The aim of your literature search is to find relevant publications to enable you to gain an understanding of the area you are working in, and to identify a knowledge gap which your project can address. You should concentrate on finding peer-reviewed journal articles, but these can be supplemented with information from books. Websites should be used with caution. All the literature you use should be cited and referenced following the guidance given on the 'Referencing' page in this guide:
Journal articles are the main type of publication you should be citing in your project report. You can find them by using the sources listed below. Do not rely on Google or Google Scholar as some of the articles retrieved will not be of sufficient quality and it is hard to construct a comprehensive search.
Search Summon
Summon is a great starting point as you will be able to read the full articles of everything you find on there. You will need to supplement it with searches on the databases listed below. You can also use Summon to check if the Library has access to a specific article - just search for the article title to check.
Search databases
You should also search relevant databases to widen your search and ensure you don't miss key papers related to your project. They will give you references to journal articles and other publications - they may also give you the full-text of the article. They are not limited to the Library's journal subscriptions, so you may need to use the inter-library loans service to get hold of some articles. These are some suggestions.
References to journal articles in the biomedical sciences. Covers 1950 to the present day. Includes 'In press' articles.
Use to search across a number of databases covering a range of subject areas. Provides references to journal articles, books, conference papers, patents, research data and other materials.
Gives references to journal articles, books, conference proceedings and patents in all subjects. Also offers extensive tools to analyse results, and measure impact for articles, journals and authors.
Systematic reviews, protocols and trials on the effects of interventions in health care. Free to UK residents
Depending on your project there might be other specialist databases to try. See the Key resources page on the Pharmacy guide for more options:
This short playlist shows you how to prepare for and perform a literature search. The first video introduces literature searches and their role. The second video covers using the search operators AND and OR to create a search statement, and explains the role of wildcards and truncation in constructing a comprehensive search.
We also have the following generic guide to literature searching and searching databases:
Use the template below to help plan out your own literature search - identifying keywords and synonyms. There's also an example to help guide you and an example of adapting a search for different databases.
Our Inter-Library Loans service can get articles, books and other publications not held at Reading from other libraries (usually from the British Library).
For more information see our webpages:
