Research Methods in Health Sciences Expand All + Collapse All - Course Number: HE201 Subject: Health Sciences Literature ReviewA literature review is a 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.Image descriptionGoals for your literature review. 1. Define your topic. It’s common to begin with a broad topic, but how will you develop a more specific focus? 2. Develop your understanding of the literature. Can you map out a themes, outcomes, methodologies, controversies across a body of literature? 3. Identify where you fit in the conversation. How are you contributing to knowledge in your field? Throughout all 3 stages, you'll be finding relevant studies.Topic DevelopmentLearning About Your TopicBefore developing a research question, it's helpful to learn a bit about your topic. Both Omni and Google Scholar can be useful for this kind of preliminary searching.Try to find out what questions researchers are asking about your topic, what terms they use to talk about the topic, and any key journals they publish in.From your search results, read only the article titles and abstracts of titles that sound interesting.Research Question A well-defined research question gives direction to your searching.Frameworks can give guidance about what to include.PICO (for clinical topics) Patient, population, or problem - Who is my question about?Intervention - What is the intervention?Comparison - Is there a comparison intervention?Outcome - What is the outcome? EDP(T)Exposure - Could include socioeconomic status, health-related behaviours, health status or environmental exposures.Disease - What disease, disorder or injury am I interested in?Population - Who is my question about?Time - What time period is relevant?Building a SearchSearch TermsKeywordsWhat 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.Major ConceptKeywordsCancercancer, neoplasm, melanomaArticle DatabasesThere is a list of databases relevant to Health Sciences. 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.Search TacticsTry using some of the following database search tactics to get better results.What is the tactic?What does the tactic do?ExamplesBoolean ANDUse AND to ensure that all terms appear in every search result.depression AND home careBoolean ORUse OR to ensure that at least one term appears in every search result.transgender OR GBTQ OR GLBTPhrase searchingUse “quotation marks” to find more than one term in a row.“brain cancer”TruncationUse an asterisk* at the end of a term to include multiple endings.trauma*trauma, traumatic, traumatically, raumatize, traumatized, traumatizingWildcardUse a question mark ? within a term to search for variations of a single character.decoloni?edecolonize, decoloniseQuestion! I did a search for cancer AND music therapy in CINAHL.What happens to the # of results if I search for cancer AND "music therapy"?What happens to the # of results if I search for cancer* AND "music therapy"?Field SearchingUse 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).LimitsYou can limit results to peer-reviewed or scholarly.A date limit is also often useful in health research.SubjectsThese are controlled terms from a database thesaurus that are assigned to articles.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 (ProQuest)Example: (MH "Transgender Persons+") in CINAHLMajor ConceptKeywordsSubjectsCancercancer, neoplasm, melanomaCINAHL: NeoplasmsMelanomaQuestion! What is the CINAHL subject for teenager?Search Strategy Planning Worksheet Managing Relevant ResultsCitation management software = a method for storing, organizing, and citing literature you can use as you search.Mendeley and Zotero are two free examples.