PPS 3200: Research Methods for Public Policy Analysis

A good literature review should be as comprehensive as necessary to identify all of the major works and debates on your research subject.  

Subject-specific Databases - search in databases specific to your discipline of study to find more sources in your field. For example, Sociological Abstracts specializes in Sociology and will have more coverage of the sociology literature than an interdisciplinary, all-purpose database such as ProQuest.  You should also search in more than one place (i.e. multiple databases and the library search) since no one search tool covers everything.  For example, if your topic involves education, consider also searching an education database, such as Education Fulltext.

Here are ideas about finding places to search.

Databases A-Z - Once you've identified disciplines or information types, consult the Databases A-Z list by subject.  A Research Guide for a specific subject may also have some suggestions.

Library Search Tool - The Library Search Tool also searches a variety of databases for books and journal articles at once. However, it does not search everything, so be sure to also look at disciplinary databases.

Google Scholar -  also search for your topic in Google Scholar.  If you have a relevant source, consider searching the title in Google Scholar and using the “Cited By” link and the “Related Articles” to locate more literature.  

Citation Tracing Backward (Bibliography Mining) - use the list of works cited from a relevant source to learn more about a topic from the works cited or to see if important works are missing.  This is a way to look for relevant sources published prior to the one in hand.  A database may have a direct link to all the works cited, such as the example below; otherwise, you may need to look at each work cited manually. The database Web of Science has links to references, as do ProQuest databases.

Citation Tracing Forward (Cited Reference Searching)  -This finds newer sources that cite a particular article, book chapter, etc.  It also uncovers newer research on a topic.

Google Scholar allows one to trace a citation forward but not backwards.

Beyond Vanderbilt - if you find a citation for a source Vanderbilt doesn't own, use Document Delivery/Interlibrary Loan (ILL)  to get it. Articles and chapters can usually be scanned and sent electronically, but books must be mailed and typically arrive in 1-2 weeks, so plan ahead. TIP: If you see FindIt@VU, follow the links and sign in to have the form automatically filled out for you.