How to write a term paper

Session 3
Session Plan
• Theory: 50 minutes
• Systematic literature review
• What, why and how?
• Application: 30 minutes
• Using keyword search on Google scholar
• Using keyword search on EBSCO database at Jgu library
• Doubts: 10 minutes
Theory
1. What is a systematic literature review?
2. What is the difference between a systematic review
and a traditional review?
3. Why systematic review of literature?
4. How to perform a systematic literature review?
What is a traditional review?
• Uses informal, unsystematic and subjective methods to
collect, interpret, and summarize information.
• No method for searching, quality appraisal and data synthesis
• Cannot be replicated
• Information overload
• Assumptions cannot be easily verified.
• Higher risk of selection bias
Information overload
What is a systematic literature review?
• Uses transparent procedures to find, evaluate and
synthesize the results of independent studies.
• Procedures are explicitly defined in advance, to assure
that the process is transparent and can be replicated.
• This process is also designed to minimize selection bias.
• Which papers are chosen by the author(s)?
Why systematic literature review?
• Clear inclusion and exclusion criteria
• Explicit search strategy
• Systematic coding and analysis of included studies
• Meta-analysis (where possible)
• Prevents information overload
• Helps manage research better
Research Question
• The research question guides the author in research
work. This is an iterative step as your question will get
refined as you proceed with your literature review and
analysis
• It should be
• Interesting
• Novel
• Relevant
• Feasible
• Ethical
PICO Framework
• A well-established format for structuring research
questions is known by the acronym PICO.
• Population
• Intervention (also called Treatment)
• Control
• Outcome
Inclusion and exclusion criteria
• One of the features that distinguish a systematic review
from a traditional review is the pre-specification of
inclusion and exclusion criteria.
Inclusion criteria
• Inclusion criteria are a combination of
• Aspects of the research question
• Population
• Intervention
• Control
• Outcome
• Study type
• Randomized controlled trials
• Observational studies
Search the literature
• The goal of the literature search is to discover all studies
that meet the inclusion criteria
• Search comprehensively
• Keywords
• Databases
• Search for grey literature
• Not commercially published
Not using for the
• Search for unpublished studies class project
• Reduce risk of publication bias
Databases for Literature
• EBSCO
• Scopus
• Web of Science
• WorldCat
• EconLit etc.
• We will use Google scholar that pulls free search results or Jgu
library’s subscribed results from different databases
Search strategy
• The search strategy should be designed to identify the
maximum number of studies relevant to the research
question
• The search strategy should be systematic, transparent and
reproducible.
• Right keywords

• Search citations of the same paper

• Search relevant references of papers read
• Search citations on related themes
Unpublished and grey literature
• The inclusion of unpublished and grey literature may
minimize the potential effects of publication bias.
• Publication bias
• Occurs when the outcome of an experiment or research study
influences the decision about whether—or how quickly—the
manuscript may be published
What is grey literature?
• Grey literature refers to academic, business, government
or industry print or electronic literature that is not
controlled by commercial publishers.
• Conference proceedings
• Research reports
• Government reports
• Dissertations, theses
• Research monographs
• Organization websites
Sources of grey literature
• Conference proceedings
• EMBASE
• Scopus
• Web of Science
• Google
Compile search results
• Compile search results using reference management
software (Mendeley or EndNote or RefWorks)
• https://www.mendeley.com/download-desktop/
• Remove duplicate records
• This is for future reference
• We will not use a reference management software in
this course
Document search process
• Always use the option of Advanced Search
• Note down the search process
• Databases
• Dates searched
• Search strategies
• Limits (date ranges, publication types, language restrictions)
Select studies
• Identification of studies meeting inclusion criteria
should be done independently by two review authors.
• Review titles and abstracts of retrieved citations.
• Review full text of studies which are found to meet the
inclusion criteria.
• Keep a record of reasons for inclusion or exclusion.
Tools for sorting
• Tools for sorting
• Reference management software
• Mendeley
• If your database allows you to download your search results in
.xls or .csv format
• Excel