Biology Senior Seminar

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Ethical Use of Scientific Information 

Ethical_use_of_information_BioSem_2009.ppt

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Literature Review  

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What is a Literature Review?

Purpose of a Literature Review

As a means of disseminating information to scholars in a particular discipline the literature review has four purposes:

 

• to describe work done on a specific area of research 
• to evaluate this work
• to identify areas of controversy in the literature
• to formulate questions that need to be addressed further

 

 

Components of a Literature Review

The works that make up the literature review fall into three categories:

 

• General theoretical literature

  • This literature establishes the importance of your topic/research.   These sources generally define abstract concepts, discuss the relationships between abstract concepts, and include statistics about the problem being investigated.  Landmark and classic articles are also included.

 

• Literature on related topic areas

  • These sources identify general themes that run throughout the literature.   For example,  a database search on the topic of pandemics will find articles on antiviral resistance, strategies for preparedness, and non-pharmaceutical public health preparedness.  

 

• Literature specific to your research focus

  • This literature is highly relevant.  The sources isolate the issues and highlight the findings you expected when you articulated your research question or formulated your hypothesis.    

 

 

Structure of a Literature Review

The literature review consists of  the introduction, the body, and  the conclusion.  

    

 

In the Introduction   

·         Define the problem or state the thesis.   

·         Identify overall trends in what has been published on the topic.  Identify conflicts in theory, methodology, evidence, conclusions and gaps in research and new perspectives on the topic. 

·         State the reason for reviewing the literature; explain the criteria to be used in analyzing and comparing the research articles; explain why certain literature is or is not included.

 

In the Body  

·        Describe the articles or documents in detail.   

·         Group articles together according to types, such as case studies, reviews, empirical studies,  or according to the conclusions of the authors, or the specific purposes or objectives. 

·         Compare and evaluate the articles or documents.

 

In the Conclusion

·         Summarize the major contributions of the significant articles or documents to the topic under review.   

·        Evaluate the current state of the research for the topic under review.  Explain inconsistencies in theory or conclusions, gaps in research, and point out issues that need to be studied further. 

·         Provide insight into the relationship between the topic under review and the larger discipline of which it is a part.  Provide implications of the studies or documents discussed for the profession or discipline at large.     

 

 

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Literature Review Worksheet  

This worksheet can be used to organize your research articles or book chapters. 

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Writing Helps and Samples

 

APA Basics Style Sheets from Holy Spirit Library:   APA Electronic Resources 2009.doc ; APA Print Resources.pdf 

 

APA style:   Tutorial on APA style. 

 

FAQs on how to reference materials in APA style, from the sixth edition.

 

 

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How to cite from ProQuest Science and/or Biology Journals

 

Open the article 

 

• Click on the "Email" link, also on the horizontal top tool bar and change the Citation Style to APA.  Choose Brief Citation, Article Summary,  or Full text (all include the article citation).  Copy and paste the citation into your document.  

 OR

•  Click on the "Cite this" link on the horizontal top tool bar, choose APA format and copy and paste into an email or Microsoft Word. 

 

 

Check the citation against the APA stylesheets

 

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How to use the Microsoft Word 2007 Citation Tool

 To input a new source:

 

• Choose the References tab on the top tool bar.
• Choose APA from the Style: drop down box. 
• Choose the Insert Citation icon. 
• Select Add New Source from the drop down menu.
• Choose the type of resource that you are citing and complete the template.

 

After inputting all items you can use the Insert Citation icon to insert internal citations while writing and use the Bibliography to create a bibliography or works cited list.

 

 

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Recommended Subject Specific Databases  Connect

ProQuest Biology Journals

ProQuest Nursing and Allied Health

ProQuest Science Journals

Health Source

PubMed 

 

Recommended Multidisciplinary Databases  Connect

Academic Search Premier

Sage Journals Online  

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Recommended Search Engines:

Recommended Search Engines:

Scirus              http://www.scirus.com/ 

A search engine that  focuses only on web sites with scientific content; indexes Elsevier's  scientific information resources of thousands of journals and books.

 

Ingenta           www.ingenta.com

Use the browse by subject area feature to locate journal abstracts and full-text reference sources.     

 

BioMedCentral http://www.biomedcentral.com/       

Full text original research articles published by BioMed Central are accessible immediately upon publication. 

             

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