First, define your research need. This involves identifying what types of information you need (research articles? Data? Policy documents?) and what question(s) you need to answer.
Different types of information can be found in different sources and you may need to adapt your search strategy to find them. Make a note at this stage if you need to find information that may not be available in books and journal articles. We will look at different places you will find these later in this guide.
Re-phrasing your topic into a single sentence or answerable question will make it easier to conduct a literature search. Depending on your topic you may need to create multiple questions. Try and make your question(s) as specific as possible.
An example would be changing the topic 'nutrition and cystic fibrosis' to 'What evidence is there for the use of parenteral nutrition for people with cystic fibrosis?".