PhD Progress Update: Systematic Literature Review /
Once the Research Proposal has been approved by the University, it is now time to start digging into the literature. A systematic literature review is carried out with the purpose of investigating specific topics according to the available scientific literature (Luederitz et.al, 2016). Most importantly, a systematic literature review will assess the quality of research and will eventually summarise the research, following a well-defined procedure (Brandt et al., 2013). The review procedure (or protocol) is established based on the aim and objectives of the proposed study and it is informed by the research questions outlined within the Research Proposal.
Systematic Literature Review: The Review Procedure
Halilem (2010) outlines 6 stages of a systematic literature review, as follows:
- identifying the need for a review
- developing a research protocol (explicit research question; inclusion and exclusion criteria)
- identifying relevant studies
- selecting relevant studies based on inclusion and exclusion criteria
- assessing the quality of retained studies
- summarising study results
Furthermore, Luederitz et al. (2016), breaks down the systematic literature review procedure into six consecutive steps:
- definition of selection criteria
- data gathering
- data screening
- data cleaning
- data scoping
- full-text review
Since the need for research has already been established within my Research Proposal, the starting point for me was that of defining the selection criteria. Next: identifying relevant electronic databases, defining relevant keywords, inclusion and exclusion criteria and deciding on the time range. The selection of electronic databases will vary, depending on the field of research. Same applies to the other selection criteria. Identifying, selecting and assessing the relevant studies (i.e. data gathering, screening, cleaning and scoping) follows – and this is where I am now. At the moment it seems like this is going to take forever, but hopefully I’ll get better at it with practice.
Systematic Literature Review: Useful Tools
I use Zotero as a citation manager, but other options such as Mendeley, EndNote etc. are available. No particular reason for choosing Zotero, other than that I started with it, I find it very intuitive and I believe it suits my research needs very well.
I have also discovered a few interesting free research tools via Twitter. By the way, if you are an early researcher, Twitter can (sometimes) be your friend: there are a few PHD communities where researchers in different fields are sharing their experience. A quick search for hashtags such as #PhDchat #AcademicTwitter #PhDlife and #PhDvoice will give you an idea. And since you’re there… find me @mintandrosemary and say hello :). Anyway, back to those interesting tools. Research Rabbit is a great online tool for exploring academic literature. It allows you to identify connections between papers, to save and group searches in clusters, and to generate visual diagrams. I also like to play with Connected Papers, particularly for the very cool visuals, but such a shame that searches can’t be saved. Now I would take both of these with a pinch of salt, as I am not sure they have been fully tested to include all electronic databases. To put it in academic words: more research is needed in order to validate the results generated by these tools. Nevertheless, as a starting point, both are pretty good.
Reference List
Brandt, P. et al. (2013) ‘A review of transdisciplinary research in sustainability science’, Ecological Economics, 92, pp. 1–15. doi: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2013.04.008.
Halilem, N. (2010) ‘Inside the Triple Helix: An Integrative Conceptual Framework of the Academic Researcher’s Activities, a Systematic Review’, p. 28.
Luederitz, C. et al. (2016) ‘Systematic student-driven literature reviews in sustainability science – an effective way to merge research and teaching’, Journal of Cleaner Production, 119, pp. 229–235. doi: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.02.005.