These are additional resources. Please also take a look at the Literature review tutorial and the other sections on Carrying out your search and writing it up.
PICO and other frameworks.
Health students are sometimes required to use a framework for their search question. There are a number of these and you can find out more on pages 4 and 5 of this NHS guide. These frameworks are to help you refine your question but can also help to structure your search.
PRISMA
You may be required to present your search results in a PRISMA. This is just a visual flow chart of your search process. It is more commonly used for full systematic reviews but can be a useful visualisation of the search process.
Take a look at our PRISMA tutorial and check out the resources on the PRISMA flow diagram page.
Critical appraisal.
Use the the critical appraisal tools from CASP and The Centre for evidence based medicine to critique your sources.
The NHS has also created a Critical appraisal online course as part of the e-LfH. Register for free.
Also check out Rammona Naicker's checklist for critically appraising for anti-racism where she takes you through the biases in the way research is carried out and reported.
Scoping reviews
A scoping review is a way of mapping out the main ideas that inform a research topic.
At university, scoping reviews often form part of a bigger research project – for example, you may be asked to conduct a background literature review first, then justify your scoping review in the methodology. You will then carry out the scoping review itself, and engage in some discussion of the findings.
Have a look at our scoping review resource for more information.