Researching and

Writing an Effective
Background Section
of a Research Paper

Lori Fitterling, MLS

University Librarian
Kansas City University of Medicine & Biosciences
lfitterling@kcumb.edu
 Lori Fitterling, MLS
University Library Director
Kansas City University of Medicine &
Biosciences
lfitterling@kcumb.edu

 Instructor of Medical Informatics and

Information Literacy
 26 years working in libraries
 16 years working in medical libraries
Objectives
 Explain what should be included in the background section of a
research paper
 Describe the process for conducting an effective literature
review and why it is important in research methodology
 Identify strategies used in database searching
 Summarize ways to critically analyze results
 Recognize the written elements of the background section of a
research paper
How to begin?
Clearly define research objectives/purpose
– Is topic researchable?
– What is the scope – too broad, too narrow?
– Is the topic timely, relevant, original or innovative?
– Who is your audience? Who will be interested in your
research?
– What methods of analysis will you use?
– Has this research been done before?
– Identify preliminary information sources
Beginning the Research Process

Initial Question/Topic • Select keywords, phrases to

define your topic
• Look for relevant information
Keywords/Search strategy on topic
• Repeat as often as necessary
Search • Enlist the help of librarians

Review/Evaluate Results
  BACKGROUND SECTION
• Initial review and introduction
• Relevant information
• History
• Foundation for scientific inquiry
• Research methodology
• Thorough, unbiased, strong

Purpose is to introduce and support the validity of the research study

Background Section Must Have’s
 Introductory thesis statement,
research question, hypothesis
 Statement of relevance of
study
 Specific aims and research
objectives
 Summary of current research
 History of past research,
noting problems with previous
studies
 Key issues and significance of
the research
 Conclusive statement
 Good research design begins with a
good Literature Review

“Failure to conduct a thorough, accurate, and up-to-date

literature review identifying an important problem and placing the
study in context is consistently identified as one of the top reasons
for rejection.”

Maggio LA, Sewell JL, Artino AR Jr. The Literature Review: A Foundation for High-Quality Medical Education
Research. J Grad Med Educ. 2016 Jul;8(3):297-303. doi: 10.4300/JGME-D-16-00175.1. PubMed PMID: 27413425.
  LITERATURE REVIEW
 Discover what has been published on a topic by accredited scholars
and researchers
 Organize results and define exclusion criteria
 Synthesize results
 Note controversial findings
 Summarize
 Trying to
find out
everything
you can about
your topic can
be daunting
Critical SKILLS
Information Critical
Seeking Appraisal

Search Assess
efficiently trustworthiness

Know what Assess

search results relevance
mean
 Searching for Information
• Primary literature
• Secondary literature
• Print/electronic
• Books, Journals
• Scholarly, peer-reviewed, indexed
• Grey literature
• Mainstream
• Social media
Looking for evidence
– Primary Studies, unfiltered
– Clinical trials
– Randomized Controlled Trials
– Multicenter studies
– Secondary, pre-appraised, or filtered
– Reviews
– Meta-analyses

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Research_design_and_evidence.svg
https://academicguides.waldenu.edu/healthevidence/evidencepyramid
The Search
• Select databases
• Keywords, phrases, indexed terms; break topic into specific
concepts

• Create a search strategy

• Read the article, more than just the abstract
• Look at the article references
• Utilize exclusion criteria to create a reference list
• Refine and narrow search and repeat
 Search Strategy
Use Boolean Operators to broaden or narrow search: AND, OR, NOT
Set filters, limits  Article/publication type
 Publication dates
 Species
 Language
 Sex
 Subject
 Ages

Example search:
CT scan AND head trauma searched as Keywords in PubMed
("tomography, x-ray computed"[MeSH Terms] OR ("tomography"[All Fields] AND "x-ray"[All Fields] AND "computed"[All Fields])
OR "x-ray computed tomography"[All Fields] OR ("ct"[All Fields] AND "scan"[All Fields]) OR "ct scan"[All Fields]) AND
("craniocerebral trauma"[MeSH Terms] OR ("craniocerebral"[All Fields] AND "trauma"[All Fields]) OR "craniocerebral
trauma"[All Fields] OR ("head"[All Fields] AND "trauma"[All Fields]) OR "head trauma"[All Fields])
Compile the Results – Example

McFarland DC, Hamilton JG, Fox R, Holland J. Putting the

“Person” in personalized cancer medicine: A systematic
review of psychological aspects of targeted therapy.
Personalized Med Oncol. 2014;3(8):438–47.
Literature Search Diagram – Example

Evaluating the Potential Use of Modeling and Value-of-Information

Analysis for Future Research Prioritization Within the Evidence-Based
Practice Center Program [Internet].
Methods Future Research Needs Reports, No. 5.
Myers E, Sanders GD, Ravi D, et al.
Rockville (MD): Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (US);
2011 Jun.

Copyright Notice
NCBI Bookshelf. A service of the National Library of Medicine,
National Institutes of Health.
 DATABASE SEARCHING
What are your resources?

• Libraries – access to databases, reference books, E-books, print

books, E-journals, print journals
• Social media websites, i.e. ResearchGate
• Faculty, Clinicians, researchers
The World of Medical Databases
• MEDLINE/PubMed

NO ONE •

•
Clinical Key

Web of Science

DATABASE WILL • Scopus

HAVE ALL OF THE • Science Direct

INFORMATION
• EBSCO Academic Search Elite

• Google Scholar

THAT YOU NEED • CINAHL

FOR YOUR •

•
UpToDate

DynaMed Plus

RESEARCH • Access Medicine

• TRIP
Database searching
• Choose the database
• Choose search terms
• Create search strategy
using Boolean operators
• Apply limits
• Use Advanced Search
features

Maggio, LA, Tannery, NH, Kanter, SL. AM Last Page: How to perform an
effective database search. Acad Med, 2011 Aug:86(8):1057.
 National Library of Medicine -- 28 million bibliographic records
Organized by MeSH – MEDICAL SUBJECT HEADINGS
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/

 MeSH organized in “trees”  4 Types of MeSH vocabulary terms:

 Headings
 Indexed Articles
 Subheadings
 Automatic Term Mapping  Supplementary Concept Records

 MeSH Major Topic  Publication Characteristics (or Types)

Create a search strategy using MeSH

– Select MeSH
– Type in a term
– Click on the term
– Select Subheadings
Create a search strategy in PubMed

– Click to add it to your search builder

– Add more terms or search PubMed
– Look at results
Google Scholar
Meta-crawler search engine
Indexes scholarly full text articles and other publications
Grey Literature
• Grey literature (or gray literature) are materials and research
produced by organizations outside of the traditional commercial
or academic publishing and distribution channels.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_literature

• Publications types
• Examples of grey literature: conference abstracts, presentations,
proceedings, meeting minutes, regulatory data, unpublished trial
data, government publications, reports (such as white papers,
working papers, internal documentation), dissertations/theses,
patents, and policies and procedures.
Grey Literature
Recently revised and updated, CADTH’s free online resource for
grey literature searching - Grey matters: a practical search tool for
evidence-based medicine is now available.
• CADTH website: https://www.cadth.ca/grey-matters
 CRITICALLY ANALYZE SEARCH RESULTS
Checklist to evaluate published studies

Critically appraise the evidence for its validity, impact, and

applicability

– Is it legitimate? • Did the study address a focused question?

• Did the study use valid methods?
– Is it important? • What were the results?

– Can it help? • Will the results help me in caring for my

patients?
 Consider
• Study population • Study design
– Representative sampling of target – Reproducible
population – Research methodology valid for
– Randomized, non-biased study
– Informed consent obtained
• Results
• Data collection methods – Variables in results accounted for
– Valid data collection methods – Results analyzed
– Valid instrument – Future considerations
Tools
• CASP -- https://casp-uk.net/

• JAMA Evidence Critical Appraisal Worksheets

 ELEMENTS OF THE BACKGROUND
SECTION
Elements of the Background Section
Thesis
statement

Conclusive
statement Background Research
objectives

Summaries
of previous
studies
Checklist
 Thesis statement, research question, hypothesis
 Specific aims of the research--objectives
 Authoritative information on topic; summaries of current research
 Relevant background information
 Key issues that clearly define the topic and are pertinent to the
study – significance of the research
 Thorough evaluation of the topic
 Conclusive statement
Example

Cerritelli F, Cicchitti L, Martelli

M, Barlafante G, Renzetti C,
Pizzolorusso G, Lupacchini M,
D'Orazio M, Marinelli B,
Cozzolino V, Fusilli P, D'Incecco
C. Osteopathic manipulative
treatment and pain in
preterms: study protocol for a
randomised controlled trial.
Trials. 2015 Mar 8;16:84. doi:
10.1186/s13063-015-0615-3.

• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4362649/pdf/13063_2015_Article_615.pdf
 References
1. Paez A. Grey literature: An important resource in systematic reviews. J Evid Based Med. 2017 Dec 21. doi: 10.1111/jebm.12265. [Epub
ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 29266844.

2. Cerritelli F, Cicchitti L, Martelli M, Barlafante G, Renzetti C, Pizzolorusso, G, Lupacchini M, D'Orazio M, Marinelli B, Cozzolino V, Fusilli P,
D'Incecco C. Osteopathic manipulative treatment and pain in preterms: study protocol for a randomised controlled trial. Trials. 2015 Mar
8;16:84. doi:
10.1186/s13063-015-0615-3. PubMed PMID: 25872943; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4362649.

3. Dudley RA, Frolich A, Robinowitz DL, Talavera JA, Broadhead P, Luft HS. Strategies To Support Quality-based Purchasing: A Review of the
Evidence. Rockville (MD): Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (US); 2004 Jul. PubMed PMID: 20734506.

4. Haig A, Dozier M. BEME guide no. 3: systematic searching for evidence in medical education--part 2: constructing searches. Med
Teach. 2003
Sep;25(5):463-84. PubMed PMID: 14522667.

5. Haig A, Dozier M. BEME Guide no 3: systematic searching for evidence in medical education--Part 1: Sources of information. Med
Teach. 2003
Jul;25(4):352-63. PubMed PMID: 12893544.

6. Glynn, L. A critical appraisal tool for library and information research. Library Hi Tech. 2006 24(3):387-99.

7. Kahn MG. The desktop database dilemma. Acad Med. 1993 Jan;68(1):34-7. PubMed PMID: 8447890.

8. Maggio, LA, Tannery, NH, Kanter, SL. AM Last Page: How to perform an effective database search. Acad Med, 2011 Aug:86(8):1057.

9. McFarland DC, Hamilton JG, Fox R, Holland J. Putting the “Person” in personalized cancer medicine: A systematic review of
psychological aspects of targeted therapy. Personalized Med Oncol. 2014;3(8):438–47.
Thank You