This page focuses on how to do an in-depth literature review for a dissertation, thesis, grant application, or lengthy-term paper in engineering and the sciences.  

Gather Your Tools

Library Account
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Illiad (Interlibrary Loan) Account 
If you don't already have an ILLiad account, please register for one.  Interlibrary loan services allow you to borrow materials unavailable at the WSU Library and scan or deliver materials from the libraries on the other WSU campuses.

Do you know what you are looking for?  Can you describe your project using one simple sentence, or can you phrase the project as a question?  Without a clear idea of the project, you may not be able to determine which are the best resources to search for, what terminology should be used in those resources, and if the results are appropriate and sufficient.    

If you're having difficulty getting your project described succinctly, try using a PICO chart to identify the concepts involved:

• P is the population, problem, predicament, or process
• I is the intervention or improvement
• C is what you'll compare your intervention/improvement to, and
• O is the outcome (or results of the comparison of I and C) 

Example: 

Client: A manufacturer of advanced nuclear fuel rods has faced recent concerns regarding material integrity during reactor operation. Regulatory inspections have highlighted potential issues with fuel rod microstructure and fabrication processes, raising questions about material performance and safety.

Current Practices: The manufacturer currently relies on established fuel rod designs and fabrication techniques, with quality control focused primarily on adherence to existing protocols. However, inspectors have suggested that a deeper understanding of material science and innovative engineering approaches could improve fuel rod performance and address safety concerns.

Research Question: Can optimizing fuel rod microstructure and fabrication processes through advancements in material science contribute to enhanced safety and performance in nuclear reactors, compared to solely relying on established protocols?

PICO Chart:

• P: Nuclear reactor safety and performance
• I: Material science advancements in fuel rod design and fabrication
• C: Established fuel rod protocols without advanced material science considerations
• O: Comparison of safety metrics (accident rates, fission product release) and operational performance indicators (fuel burnup, reactivity control) between reactors using advanced and traditional fuel rods

Also, don't forget to determine if your project has limits.  For example:

• Are you reviewing the literature only within a specific time frame?
• Are you looking at English-language material only?
• Are you considering research from just the United States or worldwide?
• Are there types of material you won't be covering (trade magazines, patents, technical reports, etc.)?  

Take a simple sentence or question that describes what you are looking for.  What are the concepts in the sentence? Are there synonyms that describe the same concept?   If you filled out a PICO chart, concentrate on the P (problem) and the I (intervention) for the concept chart.  

Concept Chart:

 

Concept 1:  _______  OR _______  OR _______ 


AND


Concept 2:  _______  OR  _______  OR  _______ 


AND


Concept 3: _______  OR _______  OR  _______ 

 



Example:  

I am looking for ways that human factors engineering can improve safety in the nuclear power industry. 

Concept 1:  "nuclear power"   OR  "nuclear industry"


AND


Concept 2: "safety"  OR  "accident prevention" 


AND


Concept 3: "human factors engineering"   

What resources you'll use for your literature review depends on what types of materials you want to find.  

• Background Information
  The more you know about a topic, the better you'll be able to research it.  You'll be familiar with the terminology, understand the underlying science/technology, and be aware of the issues in the field. Most importantly, you'll be able to understand what you've retrieved from your search.  But no matter how much you know beforehand, you'll likely run across terms and concepts with which you're unfamiliar.    Materials such as encyclopedias, dictionaries, and handbooks will not only help you learn about the basics of your topic before you begin your search, but they'll also help you understand the terminology used in the documents you found from your literature review.   
   
• Books
  The large size of books (usually 100-500 pages) allows a topic to be studied broadly, covering many different issues.  Conversely, the large size also allows for a specific aspect of the topic to be covered in great detail.  Because of the time it takes to publish, sci-tech books generally do not contain the most current information.
   
• Conference Papers
  Scientists and engineers frequently present new findings at conferences before these findings are written up in journal articles or books.  Not every conference, however, publishes its proceedings.  In some cases, conferences publish only a few of the papers presented but not all.  
   
• Journal and Trade Magazine Articles
  Articles in journals (also called magazines) are short, usually 5-20 pages in length, and cover a specific finding, experiment, or project.  Articles in scholarly journals are usually written by academics or professional scientists/engineers and are aimed at others at the same level.   The journal staff writes articles in trade journals/magazines and reports on industry news such as sales, mergers, prices, etc.  
   
• Patents
  Patents are grants from governments that give the inventor certain rights of manufacture. They provide a wealth of information about how a technology is being advanced and by which companies.  Notably, 80% of the information in patents never appears elsewhere in the literature. 
   
• Technical Reports
  Technical reports are part of the "gray literature";  gray literature refers to documents that are not published commercially, hence they are difficult to both identify and find.  Technical reports focus on a specific experiment or research project and are meant to convey the results of the experiment or project back to the funding organization.  In the United States, the government agencies that sponsor research projects are common sources of technical reports.  Reports generated within a private corporation and funded solely by that corporation are seldom available to anyone outside the company. 

Now, it's time to apply your search strategy to the resources you've decided to use.

1. Use the Advanced Search feature (or whatever search is set up with the 3 lines of boxes) and enter your search strategy just as you recorded it in your search strategy chart. Remember to set your limits.  
   
   If the resource only provides a single search box, rearrange your chart from vertical to horizontal so that the search statement looks like this:  
   
   (Concept#1 OR synonym) AND (Concept#2 OR synonym) AND (Concept#3 OR synonym)
   
   Example:
   (nuclear power OR nuclear industry) AND (safety OR accident prevention) AND (human factors engineering)
    
2. Examine the results to find the most appropriate items. To help you stay on track, keep your one-sentence project description (and/or your PICO chart) in mind.
    
3. Export the records/citations you want to keep into a citation manager.
    
4. If subjects (which may also be called subject headings, index terms, descriptors, or controlled vocabulary) are assigned to each item, make sure that those are also transferred into a citation manager.  If not, add them manually.
    
5. Get the full text of the items. 
    
6. Read the full text of the items, look at the subjects assigned to the item, and consider the following:
    
   • Do I have to change (narrow) my topic to something more specific because I'm finding way too much? 
   • Do I have to change (broaden) my topic because I can't find enough about it? 
   • Is there additional terminology for my topic/concepts that I hadn't included in my original search?
      
7. Redo your search strategy according to what you found in step #6 and rerun the search in the resources.
    
8. You may need to repeat this cycle several times before you can identify the best terminology for each resource.