One often hears the proverb, ‘A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.’ For researchers, this journey starts with selecting relevant literature. A systematic literature search is a crucial step for researchers to map the objective of their study and plan their research. However, browsing through hundreds of published articles to keep up with new, relevant developments in their field is time-consuming and often daunting. Is there a way to simplify this process? YES!
Today, if you find yourself wondering how to select relevant literature, know that there are several literature search tools online to help you improve and streamline your search for relevant articles. But with so many options, how can you ensure you’ve picked the right one? Here are five questions you should ask yourself when selecting a literature search tool that will work for you.
1. Does it help you to find the latest, most relevant literature?
The most challenging task for researchers is being able to cut through the clutter and ensure they are selecting relevant literature in their field. The increasing volume of publications each year only adds to this problem. In fact, an Elsevier and Sense about Science report revealed that while researchers spent about 9 hours a week searching and reading for literature, they only found half of what they read useful.
When conducting a systematic literature search, a simple online search is unlikely to throw up accurate or relevant results unless the search engine is optimized for researchers. So the first question to ask yourself is, does your literature search tool sift through the existing work in your field and present you with the latest, most relevant research articles?
Look for a smart literature search tool that presents you with personalized reading recommendations based on your preferred research interests and helps you in selecting relevant literature reads from related subject areas. You should also be able to fine-tune your search by filtering the results by author name, publish date and journal title. These features offer you an added advantage when it comes to keeping up with research that matters, and can cut down the time you spend just looking for the right articles.
2. Does it include article abstracts to help optimize your reading?
Abstracts showcase the essence of a research paper, highlighting the key points in a structured manner that makes it easy to read and understand. This is why time-strapped researchers often rely on abstracts for a systematic literature search; it helps them sift through a sea of published articles and decide whether a paper is worth reading further. This makes the presence of article abstracts an important consideration when choosing a literature search tool as it allows you in reducing the time spent selecting relevant literature.
Once you identify a paper that has methodologies, measurements, technical data, or even a study design that is relevant for your research, you should be able to access it seamlessly. While many literature search tools allow you to read open access papers, they do not allow you to unlock articles behind paywalls, making the process of selecting relevant literature difficult. For an efficient and systematic literature search, pick a good literature search tool, which offers users the option to use their university or institutional credentials to unlock full text of pay-walled articles, ensuring a more seamless reading experience.
3. Does it allow you to create your own personalized library?
Researchers are advised to organize relevant reads in a way that ensures articles are discoverable and ready to refer to in the future. But for academics who write notes on a notepad in a library or add links to a Word document while selecting relevant literature online, the process of quickly collating and selecting relevant literature can be a challenge. Many struggle to remember small, yet significant, details or spend hours retracing their steps to find a paper several days or months after the initial search.
So, when you find yourself thinking, how to select relevant literature, look for a literature search tool that not only recommends new reading recommendations, but also allows you to create a personalized reading library. Check if there is a simple way to bookmark articles and keep a track of literature you’ve read so that you don’t miss out on crucial research. These features can help you with a systematic literature search and make research reading a happier experience.
4. Does it offer you access to a continually updated database?
A comprehensive literature search is often taken to mean search everywhere you can. While conducting a systematic literature search, most researchers sift through various repositories and databases to find the latest and most relevant articles. This doesn’t have to be your reality. With the right scientific literature search tool, selecting relevant literature can be easy. You can find everything you need in one place instead of scouring multiple websites and research platforms.
When picking a literature search tool, be sure to check if it covers all the key article databases in your field of research. In fact, an ideal literature search tool should come with a large, continually updated repository of scholarly articles to ensure you have access to the key developments from reputed international journals.
5. Does it ensure you stay updated with notifications on the latest articles?
A systematic literature search to keep up with the latest scholarly articles and developments is a crucial skill for researchers, one that can be developed by making reading a daily habit. Slipping up here can mean missing out on key information that has the potential to enhance your research.
For busy researchers juggling multiple roles, selecting relevant literature is a time-consuming task that is often relegated to the last item on their to-do lists. Here, scientific literature search tools can help you kick-start and maintain your daily reading schedule. So look for a smart literature search tool that not only recommends relevant reads (and thereby helps you in selecting relevant literature) but also alerts you about new developments with timely updates on new publications.
Get all of the above in one literature search tool
While the above points will help you pick a tool that streamlines your systematic literature search, is there ONE tool that combines the best of everything? Yes, there is.
Created with researchers, for researchers, R Discovery is a mobile app that makes your literature search easier, faster, and more efficient. This free literature search tool combines leading-edge AI technology by UNSILO and Scholarcy, and a host of exciting features to help optimize the process of selecting relevant literature and the overall research reading experience.
When you download the free R Discovery app, you get:
- Access to 100 million+ publications, across 9.5 million research topics and over 32,000 journals
- Top three reading recommendations every day based on your own research interests
- Article abstracts with key highlights that summarize the full-text papers in a few lines
- Regular updates and notifications to ensure you don’t miss out on research that matters
- Convenient filters to fine-tune your search and get more accurate reading results
- Easy bookmarking option and import libraries from platforms like Mendeley and Zotero
- A well-organized, personalized feed of the latest, most relevant articles, with suggestions on articles that are related to your area of research.
- An option to consolidate your reads by importing your library from Mendeley and Zotero
Researchers should not have to spend valuable time and energy in just selecting relevant literature to read. With its researcher-focused features, the R Discovery literature search tool breaks the cycle of searching for research, making your systematic literature search an easier, smoother and happier process!
Over 2 million researchers across the world have used the R Discovery literature search tool to stay updated in their field. See how this app can help you in selecting relevant literature to read, click here to download the free R Discovery smart app now!
