This document defines literature review and outlines its importance and purpose. A literature review aims to critically review knowledge on a research topic. It provides a guide for professionals to stay up-to-date in their field. Literature reviews help identify research problems, gaps in knowledge, and inform the methodology. Sources include primary research articles and secondary sources that summarize others' findings. The document describes the steps of literature review including searching databases and other sources, analyzing sources, and writing an introduction, body, and conclusion. It also outlines strategies like using references and searching forward and backward to identify relevant literature.

1. LITERATURE
REVIEW
PRESENTED BY:
Mrs. DEVA PON PUSHPAM.I,
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR.

2. DEFINITION
Literature review is a body of text that
aims to review the critical points of
knowledge on a particular topic of
research.
- ANA, 2000

3. IMPORTANCE OF LITERATURE
REVIEW
Literature reviews provide a handy guide to a
particular topic. For professionals they are useful reports
that keep the up-to date with what is current in field.
Review relevant literature can help in fulfillment of the
following objective:-
• Identification research problem and development or
refinement of research questions.
• Generation of fulfill research questions or
projects/activities for the discipline.
• Determination of any gaps or inconsistencies in body of
knowledge.
• Development of hypothesis to be tested in research study.
• Helps in planning the methodology of the present research
study.

4. PURPOSES OF LITERATURE
REVIEW
• Delimiting the problem.
• Seeking the new approaches.
• Avoiding sterile approaches.
• Insight in to methods
• Recommendation for further research
• Sampling current opinion.

5. SOURCES OF LITERATURE
REVIEW
SOURCES
PRIMARY SECONDARY

6. PRIMARY SOURCES
• Primary sources are original, peer
reviewed and published research journal
articles reported by original researchers.
• Primary sources are the research reports
which are description of studies written by
researchers who conducted them.

7. SECONDARY SOURCES
In secondary sources the authors complies and summarize the
findings of the work done by others and gives interpretation of
theses finding, when primary sources are not available.
The main sources from where literature can be searched are as
follows:-
• Electronic database
• Books
• Journals
• Conference papers
• Theses
• Encyclopedia and dictionary
• Research report magazines and newspapers.

8. LOCATION / ONLINE
SEARCH
• CINAHL – Cumulative Index To Nursing And
Allied Health Literature
• MEDLINE – Medical Literature Analysis and
Retrieved System Online
• Pubmed – www.pubmed.com
• British Nursing Index – www.rcn.org.uk/elibrary
• Medline plus – www.medlineplus.gov
• Cochrane database of system reviews –
www.cochrane.org
• ERIC – www.eric.ed.gov
• PsycINFO - www.psycinfo.com
• Dissertation abstracts online
• Online journals

9. STEPS OF LITERATURE
REVIEW
Stage I – Annotated bibliography
Stage II- Thematic Organization
Stage III- More reading
Stage IV-Write individual sections
Stage V – Integrate section

10. STEPS OF LITERATURE
REVIEW
• Understanding the concepts of research
problem and identifying the key search
terms.
• Identifying the relevant sources.
• Searching the literature.
• Analyzing and synthesizing the literature.
• Writing the literature review.
• Introduction
• Body
• Conclusion

11. METHODS / STRATEGIES OF
LITERATURE REVIEW
• There are many ways to search for research
evidence, and it is wise to begin a search with
some strategies in mind.
• Cooper (2010) has identified several
approaches.
From bibliographic database
Ancestry approach
Descendancy approach
Grey literature

12. Contd.,
• From bibliographic database:
– Most bibliographic software has mapping
capabilities which allows to search topics
using our own key words rather than
needing to enter the same subject heading.
• Ancestry approach:
– It involves using references cited in relevant
studies to track down earlier research on the
same topic (the ancestors).

13. Contd.,
• Descendancy approach:
– This is to find a pivotal early study and to
search forward in citation indexes to find
more recent studies (the descendants) that
cited the key study.
• Grey literature:
– This refers to studies with more limited
distribution, such as conference papers,
unpublished reports and so on.

14. POINTS TO BE CONSIDERED
• Be specific
• Be selective
• Focus of current topics
• Ensure evidence for claims
• Focus on sources of evidences
• Account of contrary evidences
• Reference citation
• Organization of literature review
• Referring original source
• Avoid abbreviations
• Simple and accurate sentence structure.

15. THANK YOUTHANK YOU