Systematic Approaches to Literature Reviewing

Systematic Approaches to Literature Reviewing Dr Tamara O’Connor Student Learning Development toconnor@tcd.ie

Workshop Overview • explain elements of the systematic review process • explore how these might be used or adapted to support: - a thesis literature review; - approaches to keeping up-to-date with the literature through a PhD • contextualise this within other approaches to managing and working with the literature

disciplinary perspective connection to findings critical appraisal working understanding coverage scholarliness literature use Literature Matters From Holbrook et al (2007)

The Literature Review ? “Literature reviews …… introduce a topic, summarise the main issues and provide some illustrative examples.” from www.eppi.ioe.ac.uk Agree? Disagree?

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? 5 Disagree? 10

Systematic Reviews areview 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. fromwww.sebc.bangor.ac.uk

Key features - of the systematic review process you might want to adopt or adapt– • Explicit and transparent methods • a standard set of stages • Accountable, replicable and updateable

Systematic Reviews Seven steps (of a Cochrane Review) • Formulating a problem • Locating and selecting studies • Critical appraisal of studies • Collecting data • Analyzing and presenting results • Interpreting results • Improving and updating reviews

1. Formulating a Problem What is your research question?

1. Formulating a Problem Example Questions? Standard SR question contains subject- intervention- outcome- comparator

2. Locating and selecting studies Phase 1- Identify the Research a broad but defined, systematic sweep Defined search terms – record recall and precision 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 Other broad search limits, e.g. language, date, TIPS! Document the search protocol and record what research was found Systematically manage the search output, e.g. using endnote

2. Locating and selecting studies Phase 2- Selection select from research using criteria related to your research question 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 TIPS! Document the statements and their purpose (might be pragmatic or research related)

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

connection connection connection to findings to findings to findings critical critical critical appraisal appraisal appraisal disciplinary disciplinary disciplinary working working working perspective perspective perspective understanding understanding understanding coverage coverage coverage scholarliness scholarliness scholarliness literature use literature use 3. Critical appraisal of studies No standard approach but there are hierarchies in fields of study

3. Critical appraisal of studies In field/ discipline groups Brainstorm the range of research variance that exists that can be used to discriminate between studies e.g. in methodological approaches, theoretical stances, or in relation to other factors,

What next? One thing I’ve realised…… Something I want to work on is….. One idea I’m thinking about is….. As a result of this workshop I….

Other ideas and options Speed reading Endnote Databases in my area Data mining techniques

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 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 reviewshttp://www.ccsr.ac.uk/methods/events/challenges/documents/JamesThomasESRCMethodologicalchallenges.ppt

Systematic Approaches to Literature Reviewing