Physician Associates research project guidance: Searching for relevant literature

Journal articles are usually short papers on specific topics. They are published in issues or parts of journals (also called periodicals) which appear regularly. Use articles to find:

• up-to-date research in your subject
• reviews of developments in your subject - these review articles include extensive lists of references

Finding journal articles

You can find journal articles via our Summon discovery service or online databases.

Search Summon

Search the Summon discovery service using the box below to find full-text journal articles available via the Library. Search using topic words or use it to find out if we have access to a specific article by searching for the article title.

Search relevant databases

You should also search relevant databases to widen your search beyond the Library's holdings. See the box below for suggested titles. 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.

In order to present fairer, more balanced academic contributions, it is important to include academic literature from the Global South. However, it can be difficult to find within English language databases full of Global North examples. This tab lists alternative search terms and strategies that might help us pick out Global South material. The other tab within this box suggests useful resources and database features.

Definitions: Global South is a term currently used to mean countries of  Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean, which may be less economically developed. Global North is used to refer to countries of North America and Europe but also Australia and New Zealand, with stonger economies and influence.

Remember to include searching tricks as used in examples below:

• "speech marks" to search for phrases
• truncate to retrieve alternate endings: Africa* retrieves Africa, African, Africaans
• Use wildcard (often ? or #, but check database Help) for alternate letter spellings or plurals.
• List alternatives in brackets with OR between

Geographical terms

• Include individual country or regional names that might occur in reference records. 
  • For example: Africa* OR “East Africa” OR “West Africa” OR ​“sub-Saharan” OR [Individual country names]​
     
• Country grouping terms and acronyms include:
  • BRICS OR Brazil OR Russia OR India OR China OR "South Africa"
  • MENA OR "Middle East" OR "North Africa"
     
• Development-related terms and acronyms include:
  • LEDC OR "Less Economically Developed Country"
  • LIC OR "Low Income Countries"
  • LMIC OR "Low Middle Income Countries"
  • "Medium/Low Human Development"
  • "Unicef Programme Countries"
  • Outdated terms: When searching for older material, include terms used historically but now thought derogatory. For instance: "developing countries" or "Third world countries" (that is, neither 'Western' or 'Soviet' powers).
     
• Use 'local' place names, as used by people who live there (such as “South-East Asia”​) rather than, or maybe as well as, names allocated by people from another part of the world (such as "the Far East").
   
• Exclude country names with NOT, using brackets to ensure the correct term is excluded.
  • For example: (Africa* OR “East Africa”) NOT Kenya
     
• International terms: Only if an article is especially addressing international issues would it use words you can search for like
  • world OR "world-wide" OR international OR global
     
• If addressing an imbalance of power/privilege, articles might use terms such as:
  • “post-colonial*” OR gobali?ation [if ? is wildcard standing for s or z]
  • developing OR "less-developed" or underdeveloped

US/UK spelling and vocabulary

Be sure to incorporate in your searches different UK and American English terms and spellings, so as not to omit research from countries using one or the other language form. List alternatives with OR or insert a 'wildcard' or truncation term. Check the help on the database you are searching to find out if wildcards are supported and which symbol to use. For example:

• sidewalk OR pavement OR footpath
• organisation OR organization - an alterative search could be organi?ation  [If ? is wildcard standing for s or z]

Objective or subjective terms

Search for objective or even biased terms. For instance:

• curriculum AND (change OR reform OR fail*)