Call Girls Aurangabad Just Call 9907093804 Top Class Call Girl Service Available
Literature reviews & literature searches
1. Literature Reviews &
Literature Searches
Taghreed Justinia Msc PhD
Asst. Professor, Department of Health Informatics
Asst. Director, Information & Communication Technology
KSAU-HS, NGHA
Tel. +966 2 6240000 ext 26217 / 26210
Email: JustiniaT@ngha.med.sa
2. In this session…
Definition and understanding of a literature review
Important steps in literature review writing
Critical appraisal of journals, articles and websites
2Literature Reviews & Literature Searches
3. Literature Search
The best way to find high quality information is to
carry out a literature search on one or more databases
and to download, copy or request relevant current
publications on the topic/s of interest.
3Literature Reviews & Literature Searches
4. What is a research literature
review?
It is a systematic, explicit and reproducible method
for identifying, evaluating, and synthesizing the
existing body of completed and recorded work
produced by researchers, scholars, and practitioners.
Fink, A. (2005). Conducting Research Literature Reviews. London: Sage.
4Literature Reviews & Literature Searches
5. Steps in
literature review writing
Selecting the research questions
Selecting the sources
Choosing search terms
Conducting the search
Applying practical screening criteria
Critically appraising the literature
Journals & Articles
Websites
5Literature Reviews & Literature Searches
7. Research questions influence
search results
Relevancy
Retrieval
(# of search
results)
Broad
Questions
Narrow
Questions
High =
lots of
articles
Low =
very few
articles
High = directly
relevant articles
Low = mostly
irrelevant articles
7Literature Reviews & Literature Searches
8. Possible research questions
Broad question:
What is the prevalence of bacterial meningitis?
Narrow question:
What costs are associated with hospitalization for bacterial
meningitis?
Very narrow question:
What strategies have been utilized in Saudi Arabia to reduce length
of stay for patients with bacterial meningitis?
8Literature Reviews & Literature Searches
10. Literature review data sources
Online public bibliographic databases
Commercial bibliographic databases
Specialized bibliographic databases
Manual or “hand searches” of references lists
“Grey literature”
Web reports
Expert opinions
10Literature Reviews & Literature Searches
11. Bibliographic Databases
Medicine
PubMed (or Ovid MEDLINE), EMBASE, Cochrane Library, PsycINFO
Multidisciplinary
Scopus
Web of Science
Nursing and Allied Health
CINAHL
11Literature Reviews & Literature Searches
12. Websites
Associations, Organizations & Government
World Health Organization (WHO)
Health Canada
Canadian Medical Association
National Health Service (NHS)
12Literature Reviews & Literature Searches
13. “Grey Literature”
Dissertations & Theses
SCOPUS (conference proceedings)
Web search engines
13Literature Reviews & Literature Searches
15. Break down the
research question
Select your database
Break down the research question into concepts
Identify subject headings (descriptors) for each concept
Identify text words for each concept
Use a “target article” to help identify search terms
Use a worksheet to keep track of your terms
1. Your database will determine your subject headings and
operators (i.e., truncation symbols)
15Literature Reviews & Literature Searches
16. Different databases have
different subject headings
Select subject headings that are the closest match for your concept
General descriptors: Anatomy
More specific descriptors: Ankle
Database Subject Headings
Medline MeSH
EMBASE EMTREE
CINAHL CINAHL Headings
Cochrane Library MeSH
PsycINFO Thesaurus of Psychological Index
Terms
Scopus, Web of Science N/A
16Literature Reviews & Literature Searches
17. Search Strategy Worksheet
Search Strategy Worksheet_________________________________________________
Search statement: I am looking for articles about ___________________________________________________________________
After writing out the search statement, underline the key concepts. Decide how the concepts will be combined together using the
AND and OR Boolean operators. Concepts to be ANDed go across the grid and concepts to be ORed go down the grid.
Fill in the grid with the key concepts and possible synonyms for each concept.
AND AND AND AND
OR
OR
OR
OR
OR
OR
OR
Databases to search:___________________________________________________________________________________________
Limits to apply:_______________________________________________________________________________________________
17Literature Reviews & Literature Searches
18. Key Operators in OVID
Operator Command Example
* Find alternate endings to this
word
nurs* [will find nurse, nursing,
nurses]
.tw. Search for this term in the
Title and Abstract fields
anxiety.tw.
adj Search for one term within x
number of terms from another
patient adj3 anxiety [will find
patient within three words of
anxiety]
AND Find articles where both terms
appear
smoking AND cessation
OR Find articles where either
term appears
smoking OR tobacco
18Literature Reviews & Literature Searches
20. Conducing the Search
Start with your first concept
Search for the subject headings first
Then search text words
Combine these synonymous searches with OR using your
search history
Repeat for your second, third, and subsequent concepts
Finally, combine large search results set with AND
Example MeSH search: hypertenstion AND toxicity
20Literature Reviews & Literature Searches
21. Concepts
Which concepts are contained in the question:
Does hand washing prevent MRSA in the ICU?
Hand washing
Prevention
MRSA
ICU
21Literature Reviews & Literature Searches
22. Getting the search results
Concept 1
SEARCH 1
SEARCH 2
SEARCH 3
SEARCH 4
SEARCH 5 = 1 OR 2 OR 3 OR 4
Concept 1
SEARCH 6
SEARCH 7
SEARCH 8
SEARCH 9
SEARCH 10 = 1 OR 2 OR 3 OR 4
SEARCH 11 = 5 AND 10 = RESULTS
22Literature Reviews & Literature Searches
24. Screening Criteria Examples
Date of publication
only studies conducted between 2005 and 2010
Participants or subjects
only children 6 to 12 years of age
Publication language
only materials written in English or French
Research design
only clinical trials
24Literature Reviews & Literature Searches
25. Citation List
Searching databases will result in a list of citations,
which include the information needed to locate the
articles in print journals and other sources
25Literature Reviews & Literature Searches
27. Be Critical
Once you have obtained the papers most relevant to
your question you should consider a number of things
before using the results.
This applies even when the publications are from peer
reviewed journals.
27Literature Reviews & Literature Searches
28. Publication Bias
Negative results don’t (often) get published – If you
want to carry out a detailed or systematic review of a
subject area, you might consider trying to get hold of
unpublished studies.
Reviewers may be biased against unconventional
versus conventional techniques (eg orthodox drug
versus alternative therapy).
28Literature Reviews & Literature Searches
29. Authorship
Are the authors based at a well-established Centre of
Excellence?
Are there any issues of sponsorship or competing
interests?
29Literature Reviews & Literature Searches
30. Journal Ranking &
Impact Factors
Impact Factor is:
A measure of the frequency with which the "average
article" in a journal has been cited in a particular year or
period
The impact factor of a journal is linked to its
popularity and accessibility
Journals with higher impact factors in a subject area
are generally more highly regarded
30Literature Reviews & Literature Searches
31. Abstract Quality
Read the paper carefully; don’t rely on only the abstract
Many abstracts in peer reviewed journals have errors
Three common types of inaccuracies are:
data inconsistent in abstract and body of the paper,
tables, and figures
data or information in the abstract do not appear
elsewhere; and
conclusions in the abstract not substantiated in the paper
itself
31Literature Reviews & Literature Searches
33. Be critical, be selective
The peer review system for journal articles provides a
degree of quality control.
However, anybody can put anything on the web (you
have to do your own critical appraisal).
33Literature Reviews & Literature Searches
34. What to consider
Content
consider intended audience, purpose of site, accuracy
are the sources of information provided?
Source; Consider
author(s)
is it current and up to date?
depth/breadth of coverage
bias – are there any conflicts of interest
Structure; Consider
graphics, presentation, ease of use, clarity
34Literature Reviews & Literature Searches
35. Don’t forget!
Your subject librarian can always help you. Don’t
waste that valuable resource.
Make an point to meet your medical/university
librarian to assist and advise you on your literature
searches and literature reviews.
35Literature Reviews & Literature Searches
36. Useful References
Fink, A. (2005). Conducting Research Literature Reviews. London:
Sage.
Greenhalgh, T. (2006). How to read a paper (3rd ed.). London: BMJ
Publishing Group.
Sackett, D., Straus, S., & Richardson, W. (2000). Evidence-based
medicine (2nd ed.). Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone.
Wilson, P. (2002). How to find the good and avoid the bad or ugly.
A short guide to tools for rating quality of health information on
the internet. BMJ, 324, 598-602.
36Literature Reviews & Literature Searches
37. Useful Sites
NHS Solutions for Public Health http://www.sph.nhs.uk/what-
we-do/public-health-workforce/resources
CADTH. Grey Matters: a practical search tool for evidence-based
medicine - http://cadth.ca/en/resources/grey-matters
Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews and Interventions -
http://www.cochrane-handbook.org/
IOM (Institute of Medicine). Finding what works in health care:
standards for systematic reviews -
http://www.iom.edu/Reports/2011/Finding-What-Works-in-Health-
Care-Standards-for-Systematic-Reviews.aspx
37Literature Reviews & Literature Searches