The document outlines the key steps to conducting a literature review: reading background materials and critically analyzing sources, taking notes and summarizing sources, organizing findings into common themes, and comparing and contrasting different perspectives. It also discusses developing a research topic and questions, searching the literature using relevant terms and databases, and synthesizing findings across multiple sources to identify gaps for further research. The overall process is iterative and involves continually refining searches and organizing collected information.

1. Doing a Literature Review

2. Process
 Reading
| Background reading
| Critical reading
 Writing
| Note taking
| Summarizing
| Synthesis
 Searching
| Background
| Focused
 Thinking
| Organization
| Common themes
| Contrast and compare

3. Process (Reality)
Reading:
Background
Reading:
Critical
Writing:
Synthesis
Writing:
Summarizing
Writing:
Notetaking
Thinking:
Organization
Thinking:
Common
themes
Thinking:
Contrast and
compare
Searching:
Background
Searching:
Focused

4. Process (Reality)
Reading:
Background
Reading:
Critical
Writing:
Synthesis
Writing:
Summarizing
Writing:
Notetaking
Thinking:
Organization
Thinking:
Common
themes
Thinking:
Contrast and
compare
Searching:
Background
Searching:
Focused

5. Process (Reality)
Reading:
Background
Reading:
Critical
Writing:
Synthesis
Writing:
Summarizing
Writing:
Notetaking
Thinking:
Organization
Thinking:
Common
themes
Thinking:
Contrast and
compare
Searching:
Background
Searching:
Focused

6. It’s messy… so

7. Choosing a Topic
 Choose something that interests you
 Look at news stories to find something
that is current
| Canadian Newsstream
| Factiva
 Look at key journal editorials/news
| Journal Citation Reports
• Medicine, General
• Multidisciplinary Sciences

8. Getting Started
 Find out what information is available
| Summon
 Do some background reading
| Find a review article
• Use a database filter (Pubmed, Scopus, WoS)
• Use review as a search term
| Find a book
• Look at the Table of Contents
| Find an encyclopedia entry
• Often provide background readings

9. Map your topic
 Think of the landscape of your topic
 Outline the various aspects/concepts/main
ideas

10. An Example of Concept Mapping
10

11. or it might look like this...
 o
r

12. Example: AIDS in Africa

13. Focus your topic
 Pick one or two aspects to focus on
 Go deeper into these areas
 Develop a research question(s)

14. Example: AIDS in Africa
 Malnutrition
| What impact does AIDS have on malnutrition?
| What is being done to combat this issue?
| Are theses interventions effective?
| What more can be done?
 Poverty
| What is the relationship between AIDS and poverty?
| What other factors are involved?
| What programs exist to tackle this problem?
| Why do certain programs/interventions work and others not?
 Orphans
| How has AIDS affected children of parents with AIDS in
Africa?

15. Identify Search Terms
 From concepts/main ideas to search
terms
 PICO
| Population
| Intervention
| Comparison
| Outcome
 Synonyms
 Controlled vocabulary

16. Combining Search Terms
 Boolean operators – AND, or, NOT
 Phrase searching – “…”
 Truncation - *
 Proximity operators – N/x, NEARx

17. Example: AIDS in Africa
 AIDS in Africa
| (AIDS or “acquired immune deficiency syndrome” or HIV)
| (Africa or Sub-sahara* or Eastern or Burundi or ….)
| (Child* or youth)
| orphan*
| (Malnutrition or “nutritional deficiency” or malnourishment)
| (Poverty or “low income” or poor)
 You may need to do separate searches for
different aspects of your topic

18. Where to look
 Think about who/what is interested in the
topic
 Think about what subject area might
cover this topic

19. Example: AIDS in Africa
 African governments
 NGOs
 AIDs researchers
 Economists
 Nutritionists

20. Where to look
 Subject Guide > Detailed Guide > Health
 Subject Guides > Quick Guides
| Political Science
| Economics
| Public Policy
| etc…
 Government Information
| Canadian – federal, provincial
| International

21. Example: AIDS in Africa
 WHO
| IRIS Digital Library
| Health Topics
 PubMed
 CINAHL
 Worldwide Political Science Abstracts
 World Bank
 Government Info

22. Data and Statistics
 Data
| Canada
• ODESI
| WHO
• Data and statistics
| United Nations
• UNdata
| OECD
• OECD.Stat

23. Keeping it all organized
 Citation Management
| Mendeley
| Endnote
| Zotero

24. Note Taking
 Underline
 Highlight
 Take notes in your own words

25. Summary vs Synthesis
Summary
 A summary is a brief
statement of a
source(s)
 In order to synthesize several sources you
should first summarize each source individually
Synthesis
 An integrated essay
based on multiple
sources

26. Summarize
 Why did they bother?
| Problem statement, rationale
 What was the objective/hypothesis?
 How did they do it?
 What did they find?
 So what?
| Significance, implications
 Relevance to your research topic?

27. Synthesize – organization
 Sequential
| Show progression of the field/topic….
 Topical
| Topic 1 with subtopics, topic 2 with subtopics….
 Methodological
| No other method has proven….
 Theoretical
| Contrast and compare theories….

28. Identify Common Themes
 Hypotheses
 Populations studied
 Theories
 Methods
 Outcomes

29. Contrast and Compare
 He said/she said
| Do different studies agree or disagree
| Do they agree on some things but disagree on others

30. Identify Gaps
 What is missing?
 What can be studied next?

31. Proofreading and editing
 Write a draft
 Let it sit
 Look at it with fresh eyes
 Ask your ____ to read it

32. Resources about lit reviews
 Books
| Writing literature reviews: A guide for student of the social
and behavioral sciences
| The literature review: A step-by-step guide fro students
| Doing a literature review in nursing, health and social care
| Doing your literature review: Traditional and systematic
techniques
| They say/I say: the moves that matter in academic writing
 Online
| Carleton
| UofT
| UBC

33. Need Help?
QUESTIONS?
• Visit the library
• Call Research Help Desk
613-520-2600 x2735
• Email
heather.macdonald@carleton.ca