How To Perform A Systematic Literature Review

The systematic review is a rigorous method of collating and synthesizing evidence from multiple studies, producing a whole greater than the sum of parts. This textbook is an authoritative and accessible guide to an activity that is often found overwhelming. The authors steer readers on a logical, sequential path through the process, taking account of the different needs of researchers, students and practitioners. Practical guidance is provided on the fundamentals of systematic reviewing and also on advanced techniques such as meta-analysis. Examples are given in each chapter, with a succinct glossary to support the text. This up-to-date, accessible textbook will satisfy the needs of students, practitioners and educators in the sphere of healthcare, and contribute to improving the quality of evidence-based practice. The authors will advise some freely available or inexpensive open source/access resources (such as PubMed, R and Zotero) to help students how to perform a systemic review, in particular those with limited resources.

This is a step-by-step guide to doing a literature review in nursing, or related healthcare professions, that takes you through every step of the process from start to finish. From writing your review question to writing up your review, this practical book is the perfect workbook companion if you are doing your first literature review for study or clinical practice improvement. The book features sample review case studies to help identify good practice as well as the pitfalls to avoid, and the practical explanations will be invaluable at every stage. A must buy! “This is a valuable text that will prove useful for nurses who are planning to write a systematic review of the literature, whether as part of an academic assignment or for publication. The book is clearly written, easy to follow and comprehensive, taking readers through all of the key steps in a literature review. It offers a range of case studies and examples that will help to contextualise and clarify the steps of a review. The authors also signpost readers to a variety of resources and provide practical tips, summaries and templates to work through as part of the review process. This will be an important text for undergraduate and post-graduate nurses and I thoroughly recommend it.” Professor Fiona Irvine, Head of Nursing, University of Birmingham, UK “This book is a very comprehensive, well written and illustrated key text on systematic reviews for anyone involved in research within nursing. Its strengths are its well laid-out format, mixing figures and tables with real examples throughout. It is a key resource for both the novice and more advanced researcher and will be a major support to students from basic degree right up to PhD level.” Dr. Pauline Joyce, Academic Co ordinator, RCSI School of Medicine, Ireland “This timely second edition of this book will form a core text for many nursing and healthcare students and their lecturers. The book provides a highly practical, thorough and logical overview to enable even novices to undertake a systematic literature review. Unlike some other methodological texts, the book is written in an easily accessible style, yet provides the necessary theoretical underpinning presented in a non-threatening way. The reader is directed to useful resources and the Q&A sections that follow the chapter summaries are helpful for students to self-assess their learning. The key points keep the reader on track, and helpful practical tips are woven into the text throughout. It’s a great book!” Dr. Debbie Roberts, Professor in Nurse Education and Clinical Learning, and Head of the Research Centre for the School of Social and Life Sciences, Glyndwr University, UK

Showing you how to take a structured and organized approach to a wide range of literature review types, this book helps you to choose which approach is right for your research. Packed with constructive tools, examples, case studies and hands-on exercises, the book covers the full range of literature review techniques. New to This Edition: Full re-organization takes you step-by-step through the process from beginning to end New chapter showing you how to choose the right method for your project Practical guidance on integrating qualitative and quantitative data New coverage of rapid reviews Comprehensive inclusion of literature review tools, including concept analysis, scoping and mapping With an emphasis on the practical skills, this guide is essential for any student or researcher needing to get from first steps to a successful literature review.

This timely, engaging book provides an overview of the nature, logic, diversity and process of undertaking systematic reviews as part of evidence informed decision making. A focused, accessible and technically up-to-date book, it covers the full breadth of approaches to reviews from statistical meta analysis to meta ethnography. It is ideal for anyone undertaking their own systematic review - providing all the necessary conceptual and technical background needed to make a good start on the process. The content is divided into five clear sections: • Approaches to reviewing • Getting started • Gathering and describing research • Appraising and synthesising data • Making use of reviews/models of research use. Easy to read and logically structured, this book is essential reading for anyone doing systematic reviews. David Gough is Professor of Evidence Informed Policy and Practice and Director of SSRU and its EPPI-Centre and Co-Editor of the journal Evidence & Policy. Sandy Oliver is Professor of Public Policy and Deputy Director of SSRU and its EPPI-Centre. James Thomas is Reader in Social Policy, Assistant Director of SSRU and Associate Direcctor of the EPPI-Centre.

"This is an excellent book which explains clearly the principles and practice of systematic reviews. The order of contents is logical, information is easy to find and the contents are written for a wide audience from student to practitioner. There are copious examples and illustrations and these should inspire confidence in the novice and remind the expert what the essential features of a good systematic review are. This book should be on every undergraduate and postgraduate reading list for courses on research methods." Roger Watson, Professor of Nursing, The University of Hull, UK "This book provides a clear and concise guide for students to produce a systematic review of evidence in health care ... The material is presented as a logical series of steps starting with developing a focussed question up to completing the review and disseminating its findings ... To facilitate the review a number of blank forms are presented for the reader to copy and complete in relation to the topic which they are pursuing ... I would wholly recommend this text." Ian Atkinson, previously Senior Lecturer in Research Methods & Assistant Editor Journal of Clinical Nursing Does the idea of writing a systematic literature review feel daunting? Are you struggling to work out where to begin? By walking you carefully through the entire process from start to finish and breaking the task down into manageable steps, this book is the perfect workbook companion for students undertaking their first literature review for study or clinical practice improvement. Co-published with the Nursing Standard, this handy book: Goes into detail about the precise and practical steps required to carry out a systematic literature reviewUses a workbook format, with 3 running examples that you can work through gradually as you carry out your review Offers suggestions and tips to help you write up your own reviewFeatures useful templates to help you stay organised and includes case-studies to identify good practiceHighlights the pitfalls to avoidWritten in an engaging, conversational style with clear explanations throughout, How to do a Systematic Literature Review in Nursing is invaluable reading for all nursing students as well as other healthcare professionals.

Healthcare providers, consumers, researchers and policy makers are inundated with unmanageable amounts of information, including evidence from healthcare research. It has become impossible for all to have the time and resources to find, appraise and interpret this evidence and incorporate it into healthcare decisions. Cochrane Reviews respond to this challenge by identifying, appraising and synthesizing research-based evidence and presenting it in a standardized format, published in The Cochrane Library (www.thecochranelibrary.com). The Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions contains methodological guidance for the preparation and maintenance of Cochrane intervention reviews. Written in a clear and accessible format, it is the essential manual for all those preparing, maintaining and reading Cochrane reviews. Many of the principles and methods described here are appropriate for systematic reviews applied to other types of research and to systematic reviews of interventions undertaken by others. It is hoped therefore that this book will be invaluable to all those who want to understand the role of systematic reviews, critically appraise published reviews or perform reviews themselves.

In this open access edited volume, international researchers of the field describe and discuss the systematic review method in its application to research in education. Alongside fundamental methodical considerations, reflections and practice examples are included and provide an introduction and overview on systematic reviews in education research.

Healthcare decision makers in search of reliable information that compares health interventions increasingly turn to systematic reviews for the best summary of the evidence. Systematic reviews identify, select, assess, and synthesize the findings of similar but separate studies, and can help clarify what is known and not known about the potential benefits and harms of drugs, devices, and other healthcare services. Systematic reviews can be helpful for clinicians who want to integrate research findings into their daily practices, for patients to make well-informed choices about their own care, for professional medical societies and other organizations that develop clinical practice guidelines. Too often systematic reviews are of uncertain or poor quality. There are no universally accepted standards for developing systematic reviews leading to variability in how conflicts of interest and biases are handled, how evidence is appraised, and the overall scientific rigor of the process. In Finding What Works in Health Care the Institute of Medicine (IOM) recommends 21 standards for developing high-quality systematic reviews of comparative effectiveness research. The standards address the entire systematic review process from the initial steps of formulating the topic and building the review team to producing a detailed final report that synthesizes what the evidence shows and where knowledge gaps remain. Finding What Works in Health Care also proposes a framework for improving the quality of the science underpinning systematic reviews. This book will serve as a vital resource for both sponsors and producers of systematic reviews of comparative effectiveness research.