1 / 33

Doing a Literature Review

Doing a Literature Review. Process. Searching Background Focused Thinking Organization Common themes Contrast and compare. Reading Background reading Critical reading Writing Note taking Summarizing Synthesis. Process (Reality). Reading: Background. Writing: Notetaking.

rfrey
Download Presentation

Doing a Literature Review

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Doing a Literature Review

  2. Process Searching Background Focused Thinking Organization Common themes Contrast and compare • Reading • Background reading • Critical reading • Writing • Note taking • Summarizing • Synthesis

  3. Process (Reality) Reading: Background Writing: Notetaking Reading: Critical Thinking: Organization Searching: Background Writing: Summarizing Searching: Focused Thinking: Common themes Thinking: Contrast and compare Writing: Synthesis

  4. Process (Reality) Reading: Background Writing: Notetaking Reading: Critical Thinking: Organization Searching: Background Writing: Summarizing Searching: Focused Thinking: Common themes Thinking: Contrast and compare Writing: Synthesis

  5. Process (Reality) Reading: Background Writing: Notetaking Reading: Critical Thinking: Organization Searching: Background Writing: Summarizing Searching: Focused Thinking: Common themes Thinking: Contrast and compare Writing: Synthesis

  6. It’s messy… so

  7. Choosing a Topic • Choose something that interests you • Look at news stories to find something that is current • Canadian Newsstream • Factiva • Look at key journal editorials/news • Journal Citation Reports • Medicine, General • Multidisciplinary Sciences

  8. Getting Started • Find out what information is available • Summon • Do some background reading • Find a review article • Use a database filter (Pubmed, Scopus, WoS) • Use review as a search term • Find a book • Look at the Table of Contents • Find an encyclopedia entry • Often provide background readings

  9. Map your topic • Think of the landscape of your topic • Outline the various aspects/concepts/main ideas

  10. An Example of Concept Mapping

  11. or it might look like this... • or

  12. Example: AIDS in Africa

  13. Focus your topic • Pick one or two aspects to focus on • Go deeper into these areas • Develop a research question(s)

  14. Example: AIDS in Africa • Malnutrition • What impact does AIDS have on malnutrition? • What is being done to combat this issue? • Are theses interventions effective? • What more can be done? • Poverty • What is the relationship between AIDS and poverty? • What other factors are involved? • What programs exist to tackle this problem? • Why do certain programs/interventions work and others not? • Orphans • How has AIDS affected children of parents with AIDS in Africa?

  15. Identify Search Terms • From concepts/main ideas to search terms • PICO • Population • Intervention • Comparison • Outcome • Synonyms • Controlled vocabulary

  16. Combining Search Terms • Boolean operators – AND, or, NOT • Phrase searching – “…” • Truncation - * • Proximity operators – N/x, NEARx

  17. Example: AIDS in Africa • AIDS in Africa • (AIDS or “acquired immune deficiency syndrome” or HIV) • (Africa or Sub-sahara* or Eastern or Burundi or ….) • (Child* or youth) • orphan* • (Malnutrition or “nutritional deficiency” or malnourishment) • (Poverty or “low income” or poor) • You may need to do separate searches for different aspects of your topic

  18. Where to look • Think about who/what is interested in the topic • Think about what subject area might cover this topic

  19. Example: AIDS in Africa • African governments • NGOs • AIDs researchers • Economists • Nutritionists

  20. Where to look • Subject Guide > Detailed Guide > Health • Subject Guides > Quick Guides • Political Science • Economics • Public Policy • etc… • Government Information • Canadian – federal, provincial • International

  21. Example: AIDS in Africa • WHO • IRIS Digital Library • Health Topics • PubMed • CINAHL • Worldwide Political Science Abstracts • World Bank • Government Info

  22. Data and Statistics • Data • Canada • ODESI • WHO • Data and statistics • United Nations • UNdata • OECD • OECD.Stat

  23. Keeping it all organized • Citation Management • Mendeley • Endnote • Zotero

  24. Note Taking • Underline • Highlight • Take notes in your own words

  25. Summary vs Synthesis Summary Synthesis An integrated essay based on multiple sources • A summary is a brief statement of a source(s) • In order to synthesize several sources you should first summarize each source individually

  26. Summarize • Why did they bother? • Problem statement, rationale • What was the objective/hypothesis? • How did they do it? • What did they find? • So what? • Significance, implications • Relevance to your research topic?

  27. Synthesize – organization • Sequential • Show progression of the field/topic…. • Topical • Topic 1 with subtopics, topic 2 with subtopics…. • Methodological • No other method has proven…. • Theoretical • Contrast and compare theories….

  28. Identify Common Themes • Hypotheses • Populations studied • Theories • Methods • Outcomes

  29. Contrast and Compare • He said/she said • Do different studies agree or disagree • Do they agree on some things but disagree on others

  30. Identify Gaps • What is missing? • What can be studied next?

  31. Proofreading and editing • Write a draft • Let it sit • Look at it with fresh eyes • Ask your ____ to read it

  32. Resources about lit reviews • Books • Writing literature reviews: A guide for student of the social and behavioral sciences • The literature review: A step-by-step guide fro students • Doing a literature review in nursing, health and social care • Doing your literature review: Traditional and systematic techniques • They say/I say: the moves that matter in academic writing • Online • Carleton • UofT • UBC

  33. Need Help? QUESTIONS? Visit the library Call Research Help Desk 613-520-2600 x2735 Email heather.macdonald@carleton.ca

More Related