Conducting a Lit-

erature Search

Leandro C. Torreon, Ph.D.

BISU Candijay Campus
What is a Literature Search?
“A literature search is a well thought out
and organized search for all of the litera-
ture published on a topic. A well-struc-
tured literature search is the most effec-
tive and efficient way to locate sound ev-
idence on the subject you are research-
ing. Evidence may be found in books,
journals, government documents and the
internet.”1
 Critical Thinking as a student

 Undergraduate level: backing your points up with ap-

propriate, authoritative sources
 Masters Level: demonstrating that you understand how
knowledge is created
 PhD Level: demonstrating that you can create new,
original knowledge
 Professional academic: peer review, building a coher-
ent body of work of your own and assuring others’ work
First stage of the literature review is to identify the
key people in your field and collate all relevant
sources about your topic.

Ask yourself:
What research and theory is there on my topic?
What are the key sources (books, articles) on my
topic?
Who are the main theorists and researchers in this
area?
How has the topic/problem been investigated over
time?
Purpose of a Literature Search

 Broadens your knowledge on a topic

 Shows your skill at finding relevant infor-

mation

 Allows for critical appraisal of research

Where to start?

YOU DON’T NEED TO

READ EVERYTHING –
you can’t!
•You don’t need to read
every text
•You don’t need to read
every word
What is your question?

 Create a chart with possible key words

 Stay focused

 Unmarried fertility = out-of-wedlock

childbearing = single mothers = non-
marital births
Search Strategy

 Set limits on your search

 What is your perspective?
 What is your contribution?

 Check syllabi
 Who are the big players?
Types of Literature

1. Research Journals
 Articles

 Reviews/commentaries/replies

 Reviews
Types of Literature

2. Books
 Topic books

 Handbooks

 Theory books
Types of Literature

3. Online reports
 Census

 Research institutes

 Government organizations
Sources of Literature

1. Library
 Hard copies of books and journals

 Interlibrary loan

 Online library
 BGSU Li-
brary
Homepage

1. Academic

Search
Complete

2. Search by
journal
name

3. BGSU cata-
log

4. OhioLINK
Sources of Literature

2. Internet
 Online journals
 “Google Scholar”

 Websites

 Government departments, research insti-

tutes, etc
 Google Scholar
http://scholar.google.com/
 Open Access Journal
www.doaj.org
 PubMed
http://pubmed.gov/
 PubMed Central
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/
 HighWire Press
http://highwire.stanford.edu/cgi/search
 Stanford University Library Searchworks
http://searchworks.stanford.edu/
 Lane Library - Ovid –Biosis – BioResearch Portal– Up-To-Date
http://lane.stanford.edu/
 EndNote
http://www.endnote.com/
 Google
Scholar

Can search
for books and
articles

Can do an
advanced
search
Title links to ab-
stract and possi-
ble source of full
text

“Find it with
OLinks” links to
full text version

Link to articles
that cited the
work

Link to related
articles
 PubMedCentral (http://pubmed.gov/)
• Medical literature (Medline) since 1950
• Abstracts since 1975
• Molecular biology since 1985
• 5,200 journals worldwide in 37 languages, 60 languages for
older references
• 19 million citations, 17 million abstracts, 670,000 / last year,
2,000-4,000 / day
• MeSH Medical Subject Heading Thesaurus
– Controlled vocabulary
– Indexing terms
– Search concepts
• PubMed Help
• PubMed QuickStart
• PubMed Tutorials
• Journal Database
• LinkOut to journal publishers and other Providers
• Abstract Neighboring and related articles
• My NCBI: Query Storage
• Current awareness
 HighWire Press
http://highwire.stanford.edu/
• 1995 launch of Journal of Biological Chemistry On-
line
• Wholly owned not-for-profit subsidiary of Stan-
ford University
• Self-funded after first 18 months
• Publish 1,291 journals in Science & Medicine,
Humanities & Social Sciences on the web
• Convert journals to HTML and PDF formats si-
multaneously with print
• Convert and publish 40 journal issues per day
• Many of the world’s most cited, highest impact
Science & Medical journals
• Not-for-profit publishers and societies
 EndNote
http://www.endnote.com/

• Personal Bibliographic Database

• Imports from hundreds of reference formats
• Saves MeSH Terms and URLs of References
• Powerful Search and Sort Methods
• Connects directly to PubMed, Biosis and other sources
• Integrates directly with Word
• Automatically formats bibliographies and footnotes
• Formats citations & references for hundreds of journals
• Complete user control of formatting
Writing the review

Start with an overview

Decide on organising principles (themes,
trends, methodology, chronology, controversies
– usually a combination of some of these)
Use headings for the different sections of the
review
Provide summative signposts of where your ar-
gument is leading
Summarise your review/highlight ‘gap’ in re-
search
Clarity

Tips for clear writing:

Clear introduction: overview of topic, aim of review and
structure
Clear paragraph structure
Make sure the subject of your sentence is clear
Don’t assume knowledge
Make sure key terminology and difficult ideas are al-
ways explained thoroughly (ask your yourself: does it
make sense?)
Be objective and balanced
Use signposts to orientate the reader
Your critical voice: signposting

Where appropriate, begin sections and paragraphs

with a statement which synthesises or analyses,
rather than just describes

Use signposting words to demonstrate how texts re-

late to each other and also what you think of them
Eg. However, yet, moreover, indeed, similarly etc
Paragraphs and flow

Paragraph:
Topic sentence
Discussion of topic
Closing sentence

Thematic and grammatical links

Logical progression from one paragraph to the
next
Demonstrate links in your language
Use of citations in the literature review

Two types of citations:

Integral: The author’s name appears in the sen-
tence.
Example (author-date system): Lillis (2001) argues
that both tutors and students often lack explicit know-
ledge of the conventions governing the construction
of academic texts.
Non-integral: The author’s name appears outside
sentence.
Example: Both tutors and students often lack explicit
knowledge of the conventions governing the con-
struction of academic texts (Lillis, 2001).
Citation and writer’s voice

Whose voice is dominant - the writer’s or the original

author’s?

 The moon is made of cheese (Brie 1999).

 Brie (1999) argues that the moon is made of cheese.
 As Brie (1999) points out, the moon is made of cheese.
 According to Brie (1999), the moon is made of cheese.
However, ….
 Brie (1999) argues out that the moon is made of
cheese. However, ….
Editing and Proofreading

Editing and proofreading are fundamental as-

pects of good academic practice.

Editing is the process of continually revising and

improving your written work. It is often an activity
that forms a major part of the writing process.

Proofreading is the final check before printing and

submission. It is a process that helps remove er-
rors and improve presentation.
An evolving literature review

 Not something you do now and forget about

 Your field is constantly evolving and changing
 Learning from models

Look at samples of good theses in your field

Read reviews in prestigious journals in your

field
Now what?
Critique the Literature

 Is it relevant to my research?

 Is the study significant?

 Strengths and weaknesses

 What theories or methods are used?

Critique the Literature

 Is the research biased by emotions or pub-

lic opinion?
 Who is the target reader?
 Public, academic peers, policy makers
 Assignment
Due date: August 1, 2020
 5 Supporting Related Literature (10 years
back)
 5 Supporting Related Study (5 years back)
 3 Supporting Theory
 3 Legal Basis
Please refer my published researches

 https://independent.academia.edu/LeandroTorre
on
 http://www.apjmr.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/
07/APJMR-2019.7.03.08.pdf
 http://nebula.wsimg.com/
5eac7727a48a40e9ef6baf1f11de95f1?Ac-
cessKeyId=6F07EDF332B38BC2E6B8&di
sposition=0&alloworigin=1
Thank you!