Literature Searching: Evaluating your Results

You may need to narrow your search.  You can do this by:

• Adding limits, for example:
  • limiting by date - when was the most relevant information on your topic published?  After a certain date?
  • limiting to references published in English
  • limiting by type of material such as peer-reviewed to ensure you are retrieving quality results
     
• Using exact phrase searching to increase relevance for example:
  • enclosing "fear of falling" in quotes will retrieve results containing that exact phrase only

You may need to broaden your search.  You can do this by:

• removing any limits
   
• using truncation if you have not already done so to ensure you capture any plurals or alternative spellings, for example:
  • searching for fall* to find fall or falls or falling
  • (click on the Search Tips tab for more hints)

• including any additional terms that you can think of or terms that your initial search has highlighted.  In our example search, "postural control" is an example of a possible additional term that might be relevant.

Analyse This!
Produced by Learn Higher this is a free online tutorial which helps students learn how to analyse research data

TLAP Care and Support Jargon Buster - A-Z directory of plain English definitions of the most commonly used words and phrases in health and social care.