ABSTRACT
Most original reporting of empirical research appears as articles published in scholarly journals, and journals are most easily found in databases. Databases are curated to a specific set of sources, such as a group of journals, but sometimes contain other items such as newspaper articles, book abstracts, or government documents. For more information on accessing electronic databases or searching for articles to include in a literature review, consult a college reference librarian. Locating literature electronically requires both technique and technical knowledge. The main technique to develop is the ability to identify the right databases and search terms or combinations of terms in order to find the most relevant literature. While databases are ultimately needed, a literature search can be started using a search engine such as Google Scholar. Abstracts appear at the beginning of articles and offer a very short, 50- to 300-word summary of the article's contents: the research question, what information was collected, and the key findings.
