Tips for a successful literature search

When starting your thesis, you may feel overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of reference material that is available on your topic. Stefan Carson, a postgraduate student in data analytics, says: “Type in a keyword or phrase into any library system these days and the search will return thousands, if not tens of thousands of books, academic articles, newspaper reports and websites”. Stefan suggests that a useful motto to keep in mind is: “A successful literature search is a systematic literature search”.

Thesis Upgrade advises students to take five, sequential, steps for a successful literature search:

• Step 1 – begin by defining the scope of your search (that is, what is in, and what is not). Rather than search for ‘management’, search for ‘supply chain management’, but not ‘human resource management’.
• Step 2 – draw up a list of relevant published sources. It is easy to make the mistake of typing a phrase into a library search engine and then scrolling through hundreds of thousands of results. A more effective approach is to identify sources that have a reputable reputation in the academic field for the topic you are researching.
• Step 3 – identify appropriate keywords or phrases. Be as specific as you can be, by, for example, using full phrases, rather than keywords. Use a thesaurus and dictionary to find alternative, or synonyms. These substitute words mean the same thing as your preliminary list of keywords.
• Step 4 – search each of your published sources using these keywords and phrases. Commence your search with general publications related to your topic. For example, from the Harvard Business Review. Then, move on to the specialised publications. For instance, the Journal of Supply Chain Management.
• Step 5 – start with recent material and work backwards, chronologically.

This five-step process helps you to source, access and retrieve literature relevant for your thesis. It is also a useful approach to take when writing your research statement for your proposal, as it avoids losing time on unnecessary and irrelevant searching.

Recently we worked with a student, Elaine Neary, who was starting to compile material to use in a literature review for her MBA thesis. “Thesis Upgrade advised me to start with an extensive list (50 – 100) of all the possible words and phrases that might be useful for my search. Then, whittle those keywords down to a short list of ten words to use in the initial search”.

Elaine continued: “Using Thesis Upgrade’s Searching for Relevant Literature Toolbook, I followed a comprehensive five-step process until I had exhausted the possibilities. Then I drew up another ten key phrases from my long-list and repeated the process. I found this worked well. Within a day, I had sourced various highly relevant books, focused book chapters and important articles that helped me write a strong, first-draft, of my literature review”.

Just like Elaine, you may find our Searching for Relevant Literature Toolbook helpful. It contains useful activities and practical checklists that assist you build your skills to source and search for relevant literature for your thesis. Buy this, and our other downloadable digital resources now, for immediate use.