Public Health Research Guide

A literature review involves both the literature searching and the writing. The purpose of the literature search is to:

• reveal existing knowledge
• identify areas of consensus and debate
• identify gaps in knowledge
• identify approaches to research design and methodology
• identify other researchers with similar interests
• clarify your future directions for research

List above from Conducting A Literature Search, Information Research Methods and Systems, Penn State University Libraries

A literature review provides an evaluative review and documentation of what has been published by scholars and researchers on a given topic. In reviewing the published literature, the aim is to explain what ideas and knowledge have been gained and shared to date (i.e., hypotheses tested, scientific methods used, results and conclusions), the weakness and strengths of these previous works, and to identify remaining research questions: A literature review provides the context for your research, making clear why your topic deserves further investigation.

1. Select and understand your research topic and question.
2. Identify the major concepts in your topic and question.
3. Brainstorm potential keywords/terms that correspond to those concepts.
4. Identify alternative keywords/terms (narrower, broader, or related) to use if your first set of keywords do not work.
5. Determine (Boolean*) relationships between terms.
6. Begin your search.
7. Review your search results.
8. Revise & refine your search based on the initial findings.

*Boolean logic provides three ways search terms/phrases can be combined, using the following three operators: AND, OR, and NOT.

The type of information you want to find and the practices of your discipline(s) drive the types of sources you seek and where you search. For most research you will use multiple source types such as: annotated bibliographies; articles from journals, magazines, and newspapers; books; blogs; conference papers; data sets; dissertations; organization, company, or government reports; reference materials; systematic reviews; archival materials; and more. It can be helpful to develop a comprehensive approach to review different sources and where you will search for each. Below is an example approach.

Search:

• Annual Reviews and Bibliographies – e.g., Annual Review of Public Health review articles (Annual Reviews database)
• Internet – e.g., Listservs, Blogs, Social Networking Sites, etc. related to your topic
• Grant Databases – e.g., National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of Extramural Research (OEH) and NIH Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools (RePORT), Grants to Individuals
• Conference Proceedings and Professional Association websites – e.g., American Public Health Association, National Environmental Health Association, World Council for Health
• Research or Resource Centers – e.g., Pacific Northwest Evidence-based Practice Center (EPC)
• Citation Indexes – e.g., PubMed, Dissertations & Theses Global ProQuest, Web of Science Core Collection
• Journal Indexes/Databases and EJournal Packages – e.g., CINAHL Complete, Journals@Ovid
• Specialized Data – e.g., Disability & Health Data System (DHDS), Montana Public Health Information System
• Book Catalogs – e.g., local library catalog (OneSearch at UM), WorldCat, Google Books
• Institutional Repositories – e.g., ScholarWorks at the University of Montana (includes UM Conference on Undergraduate Research as UM Graduate Research Conference abstracts)
• Library Web Scale Discovery Service – e.g., OneSearch (main search from library homepage)
• Web Search Engines – e.g., Google
• Government websites – e.g., U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institutes of Health), Missoula City-County Health Department

Additional information gathering strategies:

• Identify and browse current issues of the most relevant journals for your topic
• Identify and search for the publications of experts and new scholars
• Setup alerts, e.g., Journal Table of Contents, Saved Searches
• Contact researchers, librarians, etc. at institutions, organizations, and agencies for resources or support