Planning your search
A literature search starts with effective planning. A literature search plan can:
- ensure your literature searching is comprehensive
- prompt you to think critically
- guide your searching to focus on your research topic
- document your search processes to minimise replication
- save time
Identify the main or important aspects
It can be helpful to write down your research question and identify the important words that define your research topic before searching.
Example
Examine the relationship between social media and news corporations, discussing how this partnership influences public discourse.
The important terms to include for this research topic would be:
- social media
- news corporations
- public discourse
Developing keywords
The next step is to compile a list of synonyms or alternative terms. This will ensure that you will have a comprehensive search for relevant literature.
Consider variations such as:
- synonyms or alternative terms – e.g. climate change, global warming
- acronyms/abbreviations – e.g. DFT, density functional theory
- alternative spellings – e.g. aluminium, aluminum
- plurals/alternative endings – e.g. environment, environmental
For our research topic, here is the start of a list of synonyms and alternative terms.
| social media | social networks | digital platforms |
|---|---|---|
| news corporations | media companies | media organisations |
| public discourse | public opinion | public conversation |
Now look to developing your search strategy using some different search techniques.
