Research Guides: Public Health: Introduction to Literature Searching

Conducting a Literature Review

Conducting a good literature search, especially for a systematic review, requires you to be methodical, transparent, and reproducible. The table below provides an overview of the search process and tips for ensuring that process goes smoothly.

Concept	Tips and Considerations
Before you begin, think about: Has this review already been published? Do you have a clear focused topic/question?	Is your scope reasonable? Search several databases; limit to review articles
What type of review are you writing? e.g. narrative review, systematic review, background for a research article	Check standards for the type of review you’re writing Look at reviews published in your target journal
Comprehensive Search Search multiple databases Search by topic Citation tracking for key articles How do you know you’re done? Red flags: look for patterns	Subject specific database(s) and multidisciplinary database(s) e.g. PubMed or Ovid, PSYCInfo, CINAHL Identify concepts and search terms (subject headings, textwords) Use a concept table to organize search terms Use Web of Science and Google Scholar Related records in Web of Science Be conscious of saturation All/most from single research group or perspectives No recent publications
Document your search process Set up system before you start	Use a concept table to organize search terms Track databases you search Track search strategies used Refine your searches
Do final searches	Use refined strategy to search all databases Capture search as run (e.g. save in database or screen shot)
Manage what you find Create accounts in each database order to save results Use EndNote	PubMed or Ovid Web of Science CINAHL, PSYCInfo, etc. Endnote
Keep current Discover new articles on your topic as they are published	Save final searches and set up alerts

Databases

Throughout your MPH program, you will be using a number of information resources. The following databases will be crucial to your information retrieval process.

CINAHL Complete
Comprehensive database of nursing and allied health journals
MEDLINE via Ovid
The U.S. National Library of Medicine® (NLM) premier bibliographic database that contains more than 23 million references to journal articles in life sciences with a concentration on biomedicine.
PsycINFO
The main index to the peer-reviewed literature for psychology and neuroscience. It indexes citations and summaries of journal articles, book chapters, books, and technical reports in the field of psychology and psychological aspects of related disciplines.
PubMed
PubMed comprises more than 28 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books.
Scopus
The largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature: scientific journals, books and conference proceedings
Web of Science
Citation database with multidisciplinary coverage of journals in the sciences, social sciences, and arts and humanities. Indexes the journal literature and tracks article citation histories.

Grey Literature

Grey Matters: A Practical Tool for Searching Health-Related Grey Literature
GreyNet: Grey Literature Network Service
NIH RePORTER
Find NIH projects and funding information
OAIster
Contains records of digital resources from open-archive collections worldwide
Resources for Searching the Grey Literature
From Duke University

Clinical Trials/Results Databases

Center Watch
ClinicalTrials.gov
Comprehensive database of privately and publicly funded clinical trials
WHO International Clinical Trials Registry

Conference Proceedings and Dissertations

ProQuest
Select "Conference Papers and Proceedings" or "Dissertations and Theses" from the databases listed under the Databases tab.
Web of Science
Citation database with multidisciplinary coverage of journals in the sciences, social sciences, and arts and humanities. Indexes the journal literature and tracks article citation histories.