Selecting Sources to Search
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.
