How to say (( nothing is published in this area ))

[Newchromatographer]

Hi folks .

I am trying to find an extraction method for my analyte using traditional solvent extraction but I didn't find .Then I waste lots of time developing method till reached the goal .

Ok . Now my question how you can say I searched the litreature but I could't find such things .Someone might ask did you search the whole universe to say that , I feel the question is logic but again to my best ability of search using ( google , web of knoweledge , scholar ) couldn't find such a thing .

Again how I can say confidently (( there is no published material on X while it is so difficult to search all the resources )) as an example look at this List of academic databases and search engines page :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ac ... ch_engines

I hope I could find one search engine can search in all of these so we can say surely all litreature published with their numbers .

I will be happy to read comments

[HbJ]

I was facing the same problem in the arts: I managed to find a topic for my thesis which was unheard of beforehand. After I found that no literature exists, I mailed some renowned experts for said philosopher.

They all confirmed that this aspect was never worked on before and I did send out some copies of my paper later

Bottom line is: Include your own findings (or lack thereof) plus some confirmation from experts in the field and you're good.

[Peter Apps]

'A literature search revealed no suitable method' should cover it. You could add where you searched.

I would note however that failure to find a published method is very often due to poor search technique, or looking in the wrong places - I note that you do not mention any of the specialist search engines such as Scopus or Ebsco.

Peter