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Literature reviews: Health: Home

Levels 6/7

Doing your literature review

This guide is designed to help you with a literature review. It takes you through the main steps you need to take in order to find relevant articles and be able to demonstrate a thorough literature search:

  • Forming your search strategy - helps you develop your question using frameworks such as PICO and PEO, and outlines how we develop keywords to use in searching.
  • Database Searching - takes you through the process of searching in a database using mySearch as an example, with help for searching in specific databases as well.
  • Other ways to search - you can also find articles using other means such as Google Scholar, citation searching or using reference lists.
  • Evaluating your results - this explains how you work to develop your search and work through the results applying your inclusion and exclusion criteria.
  • PRISMA - follow the steps outlined here to build your PRISMA flow chart and record the details of your findings.

At the bottom of each page there is a 'check your progress' section with reminders of the steps you should complete before moving on to the next.

Methodology

The methodology section of your literature review should include the following:

  • Search strategy: search terms / keywords used and filters
  • Databases you have searched
  • Inclusion and exclusion criteria - why you have selected those articles and excluded others?
  • Analysis methodology - how are you going to appraise and compare the results from the articles you have selected?

Library Team

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Faculty of Health & Social Sciences Library Team