Find what the research says. Find where it has not gone yet.
Learn to read the medical literature yourself. Even if science was never your subject.
Dr. Oroszi's SLR method, the same systematic literature review framework used in academic research, adapted by Ms. Ivy for first-time researchers. More about Dr. Oroszi →
Step 01 · Tell Ms. Ivy what you want to research
One or two sentences. Plain English. The more specific, the better the search architecture. Example: "I want to understand whether vitamin D supplementation actually helps prevent respiratory infections in older adults like my mother."
Your keyword architecture
Three building blocks that turn "I want to know about X" into a real systematic search.
Search combinations to run
Each combination targets a slice of the literature. Some will return many papers. Some will return zero. Zero results are data. They are research gaps, and we will surface them in Step 05.
Public databases, with the search built in
Click any database to run the search there. All four are free, government or non-profit, and the right places to find primary research.
Where the research has not gone yet for your situation
These are the research gaps Ms. Ivy flagged. They are why you should be careful about extrapolating findings to people who were not studied.
Active clinical trials on this topic
From clinicaltrials.gov, the US government registry. Recruiting or about to recruit. If a gap matters to your situation, an active trial may already be looking for participants like you.