Undertaking a Literature Review

Undertaking a Literature Review

Learning Objectives

  • By the end of this topic, students should be able to:

    • Understand and explain the role of literature reviews in research.

    • Define and describe various types of literature reviews and their applications.

    • Understand and apply different methods for conducting a literature review, e.g., structured literature review.

Definition of Literature

  • Literature encompasses various sources utilized in research, including:

    • Refereed journal articles

    • Professional journals

    • Books

    • Textbooks

    • Conference papers and proceedings

    • Governmental and professional reports

    • Audio and video records

    • Personal communications (letters, interviews)

    • Reference lists of useful articles

    • Unpublished doctoral and master's theses (known as grey literature)

    • Literature databases (Indexes)

Categories of Literature

  1. Theoretical Literature (scholarly, non-research):

    • Comprises concept analyses, models, theories, and conceptual frameworks supporting the selected research problem/purpose.

  2. Empirical Literature (scientific literature, research literature):

    • Involves research studies providing data and findings based on empirical evidence.

  3. Grey Literature:

    • Consists of articles not published through the peer-review process, including publications from government agencies, organizations, guidelines, protocols, and standards.

Source Types

  • Primary Sources: Empirical studies where authors report original research findings.

  • Secondary Sources: Summarize and draw conclusions from multiple primary studies.

  • Reference: Ohio Northern University source on research resources (2020).

Practical Examples of Literature

  • Sayadi et al. (2021): Study on how drug dosage calculation training affects nursing students' skills.

  • Sun et al. (2021): Examination of nursing graduates' experiences with anxiety during their final university year.

  • Halter & Varcarolis (2019): A manual for psychiatric nursing care planning.

  • Labrague et al. (2019): Systematic review on high-fidelity simulation effect on nursing students' anxiety.

  • Sakai et al. (2022): Study on depression and anxiety among nursing students during the COVID-19 pandemic.

What is a Literature Review?

  • A literature review is a critical analysis of the literature or research related to a specific topic or question.

  • Source: https://ltl.lincoln.ac.nz/research/writing-a-literature-review/what-is-a-literature-review/

Purpose of a Literature Review

  • Show relationships between previous studies or theories.

  • Identify existing information in the field of research.

  • Identify gaps in existing literature.

  • Provide context for one’s own research study.

  • Discover other individuals researching in the same field.

  • Identify main ideas, conclusions, theories, similarities, and differences across literature.

  • Identify principal methodologies and research techniques employed.

  • Recognize seminal works in the field.

Uses of Literature

  • Literature serves various purposes:

    • As authority to support a position.

    • As information to provide examples supporting an argument.

    • As context to show how proposed research fits within the field.

    • As canon to define a field or sub-field and delineate its boundaries.

Research Process Overview

  1. Identify and define the research problem.

  2. Conduct a literature review (assess current knowledge, practices, gaps).

  3. Develop a research question.

  4. Choose a study design.

  5. Gather data (consider setting/sample/methods).

  6. Analyze data.

  7. Interpret results and draw conclusions.

  8. Report findings.

Types of Literature Reviews

  1. Broadly, there are two primary forms:

    • Synthesis of existing literature that identifies gaps requiring empirical research.

    • Original work that can function independently as valuable research.

    • References: Paré & Kitsiou (p.157)

  2. Types include:

    • Traditional reviews

    • Rapid reviews

    • Systematic reviews

    • Reviews of reviews

    • Qualitative reviews

    • Mixed-methods (MM) reviews

    • Purpose-specific reviews

    • Reference: Sutton et al. (2019).

Narrative Literature Review

  • A comprehensive narrative synthesis of existing knowledge on a topic in a particular context.

  • Has a flexible scope that may adapt during the review process.

  • Critically evaluates the focused research topic.

  • Summarizes various primary studies and draws holistic conclusions.

  • Strict inclusion/exclusion criteria are typically not established beforehand.

Integrative Review

  • Synthesizes accumulated knowledge on related topics.

  • Highlights important issues and trends.

  • Combines studies employing diverse methodologies.

  • Utilizes a structure that describes how an issue is conceptualized in the literature.

  • Presents varied perspectives based on quantitative and qualitative studies.

  • Whittemore & Knafl (2005) outline five stages:

    • Problem identification

    • Literature search

    • Data evaluation

    • Data analysis

    • Presentation

Systematic Review

  • Provides a robust overview of clinical interventions or specific research questions.

  • Defined search parameters are established in advance.

  • Stricter inclusion criteria for qualifying studies.

  • Synthesizes findings with statistical or narrative analysis to inform research and practice.

Meta-Analysis

  • A technique that statistically combines results from quantitative studies to derive a more precise overall effect.

  • Offers conclusions with greater power than individual studies due to synthesizing multiple datasets.

Meta-Synthesis

  • A structured approach for analyzing data from qualitative studies.

  • Aims to deepen understanding of concepts related to a particular topic through various qualitative methods.

Grey Literature Definition

  • Information generated across government, academia, and other sectors not controlled by commercial publishing.

  • Examples: technical reports, theses, conference papers, etc.

  • Advantages include reducing publication bias and increasing inclusivity and timeliness.

Literature Review Process Steps

  1. Formulate a research question.

  2. Search the literature.

  3. Screen for inclusion.

  4. Conduct quality appraisal.

  5. Extract and synthesize data.

  6. Write the review.

12-Step Approach

  1. Purpose statement/background.

  2. Document databases utilized.

  3. Explain search limits.

  4. Define inclusion/exclusion criteria.

  5. List search terms used.

  6. Document search process.

  7. Assess retrieved articles for relevance.

  8. Use PRISMA flow diagram for search results.

  9. Document summary table of included articles.

  10. Execute quality appraisal for each article.

  11. Critically review the literature.

  12. Verify reference list accuracy