Digital capability is increasingly recognized as essential within social work, extending beyond communication technologies and digital service delivery to include the ability to locate, evaluate, and synthesize research evidence. This paper presents a methodological reflection on systematic searching through a completed scoping review examining clinicians’ perspectives on immersive virtual reality in mental health settings. Drawing on the Joanna Briggs Institute framework, the paper explores interdisciplinary evidence retrieval, database selection, search strategy, screening management, and database performance. Consistent with previous methodological studies, findings suggest that database effectiveness is shaped by the interdisciplinary nature of the topic. Particular attention is given to sensitivity, precision, screening burden, and the retrieval of unique studies across databases. Substantial variation in database performance was identified. Scopus proved indispensable for broad interdisciplinary retrieval, identifying all included studies and most unique records, but generated a considerable screening burden due to low precision. More specialized databases demonstrated greater efficiency but contributed fewer unique studies. The paper conceptualizes systematic searching as an iterative and reflexive methodological practice shaped by database infrastructures, conceptual ambiguity, and researcher judgement. It highlights the importance of evidence literacy and digital capability, establishing systematic searching as central to rigorous, transparent, and critically informed social work research.