This guide is for Masters and PhD students, researchers and academics, from the School of Health Sciences, who are performing a dissertation or producing a research paper.
The guide takes you through each step of the process in retrieving and evaluating information for your research.
Whilst the guide has been designed to cover the steps involved in performing a systematic review, many of the steps are also relevant for performing a general literature review, for empirical research, and other types of study such as a critical synthesis.
You may not yet have decided what type of review/study you want to perform for your dissertation or research paper.
As well as literature reviews and systematic reviews there are various other types of study which can be performed. Whilst the steps in retrieving information are the same for all of these, the depth and scope of resources which need to be searched can vary. There are also differences in the depth of appraising and synthesising data which is needed.
The following articles and documents provide information about some of the most commonly used review and study types in healthcare: