– Conducting a literature review or systematic review
Students doing this option should:
• carry out a brief literature review to identify the need for a formal review and justify the
need for that review (e.g. new developments in the area, no recent review etc.);
• define a research question, inclusion criteria and exclusion criteria of articles, and develop
a rigorous search strategy including search terms for identification of material to be
included in review;
• define which aspects will be reviewed (e.g. design, subject selection, validated instruments
etc.);
• decide on databases and other sources to be searched;
• demonstrate skills in conducting a systematic search, collecting material and summarising
research;
• demonstrate skills in analysing the data if a meta-analysis is conducted;
• demonstrate skills in critically appraising and summarising the findings; and
• summarise findings including recommendations for further studies.
1. The following allocation of words for each section is only an example of how you might divide the total between sections:
• Introduction/ Background (1300 words)
• Summary of background and research methods;
why this review is important; how it differs from other relevant reviews
• Research question, aim, objectives of study (200 words)
• Methods (1000 words)
• Statement of issue to be reviewed,
• methods of identifying and locating research (including search terms and databases
used),
• method of review of research
• Results (2500 words)
• Discussion (1500 words)
• Interpretation of findings in context of background
• Conclusions and when applicable recommendations (500 words)
• References (references are not included in the word count)
• Appendices: searches (appendices are not included in the word count).