Search wide, dig deep: literature searching for qualitative research. An analysis of the publication formats and information sources used for four systematic reviews in public health Claire Stansfield, * Ginny Brunton and Rebecca Rees Background: When literature searching for systematic reviews, it is good practice to search widely across different information sources. Little is known about the contributions of different publication formats (e.g. journal article and book chapter) and sources, especially for studies of people’s views. Method: Studies from four reviews spanning three public health areas (active transport, motherhood and obesity) were analysed in terms of publication formats and the information sources they were identified from. They comprised of 229 studies exploring people’s perceptions, beliefs and experiences (‘views studies’) and were largely qualitative. Results: Although most (61%) research studies were published within journals, nearly a third (29%) were published as research reports and 5% were published in books. The remainder consisted of theses, conference papers and raw datasets. Two-thirds of studies (66%) were located in a total of 19 bibliographic databases, and 15 databases provided studies that were not identified elsewhere. PubMed was a good source for all reviews. Supplementary information sources were important for identifying studies in all publication formats. Conclusions: Undertaking sensitive searches across a range of information sources is essential for locating views studies in all publication formats. We discuss some benefits and challenges of utilising different information sources. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Keywords: information retrieval; qualitative research; publication format; bibliographic databases; information sources; public health 1. Background A key stage in undertaking systematic reviews is objectively identifying research upon which to base an analysis. This process is informed by several factors including knowledge of how research is published (e.g. as a journal article or book chapter) and the media used to identify research, such as different bibliographic databases or websites. Although key skills in information literacy for research include an awareness of the types, characteristics and formats of information within an area of research (Bent et al., 2012), there are challenges in locating research within the field of public health, particularly when looking for studies of people’s experiences, opinions and understandings about health issues (‘views studies’). Systematic reviews of people’s perspectives can play an important role in informing policymaking on health interventions. Such reviews tend to incorporate qualitative data, obtained via open-ended questions, although views data can also be quantitative in form, for example when participants select from a choice of predetermined EPPI-Centre, Social Science Research Unit, Institute of Education, University of London, London, U.K. *Correspondence to: Claire Stansfield, EPPI-Centre, Social Science Research Unit, Institute of Education, University of London, London, U.K. E-mail: c.stansfield@ioe.ac.uk Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Res. Syn. Meth. 2014, 5 142–151 Original Article Received 22 April 2013, Revised 5 August 2013, Accepted 16 September 2013 Published online 25 October 2013 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/jrsm.1100 142