The document provides guidance on conducting a literature review in a systematic and organized manner. It discusses developing a search strategy that includes identifying keywords, building a keyword map to group related terms into themes, choosing relevant databases to search based on their coverage, and documenting the search process. The document emphasizes that being systematic helps reduce bias and allows others to reproduce your methods. It also suggests using text mining tools to discover new terms and connections to expand your search vocabulary.

1. ‘Being systematic’ in
Information Retrieval
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2. 2
http://patthomson.net/2015/03/30/a-metaphor-for-reading
tracing-your-family-tree

3. Hermeneutic approach*
 Searching for literature and developing a
literature review is an integrated part of an
ongoing process of developing understanding
and knowledge about
a research area.
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*Boell & Cecez-Kecmanovic, 2014

4. Your work with the literature
How are you going to present your work with
the literature in your dissertation?
 As a part of the introduction?
 As a separate chapter?
 As an article in itself?
(eg. systematic review)
 What are your ambitions?
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5. 5
(Booth et al., 2016, p.20)
Being systematic …?

6. Being systematic …
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[Systematic reviews] “…use (and describe) specific, explicit and
therefore reproducible methodological strategies to identify,
assemble, critical appraise and synthesise all relevant issues on a
specific topic”
(Carney and Geddes 2002)
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7. Being systematic …?
7
(Jesson et al., 2011, p.11)

8. Being systematic …
8
“All types of reviews should be systematic. Being systematic helps
you to reduce the likelihood of bias […] It is not always
appropriate to conduct a ‘systematic review’. You should make a
decision based on the nature of your research question and the
nature of your research and the purpose of your research, as well
as the time and the resources available to you.”
(Booth et al, 2016)
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9. Being systematic …
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“When doing a research [literature] review, you systematically
examine all sources and describe and justify what you have
done. This enables someone else to reproduce your
methods and to determine objectively whether to accept the
results of the review”. (Fink,
2005, p. 14)

10. Search techniques
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Papaioannou et al. 2009

11. Initial exploratory stage
 Texts dealing with:
 clarification of concepts;
 relations between concepts and definitions;
 ideas that you need to explore
 eg. use encyclopedias to explore
relationships between different concepts,
definitions and theories
 Scoping searches in key databases, internet searching,
literature reviews etc.
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12. Focused stage
 Working systematically to collect
the literature in your research area
 Conventional subject searching, citation searching,
reference lists, checking core journals, maybe
identifying new core journalls
 Consulting your network, conferences
social media etc.
(eg. Twitter, Academia.edu, ResearchGate)
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13. Conventional subject searching
Searching databases using the keywords / subject terms you
consider to cover your research area
 To do a comprehensive and structured subject
search, build a search strategy that describes:
”…the databases used, the reasons for their
use and the … words used in the keyword
searches.” (White, 2011)
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14. Building a search strategy – keywords
 Identify the main keywords for your research area
 Brainstorm:
 Think of related terms, synonyms, abbreviations,
narrower terms, broader terms etc.
 ”Keyword mapping”
 To keep track of your keywords: group your keywords
into the different aspects of your project
 Combine keywords in Boolean
searching using operators and
truncation Gina Bay, Steffen Gjedde
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15. Why do this?
 To increase & improve your search vocabulary
 to minimise the risk of missing out on important
material
 ”terms within social sciences is often ambiguous and
changes constantly” (Papaioannou et al. 2009)
 To keep track of different keywords for different aspects
of you project
 you might have to use different types of texts in different
stages of your Ph.D. project & use different databases for
different aspects. Gina Bay,
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16. Keyword mapping - example
 ”How do we choose our partner?”
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17. Example:
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18. Do your own keyword map:
– group keywords in themes
 Identify the main keywords for your thesis
 Brainstorm on the different aspects of your project:
 Synonyms
 Abbreviations
 Related terms
 Narrower terms
 Broader terms etc.
 Organise your keywords into groups
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19. Example:
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20. Example:
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21. Create profiles in the databases:
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22. Text mining?
 Maybe you can benefit from using text mining
to increase & improve your search
vocabulary?
 Eg. Voyant Cirrus or VOSviewer
1. Do a Quick & Dirty search
2. Copy eg. 200 records (title & abstract)
3. Discover new terms and connections?
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23. Search strategy - choosing databases
 Build a search strategy that describes:
”…the databases used, the reasons for
their use and the … words used in the
keyword searches.”
(White, 2011)
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24. Choosing relevant sources to search
 Coverage:
 Eg subject, years, geography, languages
 Types of publications: books, journals,
academic / public
 Specific databases or vendors
 Ebscohost:
(Academic Search Elite, Business Source Complete
etc.)
 Proquest:
(Psycinfo, Eric, Sociological abstracts,
Worldwide Political Science Abstract etc. )
 Scopus / Web of Science Gina Bay,
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25. Documenting … ?
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Example:
 Database: PubMed
 Date: 30/1-2016
 Keywords
 Limitations
Keywords Numbers
S1 Chronic Pain [MeSH] 3.765
S2 Adaptation, Psychological [MeSH] 101.737
S3 S1 AND S2 174
S4 2004-2016; Child: birth-18 years; English 34

26. Read more
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