Adult learning online education:
Adult learning online education:
Adult learning online education:
About the example: Boolean searches were conducted on November 4, 2019; result numbers may vary at a later date. No additional database limiters were set to further narrow search returns.
Database strategies for targeted search results.
Most databases include limiters, or additional parameters, you may use to strategically focus search results. EBSCO databases, such as Education Research Complete & Academic Search Complete provide options to:
Keep in mind that these tools are defined as limiters for a reason; adding them to a search will limit the number of results returned. This can be a double-edged sword. How?
Use limiters with care. When starting a search, consider opting out of limiters until the initial literature screening is complete. The second or third time through your research may be the ideal time to focus on specific time periods or material (scholarly vs newspaper).
Expanding your search term at the root.
Truncating is often referred to as 'wildcard' searching. Databases may have their own specific wildcard elements however, the most commonly used are the asterisk (*) or question mark (?). When used within your search. they will expand returned results.
Using the asterisk wildcard will return varied spellings of the truncated word. In the following example, the search term education was truncated after the letter "t."
Original Search | |
adult education | adult educat* |
Results included: educate, education, educator, educators'/educators, educating, & educational |
Explore these database help pages for additional information on crafting search terms.
Tips for saving research directly to Google drive.
It is possible to save articles (PDF and HTML) and abstracts in EBSCOhost databases directly to Google drive. Select the Google Drive icon, authenticate using a Google account, and an EBSCO folder will be created in your account. This is a great option for managing your research. If documenting your research in a Google Doc, consider linking the information to actual articles saved in drive.
EBSCOHost Databases & Google Drive: Managing your Research
This video features an overview of how to use Google Drive with EBSCO databases to help manage your research. It presents information for connecting an active Google account to EBSCO and steps needed to provide permission for EBSCO to manage a folder in Drive.
About the Video: Closed captioning is available, select CC from the video menu. If you need to review a specific area on the video, view on YouTube and expand the video description for access to topic time stamps. A video transcript is provided below.
What is a literature review.
A definition from the Online Dictionary for Library and Information Sciences .
A literature review is "a comprehensive survey of the works published in a particular field of study or line of research, usually over a specific period of time, in the form of an in-depth, critical bibliographic essay or annotated list in which attention is drawn to the most significant works" (Reitz, 2014).
A systemic review is "a literature review focused on a specific research question, which uses explicit methods to minimize bias in the identification, appraisal, selection, and synthesis of all the high-quality evidence pertinent to the question" (Reitz, 2014).
EBSCO Connect [Discovery and Search]. (2022). Searching with boolean operators. Retrieved May, 3, 2022 from https://connect.ebsco.com/s/?language=en_US
EBSCO Connect [Discover and Search]. (2022). Searching with wildcards and truncation symbols. Retrieved May 3, 2022; https://connect.ebsco.com/s/?language=en_US
Machi, L.A. & McEvoy, B.T. (2009). The literature review . Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press:
Reitz, J.M. (2014). Online dictionary for library and information science. ABC-CLIO, Libraries Unlimited . Retrieved from https://www.abc-clio.com/ODLIS/odlis_A.aspx
Ridley, D. (2008). The literature review: A step-by-step guide for students . Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
Schedule an appointment.
Contact a librarian directly (email), or submit a request form. If you have worked with someone before, you can request them on the form.
The role of the literature review.
Your literature review gives readers an understanding of the scholarly research on your topic.
In your literature review you will:
Be aware that the literature review is an iterative process. As you read and write initial drafts, you will find new threads and complementary themes, at which point you will return to search, find out about these new themes, and incorporate them into your review.
The purpose of this guide is to help you through the literature review process. Take some time to look over the resources in order to become familiar with them. The tabs on the left side of this page have additional information.
Short Video: Research for the Literature Review
(4 min 10 sec) Recorded August 2019 Transcript
To think about the role of the literature review, consider this analogy: pretend that you throw a dinner party for the other researchers working in your topic area. First, you’d need to develop a guest list.
After the party, you describe the evening to a friend. You’ll summarize the evening’s conversation. Perhaps one guest made a comment that sparked a conversation, and then you describe who responded and how the topic evolved. There are other conversations to share, too. This is how you synthesize the themes and developments that you find in your research. Thinking about your literature research this way will help you to present your dinner party (and your literature review) in a lively and engaging way.
Video: How to locate and identify empirical research for your literature review
(6 min 16 sec) Recorded May 2020 Transcript
Here are some useful resources from the Writing Center, the Office of Research and Doctoral Services, and other departments within the Office of Academic Support. Take some time to look at what is available to help you with your capstone/dissertation.
You can watch recorded webinars on the literature review in our Library Webinar Archives .
Departments.
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Related media.
When we think of a literature review, we often forget to consider the different types of reviews and the different roles or functions that literature reviews can have.
In this short presentation I will first discuss some functions of literature reviews, and then make some points about how the function or purpose of your review should inform the type that you choose to do, and the methods that you employ.
A literature review provides an overview of a topic, and is something most of you have encountered at one time or another. It is usually an article, or a section of an article,* that compiles and summarizes published materials (books, articles, etc.) which provide an examination of recent or current literature on a chosen topic.
Review articles can cover a wide range of subject matter at various levels of completeness and comprehensiveness based on analyses of literature that may include research findings. The review may reflect the state of the art. It also includes reviews as a literary form.
As a publication type, it is an article or book published after examination of previously published material on a subject. It may be comprehensive to various degrees, and the time range of material scrutinized may be broad or narrow, although the reviews most often desired are reviews of the current literature. The textual material examined may be equally broad and can encompass, in medicine specifically, clinical material as well as experimental research or case reports.
State-of-the-art reviews tend to address more current matters. A review of the literature must be differentiated from a HISTORICAL ARTICLE on the same subject, but a review of historical literature is also within the scope of this publication type.
* Lit reviews aren't always obviously labeled "literature review"; they may be embedded within sections such as the introduction or background.
A systematic review attempts to collate all empirical evidence that fits pre-specified eligibility criteria in order to answer a specific research question. It uses explicit, systematic methods that are selected with a view to minimizing bias, thus providing more reliable findings from which conclusions can be drawn and decisions made (Antman 1992, Oxman 1993).
The key characteristics of a systematic review are:
From Cochrane Handbook, 1.2.2
Many, but not all, systematic reviews contain meta-analyses. Meta-analysis is the use of statistical methods to summarise the results of independent studies. By combining information from all relevant studies, meta-analyses can provide more precise estimates of the effects of health care than those derived from the individual studies included within a review. Meta-analyses also facilitate investigations of the consistency of evidence across studies, and the exploration of differences across studies ( Cochrane Handbook, 1.2.2 ). More information on meta-analyses can be found in Cochrane Handbook, Chapter 9 .
A meta-analysis goes beyond critique and integration and conducts secondary statistical analyses on the outcomes of similar studies. It is a systematic review that uses quantitative methods to synthesize and summarize the results.
An advantage of a meta-analysis is the ability to be completely objective in evaluating research findings. Not all topics, however, have sufficient research evidence to allow a meta-analysis to be conducted. In that case, an integrative review is an appropriate strategy.
An integrative review summarizes past research and draws overall conclusions from the body of literature on a particular topic. The body of literature comprises all studies that address related or identical hypotheses. In a properly executed integrative review, the effects of subjectivity are minimized through carefully applied criteria for evaluation. A well-done integrative review meets the same standards as primary research in regard to clarity, rigor and replication.
"In general, scoping reviews are commonly used for ‘reconnaissance’ – to clarify working definitions and conceptual boundaries of a topic or field. Scoping reviews are therefore particularly useful when a body of literature has not yet been comprehensively reviewed, or exhibits a complex or heterogeneous nature not amenable to a more precise systematic review of the evidence. While scoping reviews may be conducted to determine the value and probable scope of a full systematic review, they may also be undertaken as exercises in and of themselves to summarize and disseminate research findings, to identify research gaps, and to make recommendations for the future research."
From Peters, MD, Godfrey, CM, Khalil, H, McInerney, P, Parker, D & Soares, CB 2015, 'Guidance for conducting systematic scoping reviews', International Journal of Evidence-Based Healthcare, vol. 13, no. 3, pp. 141-146 :
A rapid review is an assessment of what is already known about a policy or practice issue, by using systematic review methods to search and critically appraise existing research. "Rapid reviews have emerged as a streamlined approach to synthesizing evidence in a timely manner -typically for the purpose of informing emergent decisions faced by decision makers in health care settings."
Khangura, S, Konnyu, K, Cushman, R, Grimshaw, J & Moher, D 2012, 'Evidence summaries: The evolution of a rapid review approach', Systematic Reviews, vol. 1, no. 1, p. 10.
An umbrella review is a synthesis of existing reviews, only including the highest level of evidence such as systematic reviews and meta-analyes. It specifically refers to review compiling evidence from multiple reviews into one accessible and usable document. Umbrella reviews focuses on broad condition or problem for which there are competing interventions and highlights reviews that address these interventions and their result.
Methodology paper: Aromataris, E, Fernandez, R, Godfrey, CM, Holly, C, Khalil, H & Tungpunkom, P 2015, 'Summarizing systematic reviews: Methodological development, conduct and reporting of an umbrella review approach', Int J Evid Based Healthc , vol. 13, no. 3, pp. 132-140
A systematized review attempts to include elements of the systematic review process while stopping short of the systematic review. Systematized reviews are typically conducted as a postgraduate student assignment, in recognition that they are not able to draw upon the resources required for a full systematic review (such as two reviewers).
Special Thanks to Dr. Julie Sarpy, PhD, MSLS, MA, AHIP, for permission to reuse content from her Medical Sciences guide . Dr. Sarpy is a Reference and Instruction Librarian at the Martin and Gail Press Health Professions Division Library, and a Liaison to the Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Allopathic Medicine, as well as an Adjunct Assistant Professor with the Department of Medical Education at the Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Osteopathic Medicine at Nova Southeastern University in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.
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Literature review process.
APA Style is a standardized writing format, established by the American Psychological Association, which you may need to follow when submitting projects or papers. If you have questions about APA formatting, look at our APA Style Guide .
RefWorks is a powerful online research management tool designed to help you easily gather, organize, store and share your research and to instantly generate citations and bibliographies. See our RefWorks research guide for information about using refworks.
A Literature Review is NOT:
So, what is it?
A literature review is when you , the researcher, collect the Top Resources that you consider to be directly related to your research question. You will then take those resources and discuss how each of them supports (or does not support!) your research question, AND each other.
For example, pretend your research question is "Does My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic teach kids positive, helping behavior?" You have three resources: Resource A, Resource B, and Resource C. Let's say that Resource A and Resource C agree that the My Little Pony show teaches kids positive social behaviors, like sharing. But maybe Resource B disagrees slightly, and says that there are some areas of the show that could use improvement. Your literature review should point out what all three resources agree on, and where they disagree (or differ).
You are NOT adding your own opinion! That belongs to a different type of assignment. You're simply summarizing and combining (sometimes called synthesizing) the main points from each resource.
Why is it important?
A literature review is important because it:
The analytical features of a literature review might:
Be sure to check out the Literature Review Template linked below to help you construct and organize your review!
Four stages:.
Sources and expectations. if your assignment is not very specific about what form your literature review should take, seek clarification from your professor by asking these questions:.
Narrow the topic. the narrower your topic, the easier it will be to limit the number of sources you need to read in order to obtain a good survey of relevant resources., consider whether your sources are current and applicable. s ome disciplines require that you use information that is as current as possible. this is very common in the sciences where research conducted only two years ago could be obsolete. however, when writing a review in the social sciences, a survey of the history of the literature may be what is needed because what is important is how perspectives have changed over the years or within a certain time period. try sorting through some other current bibliographies or literature reviews in the field to get a sense of what your discipline expects. you can also use this method to consider what is consider by scholars to be a "hot topic" and what is not., follow the bread crumb trail. the bibliography or reference section of sources you read are excellent entry points for further exploration. you might find resourced listed in a bibliography that points you in the direction you wish to take your own research., ways to organize your literature review, chronologically: .
If your review follows the chronological method, you could write about the materials according to when they were published or the time period they cover.
Order your sources chronologically by publication date, only if the order demonstrates a more important trend. For instance, you could order a review of literature on environmental studies of brown fields if the progression revealed, for example, a change in the soil collection practices of the researchers who wrote and/or conducted the studies.
The literature review is organized around a topic or issue, rather than the progression of time. However, progression of time may still be an important factor in a thematic review. For example, a review of the Internet’s impact on American presidential politics could focus on the development of online political satire. While the study focuses on one topic, the Internet’s impact on American presidential politics, it will still be organized chronologically reflecting technological developments in media. The only difference here between a "chronological" and a "thematic" approach is what is emphasized the most.
A methodological approach focuses on the methods utilized by the researcher. A methodological scope will influence either the types of documents in the review or the way in which these documents are discussed.
Once you've decided on the organizational method for your literature review, the sections you need to include should be easy to figure out because they arise from your organizational strategy.
Here are examples of other sections you may need to include depending on the type of review you write:
Once you've settled on how to organize your literature review, you're ready to write each section. When writing your review, keep in mind these issues.
A literature review in this sense is just like any other academic research paper. Your interpretation of the available sources must be backed up with evidence to show that what you are saying is valid.
Select only the most important points in each source to highlight in the review. The type of information you choose to mention should relate directly to the research problem, whether it is thematic, methodological, or chronological.
Some short quotes are okay if you want to emphasize a point, or if what the author said just cannot be rewritten in your own words. Sometimes you may need to quote certain terms that were coined by the author, not common knowledge, or taken directly from the study. Do not use extensive quotes as a substitute your own summary and interpretation of the literature.
Remember to summarize and synthesize your sources within each paragraph as well as throughout the review. Recapitulate important features of a research study, but then synthesize it by rephrasing the study's significance and relating it to their own work.
While the literature review presents others' ideas, your voice (the writer's) should remain front and center. For example, weave references to other sources into what you are writing but maintain your own voice by starting and ending the paragraph with your own ideas and wording.
When paraphrasing a source that is not your own, be sure to represent the author's information or opinions accurately and in your own words. Even when paraphrasing an author’s work, you still must provide a citation to that work.
Sooner or later in your academic path, you will be required to compose a literature review. So, it’s important to approach this task well-prepared and understand how to write a literature review inside out.
Are you interested in how to write lit review projects correctly and cover the subject comprehensively, from all angles? This article will explore the concept of review of literature , dwell on how to write a literature review in line with your professor’s expectations, and share a universal literature review template for your usage.
To understand what should be included in a literature review , you need to understand its purpose and value in a larger work. A well-researched and written lit review usually addresses the following objectives:
These purposes lay the foundation for understanding how to write a literature review that will attain all academic goals. You simply need to use this list as your checklist for structuring an impactful lit review and including all vital data in it.
Now, we come to the main topic of this article – how to write a good literature review for dissertation projects, research papers, and other works. Follow the steps we’ve covered below to arrive at a consistent, logical piece of lit review .
Any literature review writing starts with academic research. You should look for sources that explore your topic from various angles and provide valuable literature review findings to expand your knowledge on the subject. It’s best to look for subject-specific books first and then go through academic databases that publish journal articles. This way, you will start with the evidence of the highest reliability level and move on to expand your literature review dataset conveniently.
The best solution on how to write a literature review without challenges is to rely on high-quality evidence. Your task is to research extensively in reliable academic databases to find peer-reviewed academic journals and books written by experts in your field. Don’t over-rely on online sources in your literature review, like blogs or opinion pieces, because they rarely possess the needed degree of credibility for an academic review. By choosing only industry-approved sources from qualified professionals, you can build a solid foundation for your writing and impress the audience.
How to write a literature review of value for your readers? One of the best approaches is to go beyond mere summarization of what other researchers have found on the subject and to apply critical thinking and data categorization. This way, you will manage to uncover existing patterns and trends and examine those dependencies in your literature review. A systematic, critical approach is always evaluated much higher than a simple outline of what people say on your subject.
Now, it’s time to compose an outline for a literature review . The outline should include the main concepts you’re planning to cover in the literature review text and should structure the narrative consistently. By means of composing an outline before the actual writing process, you give yourself a hands-on roadmap for composing a logically flowing piece. As a result of using an outline, you will write the literature review faster and will avoid the risk of going off-topic.
With a good and detailed outline, you should have no more problems or concerns about how to write a literature review . The writing process should go quickly and smoothly when you have all your evidence at your fingertips, categorized by themes and requiring only proper summarization in the text.
We recommend starting with a broad introduction to the topic and concepts related to it. You should give definitions and explain the topic’s features and components that require attention in the research process. After that, you may briefly outline the main sections of your review and then proceed to the exploration of each section in depth.
At times, your professor will give you a specific structure for review writing – such as the general introduction, coverage of theories, and then coverage of empirical evidence. At times, it may be a review of the data search strategy and a report on the identified resources that follow. In any case, you should follow the tutor’s prompt closely to ensure compliance with the task.
Looking for a universal, ready-to-use literature review template ? Here is an effective literature review template that everyone can apply with minor tweaks to produce a high-quality review of literature .
LITERATURE REVIEW TEMPLATE
Introduction
Body of the literature review
Conclusion
Use this literature review template to pump your writing muscle and get ready for new literature review challenges.
If you’re still unsure about how to do a literature review with excellence, these pro tips may improve your understanding of this task type.
With these recommendations at your disposal, you’re sure to become much more proficient in how to do a lit review . If you need more help with a literature review project, welcome to use our professional and quick literature review writing service . Our experts know everything about how to write a literature review , so they will handle your literature review task with ease within the timeframe you set for them.
What is the scope of a study, what is a research scope example, what is the purpose of the research scope, what considerations are relevant to the research scope, how do i write the scope in a report.
The scope of a research project is one of the more important yet sometimes understated aspects of a study. The scope of the study explains what the researchers are examining and what environment they are studying.
This article explains the general purpose of the research scope, how it informs the broader study at hand, and how it can be incorporated in a research paper to establish the necessary transparency and rigor for your research audience.
Scientific knowledge very rarely, if ever, produces universal axioms. The boiling point of water changes depending on the amount of pressure in the air and, by extension, the altitude you are at relative to sea level when you boil water. What looks like polite behavior in a given culture may look rude in another. The definition of beauty is bound to change as people get older.
Similarly, research findings that aren't contextualized are less persuasive. If you are reading a study that looks at interactional patterns between parents and their children, it's important to have a clear sense of the theoretical lens , data collection , and analysis in order to determine the extent to which the findings are applicable across contexts.
In a nutshell, the scope tells you what the researchers are looking at and are not looking at. It provides the context necessary to understand the research, how it was conducted, and what findings it generated.
Conversely, establishing the bounds of the scope also clarify what research inquiries are not addressed in the study, ensuring that the study's argumentation is clearly grounded in the theory, data, and analysis.
Let's imagine an example of a research study examining best practices for mental health. The research design centers on a survey study with a target population of college students with part-time jobs in addition to their coursework.
The researchers can focus on any number of things affecting mental health, including lifestyle factors such as sleep, socioeconomic factors such as income, and even influences further afield like the political alignment of friends and family.
Certainly, any of these things can have a profound impact on one's mental health. But when there are so many things to examine, it's necessary to narrow down what the research project at hand should examine.
The scope of the study can come down to any number of things, including the researchers' interest, the current state of theoretical development on the subject of mental health, and the design of the study, particularly how the data is collected. It might even boil down to influences like geographical location, which can determine the kind of research participants involved in the study.
All of these factors can inform an explicit description of the scope, which might look like this if found in the methodology section of a paper:
"In this study, the researchers focused on surveying college students over four months, roughly the same time frame as a semester at a university in the United States. Surveys were distributed to all college students, but this paper will narrow the data analysis to those students who reported having part-time jobs. This refined lens aligns with our interest in examining work-related factors contributing to negative mental health outcomes, as established in previous studies."
The above example of a study's scope highlights what the researchers focused on during the study and while analyzing the data. The researchers chose to study a narrow subset of their data to generate insights most applicable to their research interests. The researchers might also analyze the proportion of students that reported having part-time jobs to give a broader description of the study body, but they clearly focus on understanding the mental health of students with part-time jobs.
Moreover, the narrow scope allows the researchers to focus on a small number of elements in the relationship between mental health and work, which allows the researchers to make deeper contributions to this specific part of the conversation around students' mental health.
Defining the scope of the study benefits both the researcher and their audience. Ultimately, establishing transparency in a research project focuses the data collection and analysis processes and makes the findings more compelling and persuasive.
Describing the scope can clarify what specific concepts should be used and examined during the course of the study. A good scope can keep the researcher focused on what data to collect and what ancillary developments, however interesting or useful, should be discarded or left to another study. Setting a clear scope can greatly help researchers maintain a coherent fit between their research question, collected data, and ultimate findings. Journal editors and reviewers often reject papers for publication because of a lack of fit between these important elements, which highlights the value of a clear research scope for conducting rigorous research.
In logistical terms, a well-defined scope also ensures the feasibility of a study by limiting the researcher's lens to a small but manageable set of factors to observe and analyze during the course of the study. Conversely, an unfocused study makes the collection of data a significant challenge when the researcher is left to document as much as possible, potentially gathering all kinds of data that may not be relevant to a given research question , while not gathering enough of the appropriate data that can address a research inquiry.
The research audience also requires an understanding of the scope of the study to determine the relevance of the findings to their own research inquiry. Readers of research bring their own assumptions and preconceived notions about what to look at in a given context. A well-written scope, on the other hand, gives readers clear guidance on what to look for in the study's analysis and findings.
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Besides the research area being studied, the scope of a study has a clear description of most of the following aspects. Understanding what makes rigorous research and what readers of research look for in a well-crafted study will be useful for describing the scope of a research project.
The kind of research participants you are including in a study informs what theories are relevant and how the study should be designed. Are you researching children, young adults, or older professionals? Do they belong to a specific culture or community? Are they connected or related to each other in some way or do they just happen to belong to the same demographic?
Because qualitative, social science research seldom yields universal theories, it's important to narrow the scope of a study down to a specific set of the population. The more specific the scope, the more that the findings and resulting theoretical developments can be appropriately contextualized and thus inform how other researchers can build on those insights.
The geographical location covered by the study provides a necessary context for any study in the social sciences. Even if you narrow the targeted population to a specific demographic, what is true for that population in one country or region may not be true for another.
As a result, a scope that describes the location of the study explains where the findings are most relevant and where they might be relevant for further study.
If you are conducting observational or ethnographic research , it may seem like you are facing a firehose when it comes to collecting data. Even interviews , focus groups , and surveys can provide a torrent of data, much of which may not be relevant to your inquiry if the study design isn't refined.
Without a sufficiently defined scope that identifies what aspects of the world you are looking at, the data you collect may become unmanageable at best. When crafting your study, develop the scope to determine the specific topics and aspects worth exploring.
In academic publishing , reviewers and editors need a clear understanding of the scope of the study in a manuscript when evaluating the research. Despite its importance, however, the scope doesn't necessarily have its own explicit section in a research paper.
That said, you can describe the study's scope in key areas of your research writing. Here are some of the important sections in a typical research paper for academic writing where a description of the scope is key.
Any study disseminated for academic publishing requires a thorough understanding of the current research and existing theories that are relevant to your study. In turn, the literature review also defines the aspects of the phenomenon or concepts that you can study for the purpose of theoretical development.
Rely on the key theories in the literature review to define a useful scope that identifies key aspects of the theoretical framework that will inform the data collection and analysis .
A well-crafted problem statement generally sets the stage for what knowledge is missing and what novel and interesting insights can be uncovered in new research. As a result, a clear understanding of the research scope helps define the problem that a new research project seeks to address.
When incorporating a problem statement in your research paper, be sure to explicitly detail the rationale for problematizing the phenomenon you are researching.
Research questions define the relationships between the relevant concepts or phenomena being explored, and thus provide evidence of a scope that has been thoughtfully planned. Use the wording of your research question to highlight what is the central focus and, thus, the scope of the study.
At minimum, the scope of the study should narrow the focus of data collection and data analysis to the study of certain concepts relevant to addressing the given research question. Qualitative research methods can often result in open-ended data collection that can yield many insights, only a few of which may directly address the research inquiry.
Narrowing the collection of data to a set of relevant criteria can help the researcher avoid any unnecessary rabbit holes that might complicate the later analysis with irrelevant information.
Research scope and limitations go hand in hand because, together, they define what is studied within a research project and what is not. Moreover, a good description of the study's scope can also provide direction, by way of the description of limitations, about what inquiries other researchers could pursue next.
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We conducted a review of the medical literature on white noise machines for young children. All the devices generated alarmingly loud sounds.
I’ve been using a white noise machine since my son was born. It helps him sleep. Is that bad? Could it affect his hearing?
Many American households turn to white noise machines to help their children get to and stay asleep. White noise is made up of different frequencies, creating a background sound that can muffle potential disturbances. The devices are easy to use, often in the form of a stand-alone machine or a smartphone app. The positives of this seemingly low-risk intervention are obvious: better sleep.
But just how low risk is it? To find out, we conducted a review of the available literature on white noise machines for young children. The results, recently published in the journal Sleep Medicine, showed that all tested devices generated alarmingly loud sounds.
There is no uniform standard for noise exposure from consumer products like white noise machines. For occupational noise, however, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) recommends limiting exposure to less than 85 decibels over eight hours and 82 decibels over 16 hours. That’s roughly equivalent to noise from a lawn mower over eight hours or standing near busy traffic for 16 hours.
A toddler might sleep for 10 to 12 hours a night, but infants may sleep up to 16 hours over the whole day . In our review, we found that across 24 white noise machines and six phone apps, all could produce sound that violated the NIOSH guideline for an eight-hour work shift. Some white noise machines can reach volumes of 91 decibels — around the same level as a Metrorail train roaring through a station at top speed.
Most parents probably aren’t setting the machines at the loudest setting. But this finding means that during a typical night’s sleep, a white noise machine at maximum volume exposes children to noise that can cause permanent hearing loss.
Changing the type of sound to music, static, rumble or tones does not make the sound safer, but lowering the volume does. In general, you should keep your white noise machine at the lowest volume that helps your child sleep. Our recommendation is to keep the volume at 60 decibels or less.
White noise exposure near its maximum volume is harmful in multiple ways. Loud, extended noise exposure causes mechanical stress to inner ear sensory hair cells, inflammatory damage to their supporting structures and damage to the nerve ending to the hair cells. This causes breakage of the tiny hairlike receptor proteins on their surface, cell death and loss of supporting cells.
Our research builds on this to show that white noise exposure in young children is even more of a concern due to its potential impact on physiological and social development. Animal models with noise exposure between 60 and 80 decibels have shown stunted vocal development and delayed development of neurons in the auditory processing centers of the brain.
Similarly, studies of children near high ambient noise like high traffic, train or plane noise have been linked to negative effects on sleep duration , sleep disturbances, cognitive development, behavioral issues, reading proficiency and even changes on brain imaging of regions related to language development.
White noise within reasonable limits may help children — and parents — sleep without causing harm. We found studies showing that white noise applied at 60 decibels or less — about the volume of a quiet conversation — showed a decrease in nighttime arousals, increased sleep time and increase sleep efficiency (time spent asleep while in bed).
To check whether your white noise machine is at a safe volume, you can purchase a decibel meter online or download an app on your smartphone. NIOSH created a free app calibrated specifically for iPhones, called the NIOSH Sound Level Meter (SLM) app.
Place the white noise machine at the volume you usually use it and place your decibel meter where your child sleeps. The sound intensity should be well below 82 decibels.
Lt. Col. Isaac Erbele is the associate program director for otolaryngology-head and neck surgery at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio. Capt. Russell De Jong is a resident surgeon in otolaryngology-head and neck surgery at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio. The views expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not reflect the official policy or position of Brooke Army Medical Center, Wilford Hall Ambulatory Surgical Center, the Defense Department or any agencies under the U.S. government.
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Bibliometrics & citations, view options, recommendations, on the two-level uncapacitated facility location problem.
<P>We study the two-level uncapacitated facility location (TUFL) problem. Given two types of facilities, which we call y-facilities and z-facilities, the problem is to decide which facilities of both types to open, and to which pair of y-and z-...
We introduce a facility location problem with submodular facility cost functions, and give an O (log n ) approximation algorithm for it. Then we focus on a special case of submodular costs, called hierarchical facility costs, and give a (4.237 + ϵ)-...
The location of facilities in order to provide service for customers is a well-studied problem in the operations research literature. In the basic model, there is a predefined cost for opening a facility and also for connecting a customer to a facility, ...
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A literature review is a critical analysis and synthesis of existing research on a particular topic. It provides an overview of the current state of knowledge, identifies gaps, and highlights key findings in the literature. 1 The purpose of a literature review is to situate your own research within the context of existing scholarship, demonstrating your understanding of the topic and showing ...
A literature review may consist of simply a summary of key sources, but in the social sciences, a literature review usually has an organizational pattern and combines both summary and synthesis, often within specific conceptual categories.A summary is a recap of the important information of the source, but a synthesis is a re-organization, or a reshuffling, of that information in a way that ...
A literature review is meant to analyze the scholarly literature, make connections across writings and identify strengths, weaknesses, trends, and missing conversations. A literature review should address different aspects of a topic as it relates to your research question. A literature review goes beyond a description or summary of the ...
A formal literature review is an evidence-based, in-depth analysis of a subject. There are many reasons for writing one and these will influence the length and style of your review, but in essence a literature review is a critical appraisal of the current collective knowledge on a subject. Rather than just being an exhaustive list of all that ...
The purpose of a literature review. The four main objectives of a literature review are:. Studying the references of your research area; Summarizing the main arguments; Identifying current gaps, stances, and issues; Presenting all of the above in a text; Ultimately, the main goal of a literature review is to provide the researcher with sufficient knowledge about the topic in question so that ...
A literature or narrative review is a comprehensive review and analysis of the published literature on a specific topic or research question. The literature that is reviewed contains: books, articles, academic articles, conference proceedings, association papers, and dissertations. It contains the most pertinent studies and points to important ...
Most literature reviews are embedded in articles, books, and dissertations. In most research articles, there are set as a specific section, usually titled, "literature review", so they are hard to miss.But, sometimes, they are part of the narrative of the introduction of a book or article. This section is easily recognized since the author is engaging with other academics and experts by ...
Literature review is an essential feature of academic research. Fundamentally, knowledge advancement must be built on prior existing work. To push the knowledge frontier, we must know where the frontier is. By reviewing relevant literature, we understand the breadth and depth of the existing body of work and identify gaps to explore.
Literature Review is a comprehensive survey of the works published in a particular field of study or line of research, usually over a specific period of time, in the form of an in-depth, critical bibliographic essay or annotated list in which attention is drawn to the most significant works.. Also, we can define a literature review as the collected body of scholarly works related to a topic:
A literature review discusses and analyses published information in a particular subject area. ... In short, an academic research paper and a literature review contain some of the same elements. In fact, many academic research papers will contain a literature review section. What aspect of the study (either the argument or the sources) that is ...
instructor may ask you to simply write a literature review as a stand-alone document. This handout will consider the literature review as a section of a larger project. A literature review is An evaluation of existing research. An argument about where your research fits into the field. A way of positioning the argument for your project. A ...
A literature review is essential to any scientific research study, which entails an in-depth analysis and synthesis of the existing literature and studies related to the research topic. The ...
Literature reviews allow scientists to argue that they are expanding current. expertise - improving on what already exists and filling the gaps that remain. This paper demonstrates the literatu ...
A literature review is a survey of scholarly sources (such as books, journal articles, and theses) related to a specific topic or research question. It is often written as part of a thesis, dissertation, or research paper, in order to situate your work in relation to existing knowledge.
A literature review is a comprehensive summary of previous research on a topic. The literature review surveys scholarly articles, books, and other sources relevant to a particular area of research. The review should enumerate, describe, summarize, objectively evaluate and clarify this previous research.
Types of Literature Review are as follows: Narrative literature review: This type of review involves a comprehensive summary and critical analysis of the available literature on a particular topic or research question. It is often used as an introductory section of a research paper. Systematic literature review: This is a rigorous and ...
A Literature Review surveys scholarly source materials that are relevant to a person's research thesis/problem and/or a particular issue or theory. It provides a critical analysis that summarizes and synthesizes previous work while also demonstrating how a person's research pertains to or fits within the larger discipline of study. Purpose:
The literature review provides the researcher with an opportunity to identify any gaps that may exist in the body of literature and to provide a rationale for how the proposed study may contribute to the existing body of knowledge. The literature review helps the researcher to refine the research questions and embed them in guiding hypotheses ...
In The Literature Review: A Step-by-Step Guide for Students, Ridley presents that literature reviews serve several purposes (2008, p. 16-17). Included are the following points: Historical background for the research; Overview of current field provided by "contemporary debates, issues, and questions;" Theories and concepts related to your research;
The literature review is not a comprehensive history of your topic, but a way to provide context to your reader about research that has preceded your study. Be aware that the literature review is an iterative process. As you read and write initial drafts, you will find new threads and complementary themes, at which point you will return to ...
A literature review section as part of a longer report should provide context and support a rationale for the new study. In a health sciences journal article, this section can sometimes be very short; in a dissertation, there is usually a whole chapter as a literature review, but prior literature should also be used throughout - for example to support methods and discussion sections.
An integrative review summarizes past research and draws overall conclusions from the body of literature on a particular topic.The body of literature comprises all studies that address related or identical hypotheses. In a properly executed integrative review, the effects of subjectivity are minimized through carefully applied criteria for evaluation.
A literature review helps you create a sense of rapport with your audience or readers so they can trust that you have done your homework. As a result, they can give you credit for your due diligence: you have done your fact-finding and fact-checking mission, one of the initial steps of any research writing.
A literature review is important because it: Explains the background of research on a topic. Demonstrates why a topic is significant to a subject area. Discovers relationships between research studies/ideas. Identifies major themes, concepts, and researchers on a topic. Identifies critical gaps and points of disagreement.
Despite the availability of guidelines about the different types of review literature, the identification of the best approach is not always clear for nursing researchers.
In most cases, you will be required to cover some seminal research works in your literature review to show that you understand who the pioneers in the field are, and what contribution they have made to the topic's exploration. Next, you should examine relevant theories that inform studies in your subject. At the end of the literature review ...
Literature review. Any study disseminated for academic publishing requires a thorough understanding of the current research and existing theories that are relevant to your study. In turn, the literature review also defines the aspects of the phenomenon or concepts that you can study for the purpose of theoretical development.
We developed a comprehensive review protocol in line with established research methodologies described by Denyer et al. (2008) and Macpherson and Jones (2010), that has been termed 'systematic literature review', and this method is known to have numerous advantages compared with traditional unstructured reviews (Danese et al., 2018; Wang ...
To find out, we conducted a review of the available literature on white noise machines for young children. The results, recently published in the journal Sleep Medicine, showed that all tested ...
The location of facilities in order to provide service for customers is a well-studied problem in the operations research literature. In the basic model, there is a predefined cost for opening a facility and also for connecting a customer to a facility, ...