Graduate Students' Guide to Library Resources and Services

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Literature Review: 4 Steps to Compose a Literature Review

• Meet your subject librarian

Find the subject librarian in your research area. They can help you determine the best databases and resources to use for a literature review in your field.

• Find a research guide

Use the Research Guide for your subject area to find the best databases and resources in your field or topic area of focus.Some research guides include pages on literature reviews.

A systematic literature review (SLRs; also known as systematic review, systematic overview, evidence summary, or research synthesis) is a summary of the research literature that is focused on a single question.

The systematic review process has been developed to minimize bias and ensure transparency. Methods should be adequately documented so that they can be replicated.

Key components of a systematic review include:

• systematic and extensive searches to identify all the relevant published and unpublished literature
• study selection according to predefined eligibility criteria
• assessment of the risk of bias for included studies
• presentation of the findings in an independent and impartial manner
• discussion of the limitations of the evidence and of the review.