How To Do Your Literature Review Search In Record Time

Identify keywords from your research question to guide your search and save time, focusing on telehealth and COVID-19, and avoid putting the whole question into a database.

Combine keywords and synonyms to build an efficient search strategy. Use boolean operators and, or, not to narrow or broaden results and exclude terms in databases.

Use truncation to search efficiently by adding an asterisk after a term, expanding to therapy, therapists, therapies, and therapeutically, saving time and uncovering related terms.

Use the wildcard character, represented by the hash sign, to match one optional character and capture spelling variations like pediatric vs paediatric, enabling adaptable, efficient search strategies for literature reviews.

Create a clear, reproducible search table listing search numbers, terms, and results, using boolean operators and a last-year publication date for PubMed results.

Save your searches across databases and set up alerts. Email or export saved results to a reference manager, and use one-click bibliography tools like Manderlay for fast referencing.

Plan your search, use multiple databases, and vary keywords while following references and key authors; treat searching as trial and error and allow time to read, interpret, and write.

Install the Google Scholar button, a browser extension that lets you look up research articles while browsing and find full text, with guidance from your web store and librarian.

Explore interlibrary loan services at your university to obtain free copies of articles, books, or conference papers, guided by your librarian to access materials beyond Google Scholar.

Use the web importer to automatically capture Google Scholar references, sign in to your Mandalay account, edit metadata, and import selections into Mandalay Library and desktop for easy organization.