health literature review topics

The Sheridan Libraries

• Public Health
• Sheridan Libraries
• Literature Reviews + Annotating
• How to Access Full Text
• Background Information
• Books, E-books, Dissertations
• Articles, News, Who Cited This, More
• Google Scholar and Google Books
• PUBMED and EMBASE
• Statistics -- United States
• Statistics -- Worldwide
• Avoiding Plagiarism
• Citing Sources This link opens in a new window
• Copyright This link opens in a new window
• Evaluating Information This link opens in a new window
• RefWorks Guide and Help This link opens in a new window
• Epidemic Proportions
• Environment and Your Health, AS 280.335, Fall 2024
• Honors in Public Health, AS280.495, Fall 2024-Spring 2025
• Intro to Public Health, AS280.101, Fall 2024
• Research Methods in Public Health, AS280.240, Fall 2024
• Social+Behavioral Determinants of Health, AS280.355, Fall 2024
• Feedback (for class use only)

Literature Reviews

• Organizing/Synthesizing
• Peer Review
• Ulrich's -- One More Way To Find Peer-reviewed Papers

"Literature review," "systematic literature review," "integrative literature review" -- these are terms used in different disciplines for basically the same thing -- a rigorous examination of the scholarly literature about a topic (at different levels of rigor, and with some different emphases).  

1. Our library's guide to Writing a Literature Review

2. Other helpful sites

• Writing Center at UNC (Chapel Hill) -- A very good guide about lit reviews and how to write them
• Literature Review: Synthesizing Multiple Sources (LSU, June 2011 but good; PDF) -- Planning, writing, and tips for revising your paper

3. Welch Library's list of the types of expert reviews

Doing a good job of organizing your information makes writing about it a lot easier.

You can organize your sources using a citation manager, such as refworks , or use a matrix (if you only have a few references):.

• Use Google Sheets, Word, Excel, or whatever you prefer to create a table
• The column headings should include the citation information, and the main points that you want to track, as shown

Synthesizing your information is not just summarizing it. Here are processes and examples about how to combine your sources into a good piece of writing:

• Purdue OWL's Synthesizing Sources
• Synthesizing Sources (California State University, Northridge)

"PICO" is the acronym for the concepts used to create good research questions -- Patient/Population/Problem, Intervention, Comparison or Control, Outcome. Note: This " model is most applicable for outcomes of interventions ," and thereore may not be suitable for all research questions.

• Welch Medical Library's nursing guide to doing literature reviews has a link to a basic worksheet that may help you organize your concepts
• Here is the UNC Health Sciences Library guide about PICO

Annotated Bibliography  

An "annotation" is a note or comment. An "annotated bibliography" is a "list of citations to books, articles, and [other items]. Each citation is followed by a brief...descriptive and evaluative paragraph, [whose purpose is] to inform the reader of the relevance, accuracy, and quality of the sources cited."*

• Purdue's OWL (Online Writing Lab) includes definitions and samples of annotations
• Cornell's guide * to writing annotated bibliographies  

* Thank you to Olin Library Reference, Research & Learning Services, Cornell University Library, Ithaca, NY, USA https://guides.library.cornell.edu/annotatedbibliography

What does "peer-reviewed" mean?

• If an article has been peer-reviewed before being published, it means that the article has been read by other people in the same field of study ("peers").
• The author's reviewers have commented on the article, not only noting typos and possible errors, but also giving a judgment about whether or not the article should be published by the journal to which it was submitted.

How do I find "peer-reviewed" materials?

• Most of the the research articles in scholarly journals are peer-reviewed.
• Many databases allow you to check a box that says "peer-reviewed," or to see which results in your list of results are from peer-reviewed sources. Some of the databases that provide this are Academic Search Ultimate, CINAHL, PsycINFO, and Sociological Abstracts.

What kinds of materials are *not* peer-reviewed?

• open web pages
• most newspapers, newsletters, and news items in journals
• letters to the editor
• press releases
• columns and blogs
• book reviews
• anything in a popular magazine (e.g., Time, Newsweek, Glamour, Men's Health)

If a piece of information wasn't peer-reviewed, does that mean that I can't trust it at all?

No; sometimes you can. For example, the preprints submitted to well-known sites such as  arXiv  (mainly covering physics) and  CiteSeerX (mainly covering computer science) are probably trustworthy, as are the databases and web pages produced by entities such as the National Library of Medicine, the Smithsonian Institution, and the American Cancer Society.

Is this paper peer-reviewed? Ulrichsweb will tell you.

1) On the library home page , choose "Articles and Databases" --> "Databases" --> Ulrichsweb

2) Put in the title of the JOURNAL (not the article), in quotation marks so all the words are next to each other

3) Mouse over the black icon, and you'll see that it means "refereed" (which means peer-reviewed, because it's been looked at by referees or reviewers). This journal is not peer-reviewed, because none of the formats have a black icon next to it:

• << Previous: Evaluating Information
• Next: RefWorks Guide and Help >>
• Last Updated: Sep 19, 2024 2:18 PM
• URL: https://guides.library.jhu.edu/public-health

• Northeastern University Library
• Research Subject Guides
• Public Health
• Literature Reviews
• Get started
• Find articles, literature
• Find "free to use" images
• Statistics and Data
• Health Care Policy & Law
• Diversity, Equity, Inclusion
• Artificial Intelligence
• Focused Topics

Public Health : Literature Reviews

On this page.

This page includes a few resources to help you understand more about writing a literature review.

• Introduction to Literature Reviews Infographic Basics of a literature review.

What about systematic reviews?

This is a term used for a rigorous process that often includes a team of researchers. The process is done "systematically". There are many variations on the type that will ultimately be a synthesis of evidence from the literature.

To learn more, see the below web pages.

Steps for conducting a literature review

Steps in Writing a Literature Review

1.   Decide on your topic.What question are you trying to answer?

2.   Identify keywords and controlled vocabulary search terms that define your subjects and concepts.

3.   Review the literature using the terms/words you identify. Modify and change as needed.

4.  What other factors matter? Time period, does the location, population group or other factors effect the results and your interest?

5.   Evaluate the articles you’ve selected. Read thoroughly.

6.   Organize your articles by theme, pattern:  note two or three important trends in the research; note the most influential theories.  

7.   Develop a working thesis statement: one or two sentences summarizing the conclusion you have reached about the major trends and developments you see in the literature.

8.   Write the paper, focusing on critical analysis of the literature, rather than describing previous research.

Ebooks on Literature Reviews

Scholarly, Popular, Trade? What's in a name?

• Grey Literature

Grey literature in a general sense is defined as materials that are not in formally published resources such as journals or books. Government reports, association or technical reports are some examples.

My grey literature guide contains some sources that can help you explore sources for publications. You may also want to search the web for reports from specific organizations or associations.

Most will be available for free but at times you may need to reach out to the author or source of the publication.

• Grey Literature Resources
• << Previous: Cite and write
• Next: Find "free to use" images >>
• Ask a Librarian
• Last Updated: Sep 25, 2024 11:09 AM
• URL: https://subjectguides.lib.neu.edu/publichealth

Written content on a narrow subject and published in a periodical or website. In some contexts, academics may use article as a shortened form of journal article.

• Green Paper

Bibliography

A detailed list of resources cited in an article, book, or other publication. Also called a List of References.

Call Number

A label of letters and/or numbers that tell you where the resource can be found in the library. Call numbers are displayed on print books and physical resources and correspond with a topic or subject area.

Peer Review

Well-regarded review process used by some academic journals. Relevant experts review articles for quality and originality before publication. Articles reviewed using this process are called peer reviewed articles. Less often, these articles are called refereed articles.

A search setting that removes search results based on source attributes. Limiters vary by database but often include publication date, material type, and language. Also called: filter or facet.

Dissertation

A paper written to fulfill requirements for a degree containing original research on a narrow topic. Also called a thesis.

A searchable collection of similar items. Library databases include resources for research. Examples include: a newspaper database, such as Access World News, or a humanities scholarly journal database, such as JSTOR.

Scholarly Source

A book or article written by academic researchers and published by an academic press or journal. Scholarly sources contain original research and commentary.

• Scholarly articles are published in journals focused on a field of study. also called academic articles.
• Scholarly books are in-depth investigations of a topic. They are often written by a single author or group. Alternatively in anthologies, chapters are contributed by different authors.

• University of Detroit Mercy
• Health Professions

Health Services Administration

• Writing a Literature Review
• Find Articles (Databases)
• Evidence-based Practice
• eBooks & Articles
• General Writing Support
• Creating & Printing Posters
• Research Project Web Resources
• Statistics: Health / Medical
• Searching Tips
• Streaming Video
• Database & Library Help
• Medical Apps & Mobile Sites
• Faculty Publications

Literature Review Overview

What is a Literature Review? Why Are They Important?

A literature review is important because it presents the "state of the science" or accumulated knowledge on a specific topic. It summarizes, analyzes, and compares the available research, reporting study strengths and weaknesses, results, gaps in the research, conclusions, and authors’ interpretations.

Tips and techniques for conducting a literature review are described more fully in the subsequent boxes:

• Literature review steps
• Strategies for organizing the information for your review
• Literature reviews sections
• In-depth resources to assist in writing a literature review
• Templates to start your review
• Literature review examples

Literature Review Steps

Graphic used with permission: Torres, E. Librarian, Hawai'i Pacific University

1. Choose a topic and define your research question

• Try to choose a topic of interest. You will be working with this subject for several weeks to months.
• Ideas for topics can be found by scanning medical news sources (e.g MedPage Today), journals / magazines, work experiences, interesting patient cases, or family or personal health issues.
• Do a bit of background reading on topic ideas to familiarize yourself with terminology and issues. Note the words and terms that are used.
• Develop a focused research question using PICO(T) or other framework (FINER, SPICE, etc - there are many options) to help guide you.
• Run a few sample database searches to make sure your research question is not too broad or too narrow.
• If possible, discuss your topic with your professor. 

2. Determine the scope of your review

The scope of your review will be determined by your professor during your program. Check your assignment requirements for parameters for the Literature Review.

• How many studies will you need to include?
• How many years should it cover? (usually 5-7 depending on the professor)
• For the nurses, are you required to limit to nursing literature?

3. Develop a search plan

• Determine which databases to search. This will depend on your topic. If you are not sure, check your program specific library website (Physician Asst / Nursing / Health Services Admin) for recommendations.
• Create an initial search string using the main concepts from your research (PICO, etc) question. Include synonyms and related words connected by Boolean operators
• Contact your librarian for assistance, if needed.

4. Conduct searches and find relevant literature

• Keep notes as you search - tracking keywords and search strings used in each database in order to avoid wasting time duplicating a search that has already been tried
• Read abstracts and write down new terms to search as you find them
• Check MeSH or other subject headings listed in relevant articles for additional search terms
• Scan author provided keywords if available
• Check the references of relevant articles looking for other useful articles (ancestry searching)
• Check articles that have cited your relevant article for more useful articles (descendancy searching). Both PubMed and CINAHL offer Cited By links
• Revise the search to broaden or narrow your topic focus as you peruse the available literature
• Conducting a literature search is a repetitive process. Searches can be revised and re-run multiple times during the process.
• Track the citations for your relevant articles in a software citation manager such as RefWorks, Zotero, or Mendeley

5. Review the literature

• Read the full articles. Do not rely solely on the abstracts. Authors frequently cannot include all results within the confines of an abstract. Exclude articles that do not address your research question.
• While reading, note research findings relevant to your project and summarize. Are the findings conflicting? There are matrices available than can help with organization. See the Organizing Information box below.
• Critique / evaluate the quality of the articles, and record your findings in your matrix or summary table. Tools are available to prompt you what to look for. (See Resources for Appraising a Research Study box on the HSA, Nursing , and PA guides )
• You may need to revise your search and re-run it based on your findings.

6. Organize and synthesize

• Compile the findings and analysis from each resource into a single narrative.
• Using an outline can be helpful. Start broad, addressing the overall findings and then narrow, discussing each resource and how it relates to your question and to the other resources.
• Cite as you write to keep sources organized.
• Write in structured paragraphs using topic sentences and transition words to draw connections, comparisons, and contrasts.
• Don't present one study after another, but rather relate one study's findings to another. Speak to how the studies are connected and how they relate to your work.

Organizing Information

Options to assist in organizing sources and information :

1. Synthesis Matrix

• helps provide overview of the literature
• information from individual sources is entered into a grid to enable writers to discern patterns and themes
• article summary, analysis, or results
• thoughts, reflections, or issues
• each reference gets its own row
• mind maps, concept maps, flowcharts
• at top of page record PICO or research question
• record major concepts / themes from literature
• list concepts that branch out from major concepts underneath - keep going downward hierarchically, until most specific ideas are recorded
• enclose concepts in circles and connect the concept with lines - add brief explanation as needed

3. Summary Table

• information is recorded in a grid to help with recall and sorting information when writing
• allows comparing and contrasting individual studies easily
• purpose of study
• methodology (study population, data collection tool)

Efron, S. E., & Ravid, R. (2019). Writing the literature review : A practical guide . Guilford Press.

Literature Review Sections

• Lit reviews can be part of a larger paper / research study or they can be the focus of the paper
• Lit reviews focus on research studies to provide evidence
• New topics may not have much that has been published

* The sections included may depend on the purpose of the literature review (standalone paper or section within a research paper)

Standalone Literature Review (aka Narrative Review):

• presents your topic or PICO question
• includes the why of the literature review and your goals for the review.
• provides background for your the topic and previews the key points
• Narrative Reviews: tmay not have an explanation of methods.
• include where the search was conducted (which databases) what subject terms or keywords were used, and any limits or filters that were applied and why - this will help others re-create the search
• describe how studies were analyzed for inclusion or exclusion
• review the purpose and answer the research question
• thematically - using recurring themes in the literature
• chronologically - present the development of the topic over time
• methodological - compare and contrast findings based on various methodologies used to research the topic (e.g. qualitative vs quantitative, etc.)
• theoretical - organized content based on various theories
• provide an overview of the main points of each source then synthesize the findings into a coherent summary of the whole
• present common themes among the studies
• compare and contrast the various study results
• interpret the results and address the implications of the findings
• do the results support the original hypothesis or conflict with it
• provide your own analysis and interpretation (eg. discuss the significance of findings; evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the studies, noting any problems)
• discuss common and unusual patterns and offer explanations
•  stay away from opinions, personal biases and unsupported recommendations
• summarize the key findings and relate them back to your PICO/research question
• note gaps in the research and suggest areas for further research
• this section should not contain "new" information that had not been previously discussed in one of the sections above
• provide a list of all the studies and other sources used in proper APA 7

Literature Review as Part of a Research Study Manuscript:

• Compares the study with other research and includes how a study fills a gap in the research.
• Focus on the body of the review which includes the synthesized Findings and Discussion

Literature Reviews vs Systematic Reviews

Systematic Reviews are NOT the same as a Literature Review:

Literature Reviews:

• Literature reviews may or may not follow strict systematic methods to find, select, and analyze articles, but rather they selectively and broadly review the literature on a topic
• Research included in a Literature Review can be "cherry-picked" and therefore, can be very subjective

Systematic Reviews:

• Systemic reviews are designed to provide a comprehensive summary of the evidence for a focused research question
• rigorous and strictly structured, using standardized reporting guidelines (e.g. PRISMA, see link below)
• uses exhaustive, systematic searches of all relevant databases
• best practice dictates search strategies are peer reviewed
• uses predetermined study inclusion and exclusion criteria in order to minimize bias
• aims to capture and synthesize all literature (including unpublished research - grey literature) that meet the predefined criteria on a focused topic resulting in high quality evidence

Literature Review Examples

• Breastfeeding initiation and support: A literature review of what women value and the impact of early discharge (2017). Women and Birth : Journal of the Australian College of Midwives
• Community-based participatory research to promote healthy diet and nutrition and prevent and control obesity among African-Americans: A literature review (2017). Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities

• Vitamin D deficiency in individuals with a spinal cord injury: A literature review (2017). Spinal Cord

Resources for Writing a Literature Review

These sources have been used in developing this guide.

Resources Used on This Page

Aveyard, H. (2010). Doing a literature review in health and social care : A practical guide . McGraw-Hill Education.

Purdue Online Writing Lab. (n.d.). Writing a literature review . Purdue University. https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/conducting_research/writing_a_literature_review.html

Torres, E. (2021, October 21). Nursing - graduate studies research guide: Literature review. Hawai'i Pacific University Libraries. Retrieved January 27, 2022, from https://hpu.libguides.com/c.php?g=543891&p=3727230

• << Previous: General Writing Support
• Next: Creating & Printing Posters >>
• Last Updated: Sep 25, 2024 3:21 PM
• URL: https://udmercy.libguides.com/hsa