Stages of a literature search
Machi and McEvoy* describe the following stages of finding literature to review:
1. Select the type of material that is appropriate for your search. How will you gather the sources that contain the key ideas of your topic? In addition to using the research databases, is it appropriate to search the library catalog for books and other types of material?
2. Use a methodical approach to search and select literature. Start by previewing the literature, then select the final works to include, manage your selections, and finally organize the ideas from each work.
3. Refine your research topic based on your research.
Note that it is important that through all phases of the process, you are able to clearly articulate the criteria that was used to select literature.
*Credit: Adapted from The Literature Review (Lawrence A. Machi and Brenda T. McEvoy)
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Research Databases
ERIC, the Education Resource Information Center, is the national education database sponsored by the US Department of Education. ERIC provides access to more than 1.3 million bibliographic records of journal articles, research documents, technical reports, and other education-related materials. ERIC documents are available in full-text via the full text from ERIC link. The full-text of journal articles is available either via the HTML or PDF full text link, or the Linked Full Text link. If full text is not available within ERIC, be sure to click the Search for Full Text link, to find other full text options via TCNJ or to submit a free request for the article through interlibrary loan.
Search Strategy: Use ERIC Descriptors for best results. Search the ERIC Thesaurus for descriptors:
Provides indexing, abstracting, and selected full text to the Wilson databases for Business, Education, General Science, Humanities, Readers' Guide, and the Social Sciences.
Comprehensive scholarly, multi-disciplinary full-text database, with more than 7,100 full-text periodicals, including nearly 6,100 peer-reviewed journals. In addition to full text, this database offers indexing and abstracts for more than 10,000 journals and a total of more than 11,400 publications including monographs, reports, conference proceedings, etc.
For direct access to a sampling of early childhood journals, click the link above, or select the menu tab toward the upper left of this screen.
And Then There Is...
Citation Chasing
When you find a relevant article, review the citations at the end of the article as a starting point for finding more articles. In other words, see whose work the author has referenced and see if those references are useful for your research. Take note of the dates of the articles to be sure that the information is current enough for your purposes.
You can also find articles that have cited the article that you already have by searching the article's title in Google Scholar and then clicking "Cited by" located below the abstract:
So, in the first example you are finding articles that your article cited and in the second example you are finding articles that cited your article.