Search and Selection Procedures of Literature Reviews in Behavior Analysis

Overview

Journal Perspect Behav Sci

Publisher Springer Nature

Specialty Psychiatry

Date 2020 Dec 31

PMID 33381686

Citations 2

Authors

Seth A King

Douglas Kostewicz

Olivia Enders

Taneal Burch

Argnue Chitiyo

Johanna Taylor

Sarah DeMaria

Milsha Reid

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Literature reviews allow professionals to identify effective interventions and assess developments in research and practice. As in other forms of scientific inquiry, the transparency of literature searches enhances the credibility of findings, particularly in regards to intervention research. The current review evaluated the characteristics of search methods employed in literature reviews appearing in publications concerning behavior analysis ( = 28) from 1997 to 2017. Specific aims included determining the frequency of narrative, systematic, and meta-analytic reviews over time; examining the publication of reviews in specific journals; and evaluating author reports of literature search and selection procedures. Narrative reviews (51.30 = 630) represented the majority of the total sample ( = 1,228), followed by systematic (31.51%; = 387) and meta-analytic (17.18%; = 211) reviews. In contrast to trends in related fields (e.g., special education), narrative reviews continued to represent a large portion of published reviews each year. The evaluated reviews exhibited multiple strengths; nonetheless, issues involving the reporting and execution of searches may limit the validity and replicability of literature reviews. A discussion of implications for research follows an overview of findings.

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