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A literature search involves searching books, journals, reports and more for information on a particular topic. You need to be very systematic when looking for information, otherwise you’ll waste time and may miss relevant references. Move from background information, through to basic texts (such as books on your reading lists) then to journal articles or papers. You’ll probably use a number of electronic resources such as databases and web sites. You can contact your subject librarian for support with your literature searching. |
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It is important to use a range of information sources to support your arguments.
When writing at University, you are encouraged to focus on academic literature, such as scholarly textbooks and journals.
However sometimes it may be useful to include other types of information sources, such as practitioner journals, newspapers, blogs and other social media.
Being aware of the 'Information Timeline' can be helpful and the University of Washington have produced an Information Timeline explaining what type of information to use, and when.
It is important to make sure the information you are using is up to date.
Many databases can save your search history, allowing you to retrieve it and run it at a later date, or will let you save the search as an ‘alert’ – emailing you when something new is added which matches your search terms. Look for options to set up a personal account in your favourite databases.
To make the best use of Google, we recommend the Scholar search. This limits results to higher quality resources.
Want to check if the Library can provide full text? Click Settings and Library links. Search for University of Ulster and save your preferences. That way you will see links to full-text within our e-journal collection in your search results.
Top tip: login to the Portal first - that will help with full text access off campus.