This book is intended for anyone who wants to research social, health, educational, and business issues. It is ideal for students, researchers, marketers, planners, and policymakers who design and manage public and private agencies, conduct research studies, and prepare strategic plans and grant proposals. This new edition includes: flow diagrams to assist the reader in linking each step of the review to the contents of each chapter; new references and other online resources to help users learn more about literature reviews; links to online literature reviews and meta-analyses; guidance in choosing online public and private bibliographic databases for literature reviews; and, guidance about searching the web for research information. The text also discusses the use of Boolean operators for simple and advanced searches, tells readers how to use bibliographic software to organize literature reviews and search 'The Virtual File Cabinet', and describes how to synthesize the literature as a stand-alone report or as a component of a paper or proposal to justify the need for and significance of research, and/or to explain a study's findings.

阿琳·芬剋，博士，加利福尼亞大學洛杉磯分校醫學和公共衛生教授，蘭利研究所所長。她的主要興趣包括評估和調查研究，以及開展研究文獻綜述並對其質量進行評估。芬剋博士已經在醫學、公共衛生和教育領域開展過很多項研究。她是加州大學洛杉磯分校的羅伯特·伍德·約翰遜臨床學者項目（Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program）及其健康服務中心的教師，還是南加州大學的少數民族研究中心顧問委員會的成員。她還是美國生物倫理學會、國際臨床倫理學會和法國巴黎高等航空航天學校（IPPSA）等機構的顧問。芬剋教授頻繁在美國及國際上演講，並且是100多篇同行評議文章和15種教科書的作者。

譯者簡介

齊心，男，1969年齣生，河北省石傢莊市人。2005年畢業於北京大學社會學係，獲博士學位。曾於2008年受韓國高等教育財團資助赴韓國國立首爾大學做訪問學者一年。現為北京市社科院城市問題研究所副所長、研究員。研究方嚮為城市發展戰略、城市網絡、城市居住與住房問題。