Introduction to Qualitative & Quantitative Research
Course Number: TH761I
Generative AI
Planning a literature review
Read about the process in this book:
Campbell, A., Taylor, B. & McGlade, A. (2017). Reviewing the literature. In Transforming Social Work Practice Series: Research design in social work (pp. 9-26). Sage.
See this example of a literature review:
Kader, S. (2016). Development of hospice environmental assessment protocol (HEAP): A post occupancy evaluation tool. (chapters 2 and 4; page 63 for methodology)
Literature Review Planning Tool
Research Question
Research Process (summary)
- Consider word variations and synonyms
- think about how others might refer to your ideas
- e.g., child death, perinatal death, neonatal death, stillbirth, sudden infant death, etc.
- Search Tactics:
What is the tactic? | What does the tactic do? | Examples |
|---|---|---|
Phrase searching | Use “quotation marks” to find more than one term in a row. | “brain cancer” |
Truncation | Use an asterisk* at the end of a term to include multiple endings. (sometimes $) | trauma* trauma, traumatic, traumatically, traumatize, traumatized, traumatizing |
Boolean AND | Use AND to ensure that all terms appear in every search result. | depression AND home care |
Boolean OR | Use OR to ensure that at least one term appears in every search result. | senior* OR geriatric OR "old person" |
Tutorial: Better searching using AND, OR, NOT
- Employ search limiters (available limiters depend on the database)
- peer reviewed, article type, date
- e.g., in PsycInfo, can include: age group, population group, methodology
- Identify key publications and authors
- note citations, and cited references, repeated author names
- Document and track everything you do in the steps above
Finding Books
Start with Omni
- limit to "Books and eBooks"
Tutorial: Finding books in Omni
Requesting items from another Omni library is pretty straightforward, but remember you can request any item even if it is not in Omni.
Finding articles
Tutorial: Finding scholarly articles on a topic
- start with Omni
- limit to "Articles" and "Peer-reviewed journals"
- while you will likely find what you need for this class, article content in Omni is not chosen or curated, but dumped in, i.e., it may not have everything on a particular topic.
- limit to "Articles" and "Peer-reviewed journals"
Follow citation trail in Omni
- Up arrows find sources citing this item
- Down arrows find sources cited in this item
Researchers rely on curated collections of content, i.e., subject-specific databases.
Predatory journals
Research methodologies
Types of reviews
Grant, M., & Booth, A. (2009). A typology of reviews: an analysis of 14 review types and associated methodologies. Health Information and Libraries Journal, 26(2), 91–108. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-1842.2009.00848.x
Sutton, A., Clowes, M., Preston, L., & Booth, A. (2019). Meeting the review family: exploring review types and associated information retrieval requirements. Health Information and Libraries Journal, 36(3), 202–222. https://doi.org/10.1111/hir.12276
Use Sage Reference to learn about research methodologies, e.g, action research, grounded theory, or literature reviews, e.g.,
- Sage Handbook of Grounded Theory
- Sage Handbook of Ethnography
- Sage Handbook of Narrative Inquiry
- Sage Handbook of Performance Studies
- NOTE: Laurier does not own all Sage Handbooks online
Recent Publications: Research Methodologies
- Alman, A., & Taylor & Francis. (2025). A practical guide to trauma-sensitive research : integrating trauma-informed frameworks into the qualitative research lifecycle. Routledge.
- Chafe, R., & Taylor & Francis. (2026). Developing qualitative descriptions. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.
- Cooke, J., & Nyhagen, L. (Eds.). (2024). Intersectional Feminist Research Methodologies : Applications in the Social Sciences and Humanities. Routledge.
- Cyr, J., & Goodman, S. W. (2024). Doing good qualitative research (J. Cyr & S. W. Goodman, Eds. Oxford University Press.
- Greenhalgh, T. (2019). How to Read a Paper: The Basics of Evidence-Based Medicine and Healthcare. John Wiley & Sons.
- Larkin, P. J., Bruera, E., Costantini, M., Higginson, I. J., Currow, D., & Preston, N. (2025). Research Methods in Palliative, Supportive, and End-of-Life Care. Oxford University Press.
- Molina-Mula, J. (2022). Quantitative Research Methodology in the Health Sciences. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
- Onishenko, D. (2024). Critical Reflexive Research Methodologies: Interdisciplinary Approaches. Brill.
- O’Reilly, K. (2025). Qualitative Research Methods for Everyone: An Essential Toolkit. Policy Press.
- Thrane, C. (2023). Doing statistical analysis: a student’s guide to quantitative research. Routledge.
- Torres, R. A., Torres, R. A., & Nyaga, D. (Eds.). (2021). Critical research methodologies: ethics and responsibilities. Brill.
Dissertations and Theses
Dissertations and theses may be considered scholarly sources since they are closely supervised by a dissertation committee made up of scholars, are directed at an academic audience, are extensively researched, follow research methodology, and are cited in other scholarly work.
However, dissertations are still considered student work and are not peer-reviewed. Always clarify with your instructor as to whether you can include and cite dissertations and theses in your research.