Resource types

Before starting your literature review you need to understand different types of information sources, including databases and journals (also called periodical publications). You will need to think about what types of information are important to your subject discipline for your research. For example, historians may be looking at primary sources, such as letters, in an archive, but the literature review will use secondary sources, books and journal articles, to describe the topic they are researching and set the scene.

If you feel confident with this terminology, please move on to the next section on literature searching.

Click on the picture below for a playlist of videos covering books/eBooks, archives, journals (periodical publications), databases, visual resources, alternative sources, blogs and social media, Wikipedia. Each video is about 4 minutes long. You will need your university username and password; you do not need to connect your LinkedIn account.

Other types of information not covered in the videos are…

Dissertations/Theses

These are a significant element of the scholarly literature. A thesis is a piece of original work presenting a specific view as a result of scholarly research, usually as a requirement for an academic degree award. The work will review concepts, theories and previous research and present new, theoretical approaches and novel research undertaken. There may be related conference papers, and journal articles published by the researcher during the course of their work. Theses may eventually be published in the form of a monograph although, more often, they are accessible via Library catalogues or inter-library loan with access being restricted. Theses are increasingly available electronically in full text.

We have a subscription to ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global repository where you can search for previously completed theses. Select the Login button. You will need off-campus access connected at home.
Papers presented at conferences

These are usually brief and timely, are not peer reviewed, are highly current and may report on completed work and/or the most recent stages of on-going research. Conferences may be gatherings of academics, communities of practice, professional organisations or simply groups of people interested in the same broad theme from many perspectives. Conferences may be electronic, virtual events or real time face-to-face gatherings at specific venues. Papers may be distributed to conference delegates, published electronically on the conference website and/or published in print form.
Grey literature

Grey literature may include guidelines, policies, consumer information, theses, blogs. It is information published in the non-standard way by organisations, governments, universities, individuals, and not by traditional publishers making it more difficult to locate.

Please see this University of Exeter webpage describing grey literature.
Personal contacts

These will be expert practitioners and researchers in the field who may be known to you or whose details you have come across in your own explorations online. You may make contacts at conferences and seminars in which you participate. This is part of the process of contributing to the academic community of practice.
Primary sources

Primary sources include original work which is presented for the first time. The following are examples of primary sources: manuscripts, reports, interviews, surveys, records of observations and other data.

Please see our academic skills page for a more detailed explanation http://library.soton.ac.uk/sash/primary-research
Secondary resources

These materials summarise, review and report on original sources.

Please see the University of Southern California Glossary of Terms for further details.

The next section covers key information about conducting a literature search, including how to identify resources (databases) to use, creating a search strategy and introduces subject heading searches.

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