Transcript Sample Title Slide

Systematic Approaches to
Literature Reviewing
Dr Tamara O’Connor
Student Learning Development
Trinity College Dublin
[email protected]
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Workshop Overview

Explain elements of the systematic
review process
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Explore how these might be used or
adapted to support thesis literature
review
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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?
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Disagree?
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Literature Matters
From Holbrook et al (2007)
connection
to findings
critical
appraisal
disciplinary
perspective
working
understanding
coverage
scholarliness
literature use
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?
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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
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Agreed standards
High degree of focus
Minimise bias
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Context and differences
Bias of empirical studies
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Strengths of both approaches
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Key features of SR
- of the systematic review process you
might want to adopt or adapt–
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Explicit and transparent methods
Standard set of stages
Accountable, replicable and updateable
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Systematic Reviews
Seven steps (of a Cochrane
Review)
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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?
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Clear and unambiguous
Answerable
Relevant
Positively worded
Free of bias
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1. Formulating a Problem
Example Questions?
Standard SR question contains
subject- intervention- outcome- comparator
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2. Locating and selecting studies
Phase 1- Identify the Research
a broad but defined, systematic sweep
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Defined search terms – record recall
and precision
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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
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TIPS!
Document the
search protocol
and record what
research was
found
Systematically
manage the
search output,
e.g. using
endnote
Other broad search limits
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2. Locating and selecting studies
Phase 2- Selection/Screening
select from research using criteria related to your
research question
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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 only
e.g. maximum exposure time of 10mins
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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
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Evaluate
Synthesise results of literature
review
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Tables to compare
Descriptive
Meta-analysis
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No.
Date
Research Q
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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 websites
Centre 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/JamesThomasESRCMethodolo
gicalchallenges.ppt
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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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