Before you start a literature search it's important to plan what steps you will take. Ask yourself:
Where is the best place to find information for your topic?
What are the limits of your search?
Are there any research models you can use?
For more general advice on planning a literature search, select the next tab. You will also find more information in our Literature Searching guide, and Ovid and EBSCO search guides.
You may also want to refer to our Libguide on Systematic Reviews: finding and managing the evidence for more advanced searching strategies.
It is important that you plan your search in a methodical way to find the most relevant sources of information. If you can, turn your search topic into a research question. This will help you to formulate a specific and targetted search. For example, the topic 'thromobolytic therapy and heart attack' is quite vague. Instead, it could be phrased as:
How does thrombolytic therapy in A&E improve outcomes for heart attack patients?
From here, you can identify the key concepts in your search and come up with some alternative terms and keywords to search. Use the example table below as a guide. You might want to create your own table in a word document or on a piece of paper.
Write out your essay topic as a question:
| How does thrombolytic therapy in A&E improve outcomes for heart attack patients? |
Identify the important concepts in your questions and list any alternative terms underneath:
|
Keyword: thrombolytic therapy Alternative terms: thrombolytics thrombolytic agents clot busting drugs |
Keyword: A&E Alternative terms: accident and emergency emergency department |
Keyword: heart attack Alternative terms: myocardial infarction |
Searching alternative terms will help you to find more results. Remember that searching is an iterative process and you may want to add or delete search terms after reviewing your results.
As well as using keywords, you can also search for your concepts as subject headings/terms which the video below explains in more detail.
There are many specialist healthcare databases that you may want to use to implement a literature search. They can all be found on the A-Z Databases page, but key databases include:
Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature. Primarily concerned with nursing, but approximately 35% of articles are related to allied health disciplines.
Select the link below to read our guide to searching Cinahl and other Ebscohost databases:
From US National Library of Medicine. Covers clinical medicine, including the allied health fields. Includes biological and physical sciences and humanities where they relate to health care.
You will find more databases by looking up the A-Z databases list on the library website. You can select a specialist area to refine the list to suggested databases for your discipline. Select Nursing and Midwifery or Allied Health depending on your subject area.
Produced by Elsevier. Covers biomedicine and pharmacology; particularly strong in the areas of drugs, toxicology and psychiatry. Includes US and European journals.
The MAH Complete collection is a searchable collection of full text journals covering nursing, midwifery, and allied health including paramedic practice.
Nursing and midwifery database mainly indexing journals published in the UK, plus other English-language journals including international nursing and midwifery journals. Also indexes selective content from medical, allied health and management journals.
Consists of several databases supporting evidence-based medicine, including: Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, NHS EED (NHS Economic Evaluation Database) and HTA (Health Technology Assessments).
Free access to users in England & Wales through funding by the NHS.
Select the link below to read our guide to using the Cochrane Library:
There are many databases and e-resources that you may want to use to help you with your studies. They can all be found on the A-Z Databases page, but key databases include:
Select 'UK access management' for Federation and City St George's as the institution.
You can access the exams (the quiz section) and save your favourites by registering for a personal account
Complete Anatomy is a 3D anatomy platform including models and videos, with an extensive library of structures and muscle movements. Complete Anatomy is a 3D Anatomy app that can be downloaded from the app store on your device.
An activation code is required for full access to the app:
St George's Students - access information can be obtained in the St George's Library Canvas module
St George's Staff - please email the library team to request the staff activation code
Use of Complete Anatomy is subject to the Complete Anatomy Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, consent to these terms is inferred by use of the resource.
St George's staff may create and share content via Complete Anatomy, and track student engagement and attainment with this content. This may include lectures, screens and quizzes on the Complete Anatomy platform. Interactions with this content are tracked in the Complete Anatomy platform and a digital record is created which St George's staff can use to review student attainment in quizzes at both an individual and cohort level. These records may be used by St George's staff to inform curriculum planning and could be exported to use in student records.
For support with access to library resources, please email journals@sgul.ac.uk
A new search engine for NHS staff in England bringing together a wide range of resources such as databases, journals, e-publications, NICE guidance and other support tools in one place. You can access it here: https://bit.ly/NHSKLH. Login with your OpenAthens account to gain full access.
Further NHS resources can be found in the following Libguides: Allied Health Professionals NHS Library Guide and Nursing Professionals NHS Library Guide.