review · MethodsX
This paper introduces an enhanced method for conducting systematic literature reviews (SLR) and meta-analyses specifically for environmental science research. It builds upon the conventional four-step SALSA method (Search, Appraisal, Synthesis, Analysis) by incorporating two additional steps: an initial 'research protocol' phase to define the research scope and a final 'reporting results' phase to communicate findings. This expanded six-step approach is termed PSALSAR (Protocol, Search, Appraisal, Synthesis, Analysis, Reporting). The PSALSAR method is designed to be explicit, transferable, and reproducible, facilitating both quantitative and qualitative content analysis of literature. It is applicable for assessing existing knowledge, trends, and gaps, particularly in areas such as ecosystem services.
This method provides a more structured and transparent approach to synthesising scientific literature. By enhancing the rigour and reproducibility of reviews, it helps researchers and decision-makers to better understand complex environmental topics, identify knowledge gaps, and base their conclusions on comprehensive and verifiable evidence.
This research presents a methodological framework rather than a direct product or service. It is an early-stage research tool that could be adopted by academic researchers, research organisations, and environmental consultancies to improve the quality and transparency of their literature reviews and meta-analyses. The abstract does not indicate a direct commercial application pathway.
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This paper presents a method to conduct a systematic literature review (SLR) and meta-analysis studies on environmental science. SLR is a process that allowed to collect relevant evidence on the given topic that fits the pre-specified eligibility criteria and to have an answer for the formulated research questions. Meta-analysis needs the use of statistical methods that can be descriptive and/or inferential to summarizing data from several studies on the specific topic of interest. The techniques help to generate knowledge from multiple studies both in qualitative and quantitative ways. The usual method has four basic steps: search (define searching string and types of databases), appraisal (pre-defined literature inclusion and exclusion, and quality assessment criteria), synthesis (extract and categorized the data), and analysis (narrate the result and finally reach into conclusion) (SALSA). However, this work added two steps which are research protocol (define the research scope) and reporting results (stating the procedure followed and communicating the result to the public) at the initial and last step, respectively. As a result, the new method has six basic steps which are abbreviated as PSALSAR. Therefore, this method is applicable to assess the existing knowledge, trends, and gaps in ecosystem services. In sum, this literature review method presents: •The PSALSAR method is an explicit, transferable and reproducible procedure to conduct systematic review work.•It helps to assess both quantitative and qualitative content analysis of the literature review.•The procedure listed here added two basic steps (protocol and reporting result) on a commonly known SALSA framework.
This page summarises published work. The authoritative version sits with the publisher.
DOI: 10.1016/j.mex.2019.100777
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