The research process is a repeating cycle, both for individuals and for communities. It's very much like the scientific method.
Origin ► Planning & Design ► Data Gathering ► Data Analysis ► Results ► Reporting ►► Origin
Keep in mind as you move through the research process that it's not rigid. Things don't always go smoothly or as expected, and that's fine; sometimes researchers need to go back to previous stages and revise things or search for more data or sources.
Here's what's useful about doing a literature review:
So, how does one conduct a literature review? Basically go find relevant resources; it helps to have a plan for this though.
Effective search strategies require persistence, adaptability and flexibility.
The best place to start is articulating search terms for your research.
After step three, you now have some terms to be your keywords, which can be combined in different ways to pull up search results that are relevant to your research. You might discover additional terms during your searching.
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Use Web of Science to perform a cited reference search, where you can look up an article and see how many times it has been cited. Databases can be searched together or separate and include: Web of Science Core Collection: Science Citation Index (1900-present), Social Sciences Citation Index (1900-present), Arts & Humanities Citation Index (1975-present), Conference Proceedings Citation Index (1975-present), Book Citation Index (2005-present), Emerging Sources Citation Index (2015-present), Current Chemical Reactions (1985-present), Index Chemicus (1993-present). Web of Science Additional Databases: BIOSIS Citation Index (1926-present), BIOSIS Previews, Current Contents Connect, Data Citation Index (1900-present), Derwent Innovations Index, KCI - Korean Journal Database, MEDLINE, Russian Science Citation Index, SciELO Citation Index, Zoological Record (1864-present). Users may encounter content in this database the library has not purchased.
Frequently there is helpful information in the article itself. Author affiliations are generally at the top. Funding information is generally near the bottom, sometimes in the acknowledgement section.
This can give you an idea of the type and quantity of research a company fund and or conducts themselves.
Some databases actually let you do searches by author affiliations and or funding agency, so be on the lookout for those options in the search or in the limiter/filter after the search.
Using someone else's idea without giving them credit is considered plagiarism and academic dishonesty. This can have serious consequences. Fortunately, it's really easy to avoid. Cite your sources. Cite all of them - not just textual, but any images, graphs, videos, audio recordings, or data you use. One reason college students are taught this is because it's expected in the professional academic publishing world too. So, it's advisable to think critically and pay attention to citations when you are evaluating the research of others.