Selected titles to help you write a literature review
What is a literature review?
Scribbr (2020) How to write a literature review: 3 minute step-by-step guide. Available at: https://youtu.be/zIYC6zG265E (Accessed: 29 June 2021).
Systematic literature searching
- Systematic literature searchingYou might be an undergraduate who wants to improve the quality of their searches, a postgraduate deciding on a dissertation topic, or a PhD student conducting a systematic literature review as part of your thesis. Or, you might be a member of staff conducting systematic search as part of your academic work, grant application, or Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) programme. This guide is your practical companion, offering insights and strategies to navigate the intricacies of systematic searching work.
Your search strategy
Literature reviews are often conducted as an introduction to a research project. However, they can also be used to gain an overview of the publications or research or evidence available as an introduction to a topic.
For the latter, you will be expected to develop a systematic search strategy to identify and locate the most relevant material (Aveyard, 2019). This means including, as part of your text, the keywords and resources used for your review and the decisions made regarding your selection of materials.
Reference:
Aveyard, H. (2019) Doing a literature review in health and social care: a practical guide.4th edn. London: Open University Press, McGraw-Hill Education.
Search strategy elements
Your search strategy incorporates all the decisions made while selecting items for your literature review.
Themes and keywords
- What are the separate elements of your topic/search?
- Which are the principal key words or search terms for each element?
- Are there obvious alternative search terms that should be included? For example, 'international' could also be described as 'global' or 'worldwide'.
Your initial searches on the topic will help you ascertain relevant search terms.
Item types
- Which types of material are you including in your review? This can be restricted to research articles or encompass policy papers, textbooks, reports, conference presentations, blogs and more.
Resources
- Which bibliographic resources are most relevant to your topic, and the types of material identified above? Options include bibliographic databases and Google Scholar (journal and research papers); the library's OneSearch (books, exemplars and more), Google or other general search engines (policy papers, blogs ...).See Specialist Resources for links to CINAHL and other bibliographic services.
Additional selection criteria
- Which other factors will determine your selection of individual items? For example:
- Does a specific date range for publication apply?
- Are you only interested in a specific scenario or environment?
- Are you focusing on a specific population?
Please remember:
- Your decision making will be influenced, in part, by the restricted nature of your assignment and related timescale.
- You will be accessing and reading multiple items for each assignment. Some of these will be relevant throughout our programme, or in other contexts. See the Keeping Track of your Sources page on this guide for advice on noting details methodically.
Tools to help you focus your topic
There are several tools available to help researchers formulate a robust research question or hypothesis. These may be helpful in refining your topic and developing a search strategy for your assignments.
Tools for: