Research essentials

All research needs to be situated in relation to what has already been done in the field. So, the first step in any project is "research about research". This might mean: 

• finding out what is already known about a topic, in order to locate gaps and justify the research being undertaken 
• locating the work of important theorists whose ideas will inform the research 
• identifying useful methodologies, methods and documentary sources 
• locating and evaluating all the empirical studies, published and unpublished, that are relevant to the research questions. 

Librarians can provide one-on-one assistance with searching for your review, including assistance with developing your search strategy, identifying and using appropriate databases, and assistance with reference management software.

Systematic style reviews are much more than a literature review. These reviews answer a question by analysing and synthesising all relevant literature. Systematic style reviews follow a strict methodology which means they are transparent, rigorous and replicable.

The table of differences between reviews explains the difference between literature reviews, systematic reviews and scoping reviews. It is located in our Systematic reviews guide, where you can find further information about undertaking a systematic style review.

Detailed information on preparing for and writing a literature review is available via the Academic Skills Unit (password required). The information below will help you locate suitable literature for your review. 

Develop your search strategy

Once you have a research question, you are ready to start searching. It is best practice to take a systematic approach to searching the literature. This includes planning a search strategy using the appropriate database search techniques, searching comprehensively in databases and other sources where appropriate, and evaluating and recording your search process and search results. 

Identify search terms

• Begin by conducting some scoping searches on your topic. Familiarise yourself with the existing literature, identify key journals, relevant databases and the terminology around your topic to help identify potential search terms. 
• Identify the main search terms, or key concepts, from your research question (this will usually be between 2 and 5 concepts). 
• Identify relevant synonyms, related terms and alternate spelling (if applicable) for the key concepts. Dictionaries and thesauri may be useful here. 

It's useful to organise your search terms in a concept table (also known as a search table) in preparation for database searching. At the bottom of this section is a concept table in Word that can be used to develop your search.

To populate a concept table:

1. Identify the main concepts from your research question. List the main concepts at the top of each column of your table.
2. List your synonyms for each concept in the relevant column.
3. Use OR between synonyms, which will broaden the search for each concept (e.g teenager OR adolescent).
4. Apply relevant search techniques such as truncation and phrase searching to your keywords.
5. Each concept column will then be combined with AND.
6. Check for relevancy by testing your search in a database and refine if necessary. 

Concept table example

This example is based on the research question:

How does understanding the common good and inequality impact society? 

The key concepts to search for in this example are common good, inequality and society.

Database search techniques such as truncation, wildcards, phrase searching and Boolean can improve your results. See search smarter for more information on these techniques.

Searching using subject-specific databases is very effective for finding relevant information on a topic. It's best to search more than one database to ensure your search is sufficiently comprehensive. To identify relevant databases:

• Find a library guide for your specific discipline. Each one provides recommended databases.
• Go to Databases A-Z, then Refine by Subject to see a full list of databases in your subject area. 
• Contact a librarian who can recommend databases relevant to your research topic. 

Searching with database subject headings

Many databases include a standardised system of subject headings (also called descriptors, index terms, medical subject headings and MeSH headings). Each article about a particular topic will be tagged with the same subject heading, regardless of the terminology used by the authors. Searching using the appropriate subject headings can be an efficient way to find relevant literature, especially when combined with keyword searching. If you would like more information on searching with subject headings, refer to individual database user guides or ask your librarian team.

The following tips will help you search more efficiently:

• Apply appropriate limits or filters to your search results, such as date range, language, publication type etc.
• Keep a record of your search strategies and the number of results. This will help you keep track of effective search terms and ensure you can reproduce your search.
• Set up a personal account and save your searches in each database. This will help you re-run searches at a later date.
• Consider setting up a search alert for notifications of new literature indexed into databases that match your literature search strategy. Librarians can assist with saving searches and setting up search alerts.
• Use reference management software such as EndNote, Mendeley or Zotero to organise your search results. Refer to managing your references for more information.

In addition to database searching, cited reference searching, also called citation chaining or citation searching, is another useful way to locate relevant literature on your topic. When you find a key paper in your field of research, look at its reference list for other relevant papers. You can also search for papers that have cited the key paper.  

Backward citation searching (or backward chaining) involves using the key paper's reference list to locate other relevant literature. 

Forward citation searching (or forward chaining) involves using a citation database to locate literature that has cited the key paper. Use the 'cited by' feature in citation databases and search engines such as:

• Web of Science
• Scopus
• Google Scholar

Grey literature refers to unpublished literature or literature that has not been published commercially. It may include reports, conference proceedings, theses, and government and non-government organisation publications. Aside from searching Google and Google Scholar, there are websites aimed specifically at finding grey literature including:  

• Analysis and Policy Observatory (APO) - Australian focus 
• The Grey Literature Report - American focus 
• Open Grey - European focus 
• Grey Literature Network Service  
• Trove – Australian focus 

ACU staff and students can request interlibrary loans. See interlibrary loans and document delivery for more information.