Search tips for finding the best articles to include in your nursing literature review
You may find a lot of articles related to your topic. How do you choose the most relevant?
- Read the abstract and conclusion in the article - Is this article directly related to your topic? If not, make sure you are using the best search terms for your topic (identify an article that is directly related to your topic and look at the Subject headings or MeSH terms attached to it for search term ideas).
- In Cinahl, look for articles that have a Times Cited note to gage the impact/importance of the article.
- If you see a particular author referenced more than once, they may be an influential expert in the field. Search for all of their articles.
- Don't ignore the bibliography of strong articles - these can lead you to more key articles related to your topic.
- Check to see if there are any systematic reviews or meta-analyses on your topic. These types of review articles have very stringent inclusion criteria and likely identify key articles that you will want to include in your review.
- Academic books or encyclopedia entries written on the topic may include influential research and researchers in their bibliographies that you can search for to include in your review.
- If you really want to build a comprehensive search, you may want to go directly to the Cinahl Subject Headings or the MeSH Subject Headings if searching PubMed or Medline, so you can systematically select the best terms for your search.
Not sure how to do some of these things? A librarian can help.
Beyond Articles
You may want to include grey literature - these are high quality information sources beyond scholarly research papers. These can include academic books, professional guidelines, reports and more. Go to the Websites, Grey Literature & Google Search Tips page of this guide to find more information.
