Chapter 5- Literature Review Flashcards
narrative literature review
one in which the findings from the studies under review are integrated using the judgements of the reviewers, rather than through statistical integration- as in a meta-analysis.
Until meta-analytic techniques were developed, all reviews were narrative reviews
May be a review embedded in a research report
a review in a research proposal
a review in a thesis or dissertation
Literature Reviews in Qualitative studies
Qualitative researchers have varying opinions about reviewing the literature before doing a new study.
Grounded theory researchers often collect and analyze their data before reviewing the literature. Will turn to the literature once the grounded theory is sufficiently developed, seeking to related the theory to prior findings.
Phenomenologist often undertake a search for relevant materials at the outset of a study, looking in arpticaly for experiential descriptions of the phenomenon being studied. The purpose is to expand the researcher’s understanding of the phenomenon from multiple perspectives- this may include an examination of the artistic sources in which the phenomenon is described (novels, poetry?)
Ethnography researchers also conduct a literature review, relating to the chosen culture problem is often reviewed before data collection. A second, more thorough review is often done during data analysis and interpretation so that findings can be compared with previous findings.
source materials
As a researcher performing a literature review, you will have to decide what to read and what to include in the written review.
May start with braod reference sources on a topic but ultimately will be retrieving infro from published professional journals.
Findings from prior, completed studies are the most important type of information for a research review.
primary source
descriptions of studies written by the researchers who conducted them
primary source research reports are the most reliable source material to review during a literature review.
STUDY PROTOCOLS are an additional type of primary source- they are descriptions of the design and methods for studies that are underway but have yet been completed.
These protocols are available in registries and sometimes journals, allow researchers to understand what new evidence will become available and hence can help researchers avoid unwanted duplication.
Secondary sources
descriptions of studies prepared by someone other than the original researchers.
Literature reveiws ARE secondary sources (duh)
If reviews are recent they are v. useful as they provide an overview of the topic and are a valuable bibliography
They are NOT substitutes for primary sources because they typically fail to provide much detail about studies and may not be completely objective
Nonresearch material may broaden understanding of a prob, demonstrate a need for research, or describe aspects of clinic practice.
Characteristics of a good literature review
1) Review must be comprehesnive, thorough, up-to-date
2) systematic. decision rules should be clear and criteria for including/excluding a study need to be explicit
3) reproducible
4) absence of bias
5) insightful and is more than the “sum of it’s parts” - can contribute to knowledge through an astute synthesis of the evidence.
Literature freview is somewaht similar to doing a qualitative study’ you will need a flexible and creative approach to “data collection”
Leads should be persued until “saturation” is achieved
the analysis of the “data” will typically involve the identification of important themes in the literature
ancestry approach
aka snowballing, footnote chasing, or pearl growing
involves using references cited in recent relavent studies to track down earlier research on the same topic, the “ancestors”
Used to identify earlier relevant studies, but also to discover new search terms for subsequent searches
descendancy approach
is to find a pivotal early study and to search forward in citation indexes to find more recent studies, the “descendants” that cited the key study.
grey literature
studies with limited distribution, such as conference papers, unpublished reports, and so on.
Evidence summary table/ Literature Review Summary Table
aids with methodologically organizing data as colleged.
can be included within the literature review or may be just used as a tool for data extraction
critiques
AKA critical appraisal
a research critique is an appraisal of the strengths and weaknesses of a study.
a good critique identifies areas of adequacy and inadequacy in an unbiased manner
a careful evaltuation of the study’s strengths and weaknessess.
Tend to focus on the methodologic aspects and findings of retrieved studies.
rigor
a way to establish trust/confidence in the findings
