# 1c. Exploring Academic Literature
## Introduction
Once you have done an initial orientation and have a preliminary information search question to work with, it is good to dive deeper into the academic literature to find some additional directions and shape your knowledge about the academic context surrounding your specific topic.
By doing an exploration of academic literature you can:
- Find new knowledge gaps
- Discover new disciplines connected to your topic
- Discover authors that are working on related research questions
- Uncover keywords that are used within your topic to use for a content search
Steps involved include first to create a good exploration question for an academic database, followed by analysing the top terms, authors and keywords used in your field.
::::{grid}
:gutter: 2
:::{grid-item-card} Step 1
[Create an Initial Exploration Strategy](#step-1-create-an-initial-exploration-strategy)
Formulate a question for your topic that is broad enough to search in a database
:::
:::{grid-item-card} Step 2
[Check Basic Information on Topic](#step-2-check-basic-information-on-your-topic)
Look at key statistics like top authors, journals, subject areas and keywords to learn more
:::
::::
## Step 1: Create an Initial Exploration Strategy
There are 4 steps involved in creating a good exploration strategy for an academic database:
**1: Use a broad question:**
When you want to explore academic literature, you should start off with a broad question. For example, if you have formulated a search question like:
- “How does inkless printing by optical technology influence the energy consumption of the printing industry?”
an exploration question should be on a broader level, like:
- "inkless printing"
- "inkless printing AND energy consumption"
**2: Choose a multidisciplinary academic database:**
Because in an exploration your goal is to look broadly at the different research that is being done on your topic, you should use a database that includes a wide variety of disciplines. For TU Delft students, the databases Dimensions and Scopus are a good starting point.
**3: Apply filters for articles, reviews, letters (and conference papers if relevant)**
**4: Try to aim for around 2000 to 10000 results:**
This number may seem like a lot, but remember: The goal of an exploration is not to read all the sources you find, but to get an overview of your topic.
Watch a guided research scenario on how to create a good question for an exploration:
"Setting up your Exploration" by TU Delft Library Education Support is licensed under CC-BY
_The video mentions that you should limit an exploration to articles, reviews and letters. If your field communicates a lot through conference papers, you should also include those in your exploration search._
## Step 2: Check Basic Information on Your Topic
Once you have formulated a broad question and are happy with the initial results of your exploration, you can use the analysis features of the academic databases Scopus or Dimensions to look up some helpful information about the context of your topic:
**1: Interest in the field**
Looking into the number of articles per year can give you an indication how much interest there is in a field. If a large number of articles are being published every year it suggests that a lot of scholars are working on it. It can also be helpful to look at the development over time. Surges or drops in the number of articles per year can suggest that the interest in a field might be increasing or declining.
**2: Research within your broader topic**
Subject areas, top journals and list of keywords indexed by the databases can give you some more information about what research is being done within your broader topic
**3: Synonyms and alternative terms for your content search**
The keywords lists provided by Scopus or Dimensions, or the first 20 abstracts of your exploration results sorted by relevance can provide you with synonyms and alternative terms that are commonly used within your topic of interest. Write these terms down somewhere, you will need them when you develop your keyword search (more about this in [Chapter 2b: Create a Keyword Search](2b-create-keyword-search.md)).
Watch a guided research scenario on how to interpret the results of an exploration
"Analyzing the Results from Your Exploration" by TU Delft Library Education Support is licensed under CC-BY
```{admonition} Expert Software for Exploring Scientific Literature
:class: dropdown tip
Do you want to do a more detailed mapping of academic literature? You could use the VOSviewer, a tool created by Leiden University. The VOSviewer is embedded in the Dimensions database, but also works as standalone software to which you can upload references. You can use the VOSviewer to make an overview of common terms that are mentioned in the academic literature for your topic or subject area.
```
## Practice
Practice with a research scenario to test if you know how to do an exploration:
"Exercise - Exploration" by TU Delft Library Education Support is licensed under CC-BY