Library Guides: Creative Arts Therapy: Systematic Literature Reviews

Library Guides

What are systematic reviews?

Citing References

Creative Arts and Music Therapy staff recommend the APA citation style.

The University of Melbourne'S Re:cite tool offers a quick guide to APA 7th edition.

For more detail, see Publication manual of the American Psychological Association. 7th Ed.

You can keep up-to-date with the APA Style Blog.

Selected Protocols

COCHRANE Reviews Library
Systematic reviews of research in healthcare and health policy that are published in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. They are usually meta-analyses. The scope of Cochrane Reviews is usually described in terms of the Population, Intervention, Comparison, and Outcomes (PICO) studied.
CONSORT (Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials)
Used worldwide to improve the reporting of randomized, controlled trials. It has funding support from Canadian Institutes of Health Research and Cancer Research UK.
PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta Analyses)
Opens in a new tab or window. PRISMA is an evidence-based minimum set of items for reporting in systematic reviews and meta-analyses.
The aim of the PRISMA Statement is to help authors improve the reporting of systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Mainly focused on randomized trials, but PRISMA can also be used for reporting systematic reviews of other types of research, particularly evaluations of interventions. PRISMA may also be useful for critical appraisal of published systematic reviews, although it is not a quality assessment instrument to gauge the quality of a systematic review.
PROSPERO (International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews)
An international database of prospective systematic reviews in health and social care. Key features from the review protocol are recorded and maintained as a permanent record.
RAMESES (Realist And Meta-narrative Evidence Syntheses: Evolving Standards)
Provides realist and meta-narrative alternatives to the COCHRANE methodologies.
TREND (Transparent Reporting of Evaluations with Non-randomized Designs)
An international initiative complementing the CONSORT statement.

Literature Reviews in Creative Arts Therapy

Literature reviews are important for:

establishing the theoretical background and context of primary research,
conducting secondary research through meta-analysis or one of the types of qualitative synthesis.

Systematic literature reviews are comprehensive and replicable. You will need to:

identify the types and scope of resources to be covered, including date range and geographic extent
select the databases or other indices to be used
set out the search terms and strategies likely to be useful, and use them consistently
perhaps scope the search by recording additional terms and subject headings found in initial results before finalising the search strategy
possibly exclude some studies from the review, documenting these and the reasons for exclusion

Some Review Types

Systematic literature reviews can summarise and critique research findings from a number of possible perspectives.

You may find the following readings helpful.

General

Hanson-Abromeit, D. & Moore, K.S. (2014 ). The systematic review as a research process in music therapy. Journal of Music Therapy 51(1) :4.

Robinson K. A., Saldanha I. J., and Mckoy N. A. (2011). Development of a framework to identify research gaps from systematic reviews. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology 64(12): 1325.

Barnett-Page E., and Thomas J. (2009). Methods for the synthesis of qualitative research: a critical review. BMC Medical Research Methodology 9: 59.

Tricco A. C.,Straus S. E., and Moher, D. (2009). How can we improve the interpretation of systematic reviews? BMC Medicine 9:31

Meta-analysis (use of statistical techniques for combining and summarising quantitative results from controlled clinical trials)

There are many books and e-books in the collection with the subject terms Meta-analysis or Evidence-based medicine.

e.g. Higgins, Julian P. T.(2008). Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions [electronic resource]. Hoboken : John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. For an updated version see www.cochrane-handbook.org

Narrative synthesis (a qualitative method identifying major studies in a field, reviewing the main themes and summarising findings)

Gough, D. (2013). Meta-narrative and realist reviews: guidance, rules, publications standards and quality appraisal. BMC Medicine 11:21.

Wong G., Greenhalgh T., Westhorp G., Buckingham J., and Pawson R. (2013). RAMESES publication standards: meta-narrative reviews. BMC Medicine. 11:20.

Critical interpretive synthesis (a method for synthesising a diverse body of evidence to generate and test theory, different from the more traditional aggregative synthesis)

Dixon-Woods, M. et al. (2006). Conducting a critical interpretive synthesis of the literature on access to healthcare by vulnerable groups.BMC Medical Research Methodology 6:35.

Realist synthesis (a mid-range theoretical approach between positivism and constructivism, unpacking contexts, mechanisms and outcomes of primary studies)

Wong, G., Greenhalgh, T., Westhorp, G., Buckingham, J., & Pawson, R. (2013). RAMESES publication standards: realist syntheses. BMC Medicine 11:21.

Best-fit framework synthesis (an iterative approach suited to policy questions)

Dixon-Woods, M. (2011). Using framework-based synthesis for conducting reviews of qualitative studies. BMC Medicine 9: 39.

Carroll C., Booth A., Leaviss J., & Rick J. (2013). "Best fit" framework synthesis: refining the method. BMC Medical Research Methodology 13:37.

Knowledge synthesis (potential for generating new knowledge through extrapolation or interpolation of information sourced through systematic review)

Kastner, M. et al (2012). What is the most appropriate knowledge synthesis method to conduct a review? Protocol for a scoping review. BMC Medical Research Methodolog y 12:114.

A summary of critical appraisal tools is found in the International Centre for Allied Health Evidence pages.