B.

Sc Nursing – III year

Nursing Research and Statistics
Unit –III Review of literature
Topic: Location & sources ,online search:
CINHAL,COCHRANE etc.
 Objectives

At the end of the class the student will be able to

 identify the location & sources of literature.
 illustrate the steps in literature search through
electronic database.
 INTRODUCTION

The literature review is an integral part of the

research process and an account of what is
already known about a particular phenomenon.
The main purpose of literature review is to
convey to the readers about the work already
done and the knowledge and ideas that have
been already established on a particular topic of
research.
 Sources of review

Literature can be reviewed from two main sources

Primary source
Secondary source
 Sources of review
A. Primary source
 Research publications written by the person or
people who conducted the research/ theorists
who developed the theory
Ex: Primary source ,an original experimental study
of the effects of a nurse- initiated intervention
for urinary
incontinence:Liao,y.,Dougherty,M.,Liou,Y.,&Tse
ng,I.(20026).Pelvic floor muscle training effect
on urinary incontinence knowledge ,atitudes,
and severity .International journal of nursing
studies,43(1),29-37.
 Sources of review

B. Secondary source
 Research reports prepared by someone other
than the original researcher
 Authors paraphrase the works of original
researcher
 The secondary sources include the comments
and summaries of multiple research studies on
one topic, e.g. systemic reviews, meta-analysis,
meta-synthesis, etc.
 Sources of review cont
B. Secondary source
Problems:
 Writing article is subjective – influenced by the
author’s perception and bias
 Fails to provide details about study
 Secondary source is not substitute for primary
source.
Ex:a review of the literature on nurses role in the care
of community dwelling incontinent
patients:Dumoulin,M.,Hamers,J.,Paulus,A.,Bendersen,
C.,& Halfens,R.(2005).The role of the nurse in
community continence care:A systemic
review .International journal of nursing
studies,42(4),479-492.
The main source where the literatures can
be searched are as
 Major steps in doing a literature review
through a electronic database
Discard irrelevant
or inappropriate
references

Search for
Devise identify and
Identify key retrieve Screen sources
search words and potential for relevance,
strategy concepts primary appropriateness
source
materials

Identify new Read source

references, new materials
leads

Prepare
synthesis Critique/ Organise the
/Critical evaluate references
summary studies
 Search strategy approaches

Cooper (1998) has identified several approach,

1. Bibliographic databases- Searching for references
through bibiliographic database
2. Ancestory approach(footnote chasing) – use the
citations from relevant studies & track down earlier
research upon which the studies are based.
3. Decendancy approach – search forward in citation
indexes to find recent studies
4. Grey literature – refers to studies with limited
distribution (conference papers, unpublished
reports, dissertations)
 Develop a search strategy

• Written search strategy saves time .

• It helps to
- avoid going back along paths you have
already searched
- retrace your steps
- search new paths
• Initial search should be wide & later narrow the
focus of search
 Select database to search
• A bibliographical database is a compilation of
citations relevant to a specific discipline or from
a variety of disciplines. Several commercial
vendor(,Ovid,Ebsco Host)offer information
retrieval services.
• Three distinct types
- Indexes & abstracts
- Full text reprint services
- Link citations
• Data bases
- Printed form
- Electronic data base
Electronic Database for Nurse Researchers
• CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied
Health Literature)
• Pubmed
• MEDLINE (Medical Literature Online)
• ISI (Institute for Scientific Information Web of
Knowledge)
• British Nursing Index- Nursing and Allied Health
Source (ProQuest)
• Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews
• HaPI (Health and Psychological Instruments
Database)
• Dissertation Abstracts Online
CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing And
Allied Health Literature)
• Contains citations of nursing literature published
after 1955
• Referred as “Red Books” by nursing scholars
• Covers English language, Nursing and Allied
Health journals, books, book chapters,
dissertations & selected conference proceedings
• Electronic version contains database from 1982
to the present (more than one million records)
• Accessed online http://www.cinahl.com or by
CD-ROM
CINAHL through EBSCO database
Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews
• Cochrane database of system reviews: Health
care-related literature can be searched from this
source, available at http://www.cochrane.org.
Search results in Cochrane library
 MEDLINE (Medical Literature Online)

• Developed by US National Library of Medicine

(NLM) – Free access
• Covers about 5000 Medical, Nursing and Health
journals
• 15 million records from mid 1960’s
• From 1999, Abstracts of Cochrane collaboration
became available
• Is an online database with free access through
PubMed web
www.ncbi.nlm.gov/entrez/query.fcgi
 ISI(Institute of scientific Information Web of
knowledge)
• Maintains multidisciplinary resources called the
web of knowledge
• Offers integrated searching
• Covers most fields of social & applied sciences
including medicine and nursing
 Other Databases

• Cancer Lit
• Cochrane database of systematic review
• Dissertations abstract online
• Psych Info
• Ovid sp
• Science direct
 Select key words

• Mapping is a feature that allows you to search for key

topics using your own words ,rather than needing to
enter a term that is exactly the same as a subject
heading.
• Key words are the major concepts or variables that
must be included in your search
• To determine the key words, identify concepts,
variables, population, interventions, measurement
methods or relevant outcomes
• Subject headings and phrases can be used
• Think of alternative terms (synonyms)
• Note down the key words in the written search plan
 Select key words cont

• Truncating words allow to locate more citations

related to the term
• Do not truncate terms to less than four letters –
will give unwanted references
• Pay attention to variant spellings
• Frequently cited author’s name can be used to
perform search
• Use a journal title in case of well known journal
in that particular topic/field
 Example of Key word search
• Suppose we were interested in recent research on
nurses pain management for children. Here is an
example of how many hits there were using one of many
possible key words search strategies using the CINAHL
database.
Search topic Hits
Pain 3,35,949
Pain AND Child* AND Nur 2054
Limit to English 1834
Limit to entries with abstracts 1430
Limit to nursing journals 794
Limit to 2001-2010 399
The narrowing search gives 3 laksh initial refernce to 399
recent research on pain ,nurses, and children in less
than 1 minute .
 Screening the references

References that have been identified through the

literature search need to be screened for
Is the references readily accessible in
readable language ,easy to retrieve.
To screen the relevance of the reference
through reading the abstract.
To screen the quality of evidence the study
yields(methodological quality).
 Organization of literature review
• A literature review is organized by subtopic, not
by individual references.
• Typically, discussion of each sources is quite
brief. The contribution the present reviewers
make is organizing the ideas from the sources
into a cogent argument or narrative that includes
their perspectives.
• The reviewer should focus on citing the material
that originates with each reference. This may
require a careful reading of the reference. If the
reference author refers to another source whose
ideas are relevant or interesting, it is better to
track & use that original reference.
 Documenting the retrieved literature
• Record your search strategies and search results using
note of the following informations .
Name of databases used
Exclusion & inclusion criteria used
Date of performing search
Exact search strategy used
Key words used
Combining strategies used
Number of articles found
Percentage of relevant articles
Websites visited & links pursued
Authors contacted for further information
Develop a table of record and save it in the
computer
 Documenting the retrieved literature cont

• Literature review are often complex ,there are

two mechanisms(literature review matrices) in
recording key pieces of information from each
study
Methodological matrix
Result Matrix
 Methodological Matrix

A.Methodological Matrix:
Author Pub Country Theory Independe Dependen Study Sample Sampling How Age
Yr nt t design size method data are of
Variable Variable collecte childr
d en

• Table provides quick over view of recordings key

methodological features of studies for a
literature review: nurse characteristics and
management of children's pain
 Result Matrix

• B.Result Matrix:
Author Pub dependent Dependent Dependent Dependent
Yr Variable Variable Variable Variable
a)Pain perception b)Use of analgesics c)Use of non d)others
pharmacological
measures

• Table provides quick over view of recordings key

result features of studies for a literature review:
nurse education and management of children's
pain
 Summary

• Literature reviews provide a solid

background for a research paper’s
investigation.
• Comprehensive knowledge of the
literature of the field is essential to most
research papers
• Students can utilize the various sources to
strengthen their research.
 References
• Burns, N., & Grove, K. S. (2005). The practice of
nursing research: Conduct, critique and utilization
(5th ed.). Missouri: Elsevier Publication.
• Munshall, P. L. (2001). Nursing Research: A
qualitative perspective. Sudbury, MA: Jones &
Bartlett
• Polit, F. D., & Beck, T. C. (2011). Nursing research
generating and assessing evidence fir nursing
practice (8th ed.). New Delhi: Wolters Kluwer (India)
Pvt. Ltd.
• Taylor, T. (2011). The literature review: A few tips on
conducting it. Retrieved June 6, 2011 from
http://wwwwriting utoronto ca/advice/specific – types-
of-listing/literature-review.