Planning a literature search

Why do I need to plan my literature search?  Because the more effort you put into the planning of your literature search and the more systematic you are the better your results will be.  And you will find the Programme Specifications have statements similar to this ‘Having successfully completed this module you will be able to demonstrate basic academic skills in the areas of searching for, selecting and critiquing evidence (of an area of practice) to show personal knowledge and understanding of practice.

But before you actually start using electronic databases it is worth spending some time thinking about and planning your search. This is known as devising you search strategy. The next few slides will take you through that procedure.

1. Identify the keywords in your assignment: – Think of synonyms (alternative word with the same meaning) for your keywords e.g. stroke/cerebrovascular accident/cva – Think about American spelling and terminology e.g. colour/color, behaviour/behavior, physiotherapy/physical therapy – Think about different word endings e.g. child, child's, children – Think about acronyms e.g. ecg/electrocardiogram

Truncation allows you to broaden your search by retrieving varying endings of your search terms. For example, if you were interested in articles about “amputation” you will need to look for keywords such as “amputate”, “amputee”, “amputated”, “amputation” or “amputations”. But, rather than having to search for all of these words individually you can enter amput* and the database will find amputation, amputee, amputate, etc. 2. Consider using truncation

3. Use quotes at the beginning and end if you are searching for a phrase If you would like your words to appear next to each other, with no other significant words between them then place truncation marks at either end of the phrase. For example putting quotes around “mental health” means it will then search it as a phrase and not as individual words anywhere in the bibliographic details.

4. Combine your search terms using Boolean OperatorExample searchThe search will find or stroke or cerebrovascular accident or cva Articles where the author has used any of the terms Remember or broadens a search, resulting in more hits and rehabilitation and stroke Articles containing both rehabilitation and stroke Remember and narrows a search, resulting in fewer hits

Let’s consider the following question: “What research evidence is there to support the theory that exercise or exercise programmes help in the prevention of falls in the elderly?”

The key topics are fairly obvious “What research evidence is there to support the theory that exercise or exercise programmes help to prevent falls in the elderly?”  falls  elderly  exercise  prevention But how else can these topics be described and will we need to include them all?

old aged trip accident stumble physical activity work out prevent elderly stop avoid exercise falls

Search 1 – note that we are joining the terms with or because they are similar concepts trip* fall* accident* or

Search 2 old* elder* or

Search 3 active* exercis* or

Search 4 prevent*

This is what the first set of search terms will look like when for a keyword search in DelphiS or CINAHL or Medline

Now you have prepared your search strategy you can start using the databases. You will find help with using our most popular databases on this LibGuides page ces/databases ces/databases 16

17 Using these tools will also help you to create an audit trail/record of your literature search An audit trail or record will allow the person marking your piece of work to follow through step-by-step your literature search. It will also allow you to manage your time more effectively because you won’t be wasting time searching for material that you have lost because of poor record keeping.

18 An audit trail/record will show all of the stages of the search procedures, such as:  Determining key terms, including synonyms and alternative spellings and different terminology  The databases used  The date range used  The dates of access  The search history  The justification for excluding data

Saving Searches You can save your search to be rerun at another time: 1. Create a personal account by clicking Sign In at the top of the page. Go to Create a New Account and set up your profile, or sign in to an your existing account by entering your username and password. 2. Conduct a search. 3. Click Save Searches/Alerts. 4. Give your search a name and select from the options to save as permanent or temporary (24 hours). 5.To access your saved searches in future, go to the Search History page, and click Retrieve Searches. The retrieved search can be rerun, edited, or deleted. 19

If you need more in depth help then there are a number of books available in the library including:  Williamson, JR & Whittaker. A. (2014) Succeeding in literature reviews and research project plans for nursing students. 2 nd edn. London: SAGE/Learning Matters  Coughlan, M. (2013) Doing a literature review in nursing, health and social care. London: SAGE.  Aveyard, H (2014) Doing a literature review in health and social care. 3 rd edn. Maidenhead: Open University Press. 20