This document provides guidance on conducting a literature review, including selecting research questions, choosing relevant sources and search terms, running searches in bibliographic databases, and screening results. Key steps include breaking the research question into concepts, identifying subject headings and text words for each, running searches and combining results, and applying practical and methodological screening criteria to identify the most useful studies. The goal is to synthesize current knowledge on the topic to support new research.

1. How to Conduct a Literature Review Jun 16, 2011 ROBIN FEATHERSTONE

5. Selecting research questions

6. Why do you need a research question?

9. How questions influence search results Relevancy Retrieval (# of search results) Broad Questions Narrow Questions High = lots of articles Low = very few articles High = directly relevant articles Low = mostly irrelevant articles

11. Selecting your sources

14. Match the question to the sources 1. Which smoking cessation programs are the most effective for cancer patients? A. MEDLINE 2. What are proven methods for integrating simulators into surgical training? B. PsycINFO 3. When should patients presenting with febrile neutropenia to the Emergency Department be administered antibiotics? C. CINAHL 4. Which injection method is the most effective for administering lidocaine? D. EMBASE 5. Which factors improve quality of life for patients post mastectomy? E. SCOPUS 6. What is the analgesic efficacy for antipsychotic agents for chronic pain? F. Cochrane Library

15. Choosing search terms

18. Which term explodes? A. Bird Diseases B. Neutropenia

20. Ovid MEDLINE strategy Concept #1 Concept #2 Concept #3 Subject Headings Text Words Blank worksheets: http://muhclibraries.mcgill.ca/SearchStrategyWorksheet.doc AND AND OR exp Fluid Therapy/ Delirium/ exp Terminal Care/ OR Palliative Care/ exp Terminally Ill/ OR OR OR

21. Key Operators in Ovid Operator Command Example * Find alternate endings to this word nurs* [will find nurse, nursing, nurses] .tw. Search for this term in the Title and Abstract fields anxiety.tw. adj Search for one term within x number of terms from another patient adj3 anxiety [will find patient within three words of anxiety] AND Find articles where both terms appear smoking AND cessation OR Find articles where either term appears smoking OR tobacco

22. Ovid MEDLINE strategy Concept #1 Concept #2 Concept #3 Subject Headings Text Words AND AND OR exp Fluid Therapy/ Delirium/ exp Terminal Care/ OR Palliative Care/ exp Terminally Ill/ OR hydrat*.tw. deliri*.tw. (terminal* adj4 patient*).tw. OR fluid*.tw. palliative.tw. OR water.tw. end of life.tw.

23. Running your search

25. Running your search(es) Search #2 = Search #3 = Search #4 = Search #5 = #1 OR #2 OR #3 OR #4 Search #1 = Concept 1 Search #6 = Search #7 = Search #8 = Search #9 = Concept 2 Search #10 = #6 OR #7 OR #8 OR #9 Search #11 = #5 AND #10 Results

26. Please complete the following search in Ovid Medline Concept #1 Concept #2 Concept #3 Subject Headings Text Words AND AND OR exp Fluid Therapy/ Delirium/ exp Terminal Care/ OR Palliative Care/ exp Terminally Ill/ OR hydrat*.tw. deliri*.tw. (terminal* adj4 patient*).tw. OR fluid*.tw. palliative.tw. OR water.tw. end of life.tw.

27. Applying practical screening criteria

31. Next steps

36. Synthesizing the results