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REA Toolkit

How to do an REA

Search strategy - begin searching

Once you have defined your search strategy the next stage of the REA is to start searching for relevant literature. Many REAs will do these two processes iteratively; developing a search strategy and then refining it as they search depending on the quantity and relevance of studies found.

Where can you search?

The chart below lists the different sources that are available for searching as part of REAs. The three categories of sources: Electronic, print and ‘grey’ literature can all form part of an REA but concessions may have to be made in order to meet the timescales – see ‘How will it be rapid?’.

Different sources available for searching as part of REAs

Search strategy - how will it be rapid?