Good research work requires an extensive literature review. Whether working for the most innovative topic or the generic literature review is essential. Furthermore, the introductory work of research is a literature review that gives insight about a study topic, factors associated with a certain topic, problem identification, gaps, and future prospect of certain research. Now let’s look at the step-by-step approach that can be applied for literature reviewing.

• Firstly, narrow down the topic of interest
• Identify similar studies related to the topic of interest
• Identify the list of keywords related to the research objective and questions
• Use certain search engine sites like google scholar, pub med, biomed central, etc
• Use Boolean operators like “AND”, “OR” and “NOT” with the keywords to filter out unwanted literature
• Thoroughly study the research paper to understand the problems being addressed, methodology, results, strength, and limitations of the study
• Most importantly, build a literature matrix of the reviewed research studies
• The literature matrix can contain details like title of study, authors, country, target population, URL link, objective, methodology (study type, study site, sample size, data collection tool, method ), results, and associated factors.

Written by
Rasma Muzaffar and Jobaida Saba
Associate
Women Support Initiative Forum
&
Bangladesh Society of Women in Public Health