Library news

Searching the literature systematically when doing reviews can strike terror into the hearts of experienced researchers. How do I know I have found everything out there? What if I get a million results? 

Never fear, the library is here to help! We are running a series of five 2 hour online workshops on searching for scoping, systematic and other types of reviews. They are for HDR candidates, supervisors, academics and professional staff from any discipline. They are designed to give hands on practice and experience with searching systematically for reviews. Tackle scary systematic searching with the library to lead you! 

Each workshop will use a flipped classroom, in which you will be expected to engage with Moodle content such as readings, videos and activities prior to the workshop. This will contain the relevant information, and the workshops will then focus on hands on practice, group activities and discussions that assume you have engaged with the Moodle content. Instructions for the activities will be made available the day of the workshop. You will receive an email with the link to self-enroll in the Moodle shell after registration. Set a good example for your students!   

Because of the practical nature of these workshops, they will not be recorded. They will be repeated at a later date.  

You can either register for the entire series, or individual workshops. Registrations will close one week before the scheduled time of each workshop to ensure you have time to engage with the Moodle content. 

The workshops are:  

1. Planning the search – Friday June 14, 12:30-2:30 

This online workshop is about planning a comprehensive, systematic search strategy for a review to ensure that all relevant articles are found. 

• Deciding what type of evidence is required and where to find it.
• Creating search concepts from the review question/topic/scenario 

2.  Developing the search – Friday June 21, 12:30-2:30 

This online workshop is about developing comprehensive search terms from the chosen search concepts.  

• Using known papers to identify relevant keywords.
• Finding subject headings for search concepts 

3. Putting together the search – Friday June 28, 12:30-2:30 

This online workshop is about correctly combining the search terms to ensure that all potentially relevant articles are found.  

• Combining search terms using advanced operators
• Using advanced operators in different databases 

4. Evaluating and adjusting the search - Friday July 5, 12:30-2:30 

This online workshop is about evaluating and testing the search strategy to make sure it will provide the expected results. 

• Testing the search strategy in databases 
• Correcting errors in the search strategy 
• Understanding the PRESS checklist (Peer Review of Electronic Search Strategies) 

5. Running and extending the comprehensive search – Friday July 12, 12:30-2:30 

This online workshop is about extending the search strategy to find additional results and grey literature.  

• Translating the search for different databases 
• Finding grey literature 
• Tracking the citations and references of included articles 

Register on the Research Training and Development calendar using your Federation email. For more information, please contact Erin Roga: e.roga@federation.edu.au