Copyright © 2020 pubrica.. All rights reserved 1

Do’s and Don’ts in Writing a Scientific Literature Review for Health Care

Research.

Dr. Nancy Agens, Head,

Technical Operations, Pubrica

sales@pubrica.com

In brief

Healthcare research is a rapidly growing

hey field necessitating the need to do an

adequate and comprehensive review of

existing literature on the subject. Clinical

literature review services are in the know-

how of writing an effective literature

review article.

Keywords: Clinical Literature Review

Services, Literature Review Help,

literature review writing, literature review

article, writing a literature review,

Literature Review services, how to write a

literature review, purpose of a literature

review, literature review writing help,

writing a literature review article,

Literature Review Writing, how to write

literature review.

I. PURPOSE OF LITERATURE REVIEW

IN HEALTHCARE RESEARCH

The whole purpose of research is to

increase the collective understanding on

the topic and contribute productively. To

achieve this, one must begin by

understanding the context of the

‘conversation’. And this important task is

done by writing a literature review article.

The number of publications,

research, and journalsare increasing by the

day with an increasing need for dedicated

medical writing or literature review

services with domain-related expertise.

Proportionally the number of rejections is

also on the rise.

Literature review writing is the first

step towards any research and making a

clear case for the research study at hand is

achieved by a well-done review.Clinical

literature review services are providing

immense support to busy clinicians and

researchers on how to write a literature

review.

Source: https://dkit.ie.libguides.com/

The purpose of a proper literature review

can be summarized as below: -

Literature review help explore

previous research conducted in the

field of interest, the limitations and

conflict areas identified and the

need for further research. This

justifies the relevance and

originality of the research work.

It also helps one in understanding

and formulating one’s area of

research in a better manner and

justifies the methodology used.

Literature review article helps

connect the statistical findings of

the research with prior research

statistics.

Copyright © 2020 pubrica.. All rights reserved 2

It also conveys that the researcher

is serious and dedicated about the

research and intends to complete

the project.

Literature review writing help is

needed in preventing duplication of

research and avoiding redundant

fields and is needed for good

quality research paper.

Literature review is the preliminary

step in any dissertation as part of

an academic requirement. How to

write a literature review is also an

important part of the curriculum.

In short, literature review writing is

done to place our research within the

context of the topic-related existing

research and justifies the need for

proposed research.

II. CONTEXT OF LITERATURE

REVIEW WRITING

There are various circumstances under

which one must do a literature review.

Introduction to a primary research

topic – This sets the context for the

research article or dissertation by

analysing previously published

literature and clearly defining the

place of the current research and its

contribution to the advancement in

the understanding of the topic in

question.

Systematic review –It is related to

meta-analysis and provide a

quantitative or less often qualitative

statistic summarizing several

papers.

Secondary data analysis projects- It

is a research project on its own and

begins with a clear research

question. The project aims at

analysing available data in

answering the question.

III. DO’S AND DON’TS IN

LITERATURE REVIEW

Do’s

1. The research question should beclear

and crisp, preferably one thatcan be

analysedquantitatively.

2. Picking up the right articles is an art

and one should have clear inclusion

and exclusion criteria to perform a

relevant review.

3. Citations should be recent and relevant

in the current context.

4. Citations should include not only those

studies with clear-cut outcomes or

inferences, it should also include those

that are inconclusive or require further

research. This is required for 360

degree understanding, avoiding bias,

and defining further scope for research.

5. Critical appraisal of the studies cited

with an analytical review of the same

is to be done.

6. Adequate number of citations is often

defined by the journal and that needs to

be followed.

7. Organise and document the data in a

format that best suits and justifies the

research study.

Don’ts

1. Research question should not be

ambiguous as it will result in a

haphazard start to the research study.

2. Deviations or inconsistency in

following the defined inclusion and

exclusion criteria make the findings

unreliable.

3. Citations that are old and outdated in

the current context are to be avoided.

4. Bias in citations that intentionally

quote only those that are congruent in

their conclusions to the current study

should be avoided.

Copyright © 2020 pubrica.. All rights reserved 3

5. Not weighing the studies under

consideration for the quality of

research result in inclusion of poor-

quality literature that make the

outcomes unreliable.

6. Too few or too many citations fail to

convey the crux in the correct

proportions.

7. Data organised in a haphazard manner

becomes inconclusive and does not

interest the reader and sends a wrong

message about the quality of the study.

Source: https://prezi.com/

Basically, depending on the requirement of

the topic of literature research, whether it

is recent or been around for several years,

whether most facts are clear or unclear,

whether researchers agree or disagree on

most matters and what is the outcome

needed out of the literature search in

context of the objective of the current

study.In short, the review should be well-

structured and should have some form to

the flow of information.

Some broad guidelines are

provided by PRISMA that gives a

checklist of 27 items along with flowcharts

to help in a comprehensive search.

IV. CONCLUSION

Setting the factual context of the current

research study is the first stepto participate

in the ongoing ‘dialogue’ on the subject

and contribute positively to that area of

research.Literature review services help

the busy researcher and how to write a

literature review article.

REFERENCES

1. Lingard L. Joining a conversation: the problem/gap/hook heuristic. Perspect Med Educ. 2015 Oct; 4(5):252-3. 2. Maggio, L. A., Sewell, J. L., &Artino, A. R., Jr (2016). The Literature Review: A Foundation for High-Quality Medical Education Research. Journal of graduate

medical education, 8(3), 297–303. 3. Baker, J.D. (2016), The Purpose, Process, and Methods of Writing a Literature Review. AORN Journal, 103: 265-269. 4. Christine Susan Bruce (1994) Research students' early experiences of the dissertation literature review, Studies

in Higher Education, 19:2, 217-229. 5. Efron, S. E., &Ravid, R. (2019). Writing the literature review: A practical guide. The Guilford Press 6. Bollacker, K., Lawrence, S., and Giles, C. L. Discovering relevant scientific literature on the web. IEEE Intelligent Systems, 15(2), 42--47, 2000

7. Moher D, Liberati A, Tetzlaff J, Altman DG, PRISMA Group. Preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses: the PRISMA statement. PLoS Med. 2009 Jul 21; 6(7):e1000097.