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Library Guide Politics & Public administration:  Systematic review

subject guide with practical info for making use of the library and all of its facilities

Literature review support

Students and staff of Radboud University can contact the NSM team for help with developing expert search strategies. We can partner with you on:

  • finding relevant search terms
  • selecting databases and information sources
  • developing structured searches
  • selecting, saving and citing literature
  • creating alerts for newly published literature

If you would like to make an appointment for systematic review support, you can fill in the form and email us at infofm@ubn.ru.nl.

Literature Search Libguide

Literature Support Website

To get started with your review, follow these steps:

Step 1 - Aim, type and team

Aim of the review

Before you begin, check that your research question has not already been addressed in an existing review. You should also check that no reviews on the topic are planned or already in progress. PROSPERO and OSF are two sources that list current protocols.

Why do you want to do a review?

  • to develop a research question
  • to present a brief introduction to your subject
  • to present an extensive detailed account of a body of literature

Types of reviews

Review team

A (systematic) literature review is not a solo project. You will need two screeners and a search specialist. Depending on your review type, a statistician may also be essential.

Step 2 - Search question

When you search for literature, you should think about your topic or research question. Depending on your research question and review type you will develop a search strategy.

Step 3 - Publication types & sources

Consider what type of literature (journal articles, books, case studies etc.) you are looking for, as the type of literature determines the database you should use. You will find databases in this library guide in the menu Find Literature, ordered by name and by publication type. Our Databases A-Z lists all available search sources.

You can also use grey literature to provide a broader evidence base.

Tips for identifying whether a source is relevant:

  • Who provides the database?
  • Which topics are covered by the database? 
  • Which journals or books are searchable via the database? 

  Step 4 - Search terms & techniques

When performing an extensive literature search, don’t restrict your search to the key terms of your research question or topic.

For each key term, also think about:

  • synonyms
  • antonyms
  • jargon
  • abbreviations
  • language variants

To find alternative search terms:

  • Use a thesaurus to identify synonyms.
  • Search for your topic on a search engine, scanning the results for alternative words and phrases.

Every database works differently. The NSM library team can help you with setting up search queries.

Step 5 - Search strategies

Block search

You can organize your search terms into thematic groups (blocks), covering the various aspects within your topic. It will help to create an overview of potential search terms. 

  • Formulate a literature search question
  • Identify the key elements
  • Define your blocks (key elements)
  • Collect search terms for each block
  • Set up a search string

The search terms within a block are combined with OR; the blocks are combined with an AND operator.

Backward citation search

If you have found one journal article, you can consult the article's references to find out what sources were used. This will help you to find earlier literature.

Forward citation search

Forward citation search is snowballing forward. Look at sources where the article is cited. This will give you more up-to-date literature on your topic. The Web of Science or Google Scholar search engine, for example, let you do this easily.

Searching relevant journals

If you find many relevant articles in certain journals, it may be useful to search these journals to find other relevant articles. Find out more about journal search.

Author searching

If a lot of your key articles are written by the same author, you could carry out an author search.  You can search by author in almost all databases or search engines. Make sure you search for all name variants.

Step 6 - Recording and evaluation

Record your search activities including search strategy, search terms, search options, search filters and search operators.

Step 7 - Managing and deduplication

Managing

Gather, store and organise your records.

Deduplication

Deduplicate records from multiple database searches and other information sources.

Step 8 - Selection

Selection

To select references:

  • First - screen title and abstract
  • Second - review full text

Each reference should be reviewed by two people. Any disagreements can be resolved either between the two people or with a third party.

Think about inclusion and exclusion criteria e.g.:

  • time period
  • language range
  • study population
  • nature of the intervention 
  • methodological quality

The PRISMA flow diagram and generator might help you with this selection process.

Software tools for screening references

ASReview - Open source screening softare based on active learning techniques.

abstrackr - Abstract screening for systematic reviews.

Covidence - Software for screening, risk of bias tables and data extraction.

Rayyan - Rapid sifting of citations and sharing decisions. "Working with Rayyan" by J.Staaks.

Retraction check

Check retractions, corrections and expressions of concern of included references e.g. via Retraction Watch Database. Some reference managers (for example EndNote, Zotero) have been integrated with the Retraction Watch database.

Step 9 - Critical Appraisal

Druing the critical appraisal process, you will assess each study's risk of bias based on quality measures.

  • Identify or develop a checklist for evaluating studies
  • Test the checklist (ensure that you are evaluating all aspects you would like to / need to address)

Checklists:

Step 10 - Data extraction and analysis

This step involves selecting studies for each synthesis and preparing the data. Results are presented using tables or visual displays.

There are different tools and methods to analyse the included studies and synthesis the results, for example.

- coding the literature using software like Atlas.ti

- automated analysis of literature using text mining tools

Final step - Writing and citing

The final step is to write up the results and cite your sources. PRISMA is a common reporting standard, and American Psychological Association (APA) is a common referencing style. However, check your target journal's guidelines for their specific requirements.

Reference management programs help you with managing references and citing literature in your documents. They offer ways to link and search full text and format your citations in many different citation styles.

Tools and recommended reading