Student Learning Development, TCD1 Systematic Approaches to Literature Reviewing Dr Tamara O’Connor Student Learning Development Trinity College Dublin

Student Learning Development, TCD2 Workshop Overview  Explain elements of the systematic review process  Explore how these might be used or adapted to support thesis literature review  Contextualise this within other approaches to managing and working with the literature

Student Learning Development, TCD3 The Literature Review ? “Literature reviews …… introduce a topic, summarise the main issues and provide some illustrative examples. ” from Agree?Disagree?

Literature Matters From Holbrook et al (2007) disciplinary perspective connection to findings coverage working understanding critical appraisal scholarliness literature use

Student Learning Development, TCD5 Agree? or Disagree? If they are to be considered a reliable source of research evidence they should record how the primary studies were sought and selected and how they were analysed to produce their conclusions. Readers need to be able to judge whether all of the relevant literature is likely to have been found, and how the quality of studies was assessed. 1 Agree?5Disagree? 10

Student Learning Development, TCD6 Systematic Reviews A review of a clearly formulated question that uses systematic and explicit methods to identify, select and critically appraise relevant research, and to collect and analyse data from the studies that are included within the review. Statistical methods (meta-analysis) may or may not be used to analyse and summarise the results of the included studies. meta-analysis from

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9 Systematic v.s. Narrative reviews  Agreed standards  High degree of focus  Minimise bias  Context and differences  Bias of empirical studies  Strengths of both approaches

Student Learning Development, TCD10 Key features of SR - of the systematic review process you might want to adopt or adapt–  Explicit and transparent methods  Standard set of stages  Accountable, replicable and updateable

Student Learning Development, TCD11 Systematic Reviews Seven steps (of a Cochrane Review)  Formulating a problem  Locating and selecting studies  Critical appraisal of studies  Collecting data  Analyzing and presenting results  Interpreting results  Improving and updating reviews

Student Learning Development, TCD12 1. Formulating a Problem What is your research question?  Clear and unambiguous  Answerable  Relevant  Positively worded  Free of bias

Student Learning Development, TCD13 1. Formulating a Problem Example Questions? Standard SR question contains subject- intervention- outcome- comparator

Student Learning Development, TCD14 Phase 1- Identify the Research a broad but defined, systematic sweep  Defined search terms – record recall and precision  Defined search arena - e.g. databases, citation indices, reference lists from primary and review articles, grey literature, conference proceedings, research registers, the internet, individual researchers/practitioners  Other broad search limits 2. Locating and selecting studies TIPS! Document the search protocol and record what research was found Systematically manage the search output, e.g. using endnote

Student Learning Development, TCD15 2. Locating and selecting studies Phase 2- Selection/Screening select from research using criteria related to your research question  Develop inclusion or exclusion statements, these might relate to study outcomes, research design, methods used, population worked with etc. e.g. studies with a mixed population of men and women e.g. random control trials only e.g. maximum exposure time of 10mins TIPS! Document the statements and their purpose (might be pragmatic or research related)

Student Learning Development, TCD16 3. Critical appraisal of studies “Assessing the quality of methodology is a critical part of the systematic review process” No standard approach but there are hierarchies in fields of study  Quality of methodology, results, conclusions  Balance

Student Learning Development, TCD17 3. Critical appraisal of studies What would be appropriate to consider when critically appraising research in your area?

Student Learning Development, TCD18 4. Collect data & analyse  Evaluate  Synthesise results of literature review Tables to compare Descriptive Meta-analysis

Student Learning Development, TCD19 No.DateResearch QDesignSampleMethodVariablesAnalysisResultsConcIssues

Student Learning Development, TCD20 Write up literature review Example  Background  Purpose/Research question  Method  Findings  Discussion  Implications/Recommendations

Student Learning Development, TCD21 What next? How might I adapt this process? Something I want to work on is….. One idea I’m thinking about is…..

Student Learning Development, TCD22 SR websites Centre for Evidence-based Conservation - Centre for Reviews and Dissemination (medical) - Cochrane Collaboration (international- medical) - EPPI-Centre, Institute of Education - Social Policy and Social Care - Campbell Collaboration If you read one article, an example here of a review of the ways studies in reviews are appraised - If you prefer power-point, how about this one on mixed method reviews gicalchallenges.ppt gicalchallenges.ppt

References Cresswell, J.W. (2003) Research design: qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods approaches. Thousand Oaks,CA: Sage Publications. Fink, A. (2005) Conducting research literature reviews: From the internet to paper, 2 nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Hart, C. (2001) Doing a literature search: Comprehensive guide for the social sciences. London: Sage Publications. Holbrook, A., Bourke, S., Fairbairn, H. & Lovat, T. (2007) Examiner comments on the literature review in Ph.D. theses. Studies in Higher Education, 32 (3), Student Learning Development, TCD23