Practice Quizzes

1. Which of the following is a reason to undertake a systematic review of the literature?

  1. being able to access important ‘grey’ literature
  2. increasing the transparency of a review
  3. being able to reach older yet still important contributions
  4. enhancing creativity and intuition

Ans: B

2. What is the function of a Boolean operator?

  1. to identify a particular type of publication
  2. to broaden the scope of a search on a particular subject
  3. to delineate the scope and depth of research results
  4. to have a programme that can operate within the Google platform

Ans: C

3. What is a citation search?

  1. It traces all the publications of a particular author over time.
  2. It traces key authors of journal articles or books to previous or future related work in relation to a particular topic.
  3. It traces articles on a particular topic from books as opposed to journal articles.
  4. It calculates the impact factor for a journal.

Ans: B

4. Which of these is NOT an advantage of using a library?

  1. to obtain print information that is available but difficult to access elsewhere
  2. to access working papers ahead of print
  3. to have experts to help
  4. to identify adjacent material that might be of interest/use on a related topic

Ans: B

5. Which of the following is a scholarly database?

  1. Detox
  2. Protocol
  3. ABI Complete
  4. ReQuest
  5. all of these

Ans: C

6. A checklist of a literature review would NOT include which of the following key items?

  1. the topic and scope clearly identified
  2. a clear understanding of the relevant terms and concepts
  3. material from as far back as it is possible to obtain
  4. research conceptualized/reordered in such a way that new perspectives are generated

Ans: C

7. Which of the following statements would NOT define a main purpose of a literature review?

  1. to learn from previous research in order to be in a position to ask focused questions
  2. to provide a context for the research that is to be undertaken
  3. to show volume of research that has been conducted on a particular topic
  4. to clearly indicate what the new research will add to what is already known

Ans: C

8. Which of the following questions links to the key criterion of ‘authorship’, used for evaluating sources of information?

  1. When was the source created and last updated?
  2. Is the source authoritative and therefore credible?
  3. What motivations have led to the creation of the work?
  4. Is there sufficient information/data/analysis offered to make the paper rigorous?

Ans: B

9. A critical literature review requires the researchers to ______.

  1. be negative about the literature they read
  2. highlight the reasons why previous research was misguided or poorly conducted
  3. select literature they find easy to criticise
  4. evaluate the contribution of previous research in the light of a new research questions

Ans: D

10. It can be useful to begin a literature review with a brief research statement. Of the statements below, which would you NOT expect to see?

  1. What is the topic of the research?
  2. How does this project relate to past research in the field?
  3. What methodological approaches should be excluded?
  4. Why a given body of literature is relevant to the research

Ans: C