1. Module 5 Literature Review

2. Literature Review - Defined
The literature is a body of published works – it includes experimental and theoretical works or reports
The term literature review is most often used in the following ways:
It can be known as a review of published studies. This is found at the introduction section of a published paper or
It can refer to the process of conducting a personal literature search where one is seeking to find papers in the literature that are related to a specific topic.

3. Literature Review in Published Papers

4. Purpose – Literature Review in Published Papers
Findings from this search to the process of looking over the published works of researchers and is a summary of the published empirical (experimental) and theoretical knowledge about a particular practice problem
The literature review provides the foundation for the study. In it the author:
Describes a current knowledge base
Describes any gaps in knowledge
States how their study will contribute to the knowledge base and fill any gaps in knowledge

5. Sources Included in a Literature Review
Journals
books
published conference proceedings
theses and dissertations

6. When reading a published study, the author does not always provide an area in the report that says “literature review” however, once the author begins describing the work of others, you know you have begun reading about the literature review
Contained in the literature review section, the author may also include a Problem Statement and Significance of the Problem

7. Ethical Issues in a Literature Review
When a researcher summarizes the work of other researchers, the content must be presented honestly and not distorted solely to support or validate their own study
Weaknesses of the other studies need to be addressed but should not be highly critical of another researcher’s work
Criticism should focus on content, be related to the present researcher’s project, and be neutral and scholarly
Sources should be accurately documented

8. Looking at the Literature Review Section of Published Studies
When we look closely at the literature review section of a published study to determine how well a job a researcher has done in summarizing the work of other researchers and describing their weaknesses, we are conducting a critique of the literature review
A list of guidelines that we can use to appraise or evaluate the literature review section of a published study can be found on page 195 of your text

9. Another way of using the phrase “Literature Review”
We also say that we are conducting a literature review when we are reviewing the literature to find articles of interest to us
When we phrase it this way, we do not mean we are summarizing the work of other researchers…..unless we have a written paper and are doing a written summarization

10. Conducting Your Own Literature Review

11. Purpose of a Personal Literature Review
To understand the current knowledge base underlying a particular area of interest
To detect changes in knowledge over time
To identify differing areas of thought related to an area of interest
To detect gaps in knowledge

12. The Literature Review
Basic literature reviews that do not involve original research generally involve searching the literature to find something related to a particular research topic
The goal is to get enough articles to get a general understanding of what research has been done with respect to a particular topic
The literature can be big (depending on the topic)! It is helpful to have a strategic approach:
Keep a record of search engines used, keywords, and hits
Make a table of sources found, year of articles, and specifics related to study (e.g. sample, methods, results, conclusions)
You will do something like this when you begin collecting articles in your final evidence based practice project

13. Library Sources Academic libraries – colleges and universities
Special libraries – hospitals, Sigma Theta Tau Center for Nursing Scholarship
Interlibrary loan
Online search
Public libraries

14. Databases Commonly used databases in nursing:
CINAHL, Medline, OVID, EBSCOhost, Gale Cengage, Cambridge Scientific
These databases generally contain the articles that relate to nursing and healthcare
Nursing issues are many – it is not uncommon to search outside of these databases; sociology, anthropology, and religious studies databases may also contain articles of interest to nurses

15. How are Literature Reviews Conducted?
Basic literature review
Use keywords that consist of major concepts or variables of a research problem
Keywords may be single terms or a phrase
Each keyword used should be listed in a written search plan – keep a paper trail to know what keywords were already used
Complex literature searches
Combine two or more concepts, synonyms, or keywords in one search
Select keywords you have used to perform simple searches

16. See our discussion question for the week to put this all together
Application
See our discussion question for the week to put this all together