Finding research exclusively from the UK can be tricky. Many pieces of research do not state the country the study is based in. The UK also has several names, depending on which jurisdiction you are referring to.
Place names
You can try adding these search options to your keywords:
- ("united kingdom" OR uk OR britain OR england OR wales OR scotland)
You should add or remove country names to suit your topic or subject area.
Health students may find adding NHS to the search string focuses a search well, if relevant:
- ("united kingdom" OR uk OR britain OR england OR wales OR scotland OR nhs)
Keywords
Choose UK terminology where relevant: primary school rather than elementary school, or preschool rather than kindergarten for example.
Filters
Some databases have a location of practice filter, so you can choose an area:
Fig. 1: Search filter on CINAHL
None of these methods are perfect. Geographic filters often just return articles published in the UK. Keyword searches can find pieces that mention England only in passing, or sources with a .uk web address, even when the research itself isn’t actually focused on the UK. As with any search you will need read the results and select articles yourself.