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Study Skills- Tips for a Successful Literature Search

5 steps to making a search plan and making the most of the sources you find.

Evaluate your results

You can't read everything you find on your topic, there's not enough time and not everything will be relevant. Part of searching is being selective and identifying the most appropriate sources by asking yourself some critical questions about them. You don’t need to read the full text at this point. If you’ve been looking for journal articles you can read the abstract of each article first to help you decide which sources are going to be relevant to your topic. If you’ve been looking for books you can have a look at the contents page or scan the introduction to make an initial judgment.

What criteria do you use?

There are a few different models that can help you evaluate the sources you find. Below is an explanation of the TRAAP method which guides you through some questions to ask of the sources you find.

Timeliness

  • When was the source published or posted?
  • Has the information been revised or updated?
  • Does your topic require current information or will older sources work as well?

Relevance

  • Does the information relate to your topic or help to answer your question?
  • Is the information at an appropriate level (i.e. not too basic, advanced or technical for your needs)?
  • Have you looked at a variety of sources before selecting this one?

Authority

  • Is the author qualified to provide the information? What are their credentials?
  • Does the author work for a particular organisation, for example an educational institution?
  • Has the source been peer reviewed or gone through an editing process?

Accuracy

  • Does the author provide evidence to support their views?
  • Are there any errors for example spelling, grammar, or punctuation?
  • Can you verify any of the information in another source?

Purpose

  • What is the purpose of the information (i.e. to inform/sell/persuade)?
  • Does the point of view appear objective and impartial?
  • Are there political, ideological, cultural, religious, institutional or personal biases?

Other questions to consider?

Although you are encouraged to use peer reviewed scholarly or academic journal articles, keep in mind that academic publishing is not free of bias. Academic publishing privileges authors with the highest levels of education and this turn can have gender, race, ethnicity or nationality implications.

  • Are any voices missing (for example if you are looking at gender in leadership and all of the articles you have found are written by men you are missing out on female voices)?
  • Does the source centre Europe or North America?  

 

 

Attribution: This information is adapted from the CRAAP Test created by Sarah Blakeslee, Meriam Library, California State University, Chico, 2004