• Critique and summary of a body of literature about the thesis topic
• Selective in the materials used and criteria for literature selection is not always made open to the reader
• Useful in gathering and synthesizing the literature located
• Purpose of narrative reviews give the author and reader a comprehensive overview of the topic
• Highlights significant areas of a topic identifying gaps in research- helping refine & define research questions
• More rigorous and well-defined approach and extremely comprehensive
• Published and unpublished studies relating to a particular subject area
• Details the time frame when the literature was selected
• Details the methods used to evaluate and synthesize findings of the studies in question
• Similar to a Systematic Literature Review but with no restrictions on the materials resourced
• Purpose of this kind of review is to find ALL the materials on the topic
• It is important to note that when conducting a scoping review, your search strategies need to be systematic to ensure you can replicate your searches and to attend to any gaps that appear in results
• When sorting through results ensure that key themes are well organized
• At type of systematic review in primary research in human health care and health policy
• Internationally recognized as the highest standard in evidence-based health care
• They investigate the effects of interventions for prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation
• They asses the accuracy of a diagnostic test for a given condition in a specific patient group or setting.
• A form of systematic review (reductive)
• Takes findings from several studies on the same subject and analyzes them using standardized statistical procedures
• Integrates findings from a large body of quantitative findings to enhance understanding (study=unit of analysis)
• Draws conclusions and detects patterns and relationships between data
• Non-statistical technique
• Integrates, evaluates, and interprets findings of multiple qualitative research studies
• Identifies common core elements and themes and analyzing/synthesizing key elements
• May use findings from phenomenological, grounded theory or ethnographic studies
• Goal: transforms individual findings into new conceptualizations and interpretations