Robbins Library Notes

Good morning, readers!

Today, I’ll outline the concept of “the literature search.”  Some of you may be wondering what exactly a literature search, or “lit. search,” is.

What is a literature search?

Basically, a literature search is a large search, usually over a broad range of resources and time period, to see what has been written about a particular topic.

The term “lit. search” is sometimes used when looking for one or two articles, but, properly speaking, lit. searches are, as noted above, broad searches for many articles, not targeted, focused searches.  If you are searching for a specific article, you are not doing a lit. search.

Here is an example to illustrate my definition.  Last fall, I was asked to do a literature search on the topic of “inner speech” in the database, MEDLINE. The patron was interested in the topic, and wanted to learn if any other research aside from the that being done by the one researcher with whom the patron was familiar existed.  Using just the phrase “inner speech” across the whole time period of the database turned up over a hundred articles going back to 1969.

When do you do a literature search?

Most often, a lit. search is performed when you want to get a broad background on a topic, e.g., when doing the preliminary research for a dissertation.  Another example would be for writing a book, or an article, to see what else has been done on a topic about which you are writing.

What databases would you use for a literature search?

For philosophical research, Philosopher’s Index and Arts & Humanities Index are two good places to begin.  However, the choice of database may vary with your topic; thus, it’s very important to establish at the start what exactly you’re looking for, since this will help guide you to the relevant resources.  (Remember the first guideline from my Searching 101: Research Guidelines post!)

As with my example above, of “inner speech”: both Philosopher’s Index and Arts & Humanities Citation Index would have been of limited help in answering this question, given its scientific and medical bent.  MEDLINE was the proper database to use, and was the one that the patron requested.  Likewise, for a literature search on philosophy of law or legal issues, LexisNexis is a relevant database, and perhaps the archives of law journals on JSTOR.

Speaking of JSTOR, it is useful for lit. searches of older materials.  However, I would not use it alone, unless your question is specifically looking at older research.  You are much better off combining it with other current database, so as not to miss more recent work.

Examples of Literature Searches

The list of potential literature searches is endless.  Here are four that I have been asked to do in my ten years as a librarian:

• All research on “inner speech” in MEDLINE
• All articles published on topics in early modern philosophy in the last 10 years
• All references to Alan Greenspan being “God” or “a god” in the popular press, from mid-1998 to late 1999.  (Yes, this was a real lit. search I was asked to do once.  How times have changed…)
• All literature on Hannah Arendt and research examining her project as being a phenomenological one

Hopefully, these examples give you some idea of what a literature is.

Summary

As I noted above, a literature search is a large search, usually over a broad range of resources and time period, to see what has been written about a particular topic.  There’s no trick to it, really, other than to dive in and start doing them.  As I’ve found, the more literature searches you do, the better you get at them, because you start to learn the quirks and tricks that will help you to define and refine your searches.  And if you get stuck, consult my searching guidelines post… or just ask me! I’m very happy to help.