1� The New Social Worker Spring �007 Considerations in Writing a Literature Review by Kathy Black, Ph.D. Literature reviews are ubiquitous in academic journals, scholarly reports, and social work education. Students taking social work courses throughout the cur- riculum, including Human Behavior and the Social Environment, Practice, Policy, and Research classes, are frequently asked to write literature reviews for a variety of reasons. Literature reviews are often done within the context of writing a paper and sometimes done as a mini- assignment, perhaps setting the frame for a broader paper, exposing students to the breadth of information available on a topic area, or demonstrating skills in critical thinking and writing ability. However, there are some general guidelines to follow when writing a literature re- view. This article will briefly outline key points for you to keep in mind when writing literature reviews for social work. Getting Ready To begin with, you will need to ascertain the purpose of the literature review. At the very least, be aware of the purpose, scope, and length of the literature review, as well as the writing requirements. This requires clarifying the purpose (Is it to simply overview a broad or specific area of inquiry, or is it expected to be comprehensive or systematic?), scope (How much informa- tion is needed—three scholarly sources? Five or 10 sources? Are there any limits to the inquiry? Perhaps a focus on distinct ethnici- ties or time periods?), and length (Is the final review expected to yield one page or 10 pages of review?). You should also be familiar with required writing styles, such as American Psychological Association (APA), and other expectations, such as double spacing, font size, and so forth. Once purpose, scope, length, and writing expectations are ascertained, you can embark on conducting your search for literature. The Search Searching for literature is quite easy these days. Today, much information is available electronically, and you can obtain literature just about anytime and anywhere. To begin the search, take ad- vantage of library resources available to you through your college or university. Libraries often offer group or personal- ized training in accessing information, and librarians are often available to help on specific topic assignments, as well. If you are a student, you will be exposed to search engines and databases such as Social Work Abstracts and procedures for accessing or requesting books, journal articles, and reports that relate to your topic. Although information is also widely available through the World Wide Web, not every site offers credible informa- tion. You can learn from your library about criteria to evaluate the legitimacy of information. One increasingly popular source of information is Google Scholar (www.googlescholar.com). This site has ac- cess to professional journal lis.

1. 1� The New Social Worker Spring �007
Considerations in Writing a Literature Review
by Kathy Black, Ph.D.
Literature reviews are ubiquitous in
academic journals, scholarly reports, and
social work education. Students taking
social work courses throughout the cur-
riculum, including Human Behavior and
the Social Environment, Practice, Policy,
and Research classes, are frequently
asked to write literature reviews for a
variety of reasons. Literature reviews are
often done within the context of writing
a paper and sometimes done as a mini-
assignment, perhaps setting the frame
for a broader paper, exposing students
to the breadth of information available
on a topic area, or demonstrating skills
in critical thinking and writing ability.
However, there are some
general guidelines to follow
when writing a literature re-
view. This article will briefly
outline key points for you to
keep in mind when writing
literature reviews for social
work.
Getting Ready
To begin with, you

2. will need to ascertain the
purpose of the literature
review. At the very least, be
aware of the purpose, scope,
and length of the literature review, as
well as the writing requirements. This
requires clarifying the purpose (Is it to
simply overview a broad or specific area of
inquiry, or is it expected to be comprehensive
or systematic?), scope (How much informa-
tion is needed—three scholarly sources? Five
or 10 sources? Are there any limits to the
inquiry? Perhaps a focus on distinct ethnici-
ties or time periods?), and length (Is the
final review expected to yield one page or
10 pages of review?). You should also be
familiar with required writing styles, such
as American Psychological Association
(APA), and other expectations, such as
double spacing, font size, and so forth.
Once purpose, scope, length, and writing
expectations are ascertained, you can
embark on conducting your search for
literature.
The Search
Searching for literature is quite easy
these days. Today, much information
is available electronically, and you can
obtain literature just about anytime and
anywhere. To begin the search, take ad-
vantage of library resources available to
you through your college or university.
Libraries often offer group or personal-
ized training in accessing information,

3. and librarians are often available to help
on specific topic assignments, as well. If
you are a student, you will be exposed
to search engines and databases such as
Social Work Abstracts and procedures for
accessing or requesting books, journal
articles, and reports that relate to your
topic.
Although information is also widely
available through the World Wide Web,
not every site offers credible informa-
tion. You can learn from your library
about criteria to evaluate the legitimacy
of information. One increasingly popular
source of information is Google Scholar
(www.googlescholar.com). This site has ac-
cess to professional journal listings and,
sometimes, the articles can be download-
ed in full text. In searching for informa-
tion, you should be aware of key words
and advanced search features to facilitate
the process. Sources with titles of interest
and abstracts can be retrieved on the
spot in some cases, marked for subse-
quent retrieval, and oftentimes down-
loaded into software such as Refworks or
Endnote. Again, you should learn about
the resources available to you through
your library and take advantage of the
high technological services offered by
your school.
Once you have identified a number
of sources, you must decide whether
to retrieve the full text of each. You
will soon learn that there may be an

4. astronomical amount of information
published in any given subject area, and
therefore, refining the search is com-
mon. Similarly, it may take you hours
to thoroughly explore literature on your
topic. Most researchers will find the time
spent quite interesting, though. It is ex-
hilarating to be exposed to information
and the dynamic process whereby links
are availed that can connect you with
key authors and related works and other
cited references. Though time-consum-
ing, it is generally a satisfying process to
search the literature.
Synthesizing Information
After retrieving a given number of
references, the critical work of synthesiz-
ing the information begins. You should
be aware that a literature review is not
an annotated bibliography, or a simple
write-up of a few statements or so de-
scribing the information in each journal
article. Likewise, the literature review
is not simply a series of paragraphs de-
scribing each source separately. A good
literature review involves a higher level
of integrating the information, yielding
a more comprehensive analysis of the
content.
You should begin by reading each
article and starting to categorize the
areas or subtopics that each covers. For
example, in doing a literature review
about elder abuse, retrieved articles may

5. have focused on different types of abuse,
attributes of abused elders, or attributes
of perpetrators of abuse to older people.
You can largely focus your searching to
pre-determine the subtopics in which
you will structure your writing. How-
ever, that may depend on your previous
knowledge of the area and availability
of literature on the topic of interest. You
should structure the written review with
a topic sentence and paragraph high-
lighting the general importance of the
literature, setting the stage for the rest of
the review.
Writing should flow and combine
the findings of several sources, reinforc-
ing the importance of each subtopic area.
Resist simply regurgitating findings by
stringing quotes from separate sources;
instead, strive to synthesize the informa-
tion. The following illustrates a common
approach to reviewing literature:
In one study, over 900,000 elders were
found to have evidence of physical abuse
(author, year). Another study reported that
Research
The New Social Worker Spring �007 1�
“perhaps millions of elders are suffering physi-
cal abuse” (author, year, page number). The
National Center for Elder Abuse indicates

6. that there were 6,000 cases of abuse annually
including 4,000 physical, 1,500 financial,
400 emotional, and 100 sexual (year).
Instead, synthesize the multiple
sources:
Over a million cases of elder abuse were
reported to elder abuse hotlines nationally in
2005, and the majority of abuse reported was
physical (author, year; author, year; author,
year).
Citing research studies requires
specific considerations. In your literature
review, you should not only emphasize
the findings, but also comment on the
quality and importance of research pre-
sented. For example, what were the limits
to the study design? Was it representa-
tive? Do the findings support or refute
related theories? What gaps remain in
the literature?
It is not necessary to cite method-
ological details of studies, as citations of
the source are provided in the review.
Readers can refer back to the studies re-
ported in the review should they wish to
know more details. The point here is to
critically assess the findings in a compre-
hensive way, and not simply repeat the
study’s findings. Questions that critically
assess the research in your review include
attention to research design, sampling,
data collection, analysis, and conclusions.

7. Answers to the following questions reflect
critical analysis of the literature and dem-
onstrate skills in integrating content on a
variety of levels:
What is the research problem ad-
dressed in this article? Is the design
(qualitative, quantitative, or mixed)
appropriate for the question?
What are the variables in this study?
How are they operationally defined?
Are these definitions sensible and
appropriate?
What is the population of interest
in this study? What is the sampling
•
•
•
frame? Are the subjects used in the
study representative of the popula-
tion of interest?
What, if any, are the potential prob-
lems with the data collection and
analysis procedures used?
Does the research problem apply to
diverse groups of people and popula-
tions at risk? Were the methods used
ethical and sensitive to the inclusion
of disenfranchised populations?
What conclusions does the author
make on the basis of the study?
Does the author discuss implications

8. for social work practice? Are the
conclusions and implications reason-
able, based on the findings of the
study? Why or why not?
Plagiarism
No discussion of writing a literature
review is complete without mention of
plagiarism. The word “plagiarize” is de-
fined by Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary as:
“to steal and pass off (the ideas or words
of another) as one’s own: use (another’s
production) without crediting the source;
to commit literary theft: present as new
and original an idea or product derived
from an existing source” (2006).
Plagiarism is a serious offense,
and colleges and universities have
strict policies to deal with it. In many
cases, unintentional plagiarism occurs
when students copy verbatim portions
of another’s work and fail to cite the
source of their information. Just to be
sure, all factual statements and key ideas
should always be credited, and key ideas
can almost always be paraphrased. Of
course, in all cases, references to the
original source of information should be
provided. Consult the Publication Manual
of the American Psychological Association,
or other appropriate style guide, for the
correct procedures for citing and listing
references for your literature review.
Unfortunately, other cases of plagia-
rism involve the intentional and delib-
erate copying of text that is presented

9. as original work by another. Today,
students may be tempted to either “cut
and paste” voluminous amounts of infor-
mation from a variety of sources or even
consult sponsors of “prepared papers”
in a variety of topic areas. Increasingly,
faculty use services such as TurnItIn
(www.turnitin.com), which checks papers
for evidence of plagiarism. Seriously
consider the ethical and academic con-
sequences of plagiarizing material, and
avoid the problem altogether by re-
•
•
•
A Note on Plagiarism
Regardless of whether plagiarism
is intentional or not, it can get you in
big legal and ethical trouble.
Some of the most extreme ex-
amples I have heard or seen include
the following:
a student plagiarizing his or her
own professor
a student copying something from
a Web site in another language,
using Google Translate to translate
it into English, and then pasting
the translation “as is” (without
correcting the English) into a

10. research paper
a social worker submitting an
article for publication in which
several sections were written in
first person, but were obviously
not written by the submitter,
because some of them described
a male, some a female, some an
older person, some a younger
person, and so forth—with no cita-
tions to indicate that the passages
were quotes from others
Whether you are writing a paper
for school or an article for publica-
tion (or for your employer), it is your
responsibility to know what constitutes
plagiarism, so you can avoid it like the
plague!
Ed.
1.
2.
3.
sponsibly crafting your own papers and
literature reviews.
Students able to effectively search,
assess, synthesize, and properly write a
literature review are well on the way to
receiving a good grade for their efforts.
The skill is transferable to students
pursuing practice careers and particu-

11. larly beneficial to students considering
master’s and doctoral level education.
In all cases, conducting and writing
a good literature review is both person-
ally and professionally satisfying, as it
advances knowledge—for ourselves and
for our readers.
Reference
Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary.
(2006). Available: http://209.161.33.50/
dictionary/plagiarize
Kathy Black, Ph.D., is Hartford Geriatric
Social Work Faculty Scholar and Assistant
Professor at the School of Social Work, Uni-
versity of South Florida at Sarasota/Manatee.
Conducting and
writing a good
literature review
is both personally
and professionally
satisfying.
http://www.turnitin.com
http://209.161.33.50/dictionary/plagiarize
Running head: ADIUS REPORT 1
ARDIUS REPORT 2

12. Adius Simtray Report
Please rewrite
Cyber security has now grown in different industries across the
globally. Typically, the aspect refers to the process where
various information and data management regulations and
policies are developed to maintain data safety from the various
aspects like natural calamities, cyber-attacks on data, data
exploitations and misuse, as well as the damages by people for
their own uses. This paper will therefore provide a report of the
Adius Simtray Report captures various concepts related to
various security measures in different industries.
From the Adius Simtray, it was evident that an organization
cyber security is vital for the data security. However, there were
various policies that were illustrated. Firstly, there were the
communication policies that were set to ensure that the data
sent via any device was secure. For example, encryption,
intrusion detection as well as authentication policies are the
elaborated policies in the Simtray. Based on the realization of
the various policies elaborated in the Adius Simtray, an interest
in the Health industry was prevalent. This industry seems to be
requiring the implementation of the various communication
policies as the HIPAA act and the HiTech Act dictates.
From the elaboration of the Adius Simtray, different types of
cyber-attacks were elaborated. The pinpointed attacks include
the SQL injection, the side scripting, as well as server hacking
(Kolhe, & Adhikari, 2014). The malicious act leads to the
exposition of information that is relevant in an organization to
unauthorized persons. Therefore, the data requires protection in
accordance to the set cyber security policies. Data security

13. measures to be involved in such a case include data encryption
as well as the process of access control. The involvement of the
court of law is also vital when reporting the malicious data
exposition. Al in all, the ardioud Simtray was a good platform
for highlighting various cyber security risk factors and their
mitigation.
References
Chen, J. Q., & Benusa, A. (2017). HIPAA security compliance
challenges: The case for small healthcare providers.
International Journal of Healthcare Management, 10(2), 135-
146.
Dankar, F. K., & El Emam, K. (2012, March). The application
of differential privacy to health data. In Proceedings of the 2012
Joint EDBT/ICDT Workshops (pp. 158-166). ACM.
Kolhe, A. K., & Adhikari, P. (2014). Injection, Detection,
Prevention of SQL Injection Attacks. International Journal of
Computer Applications, 87(7).
P3
Four Separate submissions please!!!
Submission for Adius SimtrayReport – 1 Page Report (please
rewrite attached)
Standards Summary – 1 page Summary
Written Comments – 2/3 Page Report
Please select an industry and write a short paragraph about
industry-specific cyber issues. (discussion post)
Project Scenario
As the assistant vice president of information security, you are
the main cybersecurity advisor to the chief executive officer of
your company. The organization responsible for creating
standards for your industry has proposed cybersecurity
standards for all publicly traded companies and has asked for
comments from the industry regarding what these standards

14. should contain.
"This is our opportunity to weigh in on how best to achieve
cyber objectives within the constraints of our business," the
CEO says during your executive staff meeting. You realize that
this is your chance to show the CEO your knowledge of the
industry, and an opportunity for your company to influence
prospective standards that could impact the company's bottom
line.
The CEO turns to you and says, "As a leader in our industry, we
know what processes work and what do not. I believe we are in
the perfect position to help formulate cybersecurity standards
that are realistic and effective. I will need your assistance in
preparing written comments to present a proposed standard.
"First, determine the impact these new standards might have on
our industry. Then assess our industry's cyber posture and
create a relevant standard. Prepare our written comments based
on these considerations. You will need to have a draft ready for
my review at our next staff meeting."
When you submit your project, your work will be evaluated
using the competencies listed below. You can use the list below
to self-check your work before submission.
· 1.2: Develop coherent paragraphs or points so that each is
internally unified and so that each functions as part of the whole
document or presentation.
· 1.6: Follow conventions of Standard Written English.
· 2.5: Develop well-reasoned ideas, conclusions or decisions,
checking them against relevant criteria and benchmarks.
· 5.3: Support policy decisions with the application of specific
cybersecurity technologies and standards.
Step 1
Throughout this project, you will assume the perspective from
an organization of a particular industry.
In order to prepare your perspective, you will complete the
following:
· Select a specific industry from one of the following areas:
health care, finance, telecommunications, automotive, or retail

15. upon which you will focus your oral statement. For example,
you may choose to research the industry of grocery stores
(retail) or hospitals (health care). Do not select a specific
company focus on the industry.
· Research and write a short paragraph about the cybersecurity
issues you discover for your particular industry.
Once you select your industry and identify its cyber issues,
submit your findings to the discussion board to get feedback
from your instructor.
Step 2
SIMTRAY Adius: Day 1
SIMTRAY is a simulation that presents you with scenarios that
will provide insight into the origins of issues affected by major
regulatory/legal concerns facing every organization or industry.
While this simulation focuses specifically on the financial
industry, you will find that this exercise will help you examine
the regulatory concerns for your chosen industry. Some of the
issues and topics addressed in this exercise include
cybersecurity policies, countermeasures, sql injection, digital
evidence, cyber attacks & threats, mobile technologies,
outsourcing - security threats, cloud computing, and the
Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA).
The SIMTRAY will provide you with scores to give you a sense
on how well you are grasping the concepts. The sections are
timed for 30 minutes; however, you can run the SIMTRAY as
many times as you need. Record your best score and at least one
lesson learned from the exercise to include in your report at the
end of the three-day simulation.
Step 3
SIMTRAY Adius: Day 2
In the previous step, you started to examine the SIMTRAY,
"Adius: Find Your Way in Three Days."In this step, continue to
focus on SIMTRAY, but document the specific type of
regulatory issues you encounter in your scenario since these
same issues may be relevant to the industry you chose to
examine for your oral presentation. Some of the issues and

16. topics addressed in this exercise include cybersecurity policies,
countermeasures, sql injection, digital evidence, cyber attacks
& threats, mobile technologies, outsourcing - security threats,
cloud computing, and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA).
The SIMTRAY will provide you with scores to give you a sense
on how well you are grasping the concepts. The sections are
timed for 30 minutes; however, you can run the SIMTRAY as
many times as you need. Record your best score and at least one
lesson learned from the exercise to include in your report at the
end of the three-day simulation.
Step 4
Project Practice - SIMTRAY Adius: Day 3
In this step, you should continue to explore the scenarios within
the SIMTRAY, "Adius: Find Your Way in Three Days." If you
have not already, you will most likely encounter the following
topics in this exercise: cybersecurity policies, countermeasures,
SQL injection, digital evidence, cyber attacks & threats, mobile
technologies, outsourcing - security threats, cloud computing,
and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA). Document events
that you experience in the exercise that might affect the
following industries:
· health care
· finance
· telecommunications
· automotive
· retail
Think about how these issues will be affected by proposed
regulation and begin to explore how you might be able to
influence agencies to formulate appropriate standards favorable
to a particular industry.
The SIMTRAY will provide you with scores to give you a sense
on how well you are grasping the concepts. The sections are
timed for 30 minutes; however, you can run the SIMTRAY as
many times as you need. Compile your recorded scores, lessons
learned, and documented industry issues into a one-page report.
Submit your report for feedback.

17. Step 5
Assess Industry Cyber Posture and Create a Relevant Standard
Now that you have chosen your industry and you are aware of
the cyber issues affecting it, it is time to identify a standard to
address one of the cyber issues you identified. For example, in
response to the credit card fraud in the retail industry, the bank
card industry adopted the chip and PIN standard for credit
cards. Using feedback you received from your instructor in
previous steps, create a cybersecurity standard relevant to your
chosen industry. Refer to industry-specific regulations for
additional background on existing regulations.
Create a relevant standard and write a one-page summary
documenting the standard and evaluating the impact it would
have on your selected issues and business operations in your
industry. This summary will be included in your written
comments in the following step.
Submit your Standards Summary for feedback.
Step 6
Written Comments
Develop your final written comments for presentation at the
next standards body meeting. These comments should be
between two and three pages, and it should include a paragraph
on your thoughts about how your comments will be received and
whether or not they will have an impact on the
regulation/standard, etc. Update the Standards Summary from
the previous step according to the feedback you received.
Attach the Standards Summary to your written comments. (The
Standards Summary should not be included in the length
requirement of the written comments.)
Submit your written comments.
Before you submit your assignment, review the competencies
below, which your instructor will use to evaluate your work. A
good practice would be to use each competency as a self-check
to confirm you have incorporated all of them in your work.
· 1.2: Develop coherent paragraphs or points so that each is

18. internally unified and so that each functions as part of the whole
document or presentation.
· 1.6: Follow conventions of Standard Written English.
· 2.5: Develop well-reasoned ideas, conclusions or decisions,
checking them against relevant criteria and benchmarks.
· 5.3: Support policy decisions with the application of specific
cybersecurity technologies and standards.
Running head: SOCIAL PROBLEMS
1
SOCIAL PROBLEMS
2
Animal Rights
Name
Institution
Animal Rights
Currently, the world is faced with a myriad of social issues that
do not only affect human beings but also animals. Today,
animals are faced with cruelty from the very people who are
supposed to protect them. Researchers in the medical field are
using animals for experimentation while hunters and poachers
continue to hunt and kill animals causing the extinction of some
species. This necessitated the birth and animal welfare
movement to create scientific awareness of the suffering of

19. animals (Sinclair & Philips, 2018). Just like other social justice
movements, the current animal liberation movements focus on
eliminating institutional and systematic oppression of animals.
Several animals spend a significant part of their life standing on
concrete floors while others are confined in crowded places
with total disregard for their welfare. Animals too have feelings
just like human beings. This paper provides a comprehensive
view of animal rights as a social problem.
Problem Statement
Despite animals having rights just like human beings, it is
unfortunate that medical research continues to use animals for
experimentation ignoring the fact that doing so subjects animals
to immense suffering especially when parts of their bodies are
mutilated for experimentation. It is imperative that animal
testing is put to a halt to avoid causing harm to different species
of animals.
Symptoms of Animal Experimentation
Every year, thousands of animals are taken to laboratories for
experimentation. This causes them to be tortured and killed
under harsh circumstances because researchers want to
experience amusements in medical breakthroughs they make.
There are several symptoms associated with animal
experimentation. For example, some animal parts are often
unnoticed on animals being experimented. Some animals appear
dizzy and immobile due to chemicals used to immobilize or
disable them. Elsewhere, animals in the laboratories do not only
suffer from the pain they experience. They equally suffer from
stress caused by living in harsh conditions.
Existing Conflicts about Animal Experimentation
In animal testing or experimentation, ethical issues are often
contested. There is often a contest on whether it is right to
inflict avoidable harm or pain on members of a particular
species in order to secure the benefit of other species (Garner,
Lyons & Roberts, 2016). On the other hand, medical researchers
assert that they only use animals as the last option because they

20. cannot experiment using human beings. Regardless of the
benefits of animal experimentation in the medical field that
include a better quality of life, Animal experimentation is a
social problem that has forced animal rights crusaders to
consider it unnecessary and cruel to animals.
Potential Ethical Dilemma
Animal experimentation or testing is surrounded by several
ethical dilemmas. One of the ethical dilemmas is experimenting
with animals to develop pharmaceutical products to save lives
and improve the quality of life while destroying different
species of animals. An experiment that improves the quality of
life of human beings while destroying animals should be
reconsidered.
How the Social Problem has Developed
Animal testing as a social problem has developed from simple
experimentation using animals to industrial experimentation
where thousands of species are taken to laboratories and used
for medical research with total disregard of their welfare
(Garner et al., 2016). The desire to develop potential forms of
treatment is among the chief reasons behind animal testing.
Why it is Important to Investigate the Social Issue
Several reasons make it necessary to investigate animal testing.
For example, the need to protect animals from cruelty makes it
interesting to study the issue. Each year, thousands of animals
are pushed into laboratories for medical research and several of
them do not make it. Some are left with permanent scars on
their bodies.
References
Garner, R., Lyons, D., & Roberts, A. (2016). How to protect
animal welfare. CASJ Policy Research Briefing.
Sinclair, M., & Philips, C. J. C. (2018). International Animal
protection society leadership: The right people for the right
issues. MPDI, 8(89), doi: 10.3390/ani8060089.