search strategy for literature review nursing

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How to undertake a literature search

Introduction.

Undertaking a literature search can be a daunting prospect. By breaking the exercise down into smaller steps, you can make the process more manageable. The following ten steps will help you complete the task from identifying key concepts to choosing databases for your search and saving your results and search strategy. It discusses each of the steps in a little more detail with examples and suggestions of where to get help.

There are ten steps to undertaking a literature search which we'll take you through below:

🎬 - Indicates a video is available with more information.

Please click on the boxes below to get a bit more detail on each step.

First, write out your title and check that you understand all the terms. Look up the meaning of any you don’t understand. An online dictionary or medical encyclopaedia may help with this.

If your search is for a dissertation, you may need to choose your own research question. In this case, you will need to consider whether there is likely to be enough research on your topic. Alternatively, if your topic is too broad, you could be overwhelmed by the number of references.

One way of checking how much is written on your topic is to use Library Search. Most libraries offer a Library Search or discovery tool. It provides a quick search across all the library’s holdings. You can also limit your search by date or type of document. If you just need a few references to help you write an essay, Library Search may be helpful. It also gives quick access to full text items.

Next, you need to identify your key concepts. One way to do this is to look at your title and identify the most important words. Ignore words that tell you what to do with the information you find eg evaluate, assess, compare, as these are not generally used as search terms. In the example below, key concepts have been highlighted:

Evaluate the effectiveness of a mindfulness intervention on the health-related quality of life of rheumatoid arthritis patients

Another way to do this is to break down your title using the PEO framework:

P = Population    E = Exposure    O = Outcome 

This works well where there is no comparison between two types of treatment or intervention.

In our example:

P = rheumatoid arthritis patients

E = mindfulness

O =  health related quality of life

Other question formats are available such as PICO or SPIDER

Tip: Not all search topics will include every element of PICO – some include fewer items.

Once you have identified the key concepts, it’s important to think of any other terms or phrases that might have a very similar meaning. Including such synonyms will make your search as thorough as possible. For example, if your topic is looking for articles on Staff attitudes , you might also use the terms:

• Staff perceptions 
• Staff opinions
• Stereotyping
• Labelling 

If the database you are using has a list of subject heading s , this may help you to find the most appropriate term for your subject. Some databases provide definitions for terms used in the database and may suggest related terms.

A comprehensive search will usually include both subject headings from databases and terms that you have thought of yourself.

Tip: Often your search term will be a phrase instead of a single word. To carry out phrase searches, use double quotes, for example “problem drinking”.

Once you have chosen your search terms, you need to think about the best databases for your topic. The databases you choose will depend on the search question and the libraries you have access to.

Tip: It’s well worth taking a few minutes to get to know the databases available on the Library webpages and what they cover.

The next step is to combine your search terms in such a way that you only retrieve the more relevant references for your search question. In order to do this you need to build a search strategy . This involves using Boolean operators such as AND , OR and NOT .

AND narrows the results of the search by ensuring that all the search terms are present in the results. 

OR broadens the results of the search by ensuring that any of the search terms are present in the results.

NOT limits the results by rejecting a particular search term. Be careful with NOT because it will exclude any results containing that search term regardless of whether other parts of the article might have been of interest.

OR will broaden your number of results while AND will produce fewer results.

Try using this  Search-plan-worksheet   to break your topic down into concepts. These can then be linked together when you run the search. You can also add synonyms within each concept box. The yellow limits box is a prompt to think about any limits you want to apply when searching. This leads us to Step 6.

Tip: Most databases will allow you to use a truncation sign (*) or wildcard (?) to pick up various different endings to words or alternative spellings.

For example:  alcohol* would pick up alcohol, alcoholic, alcoholism, etc

Sm?th would find Smith and Smyth

The next step is to think about any other restrictions you want to make to your results.

Common limiters found on databases include:

• Peer reviewed articles
• Research articles
• Age group (adult, child, older person)
• Document type

Not all databases allow all of the limiters above.

When writing a dissertation, primary research articles are normally required. Where the database allows you, try limiting to research articles only.

Non-research materials can also be useful as an overview of your topic; for example a literature review can give an analysis of what has already been written on a topic.

The video below includes a demonstration of how limits can be applied using the CINAHL database as an example:

CINAHL - advanced

Once you have identified all your search terms and any limits you want to apply, you are ready to run your search on the databases you have chosen. 

Once you have some search results, you can look through them and start to select those that look relevant to your literature search. It is likely you will reject some because they are not quite what you wanted but there will be others that can be marked for further attention.

The title of an article on its own may not tell you very much; read the abstract quite carefully to see if the article is relevant or not.

Tip: You can show more details for each record by clicking on the article title. On some databases, there may be an abstract for the article which you can open. 

If you find you are either generating more results than you can possibly look at or too few results to write about, be prepared to adjust your search terms and the way they are combined.

If you get too many results you could try: •limiting to just the most recent material •adding another term or concept and linking it using “AND” •limiting to a particular country or geographical area such as UK

If you get too few results, you might try: •expanding your date range •removing any geographical limits you have applied  •removing the least important term or concept

Tip: Be prepared to try other databases and keep searching until you feel confident you have found enough relevant material.

Once you have selected some articles that look relevant for your piece of work, you will need to save them so that your hard work is not wasted.

At the same time, you will want to save your search strategy . This is a record of the terms you searched, how you combined them, any limits you applied and how many results you found.

You will also need to choose a way to save your results. One way is to email the results to yourself and this can be done from all the databases .

Another way is to export your results to reference management software such as Zotero, RefWorks, EndNote or Mendeley. This software allows you to collect, organise and cite research. It is suitable for managing references over a long period of time. 

The RCN Library and Museum provides help with using Zotero . 

Tip: Keep a record of all the databases you use as you carry out your search. It is also a good idea to note where you found any references you subsequently use for your dissertation.

The final step is to obtain the full text of the articles identified in your search which you believe may be useful for your assignment. If you are lucky, many of these will be available electronically and you may just be able to follow a link to the full text.

Alternatively you can copy and paste your article title into the Library search box  and if it is available as full text, a hyperlink will be shown which will link you to the document.

If you are studying elsewhere and have access to a university or hospital library, they may subscribe to different journals to the RCN Library so it is worth exploring what they can offer. If your library does not have either an electronic copy or a physical copy, you may need to request the article by interlibrary loan .

Tip: It is also worth using Google or other browsers to check for the article title you require. Sometimes the article has been made freely available on the internet by the authors.

Boolean operators – words (AND, OR and NOT) which can be used to combine search terms in order to widen or limit the search results.

Database – this is an online collection of citations to journal articles which have been indexed to make retrieval easier. Some databases which also provide full text access to the articles.

Limits – these are options within a database which allow search results to be broken down further. Common limits are year(s) of publication, document type and language. MEDLINE and CINAHL allow age limits too.

Search Strategy – the list of search terms and limits used to retrieve relevant articles from a database in order to answer a search question.

Subject headings – terms that have been assigned to describe a concept that may have many alternative keywords. All these alternative keywords or terms are brought together under the umbrella of this single term. Most health-related databases use subject headings.

Additional information

If after following these steps, you still can’t find what you are looking for, remember that there is always help available at your library. The RCN Library and Museum offers a range of help materials via our Literature searching and training pages . These include: • Databases guides in electronic and printed formats • Video tutorials on how to search the databases • 1-1 training sessions pre-bookable via the RCN website face to face or via zoom

A reading list is also available on dissertation and essay support which provides suggestions for key resources, books and journal articles which may help. Click on the link below to access this list:

Dissertation and essay support reading list

Here are other resources you may also find helpful. You will find links to each resource below too:

• Aveyard H (2019) Doing a literature review in health and social care: a practical guide . 4th edn. London: Open University Press.
• Bettany-Satlikov J (2016) How to do a systematic literature review in nursing: a step-by-step guide . 2nd edn. Maidenhead: Open University Press.
• Coughlan M and Cronin P (2016) Doing a literature review in nursing, health and social care . 2nd edn. Los Angeles: Sage.
• De Brún C, Pearce-Smith N, Heneghan C, Perera R and Badenoch D (2014) Searching skills toolkit: finding the evidence . 2nd edn. Chichester: Wiley Blackwell / BMJ Books.
• Hewitt-Taylor J (2017) The essential guide to doing a health and social care literature review . London: Routledge. 

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In this Guide

• Access Key Resources

Overview & Steps for Searching the Literature

Step 1: formulate a research question, step 2: identify primary concepts & gather synonyms, step 3: locate medical subject headings mesh (database-specific indexing terms), step 4: combine search terms using boolean operators, step 5: apply search limits or filters, databases to search journal articles, useful websites and handouts, lane classes and tutorials.

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Literature searching and literature reviews are often used interchangeably but are two different steps in the research process guided by EBM.

• Literature search  is searching the literature for some studies. A search strategy is developed for one or more biomedical databases to search the literature, and gather relevant studies.
• Literature review  is reviewing the studies which have been identified through a literature search. As part of the literature review, the retrieved articles are analyzed and critically appraised. 

The following steps will help guide you through the process of literature searching in PubMed. Though we are focusing on PubMed, these steps can be used across bibliographic databases. 

• Formulate a research question
• Identify primary concepts & gather synonyms
• Locate Medical Subject Headings MeSH (database-specific indexing terms)
• Combine search terms using Boolean operators
• Apply search limits or filters

To learn more about the literature searching process, you can explore Lane Library's Literature Searching guide .

The first step in literature searching involves taking a clinical topic or problem and formulating it into a well-defined, answerable question. The development of a clear and focused question will help to streamline the searching process to locate the literature needed to begin answering the question and addressing the clinical problem. A well-defined, answerable question: 

• defines the focus of your literature search
• identifies the appropriate study design and methods
• makes searching for evidence simpler and more effective
• helps you identify relevant results and separate relevant results from irrelevant ones

What type of question are you asking?

Therapy:  effectiveness/risk of a certain treatment

Diagnosis : accuracy/usefulness of a diagnostic test/tool; application to a specific patient  

Prognosis : probable outcome, progression, or survivability of a disease or condition; likelihood of occurrence

Etiology/Harm : cause or risk factors for a disease or condition; questions about the harmful effect of an intervention or exposure on a patient

Tips for formulating a good question:

• The question is directly relevant to the most important health issue for the patient;
• The question is focused and when answered, will help the patient the most;
• The question is phrased to facilitate a targeted literature search for precise answers

Adopted from CEBM:  what makes a good clinical question   and  Center for Evidence Based Medicine: Asking focused questions  

PICO Framework

In EBM, following the PICO framework is a common way to create a focused and answerable question from a general topic. PICO is a mnemonic used to describe the four elements of a sound clinical foreground question.

PICO  stands for:

• P  - Population/Patient/Problem
• I  - Intervention  
• C  - Comparison or Control
• O  - Outcome

Alternative formats of PICO include PICOT and PICOTT:

• T  - Time
• T  - Type of question
• T  - Type of study

What is the effectiveness of Prozac vs Zoloft in treating adolescents with depression?

P : adolescents with depression

Using PICO to formulate your research question makes it easier to follow the next step in the literature searching process -- identifying primary concepts & gathering synonyms.

Primary concepts for your research question can be identified using the PICO formula from Step 1. Each of the PICO elements can form a primary concept. If your PICO does not have a  C omparison or  O utcome, or if the Outcome is broad or vague, it is okay to leave out these concepts. Sometimes, one of the elements in the PICO framework will include more than one primary concept. For example, the Population for our example includes the concept of adolescents and the concept of depression.

P :  adolescents  with  depression

I :  Prozac

C :  Zoloft

For each primary concept identified, make a list of other terms with the same or related meaning (synonyms). It is important to gather synonyms, because

Terms have different spellings, plural forms, and acronyms

Concepts are described inconsistently across time, geographies, or even among researchers

Terms have the same/close meaning, disciplinary jargon

Umbrella terms vs specific names for issues, interventions, or concepts

These terms will form the keywords of your search strategy. 

Tips for finding synonyms:

• Do a quick search to find a relevant article or two. Look at the words used in the article titles and abstracts.
• Think of specific examples or types
• Use background information to help brainstorm (e.g. UpToDate, DynaMed, textbooks)
• Explore the entry terms and related subject headings in MeSH (see Step 3)

Remember that building a search strategy is iterative. As you learn more about your topic, you can add more keywords to your search to broaden your results, or remove keywords if you are finding too many results.

What is Mesh?

Databases like PubMed use subject headings or controlled vocabularies to index (or label) articles. Subject headings are standardized terms for describing what the articles are about. Subject headings are specific to databases, and in PubMed, they are called Medical Subject Headings or MeSH. MeSH terms are structured hierarchically in a tree structure, and when you search a MeSH term, you search automatically includes all the terms that fall beneath it in the tree. Indexers add MeSH terms to journal article records in PubMed to reflect their subject content. 

MeSH terms are useful in a search to aid in locating synonyms and reduce term ambiguities. It facilitates the retrieval of relevant articles even when authors use different words or spelling to describe the same concept. For instance, using the MeSH term "Blood Pressure" will also find articles that use "pulse pressure," "diastolic pressure," and "systolic pressure."

Since MeSH terms are organized in hierarchies or MeSH trees, it also facilitates the searching for broad and narrow concepts. For instance, the MeSH term "Domestic Violence" will retrieve articles containing narrower topics such as "child abuse," "elder abuse," and "spouse abuse." But you can also expand the search, and move to a broader level, such as "Violence."

To look up a MeSH term, click on " MeSH Database " on PubMed's homepage. Type your concept into the search bar. The MeSH database will return appropriate MeSH (terms) if there are any. Not every concept will have a matching MeSH term. Remember to search for one concept at a time.

adolescents => "Adolescent"[Mesh]

Prozac => "Fluoxetine"[Mesh]

Zoloft => "Sertraline"[Mesh]

depression => "Depression"[Mesh]

When you search for a MeSH term in PubMed, use the [Mesh] tag following your search term to specify where to search for the term in the PubMed record.

You can also locate MeSH terms in PubMed by finding a relevant article and scrolling to the heading "MeSH terms" at the bottom of the article. This only works for articles that have been indexed. 

Other PubMed Search Tags

In addition to searching specifically for MeSH terms, you can also use search tags to search for keywords in particular fields of the PubMed record. When you search in PubMed, you are automatically looking for your keywords in all the record fields. Sometimes this might be too broad and bring back too many search results. You can experiment with field tags like [ti] to look for keywords only in the title or [tiab] to look for keywords only in the title or abstract. Explore all of the available search tags and reach out to your liaison librarian if you have questions using search tags.

Now that you've identified keywords for your concepts (step 2) and related MeSH terms (step 3), you can combine your search terms with Boolean Operators to build your search strategy.

Boolean Operators are a set of commands that can be used in almost every search engine, database, or online catalog to provide more focus to a search. The most basic Boolean commands are  AND  and  OR . In PubMed, you can use Boolean Operators to combine search terms, and narrow or broaden a set of results.

Narrow Results with AND

Use AND in a search to narrow your results. It tells the search engine to return results that contain ALL the search terms in a record.

adolescents AND depression

Note: Both the words  adolescents  and  depression  will be present in every record in the results.

Broaden Results with OR

Use OR in a search to broaden your results by connecting similar concepts (synonyms). It tells the search engine to return results that contain ANY of the search terms in a record.

adolescents OR youth OR teenagers

Note: Search results need to have at least one of the words  adolescents  or  youth  or teenagers .

Use parentheses ( ) to keep concepts that are alike together, and to tell the database to look for search terms in the parentheses first. It is particularly important when you use the Boolean Operator “OR”.

(adolescents OR youth OR teenagers) AND depression

Tip: You can use" Advanced Search " option in PubMed to help build your search strategy. Search concept by concept, adding ORs between all your keywords and MeSH terms for each concept. After you complete a search for each concept, you can use the "Actions" menu in the Advance Search Search History table to add combine your concept searches with AND. This will look for the overlap between your concept searches and help you avoid nesting errors.

Full Search Strategy Example:

("Adolescent"[Mesh] OR adolescent OR teen OR teens OR teenager OR youth OR youths) AND ("Depression"[Mesh] OR depressive OR depression) AND ("Fluoxetine"[Mesh] OR prozac OR fluoxetin* OR sarafem) AND ("Sertraline"[Mesh] OR zoloft OR sertraline OR altruline OR lustral OR sealdin OR gladem)

You can filter your search results using the PubMed filters in the left sidebar. You can filter by study type to look for the highest level of evidence to answer your question. You can also use date filters or filter to English language materials. If the study type you are looking for is not listed, select "Additional Filters" at the bottom of the left sidebar to see all the available options.

Note: Many PubMed filters depend on indexing, and using filters will exclude articles that do not have indexing.

You can also try PubMed's Clinical Queries to narrow your search results to the type of clinical questions you are asking (Therapy, Diagnosis, etc.).

Getting Too Many Results?

If your search retrieves too many results, you can limit the search results by

• replacing general (e.g. vague or broad) terms with more specific ones
• including additional concepts in your search
• using PubMed's sidebar filters on the left panel of the results page to restrict results by publication date, article type, population, and more

Getting Too Few Results?

If your search returns too few results, you can expand your search by

• browsing the  Similar Articles  on the abstract page for a citation to see closely related articles generated by PubMed's algorithm
• Removing specific or extraneous terms from the search string
• Using alternative terms to describe a similar concept used in the search
• CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing & Allied Health) Nursing and Allied Health Literature including nursing specialties, speech and language pathology, nutrition, general health, and medicine.

Provides fulltext access to Lane's resources. Contains coverage of over 5000 journals and more than 35.5 million citations for biomedical articles, including, but not limited to, clinical trials, systematic reviews, case reports, and clinical practice guidelines.

• Embase Biomedical and pharmacological abstracting and indexing database of published literature that contains over 32 million records from over 8,500 currently published journals (1947-present) and is noteworthy for its extensive coverage of the international pharmaceutical and alternative/complementary medicine literature.
• Scopus Largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature featuring scientific journals, books and conference proceedings.
• Web of Science Multidisciplinary coverage of over 10,000 high-impact journals in the sciences, social sciences, and arts and humanities, as well as international proceedings coverage for over 120,000 conferences. Features systematic reviews that summarize the effects of interventions and makes a determination whether the intervention is efficacious or not.
• Joanna Briggs Institute Evidence Based Practice Database Provides evidence-based health information prepared by expert reviewers at Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI). It includes several databases: Best Practice Information Sheets, Consumer Information Sheets, Evidence Summaries, Recommended Practices, Systematic Review Protocols, Systematic Reviews, and Technical Reports.
• Cochrane Library Evidence-based collection of information from randomized controlled trials that contain different types of high-quality, independent systematic reviews conducted by the Cochrane Review Groups.
• PsycINFO Provides systematic coverage of the psychological literature from the 1800s to the present through articles, book chapters and dissertations.
• PsycTESTS Provides downloadable access to psychological tests, measures, scales, and other assessments as well as descriptive and administrative information. It includes both published and unpublished tests developed by researchers but not made commercially available.
• ERIC (Education Resources Information Center) Citations and abstracts to journal and report literature in all aspects of educational research. Access Instructions. . . less... Also available through EBSCO and ProQuest

Literature Searching Handouts and Checklist

• Literature searching in PubMed cheat sheet
• Search syntax for common databases cheat sheet

Evidence-Based Research Organizations & Repositories

• Center for Evidence-Based Medicine (CEBM)
• Cochrane Evidence Essentials
• Joanna Briggs Institute Evidence-Based Practice Resources
• John's Hopkins Nursing Center for Evidence-Based Practice
• Ohio State's Fuld Institute for EBP
• Oncology Nursing Society - Evidence-Based Practice Learning Library
• Sigma Repository It is a profession-based online platform that freely disseminates nursing research, research-related materials, clinical materials related to evidence-based practice and quality improvements, and educational materials.
• NLM PubMed Online Training PubMed training materials by the National Library of Medicine (NLM)
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What is a Search Strategy?

How to search an information source, sample search strategy write up.

• Finding the Full-Text
• Conducting a Review of the Literature
• Evidence Based Practice
• Recognizing Scholarly and Refereed Journals
• Synthesizing Sources
• Determining a Theoretical Framework
• Finding a Research Instrument & Evaluating Data
• Citing sources - APA
• Scholary Project - tips
• Care Provider Toolkit

At its most basic, a search strategy is a way of keeping track of where (information sources such as databases, library catalogs, websites, etc.) and what (keywords or search terms) you used to look for sources and research on your topic.

When thinking about how to write up the search strategy for an assignment, including your DNP scholarly project, you will want to keep track of every place that you searched and the exact search terms you used for each source.  It is helpful to first think about what constitutes an information sources and then what a search strategy is.

An information source is basically where you search for information.  Here are some common examples:

• Journal databases - these are journal and citation indexes that use controlled vocabulary and produce clear repeatable results, examples include MEDLINE, CINAHL, and APA PsycInfo
• Multi-database searching - some sources allow you to search multiple databases at the same time, for example the databases vendors EBSCO and ProQuest allow you to search more than one database at a time
• For example, PubMed and Google Scholar (these seem like databases, but do not have controlled vocabulary or reproducible searches (there is a hidden algorithm that is determining what you see) so for this purpose would not be considered a journal database.)
• Also, journal platforms like Elsevier or Sage only allow you to search one publisher's journals and are not considered a journal database.
• Any websites you searched, for example, government or agency webpages (this is sometimes called the Grey Literature)
• Citation searching - this is when you look at the references of an article you have found, this can be done manual or through Google Scholar.  If you have done searching this way, you will want to clearly reference the articles that you mined for citations
• Contacts - did you seek additional studies or data by contacting authors or experts in the field?
• Other methods - anything else you did to find references

A search strategy, is 'how' you searched the information sources, for each information source you will want to report:

• What were the exact keyword and terms you used and how did you combine them? (See box below for more on keywords and Boolean logic)
• How did you add anything to limit your search? (for example additional keywords, or limit by article type or publication type, limit by population)
• Did you add any filters after you searched? (For example, filter to English language or peer review, or certain publication dates)
• Include the date when you performed the search? (When writing up a search strategy you want to include the date you searched, this helps if you (and the reader of your search strategy) come back to see if there is anything new on the topic.)

This information is adapted from the PRISMA-S guidelines for reporting searches and search strategies.

Rethlefsen M. L., Kirtley S., Waffenschmidt S., Ayala A. P., Moher D., Page M.J., Koffel J.B. (2021). PRISMA-S Group. PRISMA-S: an extension to the PRISMA Statement for Reporting Literature Searches in Systematic Reviews. Systematic Reviews, 10 (1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13643-020-01542-z

You can always start searching an online source by just putting some keywords in the box to see what results come back, but knowing a little more about how the databases work can help in returning more relevant sources.

Boolean Logic: watch this short video on  Boolean operators  (e.g. AND; OR or NOT)

• AND means that both words must be present (makes for more narrow results) - Fungi and Cancer
• OR means that either word may be present (makes for broader results and is usually used for synonyms) - Fungi OR Mushrooms
• NOT means that a word will be excluded from the results (makes for more narrow results) - (Fungi OR Mushrooms) NOT Yeast

Parentheses:  using parenthesis along with Boolean operators can help the database know what results you want (read the Boolean operators in the correct order).

• This search, Cancer AND Fungi OR Mushrooms, will return articles about cancer and fungi and articles about mushrooms
• This search, Cancer AND (Fungi OR Mushrooms), will return articles about cancer and fungi and articles about cancer and mushrooms

In the EBSCO databases I will usually put synonyms in the same box with an OR and different concepts each in their own box (the boxes effectively work as parentheses in the search:

Truncation symbols:  most databases allow the use of * to truncate a word.  In searching it will return results for any word that starts with the characters you enter for example: nurs* = nurse, nurses, nursing, and nursery (this can be very helpful if a word has multiple endings, but also note that this last word, nursery, actually has a different meaning than the rest, so sometimes truncating can bring in some irrelevant results.

Search strategy : Searching databases in a consistent, structured manner will save you time. Keeping track of your search history can help you refine your topic, your thinking and your search strategy, and ultimately retrieve more relevant results. After each search, reflect on the keywords and synonyms you used, are there other terms, or another way to combine, to get more relevant results?

Steps in developing a search strategy include:

   - define terms and write down your research question      - identify, and keep track of key words, terms, and phrases    - identify keyword synonyms or reflect on narrower (or broader search terms)    - determine a timeframe for search results    - consider what type of material you will include and why    - identify where you will search for the information

This is just one example (not a template) for how a search strategy might be written up.  Note that the searches are clearly reproducible, someone could go to the information sources listed and do exactly the same searches.  Additionally, it includes the date the searches were done and the limiters applied in each source.

In August 2021, the databases MEDLINE and Biological Abstracts were searched using the terms: (fungi or mushroom*) AND bioactive compounds. In each database the searches were further limited to English language, published between 2016 and 2021, and peer review articles.  This resulted in 869 results in MEDLINE, and 2032 in Biological Abstracts.  So I did a more narrow search by adding in the concept of depression, leaving me with seven results in Biological Abstracts and  five results in MEDLINE. The resulting 12 articles were then hand reviewed by skimming titles and abstracts, and five applicable articles were selected for inclusion.  Additionally, the online source, Google Scholar was searched (in incognito mode) using the terms: depression and mushrooms and "bioactive compounds".  From there three additional articles were selected from the first two pages of results.  As a final step, two previously selected articles were entered back into Google Scholar and the "cited by" function was used to find additional newer articles (Barros et al. 2007; Elkateeb et al. 2019).

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Literature Review Overview

What is a Literature Review? Why Are They Important?

A literature review is important because it presents the "state of the science" or accumulated knowledge on a specific topic. It summarizes, analyzes, and compares the available research, reporting study strengths and weaknesses, results, gaps in the research, conclusions, and authors’ interpretations.

Tips and techniques for conducting a literature review are described more fully in the subsequent boxes:

• Literature review steps
• Strategies for organizing the information for your review
• Literature reviews sections
• In-depth resources to assist in writing a literature review
• Templates to start your review
• Literature review examples

Literature Reviews vs Systematic Reviews

Systematic Reviews are NOT the same as a Literature Review:

Literature Reviews:

• Literature reviews may or may not follow strict systematic methods to find, select, and analyze articles, but rather they selectively and broadly review the literature on a topic
• Research included in a Literature Review can be "cherry-picked" and therefore, can be very subjective

Systematic Reviews:

• Systemic reviews are designed to provide a comprehensive summary of the evidence for a focused research question
• rigorous and strictly structured, using standardized reporting guidelines (e.g. PRISMA, see link below)
• uses exhaustive, systematic searches of all relevant databases
• best practice dictates search strategies are peer reviewed
• uses predetermined study inclusion and exclusion criteria in order to minimize bias
• aims to capture and synthesize all literature (including unpublished research - grey literature) that meet the predefined criteria on a focused topic resulting in high quality evidence

Literature Review Steps

Graphic used with permission: Torres, E. Librarian, Hawai'i Pacific University

1. Choose a topic and define your research question

• Try to choose a topic of interest. You will be working with this subject for several weeks to months.
• Ideas for topics can be found by scanning medical news sources (e.g MedPage Today), journals / magazines, work experiences, interesting patient cases, or family or personal health issues.
• Do a bit of background reading on topic ideas to familiarize yourself with terminology and issues. Note the words and terms that are used.
• Develop a focused research question using PICO(T) or other framework (FINER, SPICE, etc - there are many options) to help guide you.
• Run a few sample database searches to make sure your research question is not too broad or too narrow.
• If possible, discuss your topic with your professor. 

2. Determine the scope of your review

The scope of your review will be determined by your professor during your program. Check your assignment requirements for parameters for the Literature Review.

• How many studies will you need to include?
• How many years should it cover? (usually 5-7 depending on the professor)
• For the nurses, are you required to limit to nursing literature?

3. Develop a search plan

• Determine which databases to search. This will depend on your topic. If you are not sure, check your program specific library website (Physician Asst / Nursing / Health Services Admin) for recommendations.
• Create an initial search string using the main concepts from your research (PICO, etc) question. Include synonyms and related words connected by Boolean operators
• Contact your librarian for assistance, if needed.

4. Conduct searches and find relevant literature

• Keep notes as you search - tracking keywords and search strings used in each database in order to avoid wasting time duplicating a search that has already been tried
• Read abstracts and write down new terms to search as you find them
• Check MeSH or other subject headings listed in relevant articles for additional search terms
• Scan author provided keywords if available
• Check the references of relevant articles looking for other useful articles (ancestry searching)
• Check articles that have cited your relevant article for more useful articles (descendancy searching). Both PubMed and CINAHL offer Cited By links
• Revise the search to broaden or narrow your topic focus as you peruse the available literature
• Conducting a literature search is a repetitive process. Searches can be revised and re-run multiple times during the process.
• Track the citations for your relevant articles in a software citation manager such as RefWorks, Zotero, or Mendeley

5. Review the literature

• Read the full articles. Do not rely solely on the abstracts. Authors frequently cannot include all results within the confines of an abstract. Exclude articles that do not address your research question.
• While reading, note research findings relevant to your project and summarize. Are the findings conflicting? There are matrices available than can help with organization. See the Organizing Information box below.
• Critique / evaluate the quality of the articles, and record your findings in your matrix or summary table. Tools are available to prompt you what to look for. (See Resources for Appraising a Research Study box on the HSA, Nursing , and PA guides )
• You may need to revise your search and re-run it based on your findings.

6. Organize and synthesize

• Compile the findings and analysis from each resource into a single narrative.
• Using an outline can be helpful. Start broad, addressing the overall findings and then narrow, discussing each resource and how it relates to your question and to the other resources.
• Cite as you write to keep sources organized.
• Write in structured paragraphs using topic sentences and transition words to draw connections, comparisons, and contrasts.
• Don't present one study after another, but rather relate one study's findings to another. Speak to how the studies are connected and how they relate to your work.

Organizing Information

Options to assist in organizing sources and information :

1. Synthesis Matrix

• helps provide overview of the literature
• information from individual sources is entered into a grid to enable writers to discern patterns and themes
• article summary, analysis, or results
• thoughts, reflections, or issues
• each reference gets its own row
• mind maps, concept maps, flowcharts
• at top of page record PICO or research question
• record major concepts / themes from literature
• list concepts that branch out from major concepts underneath - keep going downward hierarchically, until most specific ideas are recorded
• enclose concepts in circles and connect the concept with lines - add brief explanation as needed

3. Summary Table

• information is recorded in a grid to help with recall and sorting information when writing
• allows comparing and contrasting individual studies easily
• purpose of study
• methodology (study population, data collection tool)

Efron, S. E., & Ravid, R. (2019). Writing the literature review : A practical guide . Guilford Press.

Literature Review Sections

• Lit reviews can be part of a larger paper / research study or they can be the focus of the paper
• Lit reviews focus on research studies to provide evidence
• New topics may not have much that has been published

* The sections included may depend on the purpose of the literature review (standalone paper or section within a research paper)

Standalone Literature Review (aka Narrative Review):

• presents your topic or PICO question
• includes the why of the literature review and your goals for the review.
• provides background for your the topic and previews the key points
• Narrative Reviews: tmay not have an explanation of methods.
• include where the search was conducted (which databases) what subject terms or keywords were used, and any limits or filters that were applied and why - this will help others re-create the search
• describe how studies were analyzed for inclusion or exclusion
• review the purpose and answer the research question
• thematically - using recurring themes in the literature
• chronologically - present the development of the topic over time
• methodological - compare and contrast findings based on various methodologies used to research the topic (e.g. qualitative vs quantitative, etc.)
• theoretical - organized content based on various theories
• provide an overview of the main points of each source then synthesize the findings into a coherent summary of the whole
• present common themes among the studies
• compare and contrast the various study results
• interpret the results and address the implications of the findings
• do the results support the original hypothesis or conflict with it
• provide your own analysis and interpretation (eg. discuss the significance of findings; evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the studies, noting any problems)
• discuss common and unusual patterns and offer explanations
•  stay away from opinions, personal biases and unsupported recommendations
• summarize the key findings and relate them back to your PICO/research question
• note gaps in the research and suggest areas for further research
• this section should not contain "new" information that had not been previously discussed in one of the sections above
• provide a list of all the studies and other sources used in proper APA 7

Literature Review as Part of a Research Study Manuscript:

• Compares the study with other research and includes how a study fills a gap in the research.
• Focus on the body of the review which includes the synthesized Findings and Discussion

Literature Review Examples

Check out the following articles as examples for formatting a literature review.

• Breastfeeding initiation and support: A literature review of what women value and the impact of early discharge (2017). Women and Birth : Journal of the Australian College of Midwives
• Community-based participatory research to promote healthy diet and nutrition and prevent and control obesity among African-Americans: A literature review (2017). Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities

• Vitamin D deficiency in individuals with a spinal cord injury: A literature review (2017). Spinal Cord

Resources for Writing a Literature Review

These sources have been used in developing this guide.

Resources Used on This Page

Aveyard, H. (2010). Doing a literature review in health and social care : A practical guide . McGraw-Hill Education.

Purdue Online Writing Lab. (n.d.). Writing a literature review . Purdue University. https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/conducting_research/writing_a_literature_review.html

Torres, E. (2021, October 21). Nursing - graduate studies research guide: Literature review. Hawai'i Pacific University Libraries. Retrieved January 27, 2022, from https://hpu.libguides.com/c.php?g=543891&p=3727230

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• Volume 19, Issue 1
• Reviewing the literature
• Article Text
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• Joanna Smith 1 ,
• Helen Noble 2
• 1 School of Healthcare, University of Leeds , Leeds , UK
• 2 School of Nursing and Midwifery, Queens's University Belfast , Belfast , UK
• Correspondence to Dr Joanna Smith , School of Healthcare, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK; j.e.smith1{at}leeds.ac.uk

https://doi.org/10.1136/eb-2015-102252

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Implementing evidence into practice requires nurses to identify, critically appraise and synthesise research. This may require a comprehensive literature review: this article aims to outline the approaches and stages required and provides a working example of a published review.

Are there different approaches to undertaking a literature review?

What stages are required to undertake a literature review.

The rationale for the review should be established; consider why the review is important and relevant to patient care/safety or service delivery. For example, Noble et al 's 4 review sought to understand and make recommendations for practice and research in relation to dialysis refusal and withdrawal in patients with end-stage renal disease, an area of care previously poorly described. If appropriate, highlight relevant policies and theoretical perspectives that might guide the review. Once the key issues related to the topic, including the challenges encountered in clinical practice, have been identified formulate a clear question, and/or develop an aim and specific objectives. The type of review undertaken is influenced by the purpose of the review and resources available. However, the stages or methods used to undertake a review are similar across approaches and include:

Formulating clear inclusion and exclusion criteria, for example, patient groups, ages, conditions/treatments, sources of evidence/research designs;

Justifying data bases and years searched, and whether strategies including hand searching of journals, conference proceedings and research not indexed in data bases (grey literature) will be undertaken;

Developing search terms, the PICU (P: patient, problem or population; I: intervention; C: comparison; O: outcome) framework is a useful guide when developing search terms;

Developing search skills (eg, understanding Boolean Operators, in particular the use of AND/OR) and knowledge of how data bases index topics (eg, MeSH headings). Working with a librarian experienced in undertaking health searches is invaluable when developing a search.

Once studies are selected, the quality of the research/evidence requires evaluation. Using a quality appraisal tool, such as the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) tools, 5 results in a structured approach to assessing the rigour of studies being reviewed. 3 Approaches to data synthesis for quantitative studies may include a meta-analysis (statistical analysis of data from multiple studies of similar designs that have addressed the same question), or findings can be reported descriptively. 6 Methods applicable for synthesising qualitative studies include meta-ethnography (themes and concepts from different studies are explored and brought together using approaches similar to qualitative data analysis methods), narrative summary, thematic analysis and content analysis. 7 Table 1 outlines the stages undertaken for a published review that summarised research about parents’ experiences of living with a child with a long-term condition. 8

• View inline

An example of rapid evidence assessment review

In summary, the type of literature review depends on the review purpose. For the novice reviewer undertaking a review can be a daunting and complex process; by following the stages outlined and being systematic a robust review is achievable. The importance of literature reviews should not be underestimated—they help summarise and make sense of an increasingly vast body of research promoting best evidence-based practice.

• ↵ Centre for Reviews and Dissemination . Guidance for undertaking reviews in health care . 3rd edn . York : CRD, York University , 2009 .
• ↵ Canadian Best Practices Portal. http://cbpp-pcpe.phac-aspc.gc.ca/interventions/selected-systematic-review-sites / ( accessed 7.8.2015 ).
• Bridges J , et al
• ↵ Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP). http://www.casp-uk.net / ( accessed 7.8.2015 ).
• Dixon-Woods M ,
• Shaw R , et al
• Agarwal S ,
• Jones D , et al
• Cheater F ,

Twitter Follow Joanna Smith at @josmith175

Competing interests None declared.

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De Brún C, Pearce-Smith N. Searching skills toolkit: finding the evidence, 2nd edn. Chichester: Wiley Blackwell/BMJ Books; 2014

Hewitt-Taylor J. The essential guide to doing a health and social care literature review.London: Routledge; 2017

Royal College of Nursing. Doing your dissertation subject guide. 2019. https://www.rcn.org.uk/library/subject-guides/doing-your-dissertation (accessed 10 September 2019)

How to undertake a literature search: a step-by-step guide

Mandy Watson

Literature Search Specialist, Library and Archive Service, Royal College of Nursing, London

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Undertaking a literature search can be a daunting prospect. Breaking the exercise down into smaller steps will make the process more manageable. This article suggests 10 steps that will help readers complete this task, from identifying key concepts to choosing databases for the search and saving the results and search strategy. It discusses each of the steps in a little more detail, with examples and suggestions on where to get help. This structured approach will help readers obtain a more focused set of results and, ultimately, save time and effort.

The first time you undertake a literature search, whether for an assignment, a dissertation, an interview or to help you care for a patient, the task can appear a little daunting. The key is to break the process down into smaller steps and think carefully about each step in advance.

There are 10 steps in the search process:

Think about your search question

Identify your key concepts, think about alternative search terms or synonyms, choose the most appropriate databases to search, combine your search terms.

• Consider any limits that you want to apply

Run your search and review your results

• Adapt your search strategy, if necessary

Save your results and search strategy

• Obtain your materials.

First, write out your title and check that you understand all the terms. Look up the meaning of any you do not understand. An online dictionary or medical encyclopaedia may help with this. If your search is for a dissertation, you may need to choose your own research question. In this case, you will need to consider whether there is likely to be enough research on your topic. On the other hand, if your topic is too broad, you may be overwhelmed by the number of references and will need to make your topic more specific.

Next, you need to identify your key concepts. One way to do this is to look at your title and identify the most important words. Ignore words that tell you what to do with the information you find (such as evaluate, assess, compare), because these are not generally used as search terms. In the example below, key concepts have been highlighted:

Evaluate the effectiveness of a mindfulness intervention on the health-related quality of life of rheumatoid arthritis patients .

Another way to do this is to break down your title using the PEO framework:

• P = population
• E = exposure
• O = outcome.

This works well where there is no comparison between two types of treatment or intervention.

In our example:

• P = rheumatoid arthritis patients
• E = mindfulness
• O = health-related quality of life.

Other question formats are available, such as PICOS (Population/problem/phenomenon, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome, Study design) or SPIDER (Sample, Phenomenon of Interest, Design, Evaluation, Research type) ( Hewitt-Taylor, 2017 ).

Once you have identified the key concepts, it is important to think of any other terms or phrases that might have a very similar meaning. Including such synonyms will make your search as thorough as possible. For example, if your topic is looking for articles on staff attitudes, you might also use the terms ‘staff perceptions’ or ‘staff opinions’. A really thorough search might look for ‘stereotyping’ or ‘labelling’ as well. At this stage you should also consider whether your chosen terms have alternative spellings, eg anaemia and anemia, and make sure you include both. Most databases will allow you to use a truncation sign (usually *) or wildcard (usually ?) to pick up various different endings to words or alternative spellings. For example, alcohol* would pick up alcohol, alcoholic, alcoholism, etc. Sm?th would find Smith and Smyth.

If the database you are using has a list of subject headings, this may help you to find the most appropriate term for your subject. The database may provide a note defining how terms are used in the database and may even suggest related terms.

Some databases, such as CINAHL and MEDLINE, also allow you to select a term as a major heading, ensuring that the article is substantially about that subject.

A comprehensive search, however, will usually include both subject headings from databases and terms that you have thought of yourself.

Box 1 provides some useful basic terminology.

Once you have chosen your search terms, you need to think about the best databases for your topic. The databases you choose will depend on the search question and the libraries to which you have access. If you just need a few references to help you write an essay, most libraries offer a library search (see Figure 1 ) or discovery tool. This generally allows a quick search across all the library's holdings and should allow you to limit your search by date or type of document. It can also give quick access to full-text items. The drawback of a library search is that it does not allow complicated search strategies in the way that some other databases do.

If your search is for a more in-depth assignment such as a dissertation, you will need to look at other databases. The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) Library and Archive Service (LAS) offers our members access to CINAHL, British Nursing Index and MEDLINE. These databases are useful for nursing topics, but several more specific databases are also provided such as Maternity and Infant Care, AMED for alternative and complementary medicine and Social Policy and Practice.

To access a range of databases, you may need to visit more than one library. Although the RCN specialises in nursing-related materials, your hospital library or university library may offer a broader range of databases in other fields of practice.

The next step is to combine your search terms in such a way that you retrieve only the more relevant references for your search question. In order to do this you need to build a search strategy. This involves using Boolean operators such as AND, OR and NOT.

• AND narrows the results of the search by ensuring that all the search terms are present in the results
• OR broadens the results of the search by ensuring that any of the search terms are present in the results
• NOT limits the results by rejecting a particular search term. Be careful with NOT because it will exclude any results containing that search term regardless of whether other parts of the article might have been of interest.

When you start to combine your search terms, it is important to link synonyms or alternative spellings with ‘OR’. For example, ‘staff attitudes’ OR ‘staff perceptions’. Concepts, on the other hand, should be linked with ‘AND’. For example, ‘alcohol’ OR ‘drinking’ AND ‘staff attitudes’ OR ‘staff perceptions’. This is sometimes called Boolean logic.

In Figure 2 , you can see that OR includes the contents of both circles, while AND includes only the contents of the area where the two circles overlap (the darker orange shaded area). From this diagram it is clear that OR will broaden the number of results, while AND will produce far fewer results.

Most databases will offer an Advanced Search option and this will allow you to build a complicated search with different concepts on different lines. In this way, you can group your synonyms into concepts (using OR) and then combine the different concepts together (using AND).

Figure 3 shows a template we use at the RCN Library to help with planning your search strategy. This can be used to break your topic down into concepts. These can then be linked together when you run the search. You can also add synonyms within each concept box. The ‘limits’ box is a prompt to think about any limits you want to make when searching.

Consider any limits you want to apply

The next step is to think about any other restrictions you want to make to your results. You may want to limit your search results to a certain time period. The most recently published will normally be most relevant. You may also want to specify that they should come from peer-reviewed journals.

On some databases (such as CINAHL), other limits are available, such as age group (adult, child) or document type. When writing a dissertation, primary research articles are normally required so it is worth checking whether the database allows you to limit to research articles only.

It might be worth looking at non-research materials too because a general article might provide a useful overview of your topic. A literature review can give an analysis of what has already been written on the topic.

Once you have identified all your search terms and any limits you want to apply, you are ready to run your search on the databases you have chosen, making sure that you include all your key words. Then you can look at the search results and start to select those that look relevant to your literature search. It is likely you will reject some because they are not quite what you wanted, but there will be others that can be marked for further attention.

The title of an article on its own may not tell you very much; read the abstract quite carefully to see whether or not the article is relevant. An abstract is a brief summary of an article or piece of writing on a particular subject and is often used to help the reader quickly understand the article's purpose. At this stage, try not to get sidetracked if you come across an article that is interesting but doesn't really answer your search question.

Adapt your search strategy as necessary

If you find that you are either generating more results than you can possibly look at or too few results to write about, be prepared to adjust your search terms and the way they are combined. If you get too many results, you could try:

• Limiting to just the most recent material
• Using more specific terms or adding another term and linking it using ‘AND’
• Limiting to a particular country or geographical area. If you get too few results, you might try:
• Expanding your date range
• Removing any geographical limits you have applied
• Removing the least important term or concept.

Also, be prepared to try other databases and keep searching until you feel confident that you have found enough relevant material.

Once you have run your search, and selected some useful references from the results that you want to follow up, it is important to save your search strategy. This is a record of the terms you searched, how you combined them and how many results you found for each. You can usually include your search strategy when emailing or saving your references.

You will also need to choose a way to save your results. One way is to email the results to yourself. A better way may be to use one of the reference management packages available, such as EndNote, Mendeley or Zotero to save the results. Such software has several advantages:

• It allows you to save your references into a file that you can add to as you extend your search to other resources
• You can manipulate the references to suit your purpose and delete any duplicates
• You can easily change the referencing style to suit the demands of the organisation or publication for which you are writing.

Keep a record of all the databases that you use as you carry out your search. It is also a good idea to note where you found any references that you subsequently use for your essay, dissertation or journal article.

Obtain your materials

The final step is to obtain the full text of the articles identified in your search that you consider may be useful for your assignment. If you are lucky, many of these will be available electronically and you may just be able to follow a link to the full text. Many libraries now offer a Library Search option like the one mentioned in Step 4. You can copy and paste your article title into the Library Search box and, if it is available as full text, a hyperlink will be shown that will link you to the document.

If the article is only available as a physical copy in your library, you will need the full citation details provided in the search results to access the article. This will include the journal title, volume and issue numbers and page numbers.

If your library does not have either an electronic copy or a physical copy, you may need to request the article by interlibrary loan. There is usually a charge for this service. You can ask your librarian for more details. It is also worth using Google or other search engines to check for the article title you require. Sometimes the article has been made freely available online by the authors or is available through PLOS One, a peer-reviewed open access scientific journal that covers primary research from any discipline within the fields of science and medicine.

Getting help

If, after following these steps, you still cannot find what you are looking for, remember that there is always help available at your library. The RCN Library and Archives Service offers a range of help materials ( https://www.rcn.org.uk/library/support/literature-searching-and-training). These include:

• Database guides in electronic and printed formats
• Video tutorials on how to search the databases
• One-to-one training sessions pre-bookable via the RCN website, face to face or via Skype.

A subject guide is also available on doing your dissertation and provides suggestions for key resources, books and journal articles that may help ( RCN, 2019 ).

A search service (where a literature search is carried out on your behalf by a librarian) may also be available at hospital/NHS trust libraries and some other specialist libraries, but these services are generally available only to qualified healthcare staff.

Breaking your search down into a series of smaller steps will help you to think carefully about your search topic and how to achieve the best results. This article has discussed the 10 steps involved in undertaking a literature search in detail. Taking a structured approach to searching will ultimately save time and effort. As a result you will obtain a more focused set of results that can be used as the basis for a successful assignment.

• Undertaking a literature search is an essential step of the research process and will be valuable when preparing for assignments, interviews and providing clinical care
• Careful planning of your search strategy (key concepts, search terms, synonyms, databases used and limits) will make your searching far more efficient
• Remember to save your search results and search strategy as you go along. Then you will be able to explain how you achieved your results
• Taking a structured step-by-step approach will save you time and effort and provide you with a more focused set of search results

CPD reflective questions

• Consider the different search question frameworks in Step 2. Can you apply one of these to a literature search topic you are researching?
• Using the concepts you have identified from your search topic, write out your search terms and consider any synonyms or alternative spellings that you might also include
• Think about any limits you would apply to your results, such as time frame, geographical, or restricting to primary research only

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Search Strategy

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• PICO(T) from Nutrition
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Search Strategy:  A search strategy is an organized structure of key terms used to search a database. PICO(T) is part of your search strategy. The search strategy combines the key concepts of your search questions in order to retrieve accurate results.  NYU LibGuide   provides students with a thorough overview of the Search Strategy. This LibGuide includes Boolean worksheets.

Researchers use  Boolean Logic   to combine search terms. 

Most databases allow the use of AND, OR and NOT to broaden or narrow and search. 

• AND will narrow the search to include only records with both terms. 
• OR with broaden the search to include records with either term.
• NOT will narrow the search to exclude records with one of the terms.

Truncation:  You can use an * at the end of a word stem to broaden your search to include related terms .  For example, to search for child, children or childhood use the search term  child *

Putting quotes "" around words allows you to search for a phrase.   For example, searching language development, without quotes, finds records with both the word 'language' and 'development' somewhere in the record.  Searching "language development", with quotes, only find records with the phrase "language development".

Here is a sample search that uses the quotation marks to keep the words overweight and adults next to one another; hence only articles with those terms side-by-side will show up in the result list. Furthermore, this search will only pull up articles with the terms dietary and supplements next to one another.  

Limiters:  Use limiters to hone in on topics. Health/Nursing databases provide many limiters. CINAHL's limiters enables you to limit by peer-reviewed, geography, age, sex, human study, evidence based practice, etc.

The PICO(T) question is the catalyst to your research:

1. PICOT Question:

How effective is the consumption of low glycemic index foods for reducing energy intake and promoting weight loss in adults?

Subject Searching

Subject searching is a more precise way to search, particularly when your search term can have more than one meaning. Every item in a database is assigned specific subject headings using a controlled vocabulary, which can vary by database. Most medical databases use MeSH (Medical Subject Headings), which is continually updated by the National Library of Medicine. MeSH uses a hierarchical system that allows for easy broadening or narrowing of topics. CINAHL uses subject headings unique to the database that use the same structure. 

MESH Subject Headings - ​

MeSH is the National Library of Medicine's controlled vocabulary thesaurus. It consists of sets of terms naming descriptors in a hierarchical  structure that permits searching at various levels of specificity.

MeSH descriptors are arranged in both an alphabetic and a hierarchical structure. At the most general level of the hierarchical structure are very broad headings such as "Anatomy" or "Mental Disorders." More specific headings are found at more narrow levels of the thirteen-level hierarchy, such as "Ankle" and "Conduct Disorder." There are over 28,000 descriptors in MeSH with over 90,000 entry terms that assist in finding the most appropriate MeSH Heading, for example, "Vitamin C" is an entry term to "Ascorbic Acid." In addition to these headings, there are more than 240,000 Supplementary Concept Records (SCRs) within a separate file. Generally SCR records contain specific examples of chemicals, diseases, and drug protocols. They are updated more frequently than descriptors. Each SCR is assigned to a related descriptor via the Heading Map (HM) field. The HM is used to rapidly identify the most specific descriptor class and include it in the citation.

CINAHL Subject Headings -

The CINAHL subject headings are based on the MeSH headings, with additional specific nursing and allied health headings added as appropriate. Each year, the headings are updated and revised relative to terminology needed in these fields. In addition, new terms from MeSH may be added as well.

Watch:  Use MeSH to Build a Better PubMed Query

Credits: National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI)

Your instructor will often request that you track your search terms.  Many databases offer a "Search History" option.  

You can also save your searches within CINAHL and PubMed. In CINAHL, you have the option to create a My EBSCOhost folder; In PubMed you can save your searches within a NCBI account.  Other  databases offer similar options. 

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How to conduct an effective literature search

Affiliation.

• 1 School of Nursing and Midwifery, Trinity College Dublin. [email protected]
• PMID: 16320963
• DOI: 10.7748/ns2005.11.20.11.41.c4010

The ability to describe and analyse published literature on a topic and develop discussion and argument is central to evidence-based patient care. A literature review is an assessment procedure that is commonly applied in nursing settings. Effective literature searching is a crucial stage in the process of writing a literature review, the significance of which is often overlooked. Although many current textbooks refer to the subject, information is often of insufficient depth to guide an effective search. This article outlines important considerations in the search strategy and recommends practical advice for students to ensure best use of their valuable time. It is suggested that a systematic, organised search of the literature, that uses available resources effectively, is more likely to produce quality work.

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Systematic Reviews and Evidence Syntheses: Searching for studies

• Planning a Review
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In conducting a search for a systematic review, scoping review or other evidence synthesis review, your aim is to conduct a sensitive and comprehensive search. For a systematic review, particularly if you’re going to make clinical decisions, it is important not to miss relevant studies as this could have an impact on the data analysis and subsequent recommendations. Chapter 4: Searching and Selecting Studies in the Cochrane Handbook is an invaluable source of advice and guidance on the conduct of searches for systematic reviews. 

If you’re conducting a rapid review, you may need to make compromises with the breadth of the search and the number of databases searched. In this case. It would be important to highlight the potential limitations of the approach when presenting your findings. 

If you need any help or advice on the issues discussed in this section, please consult your outreach or subject librarian for further guidance. 

Developing your search strategy: Selecting the key search concepts

In planning your review, you will have broken down your topic using a question formulation tool e.g. PICO or PCC. In preparing your search strategy you will look again at the PICO and select which key concepts will be included in the search, and which will be used as inclusion / exclusion criteria at the title/abstract or full text screening stage. For a sensitive search, it’s common practice to select 2 (sometimes 3) elements of the PICO for searching, often the Population and Intervention elements. For example, for this PICO: 

How do delayed antibiotic prescriptions for respiratory infections affect patient & service outcomes compared to immediate /no prescription? 

Population = Patients with respiratory infections 

Intervention = Delayed antibiotic prescription  

Comparison = Immediate or no prescription 

Outcomes = time to recovery, repeat GP appointment, emergency hospitalisation, patient satisfaction... 

The key elements for starting your search would be respiratory infections, antibiotics and delayed prescribing. For this question, we have multiple comparators and multiple outcomes, if we added keywords for these concepts, we might overlook significant synonyms and miss relevant papers. By focusing on the population and intervention we will automatically retrieve papers reporting any or no comparator and any outcomes, primary or secondary. 

Developing your search strategy: Brainstorming keywords

In your scoping searches you will have identified related reviews and a small pool of key studies. These can be a helpful source of title/abstract keywords and subject headings for your search strategy. As a first step you may want to skim the titles and abstracts of relevant papers and categorise terminology and synonyms used by authors writing about your topic e.g. 

Respiratory infections, respiratory tract infections, RTI, common cold, influenza... 

Antibiotics, anti-biotics, antibacterials, beta lactams, penicillin... 

Delayed prescribing, delayed prescription, delaying prescriptions... 

Alongside variations in terminology, you need to be aware of differences in spelling, acronyms, broader concepts (respiratory infections) and narrower concepts (common cold), drug classes and individual drug names.  

Author keywords, also called free-text terms or title/abstract keywords are only one part of your search. Many bibliographic databases tag articles using subject headings, also called index terms or thesaurus terms. These are individual to each database and will need to be incorporated into your search strategy alongside the author keywords. 

To see example search terms for our question above, have a look at the search methods reported in the Cochrane review on Immediate versus delayed versus no antibiotics for respiratory infections If you do use someone else’s search strategy as inspiration, then this should be fully acknowledged and cited in your review. 

Text mining tools

If you’re a frequent user of Medline/PubMed there are several helpful tools that can be used to perform an analysis on a group of relevant studies to identify frequently occurring keywords and/or subject headings, these include: 

• PubMed Reminer
• Yale MeSH Analyzer
• Systematic Review Accelerator For Word Frequency and Search Refinery

Text mining tools are increasingly being used to aid the development of search strategies, but it isn’t a fully automated process. As a searcher, you will need to use your discretion when you use these tools, bearing in mind that they don’t behave consistently across different topics. Further advice is forthcoming from information specialists revising Chapter 4: Searching and Selecting Studies   in the Cochrane Handbook. In the meantime, CADTH’s Text Mining Opportunities: White Paper provides useful guidance. 

Methodological filters

In some cases, we breakdown our question into PICOS, with the S identifying the Study Type that will provide the best evidence to answer the question. For example, if we’re conducting a review looking at the effectiveness of an intervention, we might be guided by Levels of Evidence to restrict our search to randomised controlled trials. The appropriate study type will differ from question to question, and in some cases (scoping reviews, realist reviews...) it may not be advisable to restrict by study type. 

In conducting a sensitive search, limiting the search by using in-built publication type filters is likely to miss relevant studies. There is now a bank of tried, tested and validated search filters available from the InterTASC ISSG search filter resource and these can be applied to searches across different databases. 

Testing, peer reviewing and finalising the search

The development of a search strategy is an iterative process and is initially conducted on one database, usually Medline/PubMed or Embase. You will need to test your free-text search terms, subject headings and their combination (AND/OR) to get a sensitive search, without retrieving too many irrelevant papers. For a comprehensive search, it is inevitable that irrelevant papers will be included, and these will need to be excluded during the screening process. 

To learn more about building a search strategy you can register for our iSkills for Medicine: Searching Systematically workshop or view our literature searching videos  

To make sure there are no omissions, mistakes or unknown biases within your search strategy, it is recommended that the search be independently assessed. The PRESS Peer Review of Electronic Search Strategies can be used to review the search in a structured manner. Carrie Price in her PRESS Five minute Friday video gives a quick introduction to the process. 

Choosing bibliographic databases

Once the search strategy has been developed for one database, it will need to be adapted across all relevant bibliographic databases. The MECIR manual providing guidance on the conduct of Cochrane Intervention Reviews specifies Medline, Embase and CENTRAL as compulsory databases. Although specific for intervention reviews, 3 databases as a minimum are a good starting point for most reviews.  

These are some of the databases relevant to systematic reviews in health care. Additional or alternative databases should be searched depending on your question. 

CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature) 

Cochrane Library, including Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR) and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) 

EMBASE: Excerpta Medica 

MEDLINE  

PsycINFO 

For staff and students at the University of Oxford these can be accessed via Databases A-Z with an Oxford SSO. For NHS staff, including those at the OUH NHS Foundation Trust, these can be accessed through the NHS Knowledge and Libraries Hub with an OpenAthens account . 

Ongoing studies  

It is important to be aware of ongoing studies as this could affect the decision on when to publish and/or update the review. You should also report details of ongoing studies in your review.  

Trial registrations can be identified through a search of CENTRAL via Cochrane Library. However, it is advisable to search 2 additional trial registries if you’re conducting a review of intervention studies: 

• International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP)
• ClinicalTrials.gov

Reports of studies are also increasingly reported prior to peer review and publication as journal articles. You may wish to conduct a search of individual preprint archives ( medRxiv ) or search a platform which conducts a federated search across preprint archives ( Europe PMC ) 

Additional search methods

As mentioned already, a sensitive search is essential for an evidence review, and while a search of multiple bibliographic databases and trial registers is the key part of this process, supplementary searching is essential to verify that no studies have been missed. 

Citation tracking  

This process will be conducted once the initial results have been screened and you have a list of included studies. You can screen the reference lists of included studies (backward citation tracking) and/or search for papers that have cited your included studies (forward citation tracking). GoogleScholar, PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science Core Collection are useful databases for this process, you can also automate the search with Citation Chaser . See our video on Citation Searching for a quick demonstration. 

Grey literature  

Grey literature is generally considered to be material published or made available by organisations or individuals, not through commercial publishers. This can include:  

Conference abstracts not published in journal supplements 

Theses 

Preprints (discussed under ongoing studies above) 

Government documents & organisational reports 

Clinical study reports and regulatory documents 

Personal communication, social media and blog posts 

  Searching for grey literature can be problematic, as it isn't collected, organised or stored in a consistent way. These issues are explored by Dickersin, Stansfield and Bangpan . You will need to be flexible in your approach, depending on the type of grey literature you need – this will differ from review to review. 

CADTH’s publication Grey Matters: a practical tool for searching health-related grey literature gives guidance on identifying organisational and HTA reports 

Look at the Databases A-Z for resources for finding theses (Proquest Dissertations & Theses (Global), eTHOS), conference abstracts (Embase, Web of Science) and organisational reports (Overton) 

Searching specific organisational websites and a subject search on a web search engine can also be useful approaches. Look at our video on web searching for grey literature for top tips. 

Record keeping

You will need to document your search in order to comply with PRISMA-S - this is covered in more detail in the section on Writing Up.  

At this stage, be sure to keep a record of: 

Databases searched – including version and date searched 

Full electronic strategy for each databases – these can be downloaded from the database at time of search 

Any limits applied e.g. language, date, study type 

Other search methods applied e.g. screening reference lists, forward citation searching and contact with authors 

Details of any web searches including name of website, URL, keywords used and date searched.  

Further reading

• Cochrane handbook for systematic reviews of interventions (Chapter 4: Searching for and selecting studies) [ebook] by Julian P. T. Higgins; James Thomas (Editors) ISBN: 9781119536628 Publication Date: 2022 Version 6.3, 2022. Chapter 4 by Carol Lefebvre et al., on behalf of the Cochrane Information Retrieval Methods Group.
• Cochrane handbook for systematic reviews of diagnostic test accuracy (Chapter 7: Searching for studies) [ebook] by de Vet HCW, Eisinga A, Riphagen II, Aertgeerts B, Pewsner D. Publication Date: 2008 Version 0.4 [updated September 2008].
• Doing Realist Research. (Chapter 9: Scoping and Searching to Support Realist Approaches) [ebook] by Emmel N, Greenhalgh J, Manzano A, Monaghan M, Dalkin S, (editors) Online ISBN:9781526485472 Print ISBN:9781473977891 Publication Date: 2018 Chapter 9 by Booth A, Wright J, Briscoe S.
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Nursing: Literature Review

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Good Place to Start: Citation Databases

Interdisciplinary Citation Databases:

A good place to start your research  is to search a research citation database to view the scope of literature available on your topic.

TIP #1: SEED ARTICLE Begin your research with a "seed article" - an article that strongly supports your research topic.  Then use a citation database to follow the studies published by finding articles which have cited that article, either because they support it or because they disagree with it.

TIP #2: SNOWBALLING Snowballing is the process where researchers will begin with a select number of articles they have identified relevant/strongly supports their topic and then search each articles' references reviewing the studies cited to determine if they are relevant to your research.

BONUS POINTS: This process also helps identify key highly cited authors within a topic to help establish the "experts" in the field.

Begin by constructing a focused research question to help you then convert it into an effective search strategy.

• Identify keywords or synonyms
• Type of study/resources
• Which database(s) to search
• Asking a Good Question (PICO)
• PICO - AHRQ
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Seminal Works: Search Key Indexing/Citation Databases

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TIP – How to Locate Seminal Works

• DO NOT: Limit by date range or you might overlook the seminal works
• DO: Look at highly cited references (Seminal articles are frequently referred to “cited” in the research)
• DO: Search citation databases like Scopus, Web of Science and Google Scholar

Web Resources

What is a literature review?

A literature review is a comprehensive and up-to-date overview of published information on a subject area. Conducting a literature review demands a careful examination of a body of literature that has been published that helps answer your research question (See PICO). Literature reviewed includes scholarly journals, scholarly books, authoritative databases, primary sources and grey literature.

A literature review attempts to answer the following:

• What is known about the subject?
• What is the chronology of knowledge about my subject?
• Are there any gaps in the literature?
• Is there a consensus/debate on issues?
• Create a clear research question/statement
• Define the scope of the review include limitations (i.e. gender, age, location, nationality...)
• Search existing literature including classic works on your topic and grey literature
• Evaluate results and the evidence (Avoid discounting information that contradicts your research)
• Track and organize references
• How to conduct an effective literature search.
• Social Work Literature Review Guidelines (OWL Purdue Online Writing Lab)

What is PICO?

The PICO model can help you formulate a good clinical question. Sometimes it's referred to as PICO-T, containing an optional 5th factor. 

Search Example

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Assessment of Search Strategies in Literature-Review-Based Candidate Theses Within a Nursing Program

Kerstin herrström, stina larsson, eva-lena einberg, marie nilsson, kerstin blomqvist, pernilla garmy.

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Correspondence: Pernilla Garmy Faculty of Health Science, Kristianstad University, Kristianstad, 291 88, Sweden, Phone: Tel +46 739791316 Email [email protected]

These authors contributed equally to this work

Received 2019 Oct 6; Accepted 2019 Dec 30; Collection date 2020.

This work is published and licensed by Dove Medical Press Limited. The full terms of this license are available at https://www.dovepress.com/terms.php and incorporate the Creative Commons Attribution – Non Commercial (unported, v3.0) License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ ). By accessing the work you hereby accept the Terms. Non-commercial uses of the work are permitted without any further permission from Dove Medical Press Limited, provided the work is properly attributed. For permission for commercial use of this work, please see paragraphs 4.2 and 5 of our Terms ( https://www.dovepress.com/terms.php ).

The majority of candidate theses in baccalaureate nursing programs in Sweden are written as literature studies. Being able to carry out a systematic and structured literature search is an essential part of thesis-related work.

The aim of the current study was to investigate changes in nursing students’ search strategies in candidate theses.

A retrospective, quantitative study design was obtained. Librarians (n = 2) and teachers (n = 4) randomly examined selected candidate theses (every third thesis, n = 89) from the years 2012, 2014, and 2016.

The result showed a significant improvement over the years (from 2012 and 2014 to 2016) regarding the use of a sufficient number of synonyms, matching search terms to the respective database, use of the Boolean operator OR, and the use of subject headings and free text searches. Use of the title/abstract search largely disappeared. There was a significant change in the types of searches being done. The searches have become more structured in later years as the use of block searches increased significantly; in other words, more systematic and relevant searches have been done in recent years.

The result of this study shows that the quality of the students’ search strategies improved significantly during the studied years. It is recommended that search documents are used in both formative and summative assessments to evaluate students’ search strategies. Educational development in the form of enhanced collaboration between librarians and teachers in nursing programs is recommended because it might help to develop student search strategies in literature-based candidate theses.

Keywords: information literacy, information retrieval, search strategies, literature-review-based candidate thesis, nurse education, nursing program, library instruction

Video abstract

Point your SmartPhone at the code above. If you have a QR code reader the video abstract will appear. Or use:

https://youtu.be/iiDTvayaYHU

Introduction

In students’ future occupational profession as registered nurses, it is important to develop skills and ability to search and critically review scientific literature since nursing and healthcare should be based on evidence-based knowledge. Therefore, nursing educators and librarians put much effort into teaching information literacy. Most candidate theses in baccalaureate nursing programs in Sweden are written as literature studies. Being able to carry out a systematic and structured literature search is an essential part of thesis-related work and students’ skills in search strategies must be evaluated continuously. There is, however, a lack of studies that focus on students’ search strategies and the quality of these strategies. Therefore, there is a need for further research in the development of search strategies in literature-based work within nursing programs.

It is relevant to document the search strategies of candidate theses in nursing programs to increase evidence-based practice (EBP). There are many definitions of the different steps contained in EBP, and Ciliska, 4 has formulated the following EBP-related steps: Asking a clinical question (1), searching the literature for relevant research (2), critically appraising what has been found (3), implementing the change in practice (4) and evaluating the change in practice (5). The entire EBP process includes information literacy, such as searching, gathering, evaluating, and using information. Step two includes the information-retrieval process itself. A systematic search aims at finding all relevant documents for a certain purpose. Block search technology is a prerequisite for a successful systematic search. This means that students identify meaning-bearing concepts from the research question, and then create so-called blocks for each meaning-bearing concept. Each block search must contain all of the keywords and terms that are required to capture all relevant studies. Techniques in a block search include the subject heading searches and free text searches, both narrow and wide searches, truncation and phrase searches, and the use of different Boolean operators (AND, OR, and NOT). Not only the searches but also the entire workflow needs to be systematic. It is expected that exclusion criteria and limitations be documented. 5 , 10

Systematic searches are used in medicine and nursing sciences for systematic literature studies and health technology assessments (HTA), and there are a number of instruments designed to support researchers during this work process. Examples of such instruments include PRISMA, 11 AMSTAR, 21 ENTREQ, 24 and the Cochrane Handbook. 5 Research support for nursing research and EBP is strong in Swedish nursing education, 23 which makes the literature search extremely important. According to the Swedish Society of Nursing’s Qualification Description for Registered Nurse, 22 a nurse should be able to “keep up with the development of knowledge” and “be able to systematically seek, critically evaluate and compile scientific literature”. Swedish laws and regulations, such as The Higher Education Act and The Higher Education Ordinance, contain similar writings about the expected learning outcomes for nursing students. In particular, The Higher Education Ordinance defines the knowledge and skills in information literacy that future nurses need to contribute to the development of the profession and their work. 18 , 19

In nursing education, a so-called search document for documenting the searches used in a literature study is often used. The search document shows (in detail) how the search has been performed and provides a unique opportunity to evaluate the search strategies the students have used for their thesis. The search document is used both for formative and summative assessments of student searches. Through the search document, the supervisor, examiner, fellow students, and librarian can follow the students’ search process during the course of the work. Students can thus get feedback on the searches they have performed, both in the writing of the project plan for the thesis course and during the middle and final seminars and at supervisory times.

Previous Research

A few studies discuss the examination of candidate theses as the end products of student work in nursing programs. The study subjects of candidate theses range from purpose of studies to discussions and conclusions. In the case of searches, Langius-Eklöf and Forsberg, 9 have examined whether the search terms were relevant, if the description of the literature search was approved, and if the searches were sufficiently well described to be replicated. The result showed that two-thirds of the theses had relevant search terms and approved descriptions, while shortcomings were found in how the searches were described. Kapborg and Berterö, 6 investigated whether the literature is scientific, current, and international. In these two studies, the students’ approach to the selection of literature and how the searches were performed were not reviewed, but they touched on the approach on which a systematic search should be based.

A Norwegian study 13 examined an intervention in teaching and how it affected the number of databases and articles that were used in candidate theses in nursing education. The intervention consisted of introducing the first four steps of the EBP model into nursing education. Students’ arguments regarding the choice of sources were also collected from the theses. The focus of the study was on the selected databases and not on the search strategies. 13 Schilling and Applegate, 17 investigated the pros and cons of common assessment methods in library instruction. It is possible to assess students’ learning both during the process of information retrieval (in-process) and in the end-products. One strength of end-product assessment is that the product is the final goal, compared to a published scientific article that is the final product of a research project. According to Schilling and Applegate, the end product is a genuine, authentic, summative, and valuable product. One disadvantage is that the citation analysis does not provide information about the information-retrieval process itself. Another disadvantage is that the literature list does not show the quality of the information search regarding the use of Boolean operators, the use of filters and delimitations, and the articles’ relevance. Sampson and McGowan, 16 studied the quality of search strategies used in systematic literature studies conducted by researchers, but according to our knowledge, search strategies in candidate theses have not been studied before. There are studies that have assessed nursing students’ search strategies in assignments other than candidate theses. The parts that were evaluated were search history and worksheets. 3 , 12 Many studies deal with self-assessed student knowledge and skills in information searching [see, for example Kuhlthau, 8 ] but there are few studies that investigate students’ changing search strategies, particularly in higher education. Mahmood 25 demonstrates that students often overestimate their skills in information literacy, according to the Dunning–Kruger effect. 7

The current study aimed to investigate changes in nursing students’ search strategies in candidate theses.

This study has a retrospective, quantitative study design, and a sociocultural perspective. This theoretical standpoint assumes that knowledge is created in a certain context. With relevance to this study, it is about developing an understanding and familiarity with the way information is sought and used in a certain social context. Using a sociocultural perspective, information literacy is not possible to measure per se, as it is regarded as such a complex competence. However, the students’ performance and the product of information retrieval (i.e., the thesis and the search document, in this study) can be assessed. 15 Ethical approval is not applicable since the study does not include human subjects, and the analyzed data was public according to Swedish law. 20 The students’ course grades would not be affected by the study as the authors used retrospective data, and the data was blinded in preparation for the analysis.

In Sweden, undergraduate nursing students follow a 3-year university program. The students achieve two degrees, one professional degree as a registered nurse, as well as a bachelor’s degree. Many nurses continue to postgraduate studies (master and doctoral level). 22 The context of the current investigation is the nursing program at Kristianstad University in southern Sweden.

Continuous Educational Development

Since 2013, approaches to teaching information literacy within the nursing program at Kristianstad University have been developed in collaboration between librarians and teachers. Examples of learning activities are that teachers discuss and explain how to choose relevant search terms based on the study aim, and librarians teach students how to use the databases and how to use MeSH terms and headings (see Box 1 ). These learning activities are both lectures and workshops on campus as well as instructional films. Constructive alignment has been the foundation for this work, defining and developing intended learning outcomes, teaching and learning activities, and assessment, and it aims at creating coherence for both students and teachers. 1 There has also been an intensified effort on progression within the students’ learning processes along with increased demands on students’ success in information searching. The entire work of changing instruction sessions and supporting the students’ reflective approach can be viewed as using a sociocultural stance, in that learning is considered as emanating from interactive activities. 2

Examples of Learning Activities

A project group consisting of librarians (n = 2) and teachers (n = 4) examined – individually first, then in pairs consisting of one librarian and one teacher – randomly selected candidate theses (every third thesis, n = 89) from the years 2012, 2014, and 2016. The examiners were blinded as the examining librarians and teachers did not know from what year the theses were or the identity of the theses’ authors or supervisors. Within the project, a template for reviewing the methodology, method discussion, and search document was developed. The template was structured with five principal areas: search terms; search strategies; systematic work procedure; which databases were being used; and methodological considerations (see Appendix 1 ). Information on what the students were asked to include in the search documents is presented in Appendix 2 . All the librarians and teachers met and discussed the ratings after the first 10 rated candidate theses, and also when all theses were rated to increase inter-rater reliability.

Statistical Analysis

Descriptive statistics with frequencies and percentages were used to describe the search strategies presented in the theses from 2012, 2014, and 2016. Differences in search strategies between the earlier years (2012 and 2014; coded 1) and later (2016; coded 0) were analyzed using the chi-squared test. 14 The level of significance was set at 5%. Statistical analysis was performed using IBM SPSS version 24.

The frequencies and percentages of the different search strategies in 2012, 2014, and 2016 are presented in Table 1 .

Frequencies and Percentages of the Search Strategies in a Random Sample of Literature-Based Candidate Theses (n = 89) from the Years 2012, 2014, and 2016

There was a significant improvement over the years (from 2012 and 2014 to 2016) regarding the use of sufficient number of synonyms (p < 0.0001), matching search terms to the respective database (p <0.0001), use of the Boolean operator OR (p < 0.0001), and the use of subject headings (p < 0.0001) and free text searches (p < 0.0001) ( Table 2 ). Use of the title/abstract search largely disappeared between 2014 and 2016 (p = 0.001). There was a significant change in the types of searches being done. The searches have become more structured in later years as the use of block searches increased significantly during 2016 (p < 0.0001).

Result from the Analysis of the Search Strategies in a Random Sample of Literature-Based Candidate Theses (n=89) from the Years 2012, 2014, and 2016

Note: a P-value = Chi Square.

There was a trend toward a better correlation between the text in the methods section and the search document in recent years, but this difference was not significant (p = 0.229). There was also a trend toward increasing awareness of strengths and weaknesses concerning searches in the method’s discussion, but the difference was not significant (p = 0.223) ( Table 2 ).

The result of this study demonstrated that the quality of the information-searching section in the students’ candidate theses during the studied period increased significantly. In recent years, the students developed more search strategies and performed more systematic and structured searches. However, the result also demonstrated that the systematic approach requires further development, for example, better knowledge of bibliographic databases and certain search techniques. Students also need to elaborate their method chapters and method discussions in relation to the search document (where the searches are described) so that the text and search document are correlated. The result of the study is incorporated into further educational development at the nursing program.

Even though search documents are used in different forms in nursing education at Swedish institutions of higher education, we have not found any studies that have used search documents to evaluate students’ search strategies or systematic approaches. Kapborg and Berterö, 6 and Langius-Eklöf and Forsberg, 9 are the studies that lie closest to our issue in that they evaluated parts of the systematic approach in candidate theses in a nursing program.

In the current study, the aim was to investigate nursing students’ search strategies. A quantitative approach, as performed in this study, can provide an objective overview of the knowledge of a student group and indicate changes over time. Although this study design cannot prove a relationship between educational development and the students’ skills in information literacy, there are clear improvements in students’ searching skills. Self-assessment methods might, on the other hand, not accurately reflect students’ real knowledge of information literacy, as most overestimate their abilities. 25

When information literacy teaching is developed and students improve their competence in search strategies, the teachers supervising the candidate theses might lag behind, which might lead to difficulties in supervision. Therefore, it is important to offer teachers support in supervising candidate theses regarding their skills in information literacy. To facilitate this, we have developed an educational guide to overcome possible difficulties. This guide can also be used by students during the preparation of their theses.

Suggestions for further research include supplementing the data in this study with a survey where the information searching process of a small number of students can be followed via search logs and interviews. In this way, it would be possible to capture how students use reason in their search process, and it would enable us to test the effects of teaching. However, the method needs to be supplemented with formative evaluation tools for the purpose of learning support.

The result of this study shows that the quality of the students’ search strategies improved significantly during the studied years. It is recommended that search documents are used in both formative and summative assessments to evaluate students’ search strategies. Educational development in the form of enhanced collaboration between librarians and teachers in nursing programs is recommended because it might help to develop student search strategies in literature-based candidate theses. Future nurses could then systematically apply their knowledge, thereby increasing the quality of evidence-based and sustainable healthcare.

Abbreviations

EBP, Evidence-based practice; HTA, Health technology assessments.

Author Contributions

Substantial contributions to conception and design, acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data: KH, SL, EE, PG, MN, KB;

Drafting the article: KH, SL, PG; or revising it critically for important intellectual content: KH, SL, EE, PG, MN, KB;

Final approval of the version to be published: KH, SL, EE, PG, MN, KB; and

Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved: KH, SL, EE, PG, MN, KB.

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sector.

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Nursing: How to Write a Literature Review

• Traditional or Narrative Literature Review

Getting started

1. start with your research question, 2. search the literature, 3. read & evaluate, 4. finalize results, 5. write & revise, brainfuse online tutoring and writing review.

• RESEARCH HELP

The best way to approach your literature review is to break it down into steps.  Remember, research is an iterative process, not a linear one.  You will revisit steps and revise along the way.  Get started with the handout, information, and tips from various university Writing Centers below that provides an excellent overview.  Then move on to the specific steps recommended on this page.

• UNC- Chapel Hill Writing Center Literature Review Handout, from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
• University of Wisconsin-Madison Writing Center Learn how to write a review of literature, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
• University of Toronto-- Writing Advice The Literature Review: A few tips on conducting it, from the University of Toronto.
• Begin with a topic.
• Understand the topic. 
• Familiarize yourself with the terminology.  Note what words are being used and keep track of these for use as database search keywords. 
• See what research has been done on this topic before you commit to the topic.  Review articles can be helpful to understand what research has been done .
• Develop your research question.  (see handout below)
• How comprehensive should it be? 
• Is it for a course assignment or a dissertation? 
• How many years should it cover?
• Developing a good nursing research question Handout. Reviews PICO method and provides search tips.

Your next step is to construct a search strategy and then locate & retrieve articles.

•  There are often 2-4 key concepts in a research question.
• Search for primary sources (original research articles.)
• These are based on the key concepts in your research question.
• Remember to consider synonyms and related terms.
• Which databases to search?
• What limiters should be applied (peer-reviewed, publication date, geographic location, etc.)?

Review articles (secondary sources)

Use to identify literature on your topic, the way you would use a bibliography.  Then locate and retrieve the original studies discussed in the review article. Review articles are considered secondary sources.

• Once you have some relevant articles, review reference lists to see if there are any useful articles.
• Which articles were written later and have cited some of your useful articles?  Are these, in turn, articles that will be useful to you? 
• Keep track of what terms you used and what databases you searched. 
• Use database tools such as save search history in EBSCO to help.
• Keep track of the citations for the articles you will be using in your literature review. 
• Use RefWorks or another method of tracking this information. 
• Database Search Strategy Worksheet Handout. How to construct a search.
• TUTORIAL: How to do a search based on your research question This is a self-paced, interactive tutorial that reviews how to construct and perform a database search in CINAHL.

The next step is to read, review, and understand the articles.

• Start by reviewing abstracts. 
• Make sure you are selecting primary sources (original research articles).
• Note any keywords authors report using when searching for prior studies.
• You will need to evaluate and critique them and write a synthesis related to your research question.
• Consider using a matrix to organize and compare and contrast the articles . 
• Which authors are conducting research in this area?  Search by author.  
• Are there certain authors’ whose work is cited in many of your articles?  Did they write an early, seminal article that is often cited?
• Searching is a cyclical process where you will run searches, review results, modify searches, run again, review again, etc. 
• Critique articles.  Keep or exclude based on whether they are relevant to your research question.
• When you have done a thorough search using several databases plus Google Scholar, using appropriate keywords or subject terms, plus author’s names, and you begin to find the same articles over and over.
• Remember to consider the scope of your project and the length of your paper.  A dissertation will have a more exhaustive literature review than an 8 page paper, for example.
• What are common findings among each group or where do they disagree? 
• Identify common themes. Identify controversial or problematic areas in the research. 
• Use your matrix to organize this.
• Once you have read and re-read your articles and organized your findings, you are ready to begin the process of writing the literature review.

2. Synthesize.  (see handout below)

• Include a synthesis of the articles you have chosen for your literature review.
• A literature review is NOT a list or a summary of what has been written on a particular topic. 
• It analyzes the articles in terms of how they relate to your research question. 
• While reading, look for similarities and differences (compare and contrast) among the articles.  You will create your synthesis from this.
• Synthesis Examples Handout. Sample excerpts that illustrate synthesis.

Regis Online students have access to Brainfuse. Brainfuse is an online tutoring service available through a link in Moodle. Meet with a tutor in a live session or submit your paper for review.

• Brainfuse Tutoring and Writing Assistance for Regis Online Students by Tricia Reinhart Last Updated Oct 26, 2023 458 views this year
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Literature Reviews: systematic searching at various levels

• for assignments
• for dissertations / theses
• Search strategy and searching
• Boolean Operators

Search strategy template

• Screening & critiquing
• Citation Searching
• Google Scholar (with Lean Library)
• Resources for literature reviews
• Adding a referencing style to EndNote
• Exporting from different databases
• PRISMA Flow Diagram
• Grey Literature

You can map out your search strategy in whatever way works for you.

Some people like lists and so plan their search strategy out in a grid-box or table format. Some people are more visual and like to draw their strategy out using a mind-map approach (either on paper or using mind-mapping software). Some people use sticky notes or Trello or a spreadsheet.

If it works for you then as long as it enables you to search systematically and thoroughly there's no need to change the way you work. 

If your search strategies are not very developed, the method you use doesn't lead to a good search, then consider using one of the other methods to see if changing your approach helps.

• Search Strategy Document
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• Next: Screening & critiquing >>
• Last Updated: Sep 25, 2024 11:09 AM
• URL: https://libguides.derby.ac.uk/literature-reviews

• USC Libraries
• Research Guides
• Social Work *
• Developing a Search Strategy

Social Work *: Developing a Search Strategy

• Search Operators
• Scholarly and Popular Sources
• Reading a scholarly research article effectively
• Evaluating Your Sources - How do I know this is reliable?
• Organizing your research with Citation Managers
• Library Services
• Full Text Articles
• Find Dissertations
• Find Books and E-books
• Using Google Scholar
• Find Newspaper Articles
• Finding Grey Literature in Social Work
• What are journal impact factors?
• How do you find a journal impact factor?
• Workshops and Webinars
• Antiracist/Anti-oppression Resources
• Evidence-based Practice Resources
• Tests & Measurements
• Treatment Planners
• Where do I find background information on a topic?
• What is a Policy Brief?
• Topic Specific Statistics and Data
• Documentaries, Therapy Demonstrations, Training Videos
• Distance Learning
• Writing Resources This link opens in a new window
• Course Guides
• DSW (Doctor of Social Work) Resources
• Faculty Resources
• Alumni Resources
• APA 7th Edition

Strategic Searching

• Developing Keywords This USC Libraries tutorial defines keywords and allows you to practice identifying keywords for your topic
• Searching Solutions The goal of this guide is to help you become a better searcher. Keywords are only the beginning. Knowing how your favorite database uses the terms you put into the search box may make all the difference in your being able to find what you need quickly and effectively.
• Find an article using the citation in the library catalog Find a specific journal article, journal or book by citation information. For best results, include a title, ISBN, or DOI.

Searching by methodology

Searching by methodology.

When searching for research studies that use a specific type of design or method, like quantitative , qualitative or quasi-experimental , you can have a more efficient and effective search by using some of the tips below to find these sources. 

In some databases, you can search by methodology. For example, PsycINFO provides methodology as a limiter in their advanced search section. If using PsycINFO, navigate to the advanced search section and then enter your keywords and select the desired methodology before searching. 

Another option is to enter the methodology that you are looking for as a keyword in your search.

For example, if you are looking for experimental designs on the topic youth depression, you can enter search terms: "youth depression" AND "experimental design". 

Note: Using quotation marks will search that exact phrase. However, you can also search without quotation marks. A good practice is to do multiple searches - modify your terms, find similar terms, do a search without quotation marks and do one with quotation marks (phrase searching). 

Searching Grey Literature

The Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions defines grey literature as "the kind of material that is not published in easily accessible journals or databases". 

Search grey literature sources that make the most sense for your research question. These sources can include:  materials and research produced by organizations outside of the traditional commercial or academic publishing, conference proceedings, dissertations, published reports or datasets and government documents.

The following sources are recommendations. If you are searching only for grey literature in databases, consider limiting your search by "publication type". Grey Literature can include technical reports, annual reports or government publications, etc. 

• << Previous: Search Operators
• Next: Scholarly and Popular Sources >>
• Last Updated: Oct 24, 2024 2:41 PM
• URL: https://libguides.usc.edu/sw