Literature Review

NURZETTY SOFIA ZAINUDDIN

LECTURER FAHS, CUCMS
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Define literature review

Learning Describe the process of literature research

Outcome
Identify the parts of an article

Identify the checklist for the critical reader

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What is Literature Review?

 LR is comprehensive summary of
previous research on a topic.
 The literature review surveys scholarly
articles, books, and other sources
relevant to a particular area of research.

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Literature : The body
of writings on a
particular subject

Review : Critical
evaluation

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Literature Review (overview)

It shows the reader what you have read about the topic

It shows that you have understood the important issues around the
topic
It gives a foundation to your research

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Literature review is writing
what you read!
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Why do you need to do

Literature Review?

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Main purpose of LR:

To describe and compare studies in a
To evaluate those studies
specific area of research

Both purposes are vital: a thorough summary and comparison of the current
research is necessary before you can build a strong evaluative argument
about the theories tested.

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To continue from where others have already done

(reviewing allows you to build on the platform of
existing knowledge and ideas)

Other
To identify other people or experts that has been
Reasons… working in the same fields

To increase your breadth of knowledge in that

specific area

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To avoid from doing the same mistake that has

been done before

Other Reasons To put your work into perspective

…
(continued) To identify information and ideas that may be
relevant in your research

To identify methods, instrument, variables that

could be relevant in your research

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Getting Started

Select Read Digest Write

Select a research Read the articles Digest the articles: Write the review,
topic and identify until you understand Understand the keeping in mind
relevant articles. what about them is main points well your two purposes:
relevant to your enough to talk about to describe and
review. them. compare, and to
evaluate.

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Steps in Literature Review

Setting the topic in Looking at Screening the

Selecting the topic
context information sources information

Organizing
Getting the information Positioning the Writing the literature
information (information literature review review
management)

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Information seeking
• The ability to scan the literature
efficiently, using manual or
Skills computerized methods, to identify a set
Involved in of useful articles and books
Doing LR
Critical appraisal
• The ability to apply principles of
analysis to identify unbiased and valid
studies
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Selecting a Topic and Setting

the Topic in Context

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 Pick topic that interest you
 The topic should be both current and well
studied
 Narrow you topic if its too broad
Choose a  Stress among students vs academic stress
current, among students
well-studied,  Broaden your topic if its too narrow
specific  Teenage alcohol use vs teenage alcohol use and
criminal behavior
 Never fall in love with the topic before you
find how much research has been done in that
area

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01 02 03
What is the What are interventions Does dietary
prevalence of diabetes associated with for education aid in
mellitus in Malaysia? diabetes mellitus in reducing Diabetes
Malaysia Mellitus in Malaysia?

Which is a Suitable Research Question?

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How question
influence
search
results?

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Looking at Information
Sources

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Selecting your sources

ONLINE MANUAL OR “HAND “GREY LITERATURE” WEB REPORTS EXPERT OPINIONS

BIBLIOGRAPHIC SEARCHES” OF
DATABASES REFERENCES LISTS

Dissertations, thesis, reports, working

papers, government documents, white
papers and evaluations.

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Where to Search?

 Bibliographic Databases (e-journal portal)  CINAHL

 Medicine  Websites
 PubMed (or Ovid MEDLINE), EMBASE, Cochrane  Associations, Organizations & Government
Library, PsycINFO  World Health Organization, MOH
 Multidisciplinary
 Other
 Scopus
 “Grey Literature”
 Web of Science
 Dissertations & Theses, SCOPUS (conference
 Sciencedirect proceedings), Web search engines
 Nursing and Allied Health

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 Screening the Information

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Methodological Screening Criteria – some
questions to ask

 Is the study’s research design internally & externally valid?

 Are the data sources used in the study reliable & valid?
 Are the analytic methods appropriate?
 Are the results meaningful in practical & statistical terms?*

*Fink, A. (2005). Conducting Research Literature Reviews. London: Sage

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 Getting the Information &
Read the Article

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 Find useful sources
 Look through the sources & decide which ones you will use
in your LR
 Make sure you understand this original material (you
cannot review if you don’t understand)
Approaching  Make notes, circle, underline the material to highlight
Literature Review which parts you are going to paraphrase.
 Group the authors who say the same things together & put
authors who say different things on their own.
 You should be thinking “who do I agree with? Who make
sense? Who doesn’t have a good idea & what is wrong with
their idea

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Steps in Reading Literature

Read selectively Read abstract

Why does it matter?

What did they do?
Scan the article (4 W) What did they find?
What does it mean?

Create the summary sheet

Read for depth

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Checklist for Reader

PROBLEM OBJECTIVES HYPOTHESIS SIMILARITIES METHODS,

STATEMENT AND TECHNIQUES
DIFFERENCES

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 Organizing the Information
(Information Management)

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• Title
• Author/affiliation/contact
• Abstract
• Introduction/ Overview
Parts of Journal • Objectives/ hypothesis
Article
• Methodology
• Findings
• Discussions / implication /conclusion
• References

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Summarize & Organize what you read

Author (Year) Objective Method Results Conclusion

Hallgern et al. (2015) To compare the 946 depressed Exercise and ICBT Exercise and ICBT
effectiveness of 3 patients groups reported are more effective
interventions for 12 week of better improvements
depression interventions
Random controlled
trial
sweden
Hassmen, Koivula, & To explore the 3403 subjects Individuals exercise Consistent
Uutela (2000) association between 25-64 year old 2-3 times/week association between
physical exercise Cross-sectional study experienced enhanced
frequency and significantly less psychological well-
psychological well- depression, anger, etc being and regular
being physical exercise

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Positioning & Writing the

Literature Review

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 Introduction
 Introduce research topic (what it is, why does it matter)
 Frame the story : narrow the research topic to the studies you will discuss
 Briefly outline how you have organized the review

 Body
 Headings – use theme headings to organized your argument
 Describe, compare and evaluate studies for each section of your argument under your headings

 Conclusion – final evaluation, summation and conclusion

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A Literature Review Must Do These Thing

 Be organized around and related directly to the

thesis or research question you are developing
 Synthesize results into a summary of what is and
is not known
 Identify areas of controversy in the literature
 Formulate questions that need further research

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Direct Quote

 The review of literature surrounding a possible research topic or

problem is Paraphrased
a criticalWork
step in the research process. ”Only by
becoming thoroughly familiar with prior research and theory can
you hope to contribute something that others will build upon”
(Merriam 2000). The literature process serves to build a thorough
knowledge base on the researcher on the topic (Creswell 2003;
Merriam 2000). In summary, the literature review serves to
integrate, synthesize and critique important ideas and concepts on
a particular topic.
Author’s own idea

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Common Mistake doing LR
 Does not clearly relate the findings of the literature review to the researcher’s own study
 Does not take sufficient time to define the best descriptors and identify the best sources to use
in review literature related to one’s topic
 Relies on secondary sources rather than on primary sources in reviewing the literature
 Uncritically accepts another researcher’s findings and interpretations as valid, rather than
examining critically all aspects of the research design and analysis;

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Common Mistake doing LR (cont)
 Does not report the search procedures that were used in the literature review;
 Reports isolated statistical results rather than synthesizing them by chi-square or meta-analytic
methods; and
 Does not consider contrary findings and alternative interpretations in synthesizing quantitative
literature.

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 Research topic : Relationship of physical exercise and depression among CUCMS
student
 Research question:
 Research Hypothesis
 Research Objective
 Variables
 Subjects

Author (Year) Objective Method Results Conclusion

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Thank you

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