Content last reviewed:
What is a Literature Review?
- SAGE Research Methods
- Conducting a Literature Review
- Am I the Only One Struggling to Write a Literature Review? (Sage Research Methods)
What are the Purposes of a Literature Review?
- situate your work in its discipline/area/subfield
- develop an understanding of how knowledge in your discipline/field/area has changed over time
- develop mastery of what's known in your area, and part of the larger discipline that contains it
- compare different conceptual or sub-disciplinary approaches to your topic
- compare and contrast different theoretical schools or leading researchers in your area
- identify methodologies that you might use in your work
Find missing citations, track references and find related articles
- Excellent step-by-step guide Using Web of Science for tracking citations
- Cited Reference Searching guide
Why is this important?
- keeping track of how often and where a publication is being cited can help you gauge the impact of that article
- if the article has been cited, you may find a link to the citing article/author
- to locate current research based on earlier research
- to find out how a particular research topic is being used to support other research
- to track the history of a research idea
- to track the research history of a researcher
- to determine how well your own published research is cited for promotion/tenure considerations
- don't forget to keep track of your searches! Literature Reviews: Keep Track (UBC)
Tips for effective searching
If you find one relevant article for your research it can lead to other relevant papers by the following:
- using the databases, including Omni, look to find all papers & books published by the author or co-authors
- explore the bibliography in the paper for sources
- using Web of Science or Scopus look for articles that cite the article you found. Remember, some databases will also list citing articles but those lists are limited to the current database. The Web of Science and Scopus are more comprehensive, with coverage from multiple databases.
- Remember to see if a citing article has itself been cited.
Refresh your skills - developing a good search strategy is important
Search strategies:
- Electric car AND subsid*
- Boolean operators must be all caps - AND/OR will narrow or expand your results
- quotes will keep the words together
- the * will look for alternate endings
- add AND Canada
- add filters:
- Add resources beyond Carleton's collection' to broaden your results
- Peer-reviewed journals
- Subjects … governments or energy policy or energy efficiency, etc.
- Publication date
Suggested reference resources:
- Sage Encyclopedia of Social Science Research Methods
- Qualitative research methods for the social sciences
- Sage dictionary of qualitative inquiry
Databases for finding academic literature
- OMNI (on the library's homepage)
- Use the Public Policy & Administration guide for finding databases and other resources
- Do not limit yourself to these: See Databases by Subject list
- Look at the Subject Guides that best relate to your topic. For example: Philanthropy, Health, Renewable Energy, Canadian Studies, Indigenous Policy, Business, etc.
Good to know:
- Search Alerts can be set once you're logged into Omni's My Library Account as well as in most databases. They can help researchers stay current with automatic e-mail alerts
- Can't find an item in our collection, you can request a print book or a digital article or chapter by searching the title or topic in OMNI or by logging into your library account and filling out this blank request form. Journal articles will be sent to you electronically. For more information please see Interlibrary Loans.
What is cited reference searching?
A simple and useful way of finding additional resources on your topic is to track citations backwards and forwards.
- Find a useful paper, check the reference list (these papers will have been published BEFORE your paper), AND
- Find a useful article and check who has cited it (these papers will have been published AFTER your paper).
Cited reference searching, or citation analysis, also called citation tracking, is a way of measuring the relative importance or impact or an author, article, or publication, by counting the number of times that author, article, or publication has been cited by other works.
There are a number of tools available; however, no single database covers all works that cite other works. Searching across several databases is necessary to ensure complete coverage.
Why is this important?
- keeping track of how many times and where a publication is begin cited can help you gage the impact that article has in your discipline
- if the article has been cited, the database will provide a link to the citing article/author
- to locate current research based on earlier research
- to find out how a particular research topic is being used to support other research
- to track the history of a research idea
- to track the research history of a researcher
OMNI
Use our main search tool, OMNI to do cited reference searching. Click on these icons 
to either "find sources cited in this" OR "find sources citing this".
Use our Cited Reference Searching page to find out which of the big databases allow you to do this and how to do this.
Journal Citation Reports
- Journal citation reports database
- Browse by category (theirs) - Public Admin - click on #journals number - looking at journal impact factor (a ratio of number of citations to total number of articles) - still more subjective, emerging title? Smaller audience? Other language?)
- Click on journal title …
- Trend, calculation, distribution, key indicators (immediacy factor = how quickly cited, without self-cites, Eigenfactor, etc.
- Contributions by country / organizations
Evaluating Journal Quality
- Ulrichsweb - Use this index to check that a journal is peer-reviewed
- Journal Citation Reports - Provides evaluation of journals by the impact factor within a given discipline
- ABDC Journal Quality List from the Australian Business Deans Council
- Cabells Predatory Reports
Government Policy Indigenous Foundations UBC
Contains overview and historical links to the Proclamation, Indian Act, Constitution Act, UNDRIP (under Global Indigenous Issues) and much more
Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples
Library and Archives Canada
Note: as of July 2019 Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada has been dissolved; the two new departments are:
Indigenous Services Canada (ISC)
"works collaboratively with partners to improve access to high quality services for First Nations, Inuit and Métis"
and: Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada
"to renew the nation-to-nation, Inuit-Crown, government-to-government relationship between Canada and First Nations, Inuit and Métis"
Indian Residential Schools
from the former Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada
Aboriginal Fisheries Fisheries and Oceans Canada
"Programs supporting Aboriginal fi sheries and funding for commercial fishing development and conservation"
INAN Standing Committee on Indigenous and Northern Affairs
House of Commons
Standing Committee on Aboriginal Peoples
Senate
Research Publications Library of Parliament Research
Find a Publication -> Select Topic: Indigenous affairs. Can limit to publication type e.g. background papers etc.
Ministries & Organizations
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Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada (Government of Canada)Includes: Indigenous peoples and communities; Treaties and agreements; Northern affairs and new Arctic and Northern Policy Framework; Recognition of Indigenous rights and self-determination discussions; New permanent bilateral mechanism; Delivering on Truth and Reconciliation Commission calls to action; Indian Residential Schools; Reconciliation; National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls
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Indigenous Services Canada (Government of Canada)Includes: Indian status and status cards; Indigenous health; Jordan's Principle; Education; Water in First Nations communities; First Nations housing; First Nations community infrastructure; Social programs; Establishing a new fiscal relationship; Emergency management
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Standing Committee on Aboriginal Peoples (Senate of Canada)Includes studies, bills, and reports of the committee.
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Standing Committee on Indigenous and Northern Affairs (House of Commons of Canada)Reviews, examines, and reports on issues affecting Aboriginal Canadians and northern communities.
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Ministry of Indigenous Relations and ReconciliationThis Ministry leads the B.C. Government in pursuing reconciliation with the First Nations and Indigenous peoples of British Columbia
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First Nations Negotiations (Ministry of Aboriginal Relations & Reconciliation, Province of British Columbia)General information about treaties, status of treaty negotiations under B.C. Treaty Commission process, and links to relevant pages and documents available from Ministry website.
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First Nation Profiles (Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada)Collection of information that describes individual First Nation communities across Canada. The profiles include general information on a First Nation along with more detailed information about its reserve(s), governance, federal funding, geography, registered population statistics and various Census statistics.
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Assembly of First NationsA deliberative assembly which is the national organization representing First Nations in Canada.
Grey literature is an important source of information for research in public policy that:
- adds a valuable global perspective
- provides detailed overviews on specific populations
- may be only source of local information
Grey literature is defined as "information produced on all levels of government, academics, business and industry in electronic and print formats not controlled by commercial publishing" ie. where publishing is not the primary activity of the producing body." —ICGL Luxembourg definition, 1997. Expanded in New York, 2004
Library resources
- Grey Literature Guide
- Omni (the Library's main search engine) (narrow results by resource type)
- Dissertations and Theses Global
- Google Scholar (change country, for example, to find international material)
- Canadian Business & Current Affairs
- Web of Science
- Business Source Complete (select publication type "Grey literature")
Resources
- GreyNet International (organizations in Grey Literature and repository)
Policy Reports and Working Papers
- Policy Commons
- Conference Board of Canada e-Library Covers areas of Economic Trends, Organizational Performance, and Public Policy.
- NBER (National Bureau of Economics Research) Working Papers
- Canadian Public Documents Collection
- Policy File Index Indexes research on U.S. public policy with content from public policy think tanks, university research programs, research organizations, etc.
- Find policy
Google custom searches for climate, economy, development, foreign policy, public policy, geographic pages and more.
- Alternative words to use instead of "policy": guideline, initiative, strategy, framework
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For the fullest information on government policy, it is often necessary to search across the full range of government publications.
- The Debates cover arguments for and against policies
- Statutes codify policies
- The Budget sets out fiscal policy
- The Public Accounts track the money spent to realize the policies
- Annual reports (of departments, of programs, on acts) track implementation of policies
- Statistics measure the impact of policies
- Audit reports evaluate policy effectiveness
- News releases announce new directions in policy
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Check the division of powers and responsibilities for different levels of government
Think Tanks
- Think Tanks guide
- Think Tank Search (Harvard University custom search)
- detailed subject guide from the Business School at the University of Alberta
Government Information
- Canadian federal government documents
News Sources
- Consult the News Guide for details of news sources
- Tips for searching newspaper databases.
For current Canadian newspapers/news
For historical Canadian & other newspapers
Dissertation databases
Dissertations and Theses Global
Dates covered: Indexing 1743 - present; Full text 1997 - present
For a full list of databases see: Theses and Dissertations
Suggested resources
- How to write a thesis by Umberto Eco
- Surviving Your Dissertation: A Comprehensive Guide to Content and Process
- Writing an annotated bibliography
- Write a book review (Queen's University)
Citation Help
- Citation Management online links to bibliographic management tools.
- Citing Your Sources general guide pointing to resources on all the main styles.
- Citing Data & Statistics
Visit the Scholarly Communications page for news and information on open access and Carleton University Open Access Policy.
Also explore:
- Writing for Publication
- Writing for Scholarly Journals
- Open Access Publishing This video gives an overview of open access publishing – what it is and how it works – and outlines the open access requirements created by the Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications.
- Curve An open access repository which holds academic research output and creative work voluntarily deposited by Carleton faculty, staff and students, as well as all dissertations and theses produced at Carleton
- Directory of Open Access Journals A multidisciplinary database of 5125 open access journals. Currently 2117 journals are searchable at the article level.
- Research Impact: Scholarly Communication @ Carleton University keep up to date on open access and scholarly communication activities at Carleton University and beyond.
