For Researchers: Literature review resources

Where to start? 

• Use Credo reference to get background information about the topic. This will also provide synonyms and key concepts on a specific topic 
• The above search box is a good place to start searching Libraries' multidisciplinary databases
• Develop a search strategy 

Theses and Dissertations

• Postgraduate students can browse through CPUT  Electronic Theses and Dissertations (CPUT ETD's) then
• Proceed to National Electronic Theses and Dissertation Portal   from South African universities 
• Go beyond and search Global ETD's  or  WorldCat Theses & Dissertations 

Databases

• Search across CPUT databases  for scholarly peer-reviewed articles or individual faculty databases and journals organised into core and multi-disciplinary subjects 
  • Learn search strategies and how to search library databases
  • Search and browse African Journals database previously known as South African electronic-Publications 
• To verify if we have access to journal articles use the journal search or ISSN to search by journal  title see example here
• Search ​Scopus - an Elsevier database, an accredited research, abstract and citation analysis tool that provides bibliometric data for university rankings  
• Using Sage research methods database, find resources to answer your research methods and statistics questions.  Browse and search methods used in the social and behavioral sciences, science, technology, medicine, and the humanities. Explore research methodology through books, dictionaries, encyclopaedias, handbooks, journal articles and videos 

Journals and articles

• Find academic/scholarly articles from peer-reviewed journals through library databases. To find out whether CPUT users have access to a specific journal or article, users can search by name or title of the journal, alternatively search by Journal ISSN. 
• To save time and for systematic searching it is recommended to search across all journals from all library databases using the library search page

Search and find existing research data from research data repositories

• CPUT Figshare and International
• CPUT MediaTUM
• Repository Finder
• Mendeley research data
• Google Dataset search

Search Open Access Databases and platforms

• Search for scholarly research in open access databases or platforms such as:  
• Zenodo https://zenodo.org/
• Unpaywall https://unpaywall.org/
• ScienceOpen https://www.scienceopen.com/
• List of Open Access databases (Vancouver Island University) https://libguides.viu.ca/db_open
• Listing of Open Access Databases http://www.loadb.org/
• Open Access Journals - Search and publish in high quality African open access journals hosted in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)  at https://doaj.org/. Researchers are encouraged to adhere to the publisher and DOAJ requirements and compliance.
• Books Access Books - See the Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB): https://www.doabooks.org/

• If you need help finding literature, make an appointment to see your Faculty Librarian. Your Faculty Librarian can guide you to the best resources in your field and give you many tips and tricks to make your life easier.
• It is easy to stay up-to-date if you use emails alerts or RSS feeds. Make an appointment with your Faculty Librarian to find out more.

Below is a selection of books on doing a literature review. You can find more by searching the Library search page. 

Remember: you can always get books from any other branches. Just ask at the Circulation Desk in your nearest library.