Literature Review

Introduction

This guide gives an introduction to literature review. It is for first year PhD students in Social Work.

1. Literature Review as Product & Process

THE PRODUCT: A literature review is a written survey of research about a particular topic.

• It's specific - focuses on a well-defined research question.
• It's selective - includes a curated selection of research.
• It's a synthesis - brings together discussions from across the research.
• It's a starting point - identifies where your research fits into the picture.
• It shows accountability - demonstrates how you're tuning-in to others' work and voices responsibly.

THE PROCESS: There are different ways to review literature. Your approach for reviewing literature need to fit your goals for the project at hand.

• What types of literature are you looking for?
• Where are the best places to search?
• What keywords will get you good results?
• What search tactics will help you identify relevant literature?
• What tools will help you organize literature?

You can access Social Work dissertations to see what the literature reviews look like!

2. Narrative Literature Review

For a research paper or dissertation, the overarching goal is to figure out what scholarship exists about your area(s) of research interest so you can track the narrative to date, identify where your research fits, and make contributions to knowledge in your field. 

In fact, traditional approaches to literature review are also called narrative literature review.

Doing a narrative literature review isn't about finding some articles, it's about tuning into ongoing conversations in the literature.

Figure 1

Goals for Narrative Literature Review

There are creative dimensions to deciphering and assembling conversations in the literature around the topic you’re researching. Narrative review involves interpretation and making connections, in addition to careful investigation, survey, selection, analysis, and synthesis. 

It can be challenging because:

1. You don’t yet know the plot when you’re just starting out. There can be deep uncertainty to sit with as you figure out how the pieces fit together.
2. There are many possible narratives to tell. Two people doing a review on the same topic can continue the narratives in different directions.
3. There is so much literature out there. And in different places!

Some research is published through formal channels (journals), some is unpublished (conference papers, theses), some is in alternative formats (podcasts), some is ephemeral (conversations, seminars), some is indexed in structured databases, some is discoverable through search engines, some is behind paywalls.

3. Planning Your Approach

Planning your approach can help you manage the three challenges listed above. The following applies to peer-reviewed articles.

a) Use Seed Articles

Seed articles represent the kind of research you want to find. They're key works that directly relate to your area of research interest. You can use them to do the following.

Figure 2 

4 Things You Can Do With Seed Articles

b) Draft a Search Plan

A search plan details the databases, terms, and tactics you'll use to uncover literature. It's a work in progress. Documenting what you do as you go will help you save time, feel confident that your review is thorough, and explain how you got your results.

Get ready to build a search strategy! Most people jump in and start trying to find stuff, but that approach doesn't fit your goals for narrative literature review.

Below you'll find a search plan template and some guidance about building search strategy.

Search Plan Template

Building Search Strategy

ARTICLE DATABASES

There is a list of databases relevant to Social Work. Choose databases to search based on the descriptions.

• Limit results to peer-reviewed.
• Sort by most recent publications first.
• Discover key articles.
• Recognize key scholars.
• Avoid missing important results.
• Cut out irrelevant results.

MAJOR CONCEPTS & KEYWORDS

What are the major concepts in your topic? What are some synonyms or alternate terms you can use? 

• Consider the terms typically used in research literature.
• Google "synonyms for ..."
• If you have an on-topic article, see what terms get used in the title/abstract.

FIELD SEARCHING

• Use the drop-down beside a search box to find terms in specific areas of results. Codes beside each field tell the database where to search for a term.

Example: ti("adverse childhood experiences") in PsycINFO (all results will have the term in titles).

LIMITS

• You can limit results to peer-reviewed or scholarly.
• A date limit is also sometimes useful.

SEARCH TACTICS

Try using some of the following database search tactics to get better results.

SUBJECTS

• These are controlled terms from a database thesaurus that are assigned to articles.
• Different databases have different thesauri, which affects the subjects you use.
• Note: you'll usually see a link to the "Subjects Headings" or thesaurus in a database's menu.

Example: MESH.EXACT("Health Services for Transgender Persons") in MEDLINE

Example: (MH "Transgender Persons+") in CINAHL

C) Citation Mapping

Citation mapping is a way of tracking conversations across the literature. The example below shows the citation activity within a group of articles about adventure therapy. 

Figure 3

"The Use of Adventure Therapy in Community-Based Mental Health" Citation Map

Why not try Citation Tree with an article you're currently reading! Tools like this can help you visualize citation relationships between articles.

4. Reading Strategies

5. Synthesis Matrix

Adapt a synthesis matrix like the one linked below to compare studies across the literature.

• Synthesis matrix template (Google Doc).