Systematic reviews in the social sciences - Mark Petticrew

Such diverse thinkers as Lao-Tze, Confucius, and U.S. DefenseSecretary Donald Rumsfeld have all pointed out that we need to beable to tell the difference between real and assumed knowledge. Thesystematic review is a scientific tool that can help with thisdifficult task. It can help, for example, with appraising,summarising, and communicating the results and implications ofotherwise unmanageable quantities of data.

This book, written by two highly-respected social scientists,provides an overview of systematic literature review methods:

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• Outlining the rationale and methods of systematicreviews;
  
• Giving worked examples from social science and otherfields;
  
• Applying the practice to all social science disciplines;
  
• It requires no previous knowledge, but takes the reader throughthe process stage by stage;
  
• Drawing on examples from such diverse fields as psychology,criminology, education, transport, social welfare, public health,and housing and urban policy, among others.
  
• Including detailed sections on assessing the quality of bothquantitative, and qualitative research; searching for evidence inthe social sciences;
  meta-analytic and other methods of evidence synthesis; publicationbias; heterogeneity; and approaches to dissemination.