2. Definition
• ROL – broad , comprehensive, indepth,
systematic and critical review of scholarly
publication , unpublished printed or audio-
visual materials and personal communications.
– S.K .Sharma
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3. Importance of literature review
Identify r/s problem
Generate useful r/s question
Orientation to what is known and unknown
Determine any gaps or inconsistencies in the
body of knowledge
Provide evidence that the selected r/s problem is
of importance
Discover unanswered questions
Determine the need to replicate a study
Contnd…
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4. Contn ….
Identify relevant conceptual framework
Describe the strength and weaknesses of the r/s
design/methods
Develop hypotheses to be tested
Develop the methodology and the instrument for
the r/s
Identify suitable data collection method
Assists in interpreting the results
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5. Purposes
Enhance the r/s ers knowledge
Convey the reader previous knowledge and facts
established on a topic, their strengths &
weaknesses
Describe the relationship of each study to other
research studies under consideration
Identify new ways to interpret the previous
research
Guide for further research
Contnd…
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6. Contn…..
See what has and has not been investigated
Identify potential relationships between concepts
Learn how others have defined and measured key
concepts
Develop alternative research projects
Place one’s original work in the context of the
existing literature .
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7. Types
• Traditional / narrative
• Systemic
• Meta analysis
• Meta synthesis
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8. Sources
• Primary sources
R/s reports which are description of studies
written by r/sers who conducted them.
• Secondary sources
Description of studies prepared by someone other
than the original researcher.
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9. • Electronic sources
▫ Search engines
▫ Database
Bibliographic
Full text database
Databases are :
CINAHL, MEDLINE, PubMed, BNI, Medline Plus,
NHS, Registry of Nursing Research, Cochrane database
of systems review, ERIC, PsychINFO, Dissertation
abstracts online, journals online.
• Printed sources
▫ Journals, r/s reports, unpublished dissertations and
theses, magazines and newspapers, conference
papers, encyclopedias and dictionaries, books
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10. Criteria for selecting resources for
review
• Comprehensive, up-to-date
• Systematic
• Reproducible
• Absence of bias
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11. Steps of ROL
Formulate
and refine
primary and
secondary
questions
Formulate a
search
strategy
Search
bibliogr
aphic
databas
es
Screening
&
gathering
references
Document
ation
Coding
the
studies
Literatur
e review
protocols
Literatur
e review
matrices
Research
critique
of
individual
studies
Evaluatin
g body of
research
Analyzing
and
synthesizing
information
Organizing
the review
Writing
the
literature
review
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13. 2. Formulating a search strategy
• Search through bibliographic data base
• Ancestry approach (footnote chasing) – using
citations from relevant studies to track down
earlier research on which the studies are based
(ancestors)
• Descendancy approach – find a pivotal early study
and to search forward in citation indexes to find
more recent studies (descendants) that cited the
key study
• Grey literature – studies with limited distribution
– such as conference papers or unpublished
reports
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14. Contn…
• Decision about delimiting the search eg: reports
written in their own language
• Limit your search to studies within a time frame
or to certain operational definition of key
variables
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15. 3. Search bibliographic database
• Print based bibliographic resources – outdated
• Resources that can be accessed by computer is of
use
Getting started with electronic search
• Identify key words to launch a search
• Key word is a word or a phrase that captures the
key concepts in your question
• For Quantitative studies – IDV, DV, popln – key
words
• Be flexible in creating key words
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16. • For most of the bibliographic database searches, there
are various types of search approaches
• All the citations in the database are indexed so that they
can be retrieved
• The indexing systems have specific subject headings
(subject codes)
• You can undertake a subject search by entering a subject
heading into the search field
• If you are not familiar about the subject codes most of
the databases use mapping feature
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17. • Mapping is a feature that allows you to search for the
topic in your own key words rather than subject
headings.
• The software translates (maps) the key word you enter
into the most plausible subject heading
• Subject headings can be accessed through the database’s
thesaurus or other reference tools
• When you enter a keyword into the search field, it is
likely that the program will institute both a subject
search and text word search.
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18. • A text word search will search your specific keyword in
the text fields of the records in the database ie, in the
title or in the abstract
• It is also possible to search for the author. An author
search is productive if you are familiar with the names of
leading r/sers in the profession
• Ways to search a textword
▫ A wildcard character which is a symbol such as “$” or
“*” can be used to search for multiple words that share the
same root
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19. ▫ To do this the wildcard character is inserted immediately after
the truncated root.
▫ Eg: if we enter nurs* in the search field the computer will
search for any word that begins with nurs… like nurses,
nursing, nurses
▫ Another way to force a test word search is to use quotation
marks around a phrase
▫ Eg: a search on lung cancer and “ lung cancer” might yield
different results
To do a thorough search – search with and without wild
characters and with and without quotation marks
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22. 4. Screening and gathering the
references
• Criteria for gathering references
▫ Screen for accessibility
▫ Relevance
▫ Methodologic quality
• Store the obtained articles in a manner that it is easily
retrieved
• Either alphabetic filing or chronological filing
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23. 5. Documentation in literature
retrieval
• You will be likely to lose track of your efforts if
you donot document your actions
• Maintain a notebook to record your search
strategies and results
• Write specific key words, subject headings, and
authors used to do the search
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24. 6. Coding and encoding the studies
• Code the literature according to the variables in
the study.
• Assigning numbers to the variables to make the
search easier
• Write down the key features of the studies under
review
• You can use formal system of recording
information from each study
• Use either literature protocol or matrix format
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25. 7. Literature review protocols
• Protocols are means of recording various aspects
of a study systematically, including the full
citation, theoretical foundations, methodologic
features , findings and conclusion
• No such format
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26. 8. Literature review matrix
• Methodologic matrix – which organizes
information to answer how have the researcher
studied this r/s
• Results matrix – which addressess what r/ser
have found
• Evaluation matrix- designed to answer how
much confidence do we have in evidence (say
about strength and weaknesses)
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27. 9. Critiquing the studies
• Critique for a literature review tend to focus on
methodologic aspects.
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29. 11. Analyzing and synthesizing
information
• Identify important themes
• Different types of themes identified are:
▫ Substantive themes – analyzing the evidence (
what is the pattern, how much evidence is there,
how consistent is, how powerful, and what gaps
exist in the evidence )
▫ Methodologic themes – what methods and dsigns
are used? What not have been used?what are the
strengths and waeknessess,
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30. ▫ Generalizability/ transferability themes – to what
type of people does the finding apply?, do they
vary for different kind of people or setting ?
▫ Historical themes – is the evidence getting better?
Is the trends in each areas implemented
▫ Researcher themes – details of the researcher
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31. 12. Organizing the review
• Organize the review in the form of a table with
needed headings
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32. 13.Writing a literature review
• Summarize in your own words
• Donot string together the quotes from previus
research studies
• Be objective
• Include studies that contradict personal values,
and other studies
• Conclude with a concise summary of current
evidence on the topic
• Summary should recap key findings, indicate
how credible they are and make a note on the
gaps in evidence
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33. • 3 parts
▫ Introduction
▫ Body
▫ Conclusion
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34. Guidelines for writing literature
review
Be specific
Be selective
Focus on current topics
Ensure evidence for claims
Focus on sources for evidence
Account of contrary evidences
Reference citation
Contd….
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35. Contn…
Organization of literature review
Referring original source
Write in own language
Simple and accurate sentence structure
Group the ideas
Effective use of transition words
Avoid abbrevations
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