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Literature Review - 6 Steps to Find Quality Resources

Steps to finding relevant scholarship, including articles and books, to use in a literature review.

Tracking Down Known Sources

Have you ever been prompted to pay $30 for an article while searching for information online? While a Boise State student, you have access to a rich online library of databases and full text articles, and you don't need to pay for information sources while researching online. Step 4 will show you how to track down known items in the library, such as articles and books.

Step 4a: Search strategies

A good research strategy is to find additional articles and books using the reference lists at the end of an article or book that you found in step 3. First, you will determine if your source is a journal article or a book (see below).

Here's a citation for a journal article. Note the elements of the citation:

Cheng, G., & Chau, J. (2016). Exploring the relationships between learning styles, online
     participation, learning achievement and course satisfaction: An empirical study of a
     blended learning course. British Journal of Educational Technology, 47(2),
257-278.
     http://dxdoi.org/doi:10.1111/bjet.12243

  • Two titles - one for the article title (in sentence case)and one for the journal title (italicized and in title case)
  • Volume and issue numbers included

Here's a citation for a book chapter. Note the elements of the citation:

Fadde, P. J., & Vu, P. (2014). Blended online learning: Benefits, challenges and
     misconceptions. In P. R. Lowenthal, C. S. York, & J. C. Richardson (Eds.),
     Online learning: Common misconceptions, benefits and challenges 
     [ProQuest ebrary] (pp. 33-47). Retrieved from
     
http://site.ebrary.com/lib/boisestate/detail.action?docID=10849461

  • Two titles - One for the book chapter and one for the book (italicized). Both in sentence case.

  • Editors names included

  • Publisher information not included (because it's an ebook)

Step 4b: Find out if it's available through the library

Once you have identified the citation as a article or a book, the next step is to find it in the library.

Books

  • Search by the book title and first author's last name using the Book search tab on the library's website at. For example, in the book citation in Step 5a above, you would search for: "online learning common misconceptions" and lowenthal.
  • Note:  Leave out punctuation such as colons in the title.

Articles

  • Search for the journal title (not the journal article title) using the Journals tab on the library's website. For example, in the article citation in Step 5a above, you would search for: British Journal of Educational Technology. Then navigate to the year, volume and issue number you need.

Google Scholar

  • It is recommended that you search for the article title using Google Scholar before requesting the article through Interlibrary Loan.  Many authors now make their articles openly available through online repositories. 

Practice Activity

Look at the bibliography or reference list for one book or article that you found in step 3. Use the reference list to find other potential articles or sources on your topic.