This document outlines strategies for graduate students to conduct effective literature reviews, including developing a clear research question, using keywords and synonyms to build efficient search strategies, managing citations, staying current through alerts and RSS feeds, and getting help from librarians. It discusses crafting a focused research question, generating concepts and keywords from the question, using databases and subject headings for an in-depth search, citation searching to trace scholarly conversations, and citation management tools for organization. Tips are provided for each step of the literature review process.

1. Literature review strategies
for graduate students
ELIZABETH YATES, FACULTY OF APPLIED HEALTH SCIENCES LIBRARIAN
BROCK UNIVERSITY
OCTOBER 2014
Free to use or share with attribution

2. Success!
www.brocku.ca/library > Collections > Digital Repository >Brock Theses > Masters Theses > Applied Health Sciences

3. Today’s outcomes
You will recall strategies for:
•creating a research question
•building an efficient search strategy for a literature review:
including keywords & synonyms, identifying relevant
databases/journals, logging your searching and keeping
current
•managing your citations
•getting help 

4. Is your lit searching on target?

5. Getting to the
good stuff
What works
for you?

6. Think before
you search
Image: Rodin Museum, Philadelphia
http://brohammas.wordpress.com/philly/

7. Research path
Research
question
Generate
keywords &
synonyms
Get
background
info
Add more
keywords,
context to
your search
Foreground
information
Revise as
needed

8. Stay on the path
•Track your research path:
what have you searched &
where?
•Consider search alerts
and RSS feeds
•Store your citations
and papers so they
are findable
•Try a citation manager

9. Step 1: crafting a research question
•Shapes what you will study and how
•Should be of personal interest
•Should be clear, concise, focused
•May need tweaking once you start exploring the literature
Hint: ask yourself, “What would be the title of the perfect
article to answer my question?”

10. Research question: ask yourself
Why is this interesting to me – and others?
What are the gaps in the literature?
What population are you studying?
In what context?
What interventions and outcomes are
you interested in?
What answer do you expect to find? (your hypothesis)

11. Research question: who’s got one?
Possible RQ:
How does body image affect the leisure activities of men
with spinal cord injury?
-population
-intervention
-outcome Next: translate
research
question into a
search strategy

12. Think like a search engine
Keywords & synonyms

13. Keywords
•Key to finding good
information on your
topic
•Usually nouns
•Think about broader,
narrower and related
terms

14. 1. What are you interested in? 2. What is your research
Thinking tool: generating concepts and keywords
question?
Synonyms?
Expert vocabulary?
Population?
Write down anything related to your
Context?
Outcomes?
Locations?
Interventions?
5. Generate some related
words (broader, narrower)
4. Choose some keywords
3. Concept cloud
topic
Derived from: Thinking Tool: Choosing a Topic and Search Terms by Burks and Wolnick,
University of Virginia Library

15. Sample keywords
Keywords Related terms
Body image Related term: self image
Narrower terms: self esteem,
confidence
Spinal cord injury Broader term: musculoskeletal
disorder, spinal cord diseases
Narrower terms: central cord
syndrome

16. Getting started: background info
Image: 'untitled'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11797
720@N00/8559607109
Found on flickrcc.net
1. Find research guide relevant to your
discipline > Research Guides by Program
www.brocku.ca/library/research-lib/research-guides
2. Use tabs for Find Books, Background info
OR
3. Go right to SuperSearch

17. Succeed with SuperSearch: books
1. Refine your results: select “books & media @ Brock”
Slide the Publication Date to adjust time period
2. Select “Subject” to find results focused on a specific
aspect of your topic
3. Add another keyword to find results focused on a
specific aspect of your topic
4. To get a book: note location in library (print books)
OR click “read this online” (e-books)

18. Moving from background
to foreground

19. Finding foreground info
Search engines Databases/Indexes
e.g. Google, Google Scholar:
-broad scope
-can’t tell where you are searching
-few options for focused searching
e.g. OVID MEDLINE, SportDISCUS
-defined/subject-specific scope
-you can discover what journals
are being searched
-many options for focused
searching e.g. by subject, age
group, methodology, article type
Choose the best resource for your search

20. Which databases & journals
are relevant?
Tips:
•Search some keywords in SuperSearch, find relevant
articles and see which databases & journals they’re from
•Ask your colleagues and supervisors
•Check a Library Research Guide in your topic area e.g.
Kinesiology
•Ask your librarian 

21. Search tips & tricks
1. Use “quotes” to search for an exact phrase
2. Use * to search for variations of a word ending e.g.
child*(child, children)
3. Use search operators: AND, OR
• Distinct topics: use AND
• Similar topics (synonyms): use OR

22. Search operators in action
How does body image affect the leisure activities of men with
spinal cord injury?
Body image
OR
Self image
Spinal cord injury
OR
Spinal cord disease

23. Search operators in action
(body image OR self image) AND (spinal cord injury OR disease)
AND: I want articles with ALL my concepts
OR: I want articles with ANY of my concepts

24. Database searching
KEYWORD SEARCHING E.G. WEB OF SCIENCE
•Use as many related words as possible
to ensure adequate coverage
•Combine synonyms with OR and
distinct concepts with AND
•Look for pull down menus that allow
you to focus your search e.g. abstracts
SUBJECT HEADING SEARCHING E.G.
OVID MEDLINE
•Find the relevant subject headings for
your topic: subject headings group all
the articles on a specific topic together
•Usually, databases with subject
headings also have the most
sophisticated search filters e.g.
research methodologies, articles types,
etc.

25. Finding emerging research
brocku.ca/library/research-lib/theses-and-dissertations
•Brock digital repository
•Proquest Dissertations
•Ask around!

26. Tracing scholarly conversations
Citation searching:
a) Backwards – via cited references
b) Forwards – via find citing references
(MEDLINE, Web of Science)

27. Keeping current
•Search alerts > in databases e.g. OVID MEDLINE, Web of
Science, EBSCO products (SportDISCUS, CINAHL), search
engines e.g. Google Scholar
•TOC alerts > via databases, journals
•RSS feeds > from journals, websites – set up via email e.g.
Outlook, feedreaders e.g. NetVibes; your browser

28. Think, pair &
share
What are some good
strategies for staying
organized?

29. Citation management tools
•Use to store and organize your search results
•Create in-text citations and reference lists automagically
•Save time!

30. Citation management tools
Free @
Brock

31. Getting Help @ the Library
• Visit the Help Desk
• Chat with us from
this widget
> brocku.ca/library
• Text us @
289.271.8777
Search our FAQ

32. brocku.ca/library
Click on the Help Tab to
search topics by
Category
Contact me:
eyates@brocku.ca
905-688-5550
x4469

33. Summing up

34. Resources
Booth, W. C., Colomb, G. G., & Williams, J. M. (2003). The
craft of research. Chicago: University of Chicago press.
Ridley, D. (2012). The literature review : a step-by-step guide
for students. Los Angeles: SAGE.
Russey, W. E., Ebel, H., & Bliefert, C. (2006). How to write a
successful science thesis: the concise guide for students.
Weinheim: Wiley-VCH.
Fink, A. (2014). Conducting research literature reviews : from
the internet to paper. Los Angeles: SAGE.