1. Literature Search
A systematic search should be transparent, reproducible and aligned with the research questions. Record the database, exact search string, search date, filters and number of records retrieved.
| Tool / Database | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Scopus | Multidisciplinary abstract and citation database for structured scholarly searching. |
| Web of Science | Citation database useful for indexed literature and citation tracing. |
| Google Scholar | Broad discovery across scholarly sources; useful as a supplementary search source. |
| Semantic Scholar | Scholarly discovery with semantic and recommendation features. |
| PubMed | Biomedical and life-sciences literature. |
| Publish or Perish | Retrieves and analyses scholarly citation data from supported sources. |
| Consensus / Elicit / scite | AI-assisted discovery, evidence exploration and citation-context support. Verify outputs against original sources. |
2. Paper Discovery
Discovery tools complement—not replace—the formal database search. Use seed papers to explore citation networks and related literature.
| Tool | Use in SLR |
|---|---|
| Connected Papers | Explore relationships around a seed paper. |
| Litmaps | Build and monitor literature maps. |
| ResearchRabbit | Discover related papers and author networks. |
| Inciteful | Explore citation graphs from seed papers. |
3. Literature Visualization
Visualization can help participants understand themes and relationships before synthesis. Appropriate tools include VOSviewer, CiteSpace, Gephi and Bibliometrix. Visual patterns are exploratory evidence and must be interpreted alongside the underlying studies.
Hands-on exercise
- Define one focused research topic and research question.
- Create a keyword and synonym matrix.
- Build a Boolean search string using AND, OR and NOT where appropriate.
- Run the search in each database selected for your protocol and record the results. Access and database coverage vary by topic and institution.
- Select one discovery or visualization tool and document what additional papers or themes it reveals.
Stage 1 output
Research question, keyword matrix, database-ready search strings and initial article set.