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Conducting a Literature Review for an Assignment

A literature review involves gathering existing research on a particular topic. It typically provides the background on what is known so far on the issue you have chosen, and suggests areas for future research to fill in gaps. 

A literature review may be a stage in a larger research project, or a research project in and of itself.

A literature review is:

  • a synthesis or overview of the research on a particular topic
  • a critical analysis of the existing literature
  • a means to identify gaps in the existing research or areas of further study

A literature review is not:

  • A list of articles
  • An annotated bibliography

There are many different types of reviews. For this project, a narrative or traditional review is an appropriate fit. 

Examples of recent reviews

 

What is the purpose of a literature review?

Graphic titled What is the purpose of a literature review? Ideas highlighed in the graphic are :To find out what information already exists in your field of research, identify gaps in the literature, find other people working in your field, identify major seminal works, identify main methodologies and research techniques, identify main ideas, conclusions and theories and establish differences and similarities, provide a context for your own research, and show relationships between previous studies or theories.

Graphic by TUS Library MidlandsCC-BY-SA 4.0

1.Define your research question
  • You may need to some exploratory searching of the literature to get a sense of scope, to determine whether you need to narrow or broaden your focus
  • Identify databases that provide the most relevant sources, and identify relevant terms to add to your search strategy
  • Finalize your research question
2. Determine what you will include/exclude from your review
  • How far back in time will your search go? 
  • What types of sources will you include in your literature review? Are you interested in journal articles, books, dissertations/theses, and reports from non-profits or government agencies? This will largely depend on your discipline. 
  • Are you focused on finding a particular type of research study (e.g. you only are interested in finding randomized controlled trials)?
  • You may find the following worksheet helpful in defining the scope of your review. 
3. Choose databases and conduct the search
  • Conduct searches in the published literature via the identified databases. Depending on your topic, you may also want to search databases listed on other subject guides e.g. if your topic is exam stress and midwifery students, you might look at the databases listed on both the Midwifery and Education guides.
  • Examine the citations of on-point articles for keywords, authors, and previous research (via references). You can also use tools like Google Scholar or Scopus to see who has cited articles since their publication. This process, called citation chaining, is explained in more detail in the following videos (Part 1, Part 2).
  • Save your search results in a citation management tool such as Zotero or Mendeley
4. Synthesize the information gathered
  • Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of individual sources using the appropriate appraisal tool
  • Group your results in to an organizational structure that will support why your research needs to be done, or that provides the answer to your research question  
  • Develop your conclusions
5. Analyze the information gathered
  • Are there gaps in the literature - aspects of the topic where little or no research has been conducted or questions remain? One place to find references to gaps in the literature are in the discussion/conclusions sections of research articles, as authors are expected to identify areas for future research. 
  • Who has done significant research on the topic?
  • Is there consensus or debate on this topic?
  • Which methodological approaches work best for answering the research question?
6. Write the literature review
  • Pick an organizational structure, i.e., themes, approaches, concepts, methodologies.
  • Organize your citations and focus on your research question and pertinent studies
  • Compile your reference or works cited page

Content adapted from Steps in the Literature Review Process by University of Texas Libraries, CC-BY-NC-2.0

It is important to find a way to organize your ideas as you are reading articles. Some people find it helpful to create a synthesis matrix or concept map while they are reading to help them identify major themes and how different authors contribute to the theme.

Synthesis Matrix

The matrix method is one way of working on your literature review. to do their literature review more efficiently. 

Use a table in Word with a row for each of your sources. Develop columns based on key themes in your paper with room for more columns that emerge from your readings. When a source relates to one of the columns, note the key point in the box, and add a page number so you can find the point again quickly.

Topic: Pet ownership during COVID-19 and impact on owners and pets

  Jezierski et al., 2021a Jezierski et al., 2021b Philapou et al., 2021 Ikeuchi et al., 2021
Impact of pet on owners Cats reduce “psychological tensions” p. 8 Dogs positive impact on owner mental state p.5 Dogs and cats led to poorer quality of life, no impact stress/loneliness (p. 425) Pets reduced neg impact social isolation older adults (p. 7)
Impact on the pet Cat behaviour unchanged or positively impacted p.8 Dog behaviour unchanged or positive but more problems if in lockdown or no back yard  p. 6    
Impact of type of pet       Dog ownership more impact on loneliness than cat ownership (p. 6)

Additional Resources

 

Concept Mapping

Concept mapping is another way to visualize connections between sources during your literature review. 

PICO/PS refresher

Need a refresher on defining a research question using the PICO/PS tool? This short video might help.

Do mothers of low socioeconomic status experience lower rates of preterm birth under midwife led care than under physician led care? [If there isn't many studies specific to preterm birth, I may expand my question to include other neonatal or maternal outcomes as well]

P (Population) I (Intervention or Exposure) C (Comparison) O (Outcome)
Mothers of low socioeconomic Midwife led care Physician led care Lower rates of preterm birth

Possible search terms:

socioeconomic

socio-economic

economic

poverty

Possible search terms:

midwifery

midwives

Possible search terms:

physician

doctor

obstetrician

Possible search terms:

premature

preterm

 

What are the experiences of Indigenous women who receive midwifery care in Canada?

 

P (Population) S (Scenario)
Indigenous women in Canada Experiences of receiving midwifery care

Possible search terms:

Indigenous

Aboriginal

First Nations

Metis

Inuit

Possible search terms:

midwifery

midwives

 

How to make your searches better

1. Did you search more than one tool?

Pubmed/Medline is a good place to start, but you may also want to search CINAHL (where appropriate), Google Scholar, or the LibrarySearch to make sure that you have a good sense of what is out there. 

2. Did you include synonyms or alternative spellings in your search? 

Examples: labour/labor, gynaecology/gynecology, caesarean/cesarean

3.  Did you check to see what terminology the database itself uses to describe its articles?

In CINAHL, these tags or subject headings are called CINAHL headings. In Pubmed/Medline, they are called MeSH. PubMed automatically tries to map your search words to these headings,but you have to deliberately include the terms in other tools.

4.  Remember the asterisk * symbol can help you find different word endings

e.g. midwi*

Warning - It is best not to use the asterisk in PubMed, but it is okay to use in CINAHL, Medline, and LIbrarySearch.

How can I make my search more specific? A lot of the results are not relevant

1. Make sure you use the Boolean operator AND between all of the concepts the articles must talk about. The layout of the advanced search in Medline and CINAHL does this automatically between rows, and TRIP adds AND between the different rows in its PICO search behind the scenes. PubMed allows you to build a search with Boolean in the advanced search screen.

Example from PubMed

2. Limit your search to only those articles that have been specifically labeled with a subject heading. There are a few ways to do this in CINAHL and Medline.

Option 1 - Type the CINAHL heading or MeSH term in the advanced search box, and choose MW Word in Subject Heading or MH Exact Subject Heading from the drop down menu. If you do not select a field (e.g. with formula in the search below), it looks for the terms anywhere in the article record (e.g. the title, author, journal title, subject headings and abstract).

Option 2 - Locate the link to CINAHL headings or MeSH in Medline in the database. Search for your term, determine if there is an appropriate subject heading, check off the box next to the heading, and click search database using the green box on the right hand side of your screen. Remember, there isn’t a subject heading for every idea in the database, especially if it is very new. It is also an American tool, so that impacts the terminology it uses.

You can then add other terms to your search using the advanced search (see the example below).

Or you can search each idea separately, and then combine individual searches in the search history – not necessary, but an option.

Overview of available resources to support your literature review

Additional resources on searching CINAHL, Medline and PubMed

For tips on searching PubMed, check out the following tutorials

The following video talks about using the subject headings in CINAHL and Medline in your search.

Don't forget to check who they are citing or who is citing them!

The Cited By feature in Google Scholar allows you to see what studies have included a particular article in their reference lists. This is an excellent way to see how the conversation around your topic is unfolding in the literature.

Need help organizing the resources you find?

Mendeley and Zotero are free online tools that can help you organize and cite your resources. Both are available for Windows and Mac computers.

For a chart comparing the two tools, check out our undergraduate research guide.

The following documents walk you through installing them on your computer

 

 

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