3c. Select Academic Literature

Introduction

When conducting a search in academic databases, you might end up with a large amount of sources to select from. While a good content search might provide you with 200 - 300 academic articles to evaluate, you will likely not want to use all those articles in your master thesis. Moreover, you want to keep an overview of what you have selected and why. On this page walk through the process step-by-step. Keep in mind the ways for evaluating reliability and relevance as you go through this process

THESIS SUPERVISOR

The amount of academic sources that you can find will differ for each academic field. The workflow in this chapter is especially relevant if you are working on a topic with a lot of publications, and you should check with your supervisor how many sources you are expected to find and select in your specific situation.

Now that you have done your initial search, analysed and refined your search results, it is time to select articles that you will read for your master thesis.

You can watch a short video recap and see a research scenario here below:

“Selecting Resources” by TU Delft Library Education Support is licensed under CC-BY

Step 1

Broad Filtering
Select by reading titles and abstracts

Step 2

Categorise and Collect
Categorise and collect the sources you want to use during your master thesis

Step 1: Broad filtering of results

When selecting from a stack of papers, you should focus on the titles and abstracts.

Selection often happens in two steps; first, you do a a broad filtering of your results by checking the titles and discarding the sources that do not seem relevant for your project or have questionable reliability. When in doubt, you can check the abstracts.

Once you have done an initial “weeding” of your search results, you can then read the abstracts in more detail. Here also pay attention to the reliability of your source, do you trust the authors and affiliations?

Software for when dealing with a large amount of papers

Do you have a large amount of articles to go through? You might be helped using specific software to support you. ASReview is a tool from Utrecht University that uses AI to support your selection process while keeping you in control. You can find more information on how to install ASreview in the ASReview Lab Guide

Step 2: Categorise and Collect Sources

Before you select something to read, make sure you know what you would like to use it for! Will you use it in the methods section of your thesis? Is it a case study that can provide some additional background for your introduction?

When selecting a source, create a tag that explains what you want to use it for so you keep an overview.

THESIS SUPERVISOR

Once you have created an initial list of sources you want to study further, this is a great time to share them with your supervisor and discuss whether your search is on track.

Practice with a Research Scenario

Use the research-based scenario below to practice more with the skills discussed in this chapter

"3b - Practice - Select Academic Literature" by TU Delft Library Education Support is licensed under CC-BY