Search methods & techniques | Library guide


Summary

Discover the most effective search methods and techniques for finding scientific publications.

null

Table of contents


A literature search is a crucial step in conducting original research. It helps you formulate your research question and plan your study. With so many scientific publications available, selecting the most relevant articles can be challenging. You start by defining your exact information need. Then, choose and apply the appropriate search methods based on that. This article explains the different search methods, with relevant resources, tips and instruction videos.

Locate a specific publication

If you need the full text of a specific publication and know the author or title, start your search in WUR Library Search or Google Scholar.

  • Put the title within double quotes, e.g., “packaging of food”
  • Use filters like author or publication year to narrow your search
  • Once you find the publication, click on the link "WUR Library"
  • See the Library Guide on WUR Library Search for detailed instructions.

Simple search

If you are uncertain about your information needs, or if you require only a few sources on a topic, begin with a simple search in a broad scholarly search engine or database, like WUR Library Search, Google Scholar or Scopus. Type in a few keywords and refine your search.

  • Identify primary concepts and combine them with AND
  • Put short phrases or multiple search terms within double quotes

Example: “Climate change” AND “food security” AND policy

Systematic search

If you want to find all the relevant publications on your topic, you need to conduct a systematic search in a bibliographic database. This requires you to carefully choose your search terms, databases, and methods, and reflect on the results you obtain. A systematic literature search helps you avoid bias, identify research gaps, and prevent duplication of existing studies.

  • Select the most appropriate database, use this tool to find the appropriate database
  • Identify primary concepts and relevant search terms, including synonyms
  • Combine concepts and terms with the operators AND/OR
  • Use wildcards like * to find word variations.
  • Limit your search to title, abstract and keywords
  • Adapt and repeat your search in more databases
  • Always check the database manual for exact rules on how to build your search query.

Example: (“natural disasters” OR “natural catastrophes” OR flood* OR landslides OR “natural hazards”) AND (farm* OR agricult* OR crops OR livestock) AND (coping OR deal OR “risk reduc*”) AND (losses OR yields).

Be aware: Google, and particularly Google Scholar can be useful for initial searches, but are not recommended for systematic literature searching reviews. They do not allow precise filtering, lack transparency in their coverage, and can include duplicate or non-peer-reviewed sources.

Following a thread

If you want to double check whether you have found all the relevant publications on your topic, or if you want to get familiar with a topic, you can use the “ following a thread” method. First, you select some highly relevant publications. The reference list of these publications leads you to older publications on your topic. If you look up these references in a broad search engine or database Scopus, or Google Scholar, you will likely find more recent papers that cite this publication.

Systematic review and other review types

In some disciplines, systematic reviews and other review types such as scoping reviews have become more common to manage the growing volume of publications and to provide reliable evidence. These systematic review types follow the principles of a systematic search. In addition, they must be comprehensive, transparent, repeatable and unbiased. To meet these requirements, explicit and standardised rules apply, and a protocol has to be developed in advance covering all steps in the systematic review, including the review question, exhaustive literature search, study selection, and data extraction/analysis.

Check the sources below or contact a Library information specialist for advice.

AI-assisted literature searching

You may be tempted to quickly find scientific information on a topic by typing a prompt in genAI tools, such as ChatGPT, Copilot or Gemini. However, the underlying data and parameters in these chatbots are unknown, and the answer you get may be biased or incorrect (hallucination). These tools have not been developed to search for scientific information.

Some AI tools can help you search for scientific information. These fall into two categories: tools that provide a list of references based on your prompt, such as Elicit or Consensus, and tools that provide a map of interconnected and linked papers, such as Connected Papers or Litmaps. A curated list of these tools with information on the underlying database, privacy policy, limitations, and costs is offered by the Tübingen University Library under “Literature Research with AI – Tools and Introduction”.

WUR Library strongly advises using these AI tools only in addition to systematic searching for literature in bibliographic databases, such as Scopus, CAB Abstracts, or PubMed. The scope of the AI-based tools is limited and may be restricted to a specific field of study or to open-access publications only. You may also miss relevant literature because these tools suggest only a limited number of articles.

You can use tools like ChatGPT to help you construct your Boolean search query for a bibliographic database. Note that you must know how your chosen database works and how to carefully choose prompts to get a good output. Realise that you still may miss important search terms, that the syntax of the genAI-generated query may be incorrect and that you will not use all functionalities that a bibliographic database offers. You can find examples of prompts you can use to help you create search queries for bibliographic databases in the Libguide from Birmingham City University. 

Video tutorial

This video shows how to get off-campus access, search in WUR Library Search,  select a bibliographic database with filters and use EndNote to organise literature.

E-learning modules

For more information about searching for scientific literature, we refer you to the Library’s e-learning modules. There are e-learning modules about:

Questions and support

Do you have questions about search methods and techniques or would you like personal advice? Feel free to contact us. You can send an email to the Servicedesk Facilities.

Curious to find out what else WUR Library can offer you?

Visit the Library's website to access the Library’s databases and get a full overview of the Library’s services, tools, and support. You can contact a librarian anytime through the chat box on our website or click Chat online. We’re happy to help you!