Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2022 Aug 12;20(3):e128701.
doi: 10.5812/ijem-128701. eCollection 2022 Jul.

Scientific Publishing in Biomedicine: Information Literacy

Zahra Bahadoran  1 , Parvin Mirmiran  2 , Khosrow Kashfi  3 , Asghar Ghasemi  4
Affiliations
Review

Scientific Publishing in Biomedicine: Information Literacy

Zahra Bahadoran et al. Int J Endocrinol Metab. .

Abstract

The literature review is an integral part of the research process, from developing research ideas to disseminating findings. It involves explaining, interpreting, and summarizing published materials around a topic to elaborate a research hypothesis/question, synthesize new concepts, identify knowledge gaps, develop new theories, and identify new research directions. Effective reading and processing of the literature (i.e., analyzing and synthesizing) and actual writing of the literature (verbal or non-verbal output, e.g., tables and figures) are essential stages of an effective literature review. This article provides a practical guide to conducting an effective literature review. In addition, literature search and evaluation are also briefly discussed.

Keywords: Information Literacy; Literature Review; Medical Writing; Publishing.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interests: We declared that two of our authors (A.Gh and P.M) are editorial board members.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.. Components of research information literacy. Created with BioRender.com
Figure 2.
Figure 2.. Reporting verbs for writing a literature review output (53, 55). The verb "found" makes up about 50% of the total number of real-world/experimental activity verbs. Created with BioRender.com
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Laake P, Benestad HB, Olsen BR. Research methodology in the medical and biological sciences. Academic Press; 2007.
    1. Sample A. Historical development of definitions of information literacy: A literature review of selected resources. J Acad Librariansh. 2020;46(2):102116. doi: 10.1016/j.acalib.2020.102116. - DOI
    1. Aveyard H. Doing a Literature Review in Health and Social Care: A practical guide. Berkshire, England: Open University Press, McGraw- Hill Education; 2014. Why do a literature review in health and social care? pp. 1–17.
    1. Winchester CL, Salji M. Writing a literature review. J Clin Urol. 2016;9(5):308–12. doi: 10.1177/2051415816650133. - DOI
    1. Frank H, Hatak I. How to get published in the best entrepreneurship journals. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar; 2014. Doing a research literature review. pp. 94–117. - DOI

LinkOut - more resources