How to Conduct a Literature Review

Aveyard, H. (2019). Doing a literature review in health and social care: A practical guide (Fourth ed.) Open University Press, McGraw-Hill Education.

Jesson, J., Matheson, L., & Lacey, F. M. (2011). Doing your literature review: Traditional and systematic techniques. SAGE.

Ridley, D., Dr. (2008). The literature review: A step-by-step guide for students. SAGE.

Websites

• Guide to Literature Reviews (McMaster University Library)

Constructing a Research Question

Alvesson, M., & Sandberg, J. (2013). Constructing research questions: Doing interesting research. SAGE.

DeCarlo, M (2018) Chapter 8: Creating and refining a research question in Scientific Inquiry in Social Work. Open Social Work Education.

Denney, A. S., & Tewksbury, R. (2013). How to Write a Literature Review. Journal of Criminal Justice Education, 24(2), 218–234.

How to Search

Videos

The National Library of Medicine (2013, February 14). Use MeSH to Build a Better PubMed Query [Video]. YouTube.

UTS Library (2021, February 23). Medline Ovid: Advanced Searching [Video]. YouTube.

Websites

• Searching for Sources (Research Skills Tutorial), Toronto Metropolitan University Library
• Library Research Skills Tutorial, McMaster University Library

Reading Strategies

Greenhalgh T. (1997). How to read a paper. Getting your bearings (deciding what the paper is about). BMJ (Clinical research ed.), 315(7102), 243–246.

Sweeney, M. “How to Read for Grad School.” Miriam E. Sweeney, 20 June 2012.

Quality Assessment

Greenhalgh T. (1997). Assessing the methodological quality of published papers. BMJ (Clinical research ed.), 315(7103), 305–308.

Greenhalgh, T., & Taylor, R. (1997). Papers that go beyond numbers (qualitative research). BMJ (Clinical research ed.), 315(7110), 740–743.

Checklists and Tools

• CASP Checklists Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) from the Public Health Resource Unit, NHS, England
• Critical Appraisal Tools The Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine (CEBM) from the University of Oxford
• Risk of Bias 2 (Rob 2) Tool  Cochrane Methods
• Critical Appraisal Tools Joanna Briggs Institute
• Study Quality Assessment Tools  National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute

Writing

Allen, J. (2019). The productive graduate student writer: How to manage your time, process, and energy to write your research proposal, thesis, and dissertation, and get published (First ed.). Stylus Publishing, LLC.

Denney, A. S., & Tewksbury, R. (2013). How to Write a Literature Review. Journal of Criminal Justice Education, 24(2), 218–234.

Feak, C. B., & Swales, J. M. (2009). Telling a research story: Writing a literature review. University of Michigan Press.

Holland, K., & Watson, R. (2021). Writing for publication in nursing and healthcare: Getting it right (Second;2; ed.). John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Walliman, N. (2006). Writing a literature review. In Social research methods (pp. 182-185). SAGE Publications, Ltd.

Website

• Writing a Literature Review (OWL, Purdue University)

Official Citation Manuals

APA

American Psychological Association (2020). Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association: The  official guide to APA style (Seventh ed.). American Psychological Association.

MLA

Modern Language Association of America. (2021). MLA handbook (Ninth ed.). Modern Language Association of America.

Turabian (Chicago)

Turabian, Booth, W. C., Colomb, G. G., & Williams, J. M. (2018). Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations (9th edition.). University of Chicago Press.

IEEE

IEEE (n.d). IEEE Reference Guide (PDF)

Vancouver or ICMJE

International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. (2021, December). Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals (PDF).