Key Points in Undertaking a Systematic Literature Review

• Selecting a topic area for your systematic review is the first step towards undertaking the review.
• The specific topic you select may arise from a number of different triggers.
• Once you have selected your research topic, the next step is to narrow this down to a specific research question.
• There are two main types of questions: background questions which are general nursing questions and foreground questions which answer specific questions about a specific topic.
• Foreground questions and sources can be divided into primary such as original research and secondary sources such as systematic reviews.
• Formulating research questions is the most critical and perhaps the most difficult part of any research design.
• The research questions underpins all the components of review methods.
• It is important to ensure that you ask an open question.
• It is best to avoid closed questions that can be answered with simple yes or no.
• The main types of research questions relate to treatment or therapy ,prevention ,diagnosis ,prognosis,causation and experiences.
• It is important that your questions are both comprehensive and specific.
• A well-framed research question will have three or four elements.
• The question formation usually includes identifying all component parts: the population,the intervention or exposure,the comparative intervention(if any) and the outcomes that are measured. The acronym for these are PICO or PEO.
• It is important to match your question to the appropriate research design.
• The research design can be thought of as the research study.