Step 1:

• Design your search methodology. It may include:
  • Electronic database searching, including each database's subject headings, thesaurus, and other controlled vocabulary tools. 
  • Hand searching (or manual searching) of key journals.
  • Citation analysis of articles found through database and hand searching. 
• Consult with a librarian (either Ellysa Cahoy or another Penn State library subject expert) to ensure you are using the best databases, terminology, and strategies for your topic.

Step 2:

• Execute your search(es) in your core database(s).
• If undertaking a hand search, go to each journal's home page, look for an "archive" or list of "all issues," and view the tables of contents of each issue for each year within your time frame to ensure that you have not missed any relevant articles.
• If undertaking citation analysis, review the bibliography of each article that fits your inclusion criteria. This can lead you to additional older but still relevant articles. Another option is to look up each article that fits your inclusion criteria in Google Scholar and look at the 'cited by' link located under the article's Google Scholar entry. This will lead to other pertinent works.

Step 3:

• Download your results in .csv (spreadsheet) format. 
  • This video explains how to download results in .csv format from ProQuest databases. 
  • This video shows how to save your searches in ProQuest databases so that you can revisit and build upon them later.

Step 4:

• Analyze your results in a spreadsheet(s), using your inclusion and exclusion criteria. 
• Consider using software like Rayyan to help with this process.
• Go back into your database search(es) and download PDFs for relevant articles. 

Step 5:

• Throughout your work, take careful notes on your methodology and search strategies so you can write about them later, and so that they can be understood and reproduced by others.