BME 701: Writing a Review Article for Biomedical Engineering Research

Determining Your Search Criteria

Figure out what you need prior to starting your search to ensure the most efficient use of your time.

Inclusion/exclusion

• Time frame

• Language

• Source type and focus

  • Articles? Books? Only peer-reviewed? Review articles? Grey literature?

Assemble a list of keywords

• Reduce your research question to terms and concepts

• Start broad, get narrower as keywords develop

• Keep track of what searches work and what don’t

Next, decide where to do your research:

1. Literature overview

   • Citation indexes: Web of Science and Scopus; PubMed

2. Full text; journals:

   • Publisher databases: ScienceDirect, SpringerLink, Wiley Online Library, etc.

Gray Literature

The general term for information sources disseminated outside of the scholarly publishing process by non-publishers.

Sources considered gray — data collected by a federal agency, or a technical report by a professional association, for example — are certainly edited in some way but do not go through peer review, so while they are published documents, they are not considered scholarly articles.

Types of gray literature

• Hard to find studies, reports, or dissertations
• Governmental or private sector research
• Clinical trials - ongoing or unpublished
• Conference proceedings can sometimes be considered gray literature, depending on their editorial process

Further Reading

Gray Literature: Sources

National

GENERAL

BIOMEDICAL

International