Module 5 Literature Review

Literature Review - DefinedThe literature is a body of published works – it

includes experimental and theoretical works or reports

The term literature review is most often used in the following ways:It can be known as a review of published studies.

This is found at the introduction section of a published paper or

It can refer to the process of conducting a personal literature search where one is seeking to find papers in the literature that are related to a specific topic.

Literature Review in Published Papers

Purpose – Literature Review in Published Papers

Findings from this search to the process of looking over the published works of researchers and is a summary of the published empirical (experimental) and theoretical knowledge about a particular practice problem

The literature review provides the foundation for the study. In it the author:Describes a current knowledge baseDescribes any gaps in knowledgeStates how their study will contribute to the

knowledge base and fill any gaps in knowledge

Sources Included in a Literature ReviewJournalsbookspublished conference proceedingstheses and dissertations

When reading a published study, the author does not always provide an area in the report that says “literature review” however, once the author begins describing the work of others, you know you have begun reading about the literature review

Contained in the literature review section, the author may also include a Problem Statement and Significance of the Problem

Ethical Issues in a Literature ReviewWhen a researcher summarizes the work of

other researchers, the content must be presented honestly and not distorted solely to support or validate their own study

Weaknesses of the other studies need to be addressed but should not be highly critical of another researcher’s work

Criticism should focus on content, be related to the present researcher’s project, and be neutral and scholarly

Sources should be accurately documented

Looking at the Literature Review Section of Published Studies

When we look closely at the literature review section of a published study to determine how well a job a researcher has done in summarizing the work of other researchers and describing their weaknesses, we are conducting a critique of the literature review

A list of guidelines that we can use to appraise or evaluate the literature review section of a published study can be found on page 195 of your text

Another way of using the phrase “Literature Review”

We also say that we are conducting a literature review when we are reviewing the literature to find articles of interest to us

When we phrase it this way, we do not mean we are summarizing the work of other researchers…..unless we have a written paper and are doing a written summarization

Conducting Your Own Literature Review

Purpose of a Personal Literature ReviewTo understand the current knowledge base

underlying a particular area of interestTo detect changes in knowledge over timeTo identify differing areas of thought related

to an area of interestTo detect gaps in knowledge

The Literature ReviewBasic literature reviews that do not involve original

research generally involve searching the literature to find something related to a particular research topic

The goal is to get enough articles to get a general understanding of what research has been done with respect to a particular topic

The literature can be big (depending on the topic)! It is helpful to have a strategic approach:Keep a record of search engines used, keywords, and hitsMake a table of sources found, year of articles, and specifics

related to study (e.g. sample, methods, results, conclusions) You will do something like this when you begin collecting articles in

your final evidence based practice project

Library SourcesAcademic libraries – colleges and universitiesSpecial libraries – hospitals, Sigma Theta Tau

Center for Nursing ScholarshipInterlibrary loanOnline searchPublic libraries

DatabasesCommonly used databases in nursing:

CINAHL, Medline, OVID, EBSCOhost, Gale Cengage, Cambridge Scientific

These databases generally contain the articles that relate to nursing and healthcare

Nursing issues are many – it is not uncommon to search outside of these databases; sociology, anthropology, and religious studies databases may also contain articles of interest to nurses

How are Literature Reviews Conducted?Basic literature review

Use keywords that consist of major concepts or variables of a research problem

Keywords may be single terms or a phraseEach keyword used should be listed in a written

search plan – keep a paper trail to know what keywords were already used

Complex literature searchesCombine two or more concepts, synonyms, or

keywords in one searchSelect keywords you have used to perform simple

searches

Application

See our discussion question for the week to put this all together