文献检索(document retrieval)是在科学研究，撰写论文时所必需的一种手段。

文献检索的概念有狭义和广义之分：

Document retrieval is defined as the matching of some stated user query against a set of free-text records. These records could be any type of mainly unstructured text, such as newspaper articles, real estate records or paragraphs in a manual. User queries can range from multi-sentence full descriptions of an information need to a few words.