Literature Search Services

The W.K Kellogg Health Sciences Library supports faculty and student research through consultation and reference services, as well as teaching and learning opportunities through workshops and seminars on effective literature search techniques.

Library subject specialists offer advanced support for researchers and faculty conducting various types of literature reviews.  This policy outlines services offered to both internal and external researchers interested in this type of specialized support.

Types of Literature Reviews

  • Literature Review (also called summary or narrative review)
    A description of prior research without a systematic search and selection strategy or critical appraisal of the studies’ merits. These sorts of review are often done in support of information queries generated by academic assignments.
  • Comprehensive Literature Reviews (include scoping, systematics, meta-analysis reviews etc)
    • Scoping Review: documents what is already known which helps refine a research question, concepts and theories.
    • Systematic Review: attempts to collate all empirical evidence that fits pre-specified eligibility criteria in order to answer a specific research question.
    • Meta-analysis Review: same as a systematic review but the analysis uses statistical methods to summarize the results of selected independent studies.

Details of the Literature Search Service (including pricing). [pdf]
W.K. Kellogg Literature Search Request Form [pdf]
W.K. Kellogg Literature Search Request Form [Word]

Document delivery for regional health professionals

The Dalhousie libraries extend document delivery privileges to Atlantic Regional Health Professionals  who are not Dalhousie faculty, staff or students and who do not have access to a local hospital library's interlibrary loan service.