It is my first time writing a review paper for a course, so I wanted to know if anyone has any guidance on how to approach the method section of a review paper? How should I select articles for a review papers? Should it be done by impact of paper or by how recent the year of publication is? And in the method sections is it necessary to include meta-analysis?
Thank you in advance!
Witold Bogusz Thank you for your quick answer, unfortunately, the instructor insisted on having a method section and I have never written one for a review paper hence the question
U can select articles depending on the two criteria u already mentioned, but u mainly focus on those having much impact.
For ur 2nd Q, it is not a necessity to include a meta-analysis.
Select articles from HI journals, review articles are best, maybe 3 to 5. Most recent are best too. Meta-analysis can be quoted only if the sources of bias are controlled by the methods
The following papers and links (please refer to some more discussions/referred publications) may further help:
- Callcut, R. A. and Branson, R. D. (2009) How to read a review paper, Respiratory Care, 54, 10, pp. 1379-1385.
- Davidson, A. J. and Carlin, J. B. (2008) Review article: What a reviewer wants, Pediatric Anesthesia, 18, 12, pp. 1149-1156.
- Hanley, T. and Cutts, L. (2013) Editorial: What is a systematic review?, Counselling Psychology Review, 28, 4, pp. 3-6.
- What is the difference between Research Paper, Research Article, Review Paper & Review Article?: https://www.researchgate.net/post/What_is_the_difference_between_Research_Paper_Research_Article_Review_Paper_Review_Article1
- How to write a review paper?: https://www.researchgate.net/post/How_to_write_a_review_paper
Hi Melody Wang,
In your methods section, you may write about:
- Criteria for considering studies for review.
- Search methods for identification of studies
- Selection of studies.
It's important to have a clearly defined research question - this will then help you to define your search terms for papers (e.g. ISSUE + OUTCOMES). Look up various ways of using Boolean terms (AND/OR/NOT) to help capture all relevant articles but also to make sure your search is limited only to the papers that really help to answer your research question. In the methods section, you can then describe the search terms you used, the databases you searched, the number of results you obtained, and how you screened in your papers as either relevant or not-relevant to your study. I don't know what field you are in but look at some of the resources on the NCCEH.ca website. The evidence reviews contain method sections that may help.
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