Dr. Nirmal Kumar Swain delivered a lecture to research students on conducting literature searches. He discussed that a literature search is a well-organized search of all published literature on a desired topic. It is important to carry out a literature search to review existing theories and research findings, identify gaps, and find potential research methods. Dr. Swain outlined the steps to conducting an effective literature search, including preparing by doing background reading, identifying search terms from the research title, searching relevant resources like databases and repositories, and using effective search techniques before collating the results.

1. Lecture Delivered
to Research Students (M. Phil)
Dept of Political Science
University of Delhi, Delhi – 110007
December 14, 2015
By
Dr. Nirmal Kumar Swain
Associate Professor
Dept of Lib & Inf. Science
Maharshi Dayanand University
Rohtak – 124001 (Haryana)
Ph: 01262-393017 (O)
M: 9416516771
E-Mail: drnkswain@gmail.com

2. Literature Search
 What is Literature
 What is Literature Search
 Why carry out Literature Search
 How to carry out Literature Search

3. what is literature search
 A literature search is a well thought out
and organized search for all of the
literature published on a desired topic. A
well-structured literature search is the
most effective and efficient way to locate
sound evidence on the areas you are
researching. Evidence may be found in
books, journals, government documents ,
internet and other sources.
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4. why carry out a literature search
 Review existing critical opinions/theories
 Identify current research findings on a topic
if any lapse or missing areas
 Identify potential research methods or
models you could use
 Having carried out research, enabling
comparison with your own research findings
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5. how to carry out (steps of )
literature search
 Background reading and preparation
 Working with your title: identify search
terms
 Identify the resources to search
 Search using search techniques
 Collate your results
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6. background reading and preparation
 start by doing some background
reading of textbooks, subject
encyclopaedias, etc.,
 to get a grasp of the context of the
topic and the
 terminology used in its discussion.
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7. working with your titles: identify
search terms
 Theories / concepts
 Important authors
 Key research reports
 Major genres / movements
The simplest starting point for identifying
such terms is to spend some time
thinking about the wording you are
considering for the draft title of your
research.
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8. example of research title
The changing image of women voters in
20th Century India
this title therefore has the following key
elements:
 Portrayal of women voters (the
particular angle of our research)
 India (all the states ) (our locational
focus)
 20th Century (our time period of
interest)
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9. alternative words
 alternative terms (synonyms) words used
interchangeably to mean the same thing
e.g. a synonym of political scientists is
political guru
------------------------------------------------
 related terms / concepts e.g. related
words such as
 Woman
 Females
 Girls
 Ladies
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10. warning
 Remember, no search engine,
whether in a database of journals or
an Internet search engine, is intuitive.
They are merely computer
programmes designed to match on the
exact words you entre.
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11. identify the resources to search
BASICS
Books: authored and edited
Encyclopedia: General & Subject
Dictionary: General & Subject
Glossary : Subject dictionary
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12. ONLINE LIBRARY
Onlibrary can give you access to the
holdings of both printed and online
resources. This helps you as you are
bonafide user of that university.
Example:
DELHI UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
SYSTEMS (DULS).
Easier to access, time saving etc.
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13. Different types of databases
 Multidisciplinary journal databases
Resources such as Academic Search
Complete, Academic OneFile and
JSTOR contain journal content across
a large range of academic subjects
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14. Subject specific databases
Contain journal articles and/or other
types of content relevant to a specific
 PsycArticles
 Education Research Complete
 Westlaw
 International Index to Performing Arts.
 Political Science Complete (EBSCO)
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15. Publishers’ databases
 Science Direct, Sage Journals and
Emerald
Contain journal content published by a
particular publishing company. Such
resources may also have a subject
focus or may be multi-disciplinary
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16. BLOGS
 Blogs are defined as personal
website. Scholars maintain their blogs
and updates with their latest scholarly
writings. One has to identify scholars
who often writes matching similar to
your areas of expertise. This has
become a trend , may be a fashion or
bringing notice of others.
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17. Institutional repositories
 Universities are coming up with
institutional repositories with the help
of the libraries. It is a common
platform of the publications of all the
faculties and students for sharing with
university fraternity. Though the trend
is not set in Indian context but soon it
will be a trend.
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18. search technique 1
 if you are first timer or novice then
begin searching with own terms
known to you like child game. In
course of time once can learn. This
will help you how information in bulk ,
most often redundant are hit.
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19. search techniques 2
 Often with databases of journal
articles if you insert an asterisk * at the
end of the ‘stem’ of the word it will
automatically search for all the
endings for that word stem.
 Example:
Politic* = politics, political, politically etc
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20. Boolean Search
Linking terms together
 OR
 AND
 NOT
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21. c)Variant spellings
 Colour / color
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22. d)Finding phrases
 if your search terms are expressed as
a phrase i.e. more than one word
appearing immediately next to
another, insert your search terms in
quotation marks “....”
Example: “bihar politics”
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23. collating your results
 Analyze the material you find and
group it in some order of priority. Filter
out any peripheral materials and
consider storing them separately from
your core references.
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24. THANK YOU
See you sometime at some place.
Bye for now
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