ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on literature reviews for a research project. Many principles are also relevant to conducting a formal systematic review. Whilst researchers often conduct informal literature reviews alone, consulting and collaborating with others can be extremely productive. The value of patient and public involvement (PPI) is well-established, and essential to any systematic review proposal; for example, in meta-ethnography, realist and configurative reviews. A useful place to start is with academic search engines. Common challenges include deciding on the setting, methods, types of learners and dates of interest. Qualitative research and stakeholder experiences are more relevant if exploring how and why something works. Academic literature is collected and indexed in bibliographic databases. Interpretation shapes the whole process, from initial selection of ‘relevant’ data, to the formation of the analytical categories used.
