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IMPORTANT: Submit Only After Successful Completion Submit your thesis to the institutional repository only after you have: Received official notification of a passing grade on your thesis defense/examination, OR Been formally notified by the Examinations Offic...

A research framework is a conceptual or methodological structure that guides the process of conducting research. It provides a systematic approach to defining research questions, gathering data, analyzing findings, and interpreting results. Research frameworks...

Research methodologies are systematic approaches to conducting research that encompass specific procedures, methods, and techniques for data collection and analysis. Understanding different methodologies is crucial for conducting effective research in both des...

Hans-Dieter Klingemann Library Awarded Open Library Badge The Hans-Dieter Klingemann Library at Whitecliffe University of Applied Sciences (Whitecliffe) has been awarded the Open Library Badge 2020, joining a select group of academic libraries in Germany recog...

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What is Open Access? Open Access (OA) refers to the free, immediate, online availability of research outputs such as journal articles or books, combined with the rights to use these outputs fully in the digital environment. Open access journals are scholarly p...

Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching, learning, and research materials that are free to access, adapt, and share thanks to open licenses that explicitly permit retention, reuse, revision, remixing, and redistribution —the “5 Rs”. Why Use OER? Cost sav...

Systematic literature reviews (SLRs) are a structured, reproducible method for identifying and synthesizing existing research to answer a focused research question. This page will guide you through the concept and process step by step. What Is a Systematic Lit...

Overview A protocol is a written plan that specifies, in advance, exactly how you intend to conduct your systematic literature review. It is not complete until all 11/12 sub-sections below have been worked through and recorded. Writing the protocol is not a bu...

Overview This step translates the search strategy you documented in your protocol into actual database queries, records the results systematically, and prepares a clean, deduplicated set of references for screening. Precision and documentation at this stage ar...

Overview Screening is the process of applying your pre-specified inclusion and exclusion criteria to the deduplicated set of references produced earlier, in order to identify the studies that will form the basis of your review. It proceeds in two sequential ph...

Overview Quality appraisal is the systematic assessment of the methodological rigor of each study included after screening. It answers the question: how much confidence can we place in the findings of this study? Appraisal does not judge whether a study is int...

Overview Data extraction is the process of systematically pulling the information you need from each included study and recording it in a standardised form. It bridges the gap between your screened, appraised set of studies and the synthesis you will conduct l...

Overview Synthesis is where the work of the review becomes an argument. Having identified, screened, appraised, and extracted data from your included studies, you now interpret what they collectively say in response to your research question. Reporting then tr...

Overview A well-defined research question is the foundation of a systematic literature review. Every subsequent decision (which databases to search, what terms to use, which studies to include) flows directly from it. A question that is too broad produces an u...

This checklist, adapted from vom Brocke et al. (2015), helps you evaluate whether your search meets the standards of rigor expected in a systematic review. Use it at three stages: before you search, while searching, and after completing your search. Before th...