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Continuing Professional Development: MSc Programme Modules (London-based)

REVIEWING THE LITERATURE (1701)

ORGANISER: Andrew Hutchings

22 February – 23 March 2012 (Wednesdays 2pm to Fridays 5pm)


AIM
This module aims to describe and illustrate the methods available for identifying and reviewing quantitative and qualitative literature.


OBJECTIVES
By the end of the module students should be able to:

  1. carry out an appropriate, rigorous review of the literature; and
  2. understand the strengths and weaknesses of different methods of identifying, assessing and synthesising literature.


CONSTITUENCY
This module is intended for students interested in health services/systems and public health research in developed or developing countries; it is also a pre-requisite for taking the Proposal Development (1702) module in Term 3.  Students who wish to take this module are required to take one of the Library's sessions on using bibliographical databases. There is some overlap between appraising the literature in the module and material covered in Qualitative Methodologies (1700) and Economic Evaluation (1501). There is also some overlap between using bibliographic databases in the module and some of the Library sessions on the use of bibliographic databases.  The module does not cover the use of software for managing references.


CONCEPTUAL OUTLINE
This module will cover all stages in carrying out an appropriate and rigorous review.

  1. Planning the review: the role of the literature review and specification of the task.
  2. Identification of relevant literature, both published and unpublished: developing a search strategy and using bibliographic databases. 
  3. Appraising the literature: methods for assessing the quality of quantitative and qualitative research.
  4. Synthesising the evidence: integration of the evidence using both quantitative and qualitative methods; principles of meta-analysis.
  5. Formulating recommendations and writing the review.


TEACHING STRATEGY
The technical aspects of literature reviewing will be presented in lectures and computer practicals, using some of the databases available through the School's library.  The format of the seminars will encourage both a practical application and critical appraisal of methods.  Each student chooses their own topic and question for their assessed literature review.  Students are strongly advised to consider possible topics and questions for their assessed literature review in preparation for the module. T here will be three sessions during the module for general advice on the assessment.


LEARNING TIME
The module is made up of 150 Notional Learning Hours – 29 hours contact time, 16 hours directed self-study, 15 hours self-directed learning, and 90 hours assessment, review and revision.


ASSESSMENT
Each student will be required to submit a literature review undertaken during this module.

FEE

£1,600 including access to LSHTM library and learning resources, study materials and assessment.

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