🥘Systematic Literature Review Guide

1. Select one or more databases

• Suggestions:

  • Scopus is the largest

  • Web of Science is the second largest

  • IEEE Xplore is useful for technical/engineering conference papers

• Database tutorials/guides:

  • Scopus

  • Web of Science

  • IEEE Xplore

2. Define a search string

• Use the advanced search option

• Use terms related to your research

• Use the same search string in all selected databases

• Refine your search using boolean operators and filtering by author, title, abstract, topic, year, language, area, keywords, etc.

• Advanced search guides:

  • Scopus

  • Web of Science

  • IEEE Xplore

3. Save your search

• Save your search and set to receive periodical updates to stay informed of the latest published articles

• Saving a search in different databases:

  • Scopus
  • Web of Science
  • IEEE Xplore

4. Export the references

• Save the references found in spreadsheet format (Excel or CSV)

• When exporting on Scopus (CSV), select "Citation information," "Bibliographical information," and "Abstract & Keywords"
• When exporting on Web of Science (Excel), select "Author, Title, Source, Abstract"
• When exporting on IEEE Xplore, select "Search results," and download the CSV file

5. Use a spreadsheet template

• Use a spreadsheet template to organize your findings

• Use the same template (such as the Scopus CSV file) to organize your references

• Update the data downloaded from other databases to match the template

6. Screen the results

• Organize your screening process using the spreadsheet template

• Do not delete the original results; keep different files for original and selected papers

• Screening order: title, abstract/keywords, full text

• Once the articles are selected by title and abstract/keywords, look for the full text

• The full text can be searched on the library website

• First, take a quick look at the papers (headings, pictures, tables, conclusions). If the paper is indeed interesting, read it more carefully

7. Download the selected papers

• Download only the selected papers, in PDF format

8. Read the articles

• After the screening process (title/abstract/keyword/full text), read all the selected papers

9. Use a reference manager

• Suggested reference manager: Mendeley
• Upload the selected papers in PDF format to Mendeley

• Mendeley auto-generates the references

• If any references are wrong/incomplete, you can edit them

10. Cite the papers

• Use a reference manager plug-in for Word to cite the papers as you write

• Suggestion: Mendeley Cite
• You can select the citation style you want in the plug-in

• The University of Galway suggests using the Harvard citation style

• Mendeley Cite also generates a bibliography section

11. Present your findings

• Use tables/plots to summarize your findings

• You can use analysis tools to present your results, such as VOSviewer, Excel pivot tables, and Excel pivot charts

12. Follow previous review papers

• Use previous review papers, such as Schulze et al. (2016), as guidance

source: Raquel Lima, 2022