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Literature Searching: Searching for the Literature

Searching for the Literature

Formulating Your Research Question

It's easier to search and find relevant literature when your research question is clearly defined.

  1. Summarise your question into no more than 2 or 3 sentences (phrase it as a question that you want the literature to answer)
    •  for example: What is the best practice for upper limb strength and function for stroke patients
  2. Break your question into main concepts (ideas)
    • concept 1 - strength/function training
    • concept 2 - upper limb
    • concept 3 - stroke
  3. Think of any synonyms, alternative spellings, abbreviations, acronyms, or limitations that can be added to your concepts
    • concept 1 - strength/function training - rehabilitation, exercises, therapy, resistance training
    • concept 2 - upper limb - arm, upper extremity, forearm, shoulder
    • concept 3 - stroke - Cerebrovascular accident, stroke patient, CVA, cerebral infarction
    • Limitations could be - Inpatients, English language only, literature published in the last 5 years

Suggested Tools to help you Formulate a Research Question

The planner will help you break down your search question into concepts, think of synonyms and alternate words, and assist in joining the concepts to produce a search strategy. 

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  • Research Question Frameworks (eg PICO, SPIDER) - There are many different types of frameworks to help you form your research question.
    • PICO is commonly used in evidence-based clinical questions using the concepts: (1) the Patient, Problem or Population, (2) the Intervention, (3) the Comparison (if there is one), and (4) the Outcome(s). 
    • PEO is useful for qualitative research questions. Questions based on this format identify three concepts: (1) Population, (2) Exposure, and (3) Outcome(s).
    • SPIDER is useful to search for qualitative and mixed-methods research.  Questions based on this format identify the following concepts: (1) Sample, (2) Phenomenon of Interest, (3) Design, (4) Evaluation, and (5) Research type.

There are many other alternative frameworks as not all clinical questions match the medical focus of the PICO structure.

Please contact us or Book a Consultation for more information on using PICO or other evidence based literature searching tools

To do a comprehensive search of the literature to answer your question you should search more than one database

For any research query, we suggest searching in this sequence:

  1. evidence-based resources e.g. Cochrane Library, Joanna Briggs Institute, PEDro etc.
  2. clinical databases e.g. PubMed, Medline, EMBASE, CINAHL, PsycInfo etc.
  3. the relevant grey literature.

When choosing which databases to search consider:

  • subject areas covered - does it match your topic?
  • date range covered - do oldest and newest dates fit your range?
  • type of material covered - scholarly journal articles, book or book chapters, conference papers, theses etc
  • full text - don't limit a comprehensive search to full-text searching only     

Key Databases useful for Health

The library Research Databases list provides recommended databases for you to search

  • Research Databases - search by resource name, or filter by subject or database type

  • Grey Literature

Grey literature is defined as material created by government agencies, academics, business and industry in print and electronic formats, but which is not published by commercial publishers and is not indexed in bibliographic databases. Examples include government-issued papers, research reports, technical papers, dissertations, briefing documents, and conference presentations.

The key bodies producing evidence summaries, systematic reviews and meta-analyses – Cochrane Collaboration, Campbell Collaboration and the Joanna Briggs Institute – recommend that reviewers include a search for relevant grey trials and unpublished reports. By searching grey literature sources, reviewers improve the quality of the search and reduce the possibility of publication bias.

The following are a suggest list of grey literature sources are freely available to search.

Trials are frequently reported in conference papers, even if many do not progress to full publication.

  • In the Cochrane Library advanced search use your search term(s) in Title, Abstract, Keyword and conference in another search line.
  • ISI Web of Science, Scopus & similar databases have conference proceedings subsets or filters.
  • Use the British Library’s Advanced Search to search by title or keyword, then refine the result to form/genre: Conference literature

RefWorks is a reference management system where you can:

  1. Collect citations
  2. Manage citations, by folder or a searchable database
  3. Cite using proper formatting in a variety of citation styles (e.g. APA, AMA, Vancouver, etc)
  4. Share research with colleagues

Since RefWorks is accessible from the web, it can be used from any computer connected to the internet.

Login to RefWorks

New to RefWorks? Go to the login page and click "Sign up for a New Account."

To create a Refworks account you'll need the Barwon Health Group Code to authenticate your log in.

Email us, and we will send you the Barwon Health Group Code.

RefWorks Helpful Hints:

Sharing Folders 

This can be done in two ways, depending on how much functionality you want other users to have:

  1. If you want your group members to have full access to the folder – that is, to add, edit or delete references, as well as to search the folder, create bibliographies and export references – this is done by all members using the same login name and password i.e. you give the login details to the other members.
  2. If you want to provide more limited access to the folder - to search the folder, create bibliographies and export references but not edit etc. – the library can change your settings so you can make the folder shareable.   This gives you a URL for the folder which you then email to your colleagues.

Getting Citations from RefWorks into your Word Document (One-Line/Cite-View): 

This function works with any word processing software

  1. Select each citation from your list and paste a code for that citation into the desired place in the body of your Word document.
  2. When you’ve inserted all desired citations, you should then save your Word document with a new name e.g <subject>-with-RefWorks-citation-codes
  3. Then in the RefWorks menu, select the Bibliography command > Format Document.
  4. At this time also choose the desired output style for the citations.
  5. Now either drag-and-drop your Word document into the box to be formatted OR browse your computer and identify the correct Word document to be formatted.
  6. RefWorks creates a new document with the citations formatted in-text and at end of text in the nominated style.  View this version, save with a new filename.

This document can be edited or formatted further e.g. for changes to line spacing etc. However if you need to alter the citations or their position in the document, all these changes should be made in the original document.

  • Instructions on how to do this can be found here,

  • This video may also be of help

The thin client PC environment in Barwon Health means that unfortunately it is not possible to install the required add-on to Word that will allow it to provide "Cite While You Write" functionality. There are five alternative approaches outlined: 

This function works with any word processing software

RefWorks is provided free via the Clinicians Health Channel (CHC) but we are investigating alternative citation managers that may be better suited to the thin client environment.

  1. If you don't have too many references, then the process outlined in the Helpful Hints box to the right can work.
  2. Do this type of work at home (a better option if you are dealing with larger numbers of references). The required Word add-on can be downloaded for both Windows and Macs
  3. Use your own reference management software or affiliated educational institution (if applicable)
  4. Use the free online ZoteroBib to format your references one by one. This can be a good option if not too many citations are involved. You can search by URL, title, DOI, PMID etc and choose from more than 9000 citation styles for your bibliography..

The Copyright Act 1968 (Commonwealth) provides the legislative framework for the creation, copying and communication of electronic and print material at Barwon Health. All Barwon Health staff and students must comply with the Act.

Copyright owners are entitled to take legal action against persons who infringe their copyright. A reproduction of material that is protected by copyright may be a copyright infringement.

Copyright Quick Guide

Use of copyright material for research or study will not break copyright rules, provided that the use is ‘fair’.

Fair Dealing defines the amount of the copyright item you can use for your research or study. 

You Can;

  • For Print Text you can copy or scan:
    • 10% of the number of pages of the book; or
    • One chapter, if the work is divided into chapters
    • See instructions on downloading and obtaining access to the mobile app
    • The whole journal article, or more than one article from that same issue if each article is for the same research
    • For Text in Electronic Format -
  • ​For text material in electronic form you can copy/download:
    • 10% of the number of words; or
    • One chapter, if the work is divided into chapters
    • The whole journal article, or more than one article from that same issue if each article is for the same research

You Cannot;  

  • Email copies of anything you have downloaded from the Internet to share with others. You can email/share the URL of the item as this does not break copyright/licensing restrictions; or
  • Share any document that you have requested the library provide to you. Direct the person who requires a copy of the document to the library and we will source a copy for them too.

For further information please refer to our Copyright Information Guide

For text, images or audio visual material from the Internet always check for any the terms and condition of use before downloading or sharing. Just because the material is freely available, does not necessarily mean it is free to use.

  • 10% of the number of words; or
  • One chapter, if the work is divided into chapters
  • The whole journal article, or more than one article from that same issue if each article is for the same research
  • Email copies of anything you have downloaded from the Internet to share with others. You can email/share the URL of the item as this does not break copyright/licensing restrictions. 
  • Share any document that you have requested the library provide to you. Direct the person who requires a copy of the document to the library and we will source a copy for them too.

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