2e. Keeping Track of Your Search

Introduction

Searching is an iterative process. Throughout your thesis journey, you will likely come across new sources and keywords. Throughout your research process you should look back at your initial searches and update them if necessary to make sure you find new relevant articles. This can be as simple as adding new keywords to your initial query, searching in a new topic-specific database you found, or using snowballing techniques when you encounter highly relevant articles.

To do this effectively, you should document and expand your initial search and set up a search alert.

Step 1

Document and Update Your Search
Write down your search strategy and update if necessary throughout your research process

Step 2

Set up a Search Alert
Stay up to date with the latest research

Step 1: Document and Update Your Search

When you are searching for information, it is good to document your search so you can find back later exactly how you found the information you included in your papers. You can do this for example by filling out the Search Template, or any other format that works for you.

You should see your search plan as a starting point, because searching is an iterative process and as you read, select and do your research you may encounter new questions, terms and sources that are relevant for your project. As you go about reading and selecting sources, make it a habit to look for new terms and concepts. When relevant, add them to your initial search strategy to see if you can find new information related to your questions.

Step 2: Set Up a Search Alert

When you are working in a field with a lot of new developments, it can be helpful to set up a search alert to make sure you are aware of the latest research. If you set up alerts, you will automatically be notified of new search results, citations of a publication, a new table of content of a journal or news items, without having to repeat your search or return to the website to check for new information

Many databases provide alerting services for new publications. Use your search query to create alerts in your favourite databases. You will receive updates of the original search results without having to return to the database or repeat the search.

Types of alerts

Just like making a search plan it is good to take some time to set-up an alert plan. Figure out what kind of information you want to receive. This checklist helps you to decide what type of alerts you need.

Overview of Search Alert Types

	Search alert	Citation alert	Table of contents alert	News alert
Journal article	X	X
Conference proceeding paper	X	X
Journal			X
Website				X
Blog post				X
Newspaper article	X			X

When checking your alerts, get into the habit of immediately storing interesting new references in your reference manager database. You can learn more about reference managers in chapter 3d - Storing Sources.

Follow the guides from from TUlib to learn in more detail how to set up search alerts.