In order to cover your bases, you'll want to have (and document) a thorough search strategy that includes:
Generally speaking, exploratory searching is where you start. This includes searching for existing reviews and getting a rough idea of the scope of the literature. It is also a way for you to test your search strategy and individual terms before conducting the systematic search. Exploratory searching should guide you in developing your research question and eligibility criteria as well as developing your search strategy. We highly recommend reaching out to a librarian for help with exploratory searching.
The systematic search is what you will document in the methods section of your paper. Once you have finalized your search strategy, you will implement that search in each of your chosen databases individually. The more rigorous guidelines expect you to document your search, the number of search results per database, and the date on which the search was conducted.
Hand or supplementary searching picks up articles that may be missed in your systematic search and will occur concurrently with exploratory and systematic searching as well as through the screening stage. This type of search includes:
Once you have determined the articles you will use in your review, you should
Best practice for systematic searching recommends searching at least 3 databases including one that is multi-disciplinary.
To help you determine which databases will be best bets for your research questions, you can ask a librarian, but you'll also want to look at existing reviews that ask similar questions to your research question and likely you will want to use a similar list of databases to the ones they report.
Identify and test your search terms in your identified databases before conducting your final structured search.
Set up LibKey Nomad to find access through the UT Libraries subscriptions and purchases.
The Web of Science platform currently also provides temporary access to several databases that are not part of the Core Collection, including Biosis Citation Index, Data Citation Index, and Zoological Record.
Features PDF content going back as far as 1865, with the majority of full text titles in native (searchable) PDF format. Searchable cited references are provided for 1,000 journals.
Books: Selected titles from Elsevier and its subsidiaries are included. These books are DRM-free with unlimited users and PDF chapter downloads/printing.
The Web of Science platform currently also provides temporary access to several databases that are not part of the Core Collection, including Biosis Citation Index, Data Citation Index, and Zoological Record.
Searchable cited references provided for more than 1,200 journals. Contains detailed author profiles for the 20,000 most-cited authors in the database.
Additional full text, non-journal content includes financial data, books, monographs, major reference works, book digests, conference proceedings, case studies, investment research reports, industry reports, market research reports, country reports, company profiles, and SWOT analyses.
Alerts are available if you register with Emerald by clicking "Register for a profile" at the top of the page.
Has over 1.8 million individual records, some dating back to 1887, and includes abstracts from Psychological Abstracts back to 1927, Psychological Bulletin from 1921-1926, and all APA journals and the American Journal of Psychology back to their first issues. Corresponds in part to the print index Psychological Abstracts.
Journal articles are indexed for MEDLINE using NLM's controlled vocabulary, MeSH (Medical Subject Headings). Citations are created by the National Library of Medicine, International MEDLARS partners, and cooperating professional organizations.
MEDLINE has worldwide coverage, but 88% of the citations in current MEDLINE are to English-language sources and 76% have English abstracts.
NLM provides free access to MEDLINE through PubMed.
Has over 1.8 million individual records, some dating back to 1887, and includes abstracts from Psychological Abstracts back to 1927, Psychological Bulletin from 1921-1926, and all APA journals and the American Journal of Psychology back to their first issues. Corresponds in part to the print index Psychological Abstracts.
Set up LibKey Nomad to find access through the UT Libraries subscriptions and purchases.
Also includes more than 107,000 full text non-journal documents indexed by the ERIC database. Approximately one-half of the entries in the ERIC database are to ERIC documents. Microfiche copies of ERIC documents, including those prior to 1996, are in the Collections Deposit Library (CDL) Microforms Collection at MCFICHE 4913.
Has over 1.8 million individual records, some dating back to 1887, and includes abstracts from Psychological Abstracts back to 1927, Psychological Bulletin from 1921-1926, and all APA journals and the American Journal of Psychology back to their first issues. Corresponds in part to the print index Psychological Abstracts.
The Web of Science platform currently also provides temporary access to several databases that are not part of the Core Collection, including Biosis Citation Index, Data Citation Index, and Zoological Record.
Set up LibKey Nomad to find access through the UT Libraries subscriptions and purchases.
Journal articles are indexed for MEDLINE using NLM's controlled vocabulary, MeSH (Medical Subject Headings). Citations are created by the National Library of Medicine, International MEDLARS partners, and cooperating professional organizations.
MEDLINE has worldwide coverage, but 88% of the citations in current MEDLINE are to English-language sources and 76% have English abstracts.
NLM provides free access to MEDLINE through PubMed.
Journal articles are indexed for MEDLINE using NLM's controlled vocabulary, MeSH (Medical Subject Headings). Citations are created by the National Library of Medicine, International MEDLARS partners, and cooperating professional organizations.
Corresponds in part to the following print indexes: Index Medicus, Index to Dental Literature, and International Nursing.
The Web of Science platform currently also provides temporary access to several databases that are not part of the Core Collection, including Biosis Citation Index, Data Citation Index, and Zoological Record.
Also includes more than 107,000 full text non-journal documents indexed by the ERIC database. Approximately one-half of the entries in the ERIC database are to ERIC documents. Microfiche copies of ERIC documents, including those prior to 1996, are in the Collections Deposit Library (CDL) Microforms Collection at MCFICHE 4913.
The Web of Science platform currently also provides temporary access to several databases that are not part of the Core Collection, including Biosis Citation Index, Data Citation Index, and Zoological Record.
Has over 1.8 million individual records, some dating back to 1887, and includes abstracts from Psychological Abstracts back to 1927, Psychological Bulletin from 1921-1926, and all APA journals and the American Journal of Psychology back to their first issues. Corresponds in part to the print index Psychological Abstracts.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 Generic License.