This step is about selecting the places where you search for literature. It’s important to be aware that different databases can contain different types of material and have different search functions. When choosing the right databases for your search, there are several factors to consider. By choosing the right places to search and exploring different types of databases and sources, you can increase your chances of finding relevant and reliable literature for your project or assignment.
3.1 Select one or more databases
3.3 Look at RUC’s database list (Database List A-Z)
When you are searching for literature, you need to select the places where you want to search. This could be through the library catalogue, a database, or a search engine. You should be aware that:
Databases can contain journal articles, reports, conference contributions, magazines, newspapers, and much more. Some databases contain books, but if you are specifically looking for books, it is better to use soeg.kb.dk.
When you are searching for literature, you should use Boolean operators (AND, OR), truncation, phrase search, etc. If you have a good search string, you can copy it into the search field. You can access the databases when you are at home by logging in with your single sign-on.
The Royal Danish Library’s library system, soeg.kb.dk, is a central database for academic research and study. With materials from the National Library, Aarhus University, IT-University, University of Copenhagen, and Roskilde University, soeg.kb.dk offers access to extensive collections of articles, books, databases, journals, images, manuscripts, and music.
We recommend starting your literature search on soeg.kb.dk. Here you can explore the university library’s physical and digital resources and dive into a world of knowledge and inspiration. Here you will find, among other things:
Books on open shelves
Student projects
In addition to soeg.kb.dk, it may be a good idea to search for articles in the databases that the library have access to. In the databases, you have more options to narrow down your search, making it more specific.
In the A-Z database list, you can search for databases by either subject area, field of study, or type. If you are unsure or working with an interdisciplinary topic, try one of the universal databases.
ProQuest Central is a large multidisciplinary database with access to more than 47 subject-specific bases. You can choose to search in all the databases at once or select a specific one depending on your topic. The database covers literature within the following subjects: Business, Science and Technology, Health and Medical, Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities, and News. You can find particularly useful search tips for ProQuest HERE.
EBSCOhost, like ProQuest Central, is a large multidisciplinary database where you also have the opportunity to search broadly in all databases at once, or to select some more subject-specific ones.
Scopus is a large multidisciplinary base with abstracts, citations, and some open-source full texts from peer-reviewed journals, trade journals, books, patents, and conference publications. Scopus is distinctive in their visual and graphic analysis tools that can give a good overview of your search results. Just press "Analyze results" when you have your list of results. With Scopus it's also possible to see how many times a given article has been cited.
Web of Science, like Scopus, is a citation database and contains over 170 million entries. Web of Science has a number of strong analysis tools that can give you an overview of articles and topics’ citations, active researchers, and relevant journals. However, there is also a lot of especially European research that is not indexed in Web of Science, and in this way, Scopus and Web of Science can supplement each other.
In the multidisciplinary bases ProQuest and EBSCOhost, you can search in all the bases they cover at once. This is also called a combined search. The advantage of a combined search is that in the initial stages of your literature search, you can get an overview of which bases best cover exactly your topic. At the same time, you also risk not missing relevant literature in a base that you might have chosen from if you had chosen some individual subject-specific databases from the start.
The disadvantage, on the other hand, is that your searches do not become as precise. You may risk getting very large numbers of search hits with a lot of irrelevant literature and you cannot utilize the individual bases’ special search fields and controlled subject words.
Try it out. It depends on your topic, which method is best for exactly what you are dealing with.
With Infomedia, you can find more than 75 million articles dating back to around 1990. Infomedia covers all Danish nationwide newspapers, regional and local daily newspapers, local weekly newspapers, trade journals and magazines, news agencies, web media, and radio and television broadcasts.
Mediestream contains more than a million broadcasts from The Royal Library’s unique collection of Danish radio and TV, cinema advertisements, and 35 million newspaper pages. The content in Mediestream represents a wide range of radio and TV broadcasts, including background-oriented programs, society and debate, educational programs, and information and culture. The commercials in Mediestream consist partly of cinema advertisements from the period 1907-1995 and partly of TV 2 commercials from the period 1988-2005.
Grey literature is unpublished, non-commercial literature produced by, for example, research institutes, think tanks, ministries, agencies, NGOs, and private organizations.
Grey literature can be a valuable resource in your research, as it can be part of the evidence base as an alternative source that can counter potential biases in the published literature. There are many different types of grey literature, including working papers, reports, analyses, political documents, dissertations, booklets, fact sheets, technical notes, standards, etc.
Remember that grey literature is not peer-reviewed and thus not always of the highest quality. It can be difficult to assess whether appropriate scientific methods have been used in the collection and processing of data. Grey literature can be published in varying formats and there may be bias in the form of financial interests from certain authoring organizations.
Google offers opportunities to search more controlled for grey literature. Use the advanced search restrictions below to focus your search.
Limit to file type:
Limit to specific website:
Limit to specific domain:
We do not recommend using Google or Google Scholar to search for scientific literature. Instead, use the resources RUC provides (soeg.kb.dk and different databases)
Google and Google Scholar searches are quick and seemingly effective, but they should not be the only search systems in your literature search.
Searches with Google are influenced by algorithms and show personalized and ranked content, controlled among other things by your search history, use of social media, and geographical location.
Often, Google provides quick and personal searches, but can miss significant material and create bias in your search. In addition, much academic and peer-reviewed material is hidden behind paywalls - which you have access to via RUC’s databases.