HOW TO REVIEW THE LITERATURE AND CONDUCT ETHICAL STUDIESAll computerized searching methods share a sim-
ilar logic, but each has its own method of operation
to learn. In my study, I looked for sources in the
previous 7 years and used five computerized data-
bases of scholarly literature:Social Science Index,
CARL (Colorado Area Research Library), Sociofile,
Social Science Citation Index,and PsychLit.
Often you will locate the same article in several
source tool databases; however, if you use several
for your search, you will see that one has articles not
found in the others. A critical lesson is: “Do not rely
exclusively on computerized literature searches, on
abstracting services, [or] on the literature in a single
discipline, or on an arbitrarily defined time period”
(Bausell, 1994:24). For example, I discovered sev-
eral new excellent sources not in any databases by
studying the bibliographies of the most relevant
articles. My literature search process was fairly
typical. Based on my keyword search, I quickly
skimmed or scanned the titles or abstracts of more
than 200 sources. From these, I selected about
80 articles, reports, and books to read. I found about
49 of the 80 sources valuable, and they are included
in the bibliography of the published article.
Scholarly Books. Finding scholarly books on a
subject can be difficult. The subject topics of library
catalog systems are usually incomplete and too
broad to be useful. Moreover, they list only books
that are in a particular library system, although you
may be able to search other libraries for interlibrary
loan books. Libraries organize books by call num-
bers based on subject matter. Again, the subject
matter classifications may not reflect the subjects
of interest to you or all of the subjects discussed in
a book. Librarians can help you locate books from
other libraries. For example, the Library of Con-
gress National Union Cataloglists all books in the
U.S. Library of Congress. Librarians have access to
sources that list books at other libraries, or you can
use the Internet. There is no surefire way to locate
relevant books. Use multiple search methods, such
as checking journals that have book reviews and
the bibliographies of articles.
Dissertations. The publication Dissertation Ab-
stracts Internationallists most dissertations. Likethe indexes and abstracts for journal articles, it orga-
nizes dissertations by broad subject category,
author, and date. Researchers look up all titles in
the subject areas that include their topic of interest.
Unfortunately, after you have located the disserta-
tion title and abstract, you may find that obtaining
a copy of it takes time and involves added costs.
Government Documents. The “government doc-
uments” sections of libraries contain specialized
lists of these documents. A useful index for publi-
cations issued by the U.S. federal government is
the Monthly Catalog of Government Documents,
which is often available online. It has been issued
since 1885, but other supplemental sources should
be used for research into documents more than a
decade old. The catalog has an annual index, and
monthly issues have subject, title, and author
indexes. Indexes to Congressional Hearings,another
useful source, lists committees and subjects going
back to the late 1930s. The Congressional Record
contains debates of the U.S. Congress with syn-
opses of bills, voting records, and changes in bills.
United States Statuteslists each individual U.S.
federal law by year and subject. The Federal Reg-
ister,a daily publication of the U.S. government,
contains all rules, regulations, and announcements
of federal agencies. It has both monthly and annual
indexes. Other indexes include treaties, technical
announcements, and so forth. Other governments
have similar lists. For example, the British gov-
ernment’s Government Publications Indexlists
government publications issued during a year. Parl-
iamentary Paperslists official social and economic
studies going back 200 years. It is usually best to
rely on the expertise of librarians for assistance in
using these specialized indexes. The topics used by
index makers may not be the best ones for your spe-
cific research question.
Policy Reports and Presented Papers. Policy
reports and presented conference papers are diffi-
cult to locate. You may see them listed in the bibli-
ographies of published studies and in some source
tools. Often you must write to research centers and
ask for lists of their publications, obtain lists of
papers presented at professional meetings, and so