Hello all,

This is a great forum btw! Would be very useful to have some experienced PhDer advice on the following:

I am doing my first proper lit search (for MPhil thesis) and am wondering, if I've searched Web of Knowledge and CSA, is this enough, or do people normally search loads of databases? I hate google scholar so am trying to avoid having to do this if possible! I seem to be getting loads of duplication just within these two dbs, so not sure if its worth searching many more.

Also, how can you ever be sure if you're not duplicating someone else's research? Just because you don't find it, doesn't mean it hasn't been done somewhere. Especially if published in another language. How do you deal with this?

My field is pretty expansive and interdisciplinary (within the social sciences) so I'm struggling with a a fairly huge amount of lit!

Sorry for probably stupid questions!

Thanks

oh, I love google scholar :-x expecially if you set it up so you can access the fulltexts through your library(ies) (through scholar preferences) and also works fab with endnote - I rarely use anything else although it does depend how good your uni library is with online stuff - mine is excellent thank god.

My advice would be to read the stuff you have and then go back and search any new terms you have read about, there are bound to be a few - and of course use the best search mechanisms e.g. using " " marks and alternate between US and UK spelling. e.g. PhDs are my favourite, PhDs are my favorite. :-s silly americans, but there you go!

thanks for the tips, very handy! my trouble with google scholar is the inflexibility of the searches, not being able to use wildcards etc. But I can see how it can be useful if you can get round this, or if you're searching for something very specific.

Hi,

I would recommend you also look at scopus, as an alternative to web of knowledge. The databases tend to cover the peer-reviewed literature but scopus is useful as it can direct you towards online copies of PhD theses, monographs etc.

Probably the best place though is the literature itself. If you read a paper, look for relevant references in it and then search these out. It helps to generate the background. The other thing is. Your lit review probably won't slot straight into your thesis, its a baseline for you to work from. Talk to you supervisor and see if you can target the literature review in such a way as to publish it. Helps with motivation if you have a clear goal.