Literature Review Guide Skill

Literature Review Guide

Conduct comprehensive, systematic literature reviews using academic databases.

When to Use

Conducting systematic literature reviews
Synthesizing research on a topic
Writing literature review sections
Identifying research gaps
Building bibliographies

Core Workflow

Phase 1: Planning

Define Research Question (PICO framework for clinical)
- Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome
Establish Scope
- Review type: narrative, systematic, scoping
- Time period, geographic scope
- Study types to include
Develop Search Strategy
- Key terms and synonyms
- Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT)
- Database-specific syntax

Phase 2: Searching

Key Databases:

| Database | Coverage | |----------|----------| | PubMed | Biomedical, life sciences | | arXiv | Physics, CS, math preprints | | Semantic Scholar | Broad academic | | Google Scholar | Broad coverage | | Web of Science | Multidisciplinary |

Search Strategy Template:

(term1 OR synonym1) AND (term2 OR synonym2) AND (term3)

Phase 3: Screening

Title/Abstract Screening
- Apply inclusion/exclusion criteria
- Track reasons for exclusion
Full-Text Review
- Assess eligibility
- Extract key data

Phase 4: Synthesis

Organize Thematically:

## Theme 1: [Topic]
- Finding A (Author, Year)
- Finding B (Author, Year)
- Synthesis and gaps

## Theme 2: [Topic]
...

Comparison Table:

| Study | Methods | Sample | Key Findings | |-------|---------|--------|--------------| | Author 2023 | RCT | n=100 | Finding X | | Author 2022 | Cohort | n=500 | Finding Y |

Phase 5: Writing

Structure:

Introduction (scope, objectives)
Methods (search strategy, criteria)
Results (thematic synthesis)
Discussion (gaps, future directions)
Conclusion

Citation Management

Citation Styles

**APA 7:**
Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year). Title. Journal, Volume(Issue), pages. https://doi.org/xxx

**Nature:**
Author, A. A. & Author, B. B. Title. Journal Volume, pages (Year).

**Vancouver:**
Author AA, Author BB. Title. Journal. Year;Volume(Issue):pages.

Tools

Zotero (free, open source)
Mendeley (free)
EndNote (institutional)

Quality Assessment

For RCTs: Cochrane Risk of Bias tool For Observational: Newcastle-Ottawa Scale For Qualitative: CASP checklist

PRISMA Flow Diagram

Records identified (n=X)
    ↓
Duplicates removed (n=X)
    ↓
Records screened (n=X)
    ↓
Records excluded (n=X)
    ↓
Full-text assessed (n=X)
    ↓
Studies included (n=X)

Best Practices

Document everything - reproducibility
Use multiple databases - comprehensive coverage
Two reviewers - reduce bias (when possible)
Pre-register protocol - transparency
Update searches - before publication

Common Pitfalls

Publication bias (positive results overrepresented)
Language bias (English-only searches)
Citation bias (citing famous papers)
Not updating searches before submission

Resources

PRISMA Guidelines: http://prisma-statement.org/
Cochrane Handbook: https://training.cochrane.org/handbook
PROSPERO (protocol registration): https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/

Agent Skills: Literature Review Guide

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