Library Homepage: Doctoral Research Support: Resources by Format

Formats

SINGLE RESEARCH ARTICLES

TIP: always find out from your advisor or instructor if your study area includes original research in a literature review.

Recognizing the common parts of research articles, you will learn to read/skim and discern relevance to your project quickly. All research articles:

express a problem (hypothesis),
state who is involved (the studied and the studier),
cover the methods used to carry out the study (methodology, research instrument),
discuss the results and often the next steps for research.

Newman, M., Gough, D. (2020). Systematic Reviews in Educational Research: Methodology, Perspectives and Application. In: Zawacki-Richter, O., Kerres, M., Bedenlier, S., Bond, M., Buntins, K. (eds) Systematic Reviews in Educational Research. Springer VS, W

DISSERTATIONS

While not peer-reviewed as student works, dissertations are are often considered scholarly and are an important form of scholarly communication.

There are several reasons, with instructor or advisor permission to include them in a literature review.

TIP: Even if not permitted as references in your project, use the bibliographies and reference lists to lead you to other content on your topic.

They may reveal emerging trends and voices in a field of study.
Due to their length cover more than an article on a topic.
May be the only work on an uncommon or niche topic.
They often have up-to-date and thorough literature reviews.
Large reference lists of important sources on the field of study or the specific topic.
Published articles often do not contain all the research data from the original dissertation on which it is based.

Can I use a dissertation as a scholarly source for my research? Southern New Hampshire University Shapiro Library. Accessed February 26, 2024

SYSTEMATIC REVIEWS

SRs are highly structured explorations of literature on a narrowly defined question or perspective. Their goal is to provide measurable answers concerning treatment, policy or intervention in the clinical setting or at the public policy level

Key characteristics:

a clearly defined research question and protocol (research plan)
inclusion and exclusion criteria
a rigorous and systematic search of the literature
critical appraisal and bias assessment of all included studies
analysis and interpretation of results
an in-depth report

Systematic reviews are undertaken by a research team, not an individual. The team approach facilitates rapid reviewing and reduces bias.

META-ANALYSES

Are a subset of systematic reviews, a statistical technique for combining the findings from quantitative studies to come up with new statistical conclusions.

Not all systematic reviews include meta-analysis, but all meta-analyses are found in systematic reviews.
Systematic Reviews with meta-analysis are statistically more robust than the analysis of a single study, as they look at more subjects, have subject diversity and have more effects and results to consider.
All included studies must be sufficiently similar for a meta-analysis to be valid.

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Evidence Synthesis

Systematic reviews, scoping reviews and meta-analyses based on evaluating unfiltered original studies are increasingly used in the biomedical field.

These knowledge syntheses are disseminated as evidence-based clinical recommendations in medical settings.

Evidence-based content such as systematic reviews, scoping reviews, literature reviews, and meta-analyses are at the highest level of research evidence to answer health research questions.

These analyses aggregate unfiltered information (such as original research studies) after critical appraisal and evaluation to recommend them for application in practice.

In contrast, while credible, scholarly, and often peer-reviewed, original research is unfiltered information that is not considered evidence-based

Finding Dissertations & Theses Outside the Library

The following websites contain full text, freely available dissertations & theses.

Formats