Literature Review

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Literature Review

• From Judith Garrard, Health Sciences Literature
  Review Made Easy Aspen, 1999

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A Basic Format for Health and Behavior Literature

• Introduction
• Methods
• Results
• discussion

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Basic contents for a health service research

• Introduction/significance of problem
• Research question(s)
• Literature review
• Research design
• Data collection/management
• Data analyses/statistical analytical analyses
• Main findings/Interpretation of results
• Conclusions

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Structured Abstract of HSR

• Objectives/Study Question
• Data Sources/Study Setting
• Study Design
• Data Collection/Extraction Methods
• Principal Findings
• Conclusions
• Key Words

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Structured Abstract of JAMA

• Context
• Objective
• Design and setting
• Participants
• Main (outcome) measures
• Results
• Conclusions

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Anatomy of a scientific paper (1)

• Title/authorship
• Abstract
• Introduction
• - Significance of the Problem, Literature
  Review,
• Research Questions/Objectives/Hypothesis
• Methods
• - Research Design, Subjects, Data sources, data
  collection methods, Statistical and Analytic
  Methods

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Anatomy of a scientific paper (2)

• Results
• Discussion/Conclusion
• - summary, interpretation, strengths and
  weaknesses (constraints)
• Suggestions/Recommendations
• - future research, impact of findings
• References
• Acknowledgments

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The Matrix Method

• A structure and a process for systematically
  reviewing the literature

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Structure of the Matrix Method

• Paper Trail
• - keeping track of where youve been
• - documenting your literature review processes
• Document Section (hard-copy database)
• - organizing documents for review
• Review Matrix
• - abstracting each document
• Synthesis
• - writing the review of the literature

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Paper Trail

• Key words
• Key sources
• Electronic Bibliographic Databases
• Internet
• Notes

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Key Sources

• A running list of
• Reference books
• Journals
• Government reports
• Other materials

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Popular web sites for HSR

• U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM)
• http//www.nlm.gov/
• National Institutes of Health (NIH)
• http//www.nih.gov/
• MEDLINE
• http//www.nlm.nih.gov/databases/freemedl.html/
• On-line journals compiled by NLM
• http//www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed/fulltext.html

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Literatures/Source Materials

• publications and other documents about
  scientific knowledge
• E.g., papers, books, chapters, reports, etc.

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Different Kinds of Source Materials

• Primary original research papers
• Secondary papers or other documents that
  summarize the original work of others
• Tertiary systematic analysis or critical review
  of scientific papers
• http//biomedical.annualreviews.org/

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General Format for References

• Authors. (year of publication). Title.
• Name of journal. Volume, page numbers
• http//library.weber.edu/libinstruct
• Referencing Internet sources
• http//www.cas.usf.edu/english/walker/mla.html/

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A sample of journal article

• Names and initials of all authors, year of
  publication, title of article, name of journal
  spelled out, volume number, issue number (if
  given), date or month/season (if given), and
  first and last page number.
• Brook, R.H., E.A. McGlynn, and P.D. Cleary. 1996.
  Quality of Health Care. Part 2 Measuring
  Quality of Care. New England Journal of Medicine
  335 (13) 966-70.

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References to proceedings and other collections
of papers

• Francisco, E. 1970. Analysis of Cost Variations
  Among Short-Term General Hospitals. In Empirical
  Studies on Health Economics Proceedings of the
  Second Conference on Economics of Health, edited
  by H. Klarman, pp. 321-32. Baltimore, MD Johns
  Hopkins Press.

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References to books

• Aday, L.A., C.E. Begley, D.R. Lairson, and C.H.
  Slater. 1993. Evaluating the Medical Care System
  Effectiveness, Efficiency, and Equity. Chicago
  Health Administration Press.

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Tips on searching for lit.

• Snowballing technique
• developing ownership of the literature
• Timeliness of the science
• a comparison of sources

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How to select the right documents for review

• Review the abstract
• Skim the document
• Photocopy the document

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How to organize a documents section

• By year of publication
• By subjects
• A simple tracking system
• - key words
• - references
• - locations

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How to construct a review matrix

• Organizing the documents by year
• Choosing column topics for review matrix
• Abstracting the documents

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How to abstract documents

• Taking notes
• Recreate the study in your mind
• Read in chronological order
• Write notes in the Matrix
• Additional information

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An example of wrong-doingsEvery year since
1950, the number of American children gunned down
has doubled.
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The original statement inThe State of Americas
Children Yearbook 1994

• The number of American children killed each
  year by guns has doubled since 1950.

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Sociology of the research topic

• Who the researchers are
• Where the research is being done
• Datasets they have in common
• What the funding sources are, and
• Which studies are cited repeatedly.
• Seeing what is missing

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synthesis

• A critical analysis and review of the scientific
  literature on a specific topic,
• including similarities and discrepancies in
  content, methodology, and findings.

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List the principal topics

• Issues
• Methods
• Major findings or results
• Missing or inadequate topics
• Critical analysis

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Example of Review Matrix (1)
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Example of Review Matrix (2)