When writing a literature review a survey of scholarly books and articles on a specific topic or issue for a college research paper objectivity should be one of your primary goals. You can avoid bias by evaluating both the strengths and the weaknesses of each literary work and by ensuring that the authors have credentials and experience to back their findings. Consider a broad spectrum of works on the topic, so your review is well rounded, suggests the university of california at santa cruz. Examine why some experts in the field support specific positions and others oppose them. an unbiased literature review seeks to examine data, facts and professional opinions to determine the validity of arguments. For example, if your research paper is on the benefits of stem cell research, your literature review should include medical journals, case studies and expert opinions on the subject.

You might also discuss why some oppose stem cell research for ethical or religious reasons. Refer to statistics, facts and findings in your scholarly literature selections to back your review. cite specific information from the text paraphrasing is fine as long as you credit your sources. Explain why the author's findings are reliable and trustworthy, such as the author's educational background, experience in the field or involvement in case studies. Even though a literature review is your interpretation of the material, you add credibility to your arguments by backing them with proof from the text.

Examine your statements carefully to ensure that your interpretation of the text doesn't reflect personal judgments, viewpoints or prejudices. The goal is to create a balanced critical assessment of the literary works you're reviewing. ask yourself if your comments are justifiable or if you're incorporating personal values into your review. For example, if you're reviewing a law journal on the advantages of capital punishment and you oppose every point based on your religious upbringing, then your literature review will contain bias. However, you can find other articles that discuss the negatives of capital punishment.

Such as expensive, long lasting appeal processes, to add credibility to your review. You want your literature review to support your thesis and arguments, but you shouldn't take ideas out of context or misguide your readers. For example, pointing out that a particular study only represents a small sample of the population or that an author never addresses an alternate approach is completely acceptable. Highlight trends in what has been published on the issue, explain differences in theory or methodology and elaborate on why there are gaps or shortcomings in research, suggests the university of wisconsin. evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of each literary work is critical to the validity of your research. However, using highly emotional language, derogatory statements or a negative tone detracts from the professionalism of your paper. Literature review there has been increasing interest in the concept of unconscious, or implicit, bias and an increasing understanding of the impact that it can have on recruitment and selection decisions.

This literature review aims to help higher education institutions to understand unconscious bias, and discover how to reduce its impact. Key psychological theories related to unconscious/implicit bias review of research on the impact of implicit bias on decision making, behaviour and actions methods and techniques for reducing unconscious/implicit bias summary of recommendations writers should write objectively and inclusively to receive respect and trust from readers, as well as to avoid alienating readers. To be objective means to write with curiosity, rather than having a preset opinion, and to engage with research, rather than presenting a personal preference. Stay away from generalization by avoiding stated or implied all or never assertions: biased: educators do not consider each child 39 s particular learning style when developing lessons. This sentence does not acknowledge the variation within the population of educators, implying that all educators are like this. better: some educators do not consider each child 39 s particular learning style when developing lessons. This sentence acknowledges that there are some educators who do not fall into this category, that all educators are not the same.

Conflicts of interest cois of researchers have been a frequent topic recently in the popular press and scientific journals. Of particular interest to psychiatric researchers are the investigations in the us senate, led by senator charles grassley. A recent article in science discusses the history and current state of these investigations. 1 for those who like to keep score, science has a list of the 9 psychiatric researchers who have been investigated, the amounts of money they received from drug companies and the amounts they mention in coi disclosures.

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2 much of what has been written about coi concerns drug company payments to researchers. However, cois are an issue for publishers and editors of journals, reviewers of manuscripts and authors. Conflicts of interest exist in every aspect of the production of research journals, and the conflicts derive from more than just money paid to researchers by drug companies. The purpose of this editorial is first to discuss the nature of cois and to describe some of the human behavioural research relevant to cois. I will then discuss how cois pervade every aspect of publishing and how the journal of psychiatry and neuroscience attempts to deal with these issues. Finally, i will argue that there is no entirely satisfactory way of dealing with cois, but that all researchers should be aware of the issues discussed here to minimize the extent to which cois can distort the scientific literature.

A coi occurs when individuals x02019 personal interests are in conflict with their professional obligations. Often this means that someone will profit personally from decisions made in his or her professional role. The personal profit is not necessarily monetary it could be progress toward the personal goals of the individual or organization, for example the success of a journal for a publisher or editor or the acceptance of ideas for a researcher.

The concern is that a coi may bias behaviour, and it is the potential for bias that makes cois so important. Before getting into the specifics of cois, i will describe some of the research on the biases we all have, the evidence that we are not always aware of our own biases, how biases can be created by vested interests and how people behave in response to revelations of cois. The idea that scientists are objective seekers of truth is a pleasing fiction, but counterproductive in so far as it can lessen vigilance against bias. A recent short review in science asks how well people know their own minds and concludes the answer is not very well. 3 this is because x0201c in real life, people do not realize that their self knowledge is a construction, and fail to recognize that they possess a vast adaptive unconscious that operates out of their conscious awareness.

X0201d wilson and brekke 4 reviewed some of the unwanted influences on judgments and evaluations. They concluded that people find it difficult to avoid unwanted responses because of mental processing that is unconscious or uncontrollable. Moore and loewenstein 5 argue that x0201c the automatic nature of self interest gives it a primal power to influence judgment and makes it difficult for people to understand its influence on their judgment, let alone eradicate its influence. X0201d they also point out that in contrast to self interest, understanding one x02019 s ethical and professional obligations involves a more thoughtful process.

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The involvement of different cognitive processes may make it difficult to reconcile self interest and obligations. Maccoun, 6 in an extensive review, examined the experimental evidence about bias in the interpretation and use of research results. He also discussed the evidence and theories concerning the cognitive and motivational mechanisms that produce bias.

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He concluded that people assume that their own views are objective and x0201c that subjectivity e.g. Due to personal ideology is the most likely explanation for their opponents x02019 conflicting perceptions. X0201d this is consistent with the suggestion of platt, almost 50 years ago, that researchers x02019 attachment to their own ideas results in competition among researchers rather than ideas. 7 an early experimental study by mahoney 8 is a particularly striking example of how researchers x02019 bias can influence their behaviour. Reviewers were asked to referee manuscripts, all of which had identical methodology but reported different results. Reviewers were strongly biased against manuscripts that reported results that contradicted their own theoretical perspectives.

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This can have a deleterious effect as ideas that have long since been contradicted can persist in the literature. 10 researchers x02019 biases caused by preference for their own ideas can cause a serious coi when they present their own work and when they are involved in any aspect of peer review. Nonetheless, much more attention is paid to cois owing to external influences such as money than to cois related to researchers x02019 inherent biases. Cain and detsky 11 reviewed some of the evidence on how biases can be created and how they can bias opinions in everyone. Experimental evidence supports the idea that x0201c individuals use different strategies to evaluate propositions depending on whether the hypothesis is desirable or threatening/disagreeable to them. X0201d for example, a much higher proportion of people agree with the proposition that if someone sues you and you win the case the other person should pay your legal costs than with essentially the same proposition that if you sue someone and lose the case you should pay the costs.