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How to do a literature search

A guide to finding articles, books and other materials on your subject, and managing the useful references you find.
Top tips for literature searching

In this guide we explore the why, where and how of doing a literature search. These are our top tips. Explore the menu on the left to delve deeper.

  1. Use the Library databases covering your subject to find reliable, academic sources.
  2. Look in more than one place to ensure your search is comprehensive.
  3. Think about the words and phrases you are using to search - include synonyms to make sure you don't miss something useful.
  4. Build a comprehensive search using expert techniques such as search operators and truncation.
  5. Use a reference management tool (such as EndNote or Mendeley) to store details of the useful references you find and to help you cite them correctly.

Why do a literature search?

A literature search can vary from a quick search for a few resources to use in an essay to a comprehensive search for all the resources relevant to a PhD dissertation. It involves finding out what other work has already been done in your field.

For a dissertation or project it will help to shape your research by:

  • outlining the intellectual progress of research in your field to date
  • establishing whether your research is original
  • suggesting a narrow and defined scope for your study
  • putting your work into a wider context
  • suggesting possible methodological approaches

Explore the pages in menu on the left for tips on planning and doing your literature search and guidance on what to do with the references you find.

If you have been asked specifically to do a literature review, see the guidance on the left side of the page under the menu. 

Video guides to literature searching

Watch this short playlist of two videos for an introduction to literature searching and the techniques to use.

If you are unable to view these videos on YouTube they are also available on YuJa or Stream (University username and password required):

Contact your Academic Liaison Librarian for help with literature searching

Academic Liaison Team

Your Academic Liaison Librarian is an expert on finding and using information sources. They will know about the sources for finding information on your topic. This includes databases and webpages relevant to your subject, and other external resources. 

Ask your librarian for support with:

  • finding reliable information sources
  • searching specific databases
  • creating a comprehensive literature search
  • referencing sources correctly including finding bibliographic details
  • using reference management tools - Endnote and Mendeley
  • citing less common sources

...and any other research based queries - if they can't help, they will know who can!

Guidance on doing a literature review

A literature review is an important part of any research project, as it sets your research in context and identifies how it fits with the research that has been done before. You may be asked to write a literature review as part of a dissertation, thesis, or longer project. A key feature of any literature review is how you choose to group the literature into sub-sections or themes to enable comparison.

For further guidance, explore the Literature reviews guide or for more general guidance on doing your project look at the Dissertations and major projects guide (both created by our Study Advice team):

If you have been asked to do a systematic review, take a look at our guide: