8.1 Anatomy of a Literature Review
Beverley Glass
Anatomy of a Literature Review – Writing a NARRATIVE vs SCOPING REVIEW
In this research section you are exploring more about the writing and structuring of 2 literature review types – narrative and scoping reviews.
In the following chapters the writing process for each review type is further detailed, with activities to help you draft your relevant literature review.
Readings
- Handbook of eHealth Evaluation: An Evidenced-based Approach. Lau F, Kuziemsky C, editors. Victoria (BC): University of Victoria; 2017 Feb 27. Chapter 9 Methods for Literature Review Guy Pare and Spyros Kitsio. Particularly the sections 9.3.1 (Narrative reviews) and 9.3.3 (Scoping reviews). Available at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK481583/
- Scoping Reviews: What are they and how can you do them? By Tricco. Available at https://training.cochrane.org/sites/training.cochrane.org/files/public/uploads/resources/downloadable_resources/English/Scoping%20reviews%20webinar%20Andrea%20Tricco%20PDF.pdf
Introduction
Now that you have completed your literature review framework, it is time to finalise the full literature review process and complete the writing process.
Steps in Writing a Literature Review
As you have already completed Sections 1, 2 and 3 as part of your Literature Review Framework, which you handed in for PC2540 as a HURDLE, this section of resources will focus on steps 4, 5 and 6 below.
- Step 4 – Understanding and analysing resources
- Step 5 – Synthesising and evaluating resources
- Step 6 – Writing the literature review
Click on the diagram below to learn more about a literature review and the stages you are now going to work through.
Writing a literature review is a very challenging task. Depending on why you are writing your literature review, you may be given a topic area or may choose a topic that particularly interests you or is related to a research project that you wish to undertake. Once you have your topic and have accessed the literature, the next stages (analysis, synthesis and evaluation) are challenging.
For more details about these stages read the interactive book below, which unpacks each stage with examples for your review.