1. What do I do with the literature when I’ve found it? Alison Brettle, Lecturer (Information Specialist) School of Nursing and Midwifery University of Salford

2. Session Overview  Challenges, techniques and tools for managing and presenting your literature  Practical  Discussion  Toolkit/Wiki

3. Exercise  In groups  List 3 challenges to managing your information  Identify 3 solutions

4. Solution 1: Be systematic  Can still be systematic even if not doing a systematic review  Borrow some of the systematic review principles and approaches  Borrow/adapt tools that you would use in a systematic review

5. Systematic review process  Define/focus the question  Develop a protocol  Search the literature (possibly 2 stages scoping and actual searches)  Refine the inclusion/exclusion criteria  Assess the studies (data extraction tools, 2 independent reviewers)  Combine the results of the studies to produce conclusion– can be a qualitative or quantitative (meta-analysis)  Place findings in context – quality and heterogeniety of studies, applicability of findings

6. Ways to be systematic  Develop a protocol Provides a methodology for you to follow Keeps you focussed and on track Keeps a record (good evidence for your thesis)

7. Solution 2: Clarity  What are you trying to achieve with your lit review?  What questions are you trying to answer? Clarity about this will help  You to work out what you need to get out of the papers  How you can focus and structure your report/chapter/paper

8. Solution 3: Make use of technology  Use a reference management package  Need to invest some time up front this will be returned later (in the really stressful stages of your thesis writing)  Import direct from databases  Organise within the software  Cite as you write  Organise bibliographies and reference lists

9. Solution 4: Break it down  Break your review/work into chunks  Searching  Screening  Refining your question and your search  Extracting/appraising  Synthesising

10. Searching  Quick and dirty (scoping)  Refine  Comprehensive search (of databases) – load all onto reference management package (don’t go through)  After screening – Refine and additional sources

11. Screening  Establish some criteria/rationale/frame work – based on aims (and apply to all)  Screen by title and abstract  Screen by full text  Use a screening tool  Update and record on reference management software

12. Extraction/critical appraisal  Need to extract what is relevant to your review and critique it (back to your aims)  Make use of pre-defined tools (adapt accordingly)  Assessing quality – systems available – be explicit if you are going to do this  Think how you are going to record them/use them (hard copy or electronic)  Think how you are going to store them

13. Synthesise  Begin with an overview – summary (volume, nature and quality of evidence)  What are your themes?  Think back to your aims and what you are trying to achieve  Report on the parts of the papers that speak to these aims – remember to critique rather than simply be descriptive  What is your end message?

14. Exercises  In groups – choose a topic and draft a protocol  In a group – choose a topic and draft a screening tool  Individually – outline your inclusion/exclusion criteria and draft a screening tool  Individually – articulate your aims and map out the themes for your literature review

15. Systematic review models  Medical/Health care Cochrane Collaboration, NHS Centre for Reviews and Dissemination Usually includes “high quality” research evidence – RCTs Often includes meta-analysis (mathematical synthesis of results of 2+ studies that addressed same hypothesis in same way)  Social care/Social Sciences SCIE, EPPI Centre, Campbell Collaboration Often include wider range of studies including qualitative Often narrative synthesis of evidence

16. Useful resources – systematic reviews  Cochrane Collaboration http://www.cochrane.org/ http://www.cochrane.org/docs/irmg.htm  Centre for Reviews and Dissemination http://www.york.ac.uk/inst/crd/ handbook for conducting systematic reviews, http://www.york.ac.uk/inst/crd/methods.htm Searching for systematic reviews http://www.york.ac.uk/inst/crd/revs.htm http://www.york.ac.uk/inst/crd/revs.htm  EPPI-Centre – Stages of a review http://eppi.ioe.ac.uk/cms/Default.aspx?tabid=89  SCIE - The conduct of systematic research reviews for SCIE knowledge reviews http://www.scie.org.uk/publications/details.asp? pubID=111