Searching for literature

If you need the full text of a specific publication and you know the author or title, you can check its availability in WUR Library Search. You can also search in Google Scholar.

• Put the title within double quotes, e.g., "packaging of food"
• Use filters like author or publication year to narrow your search
• Once you find the publication, click on the Get it! link "WUR Library"
• See the Library Guide on WUR Library Search for detailed instructions.
• See this Library Guide on Google Scholar for more tips.

If you don't exactly know what you're looking for, or if you require only a few sources on a topic, begin with a simple or basic search in a broad scholarly search engine or multi-disciplinary database, like WUR Library Search, Google Scholar or Scopus. Type in a few keywords and refine your search.

• Identify primary concepts and combine them with AND
• Put short phrases or multiple search terms within double quotes

Example: "Climate change" AND "food security" AND policy

A systematic literature search is a thorough, systematic and repeatable search of a range of literature (for example, books, peer-reviewed articles, etc.) on a certain topic in a bibliographic database. This requires you to carefully choose your search terms, databases, and methods, and reflect on the results you obtain. A systematic literature search helps you avoid bias, identify research gaps, and prevent duplication of existing studies.

Systematic searching involves a series of iterative steps, and you may need to revisit some of them multiple times during your search.

• Select the most appropriate database. You can use the Library Database Finder to find the appropriate database.
• Formulate your research question.
• Identify primary concepts and relevant search terms, including synonyms.
• Combine concepts and terms with the operators AND/OR.
• Use wildcards like * to find word variations.
• Limit your search to title, abstract and keywords.
• Adapt and repeat your search in more databases.
• Always check the database manual for exact rules on how to build your search query.

Example: ("natural disasters" OR "natural catastrophes" OR flood* OR landslides OR "natural hazards") AND (farm* OR agricult* OR crops OR livestock) AND (coping OR deal OR "risk reduc*") AND (losses OR yields).

Be aware: Google, and particularly Google Scholar, can be useful for simple searches, but are not recommended for systematic literature searching or systematic reviews. They do not allow precise filtering, lack transparency in their coverage, and can include duplicate or non-peer-reviewed sources.

If you want to double-check whether you have found all the relevant publications on your topic, or if you want to get familiar with a topic, you can use the "following a thread" method. First, you select some highly relevant publications. The reference list of these publications leads you to older publications on your topic. If you look up these references in a broad search engine or database Scopus, or Google Scholar, you will likely find more recent papers that cite this publication.