Research discovery and assimilation is a critical part of the research process, which makes it critical to have effective literature search strategies in place.
It is imperative for scholars to ensure that the information they gather is relevant, recent, and reliable, but this is not always easy. To put things in perspective, recent data shows that between January to May, more than 23,000 Covid-19-related papers were published, with the number expected to double every 20 days, making this one of the biggest explosions of scientific data in history. In such a situation, is there a search strategy for literature review that can help researchers?
While the digital age has made information more accessible, researchers need easy literature search strategies to optimize their reading. Sifting through large amounts of scientific papers to find the most reliable and relevant research can be overwhelming for authors, which in turn impacts overall researcher productivity. In fact, a report by Elsevier and Sense about Science shows that researchers, on average, spend just over 4 hours a week searching for research articles and a little over 5 hours reading them, and while they read 5-6 articles per week, only half of this is considered useful. So, with millions of papers being published every year, and many more being posted as preprints, how do researchers keep up with the growing piles of data? What are the literature search strategies they apply? What is the best scientific literature search strategy for an efficient reading session? Take a look at our top tips that may help you streamline your literature search and a smart AI research discovery tool for researchers to read more, search less and stay updated.
Literature search strategies that will help you optimize your research reading
We’ve curated a quick list of simple steps based on expert advice to help you organize your thoughts and optimize your research discovery.
- Identify main keywords: One of the top literature search strategies is to segregate your area of research into broad topics, and use these to define relevant keywords, which can be used to fine-tune and focus your search. Also write down synonyms and/or alternative phrases for each keyword, in case you need to broaden your search.
- Tap multiple channels: It’s not always easy to find reliable data; the Elsevier report reveals that 37% of researchers think only half the research published is trustworthy. One literature search strategy example would be to allay these fears by browsing top academic databases, which store free peer-reviewed articles, or even better, upgrade your scientific literature search strategy with a smart research discovery app that curates content for you from a wide range of journals and multiple databases.
- Search by citations: Every research paper comes with relevant citations that offer clues to simplify the process. So, when you find a paper that is relevant, note the citations and conduct a backward search. Keeping a track of the resources you find useful, and using that to build your own list of citations is one of the more effective literature search strategies for researchers.
- Bookmark your searches: When searching for literature, do a quick scan of the webpage as soon as you open it. A tried and tested search strategy for literature review is to bookmark the searches (Ctrl+D) you think may be useful to your study. This will ensure you have the web page and all the information you need at your fingertips when you want to revisit the data later.
- Use reference managers: Handy tools for researchers, reference managers are used to organize your reads and are often listed as a sound search strategy for literature review. Reference managers allow researchers to directly download and save papers from journals to your desktop, making it easy for you to compile reference lists when writing manuscripts.
- Subscribe to publisher newsletters: The sheer volume of information available to the public can erode trust in research, according to 28% of the researchers in the Elsevier study. One of the best literature search strategies for authors to allay such worries is creating alerts on top databases or subscribing to newsletters on publisher sites.
- Recommended – Find one home for all your research: Even with these literature search strategies, finding scholarly articles that are both useful and reliable will need you to scour multiple platforms, which is a time-consuming process. There is always the chance that you may miss out on a crucial piece of information that can aid your research. You may benefit by downloading R Discovery, a free research discovery app for smart researchers, which curates full text articles from top academic databases, and recommends the top reads for you every day based on your preferences, so you’re always updated on research that matters.
How R Discovery can enhance your break the cycle of searching for research
Enhance your academic and scientific literature search strategy with R Discovery. Designed to give time back to researchers, R Discovery leverages the power of AI to personalize your literature search by curating free research papers and articles related to your field of research. All you need to do is set up your feed by selecting your topics of interest, and this intuitive application identifies the top three papers for you to read every day! A CACTUS solution under the R researcher ecosystem, R Discovery comes with a simple interface and easy search option, which makes it one of best tools for researchers to keep up with new developments in research.
Add R Discovery to your literature search strategies. Here’s what you get when you download and set up this free research discovery app:
- Access to over 57 million scholarly articles, across 5 million+ topics and 32,000+ journals
- Daily recommendation of the top three articles matched to your topics of interest
- Research at your fingertips with email alerts and notifications on recently published papers
- Tangential topic matches so you never miss out on new developments in related research fields
- Smart reading option to help summarize the paper BEFORE you browse through full text articles
- Option to import your reading library from multiple platforms like Mendeley, Zotero and Orcid
- Convenient search filters and an instant feedback feature to allow for enhanced personalization
- Access key literature by tracking reading history and patterns, and bookmarking papers with one click
- Coming soon: Multiple feeds to enable busy researchers to organize and optimize their reading
Designed by researchers, for researchers, R Discovery aims to transform your literature search by presenting you with one home for all your research, where the right research can discover you. It’s time to step up your literature search strategies and take the search out of research, click here to know more about R Discovery, or download the free app from Google Play or the App Store.
R Discovery is a literature search and research reading platform that accelerates your research discovery journey by keeping you updated on the latest, most relevant scholarly content. With 250M+ research articles sourced from trusted aggregators like CrossRef, Unpaywall, PubMed, PubMed Central, Open Alex and top publishing houses like Springer Nature, JAMA, IOP, Taylor & Francis, NEJM, BMJ, Karger, SAGE, Emerald Publishing and more, R Discovery puts a world of research at your fingertips.
Try R Discovery Prime FREE for 1 week or upgrade at just US$72 a year to access premium features that let you listen to research on the go, read in your language, collaborate with peers, auto sync with reference managers, and much more. Choose a simpler, smarter way to find and read research – Download the app and start your free 7-day trial today!
