We undertake literature reviews to address specific questions and provide an overview of particular topics.
We offer several literature review methodologies:
- Systematic Review methods such as EPPI, with quality control based on PRISMA criteria and addressing specific questions
- Structured evidence-based literature review typically providing an authoritative evidence-based overview of a topic area
- Conceptual literature review to identify and map out the theoretical concepts and their relationships i
- Thematic literature review analyzing a body of literature in terms of major and minor themes (typically predetermined)
- Critical event/incident/issue literature review to investigate and reveal previously unidentified critical issues
- Critical-comparative literature review in which two or more contradicting hypotheses, analyses or findings are compared and evaluated
- Annotated bibliography in which the key findings and analyses of a body of literature is developed into a single coherent narrative
- Root cause literature review in which multiple literatures are reviewed to identify causal paths of problems and root causes
In most cases, the process is similar and comprises:
- Defining and formalizing the literature review purpose(s), objectives, questions and background information informing the review itself.
- Predetermining the criteria for eligibility, relevance and inclusion of texts.
- Identifying search terms and algorithms based on the above
- Identifying relevant document databases, citation indexes and manual searching sources
- Searching for studies and documents
- Selecting studies and documents and entering onto reference manager software e.g. EndNote
- Identifying relative quality, reliability, relevance and issues of bias of documents
- Conducting analyses and meta-analyses including mapping documents into a visual diagram as appropriate
- Identifying limitations of analysis and data collection
- Writing report including analyses and summary of findings
Typically, all of the above is undertaken with ongoing liaison with representatives of the client to ensure the client's objectives are fulfilled.
Additional document analysis and management services are found under the menu item for Document Analysis