Literature Review

Dr. Nalika GunawardenaMBBS, MD (Community Medicine) (Colombo),

MPH (BioSecurity) (New Zealand)

Senior Lecturer in Community MedicineFaculty of Medicine

University of Colombo

Outline of the presentation

• Reasons for reviewing literature in research

• Brief description of the process– Finding literature– Reviewing literature

• Principles of writing a literature review

What is a……

Literature Survey It is the process of searching and collecting relevant information on the topic of interest

Literature Review A critical analysis of existing knowledge about the topic of interest, which was found through the literature survey

Reasons for reviewing literature in research

it helps to

– generates ideas – describe background knowledge about

the subject– show that there is no duplication– show that we are proceeding further

from current knowledge– make comparisons with other research– design the method

in the report chapters on

Introduction Literature review

Discussion

Types of literature • Journals• Books• Conference proceedings • Internet• CD-ROMs• Government Publications• Publications of International organizations• Thesis and dissertations• Newspaper articles

Journal articles

• Original research articles– peer reviewed to ensure quality of data– editors publish only the most relevant and reliable

research

• Review articles – summaries of research evidence

Conference Proceedings

• information on the – latest local research– research that are being conducted and has not

been published

Internet • Websites of organizations• e-publications

• Reports, Conference proceedings

• electronic journals, open access journals

• Caution – anyone can post information -?quality

CD ROMs-e.g. Medline

Govt. Publications• Circulars, Acts, National Guidelines, Annual Reports,

Survey reports• eg: Annual Health Bulletin, Demographic and Health Survey

Publications of international organizationsTechnical Reports, World Heath Report, Guidelines, Recommendations, Fact sheets

Procedure to search the source

• Computerized• Manual

– select key words from concepts/ variables– search the sources using key words– identify the appropriate articles by reading the

abstracts – get hold of the full article/ primary source

Search engines• PubMed http://pubmed.gov/

• Freely accessible online database of biomedical journal citations and abstracts

• MEDLINE • Thousands of medical journals are indexed for MEDLINE

• Google – Scholar• Many more…….

Selected literature

• Access the full articles and read

• Classify into different concepts/ variables and make review notes and store– Index cards– Computer files

What to review?

• Information related to the subject– Method followed in the study– Results in relation to your study– Recommendations– Relevant other references

• Make a note of referencing informationAuthor, Year, Title of article/ chapter/ book/ journal,

Year of publication, Publisher

http://www.endnote.com/enhome.asp

Software for Referencing

How to write a literature review?

• Like a story. In paragraphs.• Order

• according to your objectives • any other logical sequence

• Flow • from general to specific facts • western countries, regional countries, Sri Lanka

How to write a literature review?

• Research articles– basic information of the methods that has been followed– relevant results including statistical inferences– conclusions and recommendations if relevant

• Mostly- describe in your own words -paraphrase

• At times- write as it is word by word -quote

• Write the reference

Never cut and paste

Referencing

Why should we write references?

• to facilitate others to find the original document• not to commit plagiarism

How to write references?

-Harvard Style (Author-Date system)

-Vancouver Style (Numbering system)

Harvard StyleIn-text citation

Author’s name followed by the year of publication

Reference ListIn alphabetical order

Vancouver style

In-text citationnumber

Reference ListIn the order of numbers

Out of the 5080 pregnancies, 1524 (30%) were found to be teenage pregnancies in………………

Original journal article by H. Peter, J. Kim, H. Jung, and D. Peter published in 2002 says:

Example- Paraphrasing and in-text citation

Example- Paraphrasing and in-text citation

Peter et al. (2002) investigating the proportion of teenage pregnancies among 5080 pregnant mothers in area XXX by a household survey, it was identified that 1524 (30%) were teenage pregnancies

Or

In a household survey in area XXX among 5080 pregnant mothers, 1524 (30%) were found to be teenage pregnancies (1).

A journal article by M.I. Mikheev published in 2002 says:

A significant proportion of the pregnancies in …. were among teenage mothers. The teenagers belonged to the migrant population who do not fully benefit from available health services…………..

Example – Quote and in-text citation

Example – Quote and in-text citation

“A significant proportion of the pregnancies in …. were among teenage mothers. The teenagers belonged to the migrant population who do not fully benefit from available health services” (Mikheev, 2002. pg 23).

Mikheev claims that “A significant proportion of the pregnancies in …. were among teenage mothers. The teenagers belonged to the migrant population who do not fully benefit from available health services” (2).

Harvard Style-Reference List

Mikheev, M.I. 1998, Occupational health and safety in Small Enterprises, Int. Arch. Occup. Env. Health, vol. 71, suppl. s 10-2

Park,H., Ha, E., Kim, J., Jung, H., Paek, D. 2002, Occupational Health Services for Small-Scale Enterprises in Korea, Industrial Health, vol 40, pp 1–6

Vancouver Style-Reference List

1 Martin MJ, Hulley SB, Browner WS, Kuller LH, Wentworth D. Serum cholesterol, blood pressure, and mortality: implications from a cohort of 361,662 men. Lancet. 1986;2:933-6.

2. Gordon DJ, Probstfield JL, Garrison RJ, Neaton JD,

Castelli WP, Knoke JD et al. High-density lipoprotein cholesterol and cardiovascular disease; four prospective American studies. Circulation. 1989;79:8-15.

Outline of the presentation

• Reasons for reviewing literature in research

• Brief description of the process– Finding literature– Reviewing literature

• Principles of writing a literature review