Once you have developed your question and identified the key concepts and some keywords for your search, the next step is to perform a scoping search.
A scoping search is a brief search, or set of searches, that you do at the start of your research project to help you look into elements of your research question, help you understand your topic more deeply, and identify research that's already been carried out in reports or journal articles.
A scoping search will help you:
Get familiar with your topic
Understand terms and keywords used in the literature
Find 2 or 3 journal articles that are relevant to your topic, you may even find some you want to include
Find additional alternative terms for the final systematic search
Gain an understanding where your research will fit into the body of research
Another key reason to do a scoping search is because it can help you refine your question further, for example:
If you find there isn’t a lot research on your topic you may need to either broaden your research question, or have a conversation with your supervisor about choosing a different research question.
Conversely, if there is plenty of research in your research area, you could decide to make your question more specific, or again change your question to a less researched area.
Although we are using the singular term scoping “search”, you will be doing various searches to look at your topic from different angles. Be free with this element of your literature search! It’s a great opportunity to spend some time exploring your topic. Having said that, there are millions of articles in most databases, and it is important to notice if you’re finding yourself starting to go off-topic or becoming overwhelmed.
TIP: Take regular breaks to ensure you don’t become overwhelmed with the amount of information.
This 2-minute video is a really helpful useful overview of scoping searches:
The tools we recommend you use for your scoping search are:
Library Search to find books for background reading and journal articles for research papers related to your topic
Google (or another web search tool) for websites, reports, leaflets and other background reading
Tip: It’s important to know when to stop scoping and move onto your systematic search.
Once you have decided on your research question and found 2 or 3 good articles and/or reports, some additional alternative keywords and have done some background reading to understand the topic, you are ready to plan your systematic search.