literature research skills

Research Skills

Barry Mauer and John Venecek

We discuss the following topic on this page:

We also provide the following activity: 

Research Skills [Refresher]

Research skills are all about gathering evidence. This evidence , composed of facts and the reasoning that connects them, aims to convince your audience to accept your conclusions about the literary work. The most important piece of evidence you need to discuss is the literary work itself, which is a “fact” that you and your audience can examine together. Research means finding additional facts about the literary work and tying them together with reasoning to reach a significant and convincing conclusion.

Literature often presents us with factual difficulties. Sometimes authors revised their works and multiple versions exist.  William Blake  printed his own works and often changed illustrations and words between each printing. If we are reading a translated work, there may be more than one translation. In other words, we first need to identify which literary “object” we are studying. Electronic databases, such as the  William Blake Archive , provide scholars with multiple versions of literary works, as well as plenty of reference sources. They are great places to begin a study!

The kind of evidence we need is directly related to the kind of claim we are making. If we want to claim that a literary work has seen a resurgence of public interest, we will look for historical evidence and quantitative evidence (statistics) to show that sales of the work (or database searches, or library checkouts, etc.) have increased. We may also seek qualitative evidence (such as interviews with booksellers and readers) to report on their impressions. We may look to see if there has been an increase in the number and kinds of adaptations. One example of such a work is Denis Perry’s and Carl Sederholm’s edited volume, Adapting Poe: Re-imaginings in Popular Culture  (Spring 2012). If we are claiming that a literary work has a special relationship to a geographic region, we will look for textual evidence, geographic evidence, and historical evidence. See for example, Tom Conley’s  The Self-Made Map  (University of Minnesota Press 1996), which argues that geographic regions of France played a key role in Miguel de Montaigne’s Essais.

Types of Evidence [1]

Your choice of problem, theory, methodology, and method impact the kinds of evidence you will be seeking. Wendy Belcher identifies the following types:

• Qualitative Evidence: D ata on human behavior collected through direct observation, interviews, documents, and basic ethnography  (191). The  SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research  (2005) is a helpful guide. This area also encompasses audience research. Examples include the journal  Reception: Texts, Readers, Audiences, History,  the edited volume  The Reader in the Text: Essays on Audience and Interpretation  (Suleiman, Crosman, eds. 1980),  and  Media and Print Cultural Consumption in Nineteenth-Century Britain  ( Rooney and Gasperini, eds. 2016).
• Quantitative Evidence: Data collected from standardized instruments and  statistics, common to education, medicine, sociology, political sciences, psychology,  and economics (191). Guides include  Best Practices in Quantitative Methods (Osbourne  2007) and  Statistics for People Who (Think that They) Hate Statistics  (Salkind 2007).
• Historical Evidence: D ata collected from examinations of historical records to uncover the  relationship of people to each other and to periods and events, common to all disciplines  and collected from archives of primary materials (191). Guides include  Historical Evidence and Argument  (Henige 2006) and  Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace, 2nd Edition  (Mills 2009).
• Geographic Evidence: D ata about people’s relationship  to places and environments in fields such as archaeology (191). Guides include  Qualitative Research Methods in Human Geography, 5th Edition  (Hay and Cope 2021) and  Creative Methods for Human Geographers  (Benzon, Holton, Wilkinson, eds. 2021).
• Textual Evidence: Data collected from texts about  form (genre, plot,  etc.), language (diction, rhetoric), purpose (message, function), meaning (symbolism,  themes, etc.) and milieu (sources, culture, identity, etc.) (191). Guides include  Introduction to Literary Hermeneutics  (Szondi 1995) and  The Hermeneutic Spiral and Interpretation in Literature and the Visual Arts  (O’Toole 2018).
• Artistic Evidence: D ata from images, live performances, etc., used to study physical properties of a work (size, material, form, etc.), purpose (message,  function, etc.) meaning (symbolism, etc.), and milieu (sources, culture, etc.) (191). Guides include  Interpreting Objects and Collections  (Pearce 1994) and  Material Culture Studies in America (Schlereth, ed. 1982).

In the following chapters, five through nine, we present instruction for numerous research skills including how to gather research from literary works and from scholarly literature, and other skills such as how to use library search engines, citation management, google scholar, and source evaluation. The main thing to keep in mind for now is that you are gathering quality evidence and putting it together to construct a convincing and compelling argument about a literary work (or works).

For more advice on how to Reason with Evidence, consider the following from WritingCommons.org: [2]

Once you’ve spent sufficient time researching a  topic —once you’re familiar with the ongoing scholarly conversation about a topic—then you’re ready to begin thinking about how to reason with the evidence you’ve gathered.

• engage in rhetorical analysis  of the outside source(s)
• evaluate the currency, relevance, authority, accuracy, purpose  of the outside source(s)
• use evidence (e.g., quoting ,  paraphrasing ,  summarizing ) to bolster claims
• introduce sources and clarifying their authority
• use an appropriate citation style

For more advice on how to Connect Evidence to your Claims, consider the following from WritingCommons.org: [3]

We can’t, as writers, just stop at a quote, because our readers won’t necessarily know the connection between the point of your project and the quote. As such, we must make the connection for our reader. Here are a few ways to make such a connection:

• Break down ideas
• Connect back to the thesis
• Connect back to the paragraph’s main point
• Point to the author’s purpose

• In the “Back Matter” of this book, you will find a page titled “Rubrics.” On that page, we provide a rubric for Using Evidence for a Research Project. ↵
• Writing Commons. “Logos - Logos Definition.” Writing Commons , 11 Mar. 2022, https://writingcommons.org/article/logos/ . ↵
• Janechek, Jennifer, and Eir-Anne Edgar. “Connecting Evidence to Your Claims.” Writing Commons , 15 May 2021, https://writingcommons.org/section/citation/how-to-cite-sources-in-academic-and-professional-writing/citation-how-to-cnnect-evidence-to-your-claims/ . ↵

Research Skills Copyright © 2021 by Barry Mauer and John Venecek is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Methodology

• How to Write a Literature Review | Guide, Examples, & Templates

How to Write a Literature Review | Guide, Examples, & Templates

Published on January 2, 2023 by Shona McCombes . Revised on September 11, 2023.

What is a literature review? A literature review is a survey of scholarly sources on a specific topic. It provides an overview of current knowledge, allowing you to identify relevant theories, methods, and gaps in the existing research that you can later apply to your paper, thesis, or dissertation topic .

There are five key steps to writing a literature review:

• Search for relevant literature
• Evaluate sources
• Identify themes, debates, and gaps
• Outline the structure
• Write your literature review

A good literature review doesn’t just summarize sources—it analyzes, synthesizes , and critically evaluates to give a clear picture of the state of knowledge on the subject.

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Table of contents

What is the purpose of a literature review, examples of literature reviews, step 1 – search for relevant literature, step 2 – evaluate and select sources, step 3 – identify themes, debates, and gaps, step 4 – outline your literature review’s structure, step 5 – write your literature review, free lecture slides, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions, introduction.

• Quick Run-through
• Step 1 & 2

When you write a thesis , dissertation , or research paper , you will likely have to conduct a literature review to situate your research within existing knowledge. The literature review gives you a chance to:

• Demonstrate your familiarity with the topic and its scholarly context
• Develop a theoretical framework and methodology for your research
• Position your work in relation to other researchers and theorists
• Show how your research addresses a gap or contributes to a debate
• Evaluate the current state of research and demonstrate your knowledge of the scholarly debates around your topic.

Writing literature reviews is a particularly important skill if you want to apply for graduate school or pursue a career in research. We’ve written a step-by-step guide that you can follow below.

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Writing literature reviews can be quite challenging! A good starting point could be to look at some examples, depending on what kind of literature review you’d like to write.

• Example literature review #1: “Why Do People Migrate? A Review of the Theoretical Literature” ( Theoretical literature review about the development of economic migration theory from the 1950s to today.)
• Example literature review #2: “Literature review as a research methodology: An overview and guidelines” ( Methodological literature review about interdisciplinary knowledge acquisition and production.)
• Example literature review #3: “The Use of Technology in English Language Learning: A Literature Review” ( Thematic literature review about the effects of technology on language acquisition.)
• Example literature review #4: “Learners’ Listening Comprehension Difficulties in English Language Learning: A Literature Review” ( Chronological literature review about how the concept of listening skills has changed over time.)

You can also check out our templates with literature review examples and sample outlines at the links below.

Download Word doc Download Google doc

Before you begin searching for literature, you need a clearly defined topic .

If you are writing the literature review section of a dissertation or research paper, you will search for literature related to your research problem and questions .

Make a list of keywords

Start by creating a list of keywords related to your research question. Include each of the key concepts or variables you’re interested in, and list any synonyms and related terms. You can add to this list as you discover new keywords in the process of your literature search.

• Social media, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, TikTok
• Body image, self-perception, self-esteem, mental health
• Generation Z, teenagers, adolescents, youth

Search for relevant sources

Use your keywords to begin searching for sources. Some useful databases to search for journals and articles include:

• Your university’s library catalogue
• Google Scholar
• Project Muse (humanities and social sciences)
• Medline (life sciences and biomedicine)
• EconLit (economics)
• Inspec (physics, engineering and computer science)

You can also use boolean operators to help narrow down your search.

Make sure to read the abstract to find out whether an article is relevant to your question. When you find a useful book or article, you can check the bibliography to find other relevant sources.

You likely won’t be able to read absolutely everything that has been written on your topic, so it will be necessary to evaluate which sources are most relevant to your research question.

For each publication, ask yourself:

• What question or problem is the author addressing?
• What are the key concepts and how are they defined?
• What are the key theories, models, and methods?
• Does the research use established frameworks or take an innovative approach?
• What are the results and conclusions of the study?
• How does the publication relate to other literature in the field? Does it confirm, add to, or challenge established knowledge?
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of the research?

Make sure the sources you use are credible , and make sure you read any landmark studies and major theories in your field of research.

You can use our template to summarize and evaluate sources you’re thinking about using. Click on either button below to download.

Take notes and cite your sources

As you read, you should also begin the writing process. Take notes that you can later incorporate into the text of your literature review.

It is important to keep track of your sources with citations to avoid plagiarism . It can be helpful to make an annotated bibliography , where you compile full citation information and write a paragraph of summary and analysis for each source. This helps you remember what you read and saves time later in the process.

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To begin organizing your literature review’s argument and structure, be sure you understand the connections and relationships between the sources you’ve read. Based on your reading and notes, you can look for:

• Trends and patterns (in theory, method or results): do certain approaches become more or less popular over time?
• Themes: what questions or concepts recur across the literature?
• Debates, conflicts and contradictions: where do sources disagree?
• Pivotal publications: are there any influential theories or studies that changed the direction of the field?
• Gaps: what is missing from the literature? Are there weaknesses that need to be addressed?

This step will help you work out the structure of your literature review and (if applicable) show how your own research will contribute to existing knowledge.

• Most research has focused on young women.
• There is an increasing interest in the visual aspects of social media.
• But there is still a lack of robust research on highly visual platforms like Instagram and Snapchat—this is a gap that you could address in your own research.

There are various approaches to organizing the body of a literature review. Depending on the length of your literature review, you can combine several of these strategies (for example, your overall structure might be thematic, but each theme is discussed chronologically).

Chronological

The simplest approach is to trace the development of the topic over time. However, if you choose this strategy, be careful to avoid simply listing and summarizing sources in order.

Try to analyze patterns, turning points and key debates that have shaped the direction of the field. Give your interpretation of how and why certain developments occurred.

If you have found some recurring central themes, you can organize your literature review into subsections that address different aspects of the topic.

For example, if you are reviewing literature about inequalities in migrant health outcomes, key themes might include healthcare policy, language barriers, cultural attitudes, legal status, and economic access.

Methodological

If you draw your sources from different disciplines or fields that use a variety of research methods , you might want to compare the results and conclusions that emerge from different approaches. For example:

• Look at what results have emerged in qualitative versus quantitative research
• Discuss how the topic has been approached by empirical versus theoretical scholarship
• Divide the literature into sociological, historical, and cultural sources

Theoretical

A literature review is often the foundation for a theoretical framework . You can use it to discuss various theories, models, and definitions of key concepts.

You might argue for the relevance of a specific theoretical approach, or combine various theoretical concepts to create a framework for your research.

Like any other academic text , your literature review should have an introduction , a main body, and a conclusion . What you include in each depends on the objective of your literature review.

The introduction should clearly establish the focus and purpose of the literature review.

Depending on the length of your literature review, you might want to divide the body into subsections. You can use a subheading for each theme, time period, or methodological approach.

As you write, you can follow these tips:

• Summarize and synthesize: give an overview of the main points of each source and combine them into a coherent whole
• Analyze and interpret: don’t just paraphrase other researchers — add your own interpretations where possible, discussing the significance of findings in relation to the literature as a whole
• Critically evaluate: mention the strengths and weaknesses of your sources
• Write in well-structured paragraphs: use transition words and topic sentences to draw connections, comparisons and contrasts

In the conclusion, you should summarize the key findings you have taken from the literature and emphasize their significance.

When you’ve finished writing and revising your literature review, don’t forget to proofread thoroughly before submitting. Not a language expert? Check out Scribbr’s professional proofreading services !

This article has been adapted into lecture slides that you can use to teach your students about writing a literature review.

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If you want to know more about the research process , methodology , research bias , or statistics , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

• Sampling methods
• Simple random sampling
• Stratified sampling
• Cluster sampling
• Likert scales
• Reproducibility

 Statistics

• Null hypothesis
• Statistical power
• Probability distribution
• Effect size
• Poisson distribution

Research bias

• Optimism bias
• Cognitive bias
• Implicit bias
• Hawthorne effect
• Anchoring bias
• Explicit bias

A literature review is a survey of scholarly sources (such as books, journal articles, and theses) related to a specific topic or research question .

It is often written as part of a thesis, dissertation , or research paper , in order to situate your work in relation to existing knowledge.

There are several reasons to conduct a literature review at the beginning of a research project:

• To familiarize yourself with the current state of knowledge on your topic
• To ensure that you’re not just repeating what others have already done
• To identify gaps in knowledge and unresolved problems that your research can address
• To develop your theoretical framework and methodology
• To provide an overview of the key findings and debates on the topic

Writing the literature review shows your reader how your work relates to existing research and what new insights it will contribute.

The literature review usually comes near the beginning of your thesis or dissertation . After the introduction , it grounds your research in a scholarly field and leads directly to your theoretical framework or methodology .

A literature review is a survey of credible sources on a topic, often used in dissertations , theses, and research papers . Literature reviews give an overview of knowledge on a subject, helping you identify relevant theories and methods, as well as gaps in existing research. Literature reviews are set up similarly to other  academic texts , with an introduction , a main body, and a conclusion .

An  annotated bibliography is a list of  source references that has a short description (called an annotation ) for each of the sources. It is often assigned as part of the research process for a  paper .  

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Research competency guidelines for literatures in english.

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Association of College and Research Libraries Literatures in English Section

Originally implemented, October 2004 Revised and approved, June 2007

Replaced by  Companion Document to the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education: Research Competencies in Writing and Literature , November 2021

"Research Competency Guidelines for Literatures in English" was first developed for use within the Literatures in English Section (LES) of ACRL. Although based on framework of the "ACRL Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education" (2000), these guidelines address the need for a more specific and source-oriented approach within the discipline of English literatures, including a concrete list of research skills. The original list was compiled by Anne Jordan-Baker (Elmhurst College). The guidelines were further developed by the ACRL Literatures in English Section Ad hoc Committee on Literary Research Competencies.*

On December 10, 2001, the draft guidelines were posted to LES-L, the electronic discussion group, for comments. A revision based on those comments was discussed at the 2002 ALA Midwinter Meeting. The guidelines were also published in the fall 2002 issue of "Biblio-Notes", the LES newsletter, and readers were encouraged to submit comments. A draft based on all information and comments to date was posted to the LES-L group for further review on April 12, 2002. A final draft was presented at the 2002 ALA Annual Conference and was approved by the LES Executive Committee. An updated version of the 2002 draft was distributed to the LES-L members and the Information Literacy Advisory Committee as well as posted on the ACRL Web site. At the 2005 ALA Midwinter Meeting, a hearing was held and the document was further revised to reflect the advice received.

The "Research Competency Guidelines for Literatures in English" draft has been under review and revision during the years in which ACRL was developing policies and procedures for subject-specific information literacy standards. Because of the independent development of these guidelines and ACRL policies, the format and framework of guidelines do not follow the current patterns of information literacy standards. The guidelines draft document has served primarily to facilitate the collaboration of teaching faculty with subject librarians to create effective teaching structures for literary research. An ACRL roundtable discussion at the 11th National Conference is just one example of many in which the subject librarians have shared their success in using the guidelines to improve communication with the faculty they serve.

ACRL Literatures in English Section Planning Committee Chair Kathleen Kluegel, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign January 2007

* ACRL Literatures in English Section Ad hoc Committee on Literary Research Competencies (1999-2001)

Heather Martin, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Chair; Austin Booth, University at Buffalo, SUNY; Charlotte Droll, Wright State University; Louise Greenfield, University of Arizona; Anne Jordan-Baker, Elmhurst College; Jeanne Pavy, University of New Orleans; Judy Reynolds, San Jose State University

Purpose of the Guidelines

• To aid students of literatures in English in the development of thorough and productive research skills
• To encourage the development of a common language for librarians, faculty, and students involved with research related to literatures in English
• To encourage librarian and faculty collaboration in the teaching of research methods to students of literatures in English
• To aid librarians and faculty in the development of instructional sessions and programs
• To assist in the development of a shared understanding of student competencies and needs
• To aid librarians and faculty in the development of research methods courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels

Because teaching methods, course content, and undergraduate requirements vary by institution, librarians and faculty may apply these guidelines in different ways to meet the needs of their students. For guidelines on helping students develop general research skills, librarians and faculty may refer to the "ACRL Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education" at www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlstandards/informationliteracycompetency.htm .

Introduction

Most research in literary studies begins with the text, whether it is a paperback novel, the electronic text of a poem on an author’s Web site, or an illuminated manuscript in a library’s collection. Educators encourage students to gain a deeper understanding of a text by exploring the context of the writing and the interpretations of others, and by developing and supporting their own interpretations. Limited only by their imaginations, students face almost endless opportunities for interpretation of a text.

Research plays an indispensable role in the textual discovery process for students. Good research skills help the literary explorer learn more about the author and the author’s world, examine scholarly interpretations of the text, and create new studies and interpretations to add to a body of knowledge. Sometimes the goals of textual discovery and interpretation can get lost in the minutiae of database searching and conforming to specific citation styles. However, it is important for librarians and other educators to remember these goals when helping students develop the research skills necessary for literary exploration.

Outcomes for Undergraduate English or American Literature Majors

I. understand the structure of information within the field of literary research:.

I.1 Differentiate between primary and secondary sources

I.1.i. Learn to discover and use primary source materials in print and in digital repositories, e.g., ECCO and EEBO

I.2 Understand that literary scholarship is produced and disseminated in a variety of formats, including monographs, journal articles, conference proceedings, dissertations, reference sources, and Web sites

I.3 Learn the significant features (e.g., series title, volume number, imprint) of different kinds of documents (e.g., journal articles, monographs, essays from edited collections)

I.4 Differentiate between reviews of literary works and literary criticism

I.5 Understand the concept and significance of peer-reviewed sources of information

I.6 Understand that literary texts exist in a variety of editions, some of which are more authoritative or useful than others

I.7 Understand the authorship, production, dissemination, or availability of literary production. This includes understanding the meanings and distinctions of the concepts of editions, facsimiles, and authoritative editions

II. Identify and use key literary research tools to locate relevant information:

II.1 Effectively use library catalogs to identify relevant holdings at local institutions and print and online catalogs and bibliographic tools to identify holdings at other libraries

II.2 Distinguish among the different types of reference works (e.g., catalogs, bibliographies, indexes, concordances, etc.) and understand the kind of information offered by each

II.3 Identify, locate, evaluate, and use reference sources and other appropriate information sources about authors, critics, and theorists

II.4 Use subjective and objective sources such as book reviews, citation indexes, and surveys of research to determine the relative importance of an author and/or the relevance of the specific work

II.5 Use reference and other appropriate information resources to provide background information and contextual information about social, intellectual, and literary culture

II.6 Understand the range of physical and virtual locations and repositories and how to navigate them successfully

II.7 Understand the uses of all available catalogs and services

III. Plan effective search strategies and modify search strategies as needed:

III.1 Identify the best indexes and databases

III.2 Use appropriate commands (such as Boolean operators) for database searches

III.3 Identify broader, narrower, and related terms or concepts when initial searches retrieve few or no results

III.4 Identify and use subject terms from the MLA International Bibliography and other specialized indexes and bibliographies

III.5 Identify and use Library of Congress subject headings for literature and authors

IV. Recognize and make appropriate use of library services in the research process:

IV.1 Identify and use librarians and reference services in the research process

IV.2 Use interlibrary loan and document delivery to acquire materials not available at one's own library

IV.3 Use digital resource service centers to read and create literary and critical documents in a variety of digital forms

V. Understand that some information sources are more authoritative than others and demonstrate critical thinking in the research process:

V.1 Know about Internet resources (e.g., electronic discussion lists, Web sites) and how to evaluate them for relevancy and credibility

V.2 Differentiate between resources provided free on the Internet and subscription electronic resources

V.3 Develop and use appropriate criteria for evaluating print resources

V.4 Learn to use critical bibliographies as a tool in evaluating materials

VI. Understand the technical and ethical issues involved in writing research essays:

VI.1 Document sources ethically

VI.2 Employ the MLA or other appropriate documentation style

VI.3 Understand the relationship between received knowledge and the production of new knowledge in the discipline of literary studies

VI.4 Analyze and ethically incorporate the work of others to create new knowledge

VII. Locate information about the literary profession itself:

VII.1 Access information about graduate programs and specialized programs in film study, creative writing, and other related fields, and about workshops and summer study opportunities

VII.2 Access information about financial assistance and scholarships available for literary study and related fields

VII.3 Access information on careers in literary studies and use of these skills in other professions

VII.4 Access information on professional associations

Altick, Richard D., and John J. Fenstermaker. The Art of Literary Research . 4th ed. New York: Norton, 1993.

Association of College and Research Libraries, American Library Association. "Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education." Chicago, IL: ACRL, 2000. 22 March 2007 www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlstandards/informationliteracycompetency.htm

Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers . 6th ed. New York: Modern Language Association, 2003.

Grafstein, Ann. "A Discipline-Based Approach to Information Literacy." Journal of Academic Librarianship 28 (2002): 197-204.

Jones, Cheryl, Carla Reichard, and Kouider Mokhtari. "Are Students’ Learning Styles Discipline Specific?" Community College Journal of Research & Practice 27 (2003): 363-375.

Leckie, Gloria J. "Desperately Seeking Citations: Uncovering Faculty Assumptions about the Undergraduate Research Process." Journal of Academic Librarianship 22 (1996): 201-208.

Literary Research: LR. College Park, MD : Literary Research Association , 1986-1990.

Literary Research Newsletter. Brockport, N.Y.: Literary Research Newsletter Association, 1976-1985.

Pastine, Maureen. "Teaching the Art of Literary Research." Conceptual Frameworks for Bibliographic Education: Theory into Practice . Ed. Mary Reichel and Mary Ann Ramey. Littleton, Colo.: Libraries Unlimited, 1987. 134-44.

Reynolds, Judy. "The MLA International Bibliography and Library Instruction in Literature and the Humanities." Literature in English: A Guide for Librarians in the Digital Age . Ed. Betty H. Day and William A. Wortman. Chicago: Association of College and Research Libraries, 2000. 213-247.

Introduction to research skills: Home

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• Effective reading
• Evaluating Information
• Critical thinking
• Presentation skills
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Research skills allow you to find information and use it effectively. It includes creating a strategy to gather facts and reach conclusions so that you can answer a question.

Starting your research

think about your topic – don’t be too vague or too specific (try mind mapping or keyword searching).

read broadly around your subject (don’t just use Google and Wikipedia). Think about a research question that is clearly structured and builds on literature already produced.

find information using the subject databases. View the Database Orientation Program to learn about databases and using search strategies to refine your search and limit results. View our library tutorial on planning your literature search and look at our library subject guides for resources on your specific topic.

Another good starting point for finding information is our library catalogue Library Search  which allows you to search across the library's electronic resources as well as major subject databases and indexes.

carry out a literature review . You may want to include journals, books, websites, grey literature or data and statistics for example. See the list of sources below for more information. Keep a record and organise your references and sources. If you are intending to carry out a systematic review then take a look at the systematic review page on our Research Support library guide.

evaluate your resources – use the CRAAP test (Currency, Relevancy, Authority, Accuracy, Purpose - watch the video, top right). 

reach considered conclusions and make recommendations where necessary.

Your research journey.

Why do I need research skills?

they enable you to locate appropriate information and evaluate it for quality and relevance

they allow you to make good use of information to resolve a problem

they give you the ability to synthesize and communicate your ideas in written and spoken formats

they foster critical thinking

they are highly transferable and can be adapted to many settings including the workplace

You can access more in depth information on areas such as primary research, literature reviews, research methods, and managing data, from the drop down headings under Research Skills on the Academic Skills home page. The related resources in the right-hand column of this page also contain useful supporting information.

• Conference proceedings
• Data & statistics
• Grey literature
• Official publications

Books are good for exploring new subject areas. They help define a topic and provide an in-depth account of a subject.

Scholarly books contain authoritative information including comprehensive accounts of research or scholarship and experts' views on themes and topics. Their bibliographies can lead readers to related books, articles and other sources. 

Details on the electronic books held by the University of Southampton can be found using the library catalogue .

Journals are quicker to publish than books and are often a good source of current information. They are useful when you require information to support an argument or original research written by subject experts.  The bibliographies at the end of journal articles should point you to other relevant research.

Academic journals go through a "peer-review" process. A peer-reviewed journal is one whose articles are checked by experts, so you can be more confident that the information they contain is reliable.

The Library's discovery service Library Search  is a good place to start when searching for journal articles and enables access to anything that is available electronically.

Newspapers enable you to follow current and historical events from multiple perspectives. They are an excellent record of political, social, cultural, and economic events and history.

Newspapers are popular rather than scholarly publications and their content needs to be treated with caution. For example, an account of a particular topic can be biased in favour of that newspaper’s political affiliation or point of view. Always double-check the data/statistics or any other piece of information that a newspaper has used to support an argument before you quote it in your own work.

The library subscribes to various resources which provide full-text access to both current and historical newspapers. Find out more about these on the Library's Newspaper Resources page.

Websites provide information about every topic imaginable, and many will be relevant to your studies.

Use websites with caution as anyone can publish on the Internet and therefore the quality of the information provided is variable. When you’re researching and come across a website you think might be useful, consider whether or not it provides information that is reliable and authoritative enough to use in your work.

Proceedings are collections of papers presented by researchers at academic conferences or symposia. They may be printed volumes or in electronic format.

You can use the information in conference proceedings with a high degree of confidence as the quality is ensured by having external experts read & review the papers before they are accepted in the proceedings.

Find the data and statistics you need, from economics to health, environment to oceanography - and everywhere between - http://library.soton.ac.uk/data .

Grey literature is the term given to non-traditional publications (material not published by mainstream publishers). For example - leaflets, reports, conference proceedings, government documents, preprints, theses, clinical trials, blogs, tweets, etc.. 

The majority of Grey literature is generally not peer-reviewed so it is very important to critically appraise any grey literature before using it.

Most aspects of life are touched by national governments, or by inter-governmental bodies such as the European Union or the United Nations.  Official publications are the documentary evidence of that interest. 

Our main printed collections and online services are for British and EU official publications, but we can give advice on accessing official publications from other places and organisations. Find out more from our web pages  http://library.soton.ac.uk/officialpublications .

Patents protect inventions - the owner can stop other people making, using or selling the item without their permission. This applies for a limited period and a separate application is needed for each country.

Patents can be useful since they contain full technical details on how an invention works. If you use an active patent outside of research - permission or a license is probably needed.

Related resources:

Checking for CRAAP - UMW New Media Archive

How to Develop a STRONG Research Question - Scribbr

Guide to dissertation and project writing - by University of Southampton (Enabling Services)

Guide to writing your dissertation - by the Royal Literary Fund  

Guidance on the Conduct of Narrative Synthesis in Systematic Reviews  - by ESRC Methods Programme

Guidelines for preparing a Research Proposal - by University of Southampton

Choosing good keywords - by the Open University

Developing a Research or Guided Question  - a self-guided tutorial produced by Arizona State University

Evaluating information - a 7 minute tutorial from the University of Southampton which covers thinking critically, and understanding how to find quality and reliable information.

Hints on conducting a literature review  - by the University of Toronto

Planning your literature search  - a short tutorial by the University of Southampton

Using Overleaf for scientific writing and publishing  -  a popular  LaTeX/Rich Text based online collaborative tool for students and researchers alike. It is designed to make the process of writing, editing, and producing scientific papers quicker and easier for authors. 

Systematic reviews  - by the University of Southampton. 

Create your own research proposal - by the University of Southampton

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What is a literature review?

A literature review is a critical analysis of the literature related to your research topic. It evaluates and critiques the literature to establish a theoretical framework for your research topic and/or identify a gap in the existing research that your research will address.

A literature review is not a summary of the literature. You need to engage deeply and critically with the literature. Your literature review should show your understanding of the literature related to your research topic and lead to presenting a rationale for your research.

A literature review focuses on:

• the context of the topic
• key concepts, ideas, theories and methodologies
• key researchers, texts and seminal works
• major issues and debates
• identifying conflicting evidence
• the main questions that have been asked around the topic
• the organisation of knowledge on the topic
• definitions, particularly those that are contested
• showing how your research will advance scholarly knowledge (generally referred to as identifying the ‘gap’).

This module will guide you through the functions of a literature review; the typical process of conducting a literature review (including searching for literature and taking notes); structuring your literature review within your thesis and organising its internal ideas; and styling the language of your literature review.

The purposes of a literature review

A literature review serves two main purposes:

1) To show awareness of the present state of knowledge in a particular field, including:

• seminal authors
• the main empirical research
• theoretical positions
• controversies
• breakthroughs as well as links to other related areas of knowledge.

2) To provide a foundation for the author’s research. To do that, the literature review needs to:

• help the researcher define a hypothesis or a research question, and how answering the question will contribute to the body of knowledge;
• provide a rationale for investigating the problem and the selected methodology;
• provide a particular theoretical lens, support the argument, or identify gaps.

Before you engage further with this module, try the quiz below to see how much you already know about literature reviews.

Research and Writing Skills for Academic and Graduate Researchers Copyright © 2022 by RMIT University is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Paper

• 5. The Literature Review
• Purpose of Guide
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• Narrowing a Topic Idea
• Broadening a Topic Idea
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A literature review surveys prior research published in books, scholarly articles, and any other sources relevant to a particular issue, area of research, or theory, and by so doing, provides a description, summary, and critical evaluation of these works in relation to the research problem being investigated. Literature reviews are designed to provide an overview of sources you have used in researching a particular topic and to demonstrate to your readers how your research fits within existing scholarship about the topic.

Fink, Arlene. Conducting Research Literature Reviews: From the Internet to Paper . Fourth edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, 2014.

Importance of a Good Literature Review

A literature review may consist of simply a summary of key sources, but in the social sciences, a literature review usually has an organizational pattern and combines both summary and synthesis, often within specific conceptual categories . A summary is a recap of the important information of the source, but a synthesis is a re-organization, or a reshuffling, of that information in a way that informs how you are planning to investigate a research problem. The analytical features of a literature review might:

• Give a new interpretation of old material or combine new with old interpretations,
• Trace the intellectual progression of the field, including major debates,
• Depending on the situation, evaluate the sources and advise the reader on the most pertinent or relevant research, or
• Usually in the conclusion of a literature review, identify where gaps exist in how a problem has been researched to date.

Given this, the purpose of a literature review is to:

• Place each work in the context of its contribution to understanding the research problem being studied.
• Describe the relationship of each work to the others under consideration.
• Identify new ways to interpret prior research.
• Reveal any gaps that exist in the literature.
• Resolve conflicts amongst seemingly contradictory previous studies.
• Identify areas of prior scholarship to prevent duplication of effort.
• Point the way in fulfilling a need for additional research.
• Locate your own research within the context of existing literature [very important].

Fink, Arlene. Conducting Research Literature Reviews: From the Internet to Paper. 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2005; Hart, Chris. Doing a Literature Review: Releasing the Social Science Research Imagination . Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1998; Jesson, Jill. Doing Your Literature Review: Traditional and Systematic Techniques . Los Angeles, CA: SAGE, 2011; Knopf, Jeffrey W. "Doing a Literature Review." PS: Political Science and Politics 39 (January 2006): 127-132; Ridley, Diana. The Literature Review: A Step-by-Step Guide for Students . 2nd ed. Los Angeles, CA: SAGE, 2012.

Types of Literature Reviews

It is important to think of knowledge in a given field as consisting of three layers. First, there are the primary studies that researchers conduct and publish. Second are the reviews of those studies that summarize and offer new interpretations built from and often extending beyond the primary studies. Third, there are the perceptions, conclusions, opinion, and interpretations that are shared informally among scholars that become part of the body of epistemological traditions within the field.

In composing a literature review, it is important to note that it is often this third layer of knowledge that is cited as "true" even though it often has only a loose relationship to the primary studies and secondary literature reviews. Given this, while literature reviews are designed to provide an overview and synthesis of pertinent sources you have explored, there are a number of approaches you could adopt depending upon the type of analysis underpinning your study.

Argumentative Review This form examines literature selectively in order to support or refute an argument, deeply embedded assumption, or philosophical problem already established in the literature. The purpose is to develop a body of literature that establishes a contrarian viewpoint. Given the value-laden nature of some social science research [e.g., educational reform; immigration control], argumentative approaches to analyzing the literature can be a legitimate and important form of discourse. However, note that they can also introduce problems of bias when they are used to make summary claims of the sort found in systematic reviews [see below].

Integrative Review Considered a form of research that reviews, critiques, and synthesizes representative literature on a topic in an integrated way such that new frameworks and perspectives on the topic are generated. The body of literature includes all studies that address related or identical hypotheses or research problems. A well-done integrative review meets the same standards as primary research in regard to clarity, rigor, and replication. This is the most common form of review in the social sciences.

Historical Review Few things rest in isolation from historical precedent. Historical literature reviews focus on examining research throughout a period of time, often starting with the first time an issue, concept, theory, phenomena emerged in the literature, then tracing its evolution within the scholarship of a discipline. The purpose is to place research in a historical context to show familiarity with state-of-the-art developments and to identify the likely directions for future research.

Methodological Review A review does not always focus on what someone said [findings], but how they came about saying what they say [method of analysis]. Reviewing methods of analysis provides a framework of understanding at different levels [i.e. those of theory, substantive fields, research approaches, and data collection and analysis techniques], how researchers draw upon a wide variety of knowledge ranging from the conceptual level to practical documents for use in fieldwork in the areas of ontological and epistemological consideration, quantitative and qualitative integration, sampling, interviewing, data collection, and data analysis. This approach helps highlight ethical issues which you should be aware of and consider as you go through your own study.

Systematic Review This form consists of an overview of existing evidence pertinent to a clearly formulated research question, which uses pre-specified and standardized methods to identify and critically appraise relevant research, and to collect, report, and analyze data from the studies that are included in the review. The goal is to deliberately document, critically evaluate, and summarize scientifically all of the research about a clearly defined research problem . Typically it focuses on a very specific empirical question, often posed in a cause-and-effect form, such as "To what extent does A contribute to B?" This type of literature review is primarily applied to examining prior research studies in clinical medicine and allied health fields, but it is increasingly being used in the social sciences.

Theoretical Review The purpose of this form is to examine the corpus of theory that has accumulated in regard to an issue, concept, theory, phenomena. The theoretical literature review helps to establish what theories already exist, the relationships between them, to what degree the existing theories have been investigated, and to develop new hypotheses to be tested. Often this form is used to help establish a lack of appropriate theories or reveal that current theories are inadequate for explaining new or emerging research problems. The unit of analysis can focus on a theoretical concept or a whole theory or framework.

NOTE : Most often the literature review will incorporate some combination of types. For example, a review that examines literature supporting or refuting an argument, assumption, or philosophical problem related to the research problem will also need to include writing supported by sources that establish the history of these arguments in the literature.

Baumeister, Roy F. and Mark R. Leary. "Writing Narrative Literature Reviews."  Review of General Psychology 1 (September 1997): 311-320; Mark R. Fink, Arlene. Conducting Research Literature Reviews: From the Internet to Paper . 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2005; Hart, Chris. Doing a Literature Review: Releasing the Social Science Research Imagination . Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1998; Kennedy, Mary M. "Defining a Literature." Educational Researcher 36 (April 2007): 139-147; Petticrew, Mark and Helen Roberts. Systematic Reviews in the Social Sciences: A Practical Guide . Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 2006; Torracro, Richard. "Writing Integrative Literature Reviews: Guidelines and Examples." Human Resource Development Review 4 (September 2005): 356-367; Rocco, Tonette S. and Maria S. Plakhotnik. "Literature Reviews, Conceptual Frameworks, and Theoretical Frameworks: Terms, Functions, and Distinctions." Human Ressource Development Review 8 (March 2008): 120-130; Sutton, Anthea. Systematic Approaches to a Successful Literature Review . Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publications, 2016.

Structure and Writing Style

I.  Thinking About Your Literature Review

The structure of a literature review should include the following in support of understanding the research problem :

• An overview of the subject, issue, or theory under consideration, along with the objectives of the literature review,
• Division of works under review into themes or categories [e.g. works that support a particular position, those against, and those offering alternative approaches entirely],
• An explanation of how each work is similar to and how it varies from the others,
• Conclusions as to which pieces are best considered in their argument, are most convincing of their opinions, and make the greatest contribution to the understanding and development of their area of research.

The critical evaluation of each work should consider :

• Provenance -- what are the author's credentials? Are the author's arguments supported by evidence [e.g. primary historical material, case studies, narratives, statistics, recent scientific findings]?
• Methodology -- were the techniques used to identify, gather, and analyze the data appropriate to addressing the research problem? Was the sample size appropriate? Were the results effectively interpreted and reported?
• Objectivity -- is the author's perspective even-handed or prejudicial? Is contrary data considered or is certain pertinent information ignored to prove the author's point?
• Persuasiveness -- which of the author's theses are most convincing or least convincing?
• Validity -- are the author's arguments and conclusions convincing? Does the work ultimately contribute in any significant way to an understanding of the subject?

II.  Development of the Literature Review

Four Basic Stages of Writing 1.  Problem formulation -- which topic or field is being examined and what are its component issues? 2.  Literature search -- finding materials relevant to the subject being explored. 3.  Data evaluation -- determining which literature makes a significant contribution to the understanding of the topic. 4.  Analysis and interpretation -- discussing the findings and conclusions of pertinent literature.

Consider the following issues before writing the literature review: Clarify If your assignment is not specific about what form your literature review should take, seek clarification from your professor by asking these questions: 1.  Roughly how many sources would be appropriate to include? 2.  What types of sources should I review (books, journal articles, websites; scholarly versus popular sources)? 3.  Should I summarize, synthesize, or critique sources by discussing a common theme or issue? 4.  Should I evaluate the sources in any way beyond evaluating how they relate to understanding the research problem? 5.  Should I provide subheadings and other background information, such as definitions and/or a history? Find Models Use the exercise of reviewing the literature to examine how authors in your discipline or area of interest have composed their literature review sections. Read them to get a sense of the types of themes you might want to look for in your own research or to identify ways to organize your final review. The bibliography or reference section of sources you've already read, such as required readings in the course syllabus, are also excellent entry points into your own research. Narrow the Topic The narrower your topic, the easier it will be to limit the number of sources you need to read in order to obtain a good survey of relevant resources. Your professor will probably not expect you to read everything that's available about the topic, but you'll make the act of reviewing easier if you first limit scope of the research problem. A good strategy is to begin by searching the USC Libraries Catalog for recent books about the topic and review the table of contents for chapters that focuses on specific issues. You can also review the indexes of books to find references to specific issues that can serve as the focus of your research. For example, a book surveying the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict may include a chapter on the role Egypt has played in mediating the conflict, or look in the index for the pages where Egypt is mentioned in the text. Consider Whether Your Sources are Current Some disciplines require that you use information that is as current as possible. This is particularly true in disciplines in medicine and the sciences where research conducted becomes obsolete very quickly as new discoveries are made. However, when writing a review in the social sciences, a survey of the history of the literature may be required. In other words, a complete understanding the research problem requires you to deliberately examine how knowledge and perspectives have changed over time. Sort through other current bibliographies or literature reviews in the field to get a sense of what your discipline expects. You can also use this method to explore what is considered by scholars to be a "hot topic" and what is not.

III.  Ways to Organize Your Literature Review

Chronology of Events If your review follows the chronological method, you could write about the materials according to when they were published. This approach should only be followed if a clear path of research building on previous research can be identified and that these trends follow a clear chronological order of development. For example, a literature review that focuses on continuing research about the emergence of German economic power after the fall of the Soviet Union. By Publication Order your sources by publication chronology, then, only if the order demonstrates a more important trend. For instance, you could order a review of literature on environmental studies of brown fields if the progression revealed, for example, a change in the soil collection practices of the researchers who wrote and/or conducted the studies. Thematic [“conceptual categories”] A thematic literature review is the most common approach to summarizing prior research in the social and behavioral sciences. Thematic reviews are organized around a topic or issue, rather than the progression of time, although the progression of time may still be incorporated into a thematic review. For example, a review of the Internet’s impact on American presidential politics could focus on the development of online political satire. While the study focuses on one topic, the Internet’s impact on American presidential politics, it would still be organized chronologically reflecting technological developments in media. The difference in this example between a "chronological" and a "thematic" approach is what is emphasized the most: themes related to the role of the Internet in presidential politics. Note that more authentic thematic reviews tend to break away from chronological order. A review organized in this manner would shift between time periods within each section according to the point being made. Methodological A methodological approach focuses on the methods utilized by the researcher. For the Internet in American presidential politics project, one methodological approach would be to look at cultural differences between the portrayal of American presidents on American, British, and French websites. Or the review might focus on the fundraising impact of the Internet on a particular political party. A methodological scope will influence either the types of documents in the review or the way in which these documents are discussed.

Other Sections of Your Literature Review Once you've decided on the organizational method for your literature review, the sections you need to include in the paper should be easy to figure out because they arise from your organizational strategy. In other words, a chronological review would have subsections for each vital time period; a thematic review would have subtopics based upon factors that relate to the theme or issue. However, sometimes you may need to add additional sections that are necessary for your study, but do not fit in the organizational strategy of the body. What other sections you include in the body is up to you. However, only include what is necessary for the reader to locate your study within the larger scholarship about the research problem.

Here are examples of other sections, usually in the form of a single paragraph, you may need to include depending on the type of review you write:

• Current Situation : Information necessary to understand the current topic or focus of the literature review.
• Sources Used : Describes the methods and resources [e.g., databases] you used to identify the literature you reviewed.
• History : The chronological progression of the field, the research literature, or an idea that is necessary to understand the literature review, if the body of the literature review is not already a chronology.
• Selection Methods : Criteria you used to select (and perhaps exclude) sources in your literature review. For instance, you might explain that your review includes only peer-reviewed [i.e., scholarly] sources.
• Standards : Description of the way in which you present your information.
• Questions for Further Research : What questions about the field has the review sparked? How will you further your research as a result of the review?

IV.  Writing Your Literature Review

Once you've settled on how to organize your literature review, you're ready to write each section. When writing your review, keep in mind these issues.

Use Evidence A literature review section is, in this sense, just like any other academic research paper. Your interpretation of the available sources must be backed up with evidence [citations] that demonstrates that what you are saying is valid. Be Selective Select only the most important points in each source to highlight in the review. The type of information you choose to mention should relate directly to the research problem, whether it is thematic, methodological, or chronological. Related items that provide additional information, but that are not key to understanding the research problem, can be included in a list of further readings . Use Quotes Sparingly Some short quotes are appropriate if you want to emphasize a point, or if what an author stated cannot be easily paraphrased. Sometimes you may need to quote certain terminology that was coined by the author, is not common knowledge, or taken directly from the study. Do not use extensive quotes as a substitute for using your own words in reviewing the literature. Summarize and Synthesize Remember to summarize and synthesize your sources within each thematic paragraph as well as throughout the review. Recapitulate important features of a research study, but then synthesize it by rephrasing the study's significance and relating it to your own work and the work of others. Keep Your Own Voice While the literature review presents others' ideas, your voice [the writer's] should remain front and center. For example, weave references to other sources into what you are writing but maintain your own voice by starting and ending the paragraph with your own ideas and wording. Use Caution When Paraphrasing When paraphrasing a source that is not your own, be sure to represent the author's information or opinions accurately and in your own words. Even when paraphrasing an author’s work, you still must provide a citation to that work.

V.  Common Mistakes to Avoid

These are the most common mistakes made in reviewing social science research literature.

• Sources in your literature review do not clearly relate to the research problem;
• You do not take sufficient time to define and identify the most relevant sources to use in the literature review related to the research problem;
• Relies exclusively on secondary analytical sources rather than including relevant primary research studies or data;
• Uncritically accepts another researcher's findings and interpretations as valid, rather than examining critically all aspects of the research design and analysis;
• Does not describe the search procedures that were used in identifying the literature to review;
• Reports isolated statistical results rather than synthesizing them in chi-squared or meta-analytic methods; and,
• Only includes research that validates assumptions and does not consider contrary findings and alternative interpretations found in the literature.

Cook, Kathleen E. and Elise Murowchick. “Do Literature Review Skills Transfer from One Course to Another?” Psychology Learning and Teaching 13 (March 2014): 3-11; Fink, Arlene. Conducting Research Literature Reviews: From the Internet to Paper . 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2005; Hart, Chris. Doing a Literature Review: Releasing the Social Science Research Imagination . Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1998; Jesson, Jill. Doing Your Literature Review: Traditional and Systematic Techniques . London: SAGE, 2011; Literature Review Handout. Online Writing Center. Liberty University; Literature Reviews. The Writing Center. University of North Carolina; Onwuegbuzie, Anthony J. and Rebecca Frels. Seven Steps to a Comprehensive Literature Review: A Multimodal and Cultural Approach . Los Angeles, CA: SAGE, 2016; Ridley, Diana. The Literature Review: A Step-by-Step Guide for Students . 2nd ed. Los Angeles, CA: SAGE, 2012; Randolph, Justus J. “A Guide to Writing the Dissertation Literature Review." Practical Assessment, Research, and Evaluation. vol. 14, June 2009; Sutton, Anthea. Systematic Approaches to a Successful Literature Review . Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publications, 2016; Taylor, Dena. The Literature Review: A Few Tips On Conducting It. University College Writing Centre. University of Toronto; Writing a Literature Review. Academic Skills Centre. University of Canberra.

Writing Tip

Break Out of Your Disciplinary Box!

Thinking interdisciplinarily about a research problem can be a rewarding exercise in applying new ideas, theories, or concepts to an old problem. For example, what might cultural anthropologists say about the continuing conflict in the Middle East? In what ways might geographers view the need for better distribution of social service agencies in large cities than how social workers might study the issue? You don’t want to substitute a thorough review of core research literature in your discipline for studies conducted in other fields of study. However, particularly in the social sciences, thinking about research problems from multiple vectors is a key strategy for finding new solutions to a problem or gaining a new perspective. Consult with a librarian about identifying research databases in other disciplines; almost every field of study has at least one comprehensive database devoted to indexing its research literature.

Frodeman, Robert. The Oxford Handbook of Interdisciplinarity . New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.

Another Writing Tip

Don't Just Review for Content!

While conducting a review of the literature, maximize the time you devote to writing this part of your paper by thinking broadly about what you should be looking for and evaluating. Review not just what scholars are saying, but how are they saying it. Some questions to ask:

• How are they organizing their ideas?
• What methods have they used to study the problem?
• What theories have been used to explain, predict, or understand their research problem?
• What sources have they cited to support their conclusions?
• How have they used non-textual elements [e.g., charts, graphs, figures, etc.] to illustrate key points?

When you begin to write your literature review section, you'll be glad you dug deeper into how the research was designed and constructed because it establishes a means for developing more substantial analysis and interpretation of the research problem.

Hart, Chris. Doing a Literature Review: Releasing the Social Science Research Imagination . Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1 998.

Yet Another Writing Tip

When Do I Know I Can Stop Looking and Move On?

Here are several strategies you can utilize to assess whether you've thoroughly reviewed the literature:

• Look for repeating patterns in the research findings . If the same thing is being said, just by different people, then this likely demonstrates that the research problem has hit a conceptual dead end. At this point consider: Does your study extend current research?  Does it forge a new path? Or, does is merely add more of the same thing being said?
• Look at sources the authors cite to in their work . If you begin to see the same researchers cited again and again, then this is often an indication that no new ideas have been generated to address the research problem.
• Search Google Scholar to identify who has subsequently cited leading scholars already identified in your literature review [see next sub-tab]. This is called citation tracking and there are a number of sources that can help you identify who has cited whom, particularly scholars from outside of your discipline. Here again, if the same authors are being cited again and again, this may indicate no new literature has been written on the topic.

Onwuegbuzie, Anthony J. and Rebecca Frels. Seven Steps to a Comprehensive Literature Review: A Multimodal and Cultural Approach . Los Angeles, CA: Sage, 2016; Sutton, Anthea. Systematic Approaches to a Successful Literature Review . Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publications, 2016.

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Researchers interact with information every day. You might be looking for articles, evaluating sources, writing up work for publication or disseminating your work more widely. And of course the literature does not just consist of books or papers, there's also a lot of research data and grey literature that needs to be processed and distributed appropriately. 

We're here to help you find your way in this landscape and make the most of your research opportunities. We have designed these online modules that you can take in your own time. Each one is packed with ideas and tips to help you succeed as a researcher at Cambridge. 

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Academic Success in Online Programs pp 111–124 Cite as

Skills and Strategies for Research and Reading

• Jacqueline S. Stephen   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-8949-5895 2  
• First Online: 03 April 2024

Part of the book series: Springer Texts in Education ((SPTE))

In addition to study skills and study habits, students need to be able to effectively engage in the process of research and college-level reading. Chapter 8 explains the significance of effective research and reading skills on academic performance. There are many types of research activities that college and university students are expected to actively participate in to complete various course requirements. Similarly, there are many different forms of literature that a student will encounter while engaging in the research process. College and university libraries provide access to a many of resources to support students through the research process. Thus, this chapter introduces students to the different types of research activities they can expect to engage in through their courses, explains the different forms of literature that a student may encounter during the research process, and provides insight into the many resources that libraries often provide to support student research activities and student development of college-level research skills. One of the areas of student development is in reading skills. Hence, Chapter 8 explains the various types of reading materials that a student may encounter in college or university courses, provides information on the styles of reading academic texts, and presents strategies to promote effective research and reading, including best practices for evaluating the relevancy and credibility of information sources.

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Bauer-Kealey, M., & Mather, N. (2019). Use of an online reading intervention to enhance the basic reading skills of community college students. Community College Journal of Research and Practice, 43 (9), 631–647.

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Catts, H. W. (2022). Rethinking how to promote reading comprehension. American Educator, 45 (4), 26.

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Cornoldi, C., & Oakhill, J. V. (Eds.). (2013). Reading comprehension difficulties: Processes and intervention . Routledge.

Huddleston, B. S., Bond, J. D., Chenoweth, L. L., & Hull, T. L. (2019). Faculty perspectives on undergraduate research skills. Reference and User Services Quarterly, 59 (2), 118–130.

Locher, F., & Pfost, M. (2020). The relation between time spent reading and reading comprehension throughout the life course. Journal of Research in Reading, 43 (1), 57–77.

Long, D. L., & Freed, E. M. (2021). An individual differences examination of the relation between reading processes and comprehension. Scientific Studies of Reading, 25 (2), 104–122.

McLean, S., Stewart, J., & Batty, A. O. (2020). Predicting L2 reading proficiency with modalities of vocabulary knowledge: A bootstrapping approach. Language Testing, 37 (3), 389–411.

Ozturk, N. (2022). A pedagogy of metacognition for reading classrooms. International Journal of Education and Literacy Studies, 10 (1), 162–172.

Rovai, A. P. (2003). In search of higher persistence rates in distance education online programs. The Internet and Higher Education, 6 (1), 1–16.

Scott, J. A., & Nagy, W. E. (2004). Developing word consciousness. Vocabulary Instruction: Research to Practice, 14 , 201–217.

Stephen, J. S. (2022). Persistence of nontraditional undergraduate online students: Towards a contemporary conceptual framework. Journal of Adult and Continuing Education, 29 , 438–463. https://doi.org/10.1177/14779714221142908

Tinto, V. (1993). Building community. Liberal Education, 79 (4), 16–21.

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Ten Simple Rules for Writing a Literature Review

Marco pautasso.

1 Centre for Functional and Evolutionary Ecology (CEFE), CNRS, Montpellier, France

2 Centre for Biodiversity Synthesis and Analysis (CESAB), FRB, Aix-en-Provence, France

Literature reviews are in great demand in most scientific fields. Their need stems from the ever-increasing output of scientific publications [1] . For example, compared to 1991, in 2008 three, eight, and forty times more papers were indexed in Web of Science on malaria, obesity, and biodiversity, respectively [2] . Given such mountains of papers, scientists cannot be expected to examine in detail every single new paper relevant to their interests [3] . Thus, it is both advantageous and necessary to rely on regular summaries of the recent literature. Although recognition for scientists mainly comes from primary research, timely literature reviews can lead to new synthetic insights and are often widely read [4] . For such summaries to be useful, however, they need to be compiled in a professional way [5] .

When starting from scratch, reviewing the literature can require a titanic amount of work. That is why researchers who have spent their career working on a certain research issue are in a perfect position to review that literature. Some graduate schools are now offering courses in reviewing the literature, given that most research students start their project by producing an overview of what has already been done on their research issue [6] . However, it is likely that most scientists have not thought in detail about how to approach and carry out a literature review.

Reviewing the literature requires the ability to juggle multiple tasks, from finding and evaluating relevant material to synthesising information from various sources, from critical thinking to paraphrasing, evaluating, and citation skills [7] . In this contribution, I share ten simple rules I learned working on about 25 literature reviews as a PhD and postdoctoral student. Ideas and insights also come from discussions with coauthors and colleagues, as well as feedback from reviewers and editors.

Rule 1: Define a Topic and Audience

How to choose which topic to review? There are so many issues in contemporary science that you could spend a lifetime of attending conferences and reading the literature just pondering what to review. On the one hand, if you take several years to choose, several other people may have had the same idea in the meantime. On the other hand, only a well-considered topic is likely to lead to a brilliant literature review [8] . The topic must at least be:

• interesting to you (ideally, you should have come across a series of recent papers related to your line of work that call for a critical summary),
• an important aspect of the field (so that many readers will be interested in the review and there will be enough material to write it), and
• a well-defined issue (otherwise you could potentially include thousands of publications, which would make the review unhelpful).

Ideas for potential reviews may come from papers providing lists of key research questions to be answered [9] , but also from serendipitous moments during desultory reading and discussions. In addition to choosing your topic, you should also select a target audience. In many cases, the topic (e.g., web services in computational biology) will automatically define an audience (e.g., computational biologists), but that same topic may also be of interest to neighbouring fields (e.g., computer science, biology, etc.).

Rule 2: Search and Re-search the Literature

After having chosen your topic and audience, start by checking the literature and downloading relevant papers. Five pieces of advice here:

• keep track of the search items you use (so that your search can be replicated [10] ),
• keep a list of papers whose pdfs you cannot access immediately (so as to retrieve them later with alternative strategies),
• use a paper management system (e.g., Mendeley, Papers, Qiqqa, Sente),
• define early in the process some criteria for exclusion of irrelevant papers (these criteria can then be described in the review to help define its scope), and
• do not just look for research papers in the area you wish to review, but also seek previous reviews.

The chances are high that someone will already have published a literature review ( Figure 1 ), if not exactly on the issue you are planning to tackle, at least on a related topic. If there are already a few or several reviews of the literature on your issue, my advice is not to give up, but to carry on with your own literature review,

The bottom-right situation (many literature reviews but few research papers) is not just a theoretical situation; it applies, for example, to the study of the impacts of climate change on plant diseases, where there appear to be more literature reviews than research studies [33] .

• discussing in your review the approaches, limitations, and conclusions of past reviews,
• trying to find a new angle that has not been covered adequately in the previous reviews, and
• incorporating new material that has inevitably accumulated since their appearance.

When searching the literature for pertinent papers and reviews, the usual rules apply:

• be thorough,
• use different keywords and database sources (e.g., DBLP, Google Scholar, ISI Proceedings, JSTOR Search, Medline, Scopus, Web of Science), and
• look at who has cited past relevant papers and book chapters.

Rule 3: Take Notes While Reading

If you read the papers first, and only afterwards start writing the review, you will need a very good memory to remember who wrote what, and what your impressions and associations were while reading each single paper. My advice is, while reading, to start writing down interesting pieces of information, insights about how to organize the review, and thoughts on what to write. This way, by the time you have read the literature you selected, you will already have a rough draft of the review.

Of course, this draft will still need much rewriting, restructuring, and rethinking to obtain a text with a coherent argument [11] , but you will have avoided the danger posed by staring at a blank document. Be careful when taking notes to use quotation marks if you are provisionally copying verbatim from the literature. It is advisable then to reformulate such quotes with your own words in the final draft. It is important to be careful in noting the references already at this stage, so as to avoid misattributions. Using referencing software from the very beginning of your endeavour will save you time.

Rule 4: Choose the Type of Review You Wish to Write

After having taken notes while reading the literature, you will have a rough idea of the amount of material available for the review. This is probably a good time to decide whether to go for a mini- or a full review. Some journals are now favouring the publication of rather short reviews focusing on the last few years, with a limit on the number of words and citations. A mini-review is not necessarily a minor review: it may well attract more attention from busy readers, although it will inevitably simplify some issues and leave out some relevant material due to space limitations. A full review will have the advantage of more freedom to cover in detail the complexities of a particular scientific development, but may then be left in the pile of the very important papers “to be read” by readers with little time to spare for major monographs.

There is probably a continuum between mini- and full reviews. The same point applies to the dichotomy of descriptive vs. integrative reviews. While descriptive reviews focus on the methodology, findings, and interpretation of each reviewed study, integrative reviews attempt to find common ideas and concepts from the reviewed material [12] . A similar distinction exists between narrative and systematic reviews: while narrative reviews are qualitative, systematic reviews attempt to test a hypothesis based on the published evidence, which is gathered using a predefined protocol to reduce bias [13] , [14] . When systematic reviews analyse quantitative results in a quantitative way, they become meta-analyses. The choice between different review types will have to be made on a case-by-case basis, depending not just on the nature of the material found and the preferences of the target journal(s), but also on the time available to write the review and the number of coauthors [15] .

Rule 5: Keep the Review Focused, but Make It of Broad Interest

Whether your plan is to write a mini- or a full review, it is good advice to keep it focused 16 , 17 . Including material just for the sake of it can easily lead to reviews that are trying to do too many things at once. The need to keep a review focused can be problematic for interdisciplinary reviews, where the aim is to bridge the gap between fields [18] . If you are writing a review on, for example, how epidemiological approaches are used in modelling the spread of ideas, you may be inclined to include material from both parent fields, epidemiology and the study of cultural diffusion. This may be necessary to some extent, but in this case a focused review would only deal in detail with those studies at the interface between epidemiology and the spread of ideas.

While focus is an important feature of a successful review, this requirement has to be balanced with the need to make the review relevant to a broad audience. This square may be circled by discussing the wider implications of the reviewed topic for other disciplines.

Rule 6: Be Critical and Consistent

Reviewing the literature is not stamp collecting. A good review does not just summarize the literature, but discusses it critically, identifies methodological problems, and points out research gaps [19] . After having read a review of the literature, a reader should have a rough idea of:

• the major achievements in the reviewed field,
• the main areas of debate, and
• the outstanding research questions.

It is challenging to achieve a successful review on all these fronts. A solution can be to involve a set of complementary coauthors: some people are excellent at mapping what has been achieved, some others are very good at identifying dark clouds on the horizon, and some have instead a knack at predicting where solutions are going to come from. If your journal club has exactly this sort of team, then you should definitely write a review of the literature! In addition to critical thinking, a literature review needs consistency, for example in the choice of passive vs. active voice and present vs. past tense.

Rule 7: Find a Logical Structure

Like a well-baked cake, a good review has a number of telling features: it is worth the reader's time, timely, systematic, well written, focused, and critical. It also needs a good structure. With reviews, the usual subdivision of research papers into introduction, methods, results, and discussion does not work or is rarely used. However, a general introduction of the context and, toward the end, a recapitulation of the main points covered and take-home messages make sense also in the case of reviews. For systematic reviews, there is a trend towards including information about how the literature was searched (database, keywords, time limits) [20] .

How can you organize the flow of the main body of the review so that the reader will be drawn into and guided through it? It is generally helpful to draw a conceptual scheme of the review, e.g., with mind-mapping techniques. Such diagrams can help recognize a logical way to order and link the various sections of a review [21] . This is the case not just at the writing stage, but also for readers if the diagram is included in the review as a figure. A careful selection of diagrams and figures relevant to the reviewed topic can be very helpful to structure the text too [22] .

Rule 8: Make Use of Feedback

Reviews of the literature are normally peer-reviewed in the same way as research papers, and rightly so [23] . As a rule, incorporating feedback from reviewers greatly helps improve a review draft. Having read the review with a fresh mind, reviewers may spot inaccuracies, inconsistencies, and ambiguities that had not been noticed by the writers due to rereading the typescript too many times. It is however advisable to reread the draft one more time before submission, as a last-minute correction of typos, leaps, and muddled sentences may enable the reviewers to focus on providing advice on the content rather than the form.

Feedback is vital to writing a good review, and should be sought from a variety of colleagues, so as to obtain a diversity of views on the draft. This may lead in some cases to conflicting views on the merits of the paper, and on how to improve it, but such a situation is better than the absence of feedback. A diversity of feedback perspectives on a literature review can help identify where the consensus view stands in the landscape of the current scientific understanding of an issue [24] .

Rule 9: Include Your Own Relevant Research, but Be Objective

In many cases, reviewers of the literature will have published studies relevant to the review they are writing. This could create a conflict of interest: how can reviewers report objectively on their own work [25] ? Some scientists may be overly enthusiastic about what they have published, and thus risk giving too much importance to their own findings in the review. However, bias could also occur in the other direction: some scientists may be unduly dismissive of their own achievements, so that they will tend to downplay their contribution (if any) to a field when reviewing it.

In general, a review of the literature should neither be a public relations brochure nor an exercise in competitive self-denial. If a reviewer is up to the job of producing a well-organized and methodical review, which flows well and provides a service to the readership, then it should be possible to be objective in reviewing one's own relevant findings. In reviews written by multiple authors, this may be achieved by assigning the review of the results of a coauthor to different coauthors.

Rule 10: Be Up-to-Date, but Do Not Forget Older Studies

Given the progressive acceleration in the publication of scientific papers, today's reviews of the literature need awareness not just of the overall direction and achievements of a field of inquiry, but also of the latest studies, so as not to become out-of-date before they have been published. Ideally, a literature review should not identify as a major research gap an issue that has just been addressed in a series of papers in press (the same applies, of course, to older, overlooked studies (“sleeping beauties” [26] )). This implies that literature reviewers would do well to keep an eye on electronic lists of papers in press, given that it can take months before these appear in scientific databases. Some reviews declare that they have scanned the literature up to a certain point in time, but given that peer review can be a rather lengthy process, a full search for newly appeared literature at the revision stage may be worthwhile. Assessing the contribution of papers that have just appeared is particularly challenging, because there is little perspective with which to gauge their significance and impact on further research and society.

Inevitably, new papers on the reviewed topic (including independently written literature reviews) will appear from all quarters after the review has been published, so that there may soon be the need for an updated review. But this is the nature of science [27] – [32] . I wish everybody good luck with writing a review of the literature.

Acknowledgments

Many thanks to M. Barbosa, K. Dehnen-Schmutz, T. Döring, D. Fontaneto, M. Garbelotto, O. Holdenrieder, M. Jeger, D. Lonsdale, A. MacLeod, P. Mills, M. Moslonka-Lefebvre, G. Stancanelli, P. Weisberg, and X. Xu for insights and discussions, and to P. Bourne, T. Matoni, and D. Smith for helpful comments on a previous draft.

Funding Statement

This work was funded by the French Foundation for Research on Biodiversity (FRB) through its Centre for Synthesis and Analysis of Biodiversity data (CESAB), as part of the NETSEED research project. The funders had no role in the preparation of the manuscript.

What Literature Can Teach Us

Communication and research skills—and how to be a better human being

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Literature is a term used to describe written and sometimes spoken material. Derived from the Latin word  literature  meaning "writing formed with letters," literature most commonly refers to works of the creative imagination, including poetry, drama , fiction , nonfiction , and in some instances, journalism , and song. 

What Is Literature?

Simply put, literature represents the culture and tradition of a language or a people. The concept is difficult to precisely define, though many have tried; it's clear that the accepted definition of literature is constantly changing and evolving.

For many, the word literature suggests a higher art form; merely putting words on a page doesn't necessarily equate to creating literature. A canon is the accepted body of works for a given author. Some works of literature are considered canonical, that is, culturally representative of a particular genre (poetry, prose, or drama).

Literary Fiction vs. Genre Fiction

Some definitions also separate literary fiction from so-called "genre fiction," which includes types such as mystery, science fiction, western, romance, thriller, and horror. Think mass-market paperback.

Genre fiction typically does not have as much character development as literary fiction and is read for entertainment, escapism, and plot, whereas literary fiction explores themes common to the human condition and uses symbolism and other literary devices to convey the author's viewpoint on his or her chosen themes. Literary fiction involves getting into the minds of the characters (or at least the protagonist) and experiencing their relationships with others. The protagonist typically comes to a realization or changes in some way during the course of a literary novel.

(The difference in type does not mean that literary writers are better than genre fiction writers, just that they operate differently.)

Why Is Literature Important?

Works of literature, at their best, provide a kind of blueprint of human society. From the writings of ancient civilizations such as Egypt and China to Greek philosophy and poetry, from the epics of Homer to the plays of William Shakespeare, from Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte to Maya Angelou , works of literature give insight and context to all the world's societies. In this way, literature is more than just a historical or cultural artifact; it can serve as an introduction to a new world of experience.

But what we consider to be literature can vary from one generation to the next. For instance, Herman Melville's 1851 novel " Moby Dick "   was considered a failure by contemporary reviewers. However, it has since been recognized as a masterpiece and is frequently cited as one of the best works of Western literature for its thematic complexity and use of symbolism. By reading "Moby Dick" in the present day, we can gain a fuller understanding of literary traditions in Melville's time. 

Debating Literature 

Ultimately, we may discover meaning in literature by looking at what the author writes or says and how he or she says it. We may interpret and debate an author's message by examining the words he or she chooses in a given novel or work or observing which character or voice serves as the connection to the reader.

In academia, this decoding of the text is often carried out through the use of  literary theory using a mythological, sociological, psychological, historical, or other approaches to better understand the context and depth of a work.

Whatever critical paradigm we use to discuss and analyze it, literature is important to us because it speaks to us, it is universal, and it affects us on a deeply personal level. 

School Skills

Students who study literature and read for pleasure have a higher vocabulary, better reading comprehension, and better communication skills, such as writing ability. Communication skills affect people in every area of their lives, from navigating interpersonal relationships to participating in meetings in the workplace to drafting intraoffice memos or reports.

When students analyze literature, they learn to identify cause and effect and are applying critical thinking skills. Without realizing it, they examine the characters psychologically or sociologically. They identify the characters' motivations for their actions and see through those actions to any ulterior motives.

When planning an essay on a work of literature, students use problem-solving skills to come up with a thesis and follow through on compiling their paper. It takes research skills to dig up evidence for their thesis from the text and scholarly criticism, and it takes organizational skills to present their argument in a coherent, cohesive manner.

Empathy and Other Emotions

Some studies say that people who read literature have more empathy for others, as literature puts the reader into another person's shoes. Having empathy for others leads people to socialize more effectively, solve conflicts peacefully, collaborate better in the workplace, behave morally, and possibly even become involved in making their community a better place.

Other studies note a correlation between readers and empathy but do not find causation . Either way, studies back the need for strong English programs in schools, especially as people spend more and more time looking at screens rather than books.

Along with empathy for others, readers can feel a greater connection to humanity and less isolated. Students who read literature can find solace as they realize that others have gone through the same things that they are experiencing or have experienced. This can be a catharsis and relief to them if they feel burdened or alone in their troubles.

Quotes About Literature

Here are some quotes about literature from literature giants themselves.

• Robert Louis Stevenson : "The difficulty of literature is not to write, but to write what you mean; not to affect your reader, but to affect him precisely as you wish."
• Jane Austen, "Northanger Abbey" : "The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid."
• William Shakespeare, "Henry VI" : “I’ll call for pen and ink and write my mind.”
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Children's Literature - Updated: Research Skills

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For more information or for help researching your topic, please make an appointment to meet with a librarian.  You can make an appointment here or by emailing [email protected] .  Research appointments can be conducted via Zoom or phone or in person. We are here to assist you with all your research needs, so please do not hesitate to ask. 

Choosing a Topic

• General Information

Moving from research assignment to thesis statement:

1. Area: Start with a general area of interest.  The assignment might dictate specific areas which can aid you in choosing your topic.

2. Subject: List subjects that fit within that area.

3. Topic: Select just one of the subjects to be the topic of your research.

4. Aspect: List different aspects of the topic.

5. Description: Choose the aspect of the topic that you want to explore further and formulate a description of your topic.

• Choosing a Topic For more information about how to choose a topic, check out this link to the Information Literacy Module - Choosing a Topic Tutorial.
• Video: How to Narrow Your Topic Do you have trouble selecting a topic for a research assignment? This video will outline the process to help you hone in on a compelling research topic with appropriate scope using strategies like strategic searching. You will also understand the importance of open mindedness and flexibility in the research process.

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The Most Important Research Skills (With Examples)

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Research skills are the ability to find out accurate information on a topic. They include being able to determine the data you need, find and interpret those findings, and then explain that to others. Being able to do effective research is a beneficial skill in any profession, as data and research inform how businesses operate.

Whether you’re unsure of your research skills or are looking for ways to further improve them, then this article will cover important research skills and how to become even better at research.

Key Takeaways

Having strong research skills can help you understand your competitors, develop new processes, and build your professional skills in addition to aiding you in finding new customers and saving your company money.

Some of the most valuable research skills you can have include goal setting, data collection, and analyzing information from multiple sources.

You can and should put your research skills on your resume and highlight them in your job interviews.

What are research skills?

Why are research skills important, 12 of the most important research skills, how to improve your research skills, highlighting your research skills in a job interview, how to include research skills on your resume, resume examples showcasing research skills, research skills faqs.

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Research skills are the necessary tools to be able to find, compile, and interpret information in order to answer a question. Of course, there are several aspects to this. Researchers typically have to decide how to go about researching a problem — which for most people is internet research.

In addition, you need to be able to interpret the reliability of a source, put the information you find together in an organized and logical way, and be able to present your findings to others. That means that they’re comprised of both hard skills — knowing your subject and what’s true and what isn’t — and soft skills. You need to be able to interpret sources and communicate clearly.

Research skills are useful in any industry, and have applications in innovation, product development, competitor research, and many other areas. In addition, the skills used in researching aren’t only useful for research. Being able to interpret information is a necessary skill, as is being able to clearly explain your reasoning.

Research skills are used to:

Do competitor research. Knowing what your biggest competitors are up to is an essential part of any business. Researching what works for your competitors, what they’re doing better than you, and where you can improve your standing with the lowest resource expenditure are all essential if a company wants to remain functional.

Develop new processes and products. You don’t have to be involved in research and development to make improvements in how your team gets things done. Researching new processes that make your job (and those of your team) more efficient will be valued by any sensible employer.

Foster self-improvement. Folks who have a knack and passion for research are never content with doing things the same way they’ve always been done. Organizations need independent thinkers who will seek out their own answers and improve their skills as a matter of course. These employees will also pick up new technologies more easily.

Manage customer relationships. Being able to conduct research on your customer base is positively vital in virtually every industry. It’s hard to move products or sell services if you don’t know what people are interested in. Researching your customer base’s interests, needs, and pain points is a valuable responsibility.

Save money. Whether your company is launching a new product or just looking for ways to scale back its current spending, research is crucial for finding wasted resources and redirecting them to more deserving ends. Anyone who proactively researches ways that the company can save money will be highly appreciated by their employer.

Solve problems. Problem solving is a major part of a lot of careers, and research skills are instrumental in making sure your solution is effective. Finding out the cause of the problem and determining an effective solution both require accurate information, and research is the best way to obtain that — be it via the internet or by observation.

Determine reliable information. Being able to tell whether or not the information you receive seems accurate is a very valuable skill. While research skills won’t always guarantee that you’ll be able to tell the reliability of the information at first glance, it’ll prevent you from being too trusting. And it’ll give the tools to double-check .

Experienced researchers know that worthwhile investigation involves a variety of skills. Consider which research skills come naturally to you, and which you could work on more.

Data collection . When thinking about the research process, data collection is often the first thing that comes to mind. It is the nuts and bolts of research. How data is collected can be flexible.

For some purposes, simply gathering facts and information on the internet can fulfill your need. Others may require more direct and crowd-sourced research. Having experience in various methods of data collection can make your resume more impressive to recruiters.

Data collection methods include: Observation Interviews Questionnaires Experimentation Conducting focus groups

Analysis of information from different sources. Putting all your eggs in one source basket usually results in error and disappointment. One of the skills that good researchers always incorporate into their process is an abundance of sources. It’s also best practice to consider the reliability of these sources.

Are you reading about U.S. history on a conspiracy theorist’s blog post? Taking facts for a presentation from an anonymous Twitter account?

If you can’t determine the validity of the sources you’re using, it can compromise all of your research. That doesn’t mean just disregard anything on the internet but double-check your findings. In fact, quadruple-check. You can make your research even stronger by turning to references outside of the internet.

Examples of reliable information sources include: Published books Encyclopedias Magazines Databases Scholarly journals Newspapers Library catalogs

Finding information on the internet. While it can be beneficial to consulate alternative sources, strong internet research skills drive modern-day research.

One of the great things about the internet is how much information it contains, however, this comes with digging through a lot of garbage to get to the facts you need. The ability to efficiently use the vast database of knowledge that is on the internet without getting lost in the junk is very valuable to employers.

Internet research skills include: Source checking Searching relevant questions Exploring deeper than the first options Avoiding distraction Giving credit Organizing findings

Interviewing. Some research endeavors may require a more hands-on approach than just consulting internet sources. Being prepared with strong interviewing skills can be very helpful in the research process.

Interviews can be a useful research tactic to gain first-hand information and being able to manage a successful interview can greatly improve your research skills.

Interviewing skills involves: A plan of action Specific, pointed questions Respectfulness Considering the interview setting Actively Listening Taking notes Gratitude for participation

Report writing. Possessing skills in report writing can assist you in job and scholarly research. The overall purpose of a report in any context is to convey particular information to its audience.

Effective report writing is largely dependent on communication. Your boss, professor , or general reader should walk away completely understanding your findings and conclusions.

Report writing skills involve: Proper format Including a summary Focusing on your initial goal Creating an outline Proofreading Directness

Critical thinking. Critical thinking skills can aid you greatly throughout the research process, and as an employee in general. Critical thinking refers to your data analysis skills. When you’re in the throes of research, you need to be able to analyze your results and make logical decisions about your findings.

Critical thinking skills involve: Observation Analysis Assessing issues Problem-solving Creativity Communication

Planning and scheduling. Research is a work project like any other, and that means it requires a little forethought before starting. Creating a detailed outline map for the points you want to touch on in your research produces more organized results.

It also makes it much easier to manage your time. Planning and scheduling skills are important to employers because they indicate a prepared employee.

Planning and scheduling skills include: Setting objectives Identifying tasks Prioritizing Delegating if needed Vision Communication Clarity Time-management

Note-taking. Research involves sifting through and taking in lots of information. Taking exhaustive notes ensures that you will not neglect any findings later and allows you to communicate these results to your co-workers. Being able to take good notes helps summarize research.

Examples of note-taking skills include: Focus Organization Using short-hand Keeping your objective in mind Neatness Highlighting important points Reviewing notes afterward

Communication skills. Effective research requires being able to understand and process the information you receive, either written or spoken. That means that you need strong reading comprehension and writing skills — two major aspects of communication — as well as excellent listening skills.

Most research also involves showcasing your findings. This can be via a presentation. , report, chart, or Q&A. Whatever the case, you need to be able to communicate your findings in a way that educates your audience.

Communication skills include: Reading comprehension Writing Listening skills Presenting to an audience Creating graphs or charts Explaining in layman’s terms

Time management. We’re, unfortunately, only given 24 measly hours in a day. The ability to effectively manage this time is extremely powerful in a professional context. Hiring managers seek candidates who can accomplish goals in a given timeframe.

Strong time management skills mean that you can organize a plan for how to break down larger tasks in a project and complete them by a deadline. Developing your time management skills can greatly improve the productivity of your research.

Time management skills include: Scheduling Creating task outlines Strategic thinking Stress-management Delegation Communication Utilizing resources Setting realistic expectations Meeting deadlines

Using your network. While this doesn’t seem immediately relevant to research skills, remember that there are a lot of experts out there. Knowing what people’s areas of expertise and asking for help can be tremendously beneficial — especially if it’s a subject you’re unfamiliar with.

Your coworkers are going to have different areas of expertise than you do, and your network of people will as well. You may even know someone who knows someone who’s knowledgeable in the area you’re researching. Most people are happy to share their expertise, as it’s usually also an area of interest to them.

Networking involves: Remembering people’s areas of expertise Being willing to ask for help Communication Returning favors Making use of advice Asking for specific assistance

Attention to detail. Research is inherently precise. That means that you need to be attentive to the details, both in terms of the information you’re gathering, but also in where you got it from. Making errors in statistics can have a major impact on the interpretation of the data, not to mention that it’ll reflect poorly on you.

There are proper procedures for citing sources that you should follow. That means that your sources will be properly credited, preventing accusations of plagiarism. In addition, it means that others can make use of your research by returning to the original sources.

Attention to detail includes: Double checking statistics Taking notes Keeping track of your sources Staying organized Making sure graphs are accurate and representative Properly citing sources

As with many professional skills, research skills serve us in our day to day life. Any time you search for information on the internet, you’re doing research. That means that you’re practicing it outside of work as well. If you want to continue improving your research skills, both for professional and personal use, here are some tips to try.

Differentiate between source quality. A researcher is only as good as their worst source. Start paying attention to the quality of the sources you use, and be suspicious of everything your read until you check out the attributions and works cited.

Be critical and ask yourself about the author’s bias, where the author’s research aligns with the larger body of verified research in the field, and what publication sponsored or published the research.

Use multiple resources. When you can verify information from a multitude of sources, it becomes more and more credible. To bolster your faith in one source, see if you can find another source that agrees with it.

Don’t fall victim to confirmation bias. Confirmation bias is when a researcher expects a certain outcome and then goes to find data that supports this hypothesis. It can even go so far as disregarding anything that challenges the researcher’s initial hunch. Be prepared for surprising answers and keep an open mind.

Be open to the idea that you might not find a definitive answer. It’s best to be honest and say that you found no definitive answer instead of just confirming what you think your boss or coworkers expect or want to hear. Experts and good researchers are willing to say that they don’t know.

Stay organized. Being able to cite sources accurately and present all your findings is just as important as conducting the research itself. Start practicing good organizational skills , both on your devices and for any physical products you’re using.

Get specific as you go. There’s nothing wrong with starting your research in a general way. After all, it’s important to become familiar with the terminology and basic gist of the researcher’s findings before you dig down into all the minutia.

A job interview is itself a test of your research skills. You can expect questions on what you know about the company, the role, and your field or industry more generally. In order to give expert answers on all these topics, research is crucial.

Start by researching the company . Look into how they communicate with the public through social media, what their mission statement is, and how they describe their culture.

Pay close attention to the tone of their website. Is it hyper professional or more casual and fun-loving? All of these elements will help decide how best to sell yourself at the interview.

Next, research the role. Go beyond the job description and reach out to current employees working at your desired company and in your potential department. If you can find out what specific problems your future team is or will be facing, you’re sure to impress hiring managers and recruiters with your ability to research all the facts.

Finally, take time to research the job responsibilities you’re not as comfortable with. If you’re applying for a job that represents increased difficulty or entirely new tasks, it helps to come into the interview with at least a basic knowledge of what you’ll need to learn.

Research projects require dedication. Being committed is a valuable skill for hiring managers. Whether you’ve had research experience throughout education or a former job, including it properly can boost the success of your resume .

Consider how extensive your research background is. If you’ve worked on multiple, in-depth research projects, it might be best to include it as its own section. If you have less research experience, include it in the skills section .

Focus on your specific role in the research, as opposed to just the research itself. Try to quantify accomplishments to the best of your abilities. If you were put in charge of competitor research, for example, list that as one of the tasks you had in your career.

If it was a particular project, such as tracking the sale of women’s clothing at a tee-shirt company, you can say that you “directed analysis into women’s clothing sales statistics for a market research project.”

Ascertain how directly research skills relate to the job you’re applying for. How strongly you highlight your research skills should depend on the nature of the job the resume is for. If research looks to be a strong component of it, then showcase all of your experience.

If research looks to be tangential, then be sure to mention it — it’s a valuable skill — but don’t put it front and center.

Example #1: Academic Research

Simon Marks 767 Brighton Blvd. | Brooklyn, NY, 27368 | (683)-262-8883 | [email protected] Diligent and hardworking recent graduate seeking a position to develop professional experience and utilize research skills. B.A. in Biological Sciences from New York University. PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE Lixus Publishing , Brooklyn, NY Office Assistant- September 2018-present Scheduling and updating meetings Managing emails and phone calls Reading entries Worked on a science fiction campaign by researching target demographic Organizing calendars Promoted to office assistant after one year internship Mitch’s Burgers and Fries , Brooklyn, NY Restaurant Manager , June 2014-June 2018 Managed a team of five employees Responsible for coordinating the weekly schedule Hired and trained two employees Kept track of inventory Dealt with vendors Provided customer service Promoted to restaurant manager after two years as a waiter Awarded a $2.00/hr wage increase SKILLS Writing Scientific Research Data analysis Critical thinking Planning Communication RESEARCH Worked on an ecosystem biology project with responsibilities for algae collection and research (2019) Lead a group of freshmen in a research project looking into cell biology (2018) EDUCATION New York University Bachelors in Biological Sciences, September 2016-May 2020

Example #2: Professional Research

Angela Nichols 1111 Keller Dr. | San Francisco, CA | (663)-124-8827 |[email protected] Experienced and enthusiastic marketer with 7 years of professional experience. Seeking a position to apply my marketing and research knowledge. Skills in working on a team and flexibility. EXPERIENCE Apples amp; Oranges Marketing, San Francisco, CA Associate Marketer – April 2017-May 2020 Discuss marketing goals with clients Provide customer service Lead campaigns associated with women’s health Coordinating with a marketing team Quickly solving issues in service and managing conflict Awarded with two raises totaling $10,000 over three years Prestigious Marketing Company, San Francisco, CA Marketer – May 2014-April 2017 Working directly with clients Conducting market research into television streaming preferences Developing marketing campaigns related to television streaming services Report writing Analyzing campaign success statistics Promoted to Marketer from Junior Marketer after the first year Timberlake Public Relations, San Francisco, CA Public Relations Intern – September 2013–May 2014 Working cohesively with a large group of co-workers and supervisors Note-taking during meetings Running errands Managing email accounts Assisting in brainstorming Meeting work deadlines EDUCATION Golden Gate University, San Francisco, CA Bachelor of Arts in Marketing with a minor in Communications – September 2009 – May 2013 SKILLS Marketing Market research Record-keeping Teamwork Presentation. Flexibility

What research skills are important?

Goal-setting and data collection are important research skills. Additional important research skills include:

Using different sources to analyze information.

Finding information on the internet.

Interviewing sources.

Writing reports.

Critical thinking.

Planning and scheduling.

Note-taking.

Managing time.

How do you develop good research skills?

You develop good research skills by learning how to find information from multiple high-quality sources, by being wary of confirmation bias, and by starting broad and getting more specific as you go.

When you learn how to tell a reliable source from an unreliable one and get in the habit of finding multiple sources that back up a claim, you’ll have better quality research.

In addition, when you learn how to keep an open mind about what you’ll find, you’ll avoid falling into the trap of confirmation bias, and by staying organized and narrowing your focus as you go (rather than before you start), you’ll be able to gather quality information more efficiently.

What is the importance of research?

The importance of research is that it informs most decisions and strategies in a business. Whether it’s deciding which products to offer or creating a marketing strategy, research should be used in every part of a company.

Because of this, employers want employees who have strong research skills. They know that you’ll be able to put them to work bettering yourself and the organization as a whole.

Should you put research skills on your resume?

Yes, you should include research skills on your resume as they are an important professional skill. Where you include your research skills on your resume will depend on whether you have a lot of experience in research from a previous job or as part of getting your degree, or if you’ve just cultivated them on your own.

If your research skills are based on experience, you could put them down under the tasks you were expected to perform at the job in question. If not, then you should likely list it in your skills section.

University of the People – The Best Research Skills for Success

Association of Internet Research Specialists — What are Research Skills and Why Are They Important?

MasterClass — How to Improve Your Research Skills: 6 Research Tips

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Sky Ariella is a professional freelance writer, originally from New York. She has been featured on websites and online magazines covering topics in career, travel, and lifestyle. She received her BA in psychology from Hunter College.

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The Best Research Skills for a Resume

If you want to apply for a research position, you need to provide evidence of research skills on your resume. In this article, we explore what the best research skills for a resume are, why they are important and how to list them properly. We also provide a researcher resume sample to get you started – you can use it as inspiration or a template.

Table of Contents

What Are Research Skills?

A career like research is an excellent option for anyone who can collect, analyze and interpret data, solve complex problems, dive deep into discovery, and offer innovative solutions. The best thing about being a researcher is that you can not only succeed in science and academia but also climb up the career ladder in the corporate world. Indeed, having solid research skills opens the door to many roles and industries, including academic environments, government settings, transnational corporations, startups, tech giants, and non-profit organizations, to name but a few.

From human behavior to regional studies to biotech, there are myriads of research spheres where a qualified individual can make a difference. Researchers utilize their skills to explore a variety of topics, and if you have your mind set on pursuing a career as a researcher, you need to understand what skill set is pivotal for success in this field.

In a nutshell, research skills are all about searching ways to resolve problems. They are knowledge, abilities and competencies that ensure you can investigate particular topics, perform critical analysis, extract and organize data, interpret results, form hypotheses, and derive data-driven conclusions.

As a researcher, you are expected to be capable of relaying your findings to other people in a compelling and digestible form and even inspire action, both in yourself and in others.

Whether you are a seasoned researcher or a novice in this field, you need to put the right skills on your resume . Below you will find a list of the most in-demand research skills in today’s job market.

The Top 10 Research Skills for a Resume

Communication.

Communication is a crucial aspect of a research career since you are required to share information, relay findings and spread knowledge efficiently and effectively, both orally and in writing . While communication skills certainly have a place on your resume , that doesn’t mean adding “Communication” to your list of skills is enough to move on. You need to provide relevant examples verifying that you can research things as part of a team and work towards a common goal. You could add something like this to add credibility to your claim:

Recruited 7 research assistants for clinical studies by visiting clinics and sending out email invites, increasing participation by 20%.

Explained 100+ research procedures to a group of study participants in 10 days, resulting in a 0% incident rate.

Problem Solving

Being an advanced problem solver means you can consistently identify issues and find effective and efficient solutions to them . It is an extremely valuable skill when it comes to research-based activities, and 86% of employers look for workers who are capable of solving problems in the workplace according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers’ Job Outlook 2022 survey. If you want to add problem-solving skills to your resume, you need to underpin them with relevant accomplishments. For instance, you could add examples like these:

Resolved course accessibility issues by creating interactive presentations for remote learners, increasing student satisfaction by 89%.

Developed and introduced a new computing environment for analysis, identifying 100% of failure patterns and improving issue detection by 75%.

Analytical Skills

Having analytical skills means you can parse data into digestible pieces, interpret them correctly and make data-based connections and conclusions . Data analysis incorporates a vast set of competencies, including technical skills like proficiency in programming languages, such as Python and R, familiarity with data visualization tools, like Tableau and Power BI, and a strong grasp of statistical analysis methods, such as hypothesis testing, regression analysis, and sample size determination. Armed with these skills, a researcher can take data to the next level and drive both innovation and profitability.

Being able to make sense of facts and figures both manually and using automated solutions will help you thrive in most roles, so recruiters would love to know that you are an analytical thinker when considering your candidacy. Your best bet here is to make sure they can find this out by examining your resume. You can add examples like the ones below to prove you can tackle complicated issues using your analytical skill set:

Collected, cleaned and analyzed first-party data from 10+ departments to identify the socio-economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the company.

Performed regression analysis to determine the effects of a company-wide minimum wage increase, concluding that the hiring process was accelerated by 25% due to the wage change in question.

Qualitative Analysis

Qualitative analysis allows you to analyze a research subject using non-numerical and non-quantifiable parameters, characteristics and indicators and is based on abstract concepts . For instance, you can use qualitative attributes like human behavior or brand reputation to make business decisions or recognize investment opportunities. This skill is in demand today as it helps researchers use their observations to make conclusions, identify patterns and tackle challenges. Since you cannot quantify this area of your expertise, you need to provide relevant context to convince the reader that you are capable of analyzing non-tangible aspects of a subject. You can do that by using appropriate examples, like the following ones:

Evaluated the quality and accuracy of 200+ data sources in a month.

Performed quality control of high-volume content in a rapidly changing environment, maintaining a quality score of 99.9%.

Quantitative Analysis

Quantitative analysis is an approach that allows you to collect, study, measure, and analyze data . From statistical research to financial modeling, quantitative analysis includes a powerful toolkit that helps a researcher refine and simplify vast amounts of raw data to make better decisions and forecast trends.

Quantitative analysis has countless applications: with it, you can track metrics, measure variables and evaluate parameters in multiple fields, from finance and accounting to molecular biology and astrophysics. Therefore, it is no wonder that it is one of the most important research skills for a resume and highlighting it the right way is likely to help you move forward in the job searching process. You can prove that you know how to work with tangible data by providing relevant examples, like the following ones:

Designed a new data analysis technique, saving 30 monthly hours in parameter comparisons.

Used SQL to analyze customer data and identify areas for improvement related to customer conversions, resulting in a conversion boost by 75%.

Academic Writing

Academic writing is the ability to create complex documents containing scientific data, such as formulas, graphs, and charts . Academic writing skills help researchers prepare reports, presentations and articles for scientific journals and magazines, and if you have them, it means you know how to present technical information clearly and concisely. Recruiters from scientific fields are especially interested in candidates capable of writing academically, so submitting a resume with examples of written work is likely to help you secure a position as a researcher. Listing your publications to prove your expertise is the best option here, but since you might not have enough space to add all your papers, books and articles, you could highlight your academic writing proficiency with something like this:

Created 350+ articles on the principles of academic research for the university’s database, increasing student satisfaction by 60%.

Published 30+ papers focused on structural changes in protein conformations.

Literature Review

Literature review is a methodology that implies conducting rigorous research on a particular topic . Having literature review skills means you can explore your subject area in greater depth using sources like books, journal articles, industry magazines, etc. Such competencies allow you to build upon existing knowledge and generate new ideas, accelerating your research and pushing it to its full potential. Naturally, your literature review skills are a valuable asset to your resume. We recommend you to illuminate them with appropriate examples, focusing on tangible outcomes:

Gathered and reviewed 10+ articles on Stata to extract variables from a dataset.

Performed 100+ literature reviews to implement changes in clinical practice, boosting quality of care by 70%.

Time Management

Time management is a powerful soft skill that is especially valuable in research environments. It allows you to manage your time effectively, break large tasks into manageable chunks and prioritize them properly, set up measurable, attainable, and time-bound goals, and even juggle your responsibilities . Proper time management helps you stay focused on your work, boosts your productivity and thereby leads to consistently high results and impressive outcomes. From carrying out experiments to writing reports to teaching, as a researcher, you need to apply time management strategies on a daily basis to successfully accomplish your tasks. You can show you are good at time management on your resume by showcasing your successes, like in the examples below:

Developed a database for organizing behavioral data for 100+ study participants, decreasing data processing time by 30%.

Implemented data analysis techniques in Python, increasing the amount of data analyzed per hour by 17% and accelerating project completion by 40%.

Attention to Detail

Paying attention to detail is a vital aspect of being a researcher. Having this skill helps you gather credible information, perceive meaningful connections, notice discrepancies, and deliver high-quality work based on correct evidence. Since each and every aspect of a career in research requires efficiency and trustworthiness, attention to detail is something you cannot go without – otherwise, your progress will come to a screeching halt. Naturally, you need to illuminate this skill on your resume as recruiters seek candidates who can look at details with a critical eye and minimize distractions. And the best way to do that is by providing a relevant example of success. You can use the ones below for reference:

Checked 10 + data sheets for completion and quality per day, resulting in a <1% error rate.

Supervised the maintenance and updates of the lab’s database with a 99% accuracy rate.

Editing & Proofreading

Editing and proofreading skills are essential to perform successful research since they ensure it is both accurate and easy to read . While editing is more about making your text more digestible and improving the overall quality of your writing, proofreading corrects surface issues like errors in spelling, punctuation and grammar. Both require you to have a solid command of the language you use and a certain degree of focus. The devil is indeed in the details, so you need to always polish your texts before submitting them. Only this way will they be perceived by your peers and superiors as constructive and professional. And to prove you are good at editing and proofreading, you need to add appropriate examples to your resume. Here is how you can demonstrate your ability to provide high-quality texts:

Edited 11 federal grant proposals designed by my team, which generated $200+ in lab funding.

Edited a research paper co-authored with 2 postdoctoral employees regarding protein generation, which received the Best Paper Award in 2020.

How to List Research Skills on a Resume

Your resume is the best place to highlight your research experience and the value you could bring to your next role. The key here is to put your research skills in the right section so that they get noticed by the reader. You have no fewer than 7 options here:

• A dedicated research section
• Your work experience section
• The education section
• The list of your research publications
• The projects section
• The skills section
• Your resume summary

If you have a solid research background, you may want to create a separate section on your resume and call it Research or Research Experience . This place will help you expand on your projects and their details, specify the nature of your research, and describe the specifics of your previous roles, providing relevant examples and demonstrating the most prominent accomplishments.

If your career is all things research, the work/professional experience section can incorporate your research skills and accomplishments. List your employers and your duties, along with the dates of your employment, like you would do when describing your non-research work experience.

Your education section is an appropriate place to highlight your research skills if you are a student or a recent graduate. You can put it at the top of your resume if you want to draw more attention to your research background when applying for your first job in science or academia.

If you have a whole host of published works, it could be a great idea to create a separate section for listing your publications . This will help you add credibility to your research skills and accomplishments. Research-related accomplishments can also be highlighted as projects on your resume. This might be appropriate if your research background is not so extensive or not quite relevant to your current career aspirations.

You can list your research skills in your skills section as long as they are tangible and relevant for the job you want to land. We recommend you to avoid general skills here and focus on industry-specific expertise, illuminating it with the keywords you can find in the corresponding job listing and relevant skill levels .

Highlighting your research skills in the summary section is appropriate if you are applying for a role where a robust research background is essential. Your resume summary is just a few lines appearing at the top of the document, so make sure to add only the most important research skills there – those that you want the reader to see first and foremost.

Why Are Research Skills Important?

Research-oriented positions and most jobs in academia require you to have a solid set of research skills. Employees outside these roles can also benefit from research experience – research skills are transferable , meaning you can bring them to the table no matter your position, career field or job level. Therefore, they are a valuable addition to a resume in many cases.

Businesses and organizations are eager to employ candidates with proven research skills because they can

• come up with original plans and ideas,
• design innovative products and services,
• improve processes,
• keep up with technology,
• identify customers’ needs and requirements and find ways to meet them,
• resolve complicated issues,
• analyze competitors’ strengths and weaknesses,

By adding research skills to your resume, you show recruiters that you can think outside the box, know how to work with data and technology, are capable of making well-informed decisions, and are good at solving problems. This makes you a valuable hire in today’s skill-based job market

A Resume Sample to Apply for a Research Position

JOHN/JANE DOE Research Assistant Location ⋅ Email ⋅ Phone number Diligent and hardworking clinical researcher seeking a position at [Name of Company] to apply academic expertise and facilitate biological research. PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE Company/Organization, Location Dates of Employment Research Assistant Assisted scientists in 30+ research projects related to therapeutics for COVID-19 Conducted data-driven testing with an accuracy rate of 98% Supervised a team of 3 junior research assistants with daily laboratory duties Company/Organization, Location Dates of Employment Graduate Research Assistant Participated in cell research projects as part of a cross-departmental team of 30 researchers. Performed cell counts with 99% accuracy Was engaged in developing a platform to investigate immune responses to virus-infected hepatocytes. … Company/Organization, Location Dates of Employment Research Student Assistant Gathered and analyzed data and evidence for 10+ clinical research cases monthly. Awarded “Research Impact Award” in recognition of consistent research excellence (only 1 student is awarded in a class of 100). … EDUCATION NAME OF UNIVERSITY Location Degree, Major Dates of Education SKILLS Molecular cloning RNA isolation Cell counting Knowledge of SQL code and queries Data analysis Literature review

A career in research is an extremely exciting yet quite a demanding path. Since the competition for positions in the field is very fierce, as a researcher, you need to have high levels of determination and persistence and a powerful combination of skills. The research skills we have outlined in this article are what recruiters expect to see on your resume, so make sure to expand on them to get the job of your dream, rise to the top of your game and deliver ground-breaking research.

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• Open access
• Published: 03 April 2024

Co-development of a training programme on disability for healthcare workers in Uganda

• Tracey Smythe 1 , 2 ,
• Andrew Sentoogo Ssemata 3 , 4 ,
• Sande Slivesteri 3 ,
• Femke Bannink Mbazzi 1 , 3 &
• Hannah Kuper 1  

BMC Health Services Research volume  24 , Article number:  418 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

Metrics details

Approximately 1.3 billion people worldwide face barriers in accessing inclusive healthcare due to disabilities, leading to worse health outcomes, particularly in low and middle-income countries (LMIC). However, there is a lack of training of healthcare workers about disability, both globally and in Uganda.

To use mixed research methods to develop a comprehensive training program with standardisedelements for healthcare workers in Uganda, focusing on improving their knowledge, attitudes, and skills inproviding care for people with disabilities.

The Medical Research Council (MRC) approach was employed to guide the development of the training intervention. We conducted an umbrella review to gather relevant literature on disability training for healthcare workers. Interviews were conducted with international experts to gain insights and perspectives on the topic. Additionally, interviews were undertaken with people with disabilities and healthcare workers in Uganda to understand their experiences and needs. A participatory workshop was organised involving key stakeholders, to collaboratively design the training material based on the findings from these data sources.

Eight review articles examined training programs for healthcare workers on disability. Training settings ranged from specialised clinical settings to non-clinical settings, and the duration and evaluation methods of the training varied widely. Lectures and didactic methods were commonly used, often combined with other approaches such as case studies and simulations. The impact of the training was assessed through healthcare worker reports on attitudes, knowledge, and self-efficacy. Interviews emphasised the importance of involving people with disabilities in the training and improving communication and understanding between healthcare providers and people with disabilities. Five themes for a training on disability for healthcare workers were generated through the workshop, including responsibilities and rights, communication, informed consent, accommodation, and referral and connection, which were used to guide the development of the curriculum, training materials and training approach.

This study presents a novel approach to develop a training program that aims to enhance healthcare services for people with disabilities in Uganda. The findings offer practical insights for the development of similar programs in LMICs. The effectiveness of the training program will be evaluated through a pilot test, and policy support is crucial for its successful implementation at scale.

Key messages

1. Healthcare workers require training to effectively address the health concerns of people with disabilities, yet this is rarely included in curricula worldwide.

2. Uganda recognises the importance of addressing this issue and is taking steps to improve training programs about disability for healthcare workers.

3. We used multiple research methods (umbrella review, semi-structured interviews, participatory research and collaborative design) to co-develop a comprehensive training program with standardised elements for healthcare workers in Uganda, focusing on improving their knowledge, attitudes, and skills in providing care for people with disabilities.

4. The developed training material could be adapted for healthcare workers in other resource-limited settings, and policy support is needed to ensure its implementation at scale.

Peer Review reports

Introduction

Approximately 16% of the world’s population, or 1.3 billion people, live with a disability, and the majority live in low and middle income countries (LMIC) [ 1 ]. Access to inclusive healthcare services is vital for promoting health equity and social inclusion for all [ 2 , 3 ]. However, healthcare workers’ lack of knowledge, skills, and attitudes towards disability remains a significant barrier to achieving this goal [ 4 ]. Efforts to integrate disability-related education and training into healthcare curricula and continuing education programs, as emphasized by the WHO report [ 1 ], are crucial in addressing this issue. Equipping healthcare workers with the necessary tools and resources to provide effective, respectful, and culturally sensitive care to people with disabilities is essential in meeting their needs and promoting positive health outcomes. People with disabilities want to be “expected, accepted and connected” by the health system [ 2 ]. This requires training to ensure that healthcare staff are aware of disabilities, possess relevant skills, and maintain positive attitudes, enabling them to make appropriate linkages to other necessary care. Efforts to integrate disability-related education and training into healthcare curricula and continuing education programs are crucial in addressing this issue [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 5 ].

Training on disability can lead to improvements in the knowledge and attitudes of healthcare workers towards people with disabilities throughout all stages of their careers. For example, two medical colleges in the US integrated disability across medical student training curricula, and medical students improved their knowledge, attitudes, and core competencies in treating patients with disabilities [ 6 ]. In Rwanda, continuing professional development training about childhood disability used case studies and clinic visits, and instructors gave participants’ immediate feedback on their practice. As a result, participants demonstrated improved clinical decision making skills in paediatric rehabilitation [ 7 ]. Similarly, programmes that invited people with disabilities as teachers found that participants believed the nonclinical interaction enhanced their comfort and attitudes towards people with disabilities [ 8 , 9 ].

Despite the global recognition that well-trained, fairly distributed and motivated healthcare workers are critical to improving population health and achieving universal health coverage (UHC) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) [ 10 ], there are limited standardised training programs focusing on disability [ 11 ], especially in LMICs. Existing programs cover diverse content areas such as general disability awareness, condition-specific knowledge, rehabilitation skills, assistive technology, inclusive design, universal design for learning, mental health, and primary healthcare (Table  1 ). There has been little consideration to date on what is optimal in terms of content of disability training for healthcare workers.

There are various potential approaches to training, including face-to-face or remote, involvement of people with disabilities or not, and emphasis on knowledge, skills, or attitudes, as well as different underlying models, such as medical or rights-based [ 11 , 12 ]. Despite this range of possibility, there is limited collation or scrutiny of information, including input from people with disabilities and healthcare workers, to identify the most effective approach. Additionally, LMICs face unique challenges in healthcare provision, including resource constraints and limited access to education and training [ 13 ], which may contribute to the acute lack of training opportunities for healthcare workers. For instance, Uganda encounters significant challenges in training healthcare workers on disability due to limited resources, infrastructure, and cultural barriers that may stigmatise or exclude people with disabilities [ 14 , 15 , 16 ].

The objective of this study was therefore to use multiple research methods to develop a comprehensive training program with standardised elements for healthcare workers in Uganda, focusing on improving their knowledge, attitudes, and skills in providing care for people with disabilities. This paper describes the development of the disability training and presents the framework of the training material developed. We provide an in-depth examination of the training needs of healthcare workers in the area of disability and offer a practical solution in the form of the developed training material that can be used to improve the knowledge and skills of healthcare workers on disability. A future study will pilot test and evaluate the training material.

We used the Medical Research Council (MRC) approach, which involves a systematic and evidence-based framework to development of a programme [ 17 ]. It emphasises the importance of involving stakeholders throughout the process and ensures that interventions are evidence-based, feasible, and acceptable to those involved in their implementation. This approach aims to create effective and sustainable interventions that improve health outcomes and services.

Overview of methods

This study utilised data from an umbrella review, interviews with international experts on disability training for healthcare workers, and interviews with people with disabilities and healthcare workers in Uganda. The data informed the design of a workshop that involved key stakeholders, including healthcare workers and people with disabilities, in co-creating the training material. The training material was developed based on information gathered from the umbrella review, interviews, and design workshop.

Umbrella review

The umbrella review was conducted to identify systematic reviews and meta-analyses of studies that examined associations between training of healthcare workers on any disability and change in healthcare worker behaviour, attitude or treatment delivered. The protocol for this study was registered in the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO), reference number #CRD42023390881. We used the Preferred Reporting Items for Overviews of Reviews (PRIOR) statement for conducting umbrella reviews. We searched PubMed for studies published in English between 1st January 2015 and 11th January 2023, using the terms (“train*” OR “educat*”) AND (“healthcare worker” OR “health professional” OR “medical professional”) AND (“disability” OR “impairment”) filtered for systematic reviews and meta-analyses for this rapid umbrella review. Inclusion criteria were established as: systematic reviews or meta-analyses that evaluated training on disability (intervention) for any health professional (population). Studies were excluded if published prior to 2015 to ensure the currency and relevance of information, and if in any other language than English. We searched reference lists of included studies for additional eligible papers.

Two reviewers (TS, ASS) independently assessed study eligibility and extracted the data. The risk of bias of the included studies was assessed using AMSTAR 2 (A MeaSurement Tool to Assess systematic Reviews) [ 18 ], designed to appraise systematic reviews that include randomised controlled trials. The instrument provides a broad assessment of quality, including flaws that may have arisen through poor conduct of the review with uncertain impact on findings. We developed and pilot-tested an extraction tool in Excel, to systematically record information from included studies. Extracted information included: (1) Publication characteristics: author, title, year of publication, setting/country; (2) Study design: study design, sample size; (3) Participant characteristics: cadre, and any other relevant descriptive data; (4) Outcomes: effect size of training. Data were extracted by TS and checked for accuracy by ASS. Where studies included information on training other professionals (e.g. police officers, teachers) only data on healthcare workers were extracted. Data were also only extracted on training when reviews included additional information (e.g. use of disability measurement tools). We narratively synthesised the results.

Semi-structured interviews

Interviews were conducted with international experts with experience of delivering training on disability in January 2022, in order to explore current practices and to identify gaps in practice and policy. Six experts were purposively sampled to represent people with and without disabilities, in low and high income settings. They were interviewed by TS, a physiotherapist and epidemiologist from Zimbabwe with mixed-methods expertise. Interviews were held online using Zoom. Verbal informed consent was given. A set of open-ended questions (Supplementary file 1) elicited detailed responses on the experiences, perspectives and practices of experts in the field of healthcare worker training on disability. The interviews were recorded and transcribed for analysis. Transcripts were coded and thematically analysed using NVIVO.

Interviews were then conducted in Uganda with people with disabilities and healthcare workers. Written consent was given. People with disabilities were asked what they wished healthcare workers would know about disability, and interviews with a range of healthcare workers were used to gather more detailed information on their specific training needs and to understand their perceptions of the current training available. Semi-structured interviews were conducted in-person with 17 healthcare workers and 27 people with disabilities in Luuka District, Uganda. ASS and SS, Ugandan social scientists with expertise in qualitative methodology undertook the interviews. Participants were recruited through existing networks, non-government organisations and health facilities. The healthcare workers were selected from the eight sub-counties that make up Luuka district based on cadre (clinical officers, midwives, nurses, village health trainers, laboratory technicians, health officers), and level of health facility (health centre, II, III or IV). The people with disabilities were purposively selected to ensure representation of age, gender and impairment. Interviews were undertaken with persons with visual impairment ( n  = 5), physical impairment ( n  = 5), multiple impairment ( n  = 5), cognitive/ intellectual impairment ( n  = 5) and albinism ( n  = 1). Interviews with people with hearing impairment ( n  = 6) were conducted by a member of the research team who is deaf (Supplementary file 2: Participant demographics). The semi-structured interviews explored experiences and perspectives of delivering and receiving health services (Supplementary file 3: Healthcare worker, Supplementary file 4: People with disability). The interviews were conducted in a private and comfortable setting and lasted 50–80 min. They were audio recorded and transcribed. Those conducted in Lusoga and Luganda were translated to English. The transcripts were coded and manually analysed using a deductive thematic analysis approach.

Design workshop

A design workshop was held to develop a framework for the disability training intervention in Entebbe Uganda in September 2022. The workshop brought together a group of people with diverse disabilities ( n  = 7) and healthcare workers and medical educationalist ( n  = 5) to actively participate in the design process over 2 days. The workshop was facilitated by TS and ASS. The workshop consisted of a series of participatory activities, including group discussions, brainstorming sessions, and small group exercises. These activities were designed to elicit the perspectives, experiences, and recommendations of participants. The workshop concluded with a consensus-building activity, where participants discussed and agreed on the key components of the training framework.

Development of training material

A theory of change was used to inform the content design and implementation of the training framework. The research team created the first theory of change model, led by TS, drawing on information gathered from the international experts. The theory of change approach involved identifying the desired outcomes of the training and the necessary steps and activities to be put in place to achieve those outcomes. The training material was then developed by the study team drawing on evidence from the umbrella review, interviews and design workshop on the most effective training strategies for healthcare workers on disability, and was refined based on feedback from five people with disabilities.

The literature search for the umbrella review yielded 377 studies, with 24 full-text articles selected for further review. Eight review articles were eligible for inclusion in the final analysis (Fig.  1 ). A total of 227 studies were included in the reviews, but only 4 studies were conducted in LMICs. The reviews related to training in intellectual and developmental disabilities, mental health, and all disabilities. Three systematic reviews were rated with high confidence on the AMSTAR2 tool, two rated with medium and three rated with low confidence (Supplementary file 5 ). The systematic reviews receiving a low confidence rating in their findings were evaluated as such because they failed to pre-register the review and did not include an appropriate evaluation of bias, including publication bias of the included studies.

PRISMA for umbrella review of systematic reviews and meta-analyses on training of healthcare workers on disability

The training settings included specialised clinical settings, non-specialised clinical settings (inpatient and outpatient), continuity-clinic based, non-clinical settings, medical schools, GP practices, primary care clinics, and various other settings such as clinics, camps, schools, residential settings, and universities. The timeline of training and training evaluation methods varied across the articles; Some articles reported single-session training, short-term training (< 1 month), and longer-term training (1–3 months or > 3 months).

Lectures and didactic (instructional) methods were the most commonly reported teaching methods in disability education, often combined with other approaches, such as case studies, simulations, and placements. Some training programmes leverage multimedia tools, such as video recording or simulations, to enhance the learning experience. The content of the education typically includes disability from a rights-based perspective, as well as particular skills, such as sign language for medical and pharmacology terms (Table  2 ). Many programmes involved people with disabilities as active participants in the education, such as simulating patients or serving as teachers to help run activities. Through these interactions, contact with people with disabilities was transformative, leading to significant changes in attitudes and perceptions of participants.

A broad variety of evaluation methods were used, such as pre- and post-test knowledge assessments, questionnaires at baseline up to 18 months, and immediate post-training evaluations. The impact of the education was typically measured by healthcare worker reports of comfort and attitudes towards people with disabilities, as well as communication skills, knowledge, and self-efficacy. Target outcomes for the training interventions varied, with some focusing on perspective/awareness/comfort, medical and clinical knowledge. Several had unclear outcomes. However, only a few studies considered the longer-term impact, specifically three months post-intervention. The training effect estimates are almost exclusively for high income countries.

Interviews with international experts

International experts reported that people with disabilities play an important role in improving the quality of care for themselves and others. Interviewees identified several ways that this role would occur, as people with disabilities can: offer unique insights into their experiences and perspectives, identify areas for improvement in their care, serve as advocates and role models, and help to promote a culture of inclusion and understanding in the healthcare system. They can also help to ensure that training programs are relevant, effective, and responsive to the needs of people with disabilities.

Experts reported that good practice examples of training methods included contextualized story-telling and activities adapted by the trainer to the local context. Participants believed that these methods were most effective in engaging learners and improving their knowledge, attitudes, and skills related to disability. However, the success of these methods depended on the quality of the training materials, the experience and skills of the trainers, and the level of buy-in and engagement from learners.

Interviewees identified challenges in providing disability education within healthcare training, citing issues such as lack of standardization in curricula and limited time and resources. They expressed concern that these factors may contribute to inadequate understanding of disability issues among healthcare providers, resulting in disparities in care and outcomes for people with disabilities. Additionally, participants discussed emerging trends in healthcare, such as the use of telemedicine and wearable devices, which they believed would require healthcare workers to develop an even deeper understanding of the needs of people with disabilities. They identified opportunities for scaling training, including integrating disability education into undergraduate degrees, continuing education programs, mentoring, and coaching. Overall, participants viewed the future of disability education for healthcare workers as an exciting opportunity for growth and advancement in the healthcare industry.

Interviews in Uganda

Overall, the importance of improving communication, understanding, and collaboration between healthcare providers and people with disabilities to promote equitable and high-quality healthcare services was emphasised in interviews with both people with disabilities and healthcare workers.

People with disabilities highlighted that they expected healthcare workers to recognise and be made aware of the challenges they face when trying to access healthcare services. Additionally, they emphasised that they desired to be treated with the same respect and dignity as any other patient, and they value a positive attitude from healthcare providers towards their care.

“We want healthcare workers to know that all people are equal, including those of us with disabilities, and they should treat each person with dignity.” (Male, visual impairment). “The doctors in the hospital should know that we too are humans, and have blood like them. The difference maybe is that one of my parts is weak, but it doesn’t stop us from getting sick like them.” (Female, physical impairment).

Many of the participants with disabilities acknowledged that better communication skills from healthcare providers, such as clear and concise explanations, are essential to building trust and rapport with people with disabilities.

“What I know is that for my life to continue being good, it is important for me to be able to visit a healthcare worker who understands my situation and I am not insulted…The care and respect you give me when you see me, and how you speak, is helpful.” (Male, Albinism).

Similarly, the healthcare workers expressed a need for more training and education on disability to provide high-quality care. The reported training needs ranged from basic training orientation on disability, including communication skills and knowledge on how to navigate the time needed for disability-inclusive care, to how to examine and treat people with disabilities during routine health visits.

“First of all, we need training because people with disabilities cannot be managed like other individuals. We need training on the forms of disabilities because the different types of disabilities call for different management. So, we can be empowered…and we can manage the expected and non-expected challenges.”(Male, Medical officer) . “We need to know, how do you assess, and how do you support and counsel them. If you do not have those skills sometimes you can mishandle them. For example, you may just look at the cough they have but behind the cough there could be other things.” (Female, Senior nursing officer).

Furthermore, healthcare providers pointed out the need for adequate information about specialised service needs, how to make referrals and contextual considerations (e.g. cultural, social, economic) to ensure that people with disabilities received appropriate care and were referred for further management.

“If I recognise the need for specialised care, I would simply write a referral note. However, many times I am unsure of where to refer them, so I am unable to follow up on whether they received the necessary assistance. Writing a referral is the best I can do.” (Male, Senior medical officer). “We can train healthcare workers within the facility on the best practices for interacting with people with disabilities. Even those of us who support them in the community can be trained on how to connect them with specialised services .” (Male, VHT coordinator). “It may be beneficial to collaborate with others who work with individuals with disabilities and provide holistic care. Since we operate at different levels and some hospitals have specialised clinics for individuals with disabilities, working together can help ensure they receive proper services”. (Female, Midwife)

Involving people with disabilities in training was regarded as a way of facilitating mutual understanding and enabling healthcare workers to better address the specific needs of persons with disabilities, while establishing a designated person for follow-up could enhance continuity of care.

“Sometimes we are left behind, but if we are invited to health workshops, we can share our experiences with healthcare workers, including how we feel and how we should be treated. We can discuss the specific disabilities we face and the challenges we encounter. This would provide an opportunity for healthcare workers to better understand and appreciate what individuals with disabilities go through. ” (Male, Person with disability councillor, Visual impairment).

The findings suggest that healthcare workers often feel uncertain about referring people with disabilities for specialised care, leading to challenges in ensuring necessary and appropriate healthcare. Training healthcare workers on best practices for interacting with people with disabilities, both within the facility and in the community was recommended to help improve their ability to connect patients with specialised services and provide holistic care.

Themes and recommendations from the participatory workshop

Five themes for healthcare worker training on disability were generated by consensus from discussions during the participatory workshop. These themes included the need for a focus on:

Responsibilities and rights: emphasising understanding of the rights of people with disabilities;

Communication: highlighting effective communication for building rapport;

Informed consent: focusing on respecting privacy during examinations;

Accommodation: advocating for disability-inclusive practices; and

Referral and connection: ensuring appropriate referrals and connections to other healthcare services.

The workshop also emphasised the importance of active participation, clear communication, and inclusivity in the design process.

It was recommended that the disability training program should adopt a modular approach, focusing on different aspects of providing healthcare to people with disabilities. It should also focus on increasing knowledge and understanding of disabilities, and improving the attitudes and practices of healthcare workers towards people with disabilities. Emphasis should be placed on adopting a disability-inclusive approach, training healthcare workers on the social model of disability, recognising the impact of societal barriers on the lives of people with disabilities, and addressing these barriers to promote greater inclusion and participation in society. Cultural sensitivity and the use of appropriate terminology are essential help to ensure that the training is inclusive and relevant to the diverse population of people with disabilities that healthcare workers may encounter.

Interaction with people with disabilities was recommended as a key component. This will involve inviting people with disabilities to participate in the training sessions to share their experiences and perspectives. The training should also adopt a learner-centred and participatory approach, based on the values of the healthcare worker, promoting reflection on their own values and beliefs and applying them in their practice, which may be effective in promoting a sense of ownership and commitment to working with people with disabilities.

Ongoing mentorship and peer learning should support the training, pairing healthcare workers with experienced mentors to provide guidance and support as they apply their new knowledge and skills in practice. Practical skills should be included in the training, such as techniques for measuring the weight of a person with a physical impairment, to ensure comprehensive and considerate examination and treatment of people with disabilities.

Training material structure

The theory of change provided a clear and logical structure for the development of the training framework and helped to ensure that the framework was comprehensive, evidence-based and responsive to the specific needs and experiences of people with disabilities in Uganda. The desired outcomes of the training included increasing the knowledge, skills and attitudes of healthcare workers on disability, to ensure that people with disabilities are expected, accepted and connected within health systems. The ceiling of responsibility is the distal outcome that healthcare workers provide disability inclusive care that is considerate and comprehensive. Key components and activities that would be necessary to achieve the proximal outcomes included interaction with people with disabilities, a learner centred participatory approach based on the values of healthcare workers, ongoing mentorship and peer learning (Fig.  2 ).

Theory of change *HCW = healthcare worker, PWD = people with disabilities

The developed training programme included a range of activities such as pre-training self-assessments, interactive workshops, case studies and mentoring. The training framework also included specific provisions for accessibility and inclusion, recognising the importance of addressing the specific needs and experiences of people with disabilities.

The training will be delivered by a healthcare worker and a person with a disability. They will facilitate the training in person over one day for various healthcare workers (nurses, technicians, community health workers, allied health professionals, doctors). The programme will focus on key areas such understanding disability, good practices in work, and personal motivations for providing disability-inclusive healthcare. Participants will learn about routine health needs, communication skills, assessing and treating persons with disabilities, appropriate referrals, and ensuring accessibility in healthcare settings.

The training program aims to achieve its goals through several strategies. It promotes a disability-inclusive approach by engaging people with disabilities and encouraging active participation and reflection. Ongoing mentorship and peer learning opportunities are provided for continuous support. Practical tools are shared to equip healthcare workers with necessary skills. Cultural sensitivity is fostered to ensure healthcare workers can provide care that is respectful and responsive to diverse cultural backgrounds and language preferences. By incorporating these strategies, the training program aims to empower healthcare workers with the expertise needed to provide inclusive and effective healthcare services for persons with disabilities.

Developing a comprehensive training programme for healthcare workers on disability is an important step in addressing barriers to healthcare access for people with disabilities [ 3 ]. We used the Medical Research Council approach to develop the training material [ 17 ], considering practical solutions to improve the knowledge and skills of healthcare workers on disability. Our umbrella literature search revealed that lectures and didactic methods were commonly used in disability education, often combined with other approaches such as case studies and simulations. The review also highlighted the importance of using various teaching methods and including people with disabilities in disability education. The impact of education was measured in various ways, including through healthcare worker reports on comfort, attitudes, communication skills, knowledge, and self-efficacy. There is need for a standardised approach to allow comparison between contexts and countries. Standardisation in curricula and limited time and resources were identified as challenges in providing disability education within healthcare training.

People with disabilities and healthcare workers in Uganda expressed the need for better communication skills from healthcare providers, training on disability, and recognition of challenges faced by people with disabilities. These findings are echoed in other studies globally [ 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 ]. The participatory workshop successfully generated a comprehensive and inclusive framework for a disability training programme, incorporating the diverse perspectives of people with disabilities and healthcare workers. Our findings are consistent with other studies that highlight the importance of disability education in healthcare training, utilising various teaching methods and incorporating the perspectives of people with disabilities [ 23 , 24 ]. The next step is to pilot-test the training programme with healthcare workers in Luuka District, Uganda. During pilot testing, the training program will also consider the cultural context in which it will be delivered, as previous research has shown that cultural competence is essential for providing effective and appropriate care to people with disabilities [ 25 , 26 ].

One of the strengths of our study was the use of the MRC approach to develop the training material, which enabled us to systematically examine training needs and develop practical solutions to improve the knowledge and skills of healthcare workers on disability. In addition, the study encompasses a diverse range of health worker cadres and people with varying types of disabilities, ensuring a comprehensive exploration of perspectives and experiences. Our study also has limitations to consider when interpreting the results. A systematic umbrella review was undertaken rather than a systematic review. Recruitment through existing networks, NGOs, and health facilities may not capture the perspectives of people with disabilities who are not affiliated with these organisations. We included the perspectives of people with disabilities and healthcare workers in Uganda, and thus the generalisability of the disability training to other contexts may be limited. While we did include the opinions of international experts and a global umbrella review, further research is needed to confirm the effectiveness and applicability of the training program in different settings, as the umbrella review noted important gaps in the literature.

Our findings have important implications for policy, programmes and research. Specifically, our study suggests that a disability training programme should be inclusive of diverse cultural backgrounds and adaptable to specific needs, and should incorporate the perspectives of both people with disabilities and healthcare workers. These findings could be used to inform the adaptation of future training programs for healthcare workers in Uganda and other resource-limited settings. Nevertheless, people with disabilities are a diverse group with varying needs and this has implications for training. While advocating for overall disability training, it is essential to also focus on different types of impairment. Additionally, the needs of different healthcare workers will vary due to their diverse roles, raising questions about the feasibility of a generic training programme. Policy support is vital to ensure implementation and support of disability training for healthcare workers (e.g. mandating inclusion in medical and nursing curricula). Future studies could use more objective measures of impact, such as patient outcomes or changes in healthcare service provision.

The proposed development of a disability training for healthcare workers aims to address the barriers and challenges faced by people with disabilities in accessing health care services in Africa. The training will adopt a modular approach. Components of the training include interaction with people with disabilities, a learner-centred and participatory approach, ongoing mentorship and peer learning, practical tools to deliver a comprehensive and considerate examination and treatment, and cultural sensitivity.

Data availability

The majority of the datasets supporting the conclusions of this article are included within the article and its additional files. However, underlying interview data associated with this study will not be made freely available, as the small number of healthcare worker and people with disabilities makes data potentially identifying. Applications for access to the raw qualitative data for this study should be made via email to the corresponding author [email protected], outlining the purpose of the proposed analyses and the data requested. These applications will be reviewed by the LSHTM’s data access committee, and if accepted, the requested data will be shared.

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This project is funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) [NIHR Global Research Professorship (Grant Reference Number NIHR301621)] awarded to Prof. Hannah Kuper. The views expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NIHR, NHS, the UK Department of Health and Social Care or FCDO.

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TS and HK designed the work: TS, HK, TS, ASS and SS collected the data, TS, ASS and SS analysed and interpreted the data. TS drafted the article, TS, ASS, SS, FBM and HK provided critical revision of the article and all authors gave final approval of the version to be submitted.

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All protocols were approved by the Uganda Virus Research Institute research ethics committee (ref: GC/127/904) and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (ref: 26715) and the Uganda National Council of Science and Technology (SS1348ES).This study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. Informed consent was obtained from all participants. Written informed consent was obtained from participants (people with disabilities and healthcare workers) who undertook interviews that were conducted in Uganda. Verbal informed consent was obtained from stakeholders, whose interviews were online, and the ethics committee approved this procedure.

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I have not been able to review the links or the files for the supplementary files and tables. Please can you confirm that these will be provided.

Is a higher resolution image required for the PRISMA file (Fig 1)? It does not appear in this file with a good quality.

There are extensive errors in Table 2. Please note that the only references are in the first column, all other columns are numbers/counts, they are not references. So for example, in the first row, USA (14) should be a number not a reference, Pediatrics (12) is a number and not a reference, and Awareness (6) is a number and not a reference. This is repeated throughout the rows. Please can you amend accordingly so that only the first column contains references and the others (as per their headings) are numbers/counts. Thank you.

The table 2 title is repeated twice. First above the table (without a link) and then below the paragraph after the table. Please can you remove the appropriate title. Thank you.

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Smythe, T., Ssemata, A.S., Slivesteri, S. et al. Co-development of a training programme on disability for healthcare workers in Uganda. BMC Health Serv Res 24 , 418 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-024-10918-z

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Received : 29 June 2023

Accepted : 27 March 2024

Published : 03 April 2024

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-024-10918-z

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• Healthcare worker
• Low- and middle-income
• Development
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