This presentation deals with the various aspects of a literature review conducted for a research study

1. Review of literature
Anju George , Associate Professor ,
SGCON
8/17/2020
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Anju George , SGCON

2. Definition
• ROL – broad , comprehensive, indepth,
systematic and critical review of scholarly
publication , unpublished printed or audio-
visual materials and personal communications.
– S.K .Sharma
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Anju George , SGCON

3. Importance of literature review
 Identify r/s problem
 Generate useful r/s question
 Orientation to what is known and unknown
 Determine any gaps or inconsistencies in the
body of knowledge
 Provide evidence that the selected r/s problem is
of importance
 Discover unanswered questions
 Determine the need to replicate a study
Contnd…
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4. Contn ….
 Identify relevant conceptual framework
 Describe the strength and weaknesses of the r/s
design/methods
 Develop hypotheses to be tested
 Develop the methodology and the instrument for
the r/s
 Identify suitable data collection method
 Assists in interpreting the results
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5. Purposes
 Enhance the r/s ers knowledge
 Convey the reader previous knowledge and facts
established on a topic, their strengths &
weaknesses
 Describe the relationship of each study to other
research studies under consideration
 Identify new ways to interpret the previous
research
 Guide for further research
Contnd…
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6. Contn…..
 See what has and has not been investigated
 Identify potential relationships between concepts
 Learn how others have defined and measured key
concepts
 Develop alternative research projects
 Place one’s original work in the context of the
existing literature .
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7. Types
• Traditional / narrative
• Systemic
• Meta analysis
• Meta synthesis
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8. Sources
• Primary sources
R/s reports which are description of studies
written by r/sers who conducted them.
• Secondary sources
Description of studies prepared by someone other
than the original researcher.
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9. • Electronic sources
▫ Search engines
▫ Database
Bibliographic
Full text database
Databases are :
CINAHL, MEDLINE, PubMed, BNI, Medline Plus,
NHS, Registry of Nursing Research, Cochrane database
of systems review, ERIC, PsychINFO, Dissertation
abstracts online, journals online.
• Printed sources
▫ Journals, r/s reports, unpublished dissertations and
theses, magazines and newspapers, conference
papers, encyclopedias and dictionaries, books
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Anju George , SGCON

10. Criteria for selecting resources for
review
• Comprehensive, up-to-date
• Systematic
• Reproducible
• Absence of bias
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11. Steps of ROL
Formulate
and refine
primary and
secondary
questions
Formulate a
search
strategy
Search
bibliogr
aphic
databas
es
Screening
&
gathering
references
Document
ation
Coding
the
studies
Literatur
e review
protocols
Literatur
e review
matrices
Research
critique
of
individual
studies
Evaluatin
g body of
research
Analyzing
and
synthesizing
information
Organizing
the review
Writing
the
literature
review
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Anju George , SGCON

12. 1. Formulating primary and
secondary question
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13. 2. Formulating a search strategy
• Search through bibliographic data base
• Ancestry approach (footnote chasing) – using
citations from relevant studies to track down
earlier research on which the studies are based
(ancestors)
• Descendancy approach – find a pivotal early study
and to search forward in citation indexes to find
more recent studies (descendants) that cited the
key study
• Grey literature – studies with limited distribution
– such as conference papers or unpublished
reports
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14. Contn…
• Decision about delimiting the search eg: reports
written in their own language
• Limit your search to studies within a time frame
or to certain operational definition of key
variables
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Anju George , SGCON

15. 3. Search bibliographic database
• Print based bibliographic resources – outdated
• Resources that can be accessed by computer is of
use
Getting started with electronic search
• Identify key words to launch a search
• Key word is a word or a phrase that captures the
key concepts in your question
• For Quantitative studies – IDV, DV, popln – key
words
• Be flexible in creating key words
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Anju George , SGCON

16. • For most of the bibliographic database searches, there
are various types of search approaches
• All the citations in the database are indexed so that they
can be retrieved
• The indexing systems have specific subject headings
(subject codes)
• You can undertake a subject search by entering a subject
heading into the search field
• If you are not familiar about the subject codes most of
the databases use mapping feature
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17. • Mapping is a feature that allows you to search for the
topic in your own key words rather than subject
headings.
• The software translates (maps) the key word you enter
into the most plausible subject heading
• Subject headings can be accessed through the database’s
thesaurus or other reference tools
• When you enter a keyword into the search field, it is
likely that the program will institute both a subject
search and text word search.
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18. • A text word search will search your specific keyword in
the text fields of the records in the database ie, in the
title or in the abstract
• It is also possible to search for the author. An author
search is productive if you are familiar with the names of
leading r/sers in the profession
• Ways to search a textword
▫ A wildcard character which is a symbol such as “$” or
“*” can be used to search for multiple words that share the
same root
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19. ▫ To do this the wildcard character is inserted immediately after
the truncated root.
▫ Eg: if we enter nurs* in the search field the computer will
search for any word that begins with nurs… like nurses,
nursing, nurses
▫ Another way to force a test word search is to use quotation
marks around a phrase
▫ Eg: a search on lung cancer and “ lung cancer” might yield
different results
To do a thorough search – search with and without wild
characters and with and without quotation marks
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20. CINHAL database
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21. Medline database
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22. 4. Screening and gathering the
references
• Criteria for gathering references
▫ Screen for accessibility
▫ Relevance
▫ Methodologic quality
• Store the obtained articles in a manner that it is easily
retrieved
• Either alphabetic filing or chronological filing
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23. 5. Documentation in literature
retrieval
• You will be likely to lose track of your efforts if
you donot document your actions
• Maintain a notebook to record your search
strategies and results
• Write specific key words, subject headings, and
authors used to do the search
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24. 6. Coding and encoding the studies
• Code the literature according to the variables in
the study.
• Assigning numbers to the variables to make the
search easier
• Write down the key features of the studies under
review
• You can use formal system of recording
information from each study
• Use either literature protocol or matrix format
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25. 7. Literature review protocols
• Protocols are means of recording various aspects
of a study systematically, including the full
citation, theoretical foundations, methodologic
features , findings and conclusion
• No such format
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26. 8. Literature review matrix
• Methodologic matrix – which organizes
information to answer how have the researcher
studied this r/s
• Results matrix – which addressess what r/ser
have found
• Evaluation matrix- designed to answer how
much confidence do we have in evidence (say
about strength and weaknesses)
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27. 9. Critiquing the studies
• Critique for a literature review tend to focus on
methodologic aspects.
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28. 10. Evaluating the body of
research
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29. 11. Analyzing and synthesizing
information
• Identify important themes
• Different types of themes identified are:
▫ Substantive themes – analyzing the evidence (
what is the pattern, how much evidence is there,
how consistent is, how powerful, and what gaps
exist in the evidence )
▫ Methodologic themes – what methods and dsigns
are used? What not have been used?what are the
strengths and waeknessess,
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30. ▫ Generalizability/ transferability themes – to what
type of people does the finding apply?, do they
vary for different kind of people or setting ?
▫ Historical themes – is the evidence getting better?
Is the trends in each areas implemented
▫ Researcher themes – details of the researcher
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31. 12. Organizing the review
• Organize the review in the form of a table with
needed headings
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32. 13.Writing a literature review
• Summarize in your own words
• Donot string together the quotes from previus
research studies
• Be objective
• Include studies that contradict personal values,
and other studies
• Conclude with a concise summary of current
evidence on the topic
• Summary should recap key findings, indicate
how credible they are and make a note on the
gaps in evidence
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33. • 3 parts
▫ Introduction
▫ Body
▫ Conclusion
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34. Guidelines for writing literature
review
 Be specific
 Be selective
 Focus on current topics
 Ensure evidence for claims
 Focus on sources for evidence
 Account of contrary evidences
 Reference citation
Contd….
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35. Contn…
 Organization of literature review
 Referring original source
 Write in own language
 Simple and accurate sentence structure
 Group the ideas
 Effective use of transition words
 Avoid abbrevations
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