What is a literature review?
A literature review is a comprehensive and up-to-date overview of published information on a subject area. Conducting a literature review demands a careful examination of a body of literature that has been published that helps answer your research question (See PICO). Literature reviewed includes scholarly journals, scholarly books, authoritative databases, primary sources and grey literature.
A literature review attempts to answer the following:
TIPS:
Injuries
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Performance & Training
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The PICO model can help you formulate a good clinical question. Sometimes it's referred to as PICO-T, containing an optional 5th factor.
P - Patient, Population, or Problem |
What are the most important characteristics of the patient? How would you describe a group of patients similar to yours? |
I - Intervention, Exposure, Prognostic Factor |
What main intervention, prognostic factor, or exposure are you considering? What do you want to do for the patient (prescribe a drug, order a test, etc.)? |
C - Comparison | What is the main alternative to compare with the intervention? |
O - Outcome | What do you hope to accomplish, measure, improve, or affect? |
T - Time Factor, Type of Study (optional) |
How would you categorize this question? What would be the best study design to answer this question? |