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Introduction to Systematic Literature Review.pptx
- 1. LITERATURE REVIEW JACK SMITH LISTER HILL LIBRARY JSMITH@UAB.EDU
- 2. LITERATURE REVIEW Congratulations!! You have been assigned a literature review. •What is that exactly?
- 3. A LITERATURE REVIEW IS… A paper that summarizes and discusses what has been previously published on a topic. It explores the past research and it’s strengths and weaknesses. It surveys scholarly articles, books and other sources relevant to a particular issue, area of research or theory.
- 4. WHAT IT IS NOT… A book review An annotated bibliography A literary review
- 5. TYPES OF REVIEWS - OBJECTIVE Integrative Review of Research Theoretical Review Methodological Review Thematic Review State-of-the-Art Review Historical Review Comparison of two Review Complement Perspectives Review
- 6. WHY A LIT REVIEW IS IMPORTANT Borg and Gall (1989) state, “Although the importance of a thorough review of the literature is obvious to everyone, this task is more frequently slighted than any other phase of research… Often the insights gained through the review will save as much time in conducting the research as the review itself required.”
- 7. WHY DO A LIT REVIEW? 1. Because you need the review for your paper 2. For the introduction (and discussion) section(s) of a research paper, masters theses or dissertation 3. To embark on a new area of research 4. For a research proposal
- 8. WHY AM I DOING THIS?? To carry on from where others have already reached (reviewing the field allows you to build on the platform of existing knowledge and ideas) To increase your breadth of knowledge of your subject area To identify seminal works in your area To provide the intellectual context for your own work, enabling you to position your project relative to other work We do literature reviews because we are scholars. Each paper contributes to the information we know about the topic.
- 9. WHY AM I DOING THIS?? • To avoid reinventing the wheel – at the very least this will save time and it can stop you from making the same mistakes as others. • To identify opposing views • To put your work into perspective • To demonstrate that you can access previous work in an area • To identify information and ideas that may be relevant to your topic or project • To identify methods that could be relevant to your topic or project
- 10. A LIT REVIEW WILL HELP YOU… 1. Determine if proposed research is actually needed 2. Narrow down a problem 3. Generate hypotheses or questions for further studies
- 11. HOW WILL IT HELP ME? It will give you… 1. Background knowledge of the field of inquiry/study 2. Knowledge of the methodologies common to the field and a feeling for their usefulness and appropriateness in various settings.
- 12. YOUR GOAL IS… To include major discoveries on this topic Place each work in the context of its contribution to the understanding of the subject under review Describe the relationship of each work to the others under consideration To find out if there are disagreements in the field or if everyone is in consensus. Resolve conflicts among seemingly contradictory previous studies To examine if the area been explored fully? Are there gaps in the research To identify who the “major players” or authors are on this topic To place your own research in the context of existing literature
- 13. STAGES OF A LIT REVIEW 1. Problem formulation 2. Literature Search 3. Data Evaluation 4. Analysis and interpretation
- 14. ANOTHER WAY TO LOOK AT THE STAGES This is one way to start… Formulate a problem Search Refine topic Analyze Construct Review
- 15. AND ANOTHER…
- 16. OK, SO HOW DO I FIND THIS LITERATURE?!?!? First, pick your topic - broad enough for there to be material on it, but narrow enough for relevant articles.
- 17. NEXT… Look for your literature. You will want to look at scholarly articles. Most professors want your references to be from a “peer reviewed” journal. That means the editors of the journal send out the articles that are submitted for publication to experts on that topic for them to review the article and make comments/suggestions which will be sent to you to address before it is accepted for publication.
- 18. HOW DO I FIND THIS STUFF? 1. Go to the Library and wander around – probably not the most efficient but it can be interesting 2. Go to the Library and contact a librarian. Ask for suggestions about what databases to search, search terms to use, where is….. What do I do now??
- 19. DO A SEARCH ON YOUR TOPIC… Both Lister Hill Library and Mervyn Sterne Library have databases that you can use to see what, if anything, has been written on your topic. You may want to do a “quick and dirty” search on a topic to see if there is enough of the right kind of information for you to do a lit review. Sort of like scanning a book at the book store to see if you really want to buy it. You want to make sure that you are looking at primary sources – journal articles, research papers
- 21. QUESTIONS ABOUT THE MATERIAL ______ Has the author formulated a problem or issue? ______ Is it clearly defined? Is its significance (scope, severity, relevance) clearly established? ______ Could the problem have been approached more effectively from another perspective? ______What is the author’s research orientation (interpretive, critical science, combination)
- 22. QUESTIONS…MATERIAL ______ What is the author’s theoretical framework (psychological, developmental) ______ What is the relationship between the theoretical and research perspectives? ______ Has the author evaluated the literature relevant to the problem/issue/topic? Does the author include literature that takes a position either agreeing or disagreeing with the author’s point-of- view ______ In a research study, how good are the basic components of the study design?
- 23. QUESTIONS…MATERIAL ______ How does the author structure the argument/presentation? ______In what way(s) does this article/book/??? Contribute to our understanding of the problem under study, and in what way(s) is it useful for practice? What are the strengths and limitations? ______ How does this article/book/??? Relate to the specific thesis or question I am developing?
- 24. ANOTHER WAY TO LOOK AT THE QUESTIONS
- 25. A WORD TO THE WISE 1. Take GOOD notes. As you read, look for the major concepts, conclusions, theories, arguments that underlie the work, and look for similarities and differences with closely related work and write these down. 2. Make sure your document evaluates the articles and shows relationships between the research that has already been done. 3. Write down the COMPLETE citation of any article/source that you use in your paper. This is a huge time saver!! 4. Investigate the use of EndNote/EndNote Web for managing your references. (http://www.uab.edu/it/home/software-a-subscription- resources) 5. If statistics are involved, check, check again and recheck the math involved and if you are using the correct stat calculation.
- 26. CHECKLIST _____ Have you created a Research Sentence? _____ Have you documented where you found your information? ______ Have you found multiple viewpoints on your topic? ______ Can you list the major schools of thought on your topic?
- 27. ANALYZE THE RESEARCH… Look at: • The author’s new research • Their lit reviews • What articles/authors they mention • Who they cited in their bibliography This will give you clues to the important events in the field and who the major authors and scholars are.
- 28. ANALYZE…ANALYZE…ANALYZE (I know it’s a pain, but it will be worth it in the end, promise.) What does the community of scholars have to say on this topic? What are the findings? What is missing from the research? What hasn’t been explored?
- 29. TIME TO WRITE When starting to write ask yourself… 1. What type of literature review am I doing? 2. Why type of publications did I include? 3. What sources did I use to locate articles? 1. Did I search all the appropriate databases? 2. Was my search strategy too broad or too narrow? 4. Did I critically analyze the articles 5. Did I include articles that both prove and disprove my thesis/research statement?
- 30. TIME TO WRITE!! When you are writing the paper, remember that you are synthesizing/summarizing the research. MAJOR SECTIONS: 1. The major discoveries on your topic 2. The gaps in the research 3. The major author’s and scholar’s opinions 4. Where the research should go
- 31. STRUCTURE (1)Chronological organization (2)The “Classic” studies organization (3)Topical or thematic organization (4)Inverted pyramid organization
- 32. THERE’S MORE Critically Examine Make your voice heard
- 33. WRITING THE INTRODUCTION You should: 1. Define or identify the general topic, issue or area of concern, thus providing an appropriate context for reviewing the literature 2. Point out overall trends in what has been published about the topic; or conflicts in theory, methodology, evidence and conclusions; or gaps in research and scholarship; or single problem or new perspective of immediate interest 3. Establish your reason (point of view) for reviewing the literature; explain the criteria to be used in analyzing and comparing literature and the organization of the review (sequence); and, when necessary, state why certain literature is or is not included (scope)
- 34. WRITING THE BODY You should: 1. Group research studies and other types of literature (reviews, theoretical articles, case studies, etc.) according to common denominators such as qualitative vs. quantitative approaches, conclusions of authors, specific purpose or objective, chronology, etc. 2. Summarize individual studies or articles with as much or a little detail as each merits according to its comparative importance in the literature, remembering that space (length) denotes significance 3. Provide the reader with strong “umbrella” sentences at beginnings of paragraphs, “signposts” throughout, and brief “so what” summary sentences at intermediate points in the review to aid in understanding comparisons and analyses.
- 35. WRITING THE CONCLUSION You should: 1. Summarize major contributions of significant studies and articles to the body of knowledge under review, maintaining the focus established in the introduction 2. Evaluate the current “state of the art” for the body of knowledge reviewed pointing out major methodological flaws or gaps in research, inconsistencies in theory and findings, and areas or issues pertinent to future study 3. Conclude by providing some insight into the relationship between the central topic of the literature review and a larger area of study such as a discipline, a scientific endeavor, or a profession.
- 36. RESOURCES YOU CAN USE Guides: www.lc.unsw.edu.au This is a LibGuide called Getting Started on Your Literature Review http://libguides.lhl.uab.edu/sysrev is the Library’s LibGuide on all kinds of reviews http://pareonline.net/pdf/v14n13.pdf is an article A Guide to Writing the Dissertation Literature Review http://faculty.mwsu.edu/psychology/Laura.Spiller/Experimental/s ample_apa_style_litreview.pdf is a marked up lit review showing good and bad points
- 37. H E L P !!!!!!!! If you run into trouble… DON’T WAIT AND HOPE IT WILL BE BETTER IN THE MORNING! Contact your instructor Contact a Reference Librarian (chat, email, or 934-2230) Send up a smoke signal…shout help from the rooftop Just, PLEASE, don’t wait too long to ask for help. Waiting could prove disastrous!
- 38. !!!! START NOW !!!!!
Editor's Notes
- Today we will get into the nitty-gritty of the literature review. We will go over what it is and is not, the steps involved in the research and writing phases. And, hopefully, give you some useful tips along the way. You will notice that a lot of the same material is presented in different places. That is because that information is pertinent to more than one aspect of the review process. And besides, repetition makes sure that you will remember these pearls of wisdom from today.
- I realize that even thinking about doing a lit review can be boring, daunting, and or stomach-grinding. I am the first to admit that doing one of these is a bit like being fascinated watching a cobra snake just wondering when it will strike. However, I have found that after you make that first step or two in actually getting down to it, most of that goes away. Then it is just grinding it out until you are done. There are those that actually enjoy this phase of research, but we won’t talk about them here. I would be remiss if I didn’t remind you that the Smolian Outpatient clinic is in the back of the Library for any of you that think that this process is driving you crazy. Now let us get on with the dry and dull part… The review of relevant (RELEVANT) literature is nearly always a standard chapter of a thesis or dissertation. The review forms an important chapter in a thesis where its purpose is to provide the background to and justification for the research you have done.
- Not to be confused with a book review, a lit review surveys scholarly articles, books and other sources (dissertations, conference proceedings) relevant to a particular issue, area of research or theory, providing a description, summary, and critical evaluation of each work. The purpose is to offer an overview of significant literature published on a topic. The review analyzes critically a segment of a published body of knowledge through summary, classification and comparison of prior research studies, reviews of literature and theoretical articles. Hart (1998) defines a lit review as an examination of the research that has been conducted in a particular field of study. He goes on to say it is…”the selection of available documents (both published and unpublished) on the topic, which contain information, ideas, data and evidence.” The lit review is “written from a particular standpoint to fulfill certain aims or express certain views on the nature of the topic and how it is to be investigated, and the effective evaluation of these documents in relation to the research being proposed.” Cooper says “…a lit review uses as its database reports of primary or original scholarship, and does not report new primary scholarship itself. The primary report used in the literature may be verbal, but in the vast majority of cases report are written documents. “ The review should contain the most pertinent studies and point to important past and current research and practices in the field.
- A book review – well, you know what a book review is. An annotated bibliography is a list of citations. Each citation is followed by a brief (usually less than 150 words) descriptive and evaluative paragraph which is the annotated part. The purpose of this annotation is to inform the reader of the relevance, accuracy and quality of the sources cited. A literary Review is a brief critical discussion about the merits and weaknesses of a literary work such as a play, novel or book of poems. REMEMBER that the literature review itself, does not present new PRIMARY scholarship.
- There are a variety of reviews classified by their objective. The Integrative Review of Research has the ability to include both qualitative and quantitative studies. The Theoretical Review's goal is to describe how theory shapes research in a particular field. The Methodological Review describes the different research designs, methods and procedures used. The Thematic Review, as its name implies, describes a particular area of the researcher's field and can be a comparative study analyzing one specific domain. The State-of-the-Art Review summarizes the most current research in a given area or topic. The Historical Review surveys the development of a particular field of study. The Comparison of two Perspectives Review provides a way to understand a given topic based on the literature from two or more disciplines. Finally, the Review Complement is a full review on a topic that also includes a short empirical study that investigates the outcomes of the review.
- Even if similar research is published, researchers might suggest a need for similar studies or replication. It can be overwhelming getting into the literature of a field of study. A lit review can help you understand where you need to focus your efforts.
- 1. Will give you facts, eminent scholars, parameters of the field, the most important ideas, theories, questions and hypotheses
- Problem Formulation – which topic or field is being examined and what are its component issues? Literature Search – finding materials relevant to the subject being explored Data Evaluation – determining which literature makes a significant contribution to the understanding of the topic Analysis and interpretation – discussing the findings and conclusions of pertinent literature
- Doing a lit review is not a linear process. You don’t do step 1 and then go on to step 2 and never have to revisit step 1 again. As this slide and the next one illustrates, it is an iterative process. You keep working the process until you are finally finished and the review is written. Even then, you may run across literature or information that you could include in the next revision.
- Example…The Electronic Medical Record is a bit broad. Better is The Implementation of the Electronic Medical Record in a Rural Hospital. You will also want to determine the scope of your lit review. For example, what exactly will I cover in my review? How comprehensive will it be? How long? How many citations will I use? How detailed? Will it be a review of ALL relevant material or will the scope be limited to more recent material like the last 10 years? Am I focusing on methodological approaches, on theoretical issues or on qualitative or quantitative research? What languages will I include – just English? Will it be just material published in North America and Europe or also include Asia, South American publications? If so, can I really just limit the language to English? Based on my preliminary reading, are these parameters reasonable?
- There may be some reviews on your topic already. In PubMed you can limit your search by Review. For example, a search for the Electronic Health Record will retrieve 2,320 citations. When limited to REVIEW, ENGLISH and last 5 years, the retrieval is 94. Sometimes looking at those reviews and their bibliographies can help you located material you can use in your review. Looking at these reviews can help you in finding “classic” or “landmark” articles on your topic. PubMed is not the only database to check. You may also want CINAHL, SCOPUS, or COCHRANE. Check with one of the Reference librarians and we can help you decide what will be databases might be useful. This meeting can be critical especially if the topic is inter-disciplinary.
- Best to call before you come. That way someone will be available to talk to you.
- There are LibGuides to help you navigate this. Getting Started: Finding Scholarly Articles is one such guide. Find It @ LHL is another one. Both of these guides will direct you to appropriate sources. There are also tutorials that the Library staff have created to help you search the various databases. If you want to save time, talk to a librarian BEFORE you start searching. We can recommend databases and search strategies and save you a whole lot of time and frustration.
- Provenance – what are the author’s credentials? Are the author’s arguments supported by evidence (primary historical material, case studies, narratives, statistics recent scientific finding) Objectivity – is the author’s perspective even-handed or prejudicial? Is contrary data considered or is certain pertinent information ignored to prove the author’s point Persuasiveness- which of the author’s theses are most/least convincing Value – are the author’s arguments and conclusions convincing? Does the work ultimately contribute in any significant way to an understanding of the subject?
- EndNote is a reference management software package (and web platform) that enables you to create you own list of bibliographical references. The EndNote software is site licensed at UAB for employees and students. Go to the UAB IT Software library for more information
- You will need to keep notes on what you have found, which articles seem promising and what in the article you might use in your review. The better you are at keeping track of what you have read and the ideas you have found, the easier the writing part of the review will be. If strapped, the MEMO or WRITE and GO apps on your phone or tablet can help you out if you don’t have your computer handy at that moment. Be sure to transcribe it to your computer ASAP. There are ways to categorize the literature. You might consider: (1) the methodology employed; (2) the quality of the findings or conclusions; (3) the document’s major strengths and weaknesses; and (4) any other pivotal information. You also might think about what beliefs are expressed, is there an ideological stance, what is being described – comprehensive or narrow; and are the results generalizable.
- Lit Reviews should comprise the following elements: An overview of the subject, issue or theory under consideration, along with the objectives of the lit review Division of works under review into categories (those in support of a particular position, those against, and those offering alternative theses entirely) Explanation of how each work is similar to and how it varies from the others Conclusions as to which pieces are best considered in their argument, are most convincing of their opinions, and make the greatest contribution to the understanding and development of their area of research
- Remember to keep you audience in mind as you write. The style and language should reflect the audience level – medical terms for doctors, physics terms for physicists, very little jargon for general public. The 5 – 6 sentence paragraph is still a good idea. You could use subheadings to clarify the structure of your review. They break up the material into more readable parts as well as give the reader a place to “dive in” if they don’t want to read all of the material. Good idea to write the first draft without a break, just go for it. That way your ideas are not interrupted. But everybody is different. I work with faculty who cite while they write because they know the literature that well. DO NOT MAKE THESE MISTAKES: (1) loosing focus by going off on a tangent; (2) failure to cite essential or pertinent studies; (3) failure to maintain a coherent, logical flow; (4) weak organization; (5) poor language, grammar, etc. Use direct quotes sparingly. Remember you are summarizing and explaining what has been written up to this point. And a biggie…don’t cite references you have not read. Reading an abstract is not the same thing as reading the article.
- Some possible ways to structure your lit review: Chronological organization – the discussion of the research/articles is ordered according to an historical or developmental context. This structure does NOT mean that you take the earliest published article, then the next and then the next one. That is the essence of an annotated bibliography. Chronological organization means that you take the earliest idea and trace that idea through time. The “Classic” studies organization is a discussion or outline of the major writings regarded as significant in you area of study. In nearly all research there are “benchmark” studies or articles that should be acknowledged. Topical or thematic organization – the research is divided into sections representing the categories or conceptual subjects for your topic. The discussion part is organized into these categories or subjects. Inverted pyramid organization – the lit review begins with a discussion of the related literature from a broad perspective. It then deals with more and more specific or localized studies which focus increasingly on the specific questions at hand. It is important that your lit review has a logical and coherent structure and that this structure is clearly apparent to the reader. It is a good idea to let your readers know exactly how the review is organized. Remember that the way your choose to organize your review will largely depend upon the type of information that you have gathered and that some lit reviews use a combination of structural approaches.
- Your discussing and evaluating the literature represents your critical examination of the literature you have chosen to present in your review and how that literature relates to your research question(s). You must link this literature to your research question, demonstrating how it supports or extends the topic or the existing knowledge in the area. You should also highlight the strengths, weaknesses and omissions of the literature, providing a critique of the research. Therefore, the language used is often evaluative and demonstrates your perspectives of the literature in relation to your question. Another point to consider is that you need to make your “voice” (your perspective, position or standpoint) clear and easily identifiable in the review. Because you are writing about other people’s work, it is easy for your own “voice” to be lost. It is important that your theoretical position is clearly and strongly stated and that your critical evaluations are an integral part of this. It is also important that your language indicates your own or other writer’s attitudes to the questions or issue. At the end of all of this, your reader, captivated by both the style and content, should spring from their chair and exclaim, “This is precisely the review that was needed to advance research in this field!!”
- Two LibGuides and one article that will also help you in doing your lit review. The www.pareonline.net is also useful if you want more information about reviews and how to do them.
- There is very little the reference librarians, your instructor or the Crisis Hotline can do if you wait until the day before (or even three days) your paper is due. If you are doing this for a senior thesis or master’s thesis and certainly PhD work, there are deadlines you will have to meet. Even then, the earlier you start the better.