Strategies for developing your search strategy

If you have skimmed the pages of any textbook about writing a literature review you will probably have encountered a chapter about finding information such as books or journal articles and the authors are likely to have mentioned techniques such as PICO, SPICE, mind/concept maps, research frames or writing lists of key words. Choosing which technique to opt for can sometimes depend on the discipline you are studying, for example, PICO is a popular tool in Medicine and Health and SPICE is a common tool for social scientists.

The image below explains some of the key strategies you can use to help you devise a search strategy and includes links to templates and tools to guide you through the process.