Library Guides: Rapid Reviews: Handsearch

Rapid reviews & handsearching

Handsearching may or may not be undertaken as part of a rapid review.

Some reviews may only check references and not include more comprehensive handsearching activities.

Handsearch

Handsearching is a critical part of the review to find materials not found through traditional searches. It is a manual process to examine and identify further relevant studies and includes:

Perusing the pages of key journals, conferences and other sources
Checking reference lists of identified articles and documents

Why is it important?

Not all databases index items comprehensively. This may be because not all information is included in records or because not all content of the journal is indexed.
Searches may not be comprehensive enough or may not include relevant key terms.
Authors may not have described articles accurately with key terms used.
Allows more detailed scanning of key journals and other sources.
Some sources are not included in traditional databases.
Ensures that relevant studies are not overlooked.

For more information about handsearching see:

Cochrane Information Specialists' Handbook - Section 5. Handsearching
Includes what it is, who does it, where and what to search and what to do with the results.
Handsearching versus electronic searching to identify reports of randomized trials.
Hopewell, S., Clarke, M. J., Lefebvre, C., & Scherer, R. W. (2007). Handsearching versus electronic searching to identify reports of randomized trials. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2007(2), 1-41. doi:10.1002/14651858.MR000001.pub2

Checking references

Cited reference searching is part of the handsearching process

Check the reference lists of useful articles to find older articles relating to the topic.
Check citing articles to find more recent articles that cite useful articles to find more recent sources.

Databases for cited reference searching that have both these features include:

Scopus This link opens in a new window
Scopus is the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature and delivers a comprehensive overview of the world's research output in the fields of science, technology, medicine, social sciences, and arts and humanities.
Available to James Cook University users only.
Web of Science This link opens in a new window
Web of Science provides citation indexes spanning every discipline.
Available to James Cook University users only.
Google Scholar This link opens in a new window
Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources. Follow these instructions to see links to Library resources.

Finding review articles on similar topics will also be useful to find more relevant authors and papers

Check databases for limits to restrict results to 'reviews' using limiters such as publication type or document type.
Check the Advanced Search screen for limiting options.

Visualization tools for tracking citations and related research

Enter details for a paper and these tools will identify references, citations, similar works and researchers.

Research Rabbit
ResearchRabbit is a research platform that enables you to discover and visualize relevant literature and scholars, create alerts, share collections with colleagues and the world, and more!
Citation Gecko
Start from a small set of 'seed papers' that define an area you are interested. Gecko will search the citation network for connected papers allowing you to quickly identify important papers you may have missed.