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Systematic Approaches to Literature Reviewing

Dr Tamara O’Connor Student Learning DevelopmentTrinity College Dublin

toconnor@tcd.ie

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Workshop Overview

Explain elements of the systematic review process

Explore how these might be used or adapted to support thesis literature review

Contextualise this within other approaches to managing and working with the literature

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The Literature Review ?

“Literature reviews …… introduce a topic, summarise the main issues and

provide some illustrative examples.”

from www.eppi.ioe.ac.uk

Agree? Disagree?

Literature Matters

From Holbrook et al (2007)

disciplinary perspective

connection to findings

coverage

working understanding

critical appraisal

scholarliness

literature use

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Agree? or Disagree?

If they are to be considered a reliable source of research evidence they should record how the primary studies were sought and selected and how they were analysed to produce their conclusions.

Readers need to be able to judge whether all of the relevant literature is likely to have been found, and how the quality of studies was assessed.

1 Agree? 5 Disagree? 10

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Systematic Reviews

A review of a clearly formulated question that uses systematic and explicit methods to identify, select and critically appraise relevant research, and to collect and analyse data from the studies that are included within the review. Statistical methods (meta-analysis) may or may not be used to analyse and summarise the results of the included studies. 

from www.sebc.bangor.ac.uk

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Systematic v.s. Narrative reviews

Agreed standards High degree of focus Minimise bias

Context and differences Bias of empirical studies

Strengths of both approaches

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Key features of SR

- of the systematic review process you might want to adopt or adapt–

Explicit and transparent methods Standard set of stages Accountable, replicable and updateable

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Systematic Reviews

Seven steps (of a Cochrane Review)

Formulating a problem Locating and selecting studies Critical appraisal of studies Collecting data Analyzing and presenting

results Interpreting results Improving and updating

reviews

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1. Formulating a Problem

What is your research question? Clear and unambiguous Answerable Relevant Positively worded Free of bias

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1. Formulating a Problem

Example Questions?

Standard SR question containssubject- intervention- outcome- comparator

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Phase 1- Identify the Researcha broad but defined, systematic sweep

Defined search terms – record recall and precision

Defined search arena - e.g. databases, citation indices, reference lists from primary and review articles, grey literature, conference proceedings, research registers, the internet, individual researchers/practitioners

Other broad search limits

2. Locating and selecting studies

TIPS! Document the search protocol and record what

research was found

Systematically manage the

search output, e.g. using

endnote

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2. Locating and selecting studies

Phase 2- Selection/Screeningselect from research using criteria related to your

research question

Develop inclusion or exclusion statements, these might relate to study outcomes, research design, methods used, population worked with etc.

e.g. studies with a mixed population of men and women

e.g. random control trials onlye.g. maximum exposure time of 10mins

TIPS! Document the

statements and

their purpose (might be

pragmatic or research related)

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3. Critical appraisal of studies

“Assessing the quality of methodology is a critical part of the systematic review process”

No standard approach but there are hierarchies in fields of study

Quality of methodology, results, conclusions Balance

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3. Critical appraisal of studies

What would be appropriate to consider when critically

appraising research in your area?

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4. Collect data & analyse

Evaluate Synthesise results of literature

review Tables to compare Descriptive Meta-analysis

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No. Date Research Q Design Sample Method Variables Analysis Results Conc Issues

                     

                     

                     

                     

                     

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Write up literature review

Example Background Purpose/Research question Method Findings Discussion Implications/Recommendations

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What next?

How might I adapt this process?

Something I want to work on is…..

One idea I’m thinking about is…..

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SR websitesCentre for Evidence-based Conservation -http://www.cebc.bangor.ac.uk/

Centre for Reviews and Dissemination (medical) -http://www.york.ac.uk/inst/crd/index.htm

Cochrane Collaboration (international- medical) -http://www.cochrane.org/

EPPI-Centre, Institute of Education - http://eppi.ioe.ac.uk/cms/

Social Policy and Social Care -http://www.york.ac.uk/inst/chp/srspsc/index.htm

Campbell Collaboration http://www.campbellcollaboration.org/

If you read one article, an example here of a review of the ways studies in reviews are appraised - http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=521688

If you prefer power-point, how about this one on mixed method reviews http://www.ccsr.ac.uk/methods/events/challenges/documents/JamesThomasESRCMethodologicalchallenges.ppt

References

Cresswell, J.W. (2003) Research design: qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods approaches. Thousand Oaks,CA: Sage Publications.

Fink, A. (2005) Conducting research literature reviews: From the internet to paper, 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Hart, C. (2001) Doing a literature search: Comprehensive guide for the social sciences. London: Sage Publications.

Holbrook, A., Bourke, S., Fairbairn, H. & Lovat, T. (2007) Examiner comments on the literature review in Ph.D. theses. Studies in Higher Education, 32 (3), 337-356.

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