How do I know when to stop searching, or when I have enough results?
Answer
Good question, it can be tricky to know when to stop searching! There is no "perfect" number of results. Ask yourself these questions: have you found enough to satisfy the project or answer the question you are working on? Does your search include the most common synonyms for your concepts? Have you searched in the appropriate databases for your topic? Have you searched using subject headings that are relevant to your topic?
Consider looking at the references of any papers you do come across, to find additional literature. This is called backwards citation searching. You can also look at papers that have cited the paper(s) you found that are relevant - this is called forwards citation searching and it's easy to do in Scopus by searching for the title of the article you've already found. You can read more about citation relationships here.
Remember that there might not be a lot of literature on certain topics, but if you feel that you have exhausted your searching, it might be best to switch your focus to a different topic. Lastly, don't forget that your liaison librarians are here to help you with your searching! Find your liaison librarian here.