Faculty of Nursing

.Postgraduate Student – MSc

Research Methods – Lec. (3)

Literature Review

Asst. Prof. Dr. Ali Abdulzahra Mahdi

Ph.D. - Physiology
 Literature Review
 Collection and evaluation of information
from research studies, scholarly articles,
books, dissertations, conference proceedings,
and other materials relevant to a particular
topic.
 Purposes of Literature Review
 The general purpose of literature review is to
get strong knowledge base about the
problem under study .
 Purposes of Literature Review

 Specify the problem to be studied .

 Describe the current knowledge about the

problem studied .
 Finding out gaps in the area of research .

 Identifying suitable methodology to be

applied in the research (i.e. study design,

data collection, intervention … etc.) .
 Literature Sources
Primary Sources : are researches written by
the original researcher who conducted them .

Secondary Source : is the study that

summarizes or quotes content from primary
sources .
 Gray Literature
Gray literature is information produced by
government agencies, academic institutions,
and also the for-profit sector that is not
typically controlled by commercial publishers.
 Gray Literature
Examples of gray literature include :

 Reports
 Conference Proceedings
 Dissertations and theses
 Registered trials
 Government Documents
 Types of Publications
 Article is a paper about a specific topic and
may be published together with other articles
on similar themes in journals ,
encyclopedias, or edited books .
 A periodical such as a journal is published

over time and is numbered sequentially for

the years published.
 Types of Publications
 A monograph, such as a book on a specific
subject, a record of conference proceedings,
or a pamphlet, usually is a one-time
publication .
 Conference proceedings : are papers passed

through review process in a conference and

published (complete or abstract) in one
publications
 Types of Publications
 An encyclopedia is an authoritative
compilation of information on alphabetized
topics that may provide background
information and lead to other sources, but is
rarely cited in academic papers and
publications .
 Types of Publications
 A thesis is a report of a research project
completed by a postgraduate student as part
of the requirements for a master’s degree.
 A dissertation is a report of an extensive,

sometimes original, research project that is

completed as the final requirement for a
doctoral degree.
 Types of Publications
 Clinical journals are periodicals that
include research reports and non-research
articles about practice problems and
professional issues.
 Textbooks are source of information for

academic courses.
 Content of Publications
 Theoretical literature includes concept
analyses, models, theories, and conceptual
frameworks that support a selected research
problem and purpose .
 It can be found in books, periodicals, and

monographs
 Content of Publications
 Empirical literature is the knowledge based
on data from research (data-based).
 Data-based literature includes published
studies, usually in journals, books, and
unpublished studies, such as master theses
and doctoral dissertations
 Discuss
 Not all websites are valid and appropriate
for citation in a literature review .
 Quality literature reviews
 Quality literature reviews include relevant
and current sources. Relevant studies are
those with a direct bearing on the problem of
concern. Current sources are those
published within 5 years before publication
of the manuscript .