This document provides guidance on conducting an advanced literature search. It outlines best practices for performing a comprehensive, structured, and auditable search. Key steps include identifying concepts, selecting search terms, choosing appropriate databases and search techniques, refining results, and selecting final articles. The document emphasizes using a systematic search approach and recording search methods. It also provides additional resources on the topic.

1. Advanced
Literature Searching
Sarah Robinson
Academic Liaison Librarian
s.robinson@uos.ac.uk

2. Your task
To conduct a literature search for a subject of your choice and present the search
results as a table. This task can be undertaken in pairs or alone.
TIP! Your papers should relate to your research question - they do not need to
answer it!

3. Advanced literature searching
Your search should aim to be:
Comprehensive – you should search a variety of sources including subject
databases, specialist collections (e.g. Cochrane) and key journals not indexed in the
databases.
Structured – you should use a methodical, consistent and structured approach to
search, refine, evaluate and select your articles.
Auditable – you should record your search so that it is transparent and clear how
you arrived at your results.

4. Steps in the literature search process
1. Identify the key concepts of your topic or research question.
2. Select appropriate search terms to describe these using synonyms, related words,
acronyms and abbreviations.
3. Apply standard search techniques e.g. AND OR, truncation, proximity operators etc.
4. Select appropriate databases to search e.g. Cinahl, British Nursing Database.
5. Refine your search results to primary research and apply date and language limiters.
6. Make your final selection from the remaining articles, applying your exclusion criteria.

5. Do not select articles from a Google search!
• Although Summon and Google are good sources for pre-searching, avoid using these
sources to select your articles.
• You should search individual databases systematically to enable you to document and
describe your search in detail.
• Articles found from a Google or Summon search will still require a database search to
account for these which can be a very tricky if done back to front.
Researchers agree that the structured search approach produces the best available
evidence for informing and guiding practice (Parahoo, 1997)

6. Advanced literature search guide
Step by step guide to advanced literature searching including:
• Links to past dissertations with example literature searches
• Session presentation and video lecture
• Video search guides – database search examples
• Thesaurus – help finding search terms
http://libguides.uos.ac.uk/AdvancedLiteratureSearchGuide

7. Topic or research question
Search plan
Where? Sources
What? Search words
How? Search techniques
Search results
Final selection
Review and refine Evaluate and record
The literature search cycle

8. Nursing and health databases
Specialist databases are useful for finding journal articles:
• Cinahl nursing
• British Nursing Database nursing (Proquest)
• Nursing & Allied Health nursing (Proquest)
• Medline or PubMed medical
• Psychology Database mental health (Proquest)

9. Identifying your key concepts
Identify the key concepts (main themes) in your topic or research question. Select
words or phrases that describe these.
Keep your search clean and lean. Avoid the use of vague or unnecessary words
and phases which do not relate to your key concepts e.g.
• The role of • The impact of • The link between
• Problems with • The affect on • The implications of
Tip! Use one search string per concept to avoid muddled search results

10. Identifying your key concepts
How can nurses show compassion in the care of elderly people?

11. Find alternative search terms
How can nurses show compassion in the care of elderly people?
Nurses Compassion Elderly
Nurse Empathy Elder
Health care professional Geriatric
Older
Later life

12. Example - Finding alternative search terms
For each concept try to think of as many similar or related words as possible e.g.
for diet you could also consider using any of the following:
Dietary Nutrition
Food Nourishment
Meals Eating
Malnutrition Malnourishment
Tip! Try using an online thesaurus

13. Boolean operators
Boolean operators are very useful for broadening or narrowing your search results:
OR broadens by finding any word Used within search strings
AND narrows by finding all words Used to combine search strings
Tip! It is good practice to use upper case for Boolean operators

14. Find alternative search terms
How can nurses show compassion in the care of elderly people?
s1 Nurses
s2 Compassion
s3 Elderly

15. Find alternative search terms
How can nurses show compassion in the care of elderly people?
s1 Nurses OR Health Care Professional
s2 Compassion OR empathy
s3 Elderly

16. Find alternative search terms
How can nurses show compassion in the care of elderly people?
s1 Nurses OR Health Care Professional
s2 Compassion OR empathy
s3 Elderly OR older OR later life OR Geriatric

17. Truncation
* Searches for variants of the stem (or root) of words and will increase your search
results:
Nurs* finds: Nurse, nurses, nursing
Child* finds: Child, children, childhood, childbirth
Radiograph* finds: Radiographer, radiographers, radiography
Manag* finds: Manage, manages, manager, managers, management, managing
Midwi* finds: Midwife, midwives, midwifery
TIP! Be careful not to truncate too soon e.g. leg* or comp* will retrieve too may false results

18. Apply truncation and search operators
How can nurses show compassion in the care of elderly people?
s1 Nurs*
s2 Compassion* OR empath*
s3 Elder* OR old* OR later life OR Geriatric

19. Combine search strings using AND
How can nurses show compassion in the care of elderly people?
s1 Nurs*
s2 Compassion* OR empath*
s3 Elderly OR old* OR later life OR Geriatric
s4 s1 AND s2 AND s3

20. Cinahl citation example

21. Qualitative research – how can you tell?
• It looks at people’s experiences, perceptions or attitudes – there may not be a
specific intervention.
• Research methodologies include grounded theory, ethnography,
phenomenology.
• Data collection methods include semi-structured interviews, focus groups,
narratives, diaries, observation, case studies.
• Small samples are common.

22. Quantitative research – how can you tell?
• There is a specific intervention – e.g. treatment, service, therapy, drug,
procedure.
• Research methodologies include cohort studies, RCTs, experiments.
• Data collection methods include questionnaires, observations, tests.
• Keywords such as statistics, validity, risk, ratios, sampling, scores.
• Larger samples are common.

23. Inserting a search results table
• a copy of your search results from Cinahl search history or Proquest recent
searches pages.
• This is your record of the search terms/strings you have used and the number
of results found for each.
• Manually insert a table into your word document and populate by adding in the
search words and number of results.

24. Search table – concept strings
Search
no.
Search words Cinahl British Nursing
Database
Nursing & Allied
Health Database
s1 Diet* OR nutrition* OR food* (words in title) 90678 60590 4500
s2 Old* OR elderly OR aged OR later N1 life 170630 11008 36987
s3 Mental* OR psychiatr* OR psycholog* 26055 20112 15488
s4 s1 AND s2 AND s3 123 95 111
s5 study 900657 55061 763660
s6 S4 AND s5 90 85 50
Database search limits used
By date to <10 years old 85 70 40
By peer-reviewed/academic journal type 42 23 35
By language (or any other database filter) 31 N/A 38
Topic: The impact of dietary behaviour on the mental health of older adults

25. Search table – individual words or phrases
Search no. Search words Cinahl British Nursing
Database
Nursing & Allied
Health Database
s1 Diet* (words in title) 57000 40220 45230
s2 Nutrition* (words in title) 40630 30230 30546
s3 Food* (words in title) 20029 25100 15011
s4 s1 OR s2 OR s3 90678 60590 80102
s5 Old* 60220 58890 75321
s6 Elderly 53200 45021 45109
s7 Aged 40099 35440 30131
s8 Later N1 life 10104 9008 6998
s9 s5 OR s6 OR s7 OR s8 170630 11008 14177
s10 Mental* 12002 11700 12018
s111s0 Psychiatr* 13080 10990 12504
s12 Psycholog* 11034 10540 11599
s13 s10 OR s11 OR s12 26055 20112 22063
s14 s4 AND s9 AND s13 123 95 111
s15 study 900657 55061 763660
s16 s14 AND s15 90 85 50

26. Finding full-text
• If full-text is not available try the following:
• Cinahl articles - check the citation for embedded DOI link
• Proquest articles - use the links to full-text
• Cut and paste the title of the article into Summon or Google
• As a last resort, you can request the article
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPkWGVCBTwo

27. Additional sessions
• Thursday 13th
September 13.00-14.00 A0.04
• Friday 14th
September 13.00-14.00 A0.04
• Monday 17th
September 13.00-14.00 A0.04
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPkWGVCBTwo

28. Any questions
Sarah Robinson
Academic Liaison Librarian
s.robinson@uos.ac.uk
k.holmes@uos.ac.uk