Literature review
To find the relevant information about your research topic, you conduct one or more literature searches.
Steps for literature review
If you are performing a literature search for the first time, it is advisable to take all of the following steps:
- Consult the Searching & Resources section on the TUlib website.
- Follow specific parts of the course Information Literacy for Master's and PhD students to supplement the TUlib consultation.
- Set up an initial search plan.
- Conduct one or more searches in at least one (multidisciplinary) database, and evaluate the results.
- Adjust the search queries where necessary and re-conduct the searches and evaluate the results.
- Repeat step 5. until an optimal search query has been formulated, which means that the results are sufficient to perform your own research.
- In addition to conducting searches in a multidisciplinary database, also do this in a subject-specific database, if available. An overview of the available sources, the A-Z List, can be found on the Library website.
Course for starting PhD students
If you are a starting PhD student/candidate, it is strongly recommended that you take the Graduate School course The Informed Researcher. A significant part of this course is dedicated to exploring your research field, creating a search plan and conducting searches to find the literature for your research project. Information about this course can be found on the Library webpage Graduate Workshop: The Informed Researcher (PhD).