what to include in an abstract for literature review

How do I Write a Literature Review?: #5 Writing the Review

• Step #1: Choosing a Topic
• Step #2: Finding Information
• Step #3: Evaluating Content
• Step #4: Synthesizing Content
• #5 Writing the Review
• Citing Your Sources

WRITING THE REVIEW 

You've done the research and now you're ready to put your findings down on paper. When preparing to write your review, first consider how will you organize your review.

The actual review generally has 5 components:

Abstract  -  An abstract is a summary of your literature review. It is made up of the following parts:

• A contextual sentence about your motivation behind your research topic
• Your thesis statement
• A descriptive statement about the types of literature used in the review
• Summarize your findings
• Conclusion(s) based upon your findings

Introduction :   Like a typical research paper introduction, provide the reader with a quick idea of the topic of the literature review:

• Define or identify the general topic, issue, or area of concern. This provides the reader with context for reviewing the literature.
• Identify related trends in what has already been published about the topic; or conflicts in theory, methodology, evidence, and conclusions; or gaps in research and scholarship; or a single problem or new perspective of immediate interest.
• Establish your reason (point of view) for reviewing the literature; explain the criteria to be used in analyzing and comparing literature and the organization of the review (sequence); and, when necessary, state why certain literature is or is not included (scope)  - 

Body :  The body of a literature review contains your discussion of sources and can be organized in 3 ways-

• Chronological -  by publication or by trend
• Thematic -  organized around a topic or issue, rather than the progression of time
• Methodical -  the focusing factor usually does not have to do with the content of the material. Instead, it focuses on the "methods" of the literature's researcher or writer that you are reviewing

You may also want to include a section on "questions for further research" and discuss what questions the review has sparked about the topic/field or offer suggestions for future studies/examinations that build on your current findings.

Conclusion :  In the conclusion, you should:

Conclude your paper by providing your reader with some perspective on the relationship between your literature review's specific topic and how it's related to it's parent discipline, scientific endeavor, or profession.

Bibliography :   Since a literature review is composed of pieces of research, it is very important that your correctly cite the literature you are reviewing, both in the reviews body as well as in a bibliography/works cited. To learn more about different citation styles, visit the " Citing Your Sources " tab.

• Writing a Literature Review: Wesleyan University
• Literature Review: Edith Cowan University
• << Previous: Step #4: Synthesizing Content
• Next: Citing Your Sources >>
• Last Updated: Aug 22, 2023 1:35 PM
• URL: https://libguides.eastern.edu/literature_reviews

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APA Abstract (2020) | Formatting, Length, and Keywords

Published on November 6, 2020 by Raimo Streefkerk . Revised on January 17, 2024.

An APA abstract is a comprehensive summary of your paper in which you briefly address the research problem , hypotheses , methods , results , and implications of your research. It’s placed on a separate page right after the title page and is usually no longer than 250 words.

Most professional papers that are submitted for publication require an abstract. Student papers typically don’t need an abstract, unless instructed otherwise.

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Table of contents

How to format the abstract, how to write an apa abstract, which keywords to use, frequently asked questions, apa abstract example.

Formatting instructions

Follow these five steps to format your abstract in APA Style:

• Insert a running head (for a professional paper—not needed for a student paper) and page number.
• Set page margins to 1 inch (2.54 cm).
• Write “Abstract” (bold and centered) at the top of the page.
• Do not indent the first line.
• Double-space the text.
• Use a legible font like Times New Roman (12 pt.).
• Limit the length to 250 words.
• Indent the first line 0.5 inches.
• Write the label “Keywords:” (italicized).
• Write keywords in lowercase letters.
• Separate keywords with commas.
• Do not use a period after the keywords.

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The abstract is a self-contained piece of text that informs the reader what your research is about. It’s best to write the abstract after you’re finished with the rest of your paper.

The questions below may help structure your abstract. Try answering them in one to three sentences each.

• What is the problem? Outline the objective, research questions , and/or hypotheses .
• What has been done? Explain your research methods .
• What did you discover? Summarize the key findings and conclusions .
• What do the findings mean? Summarize the discussion and recommendations .

Check out our guide on how to write an abstract for more guidance and an annotated example.

Guide: writing an abstract

At the end of the abstract, you may include a few keywords that will be used for indexing if your paper is published on a database. Listing your keywords will help other researchers find your work.

Choosing relevant keywords is essential. Try to identify keywords that address your topic, method, or population. APA recommends including three to five keywords.

An abstract is a concise summary of an academic text (such as a journal article or dissertation ). It serves two main purposes:

• To help potential readers determine the relevance of your paper for their own research.
• To communicate your key findings to those who don’t have time to read the whole paper.

Abstracts are often indexed along with keywords on academic databases, so they make your work more easily findable. Since the abstract is the first thing any reader sees, it’s important that it clearly and accurately summarizes the contents of your paper.

An APA abstract is around 150–250 words long. However, always check your target journal’s guidelines and don’t exceed the specified word count.

In an APA Style paper , the abstract is placed on a separate page after the title page (page 2).

Avoid citing sources in your abstract . There are two reasons for this:

• The abstract should focus on your original research, not on the work of others.
• The abstract should be self-contained and fully understandable without reference to other sources.

There are some circumstances where you might need to mention other sources in an abstract: for example, if your research responds directly to another study or focuses on the work of a single theorist. In general, though, don’t include citations unless absolutely necessary.

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.

Streefkerk, R. (2024, January 17). APA Abstract (2020) | Formatting, Length, and Keywords. Scribbr. Retrieved April 10, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/apa-style/apa-abstract/

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Writing a Literature Review

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A literature review is a document or section of a document that collects key sources on a topic and discusses those sources in conversation with each other (also called synthesis ). The lit review is an important genre in many disciplines, not just literature (i.e., the study of works of literature such as novels and plays). When we say “literature review” or refer to “the literature,” we are talking about the research ( scholarship ) in a given field. You will often see the terms “the research,” “the scholarship,” and “the literature” used mostly interchangeably.

Where, when, and why would I write a lit review?

There are a number of different situations where you might write a literature review, each with slightly different expectations; different disciplines, too, have field-specific expectations for what a literature review is and does. For instance, in the humanities, authors might include more overt argumentation and interpretation of source material in their literature reviews, whereas in the sciences, authors are more likely to report study designs and results in their literature reviews; these differences reflect these disciplines’ purposes and conventions in scholarship. You should always look at examples from your own discipline and talk to professors or mentors in your field to be sure you understand your discipline’s conventions, for literature reviews as well as for any other genre.

A literature review can be a part of a research paper or scholarly article, usually falling after the introduction and before the research methods sections. In these cases, the lit review just needs to cover scholarship that is important to the issue you are writing about; sometimes it will also cover key sources that informed your research methodology.

Lit reviews can also be standalone pieces, either as assignments in a class or as publications. In a class, a lit review may be assigned to help students familiarize themselves with a topic and with scholarship in their field, get an idea of the other researchers working on the topic they’re interested in, find gaps in existing research in order to propose new projects, and/or develop a theoretical framework and methodology for later research. As a publication, a lit review usually is meant to help make other scholars’ lives easier by collecting and summarizing, synthesizing, and analyzing existing research on a topic. This can be especially helpful for students or scholars getting into a new research area, or for directing an entire community of scholars toward questions that have not yet been answered.

What are the parts of a lit review?

Most lit reviews use a basic introduction-body-conclusion structure; if your lit review is part of a larger paper, the introduction and conclusion pieces may be just a few sentences while you focus most of your attention on the body. If your lit review is a standalone piece, the introduction and conclusion take up more space and give you a place to discuss your goals, research methods, and conclusions separately from where you discuss the literature itself.

Introduction:

• An introductory paragraph that explains what your working topic and thesis is
• A forecast of key topics or texts that will appear in the review
• Potentially, a description of how you found sources and how you analyzed them for inclusion and discussion in the review (more often found in published, standalone literature reviews than in lit review sections in an article or research paper)
• 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 sentence to draw connections, comparisons, and contrasts.

Conclusion:

• Summarize the key findings you have taken from the literature and emphasize their significance
• Connect it back to your primary research question

How should I organize my lit review?

Lit reviews can take many different organizational patterns depending on what you are trying to accomplish with the review. Here are some examples:

• Chronological : The simplest approach is to trace the development of the topic over time, which helps familiarize the audience with the topic (for instance if you are introducing something that is not commonly known in your field). If you choose this strategy, be careful to avoid simply listing and summarizing sources in order. Try to analyze the patterns, turning points, and key debates that have shaped the direction of the field. Give your interpretation of how and why certain developments occurred (as mentioned previously, this may not be appropriate in your discipline — check with a teacher or mentor if you’re unsure).
• Thematic : If you have found some recurring central themes that you will continue working with throughout your piece, you can organize your literature review into subsections that address different aspects of the topic. For example, if you are reviewing literature about women and religion, key themes can include the role of women in churches and the religious attitude towards women.
• Qualitative versus quantitative research
• Empirical versus theoretical scholarship
• Divide the research by sociological, historical, or cultural sources
• Theoretical : In many humanities articles, the literature review is the foundation for the theoretical framework. You can use it to discuss various theories, models, and definitions of key concepts. You can argue for the relevance of a specific theoretical approach or combine various theorical concepts to create a framework for your research.

What are some strategies or tips I can use while writing my lit review?

Any lit review is only as good as the research it discusses; make sure your sources are well-chosen and your research is thorough. Don’t be afraid to do more research if you discover a new thread as you’re writing. More info on the research process is available in our "Conducting Research" resources .

As you’re doing your research, create an annotated bibliography ( see our page on the this type of document ). Much of the information used in an annotated bibliography can be used also in a literature review, so you’ll be not only partially drafting your lit review as you research, but also developing your sense of the larger conversation going on among scholars, professionals, and any other stakeholders in your topic.

Usually you will need to synthesize research rather than just summarizing it. This means drawing connections between sources to create a picture of the scholarly conversation on a topic over time. Many student writers struggle to synthesize because they feel they don’t have anything to add to the scholars they are citing; here are some strategies to help you:

• It often helps to remember that the point of these kinds of syntheses is to show your readers how you understand your research, to help them read the rest of your paper.
• Writing teachers often say synthesis is like hosting a dinner party: imagine all your sources are together in a room, discussing your topic. What are they saying to each other?
• Look at the in-text citations in each paragraph. Are you citing just one source for each paragraph? This usually indicates summary only. When you have multiple sources cited in a paragraph, you are more likely to be synthesizing them (not always, but often
• Read more about synthesis here.

The most interesting literature reviews are often written as arguments (again, as mentioned at the beginning of the page, this is discipline-specific and doesn’t work for all situations). Often, the literature review is where you can establish your research as filling a particular gap or as relevant in a particular way. You have some chance to do this in your introduction in an article, but the literature review section gives a more extended opportunity to establish the conversation in the way you would like your readers to see it. You can choose the intellectual lineage you would like to be part of and whose definitions matter most to your thinking (mostly humanities-specific, but this goes for sciences as well). In addressing these points, you argue for your place in the conversation, which tends to make the lit review more compelling than a simple reporting of other sources.

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How To Write A Literature Review - A Complete Guide

Table of Contents

A literature review is much more than just another section in your research paper. It forms the very foundation of your research. It is a formal piece of writing where you analyze the existing theoretical framework, principles, and assumptions and use that as a base to shape your approach to the research question.

Curating and drafting a solid literature review section not only lends more credibility to your research paper but also makes your research tighter and better focused. But, writing literature reviews is a difficult task. It requires extensive reading, plus you have to consider market trends and technological and political changes, which tend to change in the blink of an eye.

Now streamline your literature review process with the help of SciSpace Copilot. With this AI research assistant, you can efficiently synthesize and analyze a vast amount of information, identify key themes and trends, and uncover gaps in the existing research. Get real-time explanations, summaries, and answers to your questions for the paper you're reviewing, making navigating and understanding the complex literature landscape easier.

In this comprehensive guide, we will explore everything from the definition of a literature review, its appropriate length, various types of literature reviews, and how to write one.

What is a literature review?

A literature review is a collation of survey, research, critical evaluation, and assessment of the existing literature in a preferred domain.

Eminent researcher and academic Arlene Fink, in her book Conducting Research Literature Reviews , defines it as the following:

“A literature review surveys 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 explored while researching a particular topic, and to demonstrate to your readers how your research fits within a larger field of study.”

Simply put, a literature review can be defined as a critical discussion of relevant pre-existing research around your research question and carving out a definitive place for your study in the existing body of knowledge. Literature reviews can be presented in multiple ways: a section of an article, the whole research paper itself, or a chapter of your thesis.

A literature review does function as a summary of sources, but it also allows you to analyze further, interpret, and examine the stated theories, methods, viewpoints, and, of course, the gaps in the existing content.

As an author, you can discuss and interpret the research question and its various aspects and debate your adopted methods to support the claim.

What is the purpose of a literature review?

A literature review is meant to help your readers understand the relevance of your research question and where it fits within the existing body of knowledge. As a researcher, you should use it to set the context, build your argument, and establish the need for your study.

What is the importance of a literature review?

The literature review is a critical part of research papers because it helps you:

• Gain an in-depth understanding of your research question and the surrounding area
• Convey that you have a thorough understanding of your research area and are up-to-date with the latest changes and advancements
• Establish how your research is connected or builds on the existing body of knowledge and how it could contribute to further research
• Elaborate on the validity and suitability of your theoretical framework and research methodology
• Identify and highlight gaps and shortcomings in the existing body of knowledge and how things need to change
• Convey to readers how your study is different or how it contributes to the research area

How long should a literature review be?

Ideally, the literature review should take up 15%-40% of the total length of your manuscript. So, if you have a 10,000-word research paper, the minimum word count could be 1500.

Your literature review format depends heavily on the kind of manuscript you are writing — an entire chapter in case of doctoral theses, a part of the introductory section in a research article, to a full-fledged review article that examines the previously published research on a topic.

Another determining factor is the type of research you are doing. The literature review section tends to be longer for secondary research projects than primary research projects.

What are the different types of literature reviews?

All literature reviews are not the same. There are a variety of possible approaches that you can take. It all depends on the type of research you are pursuing.

Here are the different types of literature reviews:

Argumentative review

It is called an argumentative review when you carefully present literature that only supports or counters a specific argument or premise to establish a viewpoint.

Integrative review

It is a type of literature review focused on building a comprehensive understanding of a topic by combining available theoretical frameworks and empirical evidence.

Methodological review

This approach delves into the ''how'' and the ''what" of the research question —  you cannot look at the outcome in isolation; you should also review the methodology used.

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 collect, report, and analyze data from the studies included in the review.

Meta-analysis review

Meta-analysis uses statistical methods to summarize the results of independent studies. By combining information from all relevant studies, meta-analysis can provide more precise estimates of the effects than those derived from the individual studies included within a review.

Historical review

Historical literature reviews focus on examining research throughout a period, often starting with the first time an issue, concept, theory, or phenomenon 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 identify future research's likely directions.

Theoretical Review

This form aims to examine the corpus of theory accumulated regarding an issue, concept, theory, and phenomenon. The theoretical literature review helps to establish what theories exist, the relationships between them, the degree the existing approaches have been investigated, and to develop new hypotheses to be tested.

Scoping Review

The Scoping Review is often used at the beginning of an article, dissertation, or research proposal. It is conducted before the research to highlight gaps in the existing body of knowledge and explains why the project should be greenlit.

State-of-the-Art Review

The State-of-the-Art review is conducted periodically, focusing on the most recent research. It describes what is currently known, understood, or agreed upon regarding the research topic and highlights where there are still disagreements.

Can you use the first person in a literature review?

When writing literature reviews, you should avoid the usage of first-person pronouns. It means that instead of "I argue that" or "we argue that," the appropriate expression would be "this research paper argues that."

Do you need an abstract for a literature review?

Ideally, yes. It is always good to have a condensed summary that is self-contained and independent of the rest of your review. As for how to draft one, you can follow the same fundamental idea when preparing an abstract for a literature review. It should also include:

• The research topic and your motivation behind selecting it
• A one-sentence thesis statement
• An explanation of the kinds of literature featured in the review
• Summary of what you've learned
• Conclusions you drew from the literature you reviewed
• Potential implications and future scope for research

Here's an example of the abstract of a literature review

Is a literature review written in the past tense?

Yes, the literature review should ideally be written in the past tense. You should not use the present or future tense when writing one. The exceptions are when you have statements describing events that happened earlier than the literature you are reviewing or events that are currently occurring; then, you can use the past perfect or present perfect tenses.

How many sources for a literature review?

There are multiple approaches to deciding how many sources to include in a literature review section. The first approach would be to look level you are at as a researcher. For instance, a doctoral thesis might need 60+ sources. In contrast, you might only need to refer to 5-15 sources at the undergraduate level.

The second approach is based on the kind of literature review you are doing — whether it is merely a chapter of your paper or if it is a self-contained paper in itself. When it is just a chapter, sources should equal the total number of pages in your article's body. In the second scenario, you need at least three times as many sources as there are pages in your work.

Quick tips on how to write a literature review

To know how to write a literature review, you must clearly understand its impact and role in establishing your work as substantive research material.

You need to follow the below-mentioned steps, to write a literature review:

• Outline the purpose behind the literature review
• Search relevant literature
• Examine and assess the relevant resources
• Discover connections by drawing deep insights from the resources
• Structure planning to write a good literature review

1. Outline and identify the purpose of  a literature review

As a first step on how to write a literature review, you must know what the research question or topic is and what shape you want your literature review to take. Ensure you understand the research topic inside out, or else seek clarifications. You must be able to the answer below questions before you start:

• How many sources do I need to include?
• What kind of sources should I analyze?
• How much should I critically evaluate each source?
• Should I summarize, synthesize or offer a critique of the sources?
• Do I need to include any background information or definitions?

Additionally, you should know that the narrower your research topic is, the swifter it will be for you to restrict the number of sources to be analyzed.

2. Search relevant literature

Dig deeper into search engines to discover what has already been published around your chosen topic. Make sure you thoroughly go through appropriate reference sources like books, reports, journal articles, government docs, and web-based resources.

You must prepare a list of keywords and their different variations. You can start your search from any library’s catalog, provided you are an active member of that institution. The exact keywords can be extended to widen your research over other databases and academic search engines like:

• Google Scholar
• Microsoft Academic
• Science.gov

Besides, it is not advisable to go through every resource word by word. Alternatively, what you can do is you can start by reading the abstract and then decide whether that source is relevant to your research or not.

Additionally, you must spend surplus time assessing the quality and relevance of resources. It would help if you tried preparing a list of citations to ensure that there lies no repetition of authors, publications, or articles in the literature review.

3. Examine and assess the sources

It is nearly impossible for you to go through every detail in the research article. So rather than trying to fetch every detail, you have to analyze and decide which research sources resemble closest and appear relevant to your chosen domain.

While analyzing the sources, you should look to find out answers to questions like:

• What question or problem has the author been describing and debating?
• What is the definition of critical aspects?
• How well the theories, approach, and methodology have been explained?
• Whether the research theory used some conventional or new innovative approach?
• How relevant are the key findings of the work?
• In what ways does it relate to other sources on the same topic?
• What challenges does this research paper pose to the existing theory
• What are the possible contributions or benefits it adds to the subject domain?

Be always mindful that you refer only to credible and authentic resources. It would be best if you always take references from different publications to validate your theory.

Always keep track of important information or data you can present in your literature review right from the beginning. It will help steer your path from any threats of plagiarism and also make it easier to curate an annotated bibliography or reference section.

4. Discover connections

At this stage, you must start deciding on the argument and structure of your literature review. To accomplish this, you must discover and identify the relations and connections between various resources while drafting your abstract.

A few aspects that you should be aware of while writing a literature review include:

• Rise to prominence: Theories and methods that have gained reputation and supporters over time.
• Constant scrutiny: Concepts or theories that repeatedly went under examination.
• Contradictions and conflicts: Theories, both the supporting and the contradictory ones, for the research topic.
• Knowledge gaps: What exactly does it fail to address, and how to bridge them with further research?
• Influential resources: Significant research projects available that have been upheld as milestones or perhaps, something that can modify the current trends

Once you join the dots between various past research works, it will be easier for you to draw a conclusion and identify your contribution to the existing knowledge base.

5. Structure planning to write a good literature review

There exist different ways towards planning and executing the structure of a literature review. The format of a literature review varies and depends upon the length of the research.

Like any other research paper, the literature review format must contain three sections: introduction, body, and conclusion. The goals and objectives of the research question determine what goes inside these three sections.

Nevertheless, a good literature review can be structured according to the chronological, thematic, methodological, or theoretical framework approach.

Literature review samples

1. Standalone

2. As a section of a research paper

How SciSpace Discover makes literature review a breeze?

SciSpace Discover is a one-stop solution to do an effective literature search and get barrier-free access to scientific knowledge. It is an excellent repository where you can find millions of only peer-reviewed articles and full-text PDF files. Here’s more on how you can use it:

Find the right information

Find what you want quickly and easily with comprehensive search filters that let you narrow down papers according to PDF availability, year of publishing, document type, and affiliated institution. Moreover, you can sort the results based on the publishing date, citation count, and relevance.

Assess credibility of papers quickly

When doing the literature review, it is critical to establish the quality of your sources. They form the foundation of your research. SciSpace Discover helps you assess the quality of a source by providing an overview of its references, citations, and performance metrics.

Get the complete picture in no time

SciSpace Discover’s personalized suggestion engine helps you stay on course and get the complete picture of the topic from one place. Every time you visit an article page, it provides you links to related papers. Besides that, it helps you understand what’s trending, who are the top authors, and who are the leading publishers on a topic.

Make referring sources super easy

To ensure you don't lose track of your sources, you must start noting down your references when doing the literature review. SciSpace Discover makes this step effortless. Click the 'cite' button on an article page, and you will receive preloaded citation text in multiple styles — all you've to do is copy-paste it into your manuscript.

Final tips on how to write a literature review

A massive chunk of time and effort is required to write a good literature review. But, if you go about it systematically, you'll be able to save a ton of time and build a solid foundation for your research.

We hope this guide has helped you answer several key questions you have about writing literature reviews.

Would you like to explore SciSpace Discover and kick off your literature search right away? You can get started here .

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. how to start a literature review.

• What questions do you want to answer?

• What sources do you need to answer these questions?

• What information do these sources contain?

• How can you use this information to answer your questions?

2. What to include in a literature review?

• A brief background of the problem or issue

• What has previously been done to address the problem or issue

• A description of what you will do in your project

• How this study will contribute to research on the subject

3. Why literature review is important?

The literature review is an important part of any research project because it allows the writer to look at previous studies on a topic and determine existing gaps in the literature, as well as what has already been done. It will also help them to choose the most appropriate method for their own study.

4. How to cite a literature review in APA format?

To cite a literature review in APA style, you need to provide the author's name, the title of the article, and the year of publication. For example: Patel, A. B., & Stokes, G. S. (2012). The relationship between personality and intelligence: A meta-analysis of longitudinal research. Personality and Individual Differences, 53(1), 16-21

5. What are the components of a literature review?

• A brief introduction to the topic, including its background and context. The introduction should also include a rationale for why the study is being conducted and what it will accomplish.

• A description of the methodologies used in the study. This can include information about data collection methods, sample size, and statistical analyses.

• A presentation of the findings in an organized format that helps readers follow along with the author's conclusions.

6. What are common errors in writing literature review?

• Not spending enough time to critically evaluate the relevance of resources, observations and conclusions.

• Totally relying on secondary data while ignoring primary data.

• Letting your personal bias seep into your interpretation of existing literature.

• No detailed explanation of the procedure to discover and identify an appropriate literature review.

7. What are the 5 C's of writing literature review?

• Cite - the sources you utilized and referenced in your research.

• Compare - existing arguments, hypotheses, methodologies, and conclusions found in the knowledge base.

• Contrast - the arguments, topics, methodologies, approaches, and disputes that may be found in the literature.

• Critique - the literature and describe the ideas and opinions you find more convincing and why.

• Connect - the various studies you reviewed in your research.

8. How many sources should a literature review have?

When it is just a chapter, sources should equal the total number of pages in your article's body. if it is a self-contained paper in itself, you need at least three times as many sources as there are pages in your work.

9. Can literature review have diagrams?

• To represent an abstract idea or concept

• To explain the steps of a process or procedure

• To help readers understand the relationships between different concepts

10. How old should sources be in a literature review?

Sources for a literature review should be as current as possible or not older than ten years. The only exception to this rule is if you are reviewing a historical topic and need to use older sources.

11. What are the types of literature review?

• Argumentative review

• Integrative review

• Methodological review

• Systematic review

• Meta-analysis review

• Historical review

• Theoretical review

• Scoping review

• State-of-the-Art review

12. Is a literature review mandatory?

Yes. Literature review is a mandatory part of any research project. It is a critical step in the process that allows you to establish the scope of your research, and provide a background for the rest of your work.

But before you go,

• Six Online Tools for Easy Literature Review
• Evaluating literature review: systematic vs. scoping reviews
• Systematic Approaches to a Successful Literature Review
• Writing Integrative Literature Reviews: Guidelines and Examples

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Writing Abstracts for a Literature Review in APA Format

While developing your APA style school research paper, follow the specific formatting guidelines to finalize your paper. This citation example focuses on writing  abstracts for an APA style paper. Learning how to write abstracts is a good skill to have, as it helps you develop the ability to summarize the important points in your paper. A busy student can read abstracts to determine if it’s worth the time to read the full paper.

Sectioning Your APA Research Paper

In APA style, a research paper has four sections:

Types of Research Papers

You may be asked to prepare several types of research papers  as a student, including:

• Empirical Study
• Theory-Oriented
• Methodological

A literature review paper is one you’ll be asked to write frequently, as many times there is not enough time in a class setting to complete extensive research.

Formatting an APA Abstract

The abstract page is the second page of your report, right after the title page. This page is numbered 2 on your report.

On the first line of the page, center the word Abstract . *Do not underline, bold, italicize or otherwise format the title.

On the second line, start your abstract. *Do not indent.

Inserting Keywords into an APA Abstract

In today’s digital world, it is important to think about ways readers can find your work online. Adding keywords at the end of your abstract guides online searches. After the abstract paragraph, type Keywords:  italicized and indented.

Keywords:  digital print, online sources

Abstract Word Limits

The maximum word count for an APA abstract is 250 words. However, your instructor may ask for fewer words or provide you with additional guidance. In fact, some instructors or publications  may restrict the word count to 150.

Writing the Abstract

The abstract is a concise summary of your paper. Write it after you have finished your paper, so you have a clear idea of what to include in this short paragraph.

Examples of APA Abstracts

Following your instructor’s guidance, include these elements in your APA abstract:

• First, briefly state the research topic  and questions.
• Then, using the primary studies in the literature you reviewed, include the participants in the studies and the main results.
• Remember to include the conclusion of your literature review.
• Finally, finish with a sentence about any implications or future research that developed from the research presented in your paper.

APA Abstract Example

This article is an examination of the history of gender demographics in the field of librarianship. The historic development and subsequent “feminization” of librarianship continues to influence the gender wage gap and the disproportionate leadership bias in the field today. This article examines the stereotyping of librarians and the cyclical effect of genderizing the profession. Consideration of current trends and data in librarian demographics demonstrates a consistent decrease in gender diversity, accompanied by a troubling lack of women leaders and executives. Additionally, this article explores options for combating the gender perceptions that negatively impact women in library and information science fields, including management and negotiation training in graduate programs, increased emphasis on technological skills, and professional organization advocacy.

Mars, P. (2018). Gender demographics and perceptions in librarianship.  School of Information Student Research Journal 7 (2). Retrieved from http://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/slissrj/vol7/iss2/3

Abstract Example With Keywords

The future of books and libraries is put into question by the increasing popularity of e-books and the use of computers as text platforms. In an effort to anticipate which reading platform—print, e-readers, or computers displays—will dominate in the coming years, recent research and experimental data on the suitability of each reading platform for reading comprehension will be considered, from the perspectives of optical issues, cognition, and metacognition. It will be shown that, while printed books are most conducive to learning from longer, more difficult texts, e-readers and computer displays offer convenience and some distinct advantages to readers in particular situations. This synthesis of current research will be helpful to librarians working in digital and print book purchasing and collection development, as well as those making long-range planning decisions.

Keywords : books, digital books, e-paper, reading comprehension, cognition

Tanner, M. J. (2014). Digital vs. print: Reading comprehension and the future of the book.  SLIS Student Research Journal, 4 (2). Retrieved from http://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/slissrj/vol4/iss2/6

A Crucial Element

Your APA abstract is a critical part of your school research paper. Thus, you should put a lot of thought into creating your abstract and make sure it includes all the required elements. As always, be sure to follow your teacher’s guidance for length and format.

Abstracts and Annotated Bibliographies

Understanding APA Literature Reviews

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• How to Write an Abstract | Steps & Examples

How to Write an Abstract | Steps & Examples

Published on 1 March 2019 by Shona McCombes . Revised on 10 October 2022 by Eoghan Ryan.

An abstract is a short summary of a longer work (such as a dissertation or research paper ). The abstract concisely reports the aims and outcomes of your research, so that readers know exactly what your paper is about.

Although the structure may vary slightly depending on your discipline, your abstract should describe the purpose of your work, the methods you’ve used, and the conclusions you’ve drawn.

One common way to structure your abstract is to use the IMRaD structure. This stands for:

• Introduction

Abstracts are usually around 100–300 words, but there’s often a strict word limit, so make sure to check the relevant requirements.

In a dissertation or thesis , include the abstract on a separate page, after the title page and acknowledgements but before the table of contents .

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Table of contents

Abstract example, when to write an abstract, step 1: introduction, step 2: methods, step 3: results, step 4: discussion, tips for writing an abstract, frequently asked questions about abstracts.

Hover over the different parts of the abstract to see how it is constructed.

This paper examines the role of silent movies as a mode of shared experience in the UK during the early twentieth century. At this time, high immigration rates resulted in a significant percentage of non-English-speaking citizens. These immigrants faced numerous economic and social obstacles, including exclusion from public entertainment and modes of discourse (newspapers, theater, radio).

Incorporating evidence from reviews, personal correspondence, and diaries, this study demonstrates that silent films were an affordable and inclusive source of entertainment. It argues for the accessible economic and representational nature of early cinema. These concerns are particularly evident in the low price of admission and in the democratic nature of the actors’ exaggerated gestures, which allowed the plots and action to be easily grasped by a diverse audience despite language barriers.

Keywords: silent movies, immigration, public discourse, entertainment, early cinema, language barriers.

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You will almost always have to include an abstract when:

• Completing a thesis or dissertation
• Submitting a research paper to an academic journal
• Writing a book proposal
• Applying for research grants

It’s easiest to write your abstract last, because it’s a summary of the work you’ve already done. Your abstract should:

• Be a self-contained text, not an excerpt from your paper
• Be fully understandable on its own
• Reflect the structure of your larger work

Start by clearly defining the purpose of your research. What practical or theoretical problem does the research respond to, or what research question did you aim to answer?

You can include some brief context on the social or academic relevance of your topic, but don’t go into detailed background information. If your abstract uses specialised terms that would be unfamiliar to the average academic reader or that have various different meanings, give a concise definition.

After identifying the problem, state the objective of your research. Use verbs like “investigate,” “test,” “analyse,” or “evaluate” to describe exactly what you set out to do.

This part of the abstract can be written in the present or past simple tense  but should never refer to the future, as the research is already complete.

• This study will investigate the relationship between coffee consumption and productivity.
• This study investigates the relationship between coffee consumption and productivity.

Next, indicate the research methods that you used to answer your question. This part should be a straightforward description of what you did in one or two sentences. It is usually written in the past simple tense, as it refers to completed actions.

• Structured interviews will be conducted with 25 participants.
• Structured interviews were conducted with 25 participants.

Don’t evaluate validity or obstacles here — the goal is not to give an account of the methodology’s strengths and weaknesses, but to give the reader a quick insight into the overall approach and procedures you used.

Next, summarise the main research results . This part of the abstract can be in the present or past simple tense.

• Our analysis has shown a strong correlation between coffee consumption and productivity.
• Our analysis shows a strong correlation between coffee consumption and productivity.
• Our analysis showed a strong correlation between coffee consumption and productivity.

Depending on how long and complex your research is, you may not be able to include all results here. Try to highlight only the most important findings that will allow the reader to understand your conclusions.

Finally, you should discuss the main conclusions of your research : what is your answer to the problem or question? The reader should finish with a clear understanding of the central point that your research has proved or argued. Conclusions are usually written in the present simple tense.

• We concluded that coffee consumption increases productivity.
• We conclude that coffee consumption increases productivity.

If there are important limitations to your research (for example, related to your sample size or methods), you should mention them briefly in the abstract. This allows the reader to accurately assess the credibility and generalisability of your research.

If your aim was to solve a practical problem, your discussion might include recommendations for implementation. If relevant, you can briefly make suggestions for further research.

If your paper will be published, you might have to add a list of keywords at the end of the abstract. These keywords should reference the most important elements of the research to help potential readers find your paper during their own literature searches.

Be aware that some publication manuals, such as APA Style , have specific formatting requirements for these keywords.

It can be a real challenge to condense your whole work into just a couple of hundred words, but the abstract will be the first (and sometimes only) part that people read, so it’s important to get it right. These strategies can help you get started.

Read other abstracts

The best way to learn the conventions of writing an abstract in your discipline is to read other people’s. You probably already read lots of journal article abstracts while conducting your literature review —try using them as a framework for structure and style.

You can also find lots of dissertation abstract examples in thesis and dissertation databases .

Reverse outline

Not all abstracts will contain precisely the same elements. For longer works, you can write your abstract through a process of reverse outlining.

For each chapter or section, list keywords and draft one to two sentences that summarise the central point or argument. This will give you a framework of your abstract’s structure. Next, revise the sentences to make connections and show how the argument develops.

Write clearly and concisely

A good abstract is short but impactful, so make sure every word counts. Each sentence should clearly communicate one main point.

To keep your abstract or summary short and clear:

• Avoid passive sentences: Passive constructions are often unnecessarily long. You can easily make them shorter and clearer by using the active voice.
• Avoid long sentences: Substitute longer expressions for concise expressions or single words (e.g., “In order to” for “To”).
• Avoid obscure jargon: The abstract should be understandable to readers who are not familiar with your topic.
• Avoid repetition and filler words: Replace nouns with pronouns when possible and eliminate unnecessary words.
• Avoid detailed descriptions: An abstract is not expected to provide detailed definitions, background information, or discussions of other scholars’ work. Instead, include this information in the body of your thesis or paper.

If you’re struggling to edit down to the required length, you can get help from expert editors with Scribbr’s professional proofreading services .

Check your formatting

If you are writing a thesis or dissertation or submitting to a journal, there are often specific formatting requirements for the abstract—make sure to check the guidelines and format your work correctly. For APA research papers you can follow the APA abstract format .

Checklist: Abstract

The word count is within the required length, or a maximum of one page.

The abstract appears after the title page and acknowledgements and before the table of contents .

I have clearly stated my research problem and objectives.

I have briefly described my methodology .

I have summarized the most important results .

I have stated my main conclusions .

I have mentioned any important limitations and recommendations.

The abstract can be understood by someone without prior knowledge of the topic.

You've written a great abstract! Use the other checklists to continue improving your thesis or dissertation.

An abstract is a concise summary of an academic text (such as a journal article or dissertation ). It serves two main purposes:

• To help potential readers determine the relevance of your paper for their own research.
• To communicate your key findings to those who don’t have time to read the whole paper.

Abstracts are often indexed along with keywords on academic databases, so they make your work more easily findable. Since the abstract is the first thing any reader sees, it’s important that it clearly and accurately summarises the contents of your paper.

An abstract for a thesis or dissertation is usually around 150–300 words. There’s often a strict word limit, so make sure to check your university’s requirements.

The abstract is the very last thing you write. You should only write it after your research is complete, so that you can accurately summarize the entirety of your thesis or paper.

Avoid citing sources in your abstract . There are two reasons for this:

• The abstract should focus on your original research, not on the work of others.
• The abstract should be self-contained and fully understandable without reference to other sources.

There are some circumstances where you might need to mention other sources in an abstract: for example, if your research responds directly to another study or focuses on the work of a single theorist. In general, though, don’t include citations unless absolutely necessary.

The abstract appears on its own page, after the title page and acknowledgements but before the table of contents .

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What this handout is about

This handout provides definitions and examples of the two main types of abstracts: descriptive and informative. It also provides guidelines for constructing an abstract and general tips for you to keep in mind when drafting. Finally, it includes a few examples of abstracts broken down into their component parts.

What is an abstract?

An abstract is a self-contained, short, and powerful statement that describes a larger work. Components vary according to discipline. An abstract of a social science or scientific work may contain the scope, purpose, results, and contents of the work. An abstract of a humanities work may contain the thesis, background, and conclusion of the larger work. An abstract is not a review, nor does it evaluate the work being abstracted. While it contains key words found in the larger work, the abstract is an original document rather than an excerpted passage.

Why write an abstract?

You may write an abstract for various reasons. The two most important are selection and indexing. Abstracts allow readers who may be interested in a longer work to quickly decide whether it is worth their time to read it. Also, many online databases use abstracts to index larger works. Therefore, abstracts should contain keywords and phrases that allow for easy searching.

Say you are beginning a research project on how Brazilian newspapers helped Brazil’s ultra-liberal president Luiz Ignácio da Silva wrest power from the traditional, conservative power base. A good first place to start your research is to search Dissertation Abstracts International for all dissertations that deal with the interaction between newspapers and politics. “Newspapers and politics” returned 569 hits. A more selective search of “newspapers and Brazil” returned 22 hits. That is still a fair number of dissertations. Titles can sometimes help winnow the field, but many titles are not very descriptive. For example, one dissertation is titled “Rhetoric and Riot in Rio de Janeiro.” It is unclear from the title what this dissertation has to do with newspapers in Brazil. One option would be to download or order the entire dissertation on the chance that it might speak specifically to the topic. A better option is to read the abstract. In this case, the abstract reveals the main focus of the dissertation:

This dissertation examines the role of newspaper editors in the political turmoil and strife that characterized late First Empire Rio de Janeiro (1827-1831). Newspaper editors and their journals helped change the political culture of late First Empire Rio de Janeiro by involving the people in the discussion of state. This change in political culture is apparent in Emperor Pedro I’s gradual loss of control over the mechanisms of power. As the newspapers became more numerous and powerful, the Emperor lost his legitimacy in the eyes of the people. To explore the role of the newspapers in the political events of the late First Empire, this dissertation analyzes all available newspapers published in Rio de Janeiro from 1827 to 1831. Newspapers and their editors were leading forces in the effort to remove power from the hands of the ruling elite and place it under the control of the people. In the process, newspapers helped change how politics operated in the constitutional monarchy of Brazil.

From this abstract you now know that although the dissertation has nothing to do with modern Brazilian politics, it does cover the role of newspapers in changing traditional mechanisms of power. After reading the abstract, you can make an informed judgment about whether the dissertation would be worthwhile to read.

Besides selection, the other main purpose of the abstract is for indexing. Most article databases in the online catalog of the library enable you to search abstracts. This allows for quick retrieval by users and limits the extraneous items recalled by a “full-text” search. However, for an abstract to be useful in an online retrieval system, it must incorporate the key terms that a potential researcher would use to search. For example, if you search Dissertation Abstracts International using the keywords “France” “revolution” and “politics,” the search engine would search through all the abstracts in the database that included those three words. Without an abstract, the search engine would be forced to search titles, which, as we have seen, may not be fruitful, or else search the full text. It’s likely that a lot more than 60 dissertations have been written with those three words somewhere in the body of the entire work. By incorporating keywords into the abstract, the author emphasizes the central topics of the work and gives prospective readers enough information to make an informed judgment about the applicability of the work.

When do people write abstracts?

• when submitting articles to journals, especially online journals
• when applying for research grants
• when writing a book proposal
• when completing the Ph.D. dissertation or M.A. thesis
• when writing a proposal for a conference paper
• when writing a proposal for a book chapter

Most often, the author of the entire work (or prospective work) writes the abstract. However, there are professional abstracting services that hire writers to draft abstracts of other people’s work. In a work with multiple authors, the first author usually writes the abstract. Undergraduates are sometimes asked to draft abstracts of books/articles for classmates who have not read the larger work.

Types of abstracts

There are two types of abstracts: descriptive and informative. They have different aims, so as a consequence they have different components and styles. There is also a third type called critical, but it is rarely used. If you want to find out more about writing a critique or a review of a work, see the UNC Writing Center handout on writing a literature review . If you are unsure which type of abstract you should write, ask your instructor (if the abstract is for a class) or read other abstracts in your field or in the journal where you are submitting your article.

Descriptive abstracts

A descriptive abstract indicates the type of information found in the work. It makes no judgments about the work, nor does it provide results or conclusions of the research. It does incorporate key words found in the text and may include the purpose, methods, and scope of the research. Essentially, the descriptive abstract describes the work being abstracted. Some people consider it an outline of the work, rather than a summary. Descriptive abstracts are usually very short—100 words or less.

Informative abstracts

The majority of abstracts are informative. While they still do not critique or evaluate a work, they do more than describe it. A good informative abstract acts as a surrogate for the work itself. That is, the writer presents and explains all the main arguments and the important results and evidence in the complete article/paper/book. An informative abstract includes the information that can be found in a descriptive abstract (purpose, methods, scope) but also includes the results and conclusions of the research and the recommendations of the author. The length varies according to discipline, but an informative abstract is rarely more than 10% of the length of the entire work. In the case of a longer work, it may be much less.

Here are examples of a descriptive and an informative abstract of this handout on abstracts . Descriptive abstract:

The two most common abstract types—descriptive and informative—are described and examples of each are provided.

Informative abstract:

Abstracts present the essential elements of a longer work in a short and powerful statement. The purpose of an abstract is to provide prospective readers the opportunity to judge the relevance of the longer work to their projects. Abstracts also include the key terms found in the longer work and the purpose and methods of the research. Authors abstract various longer works, including book proposals, dissertations, and online journal articles. There are two main types of abstracts: descriptive and informative. A descriptive abstract briefly describes the longer work, while an informative abstract presents all the main arguments and important results. This handout provides examples of various types of abstracts and instructions on how to construct one.

Which type should I use?

Your best bet in this case is to ask your instructor or refer to the instructions provided by the publisher. You can also make a guess based on the length allowed; i.e., 100-120 words = descriptive; 250+ words = informative.

How do I write an abstract?

The format of your abstract will depend on the work being abstracted. An abstract of a scientific research paper will contain elements not found in an abstract of a literature article, and vice versa. However, all abstracts share several mandatory components, and there are also some optional parts that you can decide to include or not. When preparing to draft your abstract, keep the following key process elements in mind:

• Reason for writing: What is the importance of the research? Why would a reader be interested in the larger work?
• Problem: What problem does this work attempt to solve? What is the scope of the project? What is the main argument/thesis/claim?
• Methodology: An abstract of a scientific work may include specific models or approaches used in the larger study. Other abstracts may describe the types of evidence used in the research.
• Results: Again, an abstract of a scientific work may include specific data that indicates the results of the project. Other abstracts may discuss the findings in a more general way.
• Implications: What changes should be implemented as a result of the findings of the work? How does this work add to the body of knowledge on the topic?

(This list of elements is adapted with permission from Philip Koopman, “How to Write an Abstract.” )

All abstracts include:

• A full citation of the source, preceding the abstract.
• The most important information first.
• The same type and style of language found in the original, including technical language.
• Key words and phrases that quickly identify the content and focus of the work.
• Clear, concise, and powerful language.

Abstracts may include:

• The thesis of the work, usually in the first sentence.
• Background information that places the work in the larger body of literature.
• The same chronological structure as the original work.

How not to write an abstract:

• Do not refer extensively to other works.
• Do not add information not contained in the original work.
• Do not define terms.

If you are abstracting your own writing

When abstracting your own work, it may be difficult to condense a piece of writing that you have agonized over for weeks (or months, or even years) into a 250-word statement. There are some tricks that you could use to make it easier, however.

Reverse outlining:

This technique is commonly used when you are having trouble organizing your own writing. The process involves writing down the main idea of each paragraph on a separate piece of paper– see our short video . For the purposes of writing an abstract, try grouping the main ideas of each section of the paper into a single sentence. Practice grouping ideas using webbing or color coding .

For a scientific paper, you may have sections titled Purpose, Methods, Results, and Discussion. Each one of these sections will be longer than one paragraph, but each is grouped around a central idea. Use reverse outlining to discover the central idea in each section and then distill these ideas into one statement.

Cut and paste:

To create a first draft of an abstract of your own work, you can read through the entire paper and cut and paste sentences that capture key passages. This technique is useful for social science research with findings that cannot be encapsulated by neat numbers or concrete results. A well-written humanities draft will have a clear and direct thesis statement and informative topic sentences for paragraphs or sections. Isolate these sentences in a separate document and work on revising them into a unified paragraph.

If you are abstracting someone else’s writing

When abstracting something you have not written, you cannot summarize key ideas just by cutting and pasting. Instead, you must determine what a prospective reader would want to know about the work. There are a few techniques that will help you in this process:

Identify key terms:

Search through the entire document for key terms that identify the purpose, scope, and methods of the work. Pay close attention to the Introduction (or Purpose) and the Conclusion (or Discussion). These sections should contain all the main ideas and key terms in the paper. When writing the abstract, be sure to incorporate the key terms.

Highlight key phrases and sentences:

Instead of cutting and pasting the actual words, try highlighting sentences or phrases that appear to be central to the work. Then, in a separate document, rewrite the sentences and phrases in your own words.

Don’t look back:

After reading the entire work, put it aside and write a paragraph about the work without referring to it. In the first draft, you may not remember all the key terms or the results, but you will remember what the main point of the work was. Remember not to include any information you did not get from the work being abstracted.

Revise, revise, revise

No matter what type of abstract you are writing, or whether you are abstracting your own work or someone else’s, the most important step in writing an abstract is to revise early and often. When revising, delete all extraneous words and incorporate meaningful and powerful words. The idea is to be as clear and complete as possible in the shortest possible amount of space. The Word Count feature of Microsoft Word can help you keep track of how long your abstract is and help you hit your target length.

Example 1: Humanities abstract

Kenneth Tait Andrews, “‘Freedom is a constant struggle’: The dynamics and consequences of the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement, 1960-1984” Ph.D. State University of New York at Stony Brook, 1997 DAI-A 59/02, p. 620, Aug 1998

This dissertation examines the impacts of social movements through a multi-layered study of the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement from its peak in the early 1960s through the early 1980s. By examining this historically important case, I clarify the process by which movements transform social structures and the constraints movements face when they try to do so. The time period studied includes the expansion of voting rights and gains in black political power, the desegregation of public schools and the emergence of white-flight academies, and the rise and fall of federal anti-poverty programs. I use two major research strategies: (1) a quantitative analysis of county-level data and (2) three case studies. Data have been collected from archives, interviews, newspapers, and published reports. This dissertation challenges the argument that movements are inconsequential. Some view federal agencies, courts, political parties, or economic elites as the agents driving institutional change, but typically these groups acted in response to the leverage brought to bear by the civil rights movement. The Mississippi movement attempted to forge independent structures for sustaining challenges to local inequities and injustices. By propelling change in an array of local institutions, movement infrastructures had an enduring legacy in Mississippi.

Now let’s break down this abstract into its component parts to see how the author has distilled his entire dissertation into a ~200 word abstract.

What the dissertation does This dissertation examines the impacts of social movements through a multi-layered study of the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement from its peak in the early 1960s through the early 1980s. By examining this historically important case, I clarify the process by which movements transform social structures and the constraints movements face when they try to do so.

How the dissertation does it The time period studied in this dissertation includes the expansion of voting rights and gains in black political power, the desegregation of public schools and the emergence of white-flight academies, and the rise and fall of federal anti-poverty programs. I use two major research strategies: (1) a quantitative analysis of county-level data and (2) three case studies.

What materials are used Data have been collected from archives, interviews, newspapers, and published reports.

Conclusion This dissertation challenges the argument that movements are inconsequential. Some view federal agencies, courts, political parties, or economic elites as the agents driving institutional change, but typically these groups acted in response to movement demands and the leverage brought to bear by the civil rights movement. The Mississippi movement attempted to forge independent structures for sustaining challenges to local inequities and injustices. By propelling change in an array of local institutions, movement infrastructures had an enduring legacy in Mississippi.

Keywords social movements Civil Rights Movement Mississippi voting rights desegregation

Example 2: Science Abstract

Luis Lehner, “Gravitational radiation from black hole spacetimes” Ph.D. University of Pittsburgh, 1998 DAI-B 59/06, p. 2797, Dec 1998

The problem of detecting gravitational radiation is receiving considerable attention with the construction of new detectors in the United States, Europe, and Japan. The theoretical modeling of the wave forms that would be produced in particular systems will expedite the search for and analysis of detected signals. The characteristic formulation of GR is implemented to obtain an algorithm capable of evolving black holes in 3D asymptotically flat spacetimes. Using compactification techniques, future null infinity is included in the evolved region, which enables the unambiguous calculation of the radiation produced by some compact source. A module to calculate the waveforms is constructed and included in the evolution algorithm. This code is shown to be second-order convergent and to handle highly non-linear spacetimes. In particular, we have shown that the code can handle spacetimes whose radiation is equivalent to a galaxy converting its whole mass into gravitational radiation in one second. We further use the characteristic formulation to treat the region close to the singularity in black hole spacetimes. The code carefully excises a region surrounding the singularity and accurately evolves generic black hole spacetimes with apparently unlimited stability.

This science abstract covers much of the same ground as the humanities one, but it asks slightly different questions.

Why do this study The problem of detecting gravitational radiation is receiving considerable attention with the construction of new detectors in the United States, Europe, and Japan. The theoretical modeling of the wave forms that would be produced in particular systems will expedite the search and analysis of the detected signals.

What the study does The characteristic formulation of GR is implemented to obtain an algorithm capable of evolving black holes in 3D asymptotically flat spacetimes. Using compactification techniques, future null infinity is included in the evolved region, which enables the unambiguous calculation of the radiation produced by some compact source. A module to calculate the waveforms is constructed and included in the evolution algorithm.

Results This code is shown to be second-order convergent and to handle highly non-linear spacetimes. In particular, we have shown that the code can handle spacetimes whose radiation is equivalent to a galaxy converting its whole mass into gravitational radiation in one second. We further use the characteristic formulation to treat the region close to the singularity in black hole spacetimes. The code carefully excises a region surrounding the singularity and accurately evolves generic black hole spacetimes with apparently unlimited stability.

Keywords gravitational radiation (GR) spacetimes black holes

Works consulted

We consulted these works while writing this handout. This is not a comprehensive list of resources on the handout’s topic, and we encourage you to do your own research to find additional publications. Please do not use this list as a model for the format of your own reference list, as it may not match the citation style you are using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial . We revise these tips periodically and welcome feedback.

Belcher, Wendy Laura. 2009. Writing Your Journal Article in Twelve Weeks: A Guide to Academic Publishing Success. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Press.

Koopman, Philip. 1997. “How to Write an Abstract.” Carnegie Mellon University. October 1997. http://users.ece.cmu.edu/~koopman/essays/abstract.html .

Lancaster, F.W. 2003. Indexing And Abstracting in Theory and Practice , 3rd ed. London: Facet Publishing.

You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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How to craft an APA abstract

Last updated

16 December 2023

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An APA abstract is a brief but thorough summary of a scientific paper. It gives readers a clear overview of what the paper is about and what it intends to prove.

The purpose of an abstract is to allow researchers to quickly understand the paper's topic and purpose so they can decide whether it will be useful to them.

• What is the APA style?

APA style is a method of formatting and documentation used by the American Psychological Association. This style is used primarily for papers in the field of education and in the social sciences, including:

Anthropology

What is an abstract in APA format?

Writing an abstract in APA format requires you to conform to the writing rules for APA-style papers, including the following guidelines:

The abstract should be 150–250 words

It should be brief but concise, containing all the paper's main points

The abstract is a separate page that comes after the title page and before the paper's main content

• Key elements of an APA abstract 

While the rules for constructing an APA abstract are straightforward, the process can be challenging. You need to pack a great deal of relevant content into a short piece.

The essential elements of an APA abstract are:

Running header containing the title of the paper and page number

Section label, centered and in bold, containing the word "abstract"

The main content of the abstract, 150–250 words in length and double-spaced

A list of keywords, indented and introduced with the word "keywords" in italics

Essential points to cover in an APA abstract  

When you’re creating your APA abstract, consider the following questions.

What is the main topic the paper is addressing?

People searching for research on your topic will probably be browsing many papers and studies. The way your abstract is crafted will help to determine whether they feel your paper is worth reading.

Are your research methods quantitative or qualitative?

Quantitative research is focused on numbers and statistics, typically gathered from studies and polls where the questions are in yes/no or multiple-choice format.

Qualitative research is based on language and gathered using methods such as interviews and focus groups. It is more detailed and time-consuming to gather than quantitative research but can yield more complex and nuanced results.

Did you use primary or secondary sources?

Another key element is whether your research is based on primary or secondary sources. 

Primary research is data that you or your research team gathered. Secondary research is gathered from existing sources, such as databases or previously published studies.

Is your research descriptive or experimental?

Your research may be descriptive, experimental, or both.

With descriptive research , you’re describing or analyzing existing studies or theories on the topic. You may be using surveys, case studies, or observation to study the topic.

Experimental research studies variables using the scientific method. With an experiment, your objective is to establish a cause-and-effect relationship between two variables (or show the lack of one).

What conclusion did you reach?

Readers will want to know upfront what your paper is claiming or proving. Your APA abstract should give them a condensed version of your conclusions. Summarize your most significant findings.

It's customary to place your findings and conclusion in the final sentence of the abstract. This should be directly related to the main topic of the paper.

What is the relevance of your findings?

Show readers that your paper is a significant contribution to the field. While staying accurate and not overstating your case, boast a bit about why people need to read your paper.

Briefly describe the implications and importance of your findings. You can also point out any further research that is needed concerning this topic.

Did you choose the most appropriate keywords?

Including keywords is useful for indexing if your paper is eventually included in a database. Choose keywords that are relevant to the paper and as specific as possible.

For example, if your paper is about signs of learning disabilities in elementary-age children, your keyword list might include:

Learning disability symptoms

Elementary education

Language-based learning disabilities

Any other terms discussed in the paper

• How to format an APA abstract

Use standard APA formatting with double spacing, 12pt Times New Roman font, and one-inch margins.

Place a running head at the top left-hand side of the page. This is an abbreviated version of the paper's title. Use all capital letters for the running header. This is not usually required for academic papers but is essential if you are submitting the paper for publication. The page number “2” should follow the running header (Page 1 is the title page).

Just under the running head, in the center, place the word "abstract."

Place your list of keywords at the end. The list should be indented and, according to APA guidelines, contain three to five keywords.

• What are the 3 types of abstracts?

There are certain variations in different types of APA abstracts. Here are three of the most common ones.

Experimental or lab report abstracts

An abstract for an experimental or lab report needs to communicate the key purpose and findings of the experiment. Include the following:

Purpose and importance of the experiment

Hypothesis of the experiment

Methods used to test the hypothesis

Summary of the results of the experiment, including whether you proved or rejected the hypothesis

Literature review abstracts

A literature review is a survey of published work on a work of literature. It may be part of a thesis, dissertation, or research paper .

The abstract for a literature review should contain:

A description of your purpose for covering the research topic

Your thesis statement

A description of the sources used in the review

Your conclusions based on the findings

Psychology lab reports

Psychology lab reports are part of the experiment report category. Psychology experiments, however, may contain distinctive elements.

Describe the goal or purpose of the experiment

If the experiment includes human subjects, describe them. Mention the number of participants and what demographic they fit

Describe any tools, equipment, or apparatus you used for the experiment. For example, some experiments use electroencephalography (EEG) to measure brain waves. You may have also used tools such as questionnaires , case studies , or naturalistic observation. Describe the procedure and parameters of the experiment.

Summarize your conclusions

• What not to include in an APA abstract

As this section is 250 words maximum, it's important to know what should not be included.

Avoid the following in an APA abstract:

Jargon, acronyms, or abbreviations

Citations. These should appear in the body of the paper.

Lengthy or secondary information. Keep it brief and stick to the main points. Readers should want to read your paper for more detailed information.

Opinions or subjective comments

Anything not covered in the paper

• Guidelines for writing an APA abstract

While an abstract is the shortest section of your paper, it is nevertheless one of the most important parts. It determines whether or not someone decides that the paper is worth reading or not. What follows are some guidelines to keep in mind when creating your APA abstract. 

Focus on your main point. Don't try to fit in multiple conclusions. The idea is to give readers a clear idea of what your main point or conclusion is. On a similar note, be explicit about the implications and significance of your findings. This is what will motivate people to read your paper.

Write the abstract last. Ensure the abstract accurately conveys the content and conclusions of your paper. You may want to start with a rough draft of the abstract, which you can use as an outline to guide you when writing your paper. If you do this, make sure you edit and update the abstract after the full paper is complete.

Proofread your abstract. As the abstract is short and the first part of the paper people will read, it's especially important to make it clear and free of spelling, grammatical, or factual errors. Ask someone in your field to read through it.

Write the abstract for a general audience. While the paper may be aimed at academics, scientists, or specialists in your field, the abstract should be accessible to a broad audience. Minimize jargon and acronyms. This will make the paper easier to find by people looking for information on the topic.

Choose your keywords with care. The more relevant keywords you include, the more searchable your paper will be. Look up papers on comparable topics for guidance.

Follow any specific guidelines that apply to your paper. Requirements for the abstract may differ slightly depending on the topic or guidelines set by a particular instructor or publication.

APA style is commonly used in the fields of psychology, sociology, anthropology, economics, and education.

If you’re writing an abstract in APA style, there are certain conventions to follow. Your readers and people in your industry will expect you to adhere to particular elements of layout, content, and structure.

Follow our advice in this article, and you will be confident that your APA abstract complies with the expected standards and will encourage people to read your full paper.

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How To Structure Your Literature Review

3 options to help structure your chapter.

By: Amy Rommelspacher (PhD) | Reviewer: Dr Eunice Rautenbach | November 2020 (Updated May 2023)

Writing the literature review chapter can seem pretty daunting when you’re piecing together your dissertation or thesis. As  we’ve discussed before , a good literature review needs to achieve a few very important objectives – it should:

• Demonstrate your knowledge of the research topic
• Identify the gaps in the literature and show how your research links to these
• Provide the foundation for your conceptual framework (if you have one)
• Inform your own  methodology and research design

To achieve this, your literature review needs a well-thought-out structure . Get the structure of your literature review chapter wrong and you’ll struggle to achieve these objectives. Don’t worry though – in this post, we’ll look at how to structure your literature review for maximum impact (and marks!).

But wait – is this the right time?

Deciding on the structure of your literature review should come towards the end of the literature review process – after you have collected and digested the literature, but before you start writing the chapter. 

In other words, you need to first develop a rich understanding of the literature before you even attempt to map out a structure. There’s no use trying to develop a structure before you’ve fully wrapped your head around the existing research.

Equally importantly, you need to have a structure in place before you start writing , or your literature review will most likely end up a rambling, disjointed mess. 

Importantly, don’t feel that once you’ve defined a structure you can’t iterate on it. It’s perfectly natural to adjust as you engage in the writing process. As we’ve discussed before , writing is a way of developing your thinking, so it’s quite common for your thinking to change – and therefore, for your chapter structure to change – as you write. 

Need a helping hand?

Like any other chapter in your thesis or dissertation, your literature review needs to have a clear, logical structure. At a minimum, it should have three essential components – an  introduction , a  body   and a  conclusion . 

Let’s take a closer look at each of these.

1: The Introduction Section

Just like any good introduction, the introduction section of your literature review should introduce the purpose and layout (organisation) of the chapter. In other words, your introduction needs to give the reader a taste of what’s to come, and how you’re going to lay that out. Essentially, you should provide the reader with a high-level roadmap of your chapter to give them a taste of the journey that lies ahead.

Here’s an example of the layout visualised in a literature review introduction:

Your introduction should also outline your topic (including any tricky terminology or jargon) and provide an explanation of the scope of your literature review – in other words, what you  will   and  won’t   be covering (the delimitations ). This helps ringfence your review and achieve a clear focus . The clearer and narrower your focus, the deeper you can dive into the topic (which is typically where the magic lies). 

Depending on the nature of your project, you could also present your stance or point of view at this stage. In other words, after grappling with the literature you’ll have an opinion about what the trends and concerns are in the field as well as what’s lacking. The introduction section can then present these ideas so that it is clear to examiners that you’re aware of how your research connects with existing knowledge .

2: The Body Section

The body of your literature review is the centre of your work. This is where you’ll present, analyse, evaluate and synthesise the existing research. In other words, this is where you’re going to earn (or lose) the most marks. Therefore, it’s important to carefully think about how you will organise your discussion to present it in a clear way. 

The body of your literature review should do just as the description of this chapter suggests. It should “review” the literature – in other words, identify, analyse, and synthesise it. So, when thinking about structuring your literature review, you need to think about which structural approach will provide the best “review” for your specific type of research and objectives (we’ll get to this shortly).

There are (broadly speaking)  three options  for organising your literature review.

Option 1: Chronological (according to date)

Organising the literature chronologically is one of the simplest ways to structure your literature review. You start with what was published first and work your way through the literature until you reach the work published most recently. Pretty straightforward.

The benefit of this option is that it makes it easy to discuss the developments and debates in the field as they emerged over time. Organising your literature chronologically also allows you to highlight how specific articles or pieces of work might have changed the course of the field – in other words, which research has had the most impact . Therefore, this approach is very useful when your research is aimed at understanding how the topic has unfolded over time and is often used by scholars in the field of history. That said, this approach can be utilised by anyone that wants to explore change over time .

For example , if a student of politics is investigating how the understanding of democracy has evolved over time, they could use the chronological approach to provide a narrative that demonstrates how this understanding has changed through the ages.

Here are some questions you can ask yourself to help you structure your literature review chronologically.

• What is the earliest literature published relating to this topic?
• How has the field changed over time? Why?
• What are the most recent discoveries/theories?

In some ways, chronology plays a part whichever way you decide to structure your literature review, because you will always, to a certain extent, be analysing how the literature has developed. However, with the chronological approach, the emphasis is very firmly on how the discussion has evolved over time , as opposed to how all the literature links together (which we’ll discuss next ).

Option 2: Thematic (grouped by theme)

The thematic approach to structuring a literature review means organising your literature by theme or category – for example, by independent variables (i.e. factors that have an impact on a specific outcome).

As you’ve been collecting and synthesising literature , you’ll likely have started seeing some themes or patterns emerging. You can then use these themes or patterns as a structure for your body discussion. The thematic approach is the most common approach and is useful for structuring literature reviews in most fields.

For example, if you were researching which factors contributed towards people trusting an organisation, you might find themes such as consumers’ perceptions of an organisation’s competence, benevolence and integrity. Structuring your literature review thematically would mean structuring your literature review’s body section to discuss each of these themes, one section at a time.

Here are some questions to ask yourself when structuring your literature review by themes:

• Are there any patterns that have come to light in the literature?
• What are the central themes and categories used by the researchers?
• Do I have enough evidence of these themes?

PS – you can see an example of a thematically structured literature review in our literature review sample walkthrough video here.

Option 3: Methodological

The methodological option is a way of structuring your literature review by the research methodologies used . In other words, organising your discussion based on the angle from which each piece of research was approached – for example, qualitative , quantitative or mixed  methodologies.

Structuring your literature review by methodology can be useful if you are drawing research from a variety of disciplines and are critiquing different methodologies. The point of this approach is to question  how  existing research has been conducted, as opposed to  what  the conclusions and/or findings the research were.

For example, a sociologist might centre their research around critiquing specific fieldwork practices. Their literature review will then be a summary of the fieldwork methodologies used by different studies.

Here are some questions you can ask yourself when structuring your literature review according to methodology:

• Which methodologies have been utilised in this field?
• Which methodology is the most popular (and why)?
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of the various methodologies?
• How can the existing methodologies inform my own methodology?

3: The Conclusion Section

Once you’ve completed the body section of your literature review using one of the structural approaches we discussed above, you’ll need to “wrap up” your literature review and pull all the pieces together to set the direction for the rest of your dissertation or thesis.

The conclusion is where you’ll present the key findings of your literature review. In this section, you should emphasise the research that is especially important to your research questions and highlight the gaps that exist in the literature. Based on this, you need to make it clear what you will add to the literature – in other words, justify your own research by showing how it will help fill one or more of the gaps you just identified.

Last but not least, if it’s your intention to develop a conceptual framework for your dissertation or thesis, the conclusion section is a good place to present this.

Example: Thematically Structured Review

In the video below, we unpack a literature review chapter so that you can see an example of a thematically structure review in practice.

Let’s Recap

In this article, we’ve  discussed how to structure your literature review for maximum impact. Here’s a quick recap of what  you need to keep in mind when deciding on your literature review structure:

• Just like other chapters, your literature review needs a clear introduction , body and conclusion .
• The introduction section should provide an overview of what you will discuss in your literature review.
• The body section of your literature review can be organised by chronology , theme or methodology . The right structural approach depends on what you’re trying to achieve with your research.
• The conclusion section should draw together the key findings of your literature review and link them to your research questions.

If you’re ready to get started, be sure to download our free literature review template to fast-track your chapter outline.

Psst… there’s more!

This post is an extract from our bestselling Udemy Course, Literature Review Bootcamp . If you want to work smart, you don't want to miss this .

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27 Comments

Great work. This is exactly what I was looking for and helps a lot together with your previous post on literature review. One last thing is missing: a link to a great literature chapter of an journal article (maybe with comments of the different sections in this review chapter). Do you know any great literature review chapters?

I agree with you Marin… A great piece

I agree with Marin. This would be quite helpful if you annotate a nicely structured literature from previously published research articles.

Awesome article for my research.

I thank you immensely for this wonderful guide

It is indeed thought and supportive work for the futurist researcher and students

Very educative and good time to get guide. Thank you

Great work, very insightful. Thank you.

Thanks for this wonderful presentation. My question is that do I put all the variables into a single conceptual framework or each hypothesis will have it own conceptual framework?

Thank you very much, very helpful

This is very educative and precise . Thank you very much for dropping this kind of write up .

Pheeww, so damn helpful, thank you for this informative piece.

I’m doing a research project topic ; stool analysis for parasitic worm (enteric) worm, how do I structure it, thanks.

comprehensive explanation. Help us by pasting the URL of some good “literature review” for better understanding.

great piece. thanks for the awesome explanation. it is really worth sharing. I have a little question, if anyone can help me out, which of the options in the body of literature can be best fit if you are writing an architectural thesis that deals with design?

I am doing a research on nanofluids how can l structure it?

Beautifully clear.nThank you!

Lucid! Thankyou!

Brilliant work, well understood, many thanks

I like how this was so clear with simple language 😊😊 thank you so much 😊 for these information 😊

Insightful. I was struggling to come up with a sensible literature review but this has been really helpful. Thank you!

You have given thought-provoking information about the review of the literature.

Thank you. It has made my own research better and to impart your work to students I teach

I learnt a lot from this teaching. It’s a great piece.

I am doing research on EFL teacher motivation for his/her job. How Can I structure it? Is there any detailed template, additional to this?

You are so cool! I do not think I’ve read through something like this before. So nice to find somebody with some genuine thoughts on this issue. Seriously.. thank you for starting this up. This site is one thing that is required on the internet, someone with a little originality!

I’m asked to do conceptual, theoretical and empirical literature, and i just don’t know how to structure it

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How to Write an APA Abstract

Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

Emily is a board-certified science editor who has worked with top digital publishing brands like Voices for Biodiversity, Study.com, GoodTherapy, Vox, and Verywell.

Verywell / Nusha Ashjaee 

• Writing Your Abstract
• How to Use Keywords

An APA abstract is a concise but comprehensive summary of a scientific paper. It is typically a paragraph long, or about 150 to 250 words. The goal of the abstract is to provide the reader with a brief and accurate idea of what a paper is about.

The APA abstract should appear on a separate page immediately after the title page and before the main content of your paper. While professional papers that appear in scientific journals and other publications require an APA abstract, they may not be required for student papers. However, you should always check with your instructor for specific requirements.

What Is APA Format?

APA format is the official style of the American Psychological Association. It is used in writing for psychology and other social sciences. These style guidelines specify different aspects of a document's presentation and layout, including how pages are structured, how references are organized, and how sources are cited.

This article explains how to create an abstract in APA format for your psychology papers or other types of scientific writing. It covers the basic rules you should follow as well as specific guidelines for writing abstracts for experimental reports, literature reviews, and other articles.

What Is an Abstract in APA Format?

In addition to providing guidance for the general style and organization of a paper, APA format also stipulates using an abstract designed to briefly summarize the key details in a paper.

While it is sometimes overlooked or only an afterthought, an abstract is an integral part of any academic or professional paper. The abstract is a critical component of an APA-formatted paper. This brief overview summarizes what your paper contains. It should succinctly and accurately represent what your paper is about and what the reader can expect to find.

Following a few simple guidelines, you can create an abstract following the format. Done well, an abstract generates interest in your work and helps readers learn if the paper will interest them.

APA Format Abstract Basics

The abstract is the second page of a lab report or APA-format paper and should immediately follow the title page . Think of an abstract as a highly condensed summary of your entire paper.

The purpose of your abstract is to provide a brief yet thorough overview of your paper. It should function much like your title page—it should allow the person reading it to quickly determine what your paper is all about. Your abstract is the first thing that most people will read, and it is usually what informs their decision to read the rest of your paper.

The abstract is the single most important paragraph in your entire paper, according to the APA Publication Manual. A good abstract lets the reader know that your paper is worth reading.

According to the official guidelines of the American Psychological Association, an abstract should be brief but packed with information. Each sentence must be written with maximum impact in mind. To keep your abstract short, focus on including just four or five of the essential points, concepts, or findings.

An abstract must also be objective and accurate. The abstract's purpose is to report rather than provide commentary. It should accurately reflect what your paper is about. Only include information that is also included in the body of your paper.

Key Elements of an APA Abstract

Your abstract page should include:

• A running head , which is a shortened version of your title that appears in all caps at the top left of each page of your paper
• A section label , which should be the word "Abstract" centered and bolded at the top of the page
• A page number , which should be the second page of your paper (the title page should be page 1)
• A double-spaced paragraph of about 150 to 250 words
• An indented list of keywords related to your paper's content. Include the label "Keywords:" in italics and list three to five keywords that are separated by commas

How to Write an Abstract in APA Format

Before you write your abstract, you first need to write your paper in its entirety. In order to write a good abstract, you need to have a finished draft of your paper so you can summarize it accurately.

While the abstract will be at the beginning of your paper, it should be the last section you write.

Once you have completed the final draft of your psychology paper , use it as a guide for writing your abstract.

• Begin your abstract on a new page . Place your running head and page number 2 in the top right-hand corner. Center the word "Abstract" at the top of the page.
• Know your target word count . An abstract should be between 150 and 250 words. Exact word counts vary from journal to journal . If you are writing your paper for a psychology course, your professor may have specific word requirements, so be sure to ask. The abstract should be written as only one paragraph with no indentation.
• Structure the abstract in the same order as your paper . Begin with a brief summary of the introduction , and then continue on with a summary of the method , results , and discussion sections of your paper.
• Look at other abstracts in professional journals for examples of how to summarize your paper . Notice the main points that the authors chose to mention in the abstract. Use these examples as a guide when choosing the main ideas in your own paper.
• Write a rough draft of your abstract . Use the format required for your type of paper (see next sections). While you should aim for brevity, be careful not to make your summary too short. Try to write one to two sentences summarizing each section of your paper. Once you have a rough draft, you can edit for length and clarity.
• Ask a friend to read over the abstract . Sometimes, having someone look at your abstract with fresh eyes can provide perspective and help you spot possible typos and other errors.

The abstract is vital to your paper, so it should not be overlooked or treated as an afterthought. Spend time writing this section carefully to ensure maximum readability and clarity.

It is important to remember that while the abstract is the last thing you write, it is often the most read part of your paper.

Experimental Report Abstracts

The format of your abstract also depends on the type of paper you are writing. For example, an abstract summarizing an experimental paper will differ from that of a meta-analysis or case study . For an experimental report, your abstract should:

• Identify the problem . In many cases, you should begin by stating the question you sought to investigate and your hypothesis .
• Describe the participants in the study . State how many participants took part and how they were selected. For example: "In this study, 215 undergraduate student participants were randomly assigned to [the experimental condition] or [the control condition]."
• Describe the study method . For example, identify whether you used a within-subjects, between-subjects, or mixed design.
• Give the basic findings . This is essentially a brief preview of the results of your paper. 
• Provide any conclusions or implications of the study . What might your results indicate, and what directions does it point to for future research?

Literature Review Abstracts

If your paper is a meta-analysis or literature review, your abstract should:

• Describe the problem of interest . In other words, what is it that you set out to investigate in your analysis or review?
• Explain the criteria used to select the studies included in the paper . There may be many different studies devoted to your topic. Your analysis or review probably only looks at a portion of these studies. For what reason did you select these specific studies to include in your research?
• Identify the participants in the studies . Inform the reader about who the participants were in the studies. Were they college students? Older adults? How were they selected and assigned?
• Provide the main results . Again, this is essentially a quick peek at what readers will find when they read your results section. Don't try to include everything. Just provide a very brief summary of your main findings. 
• Describe any conclusions or implications . What might these results mean and what do they reveal about the body of research that exists on this particular topic?

Lab Reports and Articles

Psychology papers such as lab reports and APA format articles also often require an abstract. In these cases as well, the abstract should include all of the major elements of your paper, including an introduction, hypothesis, methods, results, and discussion.

Remember, although the abstract should be placed at the beginning of your paper (right after the title page), you will write the abstract last after you have completed a final draft of your paper.

To ensure that all of your APA formatting is correct, consider consulting a copy of the  Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association .

Keywords in an APA Abstract

After the paragraph containing the main elements of your abstract, you can also include keywords related to your paper. Such keywords are used when indexing your paper in databases and can help researchers and students locate your paper when searching for information about those topics.

Because keywords help people find your paper, it is essential to choose the right ones. The APA suggests including between three and five keywords.

You can identify keywords by thinking about what your paper is about. For example, if your paper focuses on how social media use is related to depression in teenagers, you might include the keywords: social media, mood, depression, adolescents, social networking sites 

A Word From Verywell

The abstract may be very brief, but it is so important that the official APA style manual identifies it as the most important paragraph in your entire paper. Careful attention to detail can ensure that your abstract does a good job representing the contents of your paper. If possible, take your paper to your school's writing lab for assistance.

Nagda S. How to write a scientific abstract. J Indian Prosthodont Soc. 2013;13(3):382–383. doi:10.1007/s13191-013-0299-x

Kumar A. Writing an abstract: Revealing the essence with eloquence .  J Indian Soc Periodontol . 2022;26(1):1-2. doi:10.4103/jisp.jisp_634_21

American Psychological Association. APA Style Journal Article Reporting Standards: Reporting Standards for Studies With an Experimental Manipulation .

American Psychological Association. APA Style Journal Article Reporting Standards: Quantitative Meta-Analysis Article Reporting Standards .

Tullu MS. Writing the title and abstract for a research paper: Being concise, precise, and meticulous is the key .  Saudi J Anaesth . 2019;13(Suppl 1):S12-S17. doi:10.4103/sja.SJA_685_18

American Psychological Association. Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). American Psychological Association; 2019.

By Kendra Cherry, MSEd Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

Write Abstracts, Literature Reviews, and Annotated Bibliographies: Literature Reviews

• Abstract Guides & Examples
• Literature Reviews
• Annotated Bibliographies & Examples
• Student Research

What is a Literature Review?

According to the Writing Center at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill , "A literature review discusses published information in a particular subject area, and sometimes information in a particular subject area within a certain time period."

Although a literature review may summarize research on a given topic, it generally synthesizes and summarizes a subject. The purpose of a literature review therefore is to present summaries and analysis of current research not contribute new ideas on the topic (making it different from a research paper).

Search for Literature Reviews

How to Write a Literature Review

• Learn How to Write a Review of Literature (The University of Wisconsin)
• The Literature Review: A Few Tips On Conducting It (University of Totonto)
• Write a Literature Review (UC Santa Cruz)
• Teaching the Literature Review Details strategies on how to teach students about literature reviews and how to create their own reviews.

Dos and Don'ts of a Literature Review

Make a clear statement of the research problem. Keep it in discussion style. Give a critical assessment of your chosen literature topic, try to state the weaknesses and gaps in previous studies, try to raise questions and give suggestions for improvement.

List your ideas or theories in an unrepeated and sensible sequence. Write a complete bibliography that provides the resources from where you had collected the data in this literature review.

Use unfamiliar technical terms or too many abbreviations. Use passive voice in your text. Repeat same ideas in your text. Include any ideas that you read in the article without citing them (author's name, publication date) as a reference source. Include punctuation and grammatical errors.

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11.8  Writing an abstract

All full reviews must include an abstract of not more than 400 words. The abstract should be kept as brief as possible without sacrificing important content. Abstracts to Cochrane reviews are published in MEDLINE and the Science Citation Index, and are made freely available on the internet. It is therefore important that they can be read as stand-alone documents.

The abstract should summarize the key methods, results and conclusions of the review and should not contain any information that is not in the review. Links to other parts of the review (such as references, studies, tables and figures) may not be included in the abstract. A hypothetical example of an abstract is included in Box 11.8.a .

Abstracts should be targeted primarily at healthcare decision makers (clinicians, informed consumers and policy makers) rather than just to researchers. Terminology should be reasonably comprehensible to a general rather than a specialist healthcare audience. Abbreviations should be avoided, except where they are widely understood (for example, HIV). Where essential, other abbreviations should be spelt out (with the abbreviations in brackets) on first use. Names of drugs and interventions that can be understood internationally should be used wherever possible. Trade names should not be used.

The content under each heading in the abstract should be as follows:

Background: This should be one or two sentences to explain the context or elaborate on the purpose and rationale of the review. If this version of the review is an update of an earlier one, it is helpful to include a sentence such as “This is an update of a Cochrane review first published in YEAR, and previously updated in YEAR”.

Objectives:  This should be a precise statement of the primary objective of the review, ideally in a single sentence, matching the Objectives in the main text of the review. Where possible the style should be of the form “To assess the effects of   [intervention or comparison] for [health problem] for/in [types of people, disease or problem and setting if specified]”.

Search methods: This should list the sources and the dates of the last search, for each source, using the active form ‘We searched….’ or, if there is only one author, the passive form can be used, for example, ‘Database X, Y, Z were searched’. Search terms should not be listed here. If the CRG’s Specialized Register was used, this should be listed first in the form ‘Cochrane X Group Specialized Register’. The order for listing other databases should be the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, MEDLINE, EMBASE, other databases. The date range of the search for each database should be given. For the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials this should be in the form ‘Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials ( The Cochrane Library 2007, Issue 1)’. For most other databases, such as MEDLINE, it should be in the form ‘MEDLINE (January 1966 to December 2006)’. Searching of bibliographies for relevant citations can be covered in a generic phrase ‘reference lists of articles’. If there were any constraints based on language or publication status, these should be listed. If individuals or organizations were contacted to locate studies this should be noted and it is preferable to use ‘We contacted pharmaceutical companies’ rather than a listing of all the pharmaceutical companies contacted. If journals were specifically handsearched for the review, this should be noted but handsearching to help build the Specialized Register of the CRG should not be listed.

Selection criteria: These should be given as ‘ [type of study] of [type of intervention or comparison] in [disease, problem or type of people]‘ . Outcomes should only be listed here if the review was restricted to specific outcomes.

Data collection and analysis: This should be restricted to how data were extracted and assessed, and not include details of what data were extracted. This section should cover whether data extraction and assessments of risk of bias were done by more than one person. If the authors contacted investigators to obtain missing information, this should be noted here. What steps, if any, were taken to identify adverse effects should be noted.

Main results: This section should begin with the total number of studies and participants included in the review, and brief details pertinent to the interpretation of the results (for example, the risk of bias in the studies overall or a comment on the comparability of the studies, if appropriate). It should address the primary objective and be restricted to the main qualitative and quantitative results (generally including not more than six key results). The outcomes included should be selected on the basis of which are most likely to help someone making a decision about whether or not to use a particular intervention. Adverse effects should be included if these are covered in the review. If necessary, the number of studies and participants contributing to the separate outcomes should be noted, along with concerns over quality of evidence specific to these outcomes. The results should be expressed narratively as well as quantitatively if the numerical results are not clear or intuitive (such as those from a standardized mean differences analysis). The summary statistics in the abstract should be the same as those selected as the defaults for the review, and should be presented in a standard way, such as ‘odds ratio 2.31 (95% confidence interval 1.13 to 3.45)’. Ideally, risks of events (percentage) or averages (for continuous data) should be reported for both comparison groups. If overall results are not calculated in the review, a qualitative assessment or a description of the range and pattern of the results can be given. However, ‘vote counts’ in which the numbers of ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ studies are reported should be avoided.

Authors’ conclusions: The primary purpose of the review should be to present information, rather than to offer advice or recommendations. The Authors’ conclusions should be succinct and drawn directly from the findings of the review so that they directly and obviously reflect the main results. Assumptions should generally not be made about practice circumstances, values, preferences, tradeoffs; and the giving of advice or recommendations should generally be avoided. Any important limitations of data and analyses should be noted. Important conclusions about the implications for research should be included if these are not obvious.

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Writing an abstract - a six point checklist (with samples)

Posted in: abstract , dissertations

The abstract is a vital part of any research paper. It is the shop front for your work, and the first stop for your reader. It should provide a clear and succinct summary of your study, and encourage your readers to read more. An effective abstract, therefore should answer the following questions:

• Why did you do this study or project?
• What did you do and how?
• What did you find?
• What do your findings mean?

So here's our run down of the key elements of a well-written abstract.

• Size - A succinct and well written abstract should be between approximately 100- 250 words.
• Background - An effective abstract usually includes some scene-setting information which might include what is already known about the subject, related to the paper in question (a few short sentences).
• Purpose  - The abstract should also set out the purpose of your research, in other words, what is not known about the subject and hence what the study intended to examine (or what the paper seeks to present).
• Methods - The methods section should contain enough information to enable the reader to understand what was done, and how. It should include brief details of the research design, sample size, duration of study, and so on.
• Results - The results section is the most important part of the abstract. This is because readers who skim an abstract do so to learn about the findings of the study. The results section should therefore contain as much detail about the findings as the journal word count permits.
• Conclusion - This section should contain the most important take-home message of the study, expressed in a few precisely worded sentences. Usually, the finding highlighted here relates to the primary outcomes of the study. However, other important or unexpected findings should also be mentioned. It is also customary, but not essential, to express an opinion about the theoretical or practical implications of the findings, or the importance of their findings for the field. Thus, the conclusions may contain three elements:
• The primary take-home message
• Any additional findings of importance
• Implications for future studies 

Example Abstract 2: Engineering Development and validation of a three-dimensional finite element model of the pelvic bone.

Abstract from: Dalstra, M., Huiskes, R. and Van Erning, L., 1995. Development and validation of a three-dimensional finite element model of the pelvic bone. Journal of biomechanical engineering, 117(3), pp.272-278.

And finally...  A word on abstract types and styles

Abstract types can differ according to subject discipline. You need to determine therefore which type of abstract you should include with your paper. Here are two of the most common types with examples.

Informative Abstract

The majority of abstracts are informative. While they still do not critique or evaluate a work, they do more than describe it. A good informative abstract acts as a surrogate for the work itself. That is, the researcher presents and explains all the main arguments and the important results and evidence in the paper. An informative abstract includes the information that can be found in a descriptive abstract [purpose, methods, scope] but it also includes the results and conclusions of the research and the recommendations of the author. The length varies according to discipline, but an informative abstract is usually no more than 300 words in length.

Descriptive Abstract A descriptive abstract indicates the type of information found in the work. It makes no judgements about the work, nor does it provide results or conclusions of the research. It does incorporate key words found in the text and may include the purpose, methods, and scope of the research. Essentially, the descriptive abstract only describes the work being summarised. Some researchers consider it an outline of the work, rather than a summary. Descriptive abstracts are usually very short, 100 words or less.

(Adapted from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3136027/ )

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Clarifying the abstracts of systematic literature reviews *

James hartley.

1 Department of Psychology Keele University Staffordshire United Kingdom

2 † Author's address for correspondence: James Hartley, B.A., Ph.D., Department of Psychology, Keele University, Staffordshire, ST5 5BG, United Kingdom; email, [email protected]

Background: There is a small body of research on improving the clarity of abstracts in general that is relevant to improving the clarity of abstracts of systematic reviews.

Objectives: To summarize this earlier research and indicate its implications for writing the abstracts of systematic reviews.

Method: Literature review with commentary on three main features affecting the clarity of abstracts: their language, structure, and typographical presentation.

Conclusions: The abstracts of systematic reviews should be easier to read than the abstracts of medical research articles, as they are targeted at a wider audience. The aims, methods, results, and conclusions of systematic reviews need to be presented in a consistent way to help search and retrieval. The typographic detailing of the abstracts (type-sizes, spacing, and weights) should be planned to help, rather than confuse, the reader.

Several books and review papers have been published over the last twenty-five years about improving the clarity of the abstracts of articles in scientific journals, including several recent studies [ 1–5 ]. Three main areas of importance have been discussed:

• the language, or the readability, of an abstract;
• the sequence of information, or the structure, of an abstract; and
• the typography, or the presentation, of an abstract.

This paper considers the implications of the findings from research in each of these overlapping areas to the more specific area of writing abstracts for what are called “systematic reviews.” Such reviews in medical journals typically use standard procedures for assessing the evidence obtained from separate studies for and against the effectiveness of a particular treatment. The term “systematic” implies that the authors have used a standard approach to minimizing biases and random errors and that the methods chosen for the approach will be documented in the materials and methods sections of the review. Examples of such reviews may be found in Chalmers's and Altman's text [ 6 ] and in papers published in medical journals, particularly Evidence-Based Medicine. Figure 1 provides a fictitious example of an abstract for such a paper.

“Before” and “after” examples designed to show how differences in typography and wording can enhance the clarity of an abstract. Abstract courtesy of Philippa Middleton.

THE LANGUAGE OF THE TEXT

Research on the readability of conventional journal abstracts suggests that they are not easy to read. Studies in this area typically use the Flesch Reading Ease (R.E.) scores as their measure of text difficulty [ 7 ]. This measure, developed in the 1940s, is based upon the somewhat over simple idea that the difficulty of text is a function of the length of the sentences in the text and the length of the words within these sentences. The original Flesch formula is that R.E. = 206.835 − 0.846w − 1.015s (where w = the average number of syllables in 100 words and s = the average number of words per sentence). The scores normally range from 0 to 100, and the lower the score the more difficult the text is to read; Table 1 gives typical examples. Today, Flesch R.E. scores accompany most computerized spell checkers, and this removes the difficulties of hand calculation; although different programs give slightly different results [ 8, 9 ].

Table 1 The interpretation of Flesch scores

Table 2 summarizes the Flesch scores obtained for numerous journal abstracts in seven studies. The low scores shown here support the notion that journal abstracts are difficult to read. With medical journals, in particular, this difficulty may stem partly from complex medical terminology. Readability scores such as these are widely quoted, even though there is considerable debate about their validity, largely because they ignore the readers' prior knowledge and motivation [ 10, 11 ].

Table 2 Flesch Reading Ease scores reported in previous research on abstracts in journal articles

A second cause of difficulty in understanding text is that, although the wording may be simple and the sentences short, the concepts being described may not be understood by the reader. Thus, for example, although the sentence “God is grace” is extremely readable (in terms of the Flesch), it is not easy to explain what it actually means! In systematic reviews, to be more specific, the statistical concepts of the confidence interval and the adjusted odds ratio ( Figure 1 ) may be well understood by medical researchers, but they will not be understood by all readers.

A third cause of difficulty in prose lies in the scientific nature of the text that emphasizes the use of the third person, together with the passive rather than the active tense. Graetz writes of journal abstracts:

The abstract is characterized by the use of the past tense, the third person, passive, and the non-use of negatives…. It is written in tightly worded sentences, which avoid repetition, meaningless expressions, superlatives, adjectives, illustrations, preliminaries, descriptive details, examples, footnotes. In short it eliminates the redundancy which the skilled reader counts on finding in written language and which usually facilitates comprehension. [ 12 ]

In systematic reviews, it is easy to find sentences like “Trial eligibility and quality were assessed” that would be more readable if they were written as “We assessed the eligibility and the quality of the trials.” Furthermore, there are often short telegrammatic communications, some of which contain no verbs. Figure 1 provides an example (under the subheading “Selection criteria”).

There are, of course, numerous guidelines on how to write clear abstracts and more readable medical text [ 13–16 ] but, at present, there are few such guidelines for writing the abstracts of systematic reviews. Mulrow, Thacker, and Pugh [ 17 ] provide an excellent early example, and there are now regularly updated guidelines in the Cochrane Handbook [ 18 ].

Nonetheless, even when such guidelines are followed, evaluating the clarity of medical text is not easy. But some methods of doing so may be adapted from the more traditional literature on text evaluation. Schriver, for example, describes three different methods of text evaluation—text-based, expert-based, and reader-based methods [ 19 ]:

• Text-based methods are ones that can be used without recourse to experts or to readers. Such methods include computer-based readability formulae (such as the Flesch measure described above) and computer-based measures of style and grammar.
• Expert-based methods are ones that use experts to make assessments of the effectiveness of a piece of text. Medical experts may be asked, for example, to judge the suitability of the information contained in a patient information leaflet.
• Reader-based methods are ones that involve actual readers in making assessments of the suitability of the text, for themselves and for others. Patients, for example, may be asked to comment on medical leaflets or be tested on how much they can recall from them.

Although all three methods of evaluation are useful, especially in combination, this writer particularly recommends reader-based methods for evaluating the readability of abstracts in systematic reviews. This recommendation is because the readers of such systematic reviews are likely to be quite disparate in their aims, needs, and even in the languages that they speak. As the 1999 Cochrane Handbook put it:

Abstracts should be made as readable as possible without compromising scientific integrity. They should primarily be targeted to health care decision makers (clinicians, consumers, and policy makers) rather than just researchers. Terminology should be reasonably comprehensible to a general rather than a specialist medical audience [emphasis added]. [ 20 ]

Expert-based measures on their own may be misleading. For instance, there is evidence to suggest that the concerns of professionals are different from those of other personnel [ 21 ]. Wilson et al. [ 22 ], for instance, report wide differences between the responses of general practitioners (GPs) and patients in the United Kingdom in responses to questions concerning the content and usefulness of several patient information leaflets. Table 3 shows some of their replies.

Table 3 Differences between general practitioners (GPs) and patients in their views about particular patient information leaflets

THE STRUCTURE OF THE TEXT

In recent times, particularly in the medical field, there has been great interest in the use of so-called “structured abstracts”—abstracts that typically contain subheadings, such as “background,” “aims,” “methods,” “results,” and “conclusions.” Indeed, the early rise in the use of such abstracts was phenomenal [ 23 ], and it has no doubt continued to be so up to the present day. Evaluation studies have shown that structured abstracts are more effective than traditional ones, particularly in the sense that they contain more information [ 24–31 ]. However, a caveat here is that some authors still omit important information, and some still include information in the abstract that does not match exactly what is said in the article [ 32–35 ].

Additional research has shown that structured abstracts are sometimes easier to read and to search than are traditional ones [ 36, 37 ], but others have questioned this conclusion [ 38, 39 ]. Nonetheless, in general, both authors and readers apparently prefer structured to traditional abstracts [ 40–42 ]. The main features of structured abstracts that lead to these findings are that:

• the texts are opened-up and clearly subdivided into their component parts, which helps the reader perceive their structure;
• the abstracts sequence their information in a consistent order under consistent subheadings, which facilitates search and retrieval; and
• the writing under these subheadings ensures that authors do not miss out anything important.

Nonetheless, there are some difficulties—and these difficulties become more apparent after considering the structured abstracts of systematic reviews. First of all, the typographic practice of denoting the subheadings varies from journal to journal [ 43, 44 ]. Second, and of more relevance here, there is a range of subheadings used both within and among journals [ 45, 46 ], which militates against rapid retrieval. Table 4 shows an example of these variations by listing the subheadings used in the abstracts in just one volume of the Journal of the American Medical Association. Finally, it appears that some authors omit important subheadings or present them in a different order (e.g., reporting the conclusions before the results) [ 47 ].

Table 4 Different numbers of subheadings used in abstracts in the same volume of the Journal of the American Medical Association

The implications of these difficulties are that a decision needs to be made, based upon appropriate evaluation studies, about what are the key subheadings that can be used consistently in systematic reviews. The journal Evidence-Based Medicine, for example, uses the following six subheadings: “Question(s),” “Data sources,” “Study selection,” “Data extraction,” “Main results,” and “Conclusions,” but the Cochrane Handbook [ 48 ] recommends another seven: “Background,” “Objectives,” “Search strategy,” “Selection criteria,” “Data collection and analysis,” “Main results,” and “Reviewers' conclusions.” Presumably, these different sets of subheadings have developed over time with experience. For example, “Objective(s)” initially preceded “Question(s)” in Evidence-Based Medicine. In the future, refining these subheadings further may be possible by using appropriate typographic cueing, to separate important from minor subheadings, such as those headings used in the Journal of the American Medical Association. It will be essential, however, to use consistent terminology throughout the literature to aid both the creation of and retrieval from the abstracts of systematic reviews. Editors may consult their readers and their authors for possible solutions to this problem.

THE TYPOGRAPHIC SETTING FOR ABSTRACTS OF SYSTEMATIC REVIEWS

Early research on the typographic setting of structured abstracts in scientific articles suggests that the subheadings should be printed in bold capital letters with a line space above each subheading [ 49 ]. But this research has been done with structured abstracts that only have four subheadings. However, the abstracts of systematic reviews are likely to have more than four-subheadings—indeed, as noted above, six or seven seem typical. Also, some of these subheadings may be more important than others.

Generally speaking, there are two ways of clarifying the structure in typography. One is to vary the typography, the other to vary the spacing [ 50, 51 ]. In terms of typography, not overdoing is best; there is no need to use two cues when one will do. Thus, it may be appropriate to use bold lettering for the main subheadings and italic lettering for the less important ones, without adding the additional cues of capital letters or underlining. Also, as the subheadings appear as the first word on a line, placing a line space above them enhances their effectiveness, so there is no need to indent the subheadings as well. The abstracts published in the Cochrane Library follow this procedure.

Finally in this section, it should be noted that it is easier to read an abstract:

• that is set in the same type-size (or larger) than the body of the text of the review, unlike many journal abstracts, [ 52 ];
• that does not use “fancy'” typography or indeed bold or italic for its substantive text [ 53 ]; and
• that is set in “unjustified text,” with equal word spacing and a ragged right-hand margin, rather than in “justified text,” with unequal word spacing and straight left- and right-hand margins. This is particularly the case if the abstract is being read on screen [ 54 ].

CONCLUSIONS

The research reviewed above suggests that, in presenting the abstracts to systematic reviews, attention needs to be paid to their language, their structure, and their typographic design. Figure 1 shows a “before and after” example for a fictitious abstract for a systematic review. The purpose of this example is to encapsulate the argument of this paper and to show how changes in wording and typography can enhance the clarity of an abstract for a systematic review.

Acknowledgments

The author is indebted to Iain Chalmers, Philippa Middleton, Mark Starr, and anonymous referees for assistance in the preparation of this paper.

* Based on invited presentation at the VIIth Cochrane Colloquium, Rome, Italy, October 1999.

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• http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0157-5319 Ahtisham Younas 1 , 2 ,
• http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7839-8130 Parveen Ali 3 , 4
• 1 Memorial University of Newfoundland , St John's , Newfoundland , Canada
• 2 Swat College of Nursing , Pakistan
• 3 School of Nursing and Midwifery , University of Sheffield , Sheffield , South Yorkshire , UK
• 4 Sheffield University Interpersonal Violence Research Group , Sheffield University , Sheffield , UK
• Correspondence to Ahtisham Younas, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St John's, NL A1C 5C4, Canada; ay6133{at}mun.ca

https://doi.org/10.1136/ebnurs-2021-103417

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Introduction

Literature reviews offer a critical synthesis of empirical and theoretical literature to assess the strength of evidence, develop guidelines for practice and policymaking, and identify areas for future research. 1 It is often essential and usually the first task in any research endeavour, particularly in masters or doctoral level education. For effective data extraction and rigorous synthesis in reviews, the use of literature summary tables is of utmost importance. A literature summary table provides a synopsis of an included article. It succinctly presents its purpose, methods, findings and other relevant information pertinent to the review. The aim of developing these literature summary tables is to provide the reader with the information at one glance. Since there are multiple types of reviews (eg, systematic, integrative, scoping, critical and mixed methods) with distinct purposes and techniques, 2 there could be various approaches for developing literature summary tables making it a complex task specialty for the novice researchers or reviewers. Here, we offer five tips for authors of the review articles, relevant to all types of reviews, for creating useful and relevant literature summary tables. We also provide examples from our published reviews to illustrate how useful literature summary tables can be developed and what sort of information should be provided.

Tip 1: provide detailed information about frameworks and methods

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Tabular literature summaries from a scoping review. Source: Rasheed et al . 3

The provision of information about conceptual and theoretical frameworks and methods is useful for several reasons. First, in quantitative (reviews synthesising the results of quantitative studies) and mixed reviews (reviews synthesising the results of both qualitative and quantitative studies to address a mixed review question), it allows the readers to assess the congruence of the core findings and methods with the adapted framework and tested assumptions. In qualitative reviews (reviews synthesising results of qualitative studies), this information is beneficial for readers to recognise the underlying philosophical and paradigmatic stance of the authors of the included articles. For example, imagine the authors of an article, included in a review, used phenomenological inquiry for their research. In that case, the review authors and the readers of the review need to know what kind of (transcendental or hermeneutic) philosophical stance guided the inquiry. Review authors should, therefore, include the philosophical stance in their literature summary for the particular article. Second, information about frameworks and methods enables review authors and readers to judge the quality of the research, which allows for discerning the strengths and limitations of the article. For example, if authors of an included article intended to develop a new scale and test its psychometric properties. To achieve this aim, they used a convenience sample of 150 participants and performed exploratory (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) on the same sample. Such an approach would indicate a flawed methodology because EFA and CFA should not be conducted on the same sample. The review authors must include this information in their summary table. Omitting this information from a summary could lead to the inclusion of a flawed article in the review, thereby jeopardising the review’s rigour.

Tip 2: include strengths and limitations for each article

Critical appraisal of individual articles included in a review is crucial for increasing the rigour of the review. Despite using various templates for critical appraisal, authors often do not provide detailed information about each reviewed article’s strengths and limitations. Merely noting the quality score based on standardised critical appraisal templates is not adequate because the readers should be able to identify the reasons for assigning a weak or moderate rating. Many recent critical appraisal checklists (eg, Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool) discourage review authors from assigning a quality score and recommend noting the main strengths and limitations of included studies. It is also vital that methodological and conceptual limitations and strengths of the articles included in the review are provided because not all review articles include empirical research papers. Rather some review synthesises the theoretical aspects of articles. Providing information about conceptual limitations is also important for readers to judge the quality of foundations of the research. For example, if you included a mixed-methods study in the review, reporting the methodological and conceptual limitations about ‘integration’ is critical for evaluating the study’s strength. Suppose the authors only collected qualitative and quantitative data and did not state the intent and timing of integration. In that case, the strength of the study is weak. Integration only occurred at the levels of data collection. However, integration may not have occurred at the analysis, interpretation and reporting levels.

Tip 3: write conceptual contribution of each reviewed article

While reading and evaluating review papers, we have observed that many review authors only provide core results of the article included in a review and do not explain the conceptual contribution offered by the included article. We refer to conceptual contribution as a description of how the article’s key results contribute towards the development of potential codes, themes or subthemes, or emerging patterns that are reported as the review findings. For example, the authors of a review article noted that one of the research articles included in their review demonstrated the usefulness of case studies and reflective logs as strategies for fostering compassion in nursing students. The conceptual contribution of this research article could be that experiential learning is one way to teach compassion to nursing students, as supported by case studies and reflective logs. This conceptual contribution of the article should be mentioned in the literature summary table. Delineating each reviewed article’s conceptual contribution is particularly beneficial in qualitative reviews, mixed-methods reviews, and critical reviews that often focus on developing models and describing or explaining various phenomena. Figure 2 offers an example of a literature summary table. 4

Tabular literature summaries from a critical review. Source: Younas and Maddigan. 4

Tip 4: compose potential themes from each article during summary writing

While developing literature summary tables, many authors use themes or subthemes reported in the given articles as the key results of their own review. Such an approach prevents the review authors from understanding the article’s conceptual contribution, developing rigorous synthesis and drawing reasonable interpretations of results from an individual article. Ultimately, it affects the generation of novel review findings. For example, one of the articles about women’s healthcare-seeking behaviours in developing countries reported a theme ‘social-cultural determinants of health as precursors of delays’. Instead of using this theme as one of the review findings, the reviewers should read and interpret beyond the given description in an article, compare and contrast themes, findings from one article with findings and themes from another article to find similarities and differences and to understand and explain bigger picture for their readers. Therefore, while developing literature summary tables, think twice before using the predeveloped themes. Including your themes in the summary tables (see figure 1 ) demonstrates to the readers that a robust method of data extraction and synthesis has been followed.

Tip 5: create your personalised template for literature summaries

Often templates are available for data extraction and development of literature summary tables. The available templates may be in the form of a table, chart or a structured framework that extracts some essential information about every article. The commonly used information may include authors, purpose, methods, key results and quality scores. While extracting all relevant information is important, such templates should be tailored to meet the needs of the individuals’ review. For example, for a review about the effectiveness of healthcare interventions, a literature summary table must include information about the intervention, its type, content timing, duration, setting, effectiveness, negative consequences, and receivers and implementers’ experiences of its usage. Similarly, literature summary tables for articles included in a meta-synthesis must include information about the participants’ characteristics, research context and conceptual contribution of each reviewed article so as to help the reader make an informed decision about the usefulness or lack of usefulness of the individual article in the review and the whole review.

In conclusion, narrative or systematic reviews are almost always conducted as a part of any educational project (thesis or dissertation) or academic or clinical research. Literature reviews are the foundation of research on a given topic. Robust and high-quality reviews play an instrumental role in guiding research, practice and policymaking. However, the quality of reviews is also contingent on rigorous data extraction and synthesis, which require developing literature summaries. We have outlined five tips that could enhance the quality of the data extraction and synthesis process by developing useful literature summaries.

• Aromataris E ,
• Rasheed SP ,

Twitter @Ahtisham04, @parveenazamali

Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

Competing interests None declared.

Patient consent for publication Not required.

Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

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• Open access
• Published: 31 July 2023

In search of an international multidimensional action plan for second victim support: a narrative review

• Deborah Seys 1 , 2 ,
• Massimiliano Panella 3 ,
• Sophia Russotto 3 ,
• Reinhard Strametz 4 ,
• José Joaquín Mira 5 , 6 ,
• Astrid Van Wilder 2 ,
• Lode Godderis 2 , 7 &
• Kris Vanhaecht 2 , 8  

BMC Health Services Research volume  23 , Article number:  816 ( 2023 ) Cite this article

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Insights around second victims (SV) and patient safety has been growing over time. An overview of the available evidence is lacking. This review aims to describe (i) the impact a patient safety incident can have and (ii) how healthcare professionals can be supported in the aftermath of a patient safety incident.

A literature search in Medline, EMBASE and CINAHL was performed between 1 and 2010 and 26 November 2020 with studies on SV as inclusion criteria. To be included in this review the studies must include healthcare professionals involved in the aftermath of a patient safety incident.

In total 104 studies were included. SVs can suffer from both psychosocial (negative and positive), professional and physical reactions. Support can be provided at five levels. The first level is prevention (on individual and organizational level) referring to measures taken before a patient safety incident happens. The other four levels focus on providing support in the aftermath of a patient safety incident, such as self-care of individuals and/or team, support by peers and triage, structured support by an expert in the field (professional support) and structured clinical support.

The impact of a patient safety incident on healthcare professionals is broad and diverse. Support programs should be organized at five levels, starting with preventive actions followed by self-care, support by peers, structured professional support and clinical support. This multilevel approach can now be translated in different countries, networks and organizations based on their own culture, support history, structure and legal context. Next to this, they should also include the stage of recovery in which the healthcare professional is located in.

Peer Review reports

Introduction

Since the publication of “To Err is Human” by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) back in 1999, attention to patient safety has been surging [ 1 ]. Several actions have been undertaken to reduce the number of preventable errors and patient safety incidents (PSIs) in the hospital. As mentioned in the Global Patient Safety Action Plan 2021–2030 (Strategy 4.4) by the WHO, attention for PSIs continues to be important and it needs to be “ensured that patients, families and health care staff are given ongoing psychological and other support in the aftermath of a serious PSI” [ 2 ]. Next to the ‘first victim’, i.e. the patient and their kin affected by the PSI, the health care staff is considered to be ‘the second victim’ (SV), a term introduced by Wu in 2000 [ 3 ]. Since Wu’s seminal publication in BMJ, research on the impact of a PSI on the SV and on how to support them in the most optimal way has been numerous with collective consensus that the SV should not be treated punitively [ 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 ].

The term ‘second victims’ has been in use for over two decades and has been on the receiving end of some criticism [ 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 ]. Recently, the definition has been further improved upon by the COST Action on European Researchers’ Network Working on Second Victims (ERNST) [ 13 ] and a SV is now defined as “Any health care worker, directly or indirectly involved in an unanticipated adverse patient event, unintentional healthcare error, or patient injury, and who becomes victimized in the sense that they are also negatively impacted” [ 12 ]. In the aftermath of a PSI, healthcare professionals are highly affected by different psychological and psychosomatic symptoms, e.g. troubling memories, anxiety, anger, remorse, distress and fear of future errors [ 4 , 5 , 14 ].

When a healthcare professional is involved, the symptoms in the aftermath of a PSI can differ dependent on the stage of recovery healthcare professionals find themselves in. Scott et al. described the natural history of recovery in the aftermath of a PSI to first start with a chaos and accident response (1), followed by intrusive reflections (2), restoring personal integrity (3), enduring the inquisition (4), obtaining emotional first aid (5) and finally moving on (6) [ 15 ]. The different recovery stages described are comparable with the different stages of grief in the aftermath of a trauma as described by Kübler-Ross, which are denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance [ 16 ]. This implies that being involved in a PSI is associated with a spiral of emotions [ 17 ]. Finally, a PSI can have a long impact on the healthcare professional which can be negative when symptoms are getting worse or the duration lasts longer than expected [ 18 ].

Since 2006, several support resources have been described in the literature, most established in the United States, trying to help healthcare professionals in dealing with the impact of a PSI [ 19 ]. In 2013, a review with possible support mechanisms was published concluding that support can be provided on the individual and on organizational level. These SV programmes should include support to be provided immediately after PSI occurrence as well as on the middle long and long term [ 4 ]. Scott et al. described the “Scott three-tiered emotional support system”, which includes department support and leadership mentoring (Tier 1), support by peer experts (Tier 2) and professional resources (Tier 3) [ 20 ]. However, the recent attention given towards assessments of a ‘just culture’ indicate that a lot of work is still required to put this into practice [ 21 ]. A recent meta-analysis confirmed that second victims use different types of coping strategies, e.g. being task-oriented or avoidance-oriented, to deal with the emotional impact of a PSI [ 8 , 22 ]. Further actions to increase awareness about the second victim after a PSI and implement support protocols are necessary to improve the complex and multi-layered impact of a PSI [ 23 ].

As the evidence-base around SVs and patient safety has evolved, and several of the available literature reviews were published over ten years ago, the international community lacks an update of the available insights and findings. How healthcare professionals can reduce the impact of a PSI has not been explored within current evidence-base. Therefore, this review wants to describe the different kinds of impact a PSI can cause, not only on a personal and physical level, but also on a professional level. Additionally, it wants to recount which support and prevention strategies are required. The following two research questions were defined: (i) What kind of impact of PSIs on healthcare professionals can be identified? and (ii) How can healthcare professionals be supported in the aftermath of a PSI?

Information sources and search strategy

A literature search was performed in Medline, EMBASE and CINAHL from 1 October 2010 onwards, following on two reviews published by Seys et al. [ 4 , 5 ], and collected literature until 26 November 2020. The following search strategy was employed: (“second victim,” OR “medical error” OR “adverse event”) AND (“psychology” OR “emotions” OR “feelings” OR “burnout” OR “depression” OR “empathy” OR “attitude of health personnel,”) OR “medical error”[MeSH] AND “Burnout, Professional”[MeSH] OR “Depressive Disorder”[MeSH] OR “Empathy”[MeSH] for Medline. For EMBASE: (“second victim,” OR “medical error” OR “adverse event”) AND (“psychology” OR “emotions” OR “feelings” OR “burnout” OR “depression” OR “empathy” OR “attitude of health personnel,”) OR “medical error”/exp AND “professional burnout’/exp OR “depression’/exp OR ‘empathy’/exp. For CINAHL: (“second victim,” OR “medical error” OR “adverse event”) AND (“psychology” OR “emotions” OR “feelings” OR “burnout” OR “depression” OR “empathy” OR “attitude of health personnel,”). This study was conducted according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) standard [ 24 ]. The studies should include healthcare professionals involved in a patient safety incident (PSI), where a PSI is defined as “an event or circumstance that could have resulted, or did result, in unnecessary harm to a patient.” [ 25 ].

Eligibility criteria

Studies were included if any of the following criteria were met. (i) They described a definition or described the term second victims. (ii) They mentioned the prevalence of health care professionals involved in a PSI, which could have occurred over the time span of their career or during a well-defined period. (iii) They studied the impact of a PSI on the involved health care professional without restrictions regarding the level of impact or harm. (iv) Finally, studies were included if they assessed what support was provided and/or needed in the aftermath of a PSI.

We excluded studies not published in English, reviews, conference reports, newspaper stories, and anecdotal evidence. Publications on analyses occurring during the COVID-19 pandemic were excluded due to the fact that these publications are no longer able to purely distinguish the effect of a PSI on the second victim, but have COVID-19 as a confounding factor.

Article screening

All citations were imported into the citations manager, Endnote X9, and duplicates were initially removed by this citation manager. Duplicates found during the title analyses were removed manually. In the next phase, the titles and abstracts were first screened by two reviewers (DS, KV) to eliminate unrelated studies. Any discrepancies were resolved by two other investigators (MP, SR). For all remaining relevant articles, the full text was retrieved, and two reviewers examined them independently according to the eligibility criteria.

Qualitative analysis: data extraction and data synthesis

Data were extracted from the full text by a single investigator (DS) using a data extraction sheet. The sheet included study summary information (authors, country, year of study), study design, patient population reports (sample size, type of respondents) and outcome measurements (impact of PSIs, support in the aftermath of a PSI). The outcome measurements related to the impact of a PSI were clustered by the researchers into psychosocial reactions, positive professional reactions, negative professional reactions or physical reactions which the authors defined before the study.Each of the outcomes related to support in the aftermath of a PSI were extracted from each article. Based on these results the support in the aftermath of a PSI could be clustered into five separate levels, whereby clustering occurred on the degree of support received by SVs. The data extraction was thoroughly discussed with the members of the review team (DS, KV, SR, MP).

Patient and public involvement

Patients and/or the public were not involved in the design, or conduct, or reporting, or dissemination plans of this research.

Figure  1 illustrates the outcome of the search process. A total of 120,635 titles were identified after the initial search. After the removal of duplicates and title, abstract and full text analysis, 104 studies remained.

PRISMA flow diagram

Description of the included studies

Out of the 104 included publications, eight involved opinion papers (Hauk et al. 2018 [ 26 ], MacLeod 2014 [ 27 ], Petersen 2019 [ 28 ], Saver 2013 [ 29 ], Schrøder et al. 2019 [ 30 ], Scott et al. 2016 [ 15 ], Scott 2015 [ 31 ], Smetzer 2012 [ 32 ]), six were perspectives (Ahc 2019 [ 10 ], Tebala 2020 [ 33 ], Tamburri et al. 2017 [ 34 ], Gómez-Durán et al. 2019 [ 35 ], Shapiro et al. 2016 [ 36 ], Slykerman et al. 2019 [ 37 ]), six were editorials (Anderson et al. [ 38 ], Clarkson et al. 2019 [ 11 ], Edrees et al. 2015 [ 39 ], Everly Jr et al. 2020 [ 40 ], Thompson et al. 2015 [ 41 ], Sataloff 2020 [ 42 ]) and one was a case study (Rappaport et al. 2019 [ 43 ]). The other 83 publications were research articles (Supplementary File 1 ). Most studies were performed in the USA (n = 30), followed by Iran (n = 5), Canada (n = 5) and China (n = 4). More than half of the studies were observational studies and one out of four were qualitative studies. More than 9 out of 10 studies were in-hospital studies of which 25% were multi-centre studies.

What kinds of impact of a PSI on healthcare professionals could be identified?

Symptoms can involve psychosocial reactions, professional reactions or a physical response. The PSI could have had an impact on the mental health of the healthcare professional as a SV, leading to a wave of emotions, or a psychosocial reaction. These psychosocial reactions can for example be. feelings of guilt, sleep disturbances, anxiety or fear. Additionally, both negative and positive impacts on their way of working can emerge, Negative professional reactions can e.g. be wanting to change wards, decrease professional self-efficacy or loss of confidence. Examples of positive professional reactions include raised attention, being more careful or being more critical/self-critical. Last, physical health, mentioned by physical response have been described including e.g. eating disorder, headache or muscle tension. The details of these reactions can be found in Supplementary Files 2 – 5 . Figure  2 provides an overview of the most commonly reported psychosocial, negative and positive reactions. Three studies mentioned that some healthcare professionals were not at all impacted by a PSI [ 18 , 44 , 45 ]. In contrast, other studies have posed that a PSI will always affect the involved healthcare professionals [ 46 ].

Most reported psychosocial, negative and positive professional reactions based on number of studies

How can healthcare professionals be supported in the aftermath of a PSI?

For the optimal support in the aftermath of a PSI, actions should be undertaken at five -levels (Fig.  3 , Supplementary File 6 ). The first level includes prevention on both the individual healthcare professional level and the organization level. Several actions can be taken in advance which can lead to a lower impact in the aftermath of a PSI. Examples include investments in good relationships with colleagues [ 47 ]; being a supportive and/or an active listener [ 26 , 39 , 43 , 46 , 48 , 49 , 50 ]; having an environment with no punitive response, where blame is avoided, an environment that is family oriented, or a just and no-macho culture [ 30 , 39 , 45 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 ]; and being educated about the concept of the second victim and related feelings [ 30 , 48 , 50 , 54 , 59 , 60 , 61 ]. The second level includes self-care of the healthcare individual and team and starts when a PSI had occurred [ 17 , 31 , 36 , 42 , 43 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 52 , 55 , 57 , 58 , 62 , 63 , 64 , 65 , 66 , 67 , 68 , 69 , 70 , 71 , 72 , 73 , 74 , 75 , 76 , 77 , 78 , 79 , 80 , 81 ]. Some examples of support in this level are: wanting to talk in great detail about PSI/discuss the PSI [ 17 , 46 , 50 , 54 ], trying to understand what happened and how to avoid the PSI in the future [ 31 , 36 , 43 , 46 , 50 , 52 , 73 , 75 ], looking for support or feedback by supervisor/senior person [ 31 , 43 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 55 , 57 , 63 , 67 , 68 , 69 , 70 , 82 , 83 ]. If this level is insufficient, support by peers and triage [ 15 , 17 , 30 , 31 , 39 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 60 , 62 , 63 , 64 , 65 , 66 , 67 , 69 , 70 , 71 , 72 , 73 , 74 , 76 , 77 , 78 , 79 , 80 , 81 , 82 , 84 , 85 , 86 , 87 , 88 , 89 , 90 , 91 , 92 ] (Level 3) can be provided, which is, if necessary, followed by structured professional support [ 39 , 42 , 43 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 49 , 50 , 52 , 54 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 61 , 64 , 67 , 69 , 73 , 76 , 78 , 79 , 80 , 81 , 87 , 89 , 90 , 92 , 93 ] (Level 4) and clinical support (Level 5). In level 3 (Support by peers and triage), healthcare professionals want e.g. timely support or support soon in the aftermath of a PSI [ 15 , 31 , 39 , 54 , 64 , 87 ], support which is available by hotline, telephone, email, intranet [ 81 , 85 , 86 ] and they want to be informed about the next steps in the hospital’s process for follow-up a PSI [ 31 , 46 , 52 , 60 , 76 , 78 , 79 , 90 , 91 , 92 ]. The structured professional support (Level 4), is support given by an expert in the field and can include e.g. mental health support [ 39 , 42 , 45 , 52 , 58 , 64 , 69 , 73 , 76 , 78 , 79 , 93 ] or access to specialized support (Formal organizational support) [ 39 , 56 , 57 , 92 ], but can also be debriefings [ 39 , 43 , 47 , 50 , 52 , 61 , 76 , 78 , 79 , 80 , 87 ] or mortality and morbidity meetings/clinical incident reviews [ 45 , 50 , 81 , 89 ]. In general it treats the second victim as a person with a condition that requires e.g. short-term psychotherapy or psychosocial support, while clinical support (Level 5) treats the second victim as having a disease treatable with medication [ 32 , 42 , 44 , 48 , 52 , 67 , 73 , 76 , 93 , 94 ] and long-term psychotherapy [ 32 , 42 , 44 , 48 , 52 , 67 , 73 , 76 , 80 , 81 , 93 , 94 ].

Overview of the five-level of support

Next to this, national and local initiatives exist that include several levels of support [ 37 , 49 , 50 , 54 , 56 , 57 , 64 , 69 , 73 , 81 , 86 , 95 , 96 , 97 , 98 , 99 , 100 , 101 , 102 , 103 , 104 , 105 , 106 , 107 , 108 , 109 , 110 , 111 , 112 , 113 , 114 , 115 , 116 , 117 , 118 , 119 ] (Supplementary File 7 ).

Methodological observations

Although professional and psychosocial reactions are described in many publications, only three validated questionnaires that evaluated the impact of a PSI could be identified [ 68 , 78 , 79 , 91 , 120 , 121 , 122 ]. First, the Second Victim Experience and Support Tool (SVEST) is increasingly being implemented as a questionnaire in second victim research [ 68 , 69 , 123 ]. The SVEST was originally validated in the United States and contains 29 items within seven psychosocial domains (psychological stress, physical distress, colleague support, supervisor support, institutional support, non-work-related support, professional self-efficacy) and two employment-related domains or outcomes (turnover intentions and absenteeism) [ 68 , 121 , 122 , 123 ]. The questionnaire is available in English [ 69 ] and evaluates psychological distress, physical distress, professional self-efficacy, colleague support, supervisor support, institutional support, non-work-related support, turnover intentions, and absenteeism [ 68 , 121 , 122 , 123 ]. Another questionnaire often applied in second victim research, is the Impact of Event Scale (IES). This evaluates the subjective distress caused by traumatic events such as PSIs [ 91 , 120 ]. Last, the Second Victims im Deutschsprachigen Raum (Second Victims in German-speaking Countries) (SeViD) questionnaire was developed in Germany and Austria and covers prevalence, symptoms and support strategies of the second victim phenomenon [ 78 , 79 ].

This is the first review focusing on preventive actions which can be taking in advance of a PSI, both by healthcare professionals and by organizations. Additionally our results showed that a difference should be made in different levels of professional support, whereby support can be either structured professionally for the SV on the short and middle term, or could be clinical, with medication or clinical-related aid on the long term. This lead to a shift of the “Scott three-tiered emotional support system towards a five-level support. These results are based on reviewing a total of 104 articles across different healthcare professionals, healthcare settings and countries. Based on the differences in published psychosocial and professional reactions, we argue that no general detailed support program is available for second victims, but that the actions should be based on the needs of the involved individual healthcare professional and should happen at different levels.

In general, the impact of a PSI on healthcare professionals is diverse, ranging from no reactions at all to psychosocial, negative and positive professional reactions, or physical reactions, which on their own could become an obstacle to patient safety. Previous studies showed that the greater the harm to the patient, the more intense the SV phenomenon is, culminating to the most severe symptoms in PSIs [ 22 ]. Healthcare organizations should also take into account that trainees and students can also become SVs in the aftermath of a PSI [ 62 , 66 , 81 , 124 , 125 ].

Only a few instruments to measure the impact of a PSI are published and the most common instrument is the Second Victim Experience and Support Tool (SVEST)., [ 68 , 121 , 122 , 123 ] In the last two years, this instrument has been validated in several languages, e.g. Danish [ 126 ], Spanish [ 127 ], German [ 128 ]; Korean [ 63 ], Argentinian [ 68 ], Chinese [ 71 ], Italian [ 129 ], Malaysian [ 130 ] and Persian [ 121 ]. A revised version of the instrument (SVEST-R) was developed and validated in December 2020, right after the inclusion date of this review. It was first published in English [ 123 ], followed by publication of a German version [ 79 ]. The revised instrument comprises 35 items and has adapted the original domain on ‘non-work-related support’ to ‘resilience’. Additionally, seven items were added regarding desirability of second victim support options. Some of the items in the SVEST and SVEST-R questionnaire are scored inversely to reduce bias [ 131 ]. The SVEST and SVEST-R questionnaires include support and impact items by using these questionnaires in practice. This implies that the results of the questionnaire should be presented at all levels of the organization, not only on how to improve support in general to management and board, but also to supervisors and colleagues. As healthcare professionals go through different stages in their recovery [ 15 ], the SVEST or SVEST-R questionnaire should be taken at different timepoints to check the healthcare professional’s needs. This leads to the question if it is possible to translate one instrument into different languages. In other words: are these questionnaires sufficiently sensitive to capture the differences in culture, language and reactions of the healthcare professionals in the aftermath of a PSI over time? Healthcare professionals go through different stages in the aftermath of a PSI [ 15 , 16 , 17 ] and each stage can differ in time but can also need a different kind of support. For example, 23,6% of the involved healthcare professionals are still hypervigilant, 8,7% continue to have flashbacks, 8,2% have feelings of shame and 8,1% doubt their knowledge and skills six months after a PSI [ 18 ]. If countries, network or organizations want to set up a peer-support protocol, they should not start from scratch, but they should rely on the multilevel approach presented in this paper (see Fig.  3 ). However, these programs could be adapted based on their own cultural context and specific needs of the SV during the different stages of their recovery.

It is still unclear how many healthcare professionals are in need of a specific level of support according to our five-level support system (Fig.  3 ) in the aftermath of a PSI. Our five-level support system is an enlargement of the “Scott three-tiered emotional support system”, The “Scott three-tiered emotional support system” showed that 60% of the SVs found that the support given by colleagues and peers is very helpful and that there was no need for specially trained peer-support [ 20 ]. This review mentioned different prevention strategies which can be used by the individual healthcare professional or by the organization. A safety culture promoting support for emotional needs and increasing awareness of the SV phenomenon are seen as important preventive actions [ 132 ]. An online program such as the ‘Mitigating Impact in Second Victims (MISE) online program’ can help to improve the knowledge about PSIs, possible support models and actions in the aftermath of a PSI [ 133 ]. Professional treatment for SVs doesn’t immediately include medication or clinically-related treatment, it can also include structured professional support. However, if structured professional support is not sufficient, the next step could be treating the involved healthcare professional clinically or with medication. Interventions including visuospatial cognitive ‘Tetris’-like tasks could be implemented to reduce intrusive memories, which are common after PSIs [ 134 ]. Other methods such as cognitive processing therapy (CPT), prolonged exposure therapy (PE) and eye movement, desensitization, and restructuring (EMDR) are the current golden standards for the treatment of trauma-associated symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder [ 135 ].

Next to learning from other SV support literature, the post-COVID era provides opportunities to enhance the SV evidence-base. A study comparing the reaction in the aftermath of a PSI by doctors and nurses with the reactions during COVID-19 showed that the impact on doctors and nurses is larger during COVID-19 than in the aftermath of a PSI [ 136 ]. Most organizations have set up a support program for their healthcare professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic, which implies that these program can be extended to SVs. Not only the level of PSIs can have an impact on the reactions, being involved in formal complaints or lawsuits can put an additional layer on the personal and professional reactions of the involved healthcare professionals [ 137 , 138 ].

Some studies have shown positive reactions in the aftermath of a PSI, such as raised attention or becoming more critical. During the COVID-19 pandemic, it was shown that the pandemic can be a trigger for developing posttraumatic growth, as it is disruptive enough to affect the individual’s values and perspectives [ 139 ]. Being involved in a PSI can similarly be disruptive enough, meaning there is potential for posttraumatic growth for SVs, while for others the disruption can be a possible reason why they want to leave profession.

Strengths and limitations

The strength of this review is that it draws together and reports all the possible reactions and support in the aftermath of a PSI. We chose to extract the reactions ad verbatim from the primary articles as to not lose subtle nuances that might depend on the language or culture of the respondents. Due to this type of research, recall bias in reactions is possible due to the fact that the symptoms were collected after the PSI had happened. These reactions were collected by (validated) questionnaires or based on qualitative research. For this reason the results of the symptoms should be interpreted by general trends and with caution. Other limitations of this review are caused by the heterogeneity of the included studies, in terms of type and severity of adverse events studied, involved healthcare professionals and types of study design. A critical appraisal of the individual studies was not performed as the aim of our study was to have a broad overview of both the reactions and support in the aftermath of a PSI.Next to this, the studies have been carried out in countries with different legal frameworks, which may affect the scope and type of intervention. Besides this, some of the studies have a small sample size or were performed at one organization which limits the generalizability of the results. Aspects of the safety culture of the individual organization should be considered when interpreting and implementing these results as differences between countries may also play a role.

Recommendations

Further research is needed to optimize the validated instruments which measure the impact and support mechanisms for healthcare professionals in the aftermath of a PSI. This five-level support system can be used for longitudinal research but can also evaluate the impact and support needed in the aftermath of different types of PSI and different levels of support, ranging from prevention to professional and cultural support. Age, gender, professional group, working experience and personality dimensions should also be included to understand the SV phenomenon better and give the most optimal support to them. Therefore, knowledge sharing networks within and across countries should be organized. Besides measuring cultural differences, possible reactions and their duration, interventional research is needed, including randomized controlled trials to solidify different interventions at different stages of recovery and evaluate the effectiveness of the interventions.

Conclusions

The impact of a PSI on healthcare professionals is broad, ranging from psychosocial and physical reactions to negative and positive professional reactions. This review shows that support programs should be organized at five levels. It should start with preventive actions followed by self-care of the healthcare professionals, support by peers, structured professional support and clinical support. Based on this, the involved healthcare professionals can be supported in the most optimal way in the aftermath of a PSI. Finally, organizations and healthcare professionals should take preventive actions to reduce the impact of a PSI and should provide support based on the individual needs of each healthcare professional in the aftermath of a PSI and should evolve in time based on the different stages of recovery. As each SV is a unique individual, we should be careful in implementing standard protocols or generalized approaches and provide support fitting for the SV’s personal reaction and recovering stage.

Data Availability

All data presented in this study are available in results section. Deborah Seys can be contacted if there are questions about it.

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Seys, D., Panella, M., Russotto, S. et al. In search of an international multidimensional action plan for second victim support: a narrative review. BMC Health Serv Res 23 , 816 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-023-09637-8

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Original research article, a retrospective study of paraganglioma of the urinary bladder and literature review.

• Institution of Urology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, China

Objective: To review and summarize the characteristics and therapy of paraganglioma of the urinary bladder (PUB).

Method: Patients who underwent the operation in Peking Union Medical College Hospital between January 2012 and December 2021 were reviewed for this retrospective study.

Results: A total of 29 patients, comprising 9 (31%) men and 20 (69%) women, were included. The main manifestations were hypertension, palpitation, and micturition syncope. Eight patients had an increased 24-h urinary catecholamine, and seven of them had increased norepinephrine. Normetanephrine in seven patients was increased. Six of 18 metaiodobenzylguanidine and 8 of 22 octreotide scans were positive. In total, 15 cases underwent laparoscopic partial cystectomy and 14 underwent transurethral resection of bladder tumor. In all patients, the immunohistochemical index of Melan-A, AE1/AE3, and α-inhibin were negative, and chromogranin A, S-100, and succinate dehydrogenase were positive. The Ki-67 of 28/29 cases was under 5%, and 1 case with a Ki-67 of 20% was diagnosed with malignant PUB. A total of 27 patients had a regular follow-up, 2 patients were lost during the follow-up, 3 patients had a recurrence, and 1 of these patients died within 1 year of surgery. The symptoms all disappeared or were relieved after the surgery.

Conclusion: The transurethral surgery approach fits PUB tumors with a size <3 cm or that protrudes into the bladder and can significantly reduce the postoperative hospital stay. Early detection and treatment are effective, and regular review is necessary after the surgery.

1 Background

Paraganglioma of the urinary bladder (PUB) is a rare tumor that was first reported by Zimmerman et al. in 1953 ( 1 ). Like all the other paragangliomas, PUB derives from chromaffin cells of the sympathetic nervous system. However, it only constitutes 0.06% of urinary tumors and approximately 6%–9.8% of paragangliomas ( 2 , 3 ). The tumors can be functional or non-functional; the clinical manifestation of the functional tumor mainly includes micturition syncope, hypertension, headache, and palpitation, which are caused by extensively increased endogenous catecholamine (CA) secretions. Due to their rarity and the variable nature of their symptoms, PUBs are commonly misdiagnosed and mistreated. Treatment options generally include transurethral resection or partial or radical cystectomy. We reviewed the clinical and pathological characteristics of all patients diagnosed with PUB in our hospital over the past 10 years and compared postoperative hospitalization and follow-up with different surgical approaches. This will improve our understanding of PUB and help to give the patients a safer and more effective treatment method.

We reviewed patients who were diagnosed with PUB and underwent surgery in our hospital between January 2012 and December 2021. The patients’ general information, laboratory and radiology examinations, surgery, pathology, and follow-ups were collected. All PUB tumors were defined as functional when urine or plasma fractionated CAs or fractionated or total metanephrines (MN) were elevated above the upper limit of respective reference ranges. Length of stay exceeding the 75th percentile of the total length of stay was defined as an extended length of stay ( 4 ). High-performance liquid chromatography with electrochemical detection determined 24-h urinary CA levels in all patients. In addition, normetanephrine (NMN) and MN were detected in blood samples utilizing the same method for patients from 2019 onward, which helped us to save diagnostic time and improve accuracy. The operative method of PUB was diverse. According to our experience, when the tumor diameter is ≤3 cm, a transurethral resection of bladder tumor (TURBT) can be selected, which can ensure the en bloc resection of the tumor and complete removal from the urethra to avoid implantation and metastasis. All tumors were completely resected. All surgical specimens were diagnosed by urologic pathologists. Tumor markers for paragangliomas of the bladder, including CD56, NSE, chromogranin A (CgA), Syn vimentin, succinate dehydrogenase (SDHB), Von Hippel–Lindau (VHL), PGP9.5, and S-100 protein, were detected using immunohistochemical techniques. Tumor size was determined based on the largest diameter of the PUB on histopathology. To assess the effectiveness of PUB treatment, a long-term follow-up was carried out by reviewing patients in the outpatient clinic or by telephone interviews at intervals of approximately 3–6 months. The follow-up period is calculated from the date of surgery to the date of the last follow-up or death. SPSS version 26.0 software was used for data processing and analysis. In this study, measurement data that did not obey normal distribution were expressed as median (M) and quartiles (P25–P75), and the Mann–Whitney U test was used for comparison between groups. Count data were expressed by frequency or composition ratio, and the chi-square test was used for comparison between groups. P  < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

3.1 Patient demographics

In this study, 29 cases of PUB were diagnosed, accounting for 5.7% (29/508) of patients with all paragangliomas treated in our hospital during the same period. Baseline characteristics, diagnostic findings, operation methods, results, and postoperative follow-up for each patient can be found in Table 1 . The mean age of the patients with PUB was 48 years (range 28–68), and these included 9 (31%) men and 20 (69%) women. Of the 29 cases, 11 (37.9%) were functional and 18 (62.1%) were non-functional. Patients with PUB presented with strong headache (44.9%), palpitation (62.1%), weakness (20.7%), and increasing blood pressure after urination (41.4%). Two patients (6.9%) detected the tumor coincidentally, without any symptoms. One patient with a history of hypertension for more than 10 years had postoperative symptom relief and his blood pressure remained at normal levels during the long-term follow-up. Among the 20 patients who underwent SDHB gene screening for paraganglioma genetic syndrome, four patients were identified as SDHB-positive (SDHB+), one patient was classified as SDHB-indeterminate (SDHB±), and the remaining patients tested negative for SDHB (SDHB–). All patients experienced complete symptom relief after surgery, with a recurrence rate of 20% observed in SDHB+ or SDHB± patients, while no recurrences were observed in those who tested negative for SDHB.

Table 1 . Baseline characteristics, operation methods, results, diagnosis, and follow-up for each patient.

3.2 Treatment

The traditional methods of B-ultrasound and contrast-enhanced enhanced computed tomography (CT) were taken preoperatively to assess the location and the statement of invasion of the tumor ( Figures 1 , 2 ). PUB performs an obvious enhancement because of the rich blood supplement. The mean size of the largest tumor diameter was 2.57 cm. In total, 18 patients underwent metaiodobenzylguanidine (MIBG) imaging and 6 (33.3%) patients had positive results. A total of 22 patients underwent octreotide imaging, and 8 (36.3%) patients had positive results. MIBG and octreotide imaging were both positive in two patients. Notably, two patients had positive MIBG imaging results but negative octreotide imaging results, and one patient had negative MIBG imaging results but positive octreotide imaging results. Three patients underwent 68GA PET-CT for suspected metastases and all had positive results. The locations of the PUBs included the right wall (9 cases, 31.0%), right posterior wall (1 case, 3.4%), right anterior wall (1 case, 3.4%), left wall (1 case, 3.4%), left posterior wall (4 cases, 13.8%), posterior wall (4 cases, 13.8%), and anterior wall (9 cases, 31.0%) ( Figure 3 ).

Figure 1 . The arterial phase enhanced CT scan of the patient whose PUB tumor was located in left posterior wall.

Figure 2 . The unenhanced CT scan of the patient whose PUB tumor was located in left posterior wall.

Figure 3 . The distribution of different tumor locations of bladder and surgical approach.

All 29 patients underwent rigorous preoperative preparation using alpha blockers for 2–4 weeks. The preoperative evaluation of patients’ supine blood pressure, heart rate, hematocrit (HCT), and other indicators suggested that surgery should be performed only after full preoperative preparation and that changes in blood pressure and heart rate should be strictly monitored during the operation. The results showed that the blood pressure and heart rate of all patients did not fluctuate significantly, and the hemodynamics were stable. All patients underwent surgery in our hospital, with 15 combined transurethral and laparoscopic partial cystectomies ( Figure 4 ) and 14 TURBT. Among the patients who underwent a combined transurethral and laparoscopic partial cystectomy, the tumor size in eight cases was smaller than 3 cm; all patients who underwent a TURBT procedure had a tumor size smaller than 3 cm. The mean postoperative hospital stay was 7.7 days in the partial cystectomy group and 3.6 days in the TURBT group, with a significant difference in whether postoperative hospital stay was prolonged in the two groups ( p  < 0.001) and no difference in whether there was a recurrence after surgery ( p  > 0.05) ( Table 2 ).

Figure 4 . In a combined transurethral laparoscopic partial cystectomy, the transurethral approach helps the surgeon avoid damaging important anatomical structures.

Table 2 . Intergroup comparison of postoperative hospital stay by surgical approach.

3.3 Pathology

The historical pathology results of the 29 patients were all paraganglioma of urinary bladder. The immunohistochemical index of Melan-A, AE1/AE3, and α-inhibin were negative, while CgA, S-100, and SDHB were positive. The Ki-67 index can determine the proliferative activity of the tumor. In our patients, the Ki-67 index of 28 cases was <5%. One patient, whose Ki-67 was 20%, was diagnosed with metastatic PUB, and the pathology results showed that the bladder muscle was invaded and an intravascular tumor thrombus had formed ( Figure 5 ).

Figure 5 . The pathology historical results of the 29 patients are all paraganglioma of urinary bladder. The immunohistochemical index of Melan-A, AE1/AE3, and α-inhibin are negative, while CgA, S-100, and SDHB are positive.

3.4 Follow-up and prognosis

Of the 29 cases, 2 (6.9%) were lost during the follow-up. The remaining 27 patients were reviewed regularly. One patient had a new mass in the left pelvis 9 months after surgery; metastases in the lumbosacral region, the right side of the chest, and the right side of the back were detected by MIBG and octreotide scanning. The patient died within 1 year after surgery. The patient with a recurrence 2 years after surgery showed intravesical metastases, right paracolonic parappendiceal metastases, multiple metastases in both lungs (the largest in the lower lobe of the left lung), and an elevated systolic blood pressure of >180 mmHg. We gave him alpha receptor blockers to control the blood pressure, and there was no progress with the recurred mass and multiple metastatic foci. One patient had a recurrence 5 years postoperatively, with two masses detected: one in the retroperitoneum and the other in front of the sacrum. Temozolomide was taken with side effects of weakness and nausea. The symptoms of headache, palpitation, and high blood pressure after urination in 26 patients disappeared after the surgery, and one patient experienced symptom relief within 1 year.

4 Discussion

A paraganglioma is a non-epithelial tumor that arises in a paraganglial location. Less than 10% of paragangliomas are found in the urinary bladder, and young people are more likely to develop PUB. PUBs arise more frequently in the trigone of the bladder, with a mean size of 3.9 cm ( 5 ). To the best of our knowledge, we have reported the largest number of patients with PUB in one center to date.

The detection and diagnosis of PUB in the early stage depend on the clinical manifestation of hypertension and radiology examination. Symptoms may include headache, paranesthesia, dyspnea, angina, hematuria, and lower urinary tract symptoms ( 6 ). Unfortunately, PUB is always misdiagnosed as bladder cancer, especially the non-functional tumors with no symptoms. According to our previous literature review, 61.6% of patients with PUB were misdiagnosed before pathologic diagnosis, and less than 30% were diagnosed preoperatively ( 7 ).

Due to the difficulties in diagnosing PUB, crucial laboratory examinations and imaging analyses are necessary before surgery. CAs, which are secreted by chromaffin cells, include dopamine, adrenaline, and norepinephrine, and are important indexes. The level of these indexes, either in blood or 24-h urinary samples, are increased in functional PUB, and these laboratory results can help us finish the etiology diagnosis before the operation. In our study, all three patients with non-functional PUB had a normal level of 24-h urine CA, NMN, and MN. Almost all abnormal laboratory indexes show increased NE and NMN in functional PUB tumors. This may suggest that increased NE and NMN are specific to PUB tumors.

Imaging analysis provides a localization diagnosis and improves the etiology diagnosis. Contrast-enhanced CT and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are two basic screening methods. PUB demonstrates a regular-shaped bladder tumor with obvious enhancement and hyperintensity on T2-weighted imaging (T2WI) ( 8 ). MIBG and octreotide imaging are used as important tools in the diagnosis of PUB; in some studies, MIBG imaging has shown a higher sensitivity and specificity and is superior to octreotide imaging, but the latter has a clear advantage in the detection of some metastatic lesions. In our study, three patients had recurrent postoperative metastases: one patient underwent MIBG imaging with positive results; one patient underwent octreotide imaging with positive results; and one patient had both scans, in which MIBG imaging was negative and octreotide imaging was positive. This is consistent with results in previous studies. For the patients who underwent both MIBG and octreotide imaging, one was negative on MIBG imaging but positive on octreotide imaging, and two were positive on MIBG imaging but negative on octreotide imaging. Overall, MIBG and octreotide scans each have their own advantages and are complementary, which need to be selected with the patient's characteristics in the clinic. In previous studies, fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG)-PET was found to be more sensitive than MIBG imaging ( 9 ), whereas Ga-68 DOTATATE PET/CT could detect metastatic PUBs ( 10 ). However, non-functional PUBs are difficult to detect preoperatively because of the lack of secreting CA and non-typical symptoms. A case of functional PUB was reported without any radiographic and laboratory tests ( 11 ). Musa et al. ( 12 ) recommended cystoscopy before surgery because PUBs have the cystoscopic feature of hypervascularization. However, the final diagnosis must be based on histopathology and immunohistopathology after tumor resection.

Surgery is the most important treatment for PUB. To date, two main surgical options, transurethral resection and combined transurethral and laparoscopic partial cystectomy, have been used. Most PUB tumors were functional and could be detected in the early stage; the tumor size was small, and transurethral resection was a safer and better surgical approach. Approximately one-fifth of patients were treated with the TURBT procedure alone ( 13 ). The combined transurethral and laparoscopic partial cystectomy should be used for tumors that invade the muscle layer of the bladder or go even deeper. Transurethral methods can help surgeons avoid injury of this important anatomical structure, such as the bilateral ureteral orifice. We can coagulate the vessel at the tumor base early and it may be beneficial to use short bursts to limit the fluctuations in blood pressure during the procedure ( 14 ). At present, laser resection and electro-excision are reported to treat PUB, with good results ( 15 ), while it is suggested that resection rarely leads to a high level of recurrence ( 16 ).

In this article, we compared the effects of both partial cystectomy and TURBT procedure on postoperative length of stay and postoperative recurrence. The results showed that the different surgical approaches did not have an effect on postoperative recurrence and that the TURBT procedure significantly reduced the postoperative length of hospital stay. Moreover, recent findings suggest that the TURBT procedure is feasible for tumors with a diameter <3 cm with adequate preoperative preparation ( 17 ). Therefore, we recommend the TURBT procedure for PUBs smaller than 3 cm, while for larger tumors, partial cystectomy or radical cystectomy can be chosen, depending on the PUB’s invasion of the bladder wall. Pelvic lymph node dissection or biopsy is necessary if metastasis is suspected. However, due to limitations in our sample size, we were not able to compare the differences between the two surgical approaches separately when the tumor was smaller than 3 cm. Therefore, more studies are needed to confirm this conclusion. On the other hand, almost all paragangliomas have a whole regular membrane, and excision extension involving the muscularis of the bladder is the key point to respect the tumor completely, and complete excision of the membrane is most important to avoid or decrease the rate of recurrence.

Pathology is the gold standard for a definite diagnosis. A typical paraganglioma has neuroendocrine markers combined with neuroendocrine markers and negative mesenchymal and epithelial markers. CD56, NSE, CgA, Syn vimentin, SDHB, VHL, PGP9.5, and S-100 protein are in common use ( 18 ). In our study, a typical PUB tested negative for Melan-A, α-inhibin, and AE1/AE3, and positive for CgA, S-100, and SDHB. A Ki-67 index >5% indicates a high risk of metastasis. Genetic disorder is another factor in occurrence, and SDHB is the most common gene associated with the highest rate of metastasis ( 19 ).

5 Conclusion

PUB is a rare bladder tumor with gradually advanced appropriate methods of diagnosis and surgery approaches in recent years. The transurethral surgery approach fits for most PUB tumors with a size <3 cm or that protrudes into the bladder. Early detection and treatment are effective, and regular postoperative reviews are necessary.

Data availability statement

The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.

Ethics statement

The studies involving humans were approved by Ethics Review Committee of Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences. The studies were conducted in accordance with the local legislation and institutional requirements. The human samples used in this study were acquired from primarily isolated as part of our previous study for which ethical approval was obtained. Written informed consent for participation was not required from the participants or the participants’ legal guardians/next of kin in accordance with the national legislation and institutional requirements. Written informed consent was obtained from the individual(s) for the publication of any potentially identifiable images or data included in this article.

Author contributions

YZ: Writing – original draft, Investigation, Funding acquisition, Formal Analysis, Data curation. ZZ: Writing – original draft, Methodology, Investigation, Data curation. SW: Writing – review & editing, Data curation. JW: Writing – review & editing, Validation, Resources, Funding acquisition. DW: Writing – review & editing. ZJ: Writing – review & editing, Supervision. YSZ: Writing – review & editing, Resources. HL: Writing – review & editing, Supervision.

The authors declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article,

This work was supported by National High Level Hospital Clinical Research Funding (Grant Number: 2022-PUMCH-C-044).

Acknowledgments

This article was previously published as a preprint on Research Square ( https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-3088240/v1 ).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

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Keywords: paraganglioma of the urinary bladder, diagnosis, transurethral resection of bladder tumor, cystectomy, prognosis

Citation: Zhao Y, Zhang Z, Wang S, Wen J, Wang D, Ji Z, Zhang Y and Li H (2024) A retrospective study of paraganglioma of the urinary bladder and literature review. Front. Surg. 11:1348737. doi: 10.3389/fsurg.2024.1348737

Received: 3 December 2023; Accepted: 20 March 2024; Published: 5 April 2024.

Reviewed by:

© 2024 Zhao, Zhang, Wang, Wen, Wang, Ji, Zhang and Li. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Jin Wen [email protected]

† These authors have contributed equally to this work

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The Evolution of Minimally Invasive Urologic Surgery: Innovations, Challenges, and Opportunities