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How to Write Review of Related Literature (RRL) in Research

A review of related literature (a.k.a RRL in research) is a comprehensive review of the existing literature pertaining to a specific topic or research question. An effective review provides the reader with an organized analysis and synthesis of the existing knowledge about a subject. With the increasing amount of new information being disseminated every day, conducting a review of related literature is becoming more difficult and the purpose of review of related literature is clearer than ever.  

All new knowledge is necessarily based on previously known information, and every new scientific study must be conducted and reported in the context of previous studies. This makes a review of related literature essential for research, and although it may be tedious work at times , most researchers will complete many such reviews of varying depths during their career. So, why exactly is a review of related literature important?    

Table of Contents

Why a review of related literature in research is important  

Before thinking how to do reviews of related literature , it is necessary to understand its importance. Although the purpose of a review of related literature varies depending on the discipline and how it will be used, its importance is never in question. Here are some ways in which a review can be crucial.  

• Identify gaps in the knowledge – This is the primary purpose of a review of related literature (often called RRL in research ). To create new knowledge, you must first determine what knowledge may be missing. This also helps to identify the scope of your study.  
• Avoid duplication of research efforts – Not only will a review of related literature indicate gaps in the existing research, but it will also lead you away from duplicating research that has already been done and thus save precious resources.  
• Provide an overview of disparate and interdisciplinary research areas – Researchers cannot possibly know everything related to their disciplines. Therefore, it is very helpful to have access to a review of related literature already written and published.  
• Highlight researcher’s familiarity with their topic 1  – A strong review of related literature in a study strengthens readers’ confidence in that study and that researcher.

Tips on how to write a review of related literature in research

Given that you will probably need to produce a number of these at some point, here are a few general tips on how to write an effective review of related literature 2 .

• Define your topic, audience, and purpose: You will be spending a lot of time with this review, so choose a topic that is interesting to you. While deciding what to write in a review of related literature , think about who you expect to read the review – researchers in your discipline, other scientists, the general public – and tailor the language to the audience. Also, think about the purpose of your review of related literature .  
• Conduct a comprehensive literature search: While writing your review of related literature , emphasize more recent works but don’t forget to include some older publications as well. Cast a wide net, as you may find some interesting and relevant literature in unexpected databases or library corners. Don’t forget to search for recent conference papers.
• Review the identified articles and take notes: It is a good idea to take notes in a way such that individual items in your notes can be moved around when you organize them. For example, index cards are great tools for this. Write each individual idea on a separate card along with the source. The cards can then be easily grouped and organized.  
• Determine how to organize your review: A review of related literature should not be merely a listing of descriptions. It should be organized by some criterion, such as chronologically or thematically.  
• Be critical and objective: Don’t just report the findings of other studies in your review of related literature . Challenge the methodology, find errors in the analysis, question the conclusions. Use what you find to improve your research. However, do not insert your opinions into the review of related literature. Remain objective and open-minded.  
• Structure your review logically: Guide the reader through the information. The structure will depend on the function of the review of related literature. Creating an outline prior to writing the RRL in research is a good way to ensure the presented information flows well.  

As you read more extensively in your discipline, you will notice that the review of related literature appears in various forms in different places. For example, when you read an article about an experimental study, you will typically see a literature review or a RRL in research , in the introduction that includes brief descriptions of similar studies. In longer research studies and dissertations, especially in the social sciences, the review of related literature will typically be a separate chapter and include more information on methodologies and theory building. In addition, stand-alone review articles will be published that are extremely useful to researchers.  

The review of relevant literature or often abbreviated as, RRL in research , is an important communication tool that can be used in many forms for many purposes. It is a tool that all researchers should befriend.  

• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Writing Center. Literature Reviews.  https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/literature-reviews/  [Accessed September 8, 2022]
• Pautasso M. Ten simple rules for writing a literature review. PLoS Comput Biol. 2013, 9. doi: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1003149.

Q:  Is research complete without a review of related literature?

A research project is usually considered incomplete without a proper review of related literature. The review of related literature is a crucial component of any research project as it provides context for the research question, identifies gaps in existing literature, and ensures novelty by avoiding duplication. It also helps inform research design and supports arguments, highlights the significance of a study, and demonstrates your knowledge an expertise.

Q: What is difference between RRL and RRS?

The key difference between an RRL and an RRS lies in their focus and scope. An RRL or review of related literature examines a broad range of literature, including theoretical frameworks, concepts, and empirical studies, to establish the context and significance of the research topic. On the other hand, an RRS or review of research studies specifically focuses on analyzing and summarizing previous research studies within a specific research domain to gain insights into methodologies, findings, and gaps in the existing body of knowledge. While there may be some overlap between the two, they serve distinct purposes and cover different aspects of the research process.

Q: Does review of related literature improve accuracy and validity of research?

Yes, a comprehensive review of related literature (RRL) plays a vital role in improving the accuracy and validity of research. It helps authors gain a deeper understanding and offers different perspectives on the research topic. RRL can help you identify research gaps, dictate the selection of appropriate research methodologies, enhance theoretical frameworks, avoid biases and errors, and even provide support for research design and interpretation. By building upon and critically engaging with existing related literature, researchers can ensure their work is rigorous, reliable, and contributes meaningfully to their field of study.

R Discovery is a literature search and research reading platform that accelerates your research discovery journey by keeping you updated on the latest, most relevant scholarly content. With 250M+ research articles sourced from trusted aggregators like CrossRef, Unpaywall, PubMed, PubMed Central, Open Alex and top publishing houses like Springer Nature, JAMA, IOP, Taylor & Francis, NEJM, BMJ, Karger, SAGE, Emerald Publishing and more, R Discovery puts a world of research at your fingertips.  

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Review of Related Literature: Format, Example, & How to Make RRL

A review of related literature is a separate paper or a part of an article that collects and synthesizes discussion on a topic. Its purpose is to show the current state of research on the issue and highlight gaps in existing knowledge. A literature review can be included in a research paper or scholarly article, typically following the introduction and before the research methods section.

This article will clarify the definition, significance, and structure of a review of related literature. You’ll also learn how to organize your literature review and discover ideas for an RRL in different subjects.

🔤 What Is RRL?

• ❗ Significance of Literature Review
• 🔎 How to Search for Literature
• 🧩 Literature Review Structure
• 📋 Format of RRL — APA, MLA, & Others
• ✍️ How to Write an RRL
• 📚 Examples of RRL

🔗 References

A review of related literature (RRL) is a part of the research report that examines significant studies, theories, and concepts published in scholarly sources on a particular topic. An RRL includes 3 main components:

• A short overview and critique of the previous research.
• Similarities and differences between past studies and the current one.
• An explanation of the theoretical frameworks underpinning the research.

❗ Significance of Review of Related Literature

Although the goal of a review of related literature differs depending on the discipline and its intended use, its significance cannot be overstated. Here are some examples of how a review might be beneficial:

• It helps determine knowledge gaps .
• It saves from duplicating research that has already been conducted.
• It provides an overview of various research areas within the discipline.
• It demonstrates the researcher’s familiarity with the topic.

🔎 How to Perform a Literature Search

Including a description of your search strategy in the literature review section can significantly increase your grade. You can search sources with the following steps:

🧩 Literature Review Structure Example

The majority of literature reviews follow a standard introduction-body-conclusion structure. Let’s look at the RRL structure in detail.

Introduction of Review of Related Literature: Sample

An introduction should clarify the study topic and the depth of the information to be delivered. It should also explain the types of sources used. If your lit. review is part of a larger research proposal or project, you can combine its introductory paragraph with the introduction of your paper.

Here is a sample introduction to an RRL about cyberbullying:

Bullying has troubled people since the beginning of time. However, with modern technological advancements, especially social media, bullying has evolved into cyberbullying. As a result, nowadays, teenagers and adults cannot flee their bullies, which makes them feel lonely and helpless. This literature review will examine recent studies on cyberbullying.

Sample Review of Related Literature Thesis

A thesis statement should include the central idea of your literature review and the primary supporting elements you discovered in the literature. Thesis statements are typically put at the end of the introductory paragraph.

Look at a sample thesis of a review of related literature:

This literature review shows that scholars have recently covered the issues of bullies’ motivation, the impact of bullying on victims and aggressors, common cyberbullying techniques, and victims’ coping strategies. However, there is still no agreement on the best practices to address cyberbullying.

Literature Review Body Paragraph Example

The main body of a literature review should provide an overview of the existing research on the issue. Body paragraphs should not just summarize each source but analyze them. You can organize your paragraphs with these 3 elements:

• Claim . Start with a topic sentence linked to your literature review purpose.
• Evidence . Cite relevant information from your chosen sources.
• Discussion . Explain how the cited data supports your claim.

Here’s a literature review body paragraph example:

Scholars have examined the link between the aggressor and the victim. Beran et al. (2007) state that students bullied online often become cyberbullies themselves. Faucher et al. (2014) confirm this with their findings: they discovered that male and female students began engaging in cyberbullying after being subject to bullying. Hence, one can conclude that being a victim of bullying increases one’s likelihood of becoming a cyberbully.

Review of Related Literature: Conclusion

A conclusion presents a general consensus on the topic. Depending on your literature review purpose, it might include the following:

• Introduction to further research . If you write a literature review as part of a larger research project, you can present your research question in your conclusion .
• Overview of theories . You can summarize critical theories and concepts to help your reader understand the topic better.
• Discussion of the gap . If you identified a research gap in the reviewed literature, your conclusion could explain why that gap is significant.

Check out a conclusion example that discusses a research gap:

There is extensive research into bullies’ motivation, the consequences of bullying for victims and aggressors, strategies for bullying, and coping with it. Yet, scholars still have not reached a consensus on what to consider the best practices to combat cyberbullying. This question is of great importance because of the significant adverse effects of cyberbullying on victims and bullies.

📋 Format of RRL — APA, MLA, & Others

In this section, we will discuss how to format an RRL according to the most common citation styles: APA, Chicago, MLA, and Harvard.

Writing a literature review using the APA7 style requires the following text formatting:

• When using APA in-text citations , include the author’s last name and the year of publication in parentheses.
• For direct quotations , you must also add the page number. If you use sources without page numbers, such as websites or e-books, include a paragraph number instead.
• When referring to the author’s name in a sentence , you do not need to repeat it at the end of the sentence. Instead, include the year of publication inside the parentheses after their name.
• The reference list should be included at the end of your literature review. It is always alphabetized by the last name of the author (from A to Z), and the lines are indented one-half inch from the left margin of your paper. Do not forget to invert authors’ names (the last name should come first) and include the full titles of journals instead of their abbreviations. If you use an online source, add its URL.

The RRL format in the Chicago style is as follows:

• Author-date . You place your citations in brackets within the text, indicating the name of the author and the year of publication.
• Notes and bibliography . You place your citations in numbered footnotes or endnotes to connect the citation back to the source in the bibliography.
• The reference list, or bibliography , in Chicago style, is at the end of a literature review. The sources are arranged alphabetically and single-spaced. Each bibliography entry begins with the author’s name and the source’s title, followed by publication information, such as the city of publication, the publisher, and the year of publication.

Writing a literature review using the MLA style requires the following text formatting:

• In the MLA format, you can cite a source in the text by indicating the author’s last name and the page number in parentheses at the end of the citation. If the cited information takes several pages, you need to include all the page numbers.
• The reference list in MLA style is titled “ Works Cited .” In this section, all sources used in the paper should be listed in alphabetical order. Each entry should contain the author, title of the source, title of the journal or a larger volume, other contributors, version, number, publisher, and publication date.

The Harvard style requires you to use the following text formatting for your RRL:

• In-text citations in the Harvard style include the author’s last name and the year of publication. If you are using a direct quote in your literature review, you need to add the page number as well.
• Arrange your list of references alphabetically. Each entry should contain the author’s last name, their initials, the year of publication, the title of the source, and other publication information, like the journal title and issue number or the publisher.

✍️ How to Write Review of Related Literature – Sample

Literature reviews can be organized in many ways depending on what you want to achieve with them. In this section, we will look at 3 examples of how you can write your RRL.

Thematic Literature Review

A thematic literature review is arranged around central themes or issues discussed in the sources. If you have identified some recurring themes in the literature, you can divide your RRL into sections that address various aspects of the topic. For example, if you examine studies on e-learning, you can distinguish such themes as the cost-effectiveness of online learning, the technologies used, and its effectiveness compared to traditional education.

Chronological Literature Review

A chronological literature review is a way to track the development of the topic over time. If you use this method, avoid merely listing and summarizing sources in chronological order. Instead, try to analyze the trends, turning moments, and critical debates that have shaped the field’s path. Also, you can give your interpretation of how and why specific advances occurred.

Methodological Literature Review

A methodological literature review differs from the preceding ones in that it usually doesn’t focus on the sources’ content. Instead, it is concerned with the research methods . So, if your references come from several disciplines or fields employing various research techniques, you can compare the findings and conclusions of different methodologies, for instance:

• empirical vs. theoretical studies;
• qualitative vs. quantitative research.

📚 Examples of Review of Related Literature and Studies

We have prepared a short example of RRL on climate change for you to see how everything works in practice!

Climate change is one of the most important issues nowadays. Based on a variety of facts, it is now clearer than ever that humans are altering the Earth's climate. The atmosphere and oceans have warmed, causing sea level rise, a significant loss of Arctic ice, and other climate-related changes. This literature review provides a thorough summary of research on climate change, focusing on climate change fingerprints and evidence of human influence on the Earth's climate system.

Physical Mechanisms and Evidence of Human Influence

Scientists are convinced that climate change is directly influenced by the emission of greenhouse gases. They have carefully analyzed various climate data and evidence, concluding that the majority of the observed global warming over the past 50 years cannot be explained by natural factors alone. Instead, there is compelling evidence pointing to a significant contribution of human activities, primarily the emission of greenhouse gases (Walker, 2014). For example, based on simple physics calculations, doubled carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere can lead to a global temperature increase of approximately 1 degree Celsius. (Elderfield, 2022). In order to determine the human influence on climate, scientists still have to analyze a lot of natural changes that affect temperature, precipitation, and other components of climate on timeframes ranging from days to decades and beyond.

Fingerprinting Climate Change

Fingerprinting climate change is a useful tool to identify the causes of global warming because different factors leave unique marks on climate records. This is evident when scientists look beyond overall temperature changes and examine how warming is distributed geographically and over time (Watson, 2022). By investigating these climate patterns, scientists can obtain a more complex understanding of the connections between natural climate variability and climate variability caused by human activity.

Modeling Climate Change and Feedback

To accurately predict the consequences of feedback mechanisms, the rate of warming, and regional climate change, scientists can employ sophisticated mathematical models of the atmosphere, ocean, land, and ice (the cryosphere). These models are grounded in well-established physical laws and incorporate the latest scientific understanding of climate-related processes (Shuckburgh, 2013). Although different climate models produce slightly varying projections for future warming, they all will agree that feedback mechanisms play a significant role in amplifying the initial warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions. (Meehl, 2019).

In conclusion, the literature on global warming indicates that there are well-understood physical processes that link variations in greenhouse gas concentrations to climate change. In addition, it covers the scientific proof that the rates of these gases in the atmosphere have increased and continue to rise fast. According to the sources, the majority of this recent change is almost definitely caused by greenhouse gas emissions produced by human activities. Citizens and governments can alter their energy production methods and consumption patterns to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and, thus, the magnitude of climate change. By acting now, society can prevent the worst consequences of climate change and build a more resilient and sustainable future for generations to come.

Have you ever struggled with finding the topic for an RRL in different subjects? Read the following paragraphs to get some ideas!

Nursing Literature Review Example

Many topics in the nursing field require research. For example, you can write a review of literature related to dengue fever . Give a general overview of dengue virus infections, including its clinical symptoms, diagnosis, prevention, and therapy.

Another good idea is to review related literature and studies about teenage pregnancy . This review can describe the effectiveness of specific programs for adolescent mothers and their children and summarize recommendations for preventing early pregnancy.

📝 Check out some more valuable examples below:

• Hospital Readmissions: Literature Review .
• Literature Review: Lower Sepsis Mortality Rates .
• Breast Cancer: Literature Review .
• Sexually Transmitted Diseases: Literature Review .
• PICO for Pressure Ulcers: Literature Review .
• COVID-19 Spread Prevention: Literature Review .
• Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: Literature Review .
• Hypertension Treatment Adherence: Literature Review .
• Neonatal Sepsis Prevention: Literature Review .
• Healthcare-Associated Infections: Literature Review .
• Understaffing in Nursing: Literature Review .

Psychology Literature Review Example

If you look for an RRL topic in psychology , you can write a review of related literature about stress . Summarize scientific evidence about stress stages, side effects, types, or reduction strategies. Or you can write a review of related literature about computer game addiction . In this case, you may concentrate on the neural mechanisms underlying the internet gaming disorder, compare it to other addictions, or evaluate treatment strategies.

A review of related literature about cyberbullying is another interesting option. You can highlight the impact of cyberbullying on undergraduate students’ academic, social, and emotional development.

📝 Look at the examples that we have prepared for you to come up with some more ideas:

• Mindfulness in Counseling: A Literature Review .
• Team-Building Across Cultures: Literature Review .
• Anxiety and Decision Making: Literature Review .
• Literature Review on Depression .
• Literature Review on Narcissism .
• Effects of Depression Among Adolescents .
• Causes and Effects of Anxiety in Children .

Literature Review — Sociology Example

Sociological research poses critical questions about social structures and phenomena. For example, you can write a review of related literature about child labor , exploring cultural beliefs and social norms that normalize the exploitation of children. Or you can create a review of related literature about social media . It can investigate the impact of social media on relationships between adolescents or the role of social networks on immigrants’ acculturation .

📝 You can find some more ideas below!

• Single Mothers’ Experiences of Relationships with Their Adolescent Sons .
• Teachers and Students’ Gender-Based Interactions .
• Gender Identity: Biological Perspective and Social Cognitive Theory .
• Gender: Culturally-Prescribed Role or Biological Sex .
• The Influence of Opioid Misuse on Academic Achievement of Veteran Students .
• The Importance of Ethics in Research .
• The Role of Family and Social Network Support in Mental Health .

Education Literature Review Example

For your education studies , you can write a review of related literature about academic performance to determine factors that affect student achievement and highlight research gaps. One more idea is to create a review of related literature on study habits , considering their role in the student’s life and academic outcomes.

You can also evaluate a computerized grading system in a review of related literature to single out its advantages and barriers to implementation. Or you can complete a review of related literature on instructional materials to identify their most common types and effects on student achievement.

📝 Find some inspiration in the examples below:

• Literature Review on Online Learning Challenges From COVID-19 .
• Education, Leadership, and Management: Literature Review .
• Literature Review: Standardized Testing Bias .
• Bullying of Disabled Children in School .
• Interventions and Letter & Sound Recognition: A Literature Review .
• Social-Emotional Skills Program for Preschoolers .
• Effectiveness of Educational Leadership Management Skills .

Business Research Literature Review

If you’re a business student, you can focus on customer satisfaction in your review of related literature. Discuss specific customer satisfaction features and how it is affected by service quality and prices. You can also create a theoretical literature review about consumer buying behavior to evaluate theories that have significantly contributed to understanding how consumers make purchasing decisions.

📝 Look at the examples to get more exciting ideas:

• Leadership and Communication: Literature Review .
• Human Resource Development: Literature Review .
• Project Management. Literature Review .
• Strategic HRM: A Literature Review .
• Customer Relationship Management: Literature Review .
• Literature Review on International Financial Reporting Standards .
• Cultures of Management: Literature Review .

To conclude, a review of related literature is a significant genre of scholarly works that can be applied in various disciplines and for multiple goals. The sources examined in an RRL provide theoretical frameworks for future studies and help create original research questions and hypotheses.

When you finish your outstanding literature review, don’t forget to check whether it sounds logical and coherent. Our text-to-speech tool can help you with that!

• Literature Reviews | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• Writing a Literature Review | Purdue Online Writing Lab
• Learn How to Write a Review of Literature | University of Wisconsin-Madison
• The Literature Review: A Few Tips on Conducting It | University of Toronto
• Writing a Literature Review | UC San Diego
• Conduct a Literature Review | The University of Arizona
• Methods for Literature Reviews | National Library of Medicine
• Literature Reviews: 5. Write the Review | Georgia State University

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• How to Write a Literature Review | Guide, Examples, & Templates

How to Write a Literature Review | Guide, Examples, & Templates

Published on January 2, 2023 by Shona McCombes . Revised on September 11, 2023.

What is a literature review? A literature review is a survey of scholarly sources on a specific topic. It provides an overview of current knowledge, allowing you to identify relevant theories, methods, and gaps in the existing research that you can later apply to your paper, thesis, or dissertation topic .

There are five key steps to writing a literature review:

• Search for relevant literature
• Evaluate sources
• Identify themes, debates, and gaps
• Outline the structure
• Write your literature review

A good literature review doesn’t just summarize sources—it analyzes, synthesizes , and critically evaluates to give a clear picture of the state of knowledge on the subject.

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Table of contents

What is the purpose of a literature review, examples of literature reviews, step 1 – search for relevant literature, step 2 – evaluate and select sources, step 3 – identify themes, debates, and gaps, step 4 – outline your literature review’s structure, step 5 – write your literature review, free lecture slides, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions, introduction.

• Quick Run-through
• Step 1 & 2

When you write a thesis , dissertation , or research paper , you will likely have to conduct a literature review to situate your research within existing knowledge. The literature review gives you a chance to:

• Demonstrate your familiarity with the topic and its scholarly context
• Develop a theoretical framework and methodology for your research
• Position your work in relation to other researchers and theorists
• Show how your research addresses a gap or contributes to a debate
• Evaluate the current state of research and demonstrate your knowledge of the scholarly debates around your topic.

Writing literature reviews is a particularly important skill if you want to apply for graduate school or pursue a career in research. We’ve written a step-by-step guide that you can follow below.

Prevent plagiarism. Run a free check.

Writing literature reviews can be quite challenging! A good starting point could be to look at some examples, depending on what kind of literature review you’d like to write.

• Example literature review #1: “Why Do People Migrate? A Review of the Theoretical Literature” ( Theoretical literature review about the development of economic migration theory from the 1950s to today.)
• Example literature review #2: “Literature review as a research methodology: An overview and guidelines” ( Methodological literature review about interdisciplinary knowledge acquisition and production.)
• Example literature review #3: “The Use of Technology in English Language Learning: A Literature Review” ( Thematic literature review about the effects of technology on language acquisition.)
• Example literature review #4: “Learners’ Listening Comprehension Difficulties in English Language Learning: A Literature Review” ( Chronological literature review about how the concept of listening skills has changed over time.)

You can also check out our templates with literature review examples and sample outlines at the links below.

Download Word doc Download Google doc

Before you begin searching for literature, you need a clearly defined topic .

If you are writing the literature review section of a dissertation or research paper, you will search for literature related to your research problem and questions .

Make a list of keywords

Start by creating a list of keywords related to your research question. Include each of the key concepts or variables you’re interested in, and list any synonyms and related terms. You can add to this list as you discover new keywords in the process of your literature search.

• Social media, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, TikTok
• Body image, self-perception, self-esteem, mental health
• Generation Z, teenagers, adolescents, youth

Search for relevant sources

Use your keywords to begin searching for sources. Some useful databases to search for journals and articles include:

• Your university’s library catalogue
• Google Scholar
• Project Muse (humanities and social sciences)
• Medline (life sciences and biomedicine)
• EconLit (economics)
• Inspec (physics, engineering and computer science)

You can also use boolean operators to help narrow down your search.

Make sure to read the abstract to find out whether an article is relevant to your question. When you find a useful book or article, you can check the bibliography to find other relevant sources.

You likely won’t be able to read absolutely everything that has been written on your topic, so it will be necessary to evaluate which sources are most relevant to your research question.

For each publication, ask yourself:

• What question or problem is the author addressing?
• What are the key concepts and how are they defined?
• What are the key theories, models, and methods?
• Does the research use established frameworks or take an innovative approach?
• What are the results and conclusions of the study?
• How does the publication relate to other literature in the field? Does it confirm, add to, or challenge established knowledge?
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of the research?

Make sure the sources you use are credible , and make sure you read any landmark studies and major theories in your field of research.

You can use our template to summarize and evaluate sources you’re thinking about using. Click on either button below to download.

Take notes and cite your sources

As you read, you should also begin the writing process. Take notes that you can later incorporate into the text of your literature review.

It is important to keep track of your sources with citations to avoid plagiarism . It can be helpful to make an annotated bibliography , where you compile full citation information and write a paragraph of summary and analysis for each source. This helps you remember what you read and saves time later in the process.

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To begin organizing your literature review’s argument and structure, be sure you understand the connections and relationships between the sources you’ve read. Based on your reading and notes, you can look for:

• Trends and patterns (in theory, method or results): do certain approaches become more or less popular over time?
• Themes: what questions or concepts recur across the literature?
• Debates, conflicts and contradictions: where do sources disagree?
• Pivotal publications: are there any influential theories or studies that changed the direction of the field?
• Gaps: what is missing from the literature? Are there weaknesses that need to be addressed?

This step will help you work out the structure of your literature review and (if applicable) show how your own research will contribute to existing knowledge.

• Most research has focused on young women.
• There is an increasing interest in the visual aspects of social media.
• But there is still a lack of robust research on highly visual platforms like Instagram and Snapchat—this is a gap that you could address in your own research.

There are various approaches to organizing the body of a literature review. Depending on the length of your literature review, you can combine several of these strategies (for example, your overall structure might be thematic, but each theme is discussed chronologically).

Chronological

The simplest approach is to trace the development of the topic over time. However, if you choose this strategy, be careful to avoid simply listing and summarizing sources in order.

Try to analyze patterns, turning points and key debates that have shaped the direction of the field. Give your interpretation of how and why certain developments occurred.

If you have found some recurring central themes, you can organize your literature review into subsections that address different aspects of the topic.

For example, if you are reviewing literature about inequalities in migrant health outcomes, key themes might include healthcare policy, language barriers, cultural attitudes, legal status, and economic access.

Methodological

If you draw your sources from different disciplines or fields that use a variety of research methods , you might want to compare the results and conclusions that emerge from different approaches. For example:

• Look at what results have emerged in qualitative versus quantitative research
• Discuss how the topic has been approached by empirical versus theoretical scholarship
• Divide the literature into sociological, historical, and cultural sources

Theoretical

A literature review is often the foundation for a theoretical framework . You can use it to discuss various theories, models, and definitions of key concepts.

You might argue for the relevance of a specific theoretical approach, or combine various theoretical concepts to create a framework for your research.

Like any other academic text , your literature review should have an introduction , a main body, and a conclusion . What you include in each depends on the objective of your literature review.

The introduction should clearly establish the focus and purpose of the literature review.

Depending on the length of your literature review, you might want to divide the body into subsections. You can use a subheading for each theme, time period, or methodological approach.

As you write, you can follow these tips:

• Summarize and synthesize: give an overview of the main points of each source and combine them into a coherent whole
• Analyze and interpret: don’t just paraphrase other researchers — add your own interpretations where possible, discussing the significance of findings in relation to the literature as a whole
• Critically evaluate: mention the strengths and weaknesses of your sources
• Write in well-structured paragraphs: use transition words and topic sentences to draw connections, comparisons and contrasts

In the conclusion, you should summarize the key findings you have taken from the literature and emphasize their significance.

When you’ve finished writing and revising your literature review, don’t forget to proofread thoroughly before submitting. Not a language expert? Check out Scribbr’s professional proofreading services !

This article has been adapted into lecture slides that you can use to teach your students about writing a literature review.

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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.

There are several reasons to conduct a literature review at the beginning of a research project:

• To familiarize yourself with the current state of knowledge on your topic
• To ensure that you’re not just repeating what others have already done
• To identify gaps in knowledge and unresolved problems that your research can address
• To develop your theoretical framework and methodology
• To provide an overview of the key findings and debates on the topic

Writing the literature review shows your reader how your work relates to existing research and what new insights it will contribute.

The literature review usually comes near the beginning of your thesis or dissertation . After the introduction , it grounds your research in a scholarly field and leads directly to your theoretical framework or methodology .

A literature review is a survey of credible sources on a topic, often used in dissertations , theses, and research papers . Literature reviews give an overview of knowledge on a subject, helping you identify relevant theories and methods, as well as gaps in existing research. Literature reviews are set up similarly to other  academic texts , with an introduction , a main body, and a conclusion .

An  annotated bibliography is a list of  source references that has a short description (called an annotation ) for each of the sources. It is often assigned as part of the research process for a  paper .  

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A literature review surveys prior research published in books, scholarly articles, and any other sources relevant to a particular issue, area of research, or theory, and by so doing, provides a description, summary, and critical evaluation of these works in relation to the research problem being investigated. Literature reviews are designed to provide an overview of sources you have used in researching a particular topic and to demonstrate to your readers how your research fits within existing scholarship about the topic.

Fink, Arlene. Conducting Research Literature Reviews: From the Internet to Paper . Fourth edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, 2014.

Importance of a Good Literature Review

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 informs how you are planning to investigate a research problem. The analytical features of a literature review might:

• Give a new interpretation of old material or combine new with old interpretations,
• Trace the intellectual progression of the field, including major debates,
• Depending on the situation, evaluate the sources and advise the reader on the most pertinent or relevant research, or
• Usually in the conclusion of a literature review, identify where gaps exist in how a problem has been researched to date.

Given this, the purpose of a literature review is to:

• Place each work in the context of its contribution to understanding the research problem being studied.
• Describe the relationship of each work to the others under consideration.
• Identify new ways to interpret prior research.
• Reveal any gaps that exist in the literature.
• Resolve conflicts amongst seemingly contradictory previous studies.
• Identify areas of prior scholarship to prevent duplication of effort.
• Point the way in fulfilling a need for additional research.
• Locate your own research within the context of existing literature [very important].

Fink, Arlene. Conducting Research Literature Reviews: From the Internet to Paper. 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2005; Hart, Chris. Doing a Literature Review: Releasing the Social Science Research Imagination . Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1998; Jesson, Jill. Doing Your Literature Review: Traditional and Systematic Techniques . Los Angeles, CA: SAGE, 2011; Knopf, Jeffrey W. "Doing a Literature Review." PS: Political Science and Politics 39 (January 2006): 127-132; Ridley, Diana. The Literature Review: A Step-by-Step Guide for Students . 2nd ed. Los Angeles, CA: SAGE, 2012.

Types of Literature Reviews

It is important to think of knowledge in a given field as consisting of three layers. First, there are the primary studies that researchers conduct and publish. Second are the reviews of those studies that summarize and offer new interpretations built from and often extending beyond the primary studies. Third, there are the perceptions, conclusions, opinion, and interpretations that are shared informally among scholars that become part of the body of epistemological traditions within the field.

In composing a literature review, it is important to note that it is often this third layer of knowledge that is cited as "true" even though it often has only a loose relationship to the primary studies and secondary literature reviews. Given this, while literature reviews are designed to provide an overview and synthesis of pertinent sources you have explored, there are a number of approaches you could adopt depending upon the type of analysis underpinning your study.

Argumentative Review This form examines literature selectively in order to support or refute an argument, deeply embedded assumption, or philosophical problem already established in the literature. The purpose is to develop a body of literature that establishes a contrarian viewpoint. Given the value-laden nature of some social science research [e.g., educational reform; immigration control], argumentative approaches to analyzing the literature can be a legitimate and important form of discourse. However, note that they can also introduce problems of bias when they are used to make summary claims of the sort found in systematic reviews [see below].

Integrative Review Considered a form of research that reviews, critiques, and synthesizes representative literature on a topic in an integrated way such that new frameworks and perspectives on the topic are generated. The body of literature includes all studies that address related or identical hypotheses or research problems. A well-done integrative review meets the same standards as primary research in regard to clarity, rigor, and replication. This is the most common form of review in the social sciences.

Historical Review Few things rest in isolation from historical precedent. Historical literature reviews focus on examining research throughout a period of time, often starting with the first time an issue, concept, theory, phenomena emerged in the literature, then tracing its evolution within the scholarship of a discipline. The purpose is to place research in a historical context to show familiarity with state-of-the-art developments and to identify the likely directions for future research.

Methodological Review A review does not always focus on what someone said [findings], but how they came about saying what they say [method of analysis]. Reviewing methods of analysis provides a framework of understanding at different levels [i.e. those of theory, substantive fields, research approaches, and data collection and analysis techniques], how researchers draw upon a wide variety of knowledge ranging from the conceptual level to practical documents for use in fieldwork in the areas of ontological and epistemological consideration, quantitative and qualitative integration, sampling, interviewing, data collection, and data analysis. This approach helps highlight ethical issues which you should be aware of and consider as you go through your own study.

Systematic Review This form consists of an overview of existing evidence pertinent to a clearly formulated research question, which uses pre-specified and standardized methods to identify and critically appraise relevant research, and to collect, report, and analyze data from the studies that are included in the review. The goal is to deliberately document, critically evaluate, and summarize scientifically all of the research about a clearly defined research problem . Typically it focuses on a very specific empirical question, often posed in a cause-and-effect form, such as "To what extent does A contribute to B?" This type of literature review is primarily applied to examining prior research studies in clinical medicine and allied health fields, but it is increasingly being used in the social sciences.

Theoretical Review The purpose of this form is to examine the corpus of theory that has accumulated in regard to an issue, concept, theory, phenomena. The theoretical literature review helps to establish what theories already exist, the relationships between them, to what degree the existing theories have been investigated, and to develop new hypotheses to be tested. Often this form is used to help establish a lack of appropriate theories or reveal that current theories are inadequate for explaining new or emerging research problems. The unit of analysis can focus on a theoretical concept or a whole theory or framework.

NOTE: Most often the literature review will incorporate some combination of types. For example, a review that examines literature supporting or refuting an argument, assumption, or philosophical problem related to the research problem will also need to include writing supported by sources that establish the history of these arguments in the literature.

Baumeister, Roy F. and Mark R. Leary. "Writing Narrative Literature Reviews."  Review of General Psychology 1 (September 1997): 311-320; Mark R. Fink, Arlene. Conducting Research Literature Reviews: From the Internet to Paper . 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2005; Hart, Chris. Doing a Literature Review: Releasing the Social Science Research Imagination . Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1998; Kennedy, Mary M. "Defining a Literature." Educational Researcher 36 (April 2007): 139-147; Petticrew, Mark and Helen Roberts. Systematic Reviews in the Social Sciences: A Practical Guide . Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 2006; Torracro, Richard. "Writing Integrative Literature Reviews: Guidelines and Examples." Human Resource Development Review 4 (September 2005): 356-367; Rocco, Tonette S. and Maria S. Plakhotnik. "Literature Reviews, Conceptual Frameworks, and Theoretical Frameworks: Terms, Functions, and Distinctions." Human Ressource Development Review 8 (March 2008): 120-130; Sutton, Anthea. Systematic Approaches to a Successful Literature Review . Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publications, 2016.

Structure and Writing Style

I.  Thinking About Your Literature Review

The structure of a literature review should include the following in support of understanding the research problem :

• An overview of the subject, issue, or theory under consideration, along with the objectives of the literature review,
• Division of works under review into themes or categories [e.g. works that support a particular position, those against, and those offering alternative approaches entirely],
• An explanation of how each work is similar to and how it varies from the others,
• Conclusions as to which pieces are best considered in their argument, are most convincing of their opinions, and make the greatest contribution to the understanding and development of their area of research.

The critical evaluation of each work should consider :

• Provenance -- what are the author's credentials? Are the author's arguments supported by evidence [e.g. primary historical material, case studies, narratives, statistics, recent scientific findings]?
• Methodology -- were the techniques used to identify, gather, and analyze the data appropriate to addressing the research problem? Was the sample size appropriate? Were the results effectively interpreted and reported?
• Objectivity -- is the author's perspective even-handed or prejudicial? Is contrary data considered or is certain pertinent information ignored to prove the author's point?
• Persuasiveness -- which of the author's theses are most convincing or least convincing?
• Validity -- are the author's arguments and conclusions convincing? Does the work ultimately contribute in any significant way to an understanding of the subject?

II.  Development of the Literature Review

Four Basic Stages of Writing 1.  Problem formulation -- which topic or field is being examined and what are its component issues? 2.  Literature search -- finding materials relevant to the subject being explored. 3.  Data evaluation -- determining which literature makes a significant contribution to the understanding of the topic. 4.  Analysis and interpretation -- discussing the findings and conclusions of pertinent literature.

Consider the following issues before writing the literature review: Clarify If your assignment is not specific about what form your literature review should take, seek clarification from your professor by asking these questions: 1.  Roughly how many sources would be appropriate to include? 2.  What types of sources should I review (books, journal articles, websites; scholarly versus popular sources)? 3.  Should I summarize, synthesize, or critique sources by discussing a common theme or issue? 4.  Should I evaluate the sources in any way beyond evaluating how they relate to understanding the research problem? 5.  Should I provide subheadings and other background information, such as definitions and/or a history? Find Models Use the exercise of reviewing the literature to examine how authors in your discipline or area of interest have composed their literature review sections. Read them to get a sense of the types of themes you might want to look for in your own research or to identify ways to organize your final review. The bibliography or reference section of sources you've already read, such as required readings in the course syllabus, are also excellent entry points into your own research. 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. Your professor will probably not expect you to read everything that's available about the topic, but you'll make the act of reviewing easier if you first limit scope of the research problem. A good strategy is to begin by searching the USC Libraries Catalog for recent books about the topic and review the table of contents for chapters that focuses on specific issues. You can also review the indexes of books to find references to specific issues that can serve as the focus of your research. For example, a book surveying the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict may include a chapter on the role Egypt has played in mediating the conflict, or look in the index for the pages where Egypt is mentioned in the text. Consider Whether Your Sources are Current Some disciplines require that you use information that is as current as possible. This is particularly true in disciplines in medicine and the sciences where research conducted becomes obsolete very quickly as new discoveries are made. However, when writing a review in the social sciences, a survey of the history of the literature may be required. In other words, a complete understanding the research problem requires you to deliberately examine how knowledge and perspectives have changed over time. Sort through 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 explore what is considered by scholars to be a "hot topic" and what is not.

III.  Ways to Organize Your Literature Review

Chronology of Events If your review follows the chronological method, you could write about the materials according to when they were published. This approach should only be followed if a clear path of research building on previous research can be identified and that these trends follow a clear chronological order of development. For example, a literature review that focuses on continuing research about the emergence of German economic power after the fall of the Soviet Union. By Publication Order your sources by publication chronology, then, 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. Thematic [“conceptual categories”] A thematic literature review is the most common approach to summarizing prior research in the social and behavioral sciences. Thematic reviews are organized around a topic or issue, rather than the progression of time, although the progression of time may still be incorporated into 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 would still be organized chronologically reflecting technological developments in media. The difference in this example between a "chronological" and a "thematic" approach is what is emphasized the most: themes related to the role of the Internet in presidential politics. Note that more authentic thematic reviews tend to break away from chronological order. A review organized in this manner would shift between time periods within each section according to the point being made. Methodological A methodological approach focuses on the methods utilized by the researcher. For the Internet in American presidential politics project, one methodological approach would be to look at cultural differences between the portrayal of American presidents on American, British, and French websites. Or the review might focus on the fundraising impact of the Internet on a particular political party. A methodological scope will influence either the types of documents in the review or the way in which these documents are discussed.

Other Sections of Your Literature Review Once you've decided on the organizational method for your literature review, the sections you need to include in the paper should be easy to figure out because they arise from your organizational strategy. In other words, a chronological review would have subsections for each vital time period; a thematic review would have subtopics based upon factors that relate to the theme or issue. However, sometimes you may need to add additional sections that are necessary for your study, but do not fit in the organizational strategy of the body. What other sections you include in the body is up to you. However, only include what is necessary for the reader to locate your study within the larger scholarship about the research problem.

Here are examples of other sections, usually in the form of a single paragraph, you may need to include depending on the type of review you write:

• Current Situation : Information necessary to understand the current topic or focus of the literature review.
• Sources Used : Describes the methods and resources [e.g., databases] you used to identify the literature you reviewed.
• History : The chronological progression of the field, the research literature, or an idea that is necessary to understand the literature review, if the body of the literature review is not already a chronology.
• Selection Methods : Criteria you used to select (and perhaps exclude) sources in your literature review. For instance, you might explain that your review includes only peer-reviewed [i.e., scholarly] sources.
• Standards : Description of the way in which you present your information.
• Questions for Further Research : What questions about the field has the review sparked? How will you further your research as a result of the review?

IV.  Writing Your Literature Review

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.

Use Evidence A literature review section is, in this sense, just like any other academic research paper. Your interpretation of the available sources must be backed up with evidence [citations] that demonstrates that what you are saying is valid. Be Selective 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. Related items that provide additional information, but that are not key to understanding the research problem, can be included in a list of further readings . Use Quotes Sparingly Some short quotes are appropriate if you want to emphasize a point, or if what an author stated cannot be easily paraphrased. Sometimes you may need to quote certain terminology that was coined by the author, is not common knowledge, or taken directly from the study. Do not use extensive quotes as a substitute for using your own words in reviewing the literature. Summarize and Synthesize Remember to summarize and synthesize your sources within each thematic 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 your own work and the work of others. Keep Your Own Voice 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. Use Caution When Paraphrasing 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.

V.  Common Mistakes to Avoid

These are the most common mistakes made in reviewing social science research literature.

• Sources in your literature review do not clearly relate to the research problem;
• You do not take sufficient time to define and identify the most relevant sources to use in the literature review related to the research problem;
• Relies exclusively on secondary analytical sources rather than including relevant primary research studies or data;
• Uncritically accepts another researcher's findings and interpretations as valid, rather than examining critically all aspects of the research design and analysis;
• Does not describe the search procedures that were used in identifying the literature to review;
• Reports isolated statistical results rather than synthesizing them in chi-squared or meta-analytic methods; and,
• Only includes research that validates assumptions and does not consider contrary findings and alternative interpretations found in the literature.

Cook, Kathleen E. and Elise Murowchick. “Do Literature Review Skills Transfer from One Course to Another?” Psychology Learning and Teaching 13 (March 2014): 3-11; Fink, Arlene. Conducting Research Literature Reviews: From the Internet to Paper . 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2005; Hart, Chris. Doing a Literature Review: Releasing the Social Science Research Imagination . Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1998; Jesson, Jill. Doing Your Literature Review: Traditional and Systematic Techniques . London: SAGE, 2011; Literature Review Handout. Online Writing Center. Liberty University; Literature Reviews. The Writing Center. University of North Carolina; Onwuegbuzie, Anthony J. and Rebecca Frels. Seven Steps to a Comprehensive Literature Review: A Multimodal and Cultural Approach . Los Angeles, CA: SAGE, 2016; Ridley, Diana. The Literature Review: A Step-by-Step Guide for Students . 2nd ed. Los Angeles, CA: SAGE, 2012; Randolph, Justus J. “A Guide to Writing the Dissertation Literature Review." Practical Assessment, Research, and Evaluation. vol. 14, June 2009; Sutton, Anthea. Systematic Approaches to a Successful Literature Review . Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publications, 2016; Taylor, Dena. The Literature Review: A Few Tips On Conducting It. University College Writing Centre. University of Toronto; Writing a Literature Review. Academic Skills Centre. University of Canberra.

Writing Tip

Break Out of Your Disciplinary Box!

Thinking interdisciplinarily about a research problem can be a rewarding exercise in applying new ideas, theories, or concepts to an old problem. For example, what might cultural anthropologists say about the continuing conflict in the Middle East? In what ways might geographers view the need for better distribution of social service agencies in large cities than how social workers might study the issue? You don’t want to substitute a thorough review of core research literature in your discipline for studies conducted in other fields of study. However, particularly in the social sciences, thinking about research problems from multiple vectors is a key strategy for finding new solutions to a problem or gaining a new perspective. Consult with a librarian about identifying research databases in other disciplines; almost every field of study has at least one comprehensive database devoted to indexing its research literature.

Frodeman, Robert. The Oxford Handbook of Interdisciplinarity . New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.

Another Writing Tip

Don't Just Review for Content!

While conducting a review of the literature, maximize the time you devote to writing this part of your paper by thinking broadly about what you should be looking for and evaluating. Review not just what scholars are saying, but how are they saying it. Some questions to ask:

• How are they organizing their ideas?
• What methods have they used to study the problem?
• What theories have been used to explain, predict, or understand their research problem?
• What sources have they cited to support their conclusions?
• How have they used non-textual elements [e.g., charts, graphs, figures, etc.] to illustrate key points?

When you begin to write your literature review section, you'll be glad you dug deeper into how the research was designed and constructed because it establishes a means for developing more substantial analysis and interpretation of the research problem.

Hart, Chris. Doing a Literature Review: Releasing the Social Science Research Imagination . Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1 998.

Yet Another Writing Tip

When Do I Know I Can Stop Looking and Move On?

Here are several strategies you can utilize to assess whether you've thoroughly reviewed the literature:

• Look for repeating patterns in the research findings . If the same thing is being said, just by different people, then this likely demonstrates that the research problem has hit a conceptual dead end. At this point consider: Does your study extend current research?  Does it forge a new path? Or, does is merely add more of the same thing being said?
• Look at sources the authors cite to in their work . If you begin to see the same researchers cited again and again, then this is often an indication that no new ideas have been generated to address the research problem.
• Search Google Scholar to identify who has subsequently cited leading scholars already identified in your literature review [see next sub-tab]. This is called citation tracking and there are a number of sources that can help you identify who has cited whom, particularly scholars from outside of your discipline. Here again, if the same authors are being cited again and again, this may indicate no new literature has been written on the topic.

Onwuegbuzie, Anthony J. and Rebecca Frels. Seven Steps to a Comprehensive Literature Review: A Multimodal and Cultural Approach . Los Angeles, CA: Sage, 2016; Sutton, Anthea. Systematic Approaches to a Successful Literature Review . Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publications, 2016.

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What is a literature review?

A literature review is an integrated analysis -- not just a summary-- of scholarly writings and other relevant evidence related directly to your research question.  That is, it represents a synthesis of the evidence that provides background information on your topic and shows a association between the evidence and your research question.

A literature review may be a stand alone work or the introduction to a larger research paper, depending on the assignment.  Rely heavily on the guidelines your instructor has given you.

Why is it important?

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.
• Discusses further research questions that logically come out of the previous studies.

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1. Choose a topic. Define your research question.

Your literature review should be guided by your central research question.  The literature represents background and research developments related to a specific research question, interpreted and analyzed by you in a synthesized way.

• Make sure your research question is not too broad or too narrow.  Is it manageable?
• Begin writing down terms that are related to your question. These will be useful for searches later.
• If you have the opportunity, discuss your topic with your professor and your class mates.

2. Decide on the scope of your review

How many studies do you need to look at? How comprehensive should it be? How many years should it cover? 

• This may depend on your assignment.  How many sources does the assignment require?

3. Select the databases you will use to conduct your searches.

Make a list of the databases you will search. 

Where to find databases:

• use the tabs on this guide
• Find other databases in the Nursing Information Resources web page
• More on the Medical Library web page
• ... and more on the Yale University Library web page

4. Conduct your searches to find the evidence. Keep track of your searches.

• Use the key words in your question, as well as synonyms for those words, as terms in your search. Use the database tutorials for help.
• Save the searches in the databases. This saves time when you want to redo, or modify, the searches. It is also helpful to use as a guide is the searches are not finding any useful results.
• Review the abstracts of research studies carefully. This will save you time.
• Use the bibliographies and references of research studies you find to locate others.
• Check with your professor, or a subject expert in the field, if you are missing any key works in the field.
• Ask your librarian for help at any time.
• Use a citation manager, such as EndNote as the repository for your citations. See the EndNote tutorials for help.

Review the literature

Some questions to help you analyze the research:

• What was the research question of the study you are reviewing? What were the authors trying to discover?
• Was the research funded by a source that could influence the findings?
• What were the research methodologies? Analyze its literature review, the samples and variables used, the results, and the conclusions.
• Does the research seem to be complete? Could it have been conducted more soundly? What further questions does it raise?
• If there are conflicting studies, why do you think that is?
• How are the authors viewed in the field? Has this study been cited? If so, how has it been analyzed?

Tips: 

• Review the abstracts carefully.  
• Keep careful notes so that you may track your thought processes during the research process.
• Create a matrix of the studies for easy analysis, and synthesis, across all of the studies.
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Literature Review: The What, Why and How-to Guide — Introduction

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What are Literature Reviews?

So, what is a literature review? "A literature review is an account of what has been published on a topic by accredited scholars and researchers. In writing the literature review, your purpose is to convey to your reader what knowledge and ideas have been established on a topic, and what their strengths and weaknesses are. As a piece of writing, the literature review must be defined by a guiding concept (e.g., your research objective, the problem or issue you are discussing, or your argumentative thesis). It is not just a descriptive list of the material available, or a set of summaries." Taylor, D.  The literature review: A few tips on conducting it . University of Toronto Health Sciences Writing Centre.

Goals of Literature Reviews

What are the goals of creating a Literature Review?  A literature could be written to accomplish different aims:

• To develop a theory or evaluate an existing theory
• To summarize the historical or existing state of a research topic
• Identify a problem in a field of research 

Baumeister, R. F., & Leary, M. R. (1997). Writing narrative literature reviews .  Review of General Psychology , 1 (3), 311-320.

What kinds of sources require a Literature Review?

• A research paper assigned in a course
• A thesis or dissertation
• A grant proposal
• An article intended for publication in a journal

All these instances require you to collect what has been written about your research topic so that you can demonstrate how your own research sheds new light on the topic.

Types of Literature Reviews

What kinds of literature reviews are written?

Narrative review: The purpose of this type of review is to describe the current state of the research on a specific topic/research and to offer a critical analysis of the literature reviewed. Studies are grouped by research/theoretical categories, and themes and trends, strengths and weakness, and gaps are identified. The review ends with a conclusion section which summarizes the findings regarding the state of the research of the specific study, the gaps identify and if applicable, explains how the author's research will address gaps identify in the review and expand the knowledge on the topic reviewed.

• Example : Predictors and Outcomes of U.S. Quality Maternity Leave: A Review and Conceptual Framework:  10.1177/08948453211037398  

Systematic review : "The authors of a systematic review use a specific procedure to search the research literature, select the studies to include in their review, and critically evaluate the studies they find." (p. 139). Nelson, L. K. (2013). Research in Communication Sciences and Disorders . Plural Publishing.

• Example : The effect of leave policies on increasing fertility: a systematic review:  10.1057/s41599-022-01270-w

Meta-analysis : "Meta-analysis is a method of reviewing research findings in a quantitative fashion by transforming the data from individual studies into what is called an effect size and then pooling and analyzing this information. The basic goal in meta-analysis is to explain why different outcomes have occurred in different studies." (p. 197). Roberts, M. C., & Ilardi, S. S. (2003). Handbook of Research Methods in Clinical Psychology . Blackwell Publishing.

• Example : Employment Instability and Fertility in Europe: A Meta-Analysis:  10.1215/00703370-9164737

Meta-synthesis : "Qualitative meta-synthesis is a type of qualitative study that uses as data the findings from other qualitative studies linked by the same or related topic." (p.312). Zimmer, L. (2006). Qualitative meta-synthesis: A question of dialoguing with texts .  Journal of Advanced Nursing , 53 (3), 311-318.

• Example : Women’s perspectives on career successes and barriers: A qualitative meta-synthesis:  10.1177/05390184221113735

Literature Reviews in the Health Sciences

• UConn Health subject guide on systematic reviews Explanation of the different review types used in health sciences literature as well as tools to help you find the right review type
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Research Methods

• Getting Started
• Literature Review Research
• Research Design
• Research Design By Discipline
• SAGE Research Methods
• Teaching with SAGE Research Methods

Literature Review

• What is a Literature Review?
• What is NOT a Literature Review?
• Purposes of a Literature Review
• Types of Literature Reviews
• Literature Reviews vs. Systematic Reviews
• Systematic vs. Meta-Analysis

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:

• Summarizes and analyzes previous research relevant to a topic
• Includes scholarly books and articles published in academic journals
• Can be an specific scholarly paper or a section in a research paper

The objective of a Literature Review is to find previous published scholarly works relevant to an specific topic

• Help gather ideas or information
• Keep up to date in current trends and findings
• Help develop new questions

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.
• Helps focus your own research questions or problems
• Discovers relationships between research studies/ideas.
• Suggests unexplored ideas or populations
• Identifies major themes, concepts, and researchers on a topic.
• Tests assumptions; may help counter preconceived ideas and remove unconscious bias.
• Identifies critical gaps, points of disagreement, or potentially flawed methodology or theoretical approaches.
• Indicates potential directions for future research.

All content in this section is from Literature Review Research from Old Dominion University 

Keep in mind the following, a literature review is NOT:

Not an essay 

Not an annotated bibliography  in which you summarize each article that you have reviewed.  A literature review goes beyond basic summarizing to focus on the critical analysis of the reviewed works and their relationship to your research question.

Not a research paper   where you select resources to support one side of an issue versus another.  A lit review should explain and consider all sides of an argument in order to avoid bias, and areas of agreement and disagreement should be highlighted.

A literature review serves several purposes. For example, it

• provides thorough knowledge of previous studies; introduces seminal works.
• helps focus one’s own research topic.
• identifies a conceptual framework for one’s own research questions or problems; indicates potential directions for future research.
• suggests previously unused or underused methodologies, designs, quantitative and qualitative strategies.
• identifies gaps in previous studies; identifies flawed methodologies and/or theoretical approaches; avoids replication of mistakes.
• helps the researcher avoid repetition of earlier research.
• suggests unexplored populations.
• determines whether past studies agree or disagree; identifies controversy in the literature.
• tests assumptions; may help counter preconceived ideas and remove unconscious bias.

As Kennedy (2007) notes*, it is important to think of knowledge in a given field as consisting of three layers. First, there are the primary studies that researchers conduct and publish. Second are the reviews of those studies that summarize and offer new interpretations built from and often extending beyond the original studies. Third, there are the perceptions, conclusions, opinion, and interpretations that are shared informally that become part of the lore of field. In composing a literature review, it is important to note that it is often this third layer of knowledge that is cited as "true" even though it often has only a loose relationship to the primary studies and secondary literature reviews.

Given this, while literature reviews are designed to provide an overview and synthesis of pertinent sources you have explored, there are several approaches to how they can be done, depending upon the type of analysis underpinning your study. Listed below are definitions of types of literature reviews:

Argumentative Review      This form examines literature selectively in order to support or refute an argument, deeply imbedded assumption, or philosophical problem already established in the literature. The purpose is to develop a body of literature that establishes a contrarian viewpoint. Given the value-laden nature of some social science research [e.g., educational reform; immigration control], argumentative approaches to analyzing the literature can be a legitimate and important form of discourse. However, note that they can also introduce problems of bias when they are used to to make summary claims of the sort found in systematic reviews.

Integrative Review      Considered a form of research that reviews, critiques, and synthesizes representative literature on a topic in an integrated way such that new frameworks and perspectives on the topic are generated. The body of literature includes all studies that address related or identical hypotheses. A well-done integrative review meets the same standards as primary research in regard to clarity, rigor, and replication.

Historical Review      Few things rest in isolation from historical precedent. Historical reviews are focused on examining research throughout a period of time, often starting with the first time an issue, concept, theory, phenomena emerged in the literature, then tracing its evolution within the scholarship of a discipline. The purpose is to place research in a historical context to show familiarity with state-of-the-art developments and to identify the likely directions for future research.

Methodological Review      A review does not always focus on what someone said [content], but how they said it [method of analysis]. This approach provides a framework of understanding at different levels (i.e. those of theory, substantive fields, research approaches and data collection and analysis techniques), enables researchers to draw on a wide variety of knowledge ranging from the conceptual level to practical documents for use in fieldwork in the areas of ontological and epistemological consideration, quantitative and qualitative integration, sampling, interviewing, data collection and data analysis, and helps highlight many ethical issues which we should be aware of and consider as we go through our study.

Systematic Review      This form consists of an overview of existing evidence pertinent to a clearly formulated research question, which uses pre-specified and standardized methods to identify and critically appraise relevant research, and to collect, report, and analyse data from the studies that are included in the review. Typically it focuses on a very specific empirical question, often posed in a cause-and-effect form, such as "To what extent does A contribute to B?"

Theoretical Review      The purpose of this form is to concretely examine the corpus of theory that has accumulated in regard to an issue, concept, theory, phenomena. The theoretical literature review help establish what theories already exist, the relationships between them, to what degree the existing theories have been investigated, and to develop new hypotheses to be tested. Often this form is used to help establish a lack of appropriate theories or reveal that current theories are inadequate for explaining new or emerging research problems. The unit of analysis can focus on a theoretical concept or a whole theory or framework.

* Kennedy, Mary M. "Defining a Literature."  Educational Researcher  36 (April 2007): 139-147.

All content in this section is from The Literature Review created by Dr. Robert Larabee USC

Robinson, P. and Lowe, J. (2015),  Literature reviews vs systematic reviews.  Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 39: 103-103. doi: 10.1111/1753-6405.12393

What's in the name? The difference between a Systematic Review and a Literature Review, and why it matters . By Lynn Kysh from University of Southern California

Systematic review or meta-analysis?

A  systematic review  answers a defined research question by collecting and summarizing all empirical evidence that fits pre-specified eligibility criteria.

A  meta-analysis  is the use of statistical methods to summarize the results of these studies.

Systematic reviews, just like other research articles, can be of varying quality. They are a significant piece of work (the Centre for Reviews and Dissemination at York estimates that a team will take 9-24 months), and to be useful to other researchers and practitioners they should have:

• clearly stated objectives with pre-defined eligibility criteria for studies
• explicit, reproducible methodology
• a systematic search that attempts to identify all studies
• assessment of the validity of the findings of the included studies (e.g. risk of bias)
• systematic presentation, and synthesis, of the characteristics and findings of the included studies

Not all systematic reviews contain meta-analysis. 

Meta-analysis is the use of statistical methods to summarize the results of independent studies. By combining information from all relevant studies, meta-analysis can provide more precise estimates of the effects of health care than those derived from the individual studies included within a review.  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 analysis 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. 

Some of the content in this section is from Systematic reviews and meta-analyses: step by step guide created by Kate McAllister.

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CHAPTER 2 REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

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Related work / literature review / research review, download pdf handout:   literature reviews, watch video:   literature reviews.

A  literature review, research review,  or  related work   section compares, contrasts, synthesizes, and provides introspection about the available knowledge for a given topic or field. The two terms are sometimes used interchangeably (as they are here), but while both can refer to a section of a longer work, “literature review” can also describe a stand-alone paper.

When you start writing a literature review, the most straightforward course may be to compile all relevant sources and compare them, perhaps evaluating their strengths and weaknesses. While this is a good place to start, your literature review is incomplete unless it creates something new through these comparisons. Luckily, our resources can help you do this!

With these resources, you’ll learn:

• How to write a literature review that  contributes  rather than  summarizes
• Common mistakes to avoid
• Useful phrases to show agreement and disagreement between sources

Need one-on-one help with your literature review or research article? Schedule an appointment with one of our consultants now!

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Chapter II. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES ¶

The literature and studies cited in this chapter tackle the different concept, understanding, and ideas, generalization or conclusions and different development related to study of the enrollment from the past up to the present and which serves as the researchers guide in developing the project. Those that were also included in this chapter helps in familiarizing information that are relevant and similar to the present study.

Theoretical Background ¶

Enrollment management is “not just an organizational concept: it is both a process and a series of activities that involve the entire campus” ( Hossler & Bean, 1990). Dennis (1998) defines enrollment management as forecasting trends that will affect higher education and utilizing research to plan for the future (Dennis,1998). Second, Dennis lists the following attributes of those who understand enrollment management. Hossler and Bean conclude that there are two goals of enrollment management. “First, to exert more control over the characteristics of the student body and two control the size of the student body” (& Bean, 1990, p.5) Given these two perspectives, one would say that enrollment management is concerned with the attraction and retention of students (Braxton, Vesper, & Hossler, 1995). Donhardt (1995), feels that enrollment management involves the influence of the whole enrollment picture from recruitment through graduation. Bateman and Spruill (1995) found that enrollment management extends to the educational outcomes of attendance. Hossler and Bean (1990) define enrollment management as “efforts to influence the characteristics and the size of enrolled student bodies by directing the activities of the offices of admissions, financial aid, new-student orientation, career planning, retention, and a number of other student affairs areas” (Dennis, 1998). Tinto and Russo (1994) report that the success of enrollment management programs has been only moderately successful. In traditional way of enrolling, manual enrollment system is commonly used as a way of enrolling students to and is continuing to be used nowadays. In manual way of registering and enrolling students they must have to fill up first using ball pen and an enrollment form sheet given by their teachers. By the help of different developers and programmers, they have developed different system about the registration and enrollment process. Computerized, online registration and online enrollment systems that helps the school for having an easier process of managing student information.

Related Studies ¶

Local studies ¶.

Based on the researcher, a web-based enrollment system for Veritas Parochial School (VPS) in Web Based enrollment system, Manila was developed to help its students enroll in a more efficient way without the hassles of waiting long hours in filling out forms, which sometimes become redundant, or to stand in line and pay at the cashier. It is with the Web-based Enrollment System for VPS that this new style of enrollment may be achieved. This new type of system offers its students new options for enrolling at VPS. By logging on to VPS website, one can register and enroll subjects for a school year. With these, all the students are required to fill out certain forms that do not take more than a few minutes to accomplish. The system stores its records in the school database for future references. Confirmation of the transaction made by the students need to be verified, the payment of tuition fees must be made in the schools registrar. The students may also browse the web site of VPS and he can check his current account. He can also refer to the list of the school current tuition fee rates (Pascual & Riceo, 2008) According to Lopez (2005), a registration system helps and provides efficient and reliable services to the students, enrollment personnel and administration. Moreover, this system improved the process of enrollment in terms of searching, retrieving and subject schedules. While in a study conducted by Cayabyab (2007), many problems and difficulties were identified in the existing system of Dagupan City National High School (DCNHS). These major concerns are affecting the efficient enrollment system of students. Security of the students records were found to be at high risk. The current system may fail to protect some important documents. It has also untimely and inefficient report generation. A computerized system for DCNHS shall result to a significant increase in the number of enrollees Network-Based Enrollment system Conde (2007) in his study entitled “Network-bases Enrollment System of Paete National High School cited that the manual process of enrollment and manual handling of information and reports of the students is very laborious one. The proponents developed a network based system enrollment system to the said school to solve the huge amount of task. Garcia (2002) created the “LSPC Enrollment System”, the study can be a great help to persons concerned during the enrollment period, the registrar, instructor of the students as they retrieval necessary information when needed and lessen the burden manually browsing over enrollment slip for record purposes Saayo et.al (2008) developed the system “Network based automated Enrollment and grading system for Morong National High School. Due to increasing population of the institution, and the school currently implementing the manual system, every student spends a lot of time during enrollment period, such as paying their tuition fees and processing the school requirements. Valina et.al (2009), in this work entitled “Network-based student Permanent Record keeping and Enrollment System of Balian National High School”. This System was made to lessen the time and effort exerted by both student and school employees. It is also made to give accurate reports and keep records of every students every students and for easy and fast way of enrollment. Soria (2006), constructed a system entitled “Network-based Computerized inventory System for the supply office o the LSPC main campus. With the advancement of technology, devices and machines were improve , developed and inverted to cope up with the need of new world. There are different systems designed for reliable, efficient and very useful to the user. Cabang et al. (2003) developed the ‘computerized Students Record Monitoring System of Siniloan National High School”, Computerized Student data will be exceedingly helped to the user through continuous management of the School. It could help the registrar for a less effort services in the institutions especially in updating, printing and deleting student’s record. Velasco (2002) Study entitled “Maulawin National High School Student Information System” cited that maintaining students, records manually is a very difficult task and time consuming. In that case, computerization system that can help and handle 17 this data needed to speed up the process of student’s record keeping and to promote and reliability. Cura et al. (2004), Designed system entitled “computerized inventory system of office of the supply in LSPU” is capable of handling voluminous data about the flow of item insurance and reply to the flow of items’ issuance and return in supply office Torres et al. (2002), conducted a study that resolves around the importance computerization of student information. This study was conducted with the hope that it would help minimize time and effort in processing student’s information in Maulawin National High School. The basic feature of this study is after the storage and access of retrieving and updating the data. Alcaira (1999), stated that the using of computer are continue to grow, the need for a more timely information and data processing comes on demand keeping the record of any manual operations need the application, because handling it manually will only be conflicting. Aravia et al. (2002), show the growing importance of computers in the society. The significance of the study revolves the automation of student permanent record keeping. Garnace (1999), developed application software for the computerized information system of a commercial piggery using the concept of the database and implemented it in database. Automation Enrollment System Gumitao (2001), system is designed to provide reports of the list of enrollment per school year, periodical grade of students, and list of new, old and transferees Revalla (2005) created an Automation Enrollment System for the computer Science Department of the Laguna College business and Arts. The study was conceived because of the need to update the current registration system of LCBA, which is done manually. Her study, was based on the special problem of Mr. Bonifacio E. Bacani, Jr. about “Student Record information System”. Kampitan (2000) developed an Enrollment System of Liceo De Victoria that is designed to keep the students records. This is used to provide an effective and faster of providing information of the student and also the accounting purposes’ Liceo De Victoria Enrollment was developed and implement using relational database and designed in clipper 5.3. Earlier, Encila (1999) Introduced the Enrollment System for the computer Science Department of LCBA and traders, designed of enrollment System is advantageous to the school because it speed up the process and with only a minimum amount of power and resources. Cacao (2002), designed the “Morning Star Montessori School incorporated form 137implemented in Fox Base. Solomon (2002), developed Enrollment and Record keeping System, to know how to read sign the data that is used to be kept the record files of students and also that, it could be mange more efficiently in computer with his project. Quiver (2001), developed a program using database III which capable of retrieving, access in manipulating of data in easy way. A computerized system to minimized the lost of record and burden of work was designed by Pajarillo in 2002. Monsalve and Ilagan (2005), developed a program and designed using Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 and Microsoft access. The system is capable of receiving access, searching items, providing adequate information and data gathering. IPizzara and Veridiano (2001), this system was done using Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0. This conducted system goes along the trend of computerization to be in the field of competitiveness and survive to the complicated works. Relayo (1999) this study will assist the researcher regarding to the use of database and Visual Basic. This system have been designed in order to speed up the access and retrieval information and to lessen manual effort involve in the library routine of transaction. Magalang (2003), he proposed this to developed software that will help the management of the school “lyceum’ in giving good service to its student in speeding of the process involve in monitoring account acquired during the enrollment & other payment transaction. Lazaro (2004), this study entitled “Liceo de Los Banos record monitoring system” password was created for the protection and was designed to be user-friendly by only authorized persons and to ensure security of data basic information. Lumbers (2002), stated in her study entitled “a systematic enrollment process using database system in Saint John academy. Calamba, Laguna” that the application of database system to the enrollment process will greatly increase its efficiency; automation of enrollment process will upgrade the quality of the services provided for the qualified enrollees. Online enrollment system An Online Registration System was proposed to replace the manual enrollment system of Cavite Maritime Institute in order to advance an organized flow of transaction and an ease of work concerned on how the manual enrollment performs throughout the institution’s operations. The numerous transactions that the manual system covers, such as updating and adding student records, generating the advising and assessment slips, and the like considering the manual operating system to be inefficient for the need of the institution. Since the study involves proper record handling, tracing the constraints and evaluation of the manual system is essential (Bacala and Reano, 2009). In educational institutions like Harvent School in Dagupan City, Composed of elementary and high school level. The school puts premium to its registration. The enrollment process is the initial stage in gathering bonafide fide and accurate student information necessary to establish student permanent records. A registration and billing system is needed by the institution to address the stated situation. The study has been made to help Harvent School gather fast and deliver accurate information (Calabozo & Fernandez, 2006) Online enrollment system is utilized today by many universities to facilitate the enrollment of their students into classes every semester (Gaton, 2012). The system allows students to choose courses they want to take with the available class schedules. This allows students to make up their time schedules for different class courses without time schedule conflicts. After the allotted enrollment period, the system runs and assigns slots to students. With the Online Registration System, students could log in, check their schedule, and set desired changes and pay online without having to stand in a line and rushing to meet deadlines to accomplish all the transactions required for enrollment (Ella, 2012). The Online Registration System is a method designed to perform the process involved in registration, advising, assessments, and payments of students as well as scheduling of classes in any educational institution. According to Aquino (2005), importance of computer application is increasing day by day. In the latest decades of the millennium winning organizations are those which are willing to integrate business strategy and information technology in plying their respective trades. The use of information technology results for them to be able to develop products fast and make decisions fast, ability to have fluid organization structures, able to cope with the demanding work force and external environment by the rapid development of innovative approaches, and lastly, using information system confirms the company’s vision and mission. Schools use information systems in the way of implementing an enrollment system. This results for them to attract enrollees and earn an income. Enrollees are attracted because the use of the said system makes the transactions faster and easier. Alcuaz (1988) stated that the use of computer can give competitive advantage and improve profitability. Computer helps to increase the productivity of people. This is true whether they are working alone or working with others within a formal organization such as business corporations. As said by Adrian(2011), “Lack of enrollment system in schools can lead to chaos and troubles.” Students will be confused on what they should do to be able to enroll that is why such systems is extremely useful in the way that it gives an ease on working on enrollment processes. Enrollment is very useful in retrieving vital information of the students. Without it can lead difficulty both for the administration of school and student in enrollment processes Many countries today, especially the developing nations are challenged by the rapid technological changes. This has radically changed the living and working styles of the entire society. This transformation has been driven partly by rapid technological innovation. While in the 20th century, people saw the rise of the industrial revolution with steam-powered machines intensifying and expanding human productive power, the 21st century was characterized by the birth of machine-powered flight and the emergence of broadcasting and computer technologies that extend the reach of human creativity even more and made new ways possible by which humans could live and work together (Tinio, 2002). The transformation of manual enrollment transaction to automate and now into a web-based automation is one example of what was driven partly by the rapid technological innovation. Any ways just to make work easier and faster like enrollment transactions is possible with the emergence of computer technologies. Technology innovation had influenced man’s work from data processing, business transaction, research, planning, monitoring and even in medical operation on human anatomy are now entrusted to computer technology. Web applications are popular due to ubiquity of its applications. The ability to update and maintain web applications without distributing and installing software on potentially thousands of client computers are key reasons for its popularity. A significant advantage of building web applications to support a standard browser feature is the ability to perform as specified, regardless of the operating system installed on a given client (Bacala &Reanno, 2009). Web-based enrollment system A web-based enrollment system has features that meet most of academic institutions system’s needs and requirements. This includes standardized modules for student registration, enrollment, grade management, and other modules that are deemed necessary to operate a school. Based on the researcher, a web-based enrollment system for Veritas Parochial School (VPS) in Web Based enrollment system, Manila was developed to help its students enroll in a more efficient way without the hassles of waiting long hours in filling out forms, which sometimes become redundant, or to stand in line and pay at the cashier. It is with the Web-based Enrollment System for VPS that this new style of enrollment may be achieved. This new type of system offers its students new options for enrolling at VPS. By logging on to VPS website, one can register and enroll subjects for a school year. With these, all the students are required to fill out certain forms that do not take more than a few minutes to accomplish. The system stores its records in the school database for future references. Confirmation of the transaction made by the students need to be verified, the payment of tuition fees must be made in the schools registrar. The students may also browse the web site of VPS and he can check his current account. He can also refer to the list of the school current tuition fee rates (Pascual & Riceo, 2008)

Foreign Studies ¶

According to Lopez (2005), a Registration system helps and provides efficient and reliable services to the students, enrollment personnel and administration. Moreover, this system improved the process of enrollment in terms of searching, retrieving and subject schedules. While in a study conducted by Cayabyab (2007), many problems and difficulties were identified in the existing system of Dagupan City National High School (DCNHS). These major concerns are affecting the efficient enrollment system of students. Security of the students records were found to be at high risk. The current system may fail to protect some important documents. It has also untimely and inefficient report generation. A computerized system for DCNHS shall result to a significant increase in the number of enrollees Network-Based Enrollment system Conde (2007) in his study entitled “Network-bases Enrollment System of Paete National High School cited that the manual process of enrollment and manual handling of information and reports of the students is very laborious one. The proponents developed a network based system enrollment system to the said school to solve the huge amount of task. Garcia (2002) created the “LSPC Enrollment System”, the study can be a great help to persons concerned during the enrollment period, the registrar, instructor of the students as they retrieval necessary information when needed and lessen the burden manually browsing over enrollment slip for record purposes Saayo et.al (2008) developed the system “Network based automated Enrollment and grading system for Morong National High School. Due to increasing population of the institution, and the school currently implementing the manual system, every student spends a lot of time during enrollment period, such as paying their tuition fees and processing the school requirements. Valina et.al (2009), in this work entitled “Network-based student Permanent Record keeping and Enrollment System of Balian National High School”. This System was made to lessen the time and effort exerted by both student and school employees. It is also made to give accurate reports and keep records of every students every students and for easy and fast way of enrollment. Soria (2006), constructed a system entitled “Network-based Computerized inventory System for the supply office o the LSPC main campus. With the advancement of technology, devices and machines were improve , developed and inverted to cope up with the need of new world. There are different systems designed for reliable, efficient and very useful to the user. Cabang et al. (2003) developed the ‘computerized Students Record Monitoring System of Siniloan National High School”, Computerized Student data will be exceedingly helped to the user through continuous management of the School. It could help the registrar for a less effort services in the institutions especially in updating, printing and deleting student’s record. Velasco (2002) Study entitled “Maulawin National High School Student Information System” cited that maintaining students, records manually is a very difficult task and time consuming. In that case, computerization system that can help and handle 17 this data needed to speed up the process of student’s record keeping and to promote and reliability. Cura et al. (2004), Designed system entitled “computerized inventory system of office of the supply in LSPU” is capable of handling voluminous data about the flow of item insurance and reply to the flow of items’ issuance and return in supply office Torres et al. (2002), conducted a study that resolves around the importance computerization of student information. This study was conducted with the hope that it would help minimize time and effort in processing student’s information in Maulawin National High School. The basic feature of this study is after the storage and access of retrieving and updating the data. According to Jennifer Rowley (2005), information systems are a tool to support information management. Information systems are increasingly being used in organizations with the objective of providing competitive advantage. The information systems used by organizations can be grouped into different types such as transaction processing system, management information system, decision support system, executive information system, expert systems and office information system. Information Technology has heralded the advent of the information society. The information society may be a “virtual society”. The concepts of the electronic classroom, the electronic office and electronic library have been explored. Information system poses a number of issues on society in general, including: changing employment patterns, archiving, and bibliographic control, security and data protection, intellectual property, marketplace issues and access. An registration system is basically included in one of the classification of information system that is stated by the author, thus it serves as a tool to support information management with regards to the student data, enrollment fees information and other with a connection to the enrollment process. Every school gain competitive advantage of having this system for they will have the capacity on handling important information at ease and with security. The iterative implementation approach is a theory that eliminates problems of using a waterfall study. This is invented to avoid a linear and sequential development of study. The overall functionality of the system is broken down into feature sets. These features sets often based upon use cases from the analysis stage, containing group of individual features that are related, typically by a functional area (Stephen McHenry, 2010) Adopting the theory of Stephen McHenry which is known as the iterative implementation covers the breakdown of overall functionality of the system to a what he called feature set and those feature sets represents different process involve in an enrollment system. It helps locate what feature an enrollment system will have since that this kind of systems does many activities and processes. As said by Dunn and Scott (2005), science and technology is the root of emerging innovations in this world. For many years now, a person in this field of expertise does not stop to reshape the landscape of today’s business world. Enrollment system has made huge impact into the school arena. It is a system that is built on innovative program strategies. It is a system that will help both the enrollment personnel-in-charge and the students to easily process the enrollment at a lesser time. Distinct from traditional enrollment, LAN enrollment system process large assortment of student records and provides efficient and consistent information services. As stated by Holmes (2006), “The Internet is neither an extraordinary communication tool nor revolutionary. It simply represents the current stage in the development of human capabilities through written language, which itself derived from the spoken form.” That statement only shows that advancement in modern technology is at their highest peak. Nowadays, Web-based applications are widely used due to their ubiquity. Web-based enrollment system is currently emerging on markets for they are offering transaction convenience and service efficiency through the use of Internet. This system becomes a powerful tool in dealing with information management regarding enrollment transactions. According to Forman (2007), continuing innovation in technologies can lead to organizational changes that range from improvement of day to day operation and for easy access it provides for the end users. Many schools today have adapted this innovation in offering of their services which is parallel with the concept of Tinn (2001), stated that the computerization responded to the call the office or any workplace to help their daily operation. Malolos et.al (2002) stated that the study of automation is important in the sense time it minimizes the time and effort normally exerted in manual process. While Janes (2001) stated that computers are extremely reliable device and very powerful calculators with some great accessories applications like word processing problem for all of business activities, regardless of size, computers have three advantages over other type of office equipment that process information because computer are faster, more accurate more economical. Reyes (2005) task would be time consuming to accomplish manually and more practical with the aid of computers field in cabinet. According to Flores (2002), the automation is described simply as the substitution of machine control of human. Dioso (2001) stated that computer assist careful intelligent planning, organizing, actuating and controlling .This maybe observed from the past that they monitor production activities, solve scientific problem and help arrive in tentative answer to a multitude of involved conditions. Ralph M. Stair (1999) emphasized that the development of technology through the years have enabled us to do more with less effort. From the orientation of the light bulb to the industrial revolution and beyond, we have continuously tried to in a more efficient means of doing tasks. Lewis (2002) stated that the reason for using computers vary from person to person. Some of the computers in business are to perform accuracy, to be as productivity, to decrease bottle necks or hassles to alter cash flows or to simplify elevate your status. Gold Chager et al (2003) said that computer as a device for processing information knew computer plays a significant role in their lives, but few are aware of just how pervasive role is. Mane (2000) mentioned that the creation of the computer made the easier to accomplish task than by doing it manually, to have the direct access on straightforward answer just monitoring record where in the needs of computer make possible for everyone to get data in a particular need. We can consider that the computer is necessary and it is a productive tool for individual. Gurewich (1999) stated that the database system makes the work faster for every institution. For the mere fact that instead of doing things manually, with the use of computer technology everything is done faster. Computer- Based Enrollment system Halili, M.C.N. (2004) that man’s actions are just involuntary movements especially when time allow to plan his next action. These responses pass through the process of reasoning and analysis. Huntchinson et.al (2001) stated that file is a collection of related records. Examples are the entire student’s courses card for Anthropology 101 or the transcript of all courses in the register’s office. Bryan (2006) emphasized the information system is a set of people, procedures and resources that collects, transforms and disseminates information in an organization to do’s ends rely on many types of information system (IS). They might include simple manual information system and informal system and also computer based information system that uses hardware, software telecommunication and other forms of information technology (IT). Sander (2002) computers are an intelligence amplifier that can free human to use their time effectively. Because a computer is a fast and accurate electronic symbol or data manipulating system that design automatically accept and store input data process and procedure output results under the direction of the stored program or instruction. Tows and (2005), stated that database is instructed collection of data. The data may be about people, product events in short, any type of information is to manage the collection of data for reporting and making decision. Adamski (2007), give some advantages of database processing first economy of scale getting more information from some amount of data, sharing data balancing conflicting requirement, enforcement of standard, controlled redundancy consisting integrity security ,flexibility and responsiveness ,increase programmers productivity, improve program maintenance and data independence Perkins (1999) stated that computer has an impressive impact upon business, governmental organization; bank and all sorts of organization and on how they are operate and manage. Alcaria (2004) explained that the use of computer are continue to grow, the need for a more timely information and data processing comes on demand keeping the records of any manual operations need the application of computer because handling it manually will only be conflicting. Kroenke (2002) in the early 1970’s database processing was considered an esoteric subject of interest only to the longest corporation with the largest computer. Information system-Database System Concept Today, database processing is becoming an information system standard. Silberschatz (2006) in his book “” the goal of database system is to simplify and facilitate access to data.In relation to Ahitud et.al (2007) mentioned that information system are more collection of hardware, software and people. They should be constructed to fit the organization’s strategy and structure so that it could easily be adapted to the information they needed. Asumbra (2002) Access to information is the best way to. In line with technology access to information within fingertips is the easier way to be equipped in the future. While Hammer (2003), said that computer could eliminate the need for copying and rearranging information, which was entered into system. They also perform mathematical computation; in short computer can eliminate most of the paper works. Microsoft Corporation (2002), explained that computer network are collection of computer and intelligent peripheral equipment that are inter connected by telephone lines, micro wave relays and other high-speed communication links of the purpose of exchanging data and sharing equipment. Cognos-based enrollment management system Southern California Community College Long Beach City College has gone live with a Cognos-based enrollment management system that was designed by Irvine, CA-based professional services firm e2e Analytic. Prior to installing the new system, LBCC, which has two main campuses and multiple satellites that support nine schools and 34 departments, handled its enrollment via manual spread sheets. With no reporting, continuity, or standard practices, and with lengthy error corrections, the school’s enrollment management budgeting and planning took up to three months to compile, consolidate, and implement (Koft 2007) The study on problems regarding on school such as the Long Beach City College is an aid for the proponents to have the idea on formulating solutions on transferring manual enrollment transactions to an automated or computerized one. According to the coordinator of Admission Support of Kerian Greenaway, the system known as the Edith Cowan University Web Enrollment System (ECUWES) had replaced the traditional hard copy system of enrollment. The system offers immediacy and convenience of course enrollment via the internet. The said university in Australia is currently enrolling more than 5,000 new students with easier transactions cause of their online enrollment system. In the local setting, academic institutions both the private and government schools are shifting from manual to computerized system including student registration. This is accomplished either on an intranet or internet-based environment. The desire to overcome these problems and difficulties has led the acceptance of advanced technology. It includes Local Area Network of computers, CD ROM and powerful processor. These technologies led to the development of information databases that provides simple and prompt retrieval of information through networking, In Local Area Network Enrollment System (LANES), the problems on admission and evaluation of academic records, subject reservation, assessment and payment of fees and issuance of class cards are besieged. Likewise, searching of records is effective due to its major key that is being used in retrieval of records. A Local Area Network Enrollment System (LANES) is a broad system. It is a combination of different function areas such as databases, searching, retrieval, and update of student records, checking of students’ schedule, computation of fees. (Dzubeck, Frank, 2003) Inspired by the advancement of modern technology and the problems regarding enrollment transactions the proponents have come up with an online enrollment system exclusively for school with many enrollees. Several factors are considered in designing the proposed system. First is the tedious task of filling out application forms and inaccuracies of information provided by the students that cause delay on the enrollment process. Other is that were problems on giving and announcing schedules of enrollees and cause for them to be late at their very first class. The researchers gathered data necessary in the enrollment system for the success of the study in providing benefit for the employees and students so they can have access and have the ability to manage information directly and conveniently. A software development and IT service firm implemented its catalyst in Governor Andres Pascual College was integrated web platform to provide content management, transaction processing, marketing, and interactive community function to the two rice schools. Catalyst deliver on the Jones school’s two primary criteria for selecting a web-based platform: simplifying content management; and enabling user response to information such as event RSVP and course registration. The content management tools lets the Jones school staff edit, update or add to the volume of curriculum and event information without calling for technical assistance. They simply cut and paste document into the content management system audit for consistency and publish to the web. The school’s diverse audiences, which include MBA’s executive Mb As, executive education participants, and alumni, now receives prompt notification of news and events, and can RSVP for event or register online for Executive Education courses.

Synthesis ¶

Similarities ¶.

With the above mention studies, Enrollment system of Veritas Parochial School used web-based and databases to stores their records. Students will logging on website, register and fill out certain forms. Liceo De Victoria Enrollment was developed and implements using relational databases. As for Quiver (2001), who also developed a program using database III which capable of retrieving, access in manipulating of data in easy way. The study of Lumber (2002), which is all about the systematic enrollment process using database in Saint John Academy, helps enrollment process increase its efficiency. Bacala & Reanno (2009), in their study that tells the significant advantage of building web applications to support a standard browser feature is the ability to perform as specified. With Stephen McHenry (2010),using WAMP(Windows Apache MySQL PHP is used to develop dynamic web sites with apache server, PHP5 script languages and database of MYSQL release 5. The studies support the use of applications using the web so that students can access the websites. The researchers used a database to increase the efficiency of registration procedures. They also used it for purposes such as storing records or information of students and access in manipulating data in an easy way. Using WAMP server and PHP languages is one way for them to develop their system.

Differences ¶

According to Ella (2012), the ideas and concept where the students will check their schedule, view subjects and teachers and set desired changes and pay online. While Gaton (2012), the system allows students to choose courses they want to take with the available class schedules. This allows students to make up their time schedules for different class courses without time schedule conflicts. After the allotted enrollment period, the system runs and assigns slots to students. Both concept and ideas does not cover the researchers system in terms of online payments or computation of student’s grades, class scheduling, and assessment of fees.

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Review of Related Literature (RRL)

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The Review of Related Literature (RRL) is a crucial section in research that examines existing studies and publications related to a specific topic. It summarizes and synthesizes previous findings, identifies gaps, and provides context for the current research. RRL ensures the research is grounded in established knowledge, guiding the direction and focus of new studies.

What Is Review of Related Literature (RRL)?

The Review of Related Literature (RRL) is a detailed analysis of existing research relevant to a specific topic. It evaluates, synthesizes, and summarizes previous studies to identify trends, gaps, and conflicts in the literature. RRL provides a foundation for new research, ensuring it builds on established knowledge and addresses existing gaps.

Format of Review of Related Literature (RRL)

The Review of Related Literature (RRL) is a critical part of any research paper or thesis . It provides an overview of existing research on your topic and helps to establish the context for your study. Here is a typical format for an RRL:

1. Introduction

• Purpose : Explain the purpose of the review and its importance to your research.
• Scope : Define the scope of the literature reviewed, including the time frame, types of sources, and key themes.

2. Theoretical Framework

• Concepts and Theories : Present the main theories and concepts that underpin your research.
• Relevance : Explain how these theories relate to your study.

3. Review of Empirical Studies

• Sub-theme 1 : Summarize key studies, including methodologies, findings, and conclusions.
• Sub-theme 2 : Continue summarizing studies, focusing on different aspects or variables.
• Sub-theme 3 : Include any additional relevant studies.

4. Methodological Review

• Approaches : Discuss the various methodologies used in the reviewed studies.
• Strengths and Weaknesses : Highlight the strengths and weaknesses of these methodologies.
• Gaps : Identify gaps in the existing research that your study aims to address.

5. Synthesis and Critique

• Integration : Integrate findings from the reviewed studies to show the current state of knowledge.
• Critique : Critically evaluate the literature, discussing inconsistencies, limitations, and areas for further research.

6. Conclusion

• Summary : Summarize the main findings from the literature review.
• Research Gap : Clearly state the research gap your study will address.
• Contribution : Explain how your study will contribute to the existing body of knowledge.

7. References

• Citation Style : List all the sources cited in your literature review in the appropriate citation style (e.g., APA, MLA, Chicago).

Review of Related Literature (RRL) 1. Introduction This review examines research on social media’s impact on mental health, focusing on anxiety and depression across various demographics over the past ten years. 2. Theoretical Framework Anchored in Social Comparison Theory and Uses and Gratifications Theory, this review explores how individuals’ social media interactions affect their mental health. 3. Review of Empirical Studies Adolescents’ Mental Health Instagram & Body Image : Smith & Johnson (2017) found Instagram use linked to body image issues and lower self-esteem among 500 high school students. Facebook & Anxiety : Brown & Green (2016) showed Facebook use correlated with higher anxiety and depressive symptoms in a longitudinal study of 300 students. Young Adults’ Mental Health Twitter & Stress : Davis & Lee (2018) reported higher stress levels among heavy Twitter users in a survey of 400 university students. LinkedIn & Self-Esteem : Miller & White (2019) found LinkedIn use positively influenced professional self-esteem in 200 young professionals. Adult Mental Health General Social Media Use : Thompson & Evans (2020) found moderate social media use associated with better mental health outcomes, while excessive use correlated with higher anxiety and depression in 1,000 adults. 4. Methodological Review Studies used cross-sectional surveys, longitudinal designs, and mixed methods. Cross-sectional surveys provided large data sets but couldn’t infer causation. Longitudinal studies offered insights into long-term effects but were resource-intensive. Mixed methods enriched data through qualitative insights but required careful integration. 5. Synthesis and Critique The literature shows a complex relationship between social media and mental health, with platform-specific and demographic-specific effects. However, reliance on self-reported data introduces bias, and many cross-sectional studies limit causal inference. More longitudinal and experimental research is needed. 6. Conclusion Current research offers insights into social media’s mental health impact but leaves gaps, particularly regarding long-term effects and causation. This study aims to address these gaps through comprehensive longitudinal analysis. 7. References Brown, A., & Green, K. (2016). Facebook Use and Anxiety Among High School Students . Psychology in the Schools, 53(3), 257-264. Davis, R., & Lee, S. (2018). Twitter and Psychological Stress: A Study of University Students . Journal of College Student Development, 59(2), 120-135. Miller, P., & White, H. (2019). LinkedIn and Its Effect on Professional Self-Esteem . Journal of Applied Psychology, 104(1), 78-90. Smith, J., & Johnson, L. (2017). The Impact of Instagram on Teen Body Image . Journal of Adolescent Health, 60(5), 555-560. Thompson, M., & Evans, D. (2020). The Relationship Between Social Media Use and Mental Health in Adults . Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 23(4), 201-208.

Review of Related Literature (RRL) Examples

Review of related literature in research, review of related literature in research paper, review of related literature qualitative research.

Review of Related Literature Quantitative Research

More Review of Related Literature (RRL) Examples

• Impact of E-learning on Student Performance
• Effectiveness of Mindfulness in Workplace
• Green Building and Energy Efficiency
• Impact of Technology on Healthcare Delivery
• Effects of Nutrition on Cognitive Development in Children
• Impact of Employee Training Programs on Productivity
• Effects of Climate Change on Biodiversity
• Impact of Parental Involvement on Student Achievement
• Effects of Mobile Learning on Student Engagement
• Effects of Urban Green Spaces on Mental Health

Purpose of the Review of Related Literature (RRL)

The Review of Related Literature (RRL) serves several critical purposes in research:

• Establishing Context : It situates your research within the broader field, showing how your study relates to existing work.
• Identifying Gaps : It highlights gaps, inconsistencies, and areas needing further exploration in current knowledge, providing a clear rationale for your study.
• Avoiding Duplication : By reviewing what has already been done, it helps ensure your research is original and not a repetition of existing studies.
• Building on Existing Knowledge : It allows you to build on the findings of previous research, using established theories and methodologies to inform your work.
• Theoretical Foundation : It provides a theoretical basis for your research, grounding it in existing concepts and theories.
• Methodological Insights : It offers insights into the methods and approaches used in similar studies, helping you choose the most appropriate methods for your research.
• Establishing Credibility : It demonstrates your familiarity with the field, showing that you are well-informed and have a solid foundation for your research.
• Supporting Arguments : It provides evidence and support for your research questions, hypotheses, and objectives, strengthening the overall argument of your study.

How to Write Review of Related Literature (RRL)

Writing a Review of Related Literature (RRL) involves several key steps. Here’s a step-by-step guide:

1. Define the Scope and Objectives

• Determine the Scope : Decide on the breadth of the literature you will review, including specific themes, time frame, and types of sources.
• Set Objectives : Clearly define the purpose of the review. What do you aim to achieve? Identify gaps, establish context, or build on existing knowledge.

2. Search for Relevant Literature

• Identify Keywords : Use keywords and phrases related to your research topic.
• Use Databases : Search academic databases like Google Scholar, PubMed, JSTOR, etc., for relevant articles, books, and papers.
• Select Sources : Choose sources that are credible, recent, and relevant to your research.

3. Evaluate and Select the Literature

• Read Abstracts and Summaries : Quickly determine the relevance of each source.
• Assess Quality : Consider the methodology, credibility of the authors, and publication source.
• Select Key Studies : Choose studies that are most relevant to your research questions and objectives.

4. Organize the Literature

• Thematic Organization : Group studies by themes or topics.
• Chronological Organization : Arrange studies in the order they were published to show the development of ideas over time.
• Methodological Organization : Categorize studies by the methods they used.

5. Write the Review

• State the purpose and scope of the review.
• Explain the importance of the topic.
• Theoretical Framework : Present and discuss the main theories and concepts.
• Summarize key studies, including their methodologies, findings, and conclusions.
• Organize by themes or other chosen organizational methods.
• Methodological Review : Discuss the various methodologies used, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses.
• Synthesis and Critique : Integrate findings, critically evaluate the literature, and identify gaps or inconsistencies.
• Summarize the main findings from the literature review.
• Highlight the research gaps your study will address.
• State how your research will contribute to the existing knowledge.

6. Cite the Sources

• Use Appropriate Citation Style : Follow the required citation style (e.g., APA, MLA, Chicago).
• List References : Provide a complete list of all sources cited in your review.

What is an RRL?

An RRL summarizes and synthesizes existing research on a specific topic to identify gaps and guide future studies.

Why is RRL important?

It provides context, highlights gaps, and ensures new research builds on existing knowledge.

How do you write an RRL?

Organize by themes, summarize studies, evaluate methodologies, identify gaps, and conclude with relevance to current research.

What sources are used in RRL?

Peer-reviewed journals, books, conference papers, and credible online resources.

How long should an RRL be?

Length varies; typically 10-20% of the total research paper.

What are common RRL mistakes?

Lack of organization, insufficient synthesis, over-reliance on outdated sources, and failure to identify gaps.

Can an RRL include non-scholarly sources?

Primarily scholarly, but reputable non-scholarly sources can be included for context.

What is the difference between RRL and bibliography?

RRL synthesizes and analyzes the literature, while a bibliography lists sources.

How often should an RRL be updated?

Regularly, especially when new relevant research is published.

Can an RRL influence research direction?

Yes, it identifies gaps and trends that shape the focus and methodology of new research.

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Similarities and Differences of Review of Related Literature and Review of Related Studies 

Back to: Introduction to Educational Research Methodology

Similarities and Differences of Review of Related Literature and Review of Related Studies

Educational research means the organized collection and examination of the data related to education. It is a scientific study that examines the learning and teaching methods for better understanding of the education system. It is an observation and investigation in the field of education. Research is done in search of new knowledge or to use the existing knowledge in a better way. It helps to acquire useful knowledge and solve the challenges faced in education. Research tries to get a better understanding of education.

Literature review means the overview of the works published previously on a subject matter. It is the summary of the work done by other authors on a topic. Literature review will help a researcher in understanding how to carry on the research and what needs to be covered. 

Similarities between Review of Related Literature and Review of Related Studies

i). Both RRL and RRS is done to understand a subject matter extensively. 

ii). Help an individual to understand their topic of interest in-depth. 

iii). To understand what has already been discovered about a topic and what needs to be researched further. 

Differences of Review of Related Literature and Review of Related Studies

i). Related literature is done from books, professional journals, newspapers, magazines, and other publications. Related studies consist of theses, manuscripts, and dissertations. 

ii). After literature review, the individual tries to develop his/her own opinion on the topic. Review of related studies is obtaining answers from what has been studied. 

iii). Related literature focuses on the opinions and ideas of one’s own on a particular topic. Related studies analyze the work of other researchers and focus on the results received by them.  

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What are Related studies in research? How it is helpful for all Ph.D and master level students?

Updated: Jun 11, 2020

Once you all set with research field/domain/area in next step you need to know about recent trends and research going on particular domain. Before starting with your research or project work to understand feasibility of research/project related study or review of literature need to be done.

Here we will see what are related studies/ literature review for completing your project/research work.

Usually, related studies is about reviewing or studying existing works carried out in your project/research field. Especially, for Ph.D candidate’s related works is important constraint since pave path to entire research process. Related studies can be taken from journals, magazines, website links, government reports and other source.

Here your related studies need to provide

What’s problem in existing in selected domain?

What are the methods developed or adopted?

Which technique exhibit excellent outcome and effective?

Once you find answer for all this question rest will be easy! To calculate the feasibility and methodology need to be adopted for completion of your project.

In final stage of both Ph.D and Master level you need to submit dissertation/thesis which is documentation of research work. In that related studies offers need to be included to justify your novelty of your research work. Even you can point out research gap of selected research field why you selected this domain. If you clearly mention in your documentation and presentation you complete research/project.

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Journal articles are the academic's stock in trade, t he basic means of communicating research findings to an audience of one’s peers. That holds true across the disciplinary spectrum, so no matter where you land as a concentrator, you can expect to rely on them heavily. 

Regardless of the discipline, moreover,  journal articles perform an important knowledge-updating function .

Textbooks and handbooks and manuals will have a secondary function for chemists and physicists and biologists, of course. But in the sciences, articles are the standard and  preferred publication form. 

In the social sciences and humanities , where knowledge develops a little less rapidly or is driven less by issues of time-sensitivity , journal articles and books are more often used together.

Not all important and influential ideas warrant book-length studies, and some inquiry is just better suited to the size and scope and concentrated discussion that the article format offers.

Journal articles sometimes just present the most  appropriate  solution for communicating findings or making a convincing argument.  A 20-page article may perfectly fit a researcher's needs.  Sustaining that argument for 200 pages might be unnecessary -- or impossible.

The quality of a research article and the legitimacy of its findings are verified by other scholars, prior to publication, through a rigorous evaluation method called peer-review . This seal of approval by other scholars doesn't mean that an article is the best, or truest, or last word on a topic. If that were the case, research on lots of things would cease. Peer review simply means other experts believe the methods, the evidence, the conclusions of an article have met important standards of legitimacy, reliability, and intellectual honesty.

Searching the journal literature is part of being a responsible researcher at any level: professor, grad student, concentrator, first-year. Knowing why academic articles matter will help you make good decisions about what you find -- and what you choose to rely on in your work.

Think of journal articles as the way you tap into the ongoing scholarly conversation , as a way of testing the currency of  a finding, analysis, or argumentative position, and a way of bolstering the authority (or plausibility) of explanations you'll offer in the papers and projects you'll complete at Harvard. 

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• Open access
• Published: 29 July 2024

A retrospective descriptive review of community-engaged research projects addressing rural health priorities

• Bushra Farah Nasir 1 , 2 ,
• Bruce Chater 1 ,
• Matthew McGrail 3 &
• Srinivas Kondalsamy-Chennakesavan 2  

BMC Medical Education volume  24 , Article number:  805 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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Metrics details

Most rural populations experience significant health disadvantage. Community-engaged research can facilitate research activities towards addressing health issues of priority to local communities. Connecting scholars with community based frontline practices that are addressing local health and medical needs helps establish a robust pipeline for research that can inform gaps in health provision. Rural Health Projects (RHPs) are conducted as part of the Doctor of Medicine program at the University of Queensland. This study aims to describe the geographic coverage of RHPs, the health topic areas covered and the different types of RHP research activities conducted. It also provides meaningful insight of the health priorities for local rural communities in Queensland, Australia.

This study conducted a retrospective review of RHPs conducted between 2011 and 2021 in rural and remote Australian communities. Descriptive analyses were used to describe RHP locations by their geographical classification and disease/research categorisation using the International Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems – 10th Revision (ICD-10) codes and the Human Research Classification System (HRCS) categories.

There were a total of 2806 eligible RHPs conducted between 2011 and 2021, predominantly in Queensland ( n  = 2728, 97·2%). These were mostly conducted in small rural towns (under 5,000 population, n  = 1044, 37·2%) or other rural towns up to 15,000 population ( n  = 842, 30·0%). Projects mostly addressed individual care needs ( n  = 1233, 43·9%) according to HRCS categories, or were related to factors influencing health status and contact with health services ( n  = 1012, 36·1%) according to ICD-10 classification.

Conclusions

Conducting community focused RHPs demonstrates a valuable method to address community-specific rural health priorities by engaging medical students in research projects while simultaneously enhancing their research skills.

Peer Review reports

People living in rural regions experience a greater burden of health disparities and disadvantages across most health and wellbeing domains [ 1 , 2 ]. Despite clear inequities existing between rural and urban populations, there have been limited research-based strategies focused on addressing community-level health and medical priorities [ 3 ]. To achieve a better understanding of health issues impacting rural communities, innovative research to identify the health issues directly impacting people living in rural areas can result in community-focused strategies to address these challenges.

In Australia, immense inequities in research funding targeting rural health strongly diminish the capacity for rural health research supported by an integrated academic infrastructure [ 4 ]. A large portion of the research being conducted in rural communities depends upon busy clinician researchers, who work within the local health and medical workforce [ 5 ]. Improving sustainability of rural focused researchers and clinician academics thus requires a focused approach to providing critical skills development and community-centred research opportunities that are integrated within the medical curriculum. Rural and remote research involves high levels of community engagement, rural-based immersion opportunities and positive learning experiences that result in ‘socially accountable’ research activities [ 5 ]. A tailored, community-engaged approach also significantly impacts future rural practice intent [ 6 , 7 ], which is a critical government agenda that aims to sustain a rural workforce that is committed to work in underserved rural communities. For anyone intending to practice in a rural or remote location, the importance of developing research and analytical skills is more significant, given the complex nature of rural environments [ 6 ].

Preparing medical students for a rural career in evidence-based medicine requires sufficient research training and experiences to develop both their ability to appraise clinical evidence and their analytical skills required in medical practice [ 8 ]. A recent review of Australian medical students confirmed that the inclusion of scholarly activities to support the development of basic research skills and critical evaluation is not universally embedded within medical degree programs [ 9 , 10 ]. Similarly, a study exploring attitudes and participation in research activities by medical students in Australia found that only 45% of the 704 survey respondents had participated in a research project [ 11 ]. To instil scholarly research skills development, the University of Queensland (UQ) in Australia incorporates various units that are aimed to develop research skills as part of their medical training. In year three of the four-year MD program, all domestic students undertake a Rural and Remote Medicine (RRM) placement under the Mayne Academy of Rural and Remote Medicine clinical unit. Alongside clinical teaching and training, a Rural Health Project (RHP) forms part of the RRM placement during which students complete a small research project with an emphasis on identifying and addressing local community priorities.

The RHPs are developed through a local iterative process that balances the needs of the rural communities, the advice of the locally based supervisors, and student skills and interests, using the community-engaged research conceptual framework principles [ 12 ]. RHPs are conducted within rural hospitals, general/family practice, or a combination of both, as well as some projects being undertaken within the community but outside of a clinical setting. An example is that of a former mining engineer doing medicine arranged an underground gold mine rescue scenario that was filmed as part of the RHP. The video was used for training purposes, providing an output beneficial to the local community. As a result, students hone their research skills and involve themselves in multidisciplinary practice and participatory research in the context and culture of a rural community.

The RHP is integrated with the flow of phase one pre-clinical programs and fits in with other RRM assessments and practical experiences. They are designed to be carried out within a Quality Improvement framework that aims to develop an understanding of rural health service delivery, while learning to work collaboratively in gaining an understanding of health status and issues of priority for local rural communities in which the students are placed. The RHP pedagogical approach is underpinned by a sociocultural theory [ 13 , 14 , 15 ]. Students work under interactive guidance and supervision regarding the cognitive and experiential aspects of their activities, with intensive immersion in the tasks being carried out, relying on self-motivation, initiative and problem-solving. During the RHPs, students learn how to critically analyse a clinical topic, engage with community members and clinicians, and collaborate as required. Students are also responsible for planning and conduct of the project and producing practical resources or an end-product that is then presented in a written academic report. The key elements of the RHPs are to harness the opportunity of placement at a rural site by identifying a health service need or locally relevant knowledge gap to be addressed in consultation and engagement with the community.

More than 270 RHPs are conducted every year within UQ as part of the RRM unit spread over 50 smaller rural and remote communities. The overarching goal for each student’s RHP is to develop a long-term, solution-orientated plan of benefit to the local community.

This study aimed to describe the geographic coverage of RHPs, the health topic areas covered and the different types of RHP research activities conducted. It also provides meaningful insight of the health priorities for local rural communities in Queensland, Australia.

This study is a retrospective analysis of all RHPs conducted by medical students as part of their RRM unit, during Year 3 of their medical training at UQ. Specific data available for each RHP were the project title, the year it was conducted, and the location, each of which was collected as part of standard administrative procedures by the RHP coordinators. No identifying information about the students were collected, thus no other linkage was possible such as to student characteristics. Each RHP is conducted by one medical student.

Location information was coded by the researchers (BN, SKC, MM) using the Modified Monash Model [ 16 ] categories. Using descriptive information from the RHP title, researchers also coded the RHPs using the International Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems – 10th Revision (ICD-10) codes and the Human Research Classification System (HRCS) categories. The primary researchers involved in data setup (SKC and BN) conducted the categorisation and coding of the data, followed by a researcher (MM) reviewing and confirming accurate categorisation and coding. A descriptive analysis of the RHPs was conducted to explore ICD-10 codes and HRCS categories according to rural, remote, and regional locations using the Modified Monash Model (MMM) [ 16 ] Classification system.

A total of 2974 projects were reviewed in this study. After coding and removing projects with missing key information, and projects that were conducted outside of Australia, a total of 2806 RHPs remained.

The distribution of RHPs within each state based on regional location is described in Table  1 . A majority of RHPs were conducted in Queensland ( n  = 2728, 97·2%). Due to the small number of RHPs within Victoria, New South Wales, the Northern Territory and Western Australia, these states were combined into a single category (other). According to the MMM categories, most RHPs were conducted in small rural towns (MMM-5, n  = 1044, 37·2%), or medium rural towns (MMM-4, n  = 842, 30·0%). Additionally, nearly 17% of RHPs were conducted in Australia’s remote areas (MMM-6 and MMM-7, n  = 468). A small number of projects ( n  = 195, 7·0%) were conducted in areas not targeted under the RRM program (MMM-1 and MMM-2). These RHP locations were used by students mainly because of administration related factors, including students not being able to travel to a suitable location during COVID-19 related restrictions.

The frequency of the RHPs according to HRCS categories, and the ICD-10 codes are illustrated in Tables  2 and 3 respectively. Analysis was limited to each HRCS category or ICD-10 code having at least 20 RHPs. The most frequent MMM category within each HRCS category and ICD-10 code illustrate the regional distribution within each research topic area. According to the HRCS categories, RHPs most frequently addressed Individual care needs ( n  = 1233, 43·9%) and were conducted in MMM-5 locations ( n  = 487, 37·1%). Similarly, according to the ICD-10 codes, RHPs most frequently explored Factors influencing health status and contact with health services ( n  = 1012, 36·1%) and were conducted in MMM-5 locations ( n  = 347, 34·2%).

Examples of RHPs conducted in HRCS Research Activity codes and ICD-10 codes (Table  4 ) highlight some of the key health research topics that the RHPs have addressed.

This study demonstrates the approach of immersive rural health research projects, conducted as part of medical curriculum in Australia. They describe how research activities conducted within rural communities can help address rural health priorities specific to each community, while also providing a practical approach for medical students to become involved in community-engaged research projects. The review also highlights the diverse nature of RHP topics that are community-identified issues relevant to the local communities. Communities undertake a collaborative process with the supervisor and student, to identify areas of focus that meets their needs. The resulting research activities conducted as part of the RHPs provide practical resources for immediate translation or direct evidence to support future interventions targeting improved rural health outcomes. A similar but smaller scale research initiative in Australia highlights that as part of a graduate medical program conducted during a 12-month GP placement in a rural, regional, or remote community in New South Wales, an increased understanding of local health issues in regional, rural and remote communities, and increased engagement with and acceptance of medical students in these communities was seen [ 17 ].

Unsurprisingly given that they are part of the UQ curriculum, most RHPs were conducted within Queensland. These were most commonly situated within small and medium sized rural towns and/or inner-regional locations, focused on Individual care needs. The HRCS category addressing Individual care needs explores several aspects of patients and service user care needs including quality of life, management of symptoms, disease management, prevention, and health service needs [ 18 ]. These issues correlate with multiple reports that continue to highlight the ongoing issue of access to primary health care services and higher levels of disease that impacts health outcomes within rural locations [ 19 , 20 , 21 ]. Similarly, according to the ICD-10 codes, RHPs most commonly explored factors influencing health status and contact with health services. Additionally, factors influencing primary health care access and the service needs of rural and remote communities is an ongoing concern [ 20 ]. The category of mental, behavioural, and neurodevelopment disorders was the second highest coded research project, highlighting its importance to these communities. A 2019 report by the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners corresponds with this finding, as it reported psychological issues as the most commonly managed health issue by General Practitioners (65%) [ 20 ].

Literature acknowledges challenges surrounding research activity during medical education. Time constraints ( n  = 460; 65·3%) and uncertainty surrounding how to find research opportunities ( n  = 449; 63·8%) are common barriers to research [ 11 ]. Other studies also highlight the lack of time (77·4%), and lack of formal research activity within the curriculum (76%), as well as lack of mentorship (70·1%) [ 22 ]. Solutions include protected research time, financial and other academic support that would help facilitate and improve participation in research projects [ 23 ]. By providing an integrated research project that is assessed and embedded within the medical curriculum of the MD degree, this study highlights how these challenges can potentially be mitigated. The importance of providing medical students the opportunity to learn and conduct research during their medical education is essential to prepare future rural clinician researchers [ 10 ].

A significant strength of this study is the diversity and volume of rural health projects conducted. Additionally, a greater understanding of the health priorities were identified for rural communities. The strength of this study also highlights the number of successfully completed RHPs, whereby students gained valuable advantage to understand the process of gathering and synthesising data and developing important outcomes or resources relevant to their rural placement communities. There are however several limitations to this study. Although the ICD-10 and HRCS coding systems can categorise medical health related research activity, they are limited in their design to adequately classify rural health research projects relating to geographical factors. This limitation may restrict the generalisability of findings from this study. Another limitation is that this study relied on administrative data, which did not include other valuable information such as student characteristics or placement contexts within each of the locations. Additionally, the outcomes of each RHP were also not available. The categorisation process was also based on the understanding of the researchers, however, to overcome this bias, a systematic approach to categorisation was used, whereby all researchers checked and verified consensus on the categorisation of each RHP.

The integration of research projects focused on both understanding rural health disadvantages and suitable interventions as part of a medical students training and learning experience is an innovative method to address rural health challenges, while encouraging medical students to enhance their research skills. Students address topics of local priority through their RHPs, increase their involvement with the rural communities and other health professionals and develop an increased understanding of local health issues in rural and remote communities. Furthermore, advancing opportunities to undertake integrated rural health research activities within a medical student’s degree can progress a student’s scholarship, encouraging future academic endeavours. Such community-engaged, locally based rural health projects also allow us to better understand the unique factors associated with health and health care within rural communities, as well as the underlying factors explaining rural versus urban differences. These research focused activities ultimately not only benefit the local communities in which such projects are conducted, but also provide an educational model that achieves academic outcomes benefitting the medical student.

Data availability

The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to acknowledge Dr John Ridler (Academic Coordinator , Mayne Academy of Rural and Remote Medicine) and Dr Lynette Hodgson (Academic Coordinator Rural Health Projects , Mayne Academy of Rural and Remote Medicine) for their continued involvement and contributions to this study.

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Contributions

BN was responsible for conception, analysis, drafting and revising the manuscript. BC was responsible for conception, critical review of the manuscript, and revising the manuscript. MM was responsible for critical review of the manuscript and revising the manuscript. SKC was responsible for conception, critical review of the manuscript, and revising the manuscript. All authors have approved the submitted manuscript and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

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Correspondence to Bushra Farah Nasir .

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The University of Queensland Human Research Ethics Committee approved this research study (2022/HE000394). Data were available for RHPs conducted between 2011 and 2021. The study used retrospective administrative data; no participants were involved in this study directly and therefore a waiver of consent was granted.

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Nasir, B.F., Chater, B., McGrail, M. et al. A retrospective descriptive review of community-engaged research projects addressing rural health priorities. BMC Med Educ 24 , 805 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-024-05791-7

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New study highlights scale and impact of long COVID

A new review published in The Lancet highlights the global scale and impact of long COVID, explains biological mechanisms behind the condition and suggests priority areas for future research.

The SARS-CoV-2 virus causes COVID-19, which in some people can lead to long COVID.

Illustration by DrPixelvia Getty Images

In a  new review paper , researchers from the Universities of Arizona, Oxford and Leeds analyzed dozens of previous studies into long COVID to examine the number and range of people affected, the underlying mechanisms of disease, the many symptoms that patients develop, and current and future treatments.

Long COVID, also known as Post-COVID-19 condition, is generally defined as symptoms persisting for three months or more after acute COVID-19. The condition can affect and damage many organ systems, leading to severe and long-term impaired function and a broad range of symptoms, including fatigue, cognitive impairment – often referred to as ‘brain fog’ – breathlessness and pain.

Long COVID can affect almost anyone, including all age groups and children. It is more prevalent in females and those of lower socioeconomic status, and the reasons for such differences are under study. The researchers found that while some people gradually get better from long COVID, in others the condition can persist for years. Many people who developed long COVID before the advent of vaccines are still unwell.

Janko Nikolich, MD, PhD, is director of the Aegis Consortium at the U of A Health Sciences and a professor and head of the Department of Immunobiology at the U of A College of Medicine – Tucson.

Photo by Kris Hanning, U of A Health Sciences Office of Communications

“Long COVID is a devastating disease with a profound human toll and socioeconomic impact,” said Janko Nikolich, MD, PhD , senior author of the paper, director of the  Aegis Consortium at the U of A Health Sciences , professor and head of the  Department of Immunobiology at the  U of A College of Medicine – Tucson , and BIO5 Institute member. “ By studying it in detail, we hope to both understand the mechanisms and to find targets for therapy against this, but potentially also other infection-associated complex chronic conditions such as myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia.”

If a person has been fully vaccinated and is up to date with their boosters, their risk of long COVID is much lower. However, 3%-5% of people worldwide still develop long COVID after an acute COVID-19 infection. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, long COVID affects an estimated 4%-10% of the U.S. adult population and 1 in 10 adults who had COVID develop long COVID.

The review study also found that a wide range of biological mechanisms are involved, including persistence of the original virus in the body, disruption of the normal immune response, and microscopic blood clotting, even in some people who had only mild initial infections.

There are no proven treatments for long COVID yet, and current management of the condition focuses on ways to relieve symptoms or provide rehabilitation. Researchers say there is a dire need to develop and test biomarkers such as blood tests to diagnose and monitor long COVID and to find therapies that address root causes of the disease.

People can lower their risk of developing long COVID by avoiding infection – wearing a close-fitting mask in crowded indoor spaces, for example – taking antivirals promptly if they do catch COVID-19, avoiding strenuous exercise during such infections, and ensuring they are up to date with COVID vaccines and boosters.

“Long COVID is a dismal condition but there are grounds for cautious optimism,” said Trisha Greenhalgh, lead author of the study and professor at Oxford’s  Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences . “Various mechanism-based treatments are being tested in research trials. If proven effective, these would allow us to target particular subgroups of people with precision therapies. Treatments aside, it is becoming increasingly clear that long COVID places an enormous social and economic burden on individuals, families and society. In particular, we need to find better ways to treat and support the ‘long-haulers’ – people who have been unwell for two years or more and whose lives have often been turned upside down.”

The full paper, “ Long COVID: a clinical update ,” is published in The Lancet.

Janko Nikolich, MD, PhD   Professor and head, Department of Immunobiology, College of Medicine – Tucson Director, Aegis Consortium, U of A Health Sciences Co-director, Arizona Center on Aging, College of Medicine – Tucson Professor, Department of Nutritional Sciences and Wellness, College of Agriculture, Environmental and Life Sciences Member, BIO5 Institute

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Phil Villarreal U of A Health Sciences Office of Communications 520-403-1986, [email protected]

Influence of tumour grade on disease survival in male breast cancer patients: a systematic review

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• Published: 02 August 2024

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• Stephen Kinsey-Trotman 1 , 2 , 3 ,
• Alain Nguyen 3 ,
• Suzanne Edwards 4 ,
• Adam Swalling 5 ,
• Pallave Dasari 1 , 2 ,
• David Walsh 1 , 5 &
• Wendy V. Ingman 1 , 2  

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Histological grading of tumours is a well-established biomarker used to guide treatment in female breast cancer. However, its significance in male breast cancer remains unclear. This systematic review investigates the prognostic significance of tumour grade in relation to breast cancer-specific survival (BCSS) in male breast cancer patients undergoing surgery.

MEDLINE, PUBMED Central and EMBASE databases were searched to identify randomised trials and observational studies related to male breast neoplasms, tumour grading, recurrence, and survival.

A total of fifteen observational type studies were included in the review. A significant association between tumour grade and BCSS was reported in a majority of studies. This association was most evident with regard to high-grade (grade III) compared to low grade (grade I) tumours, with a significant relationship in 4 out of 4 studies. For intermediate-grade II tumours an association was demonstrated in a minority of studies.

Conclusions

This study confirms an association between high-grade male breast cancers and poorer disease-specific survival, however, the significance of intermediate-grade tumours remains unclear. Further research is required to investigate the biology of male breast cancer in relation to histological grade and optimally define intermediate-grade disease.

Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.

Introduction

While prognostic biomarkers provide valuable information to guide optimal treatment in female breast cancer, their utility in male breast cancer is poorly defined [ 1 , 2 , 3 ]. One of the earliest independent prognostic indicators in female breast cancer is histological grade, however there are conflicting studies of its significance in male disease. Tumour grade is a histological measure of the invasive potential of the tumour, and reflects the underlying molecular biology of the cancer and it’s immunogenicity [ 4 ]. Tumour grade is associated with cell adhesion proteins including P-cadherin, C-terminal tensin-like and claudin 4 [ 5 , 6 ] and immunomodulatory proteins including Chemokine (CC-motif) ligand 2 and transforming growth factor beta [ 7 , 8 ] that regulate oncogenesis, differentiation, and cell migration [ 9 ].

The current histological grading system used in both female and male breast cancer is the Nottingham Grade System [ 10 ]. Grading relies upon the sum of three epithelial cell characteristics which include the degree of structural differentiation as shown by the percentage of tubule formation, the number of mitotic nuclei, and pleomorphism indicated by the degree of nuclear irregularity. Grade I tumours are considered to have a more favourable prognosis. Grade II tumours are intermediate. Grade III tumours are more poorly differentiated and carry a worse prognosis. Although separated into distinct grades, it is important to consider that malignancy occurs on a continuum and refinements to reduce intra- and inter-observer variation and improve the prognostic significance of histological grading in breast and other cancer types is ongoing [ 11 , 12 ].

An early study by Giordano et al. gave some insights into the prognostic utility of tumour grade in male breast cancer [ 13 ]. This study of 2537 male breast cancer patients from US cancer registries suggested that histological tumour grade did not have any significant association with overall survival (OS). In subsequent studies, there have been conflicting reports of the prognostic utility of histological grade to patient survival outcomes in male breast cancer cohorts, although many of these were conducted in small patient numbers [ 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 ]. Male breast cancer is a rare occurrence, accounting for less than 1% of breast cancer cases [ 18 ], and many studies are limited to small sample sizes.

In studies of male breast cancer, patient age is an important consideration as a potential confounder due to the increased risk of cardiovascular and other organ system dysfunction that impacts survival outcomes, as well as reduced tolerability of conventional cancer therapies [ 19 ]. Given the advanced age of many male breast cancer patients, survival data may be more instructive when expressed as breast cancer-specific mortality/survival (BCSM/BCSS) rather than overall survival (OS). Other outcome measures commonly reported in trials of female breast cancer patients include disease-free survival (DFS) and distant recurrence-free survival (DRFS). Specifically, the distant recurrence of breast cancer in another organ is a marker of poorer survival outcome [ 20 ]. However, both DFS and DRFS are rarely reported outcome measures in male breast cancer cohorts which may be due to both a lack of clinical trial data in this patient group and limitations in outcome data recorded in large observational cancer registries.

A further challenge remains for pathologists in accurately defining tumour grade in male breast cancer specimens where there is a relative paucity of normal breast epithelial cells for comparison. Background non-neoplastic breast tissue in histological specimens is essential for the accurate determination of nuclear pleomorphism, a key element in determining tumour grade [ 21 ]. This has led some authors to question the appropriateness of extrapolating female breast cancer grading techniques to the male breast cancer setting [ 22 ].

Given these challenges in male breast cancer research, an improved understanding of the significance of histological tumour grade as a prognostic biomarker in male breast cancer is required to optimise care in the clinical setting. This systematic review was conducted to determine if the tumour grade of male breast cancer specimens was associated with BCSS in patients who had undergone surgery.

Search strategy

This review was performed in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. The systematic review was dual registered with PROSPERO—protocol number CRD42023456659 (National Institute for Health and Care Research, UK) and Joanna Briggs Institute (University of Adelaide, Australia).

Given the paucity of randomised trials involving male breast cancer patient cohorts, this review permitted the inclusion of observational studies and case-series but excluded review articles, studies of case reports, or where the male breast cancer cohort was less than ten.

A search of the electronic databases MEDLINE, PUBMED Central and EMBASE for relevant published articles was conducted. Search terms included accepted medical subject headings (MeSH, Ovid platform for Medline) or Emtree (EMBASE) headings relevant to the database and clinical area and included terms such as ‘Breast neoplasms, male’, ‘surgery’, ‘Neoplasm, grading’, ‘Neoplasm recurrence, local’, ‘Survival’. These search terms were combined with synonyms developed with the use of a logic grid. These were combined with relevant subcategory headings and free word combination searches such as ‘grade’, ‘grading’, ‘outcome’, ‘death’ and ‘recurrence’ using keyword search function of each database.

Wildcard terms such as mortalit* were used where multiple terms used in the literature share common word-stem. Searching included truncation and Boolean operators between terms.Search terms included accepted medical subject headings (MeSH, Ovid platform for medline) or Emtree (EMBASE) headings relevant to the database and clinical area. Search terms were combined with synonyms developed with the use of a logic grid. Searching included keyword strings, free word combination and wild card terms with truncation and Boolean operators between terms.

Inclusion criteria:

In English language

Peer reviewed articles

Male breast cancer patients where tumour grade and BCSS reported

No restriction on date range

Exclusion criteria:

Articles with no English language abstract or main text

Articles from non-peer reviewed sources

Articles where BCSS or mortality was not an outcome measure

Conference abstracts retrieved through electronic databases without supplementary quantitative data available

Articles where grading is assessed on biopsy material alone

Studies or case reports where the male breast cancer cohort was less than ten

The review specified inclusion of male breast cancer patients undergoing surgery only, to exclude biopsy only specimens which may be included in studies. This was to circumvent the provisional nature of tumour grading based on biopsy specimens. This subsequent search strategy was modified given some key articles were not mapped to this additional restriction and that the overwhelming majority of abstracts retrieved included surgical specimen information without this added search term.

The literature review was performed by three investigators. Formulation, protocol development and manuscript review was under the supervision of multiple experienced research supervisors. This included a pathologist (AS) experienced in reporting breast pathology specimens who was independent from the main investigating team. Initial scoping review and search strategy was formulated under the advice of an experienced medical librarian. References were uploaded to Covidence program for review. Duplicate references were removed from review. Articles not meeting the inclusion criteria were omitted following duplicate review. Title and abstract screening and subsequent full text review for selected progressed articles was completed in parallel by SKT and AN independently. Conflicts were resolved through review by WI with references included or excluded for progression to full text review or data extraction. Data extraction was performed by SKT with subsequent verification (in series) by AN outside of Covidence program owing to recording limitations. Application of assessment of bias instrument was in duplicate by SKT and AN.

Assessment of bias instrument

The Newcastle–Ottawa Scale (NOS) was applied to objectively assess the potential for bias for each study considered for data extraction. This was completed by two reviewers with the higher score recorded as the final score. The minimum score set-point for consideration of inclusion for a given study was 5 (out of a possible 9 across three domains). Further, given the potential for wide variation in this result across studies, it was deemed that no greater than 25% variation between the highest scoring study(s) and the lowest scoring study(s) should be accepted. In the event that this range exceeded 25% the lower scoring study(s) would be omitted in sequence until this range reduced to within 25%. For example, this would result in a minimum NOS score of 7 for inclusion where any other study achieved a total of 9.

Statistical analysis

Statistical analysis was conducted by SE. Articles with report of disease-specific mortality stratified by tumour grade were considered for inclusion in a meta-analysis. Each study was assessed for comparable methods and reported outcomes. Data extraction was undertaken using Microsoft Excel spreadsheet with data imported to Stata (S Release 15.1 College Station, TX: StataCorp LP) statistical software for analysis. Unless otherwise specified, hazards ratios included are from the contributory studies using multivariate analysis in a cox proportional hazards model.

A total of fifteen observational studies were included for qualitative review (Fig.  1 ): Macdonald et al. [ 23 ]; Cloyd et al. [ 24 ]; Nilsson et al. [ 17 ]; Madden et al. [ 25 ]; Li et al. [ 26 ]; Wei et al. [ 27 ]; Leone et al. [ 28 ]; Pan et al. [ 29 ]; Sun et al. [ 30 ]; Wang et al. [ 31 ]; Han et al. [ 32 ]; Cui [ 33 ]; Yao et al. [ 34 ]; Zhou et al. [ 35 ]; Leone et al. [ 21 ].

Flow diagram of the PRISMA review process

Macdonald et al. [ 23 ], Leone et al. [ 21 ] and Madden et al. [ 25 ] did not report sufficient data for tumour grade in relation to BCSS. The study by Li et al. [ 26 ] did not report BCSS data except as a comparison of young male breast cancer patients to females < 40 years of age or males > 40 years of age. These articles were included for qualitative analysis only but did not undergo data extraction (quantitative review) and assessment for bias using Newcastle–Ottawa Scale (NOS) instrument.

Nine out of eleven studies demonstrated a statistically-significant association between grade III tumours and BCSS (reference was grade I tumours except in three studies where grade I/II aggregate was the reference). However, excluding those studies where high-grade tumours were aggregated with undifferentiated tumours, all four remaining studies demonstrated this statistically-significant association. Three out of eight studies demonstrated a significant relationship between grade II versus grade I disease for BCSM (Table  1 ).

The early publication by Macdonald and colleagues gave insight into the outcomes of male breast cancer patients compared to females in a single Canadian province between 1989 and 1998 [ 23 ]. Sixty males were compared with 4181 females identified through a British Columbia Breast Cancer Data Registry for disease profile, treatment and outcomes including locoregional relapse, OS and BCSS. This study did not find any significant outcome differences based upon gender. Tumour grade was a significant predictor of locoregional relapse but not survival outcome.

Subsequent studies in North American male breast cancer patients frequently report data retrieved from the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) program. This database stores demographic, tumour histological data, surgical treatment data as well as survival outcomes. Significantly, data regarding oestrogen and progesterone receptor status was collected from 1990, while HER2 status was reported from 2010. Confounding variables such as socio-economic status, comorbidities, chemotherapy prescription and utilisation of endocrine therapies are lacking. Madden and colleagues study from 2016 gave insight into the treatment landscape of male breast cancer in the United States prior to the multimodality era [ 25 ]. Their cohort of 1337 patients were drawn from the SEER registry between the years 1983–2002. While the aim of the study was to determine the impact of adjuvant radiotherapy to survival outcomes, the authors noted higher tumour grade was predictive of poorer overall and cause-specific survival. The larger study by Cloyd et al. investigated the outcomes from breast-conserving surgery compared to mastectomy from the SEER database over the period 1983–2009 [ 24 ]. Comprising a total of 5425 patients, the authors noted an increase in lumpectomy over time, rising to 15.1% during the period between 2007 and 2009. For those undergoing lumpectomy, multivariate analysis demonstrated worse outcomes for those with grade II and grade III disease compared with grade I (HR 1.94, 95% CI 1.3–2.90; HR 3.12, 95% CI 2.35–4.65 respectively) over a mean follow-up of 54 months.

Leone and colleagues from Dana Faber Cancer Institute investigated the association of male breast cancer tumour subtype and both disease-specific survival and overall survival through review of SEER data from 2010 to 2017 [ 28 ]. Their analysis included data from 2389 males treated for breast cancer with a median follow-up of 43 months (IQR 19–68). There was no significant association found between tumour grade and BCSS for grade II versus I (HR 1.071, 95% CI 0.551–2.081) or grade III/undifferentiated versus grade I (HR 1.834, 95% CI 0.948–3.547). A similar study by Han et al. [ 32 ] was published just prior to that of Leone et al., 2021. The study cohort for this project was also drawn from the SEER database between treatment years of 2010–2016, although drawing from a larger male breast cancer cohort of 3111 individuals. These were compared to 404,230 female breast cancer patients. A statistically-significant difference in BCSS was reported between grade III versus grade I disease (HR 1.89, 95% CI 1.01–3.54), although the follow-up period remained undefined. A subsequent study from Leone reported the outcomes of men diagnosed between 1990 and 2008 with stage I–III breast cancer [ 21 ]. This research found those patients with higher grade and undifferentiated tumours were at an increased risk of BCSM compared with males with lower grade tumours (HR 1.85, 95% CI 1.22, 2.79).

The study by Li and colleagues compared the survival outcomes of younger male breast cancer patients (under 40 years of age) with both older male breast cancer and female breast cancer SEER cohorts [ 26 ]. The younger males were less likely to have lower grade tumours than the older male cohort (42% versus 55%) who had a poorer OS for both grade I/II and grade III tumours (HR 2.66, 95% CI 1.37, 5.20; HR 2.17, 95% CI 1.18, 4.00 respectively).

Studies from Wei et al. [ 27 ], Sun et al. [ 30 ], Wang et al. [ 31 ], Pan et al. [ 29 ] and Cui [ 33 ] have reported SEER-derived male breast cancer outcomes from extended time periods of study review [ 27 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 33 ]. Wei and colleagues focused on luminal type male breast cancers which were diagnosed between 1990 and 2010 [ 27 ]. In the subgroup analysis for tumours with both ER and PR positivity, tumour grade was a significant prognostic indicator for both grade II versus I (HR 2.14, 95% CI 1.30, 3.52) and grade III/IV versus I comparisons (HR 2.77, 95% CI 1.67, 4.60). Another Chinese research team in Nanjing undertook a review of male breast cancer patients treated between 1990 and 2014 with regard to the impact of chemotherapy on survival [ 29 ]. This study by Pan et al. reported the outcomes of 2713 male breast cancer patients [ 19 ]. High grade disease was associated with a poorer BCSS compared to low grade disease (HR 2.22, 95% CI 1.29, 3.8). Overall, high-grade disease was significantly associated with chemotherapy prescription, although the impact of this treatment upon survival was unclear. Cui published a descriptive paper in 2022 on what is likely the longest period of reported follow-up of male breast cancer patients in the United States [ 33 ]. The cohort consisted of national registry patients who were diagnosed between 1975 and 2017. High grade disease was again demonstrated to be associated with poorer breast cancer mortality outcomes compared to low grade disease (HR 2.56, 95% CI 1.03, 6.35). Similar studies were conducted by Sun et al. and Wang et al. during the above period, each with fifteen years of patient study-years [ 30 , 31 ]. The former demonstrated an association of poorer BCSM for both high-grade and moderate grade disease compared to low grade disease (HR 2.13, 95% CI 1.29, 3.51; HR 1.83, 95% CI 1.12, 3.00 respectively). The analysis by Wang et al. included a female comparator cohort and reported comparable results in BCSM risk for stratification by grade).

Two further research centres published studies in 2022 that utilised much narrower durations of interest from the SEER database. These articles by Yao et al. and Zhou et al. reaffirmed the association of high-grade disease with poorer BCSS [ 34 , 35 ]. The former also analysed the association between grade II versus grade I for both male patients and a female comparator cohort with a non-significant association found in the male cohort (HR 1.49, 95% CI 0.53, 4.24).

The study by Nilsson et al. utilised both Swedish National Cancer Register and hospital data to report outcomes for patients treated between 1990 and 2005 [ 17 ]. This study specifically aimed to review the prognostic impact of histological features of individual male breast cancers and the reclassification of tumour specimens based upon Nottingham Grade criteria using central pathology review is a particular strength of the study. A total of 197 patients from two regions of Sweden were included in the study with a mean follow-up of 54 months (0–180). Univariate analysis comparing grade I, II versus grade III tumours did not demonstrate any difference in BCSM (HR 1.5, 95% CI 0.8–2.8).

Following application of the Newcastle–Ottawa Scale all eleven studies considered for data extraction remained for quantitative analysis. All studies met the minimum total score threshold (total score ≥ 5) with a result range of ≤ 25%.

The planned meta-analysis was not completed as the maximum number of studies that could be included in each pooled analysis was two. This was due to the majority of the included studies utilising data from shared data registries with overlapping years of patient follow-up, raising the possibility of common patient data across studies.

This systematic review of the utility of tumour grade as a prognostic biomarker in male breast cancer is believed to be the only dedicated review of its type. It supports an association between high tumour grade disease and poorer disease-specific survival in a male population. What is less clear is the prognostic significance of intermediate tumour grade, where there was limited association with BCSS when compared to low grade. Tumour grade is a reflection of the morphological, immunohistochemical and molecular features of the cancer; if intermediate-grade does not exhibit increased risk of mortality compared to low grade, it’s biological and prognostic significance becomes questionable.

The biological mechanisms that underpin malignancy in male breast cancer are poorly understood. Given the relationship between tumour grade and BCSS, it is possible that many of the cellular mechanisms of invasion in female breast cancer occur in male disease. However, the lack of a clear association between intermediate-grade and prognosis suggests there may be some sex-specific differences as well. Although tumour size and lymph node status are accepted, independent prognostic biomarkers in male breast cancer [ 17 , 36 ], the prevalence of lymph node positivity is higher in small (< 20 mm) male breast cancers compared to female disease suggesting differences in tumorigenesis, differentiation and cell migration. Interestingly, there are differences in BCSS in males and females with high (> 30) Oncotype DX 21-gene assay recurrence scores; female breast cancer patients with high risk disease do significantly better than their male counterparts [ 37 , 38 ]. While the reason for this is unclear, it may relate to differences in adjuvant endocrine therapy use in male patients [ 39 , 40 ], or an underlying difference in tumour biology. Estrogen receptor-positive cancers may display different proliferation profiles in males compared to females due to differences in circulating sex hormones and this could affect the number of mitotic nuclei. It is suggested that the mitotic count is the most important aspect of tumour grade that drives it’s prognostic significance in female breast cancer [ 12 ], and this cell characteristic may require a different cut off to define intermediate-grade in male disease.

A possible contributing factor to the uncertain prognostic significance of intermediate-grade disease is the high proportion of grade II tumours reported in most male breast cancer datasets including the studies comprising this review. Tumour grading in female breast cancer has benefited from several significant contributory studies aimed at improving the reproducibility of results [ 12 ]. It remains unclear to what degree, if any, the grading of male breast cancers has benefited from these advancements. With limitations including the relative lack of normal epithelial cells for accurate determination of pleomorphism, there is a high level of discordance between pathologists in male breast cancer tumour grade, particularly in classifying grade II tumours [ 41 ]. Given the difficulties with assessing tumour grade in male breast specimens combined with the rarity of the malignancy, the accurate grading in male cancers presents a unique challenge to the pathologist [ 22 , 42 ].

The studies included in the review encompass a broad period of patient follow-up between the years 1975 and 2017. In a rare malignancy such as male breast cancer, longer periods of interest permit for larger patient numbers leading to potentially higher overall statistical power in studies. However, this does lead to several potential limitations. Studies that include patient groups prior to the 1990s reflect the older Scarff-Bloom-Richardson grading system which has some minor variations from the current Nottingham Grading System. Also noteworthy is the infrequent attribution of grade IV to undifferentiated tumours in a number of studies which is not endorsed by either grading system. Further, the evolution of adjuvant therapies has progressed considerably over the above time period yet the impact upon patient outcomes remains difficult to determine owing to limited recording of adjuvant treatments in national databases such as SEER.

A recurring limitation in studies of male breast cancer patients is that of modest patient numbers. In this current review the opportunity for pooled analysis of patient data remained enticing but was limited by potential overlap between studies. Given only two studies were from populations outside of the United States, the potential for individual patient data to be shared across studies was high. This meant that a meta-analysis could realistically only include limited studies in each data aggregate. As the number of studies was too small for pooled analysis, it was concluded that a meta-analysis would not be appropriate.

A significant limitation of our review is the lack of high-quality randomised trials in the literature for male breast cancer. The included studies are observational in nature and would often be best described as ‘descriptive’. Such non-randomised studies may be impacted by various forms of bias. Complicating this further, no single instrument to assess bias in observational studies is considered the ‘gold standard’. The review utilised the Newcastle–Ottawa Scale owing in part to its simplicity. Alternative instruments such as Robins I, Robins E and EPHPP (Effective Public Healthcare Panacea Project) questionnaires are also available but require further training to be used effectively. Particular consideration must be made to survival data obtained from observational datasets. A number of included studies utilised SEER registry data which is limited by the accuracy of cause of death recording which may be derived from death certificates. In particular, the distinction between those patients succumbing to breast cancer and others dying with their disease by other comorbidities may not be overt. Further, the reliance upon these data registries limits analysis of other instructive outcome measures such as disease-free survival.

This review confirms an association between high-grade male breast cancers and poorer disease-related survival. The prognostic significance of intermediate-grade cancers in male populations remains uncertain. Further research is required to investigate the biology of male breast cancer in relation to histological grade and optimally define intermediate-grade disease.

Data availability

Data available on request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to acknowledge the support of Ms Rachel Davey from the South Australian Health Library Service for assistance in development of the search strategy and guidance during the initiation of the project. The authors thank Associate Professor Wendy Raymond for advice and feedback on the final manuscript.

Open Access funding enabled and organized by CAUL and its Member Institutions. SKT is supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program (RTP) Scholarship.

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Kinsey-Trotman, S., Nguyen, A., Edwards, S. et al. Influence of tumour grade on disease survival in male breast cancer patients: a systematic review. Breast Cancer Res Treat (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10549-024-07446-z

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Technique variables associated with fast bowling performance: a systematic-narrative review.

1. Introduction

2. materials and methods, 2.1. search strategy, 2.2. quality assessment scale, 3.1. study characteristics, 3.2. biomechanical variables studied, 4. discussion, 4.1. performance parameters associated with fast bowling performance, 4.1.1. run-up and pre-delivery stride, 4.1.2. delivery phase, 4.1.3. rear leg kinematics, 4.1.4. front leg kinematics, 4.1.5. trunk, pelvis and centre-of-mass kinematics, 4.1.6. bowling arm and shoulder kinematics, 4.1.7. segmental sequencing, 4.1.8. bowling delivery length, accuracy and type, 4.1.9. inter and intra-individual analyses, 5. limitations and future directions, 6. conclusions, author contributions, conflicts of interest.

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Bhandurge, S.; Alway, P.; Allen, S.; Blenkinsop, G.; King, M. Technique Variables Associated with Fast Bowling Performance: A Systematic-Narrative Review. Appl. Sci. 2024 , 14 , 6752. https://doi.org/10.3390/app14156752

Bhandurge S, Alway P, Allen S, Blenkinsop G, King M. Technique Variables Associated with Fast Bowling Performance: A Systematic-Narrative Review. Applied Sciences . 2024; 14(15):6752. https://doi.org/10.3390/app14156752

Bhandurge, Shruti, Peter Alway, Sam Allen, Glen Blenkinsop, and Mark King. 2024. "Technique Variables Associated with Fast Bowling Performance: A Systematic-Narrative Review" Applied Sciences 14, no. 15: 6752. https://doi.org/10.3390/app14156752

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April 2024 YCSC Faculty Development Fund awardees announced

The results of the April 2024 round of awards for the Yale Child Study Center (YCSC) Clinical and Research Faculty Development Fund were announced on June 1 via the department’s internal announcements. The annual fund supports clinical and research faculty with a primary appointment at the YCSC. The purpose is to provide start-up funds to develop research, educational, and clinical efforts that will contribute to faculty growth and development. The awardees for this round are as follows.

Training/Conference Awards

• Jessica Mayo: Reflective Supervision Learning Collaborative participation
• Roshani Treadwell and Taylor Collins: Attendance at EMDR summer training
• Maggie Stoeckel: North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition (NASPGHAN) annual meeting in November 2024, for which she is an invited speaker

Pilot Research Award

Karim Ibrahim: Pilot study of epigenetic markers and longitudinal stability of cognitive control networks in youths with disruptive behavior using a multi-omics approach

Review Committee & Application Process

Following the receipt of applications for this round, committee members George Anderson, Declan Barry, Tara Davila, Ellen Hoffman, Michele Goyette-Ewing, Andrés Martin, and Helena Rutherford reviewed and discussed all submitted applications. Scores from members were averaged to rank-order each application. Committee members recused themselves from reviewing any grant in which they are associated with the applicant.

Research and clinical faculty (assistant professors, associate research scientists, associate professors in their first term, research scientists in their first term, and clinicians with the title of Instructor, Clinical Instructor, or Assistant Clinical Professor of Social Work) are eligible to apply. This fund is not available to fellows or community faculty members.The next submission deadline is October 15, 2024. Additional information and application instructions are available on the center’s intranet.

Featured in this article

• Jessica Mayo Assistant Professor of Child Psychology
• Nadeeka Treadwell Assistant Clinical Professor of Social Work in the Child Study Center
• Taylor Collins, LCSW Clinical Lecturer in the Child Study Center
• Maggie Stoeckel, PhD Assistant Professor; Director, GI Psychology Service, Pediatric Gastroenterology & Hepatology; Associate Clinical Director, Pediatric Psychology Program, Child Study Center
• Karim Ibrahim Assistant Professor in the Child Study Center
• George Anderson, PhD Senior Research Scientist in the Child Study Center and in Laboratory Medicine; Director, Core Resource Laboratory of the Yale Interdisciplinary Research Consortium on Stress, Self-Control and Addiction; Director, Laboratory of Developmental Neurochemistry (Child Study Center)
• Declan Barry, PhD Professor of Psychiatry and in the Child Study Center; Director of Pain Treatment Services, APT Foundation; Director of Research, APT Foundation
• Tara Davila, LCSW Assistant Clinical Professor of Social Work; Vice Chair for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, Child Study Center; Associate Director of Youth Services, Child Study Center
• Ellen J. Hoffman, MD, PhD Associate Professor in the Child Study Center
• Michele Goyette-Ewing, PhD Associate Professor of Child Psychology in the Child Study Center; Vice Chair for Ambulatory Services; Clinical Faculty Affairs, Child Study Center; Director, Psychology Training; Clinical Director of Outpatient Services, Child Study Center
• Andrés S Martin, MD, PhD Riva Ariella Ritvo Professor in the Child Study Center and Professor of Psychiatry; Medical Director, Children's Psychiatric Inpatient Service at Yale-New Haven Children's Hospital; Director, Standardized Patient Program, Teaching and Learning Center; Director of Medical Studies, Yale Child Study Center, Child Study Center
• Helena Rutherford, PhD Associate Professor in the Child Study Center

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A One Health Investigation into H5N1 Avian Influenza Virus Epizootics on Two Dairy Farms

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Background In early April 2024 we studied two Texas dairy farms which had suffered incursions of H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAIV) the previous month.

Methods We employed molecular assays, cell and egg culture, Sanger and next generation sequencing to isolate and characterize viruses from multiple farm specimens (cow nasal swab, milk specimens, fecal slurry, and a dead bird).

Results We detected H5N1 HPAIV in 64% (9/14) of milk specimens, 2.6% (1/39) of cattle nasal swab specimens, and none of 17 cattle worker nasopharyngeal swab specimens. We cultured and characterized virus from eight H5N1-positive specimens. Sanger and next-generation sequencing revealed the viruses were closely related into other recent Texas epizootic H5N1 strains of clade 2.3.4.4b. Our isolates had multiple mutations associated with increased spillover potential. Surprisingly, we detected SARS-CoV-2 in a nasal swab from a sick cow. Additionally, 14.3% (2/14) of the farm workers who donated sera were recently symptomatic and had elevated neutralizing antibodies against a related H5N1 strain.

Conclusions While our sampling was limited, these data offer additional insight into the large H5N1 HPAIV epizootic which thus far has impacted at least 96 cattle farms in twelve US states. Due to fears that research might damage dairy businesses, studies like this one have been few. We need to find ways to work with dairy farms in collecting more comprehensive epidemiological data that are necessary for the design of future interventions against H5N1 HPAIV on cattle farms.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Funding Statement

This project was supported in part by the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative Competitive Grant from the American Rescue Plan Act, award number 2023-70432-39558, through USDA APHIS and Professor Gregory C. Grays startup funding from the University of Texas Medical Branch. The findings and conclusions in this presentation are those of the authors and should not be construed to represent any official USDA or US Government determination or policy.

Author Declarations

I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained.

The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below:

This research was approved by the University of Texas Medical Branch IRB, Protocol 23-0085

I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals.

I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance).

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