What's your topic?
Think about your topic. Identify the main concepts and themes. You may like to use mind mapping or AI such as Microsoft Copilot (or Google Gemini, ChatGPT) to help generate ideas.
It's a good idea to run test searches first using Library Search and Google Scholar for example. This helps you decide whether your topic is viable (is there enough written about it?). It is worth trying out several potential topics at this stage.
Please note that Copilot, Gemini and ChatGPT are not designed to identify genuine references and have been known to invent them (these are called 'hallucinations').
Refer to the AI Tools at University Guide for information on what is and is not allowed and whether you need to reference the AI tool.
Want to access journal articles you find on the Internet? Download the LibKey Nomad browser extension.
Step 1. Planning your search - work out your key concepts and keywords
This is a very important step in any search for literature or literature review.
You will not obtain good results if you search a database using your complete question or sentences. You need to identify the keywords or concepts to use for searching.
For example: How can we ensure hand hygiene standards for infection control are followed in the hospital setting?
The key concepts for this question are: hand hygiene, infection control and hospital.
Step 2. Identify alternative search keywords
There could be alternative spellings, synonyms, plural or singular, broader or narrower terms etc. You may not need to use all of these in your search.
For example:
| Concept 1 | Concept 2 | Concept 3 |
| hand hygiene | infection control | hospital(s) |
| hand washing | infection prevention | ward(s) |
| handwashing | infection reduction | acute care |
| hand cleansing | Infection management | inpatient(s) |
| hand disinfection | nosocomial infection | secondary care |
Step 3. Search a database
See the Database tab of this guide for relevant databases e.g. Medline.
Type each concept with your alternative keywords with an OR between. The AND is already between each row in the advanced search in a database like Medline or CINAHL.
Medline Search page Example:
Specialist Mapping Tools
In addition to databases, you may like to try specialist AI literature mapping tools, such as Research Rabbit, Litmaps or Connected Papers. Note that some require payment for premium (unlimited) usage. Given one paper (journal article) they will find related ones. Please note that they generally find articles which are freely available online and not the ones that require a subscription. The library will give you free access to many of these pay-for journal articles.
PICO is a tool which you can use to plan your search more effectively.
P = Patient / Population or Problem
What is the medical condition or social problem? Who is the patient or client? e.g. age, sex, race
I = Intervention or Exposure
Is there a treatment, service or solution you want to investigate?
C = Comparison
Is there a different intervention which you can compare it to? This may be missed, especially if there is no alternative
e.g. treatment or intervention A versus or compared with treatment B or no treatment or intervention
O = Outcome
What is the planned outcome or consequence? What is the affect?
Examples:
(P) In the pre-hospital heart attack patient, (I) does the use of a mechanical compression device (C) compared to standard CPR (O) lead to an increase in return of spontaneous circulation?
(P) In patients with fever, (I) does the use of paracetamol (C) compared to to the use of ibuprofen (O) lead to a decrease in fever symptoms?
In students learning clinical skills (P) does face to face teaching (I) improve confidence (O) more than online learning (C).
Evaluating and critically appraising all sources of evidence and information is important, including analysing published research. Selecting and reading peer reviewed journal articles is important but does not exclude the need to evaluate and appraise the research.
Critical Appraisal Guide - includes links to tools and frameworks e.g. CASP.
Boolean operators
Most databases allow you to search using Boolean operators (AND, OR and NOT). These allow you to narrow, broaden or restrict your search to improve your results.
OR allows you to widen your search to include alternative terms and return a greater number of results
e.g. A search for "older people" OR elderly will return results which contain either of these key words.
AND allows you to narrow your search and make your results more specific
e.g. A search for "hand hygiene" AND surgery will only contain results which contain both of these keywords.
NOT allows you to exclude results based on keywords. You should use NOT with caution as it can remove potentially useful results.
e.g. A search for surgery NOT cardiac will return results for surgery and exclude any which include the key word cardiac.
Phrase searching
Use speech marks (quotation marks) " " around words to search for phrases.
e.g. "infection control" or "hand washing"
Truncation
This technique allows you to search for all variations of a word from a common root
e.g. communicat* will find communication, communicating and communicate.
child* will find child, children, childhood etc...
Wildcards
Allows you to replace one or more letters in a word so that you can search for variations in spelling
e.g. wom?n will find both woman and women
Literature reviews are a specific type of methodology for presenting the literature and research on a topic. Many research articles and reports will include a review of the existing literature.
A literature review should show:
•What is known about your topic – the existing literature, evidence and research on the topic
•What is not known / uncertainties
•Where the priorities for research lie – the gaps
•Provide a framework for where your research is positioned
Further help
Doing a Literature Review in Health and Social Care: A practical guide (4th ed)
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