"... the research you are looking for has been published; it is “literature,” sometimes abbreviated “lit.”  When you review this literature, you are looking up every relevant scholarly article, book, dissertation, or other resource that has ever been published on your topic and problem or question.  You are not “reviewing” it in the literal sense, but you are familiarizing yourself with it and carefully recording the publication information about these sources so you can include them in your references and bibliography.  You do not need to read everything that has ever been written on your topic, because that may very well be physically impossible, but you must make sure you are familiar with all the key sources in your field that are pertinent to your problem or question."

Literature Review. (n.d.). Statistics Solutions. Retrieved April 24, 2024, from https://www.statisticssolutions.com/dissertation-resources/literature-review-2/

Combine multiple keywords

• Write out your Capstone topic as a sentence and pull out the words that most identify your topic / research question  - the keywords
• Search with keywords in the advanced search area of RamSearch or individual databases
• Put one keyword per search box (more boxes can be added) before running the search

Look at your initial keywords, then check for synonyms and other alternative words for the concepts

• Look at your keywords and see if there are synonyms for a word / concept you already have - consider common names, and 'jargon'
• You will come across alternate keywords during your initial searches: In article titles, in the abstract, in the 'subjects' or 'subject terms' that many databases list next to results - save them and try them
• New issues and new developments in the field can mean that you will find several alternate terms or expressions in the literature, because one way of expressing a concept hasn't 'won out' and become the 'norm' yet - so don't limit yourself to the most familiar term you know, without checking for others
• The best way to search using synonyms in a database: use the advanced interface, and type the first version of your keyword in one box...a space, then type capital OR, space, then type the next synonym in the same box, space, an OR, space, the next synonym, a space, etc....until they're all in that one search box, then add the other keywords in the other search boxes, then run your search

Your topic keywords may include acronyms that denote a phrase, but beware...

• An acronym can be used in more than one discipline, but meaning something different in each one!

Sure, you generally want 'recent' literature, but...

• Don't be surprised if it turns out that the subject of your Capstone resurfaces as a topic of current interest in the field from time to time - so if there's not much very recent around about your topic, look a little further back before giving up on it

Sure, you'd rather have your search results be all full-text...

• But if you choose the full text only limiter, you may miss out on ways that our system can get the full-text for you from one of our databases

Sure, you'd probably prefer to focus on leadership topics / issues occurring in the United States, but...

• Sometimes leadership / management issues are researched in other parts of the world, and possibly at a different time period than here in the U.S. - so unless your Capstone must be only U.S.- focused, you may find relevant research has been done elsewhere, like Asia or the EU.

Remember, Databases aren't searched the way that Google searches the internet

• A database's search function doesn't normally search through every word on every record (in this case, articles) for your keywords...they search each record's fields (those being the way that databases label / organize their content) - so while in advanced search, you'll see a way, just to the right of the search boxes, to pick one of the fields to check for your keywords in - if you're getting too many results, picking a field (like abstract or title) can help limit your results

Sooner or later you'll need to get articles via interlibrary loan

• No charge to you; takes a few days but usually not that long, but remember that our ILL Dept. isn't open on the weekends - request forms are processed Mondays through Fridays only
• You will get in your e-mail a link and password to retrieve a PDF

RamSearch doesn't have a 'choose the type of study you want' limiter

• But individual databases that are focused on one discipline will likely have usefull limiters
• When using RamSearch, simply add the name of the type of study you'd like as one of your keywords to get more studies in your results
• One reason RamSearch can be useful for graduate students is because it searches (almost) all our databases at once - so useful for interdisciplinary topics!
• RamSearch does, of course, have a way to limit results to peer-reviewed (as do our other databases)

Since topics of interest in various fields are ongoing 'conversations', it can be useful to see what a good paper you've found had cited...as well as seeing who came later, having cited that good paper.

Google Scholar's "Cited By" Feature

• The "Cited by" link listed below each search result generates  a list of other articles indexed by Google Scholar that have cited that search result
• Great for those who like 'snowballing / citations mapping' /'tracking' while researching

ResearchRabbit

• AI-powered, no-cost literature mapping tool
• Great for those who like 'snowballing / citations mapping' while researching
• Great for those who like visual representations of the relationship(s) between relevant articles
• Can make it much easier to see a research concept and its further development over time by others in a discipline (the whole point of a lit review!)
• Based on a seed paper or papers, displays earlier and later articles by the author, articles citing that seed paper, all its references, and even (based on adaptive algorithm) similar papers / authors
• Due to the search algorithm's adaptive nature, not suitable for use during Prizma integrative review search documentation (sorry!)
• Integrates with Zotero

A Capstone is a substantial Literature Review; we at the Whittemore Library recommend that you use Zotero to store both your citations, and the PDFs or screen-shots of sources you are saving for your capstone.

Zotero is a free, open source citation management app.

• Download and install Zotero.
• After that, you will have a desktop app icon (Looks like: )
• Also download and install the connector (if available) for your browser
  • Available for: Chrome, Firefox, or Safari
  • When the connector is installed, you will have a little icon (page, PDF or folder) on the upper right side
  • While looking for articles, you can click on that icon to add articles to your open Zotero app
• You should have a plug-in, appearing as a new tab, in your Microsoft word app
  • This plug-in lets you add parenthetical citations with a click, and create/update your list of References at the end of your paper.

For all the details on installing and using Zotero, see our Zotero Help Guid