3
•
searching and reviewing the research literature
43
‘How many articles do I need?’, or ‘How far
back in the literature do I need to go?’ The
answers depend on the purpose of the search
and the topic being investigated. The aim is to
address the assigned or selected topic in a
comprehensive manner. If the search is a student
assessment task, they would be expected to
demonstrate to the marker that they had
canvassed a broad, relevant and relatively up-to-
date body of literature. The general ‘rule of
thumb’ is that research literature that is less than
5 years old is preferable, unless a particular
period was known for seminal articles or a
historical context is required.
conducting a search of
the research Literature
Formulation of a research question or topic is an
important initial stage in the research process
(Fineout-Overholt & Johnston 2005). Chapter 4
discusses the development of a research question
or hypothesis for the purpose of a primary study.
A similar process can be applied to assignment-
related questions. Once the question is
constructed and refined, a number of subsequent
steps guide the search process: selecting a
database; refining the search strategy using
keywords and filters; and examining and
managing the search results. These steps are
discussed in this section as a prelude to the
subsequent literature review process.
Authors report their efforts to routinely
incorporate systematic database searches into
nursing and midwifery education programs to
assist students’ understanding of the research
process (Kohtz 2011). Usually, they work
collaboratively with librarians, who come highly
recommended for those students new to database
searching. Roberts and Ousey’s (2011)
exploratory pilot study found that students value
specific literature-searching skills sessions early
on in their program, which expose them to a
variety of search strategies and skills. Carlock
and Anderson’s (2007) study identified their
successful approach of using several lectures/
demonstrations, hands-on instruction with
librarians, in-class practice exercises, performance
assessments and instruction, spread out across a
3-year program.
In preparing to conduct a literature search,
research consumers frequently ask themselves
Evidence-based practice tip
It can be a useful exercise to search first to see
if anyone has recently conducted an extensive
literature review on a particular topic (in say a
journal or thesis), as this may mean that much
of the search work has already been done. If it
appears that a credible and rigorous search
has been conducted, you would still then need
to perform a search of the literature published
after the stated year range.
selecting a database
A range of literature databases exist that list
nursing, midwifery and related health and
medical literature, as described earlier in this
chapter. Selection of an appropriate database/s
relates to the purpose and topic of the search.
Some portals enable searching of multiple
databases simultaneously. Alternatively, a search
strategy can be saved and/or re-executed with
another database if the initial results of your
database search were not satisfactory.
Keywords
The abstraction and indexing process for each
literature database relies on the use of keywords
provided by the article’s authors or abstractors
assigning keywords to the paper. This process
has some limitations and the issue of keywords
needs to be considered. Each database usually
has a specific online search guide that provides
information on the organisation of the entries
and the keyword terms. For example:
• ‘Medical Subject Headings’ (MeSH) were
developed by the US National Library of
Tutorial Trigger
Many healthcare professionals and
consumers now use the internet to
search for healthcare information.
Think of a specific clinical topic that you are
interested in and then use a generic search
tool (e.g. Google). How much information does
this generic search yield? How much of it looks
credible? Before going on the web, develop a
set of questions that would be useful to
critique the scientific merit of the healthcare
information you see.
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