Conducting a Literature Review

Selecting a topic for a literature review can be challenging, but here are a few things you can consider to help you choose an interesting and relevant topic:

• Avoid selecting a broad topic like "pain." Instead, consider key aspects that are of significance, like "pain management" or "pain prevention".
• Start with an overly narrow topic rather than an overly broad topic.
• Discuss your topic ideas with a peer, mentor, or librarian for additional insights.
• Do some quick searches on a topic of interest to find out if there is enough existing literature to support a literature review.

Cronin, P., Ryan, F. & Coughlan, M. (2008). Undertaking a literature review: A step-by-step approach. British Journal of Nursing, 17(1), 38-43

To help you in developing a searchable question, identify the key concepts of your research proposal. A clear and precise search question can be used to develop search terms during the literature searching process.

There are a number of frameworks available to use to help you break your question into its key concepts. Here are some common frameworks:

Table adapted from Smith S, Bird D. What do we know already? Searching the literature. In: Hohl J, Priest H, Roberts P, eds. Healthcare Research: A Handbook for Students and Practitioners. 1st ed. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated; 2010.