library database

Step 3. Repeat Process: Initial Search / Review Results / Revised Search

This is the point in the research process that is the most iterative. (That's why it's called re-search!)

Continue searching, trying different combinations of keywords until you start to see the same results over and over again. This usually indicates that you have exhausted the literature.

Search Terms: Keywords and Subject Headings

Watch the following short video from USU libraries which explains the different types of database searching language.

Keywords Subject Headings
  • Natural language - user generated
  • Controlled vocabulary used to describe a subject
  • Could appear only once - anywhere in abstract or title
  • Database applies subject headings to each resource, based on topic/subject of resource (adds specificity to your search)
  • No related terms are found, but homonyms might be (words spelled the same, but with different meanings)
  • Exist in a thesaurus, so helps you find related terms, weed out homonyms
  • Like using Ctrl+F in a document
  • All variations (spellings) are covered
  • Useful when: topic is very new, or looking for specific person/organization
  • Useful when: topic has established academic research on it, and you want highly relevant results

 

AND / OR / NOT

Library databases use important operators to connect search terms.

These important words affect the results that your search yields. 

  • They connect your search words together to either narrow or broaden your set of results.
  • The three basic operators are: AND, OR, and NOT.

AND

  • narrows your results
  • finds the overlap of the topics you search
  • instructs the database that ALL search terms must be present in your set of results
  • example: housing AND harm reduction AND Overdose 

OR

  • expands your results

  • connects two or more similar concepts (synonyms)

  • instructs the database that ANY of your search terms can be present in your set of results

  • example: counsellors OR psychologists OR therapists

NOT

  • narrows your results
  • excludes words from your search
  • instructs the database to ignore concepts
  • useful if a concept is implied by your search terms and you do not want to include it
  • example: spirituality NOT religion