Research for Thesis & Dissertation Literature Reviews: Search Strategies

Most every database relies upon Boolean searching. It is a structured means of creating a search "equation."

• Using AND between terms tells the database to find both terms in the same record
• OR means that you want the database to find any of the terms
• NOT means you do not want to retrieve records with a particular term

These three operators allow you to create complex queries that search for each component of your topic, while still allowing to search for synonyms or related terms to any or all of those components. 

Disciplinary databases often have subject headings (a set of official terms used to describe something). For example, the American Psychological Association Thesaurus is a list of subject heading terms that are assigned to items indexed in the PsycINFO database. Subject heading searching can improve the relevance of your search results since other items in the database about that same thing will have the same subject heading. 

Multidisciplinary databases like Web of Science do not have subject headings and must be searched with keywords. 

Keywords

• good initial strategy
• must perform searches with synonymous words/terms
• more likely to have irrelevant results

Subject Headings

• standardized words or phrases used to categorize literature
• relevant results much more likely
• subject headings not consistent across databases

Annual Reviews articles:

• Capture current understanding of a topic, including what is well supported and what is controversial;
• Set the work in historical context;
• Highlight the major questions that remain to be addressed and the likely course of research in upcoming years; and
• Outline the practical applications and general significance of research to society.

Literature review articles can be very helpful in providing background information for your research.

In order to find these articles quickly, add "Literature Review" OR "Review of the Literature" as a title field search in the database. 

Or, if available, select the research methodology limit for "literature review".