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How to Conduct a Literature Review (Health Sciences): What is a Literature Review

A guide on how to get started developing research questions

Literature Review

A literature review provides an overview of what's been written about a specific topic. Literature reviews consist of many different types and vary in terms of comprehensiveness, types of study, and purpose.

Traditional Literature Review
Provides a quick overview of current studies. It helps explain why your study is important in the context of the literature, and can also help you identify areas that need further research.  

Integrative Literature Review
"Synthesizes findings from different approaches, for example, experimental and non-experimental studies." The integrative review: updated methodology: this approach allows for the integration of qualitative studies with quantitative studies. They may or may not be systematic reviews.

Systematic Review
A high quality information to answer a given research question. Refer to the Cochrane Library for detailed information regarding systematic reviews (About Cochrane Reviews). Conducting a systematic review involves extensive research.

Meta-Analysis
Are "the statistical integration of separate studies" that involve identifying similar studies and retrieving data to obtain more accurate estimate of true effect size. A systematic review can include a meta-analysis.

Scoping Review
Involves a broad research question exploring the current evidence. Refer to the journal article from Journal of Public Health, "Scoping the 'scope' of Cochrane Review.
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