Sandbox:literature

Template:Literature review Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]Associate Editor(s)-in-Chief: Seyedmahdi Pahlavani, M.D. [2]

Literature review

A literature review is a systematic, explicit, and reproducible method to identify, evaluate, and synthesize the existing published literature on a topic. It may include scholarly articles, textbooks, or websites. There are important steps to start your literature review:

1. Select search question
2. Select your search source
3. Select the search terms
4. Run your search

Search Question

Search question could be broad or narrow based on the specific topic that you want to contribute. Questions related to the microchapters that need general information, such as pathophysiology could be started with broad questions, such as what is the pathogenesis of diabetes mellitus? And then be narrowed accordingly like, what is the role of beta cells dysfunction in pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes? Or even very narrow question like, what is the effect of the potassium pump block for insulin secretion in beta cells in type 2 diabetes?

Select Search Source

There are many different resources available including:

• Bibliographic databases:

PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane library

• Websites:

Associations, Organizations, and Government, such as WHO, CDC, ...

• Others:

Web search

Serach Terms

To have a specific search result you need to select proper terms and use Key Operators in those search engines.

For example if you are looking for role of microvascular endothelial inflammation in heart failure, you need to search the ''Microvascular endothelial inflammation'' AND ''Heart failure'' to narrow your search result. Following you may find the commonly used Key Operators.

Operator	Command	Example
*	Find alternative endings to the word.	Endo* (will find endocardium, endothelium, endocrine,...)
.tw.	Search for this term in the title and abstract.	Heparin.tw.
adj	Search for 1 term within X number of terms from another.	Patient adj3 anxiety (will find patient within 3 words of anxiety)
AND	Find articles where both terms appear	Myocardial infarction AND Smoking
OR	Find articles where either term appears	Smoking OR Tobacco