Q. I am a business/social sciences student/researcher and want to use the Systematic Literature Review research method. How can I learn about this?

Systematic Reviews are a type of literature review which are comprehensive and replicable, ensuring that all relevant research is considered for inclusion.  This research method, which synthesises empirical research to build authority, originated in health and life sciences and has become increasingly popular in the social sciences.

Systematic Literature Reviews carried out in business and other social science areas take on many of the elements of health and life sciences systematic reviews, as detailed on the Systematic Reviews Library Guide, but students and researchers in this area often benefit from additional training on some of the topics, or need to select specific elements of a systematic review to focus on and others elements to list as limitations, due to needing to balance time and other resources.

Alice Cann, the Academic Liaison Librarian for Business runs occasional training on Systematic Literature Reviews, via the Graduate School and LibSmart - check the LibSmart calendar for any upcoming workshops. Edited recordings of the training run in June 2024, are available for Brunel students and researchers to watch. The links below go directly to the various sections of the classes.

The Introduction to Systematic Literature Review - Part 1: Structure and Planning class covered:

• Definitions, Stages and Examples: What a systematic review is, stages in a review and examples of good reviews and reviews in need of improvement. Includes things to consider when adapting systematic review methodology for a thesis or dissertation
• Question development and protocol planning: How frameworks are important for an systematic literature review and options for choosing a framework; The importance of planning your review in advance; Recording this plan in a protocol.
• Database/search basics: The difference between a database and a search engine; Where to find the databases; Searching in multiple databases; Creating an account; Fields, boolean searching and Proximity operators; Using the search history; Keywords and subject terms
• Scoping your search: Initial keyword identification; Seed articles: how and why; Deep seed article analysis; Developing your search strategy [We were running out of time at this point so didn't cover this section in as much details as planned - the previous version of the class goes into more detail - the link goes directly to the Scoping your search section]

The Introduction to Systematic Literature Review - Part 2: Searching, Screening and Reporting class covered:

• Building a search strategy: Choosing databases; Line by line search in one databases; Exporting searches and results; Peer review of a search strategy; Translating searches to other databases; Grey literature
• Getting to a final set of papers: Process for exporting; Inclusion/exclusion criteria; Title and abstract screening; Citation tracking;
• Reporting searches and results: Reproducibility; PRISMA; Reporting your search
• Later review stages (covered briefly): Sourcing full text; Full text review; Critical appraisal; Data extraction and analysis; Writing up; Limitations

You can watch the whole training, or skip to specific sections.

A previous version of the Introduction to Systematic Literature Review training was run in one session in March 2024 - the recording of that slightly shorter content is also available.

Get in touch with your Academic Liaison Librarian if you have questions after looking through the training.