Exploring your topic
Exploratory searching is essential for understanding the existing literature related to your review topic. This early searching can prevent you from duplicating existing work, help you identify gaps in the current knowledge, and refine the focus of your review.
As you search, you'll read widely to deepen your understanding of your topic and discover the different terms authors use to describe it. This will help you build a strong list of keywords and identify key articles for your 'gold set', setting a solid foundation for your systematic search.
What is a gold set?
A 'gold set' is a group of articles that you expect to see included in your final review. These are studies that directly align with your research question or topic. You might have already come across some of these articles, or your supervisor and research team may suggest some to start with.
Selecting these key articles is an important first step in your systematic review. As you continue refining your search strategy, you can add more articles to your gold set. This helps ensure that your search is capturing all relevant literature.
What are gold set articles used for?
- Identify important authors, keywords, and subject headings to guide your search strategy.
- Discover more relevant articles through snowball or citation searching.
- Test the effectiveness of your search strategy during the troubleshooting stage. by checking if your gold set articles appear in the results of your final searches.
How do gold set articles help your search?
- Strengthen your search strategy by testing its comprehensiveness with a well-rounded gold set.
- The more relevant your gold set, the better your search results will be.
- Building your search upon a diverse gold set enables you to find a broad range of relevant literature.
Your Task
Start by reviewing the information on this page. Then, follow these steps to explore your topic:
Check for existing reviews on your topic
Finding existing reviews related to your topic can help guide your own review process:
- If a similar review was published recently, consider refining or reframing your research question.
- If you discover an older review on your topic, you might decide to update it or reach out to the authors to see if they plan to do so.
- Reviews with similar themes can help you uncover key information and build your list of keywords.
For more tips on finding existing reviews, see our Systematic and Systematic-like Review Toolkit.
Where to explore your topic
Looking for relevant research on your topic will help you plan and build an effective search strategy.
Expand the sections below to access tools for finding relevant articles and learn which search techniques are applicable.
Google Scholar
Searching Google Scholar
Google Scholar is a valuable tool for finding articles that are too new or otherwise not indexed in your chosen databases. Copy and paste the main themes from your topic into the search box and explore the first page of results. You can also do a search that limits results to the last two years so that you can make sure you've captured the latest publications.
What search techniques can be applied in Google Scholar?
- Alternative keywords
- Boolean operators
- Phrase searching
- Parentheses
How to search in Google Scholar?
- Run a search using the main themes from your research question.
- Scan the titles and abstracts in the results and save any articles that are relevant.
- Run a series of searches to see different results. Do this by adjusting themes you've entered and checking the results each time. Try using synonyms, switching the order of words, or adding and removing themes.
- To find existing reviews, add "systematic review" to your search.
NOTE: Google can only find the words you input, it won’t find alternative keywords for you, so you have to try lots of different combinations.
Deakin Library Search
Searching Deakin Library
Deakin Library Search is a great starting point to locate a range of resources, including academic articles and systematic reviews that are held in our collection.
What search techniques can be applied in Deakin Library Search?
- Alternative keywords
- Boolean operators
- Truncation
- Phrase searching
- Proximity searching
How to search in Deakin Library search?
- Run a search using the main themes from your research question.
- Scan the titles and abstracts in the results and save any articles that are relevant.
- Run a series of searches to see different results. Do this by adjusting themes you've entered and checking the results each time. Try using synonyms, or adding and removing themes.
- To find existing reviews, add "systematic review" to your search.
Citation Databases
Searching citation databases
The most recommended citation databases to use are Scopus and Web of Science. Searching citation databases is helpful to find additional relevant articles. Citation databases can:
- Find resources mentioned from an article's reference list
- Find resources that have cited the article
- Find other resources that were published by an article’s author/s
What search techniques can be applied in Citation databases?
- Key concepts
- Phrase searching
How to search in Citation databases?
- Copy and paste the titles of relevant articles into the search bar
- Run the search in Scopus, one title at a time
- Locate the relevant article
- View the articles from the reference list
- View other material published by the article’s authors
- View newer articles that have cited this article
- Focus on articles which include all your key concepts
Check out the video (4:58) below to see how to perform a search in the citation database Scopus.
Tip
If you are going to use Google Scholar in your searching, please follow our instructions to Connect your Google Scholar with Deakin Library. This will allow the Find it @ Deakin button to appear in your search results so you can go directly to the article full-text (PDF).
Collecting your gold set articles
Now that you’ve identified some gold set articles, it's time to organise your findings in a Summary Literature Table. This table will give you a clear and organised view of the key details from your gold set articles, helping you spot patterns and discover more keywords.
Download the Summary Literature Table template and enter the information from each gold set article into the relevant categories.
The second page of the table can be used to keep track of your findings as you review the literature. This includes summarising the main objectives, methods used, key results, and any other important details that help you understand each article's contribution to your research.
Analysing the gold set for keywords
To analyse your gold set for keywords, follow these steps in your Summary Literature Table:
- Identify concepts
List the main ideas or themes of your research question and assign each of these concepts a highlight colour.
- Highlight similar words
For each concept, highlight synonyms and related terms found in the title and abstract of your gold set articles. You may use these words as search terms when you start planning your search.
- Identify additional information
Record other useful details such as subject headings, prominent authors, or any other relevant information from the article records in the databases.
Example gold set analysis
Topic: Examining the effects of helicopter parenting on the development of college-aged individuals
Concepts: Helicopter parenting, college-aged individuals
| Title | Helicopter Parenting and the Mental Health of iGen College Students | Authoritative parenting and college students' academic adjustment and success | Black hawk down?: Establishing helicopter parenting as a distinct construct from other forms of parental control during emerging adulthood |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Sample | Helicopter parenting is a type of over-parenting in which parents hover over their college students, ready to intervene at a moment's notice to protect and micromanage their emerging adult's personal and academic life. Constant monitoring by parents may have a negative impact on mental health by decreasing a sense of independence and self-efficacy. Current traditional undergraduate students comprise the cohort of youth in the iGen generation. With the advent of smartphones, parents' surveillance adds to the "culture of safetyism" that predominates on college campuses, leading to mental health issues such as anxiety, depression, and eating disorders. Psychiatric-mental health nurses need to be aware of the effects of helicopter parenting on the development of college students and encourage youth to engage in challenging educational and social activities that promote autonomy and independence. | This study examined connections between college students' adjustment and success and characteristics of their relationships with their parents. A sample of 236 students completed the Student Attitudes and Perceptions Survey, a 135-item anonymous self-report instrument. Students' grades, confidence level, persistence, task involvement, and rapport with their teachers were generally predicted by both current and childhood levels of parental autonomy granting, demandingness, and supportiveness. Ratings of parenting characteristics were equally predictive of adjustment and success among students living with their parents and those living on their own. They were somewhat less predictive of seniors' adjustment and success than they were for freshmen, sophomores, and juniors. These findings suggest that parenting style continues to play an important role in the academic lives of college students. (APA PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved) | The purpose of the current study was to establish a measure of helicopter parenting that was distinct from other forms of parental control, and to examine parental and behavioral correlates of helicopter parenting. Participants included 438 undergraduate students from four universities in the United States (Mage = 19.65, SD = 2.00, range = 18–29; 320 women, 118 men), and at least one of their parents. Analyses revealed that helicopter parenting loaded on a separate factor from both behavioral and psychological control, and that helicopter parenting was positively associated with behavioral and psychological control, but not at levels suggesting complete overlap. Results also revealed that helicopter parenting was positively associated with parental involvement and with other positive aspects of the parent–child relationship; but negatively associated with parental autonomy granting and school engagement. Discussion focuses on the implications of helicopter parenting for healthy development during emerging adulthood. |
| Citation | Wieland, D. M., & Kucirka, B. G. (2020). Helicopter parenting and the mental health of iGen college students. Journal of Psychosocial Nursing and Mental Health Services, 58(5), 16–22. | Strage, A., & Brandt, T. S. (1999). Authoritative parenting and college students' academic adjustment and success. Journal of Educational Psychology, 91(1), 146. |
Padilla-Walker, L. M., & Nelson, L. J. (2012). Black hawk down?: Establishing helicopter parenting as a distinct construct from other forms of parental control during emerging adulthood. Journal of Adolescence, 35(5), 1177-1190. |
| Database |
Medline, APA PsycINFO |
APA PsycINFO | Medline, APA PsycINFO |
| PMID | 31846046 | N/A | 22503075 |
How your gold set benefits your search strategy
Creating and analysing a gold set helps you understand the vocabulary and literature related to your topic. This insight gives you a strong foundation for developing a clear and comprehensive search strategy.
See the below example of concepts and terms, where highlighted terms are newly added from the gold set analysis.
| Concepts | Alternative words/synonyms |
|---|---|
| Helicopter parenting | "helicopter parent*" "parental control" "parental relationship" "parental autonomy" "parent* surveillance" "over parenting" overparenting |
| College-aged individuals | "university student*" "tertiary student*" youth* "college student*" undergraduate* "young adult*" "emerging adult*" |