Define the scope of your project. Do you need to narrow your topic from a broad, general one? If so, some things to consider:
How much has been written about your topic? If it is a well-studied field, there will be plenty of literature in a wide variety of formats. If it is a new topic or idea, there may be very little published about it.
Do you want to focus on a particular location, time period, technology, theory, person, group, project, or event?
What do you already know about the topic? What do you need to investigate?
Consider the individuals or groups or agencies who have a stake in your topic. Who publishes information about this topic? Where does their funding come from?
Start a list of keywords to use. Terminology can change, so this list will need updating as you search.
Do background reading to find out more about your topic.
Try a general search in Omni to find out the range of books and ebooks published (important when examining a long-established field).
Step 2
Try an initial, very general search in library databases or Google Scholar. Not sure which databases to use? Contact your librarian for advice - this will save you time.
Filter by publication year - how long it the publishing history for this field? Are there any publication trends?
Filter by controlled vocabulary to see the categories for this topic - this is where you can start narrowing your topic, and gain more keywords/synonyms.
Filter by document type, e.g., to see if any review papers about your topic exist.
Start a list of key researchers, groups, agencies and labs.
Start a timeline for your literature review.
Keep track of the different search keywords and the databases you use.
Step 3
Search specialized databases in depth for journal articles, technical reports, theses, etc.
