Literature review and

information literacy
Presentation (slides) extracted from:

Danvers E. (n.d.) Writing a Literature Review. Brunel University West London,

McMillan, K. and Weyers J. (2011) How to Write Dissertations & Project Reports, 2/E, Pearson:
Harlow, Potts A. (n. d.) Writing a literature review. Newcastle University, Writing Development
Centre University Library, Weiss, M. (n.d.) Strategies for Writing Literature Reviews
How do I start?

Find
literature

Select and
manage

Review and
write
 Finding literature.
Three key approaches:

 A. Database searches. These find sources based on key words related to your research
topic. The output is a listing of reference details plus abstract/summary material from a
wide range of sources.

 B. Citation-based searches. With this kind of search, you start with an article and its
reference list. From this list, you backtrack through selected references making judgements
about their relevance and value and, potentially, in turn looking at items cited in their
reference lists.

 C. Searches using citation indices. These searches rely on the availability of databases (for
example, the Science Citation Index) which give details of publications that have cited a
given reference. In other words, they allow you to work forward in time towards more
current research.
 A.Database searches

 University`s library – ussualy for Books (hard copy) or access to

Articles & Books using a Database

How to?

 1. www.bcu-iasi.ro
 2. select "reviste electronice"
 3. choose “1. Baze de date / platforme full text”
 4. from any database
 Finding literature

 1. University`s library – ussualy for Books (hard copy) or access to

Articles & Books using a Database
 Boolean operators

Command Purpose

AND Looks for articles that include all

search terms/keywords

OR Looks for articles that include any

of the search terms

NOT Excludes articles that include

specific keyword
 Finding literature. Other web search based
ideas
 1. Google Scholar

 Key terms

 Author profile
 Finding literature. Other web search based
ideas

 2. Academia.edu
 Finding literature. Other web search based
ideas

 3. Research Gate
B. Citation-based searches

 backtrack through selected references

 simply check the reference list of the article/ book you already found
Finding literature. Citation-based searches

+ easy and quick

- backwards from the starting point of your most recent source, but it does
not enable you to identify more recent research
C. Searches using citation indices

 they allow you to work forward in time towards more current research
 check who cited the article/ book you already found

Click
here
Finding literature. Searches using citation
indices

You now have

the list of
papers citing
the initial paper