What is the difference between a literature search and a literature review?
A literature search is a systematic search of the available literature on a given research topic, which helps to identify what has already been written on that research topic and what the gaps in the research might be. Literature searching is a process you will become increasingly familiar with throughout your studies; it's a foundation for learning and writing assessments.
A literature review is a written survey of the available literature on a given research topic, which provides an overview and critical analysis of the existing research that can be applied to your research project.
How to carry out a literature search
Here is a 4 step guide to carrying out a literature search. You may start by performing the steps in order and then find that the order changes as you delve more deeply into a research topic - and that's perfectly fine! Remember that literature searching often involves trial and error, and you're unlikely to find everything you need in your first search.
- Identify the key concepts and terms for the search
- Determine useful databases
- Write your search query
- Run the search, edit the search if necessary, and run the search again
Top tips:
- Keep track of your searches, the number of results they produce, and the most useful results they produce, for example in a document or spreadsheet. Keeping a record of your searches will help you to repeat the same search in different databases and to avoid duplicating your efforts.
Step 1: Identify the key concepts and terms for the search
- Systematically create a list of the key concepts and terms relevant to your literature search.
- How to create this list?
- use your own knowledge of the subject
- synonyms
- also consider how certain terminology might have developed if you want to capture research from certain historic periods
- dictionaries and encyclopaedias
- subject headings in SOAS catalogue records
- Example: If your essay is titled 'Changes to global journalism in the 21st century', some keywords might include: journalism, news, media, world, global, international, 21st century, twenty first, modern, contemporary, current, etc.
Step 2: Determine useful databases
- SOAS Library has access to over 100 databases, which can all be accessed via the A-Z database list.
- The SOAS Library catalogue searches multiple databases.
- It is useful to repeat the same searches in different databases because it's unlikely you’ll find everything you need in one single database. This is particularly true for postgraduate students, and it's very important for literature reviews which try to capture the most relevant research for a topic.
- If SOAS does not have access to a database you need, Senate House Library (SHL) or another library that is part of University of London might.
Step 3: Write your search query
- Databases are different from internet search engines like Google. To search databases most effectively, clearly express your search terms and how they relate to each other.
- Less is more. Avoid articles like 'the', 'a', 'an', and conjunctions like 'but', 'if', 'when'.
- Try searching for 3 keywords to start with.
- Databases recognise connectors to tell them how search terms connect to each other, which enables you to refine the parameters of your search. It's useful to use connectors in database searches because if there are no connectors between terms in a search, some databases will interpret how the words in the search relate to each other, which can lead to a narrower or broader search than intended. Examples of connectors, also known as Boolean Operators:
- AND
- Will only produce results which include the terms stated, i.e. if you connect 3 terms with AND, it will only show results that include all 3 terms. Example: library AND journalism AND media
- Produces a smaller set of results
- OR
- Good for synonyms. Example: library OR journalism
- Produces a larger set of results
- NOT
- Produces results that contain the first keyword but not the second, so ensure you type them in the correct order. Example: library NOT media
- Produces a smaller set of results
- Truncation, also known as stemming (use * or ! depending on the database):
- Use the start of a word followed by a symbol (! or * depending on the database) to produce search results containing variations of a root word. Example: uni* will produces results containing the words 'university', 'universal', 'united' etc.
- Phrase searching
- To search for exact phrases, use inverted commas (' ') or double quotations marks (" "). Example: "media library"
- Proximity operators:
- Produces results based on the proximity of one keyword to another.
- W/n or /n produces results where n is the number of words that can appear between two or more search terms. Example: ‘court w/10 liab!’ means the term 'court' appears within 10 words of some form of the word 'liability'
- 'SENTENCE' between two words produces results in which two or more keywords occur in the same sentence. Example: 'media SENTENCE library'.
Step 4: Run the search, edit the search if necessary, and run the search again
- Evaluate the results produced by your search.
- Too many results? Try using advanced search functions, filters within the search results, and some databases have subject filters.
- Too few results? Try adding extra synonyms to your search terms, removing terms, using an advanced search feature to also search by date or title, proximity connectors, phrase searching.
