It's important to make a considered decision as to where to search for your review of the literature. It's uncommon for a disciplinary area to be covered by a single publisher, so searching a single publisher platform or database is unlikely to give you sufficient coverage of studies for a review. A good quality review involves searching a number of databases individually.
The most common method is to search a combination of large inter-disciplinary databases such as Scopus & Web of Science Core Collection, and some subject-specific databases (such as PsycInfo or EconLit etc.). The Library databases are an excellent place to start for sources of peer-reviewed journal articles.
Depending on disciplinary expectations, or the topic of your review, you may also need to consider sources or search methods other than database searching. There is general information below on searching other sources, however you may need to spend some time investigating sources relevant for your specific need.
Grey literature is information which has been produced outside of traditional publishing channels (where the main purpose of the producing body is not commercial publishing). One example may be Government publications.
Grey literature may be included in a literature review to minimise publication bias. The quality of grey literature can vary greatly - some may be reviewed whereas some may not have been through a traditional editorial process.
See the Grey Literature guide for further information on finding and evaluating grey sources.
AI tools can be useful in the scoping stages of a review to develop a sample set (or 'gold set') of relevant papers and to explore connections between published research. Please ensure your use complies with all relevant Monash policies for using Generative AI in assessment and research, especially the ethical, intellectual property and privacy considerations.
In addition to those considerations, when evaluating AI tools for literature searching ask yourself:
NOTE: The use of Generative AI in systematic and systematic-like reviews for literature searching and other stages of the review process is rapidly evolving. An international consensus on methodological standards and best practices is still emerging, with ongoing discussions about transparency and reproducibility. Researchers should document AI tool usage thoroughly and follow university and publisher guidelines.
In certain disciplines (such as physics) there can be a culture of preprints being made available prior to submissions to journals. There has also been a noticeable rise in preprints in medical and health areas in the wake of Covid-19.
If preprints are relevant for you, you can search preprint servers directly. Another option is to utilise a search engine such as Google Scholar to search specifically for preprints, as Google Scholar has timely coverage of most preprint servers including ArXiv, RePec, SSRN, BioRxiv, and MedRxiv.
Articles in Press are not preprints, but are accepted manuscripts that are not yet formally published. Articles in Press have been made available as an early access online version of a paper that may not yet have received its final formatting or an allocation of a volume/issue number. As well as being available on a journal's website, Articles in Press are available in databases such as Scopus and Web of Science, and so (unlike preprints) don't necessarily require a separate search.
Conference papers are typically published in conference proceedings (the collection of papers presented at a conference), and may be found on an organisation or Society's website, as a journal, or as a special issue of journal.
In certain disciplines (such as computer science), conference papers may be highly regarded as a form of scholarly communication; the conferences are highly selective, the papers are generally peer reviewed, and papers are published in proceedings affiliated with high-quality publishing houses.
Conference papers may be indexed in a range of scholarly databases. If you only want to see conference papers, database limits can be used to filter results, or try a specific index such as the examples below:
Honours students and postgraduates may request an Interlibrary Loan of a conference paper. However, conference paper requests may take longer than traditional article requests as they can be difficult to locate; they may have been only supplied to attendees or not formally published. Sometimes only the abstract is available.
If you are specifically looking for statistical data, try searching for the keyword statistics in a Google Advanced Search and limiting by a relevant site or domain. Below are some examples of sites, or you can try a domain such as .gov for government websites.
Statistical data can be found in the following selected sources:
For a list of databases that include statistics see: Databases by Subject: Statistics.
If you are specifically looking for information found in newspapers, the library has a large collection of Australian and overseas newspapers, both current and historical.
See the newspapers webpage, or the Newspapers subject guide for comprehensive information on newspaper sources, as well as searching tips, online videos and more.
The Theses subject guide provides resources and guidelines for locating and accessing theses (dissertations) produced by Monash University as well as other universities in Australia and internationally.