Book excerpt: This book is intended for anyone 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. - 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.