Searching With Purpose: Building a Literature Review IJMSC Webinar 3

A literature review is not a laundry list of everything published on a topic. Whether it stands alone or opens an original research paper, it makes the case for why your work matters. In our third webinar, editor in chief François Bethoux, MD, and associate editor Mary Alissa Willis, MD, walk through how to build one.

Start by deciding which review you are writing. A precise clinical question, such as the effectiveness of a treatment, points to a systematic review, often framed with PICO: participant, intervention, comparison, outcome. Mapping a broad field or locating research gaps points to a scoping review, framed with PCC: population, concept, context. The distinction matters because systematic reviews require an assessment of risk of bias for every study included.

Then search deliberately. MeSH terms, keywords, and a robust search string do what a general internet search cannot. Add citation searching: begin with a few high-quality seed references, work backward through their reference lists, and forward to newer papers that have cited them. And a medical librarian can be a key asset to help optimize a search string, open doors through institutional licenses, and set up a repeating search that regularly delivers new results.

Finally, keep records. Track author, year, design, demographics, measures, and results. Screen in rounds, titles and abstracts first, then full text. Report the process transparently, including how many papers you excluded and why.

Webinar 1 covered finding your question and Webinar 2 was about turning a poster into a manuscript. Webinar 4, the last in the series, crosses the desk to explore how to be a prepared peer reviewer.