LibGuides: How to write a literature review: Find review articles

How to search for review articles

1) Use the keywords that represent your topic plus the keyword "literature review", "systematic reviews", or "meta-analysis" (with the quotation marks) as part of your search, using the operator AND to separate all keywords.

Example: type business incubators AND literature reviews in the library main search or a database.

2) Some Ebscohost databases such as Medline and CINAHL offer a thesaurus or subject headings search option. You can use this option to find articles that use a specific methodology. More information about the thesaurus search is available here.

3) Databases in the medical sciences such as Medline, CINAHL, and PsychInfo have special filters to refine your results to a specific type of article. The example below comes from Medline:

Type your keywords in the search box, then scroll down to the the section "Publication Type" and select a type of article from the list. Submit your search.

Which tools databases to use

Find literature reviews

Library Discovery Search

Academic Search Ultimate This link opens in a new window Academic Search Ultimate is a multidisciplinary database, including both peer-reviewed content and content from popular magazines and trade publications.
Business Source Ultimate This link opens in a new window Business Source Complete is the world's definitive scholarly business database, providing the leading collection of bibliographic and full text content. As part of the comprehensive coverage offered by this database, indexing and abstracts for the most important scholarly business journals back as far as 1886 are included. In addition, searchable cited references are provided for more than 1,300 journals.
Canadian Business and Current Affairs (CBCA) This link opens in a new window This database is a longstanding, comprehensive Canadian periodical collection covering multiple subjects and topics, with millions of full-text records. Accessible to readers and researchers at every level, the Canadian Business & Current Affairs Database features a diversified mix of publications, including scholarly journals, trade publications, magazines, reports, radio and television transcripts, news, dissertations, and more.
Canadian Periodicals Index Quarterly This link opens in a new window This database provides the most-requested Canadian reference information available. It includes more than 1,300 Canadian periodicals (more than 700 full text), a bilingual interface (English/French), indexing from 1980 forward, full-text articles from 1983 forward, The Globe and Mail, Maclean's weekly magazine, and even travel handbooks from Fodor's for Canadian destinations.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window JSTOR is a multidisciplinary collection of databases, including peer-reviewed content about various topics. YukonU has access to 15 JSTOR collections in the arts & sciences areas.

Medical databases

CINAHL This link opens in a new window CINAHL®Complete is the world’s most comprehensive source of full-text for nursing & allied health journals, providing full text for more than 1,300 journals indexed in CINAHL. This authoritative file contains full text for many of the most used journals in the CINAHL index, with no embargo. CINAHL®Complete is the definitive research tool for all areas of nursing & allied health literature.
MEDLINE with Full Text (Ebscohost) This link opens in a new window MEDLINE with Full Text provides the authoritative medical information on medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, the health care system, and pre-clinical sciences found on MEDLINE, plus the database provides full text for more than 1,470 journals indexed in MEDLINE. Of those, nearly 1,450 have cover-to-cover indexing in MEDLINE. And of those, 558 are not found with full text in any version of Academic Search, Health Source or Biomedical Reference Collection.
Medline from OVID This link opens in a new window Use more Medline search options with the OVID interface. Access articles in the fields of medicine, nursing, dentistry, and other health related fields, on a simple interface.
Evidence Based Medicine Reviews (Chochrane Library) This link opens in a new window Evidence-based medicine (EBM) articles are a important source of medical information based on actual treatments and methods. This database combines several of the most trusted EBM resources into a single, fully-searchable database. Includes reviews from Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Cochrane Clinical Answers, and Chochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials.

Health & Nursing guide
Includes information about MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) and how it can be used to find specific types of articles.