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What is a literature review?
A literature review is an integrated analysis -- not just a summary-- of scholarly writings and other relevant evidence related directly to your research question. That is, it represents a synthesis of the evidence that provides background information on your topic and shows a association between the evidence and your research question.
A literature review may be a stand alone work or the introduction to a larger research paper, depending on the assignment. Rely heavily on the guidelines your instructor has given you.
Why is it important?
A literature review is important because it:
- Explains the background of research on a topic.
- Demonstrates why a topic is significant to a subject area.
- Discovers relationships between research studies/ideas.
- Identifies major themes, concepts, and researchers on a topic.
- Identifies critical gaps and points of disagreement.
- Discusses further research questions that logically come out of the previous studies.
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1. Choose a topic. Define your research question.
Your literature review should be guided by your central research question. the literature represents background and research developments related to a specific research question, interpreted and analyzed by you in a synthesized way.
- Make sure your research question is not too broad or too narrow. Is it manageable?
- Begin writing down terms that are related to your question. These will be useful for searches later.
- If you have the opportunity, discuss your topic with your professor and your class mates.
2. Decide on the scope of your review
How many studies do you need to look at? How comprehensive should it be? How many years should it cover?
- This may depend on your assignment. How many sources does the assignment require?
3. Select the databases you will use to conduct your searches.
Make a list of the databases you will search.
Where to find databases:
- use the tabs on this guide
- Find other databases in the Nursing Information Resources web page
- More on the Medical Library web page
- ... and more on the Yale University Library web page
4. Conduct your searches to find the evidence. Keep track of your searches.
- Use the key words in your question, as well as synonyms for those words, as terms in your search. Use the database tutorials for help.
- Save the searches in the databases. This saves time when you want to redo, or modify, the searches. It is also helpful to use as a guide is the searches are not finding any useful results.
- Review the abstracts of research studies carefully. This will save you time.
- Use the bibliographies and references of research studies you find to locate others.
- Check with your professor, or a subject expert in the field, if you are missing any key works in the field.
- Ask your librarian for help at any time.
- Use a citation manager, such as EndNote as the repository for your citations. See the EndNote tutorials for help.
Review the literature
Some questions to help you analyze the research:
- What was the research question of the study you are reviewing? What were the authors trying to discover?
- Was the research funded by a source that could influence the findings?
- What were the research methodologies? Analyze its literature review, the samples and variables used, the results, and the conclusions.
- Does the research seem to be complete? Could it have been conducted more soundly? What further questions does it raise?
- If there are conflicting studies, why do you think that is?
- How are the authors viewed in the field? Has this study been cited? If so, how has it been analyzed?
Tips:
- Review the abstracts carefully.
- Keep careful notes so that you may track your thought processes during the research process.
- Create a matrix of the studies for easy analysis, and synthesis, across all of the studies.
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Literature Reviews
Steps in the literature review process.
- What is a literature review?
- Define your research question
- Determine inclusion and exclusion criteria
- Choose databases and search
- Review Results
- Synthesize Results
- Analyze Results
- Librarian Support
- You may need to some exploratory searching of the literature to get a sense of scope, to determine whether you need to narrow or broaden your focus
- Identify databases that provide the most relevant sources, and identify relevant terms (controlled vocabularies) to add to your search strategy
- Finalize your research question
- Think about relevant dates, geographies (and languages), methods, and conflicting points of view
- Conduct searches in the published literature via the identified databases
- Check to see if this topic has been covered in other discipline's databases
- Examine the citations of on-point articles for keywords, authors, and previous research (via references) and cited reference searching.
- Save your search results in a citation management tool (such as Zotero, Mendeley or EndNote)
- De-duplicate your search results
- Make sure that you've found the seminal pieces -- they have been cited many times, and their work is considered foundational
- Check with your professor or a librarian to make sure your search has been comprehensive
- Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of individual sources and evaluate for bias, methodologies, and thoroughness
- Group your results in to an organizational structure that will support why your research needs to be done, or that provides the answer to your research question
- Develop your conclusions
- Are there gaps in the literature?
- Where has significant research taken place, and who has done it?
- Is there consensus or debate on this topic?
- Which methodological approaches work best?
- For example: Background, Current Practices, Critics and Proponents, Where/How this study will fit in
- Organize your citations and focus on your research question and pertinent studies
- Compile your bibliography
Note: The first four steps are the best points at which to contact a librarian. Your librarian can help you determine the best databases to use for your topic, assess scope, and formulate a search strategy.
Videos Tutorials about Literature Reviews
This 4.5 minute video from Academic Education Materials has a Creative Commons License and a British narrator.
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Literature Review: Conducting & Writing
- Steps for Conducting a Lit Review
1. Choose a topic. Define your research question.
2. decide on the scope of your review., 3. select the databases you will use to conduct your searches., 4. conduct your searches and find the literature. keep track of your searches, 5. review the literature..
- Finding "The Literature"
- Organizing/Writing
- Chicago: Notes Bibliography
- Sample Literature Reviews
Disclaimer!!
Conducting a literature review is usually recursive, meaning that somewhere along the way, you'll find yourself repeating steps out-of-order.
That is actually a good sign.
Reviewing the research should lead to more research questions and those questions will likely lead you to either revise your initial research question or go back and find more literature related to a more specific aspect of your research question.
Your literature review should be guided by a central research question. Remember, it is not a collection of loosely related studies in a field but instead represents background and research developments related to a specific research question, interpreted and analyzed by you in a synthesized way.
- Make sure your research question is not too broad or too narrow. Is it manageable?
- Begin writing down terms that are related to your question. These will be useful for searches later.
- If you have the opportunity, discuss your topic with your professor.
How many studies do you need to look at? How comprehensive should it be? How many years should it cover?
Tip: This may depend on your assignment. How many sources does the assignment require?
Make a list of the databases you will search. Remember to include comprehensive databases such as WorldCat and Dissertations & Theses, if you need to.
Where to find databases:
- Find Databases by Subject UWF Databases categorized by discipline
- Find Databases via Research Guides Librarians create research guides for all of the disciplines on campus! Take advantage of their expertise and see what discipline-specific search strategies they recommend!
- Review the abstracts of research studies carefully. This will save you time.
- Write down the searches you conduct in each database so that you may duplicate them if you need to later (or avoid dead-end searches that you'd forgotten you'd already tried).
- Use the bibliographies and references of research studies you find to locate others.
- Ask your professor or a scholar in the field if you are missing any key works in the field.
- Use RefWorks to keep track of your research citations. See the RefWorks Tutorial if you need help.
Some questions to help you analyze the research:
- What was the research question of the study you are reviewing? What were the authors trying to discover?
- Was the research funded by a source that could influence the findings?
- What were the research methodologies? Analyze its literature review, the samples and variables used, the results, and the conclusions. Does the research seem to be complete? Could it have been conducted more soundly? What further questions does it raise?
- If there are conflicting studies, why do you think that is?
- How are the authors viewed in the field? Has this study been cited?; if so, how has it been analyzed?
Tips:
- Again, review the abstracts carefully.
- Keep careful notes so that you may track your thought processes during the research process.
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Easy guide to conducting a systematic review
Affiliations.
- 1 Discipline of Child and Adolescent Health, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
- 2 Department of Nephrology, The Children's Hospital at Westmead, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
- 3 Education Department, The Children's Hospital at Westmead, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
- PMID: 32364273
- DOI: 10.1111/jpc.14853
A systematic review is a type of study that synthesises research that has been conducted on a particular topic. Systematic reviews are considered to provide the highest level of evidence on the hierarchy of evidence pyramid. Systematic reviews are conducted following rigorous research methodology. To minimise bias, systematic reviews utilise a predefined search strategy to identify and appraise all available published literature on a specific topic. The meticulous nature of the systematic review research methodology differentiates a systematic review from a narrative review (literature review or authoritative review). This paper provides a brief step by step summary of how to conduct a systematic review, which may be of interest for clinicians and researchers.
Keywords: research; research design; systematic review.
© 2020 Paediatrics and Child Health Division (The Royal Australasian College of Physicians).
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- Clarke M, Chalmers I. Reflections on the history of systematic reviews. BMJ Evid. Based Med. 2018; 23: 121-2.
- Oxman AD, Guyatt GH. The science of reviewing research. Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sci. 1993; 703: 125-33.
- Chalmers I, Hedges LV, Cooper H. A brief history of research synthesis. Eval. Health Prof. 2002; 25: 12-37.
- Lind J. A treatise of the scurvy. Three Parts Containing an Inquiry into the Nature, Causes and Cure, of that Disease Together with a Critical and Chronological View of what has been Published on the Subject. Edinburgh: Sands, Murray & Cochran; 1753. Available from: https://www.jameslindlibrary.org/lind-j-1753/ [accessed 16 February 2020].
- Oxman AD, Guyatt GH. Guidelines for reading literature reviews. CMAJ 1988; 138: 697-703.
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Literature Review
- Steps for Conducting a Lit Review
- Finding "The Literature"
- Organizing/Writing
- Sample Literature Reviews
- FAMU Writing Center
1. Choose a topic. Define your research question.
Your literature review should be guided by a central research question. Remember, it is not a collection of loosely related studies in a field but instead represents background and research developments related to a specific research question, interpreted and analyzed by you in a synthesized way.
- Make sure your research question is not too broad or too narrow. Is it manageable?
- Begin writing down terms that are related to your question. These will be useful for searches later.
- If you have the opportunity, discuss your topic with your professor.
2. Decide on the scope of your review.
How many studies do you need to look at? How comprehensive should it be? How many years should it cover?
Tip: This may depend on your assignment. How many sources does the assignment require?
3. Select the databases you will use to conduct your searches.
Make a list of the databases you will search.
- Look at the Library's research guides in your discipline to select discipline-specific databases. Don't forget to look at books!
- Make an appointment with or contact your subject librarian to make sure you aren't missing major databases.
4. Conduct your searches and find the literature. Keep track of your searches!
Tips:
- Review the abstracts of research studies carefully. This will save you time.
- Write down the searches you conduct in each database so that you may duplicate them if you need to later (or avoid dead-end searches that you'd forgotten you'd already tried).
- Use the bibliographies and references of research studies you find to locate others.
- Ask your professor or a scholar in the field if you are missing any key works in the field.
- Use RefWorks to keep track of your research citations. See the RefWorks Tutorial if you need help.
5. Review the literature.
Some questions to help you analyze the research:
- What was the research question of the study you are reviewing? What were the authors trying to discover?
- Was the research funded by a source that could influence the findings?
- What were the research methodologies? Analyze its literature review, the samples and variables used, the results, and the conclusions. Does the research seem to be complete? Could it have been conducted more soundly? What further questions does it raise?
- If there are conflicting studies, why do you think that is?
- How are the authors viewed in the field? Has this study been cited?; if so, how has it been analyzed?
- Again, review the abstracts carefully.
- Keep careful notes so that you may track your thought processes during the research process.
Composing your literature review
O nce you've settled on a general pattern of organization, you're ready to write each section. There are a few guidelines you should follow during the writing stage. Here is a sample paragraph from a literature review about sexism and language to illuminate the following discussion:
However, other studies have shown that even gender-neutral antecedents are more likely to produce masculine images than feminine ones (Gastil, 1990). Hamilton (1988) asked students to complete sentences that required them to fill in pronouns that agreed with gender-neutral antecedents such as "writer," "pedestrian," and "persons." The students were asked to describe any image they had when writing the sentence. Hamilton found that people imagined 3.3 men to each woman in the masculine "generic" condition and 1.5 men per woman in the unbiased condition. Thus, while ambient sexism accounted for some of the masculine bias, sexist language amplified the effect. (Source: Erika Falk and Jordan Mills, "Why Sexist Language Affects Persuasion: The Role of Homophily, Intended Audience, and Offense," Women and Language19:2.
Use evidence
In the example above, the writers refer to several other sources when making their point. A literature review in this sense is just like any other academic research paper. Your interpretation of the available sources must be backed up with evidence to show that what you are saying is valid.
Be selective
Select only the most important points in each source to highlight in the review. The type of information you choose to mention should relate directly to the review's focus, whether it is thematic, methodological, or chronological.
Use quotes sparingly
Falk and Mills do not use any direct quotes. That is because the survey nature of the literature review does not allow for in-depth discussion or detailed quotes from the text. Some short quotes here and there are okay, though if you want to emphasize a point, or if what the author said just cannot be rewritten in your own words. Notice that Falk and Mills do quote certain terms that were coined by the author, not common knowledge, or taken directly from the study. But if you find yourself wanting to put in more quotes, check with your instructor.
Summarize and synthesize
Remember to summarize and synthesize your sources within each paragraph as well as throughout the review. The authors here recapitulate important features of Hamilton's study, but then synthesize it by rephrasing the study's significance and relating it to their own work.
Keep your own voice
While the literature review presents others' ideas, your voice (the writer's) should remain front and center. Notice that Falk and Mills weave references to other sources into their own text, but they still maintain their own voice by starting and ending the paragraph with their own ideas and their own words. The sources support what Falk and Mills are saying.
Use caution when paraphrasing
When paraphrasing a source that is not your own, be sure to represent the author's information or opinions accurately and in your own words. In the preceding example, Falk and Mills either directly refer in the text to the author of their source, such as Hamilton, or they provide ample notation in the text when the ideas they are mentioning are not their own, for example, Gastil's. For more information, please see our handout on plagiarism .
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- How to Write a Literature Review | Guide, Examples, & Templates
How to Write a Literature Review | Guide, Examples, & Templates
Published on January 2, 2023 by Shona McCombes .
What is a literature review? A literature review is a survey of scholarly sources on a specific topic. It provides an overview of current knowledge, allowing you to identify relevant theories, methods, and gaps in the existing research that you can later apply to your paper, thesis, or dissertation topic .
There are five key steps to writing a literature review:
- Search for relevant literature
- Evaluate sources
- Identify themes, debates, and gaps
- Outline the structure
- Write your literature review
A good literature review doesn’t just summarize sources—it analyzes, synthesizes , and critically evaluates to give a clear picture of the state of knowledge on the subject.
Table of contents
What is the purpose of a literature review, examples of literature reviews, step 1 – search for relevant literature, step 2 – evaluate and select sources, step 3 – identify themes, debates, and gaps, step 4 – outline your literature review’s structure, step 5 – write your literature review, free lecture slides, frequently asked questions, introduction.
- Quick Run-through
- Step 1 & 2
When you write a thesis , dissertation , or research paper , you will likely have to conduct a literature review to situate your research within existing knowledge. The literature review gives you a chance to:
- Demonstrate your familiarity with the topic and its scholarly context
- Develop a theoretical framework and methodology for your research
- Position your work in relation to other researchers and theorists
- Show how your research addresses a gap or contributes to a debate
- Evaluate the current state of research and demonstrate your knowledge of the scholarly debates around your topic.
Writing literature reviews is a particularly important skill if you want to apply for graduate school or pursue a career in research. We’ve written a step-by-step guide that you can follow below.

Writing literature reviews can be quite challenging! A good starting point could be to look at some examples, depending on what kind of literature review you’d like to write.
- Example literature review #1: “Why Do People Migrate? A Review of the Theoretical Literature” ( Theoretical literature review about the development of economic migration theory from the 1950s to today.)
- Example literature review #2: “Literature review as a research methodology: An overview and guidelines” ( Methodological literature review about interdisciplinary knowledge acquisition and production.)
- Example literature review #3: “The Use of Technology in English Language Learning: A Literature Review” ( Thematic literature review about the effects of technology on language acquisition.)
- Example literature review #4: “Learners’ Listening Comprehension Difficulties in English Language Learning: A Literature Review” ( Chronological literature review about how the concept of listening skills has changed over time.)
You can also check out our templates with literature review examples and sample outlines at the links below.
Download Word doc Download Google doc
Prevent plagiarism. Run a free check.
Before you begin searching for literature, you need a clearly defined topic .
If you are writing the literature review section of a dissertation or research paper, you will search for literature related to your research problem and questions .
Make a list of keywords
Start by creating a list of keywords related to your research question. Include each of the key concepts or variables you’re interested in, and list any synonyms and related terms. You can add to this list as you discover new keywords in the process of your literature search.
- Social media, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, TikTok
- Body image, self-perception, self-esteem, mental health
- Generation Z, teenagers, adolescents, youth
Search for relevant sources
Use your keywords to begin searching for sources. Some useful databases to search for journals and articles include:
- Your university’s library catalogue
- Google Scholar
- Project Muse (humanities and social sciences)
- Medline (life sciences and biomedicine)
- EconLit (economics)
- Inspec (physics, engineering and computer science)
You can also use boolean operators to help narrow down your search.
Make sure to read the abstract to find out whether an article is relevant to your question. When you find a useful book or article, you can check the bibliography to find other relevant sources.
You likely won’t be able to read absolutely everything that has been written on your topic, so it will be necessary to evaluate which sources are most relevant to your research question.
For each publication, ask yourself:
- What question or problem is the author addressing?
- What are the key concepts and how are they defined?
- What are the key theories, models, and methods?
- Does the research use established frameworks or take an innovative approach?
- What are the results and conclusions of the study?
- How does the publication relate to other literature in the field? Does it confirm, add to, or challenge established knowledge?
- What are the strengths and weaknesses of the research?
Make sure the sources you use are credible , and make sure you read any landmark studies and major theories in your field of research.
You can use our template to summarize and evaluate sources you’re thinking about using. Click on either button below to download.
Take notes and cite your sources
As you read, you should also begin the writing process. Take notes that you can later incorporate into the text of your literature review.
It is important to keep track of your sources with citations to avoid plagiarism . It can be helpful to make an annotated bibliography , where you compile full citation information and write a paragraph of summary and analysis for each source. This helps you remember what you read and saves time later in the process.
To begin organizing your literature review’s argument and structure, be sure you understand the connections and relationships between the sources you’ve read. Based on your reading and notes, you can look for:
- Trends and patterns (in theory, method or results): do certain approaches become more or less popular over time?
- Themes: what questions or concepts recur across the literature?
- Debates, conflicts and contradictions: where do sources disagree?
- Pivotal publications: are there any influential theories or studies that changed the direction of the field?
- Gaps: what is missing from the literature? Are there weaknesses that need to be addressed?
This step will help you work out the structure of your literature review and (if applicable) show how your own research will contribute to existing knowledge.
- Most research has focused on young women.
- There is an increasing interest in the visual aspects of social media.
- But there is still a lack of robust research on highly visual platforms like Instagram and Snapchat—this is a gap that you could address in your own research.
There are various approaches to organizing the body of a literature review. Depending on the length of your literature review, you can combine several of these strategies (for example, your overall structure might be thematic, but each theme is discussed chronologically).
Chronological
The simplest approach is to trace the development of the topic over time. However, if you choose this strategy, be careful to avoid simply listing and summarizing sources in order.
Try to analyze patterns, turning points and key debates that have shaped the direction of the field. Give your interpretation of how and why certain developments occurred.
If you have found some recurring central themes, you can organize your literature review into subsections that address different aspects of the topic.
For example, if you are reviewing literature about inequalities in migrant health outcomes, key themes might include healthcare policy, language barriers, cultural attitudes, legal status, and economic access.
Methodological
If you draw your sources from different disciplines or fields that use a variety of research methods , you might want to compare the results and conclusions that emerge from different approaches. For example:
- Look at what results have emerged in qualitative versus quantitative research
- Discuss how the topic has been approached by empirical versus theoretical scholarship
- Divide the literature into sociological, historical, and cultural sources
Theoretical
A literature review is often the foundation for a theoretical framework . You can use it to discuss various theories, models, and definitions of key concepts.
You might argue for the relevance of a specific theoretical approach, or combine various theoretical concepts to create a framework for your research.
Like any other academic text , your literature review should have an introduction , a main body, and a conclusion . What you include in each depends on the objective of your literature review.
The introduction should clearly establish the focus and purpose of the literature review.
Depending on the length of your literature review, you might want to divide the body into subsections. You can use a subheading for each theme, time period, or methodological approach.
As you write, you can follow these tips:
- Summarize and synthesize: give an overview of the main points of each source and combine them into a coherent whole
- Analyze and interpret: don’t just paraphrase other researchers — add your own interpretations where possible, discussing the significance of findings in relation to the literature as a whole
- Critically evaluate: mention the strengths and weaknesses of your sources
- Write in well-structured paragraphs: use transition words and topic sentences to draw connections, comparisons and contrasts
In the conclusion, you should summarize the key findings you have taken from the literature and emphasize their significance.
When you’ve finished writing and revising your literature review, don’t forget to proofread thoroughly before submitting. Not a language expert? Check out Scribbr’s professional proofreading services !
This article has been adapted into lecture slides that you can use to teach your students about writing a literature review.
Scribbr slides are free to use, customize, and distribute for educational purposes.
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A literature review is a survey of scholarly sources (such as books, journal articles, and theses) related to a specific topic or research question .
It is often written as part of a thesis, dissertation , or research paper , in order to situate your work in relation to existing knowledge.
There are several reasons to conduct a literature review at the beginning of a research project:
- To familiarize yourself with the current state of knowledge on your topic
- To ensure that you’re not just repeating what others have already done
- To identify gaps in knowledge and unresolved problems that your research can address
- To develop your theoretical framework and methodology
- To provide an overview of the key findings and debates on the topic
Writing the literature review shows your reader how your work relates to existing research and what new insights it will contribute.
The literature review usually comes near the beginning of your thesis or dissertation . After the introduction , it grounds your research in a scholarly field and leads directly to your theoretical framework or methodology .
A literature review is a survey of credible sources on a topic, often used in dissertations , theses, and research papers . Literature reviews give an overview of knowledge on a subject, helping you identify relevant theories and methods, as well as gaps in existing research. Literature reviews are set up similarly to other academic texts , with an introduction , a main body, and a conclusion .
An annotated bibliography is a list of source references that has a short description (called an annotation ) for each of the sources. It is often assigned as part of the research process for a paper .
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How to Write a Literature Review: Six Steps to Get You from Start to Finish
Writing-a-literature-review-six-steps-to-get-you-from-start-to-finish.
Tanya Golash-Boza, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of California
February 03, 2022
Writing a literature review is often the most daunting part of writing an article, book, thesis, or dissertation. “The literature” seems (and often is) massive. I have found it helpful to be as systematic as possible when completing this gargantuan task.
Sonja Foss and William Walters* describe an efficient and effective way of writing a literature review. Their system provides an excellent guide for getting through the massive amounts of literature for any purpose: in a dissertation, an M.A. thesis, or preparing a research article for publication in any field of study. Below is a summary of the steps they outline as well as a step-by-step method for writing a literature review.
How to Write a Literature Review
Step One: Decide on your areas of research:
Before you begin to search for articles or books, decide beforehand what areas you are going to research. Make sure that you only get articles and books in those areas, even if you come across fascinating books in other areas. A literature review I am currently working on, for example, explores barriers to higher education for undocumented students.
Step Two: Search for the literature:
Conduct a comprehensive bibliographic search of books and articles in your area. Read the abstracts online and download and/or print those articles that pertain to your area of research. Find books in the library that are relevant and check them out. Set a specific time frame for how long you will search. It should not take more than two or three dedicated sessions.
Step Three: Find relevant excerpts in your books and articles:
Skim the contents of each book and article and look specifically for these five things:
1. Claims, conclusions, and findings about the constructs you are investigating
2. Definitions of terms
3. Calls for follow-up studies relevant to your project
4. Gaps you notice in the literature
5. Disagreement about the constructs you are investigating
When you find any of these five things, type the relevant excerpt directly into a Word document. Don’t summarize, as summarizing takes longer than simply typing the excerpt. Make sure to note the name of the author and the page number following each excerpt. Do this for each article and book that you have in your stack of literature. When you are done, print out your excerpts.
Step Four: Code the literature:
Get out a pair of scissors and cut each excerpt out. Now, sort the pieces of paper into similar topics. Figure out what the main themes are. Place each excerpt into a themed pile. Make sure each note goes into a pile. If there are excerpts that you can’t figure out where they belong, separate those and go over them again at the end to see if you need new categories. When you finish, place each stack of notes into an envelope labeled with the name of the theme.
Step Five: Create Your Conceptual Schema:
Type, in large font, the name of each of your coded themes. Print this out, and cut the titles into individual slips of paper. Take the slips of paper to a table or large workspace and figure out the best way to organize them. Are there ideas that go together or that are in dialogue with each other? Are there ideas that contradict each other? Move around the slips of paper until you come up with a way of organizing the codes that makes sense. Write the conceptual schema down before you forget or someone cleans up your slips of paper.
Step Six: Begin to Write Your Literature Review:
Choose any section of your conceptual schema to begin with. You can begin anywhere, because you already know the order. Find the envelope with the excerpts in them and lay them on the table in front of you. Figure out a mini-conceptual schema based on that theme by grouping together those excerpts that say the same thing. Use that mini-conceptual schema to write up your literature review based on the excerpts that you have in front of you. Don’t forget to include the citations as you write, so as not to lose track of who said what. Repeat this for each section of your literature review.
Once you complete these six steps, you will have a complete draft of your literature review. The great thing about this process is that it breaks down into manageable steps something that seems enormous: writing a literature review.
I think that Foss and Walter’s system for writing the literature review is ideal for a dissertation, because a Ph.D. candidate has already read widely in his or her field through graduate seminars and comprehensive exams.
It may be more challenging for M.A. students, unless you are already familiar with the literature. It is always hard to figure out how much you need to read for deep meaning, and how much you just need to know what others have said. That balance will depend on how much you already know.
For people writing literature reviews for articles or books, this system also could work, especially when you are writing in a field with which you are already familiar. The mere fact of having a system can make the literature review seem much less daunting, so I recommend this system for anyone who feels overwhelmed by the prospect of writing a literature review.
*Destination Dissertation: A Traveler's Guide to a Done Dissertation
Image Credit/Source: Goldmund Lukic/Getty Images

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Graduate Research: Guide to the Literature Review
- "Literature review" defined
- Research Communication Graphic
- Literature Review Steps
- Evaluating information
- Search techniques
- Citing Styles
- Ethical Use of Information
- Research Databases
- Get Full Text
- Reading a Scholarly Article
- Author Rights
- Selecting a publisher
Introduction to Research Process: Literature Review Steps
When seeking information for a literature review or for any purpose, it helps to understand information-seeking as a process that you can follow. 5 Each of the six (6) steps has its own section in this web page with more detail. Do (and re-do) the following six steps:
1. Define your topic. The first step is defining your task -- choosing a topic and noting the questions you have about the topic. This will provide a focus that guides your strategy in step II and will provide potential words to use in searches in step III.
2. Develop a strategy. Strategy involves figuring out where the information might be and identifying the best tools for finding those types of sources. The strategy section identifies specific types of research databases to use for specific purposes.
3. Locate the information . In this step, you implement the strategy developed in II in order to actually locate specific articles, books, technical reports, etc.
4. Use and Evaluate the information. Having located relevant and useful material, in step IV you read and analyze the items to determine whether they have value for your project and credibility as sources.
5. Synthesize. In step V, you will make sense of what you've learned and demonstrate your knowledge. You will thoroughly understand, organize and integrate the information --become knowledgeable-- so that you are able to use your own words to support and explain your research project and its relationship to existing research by others.
6. Evaluate your work. At every step along the way, you should evaluate your work. However, this final step is a last check to make sure your work is complete and of high quality.
Continue below to begin working through the process.
5. Eisenberg, M. B., & Berkowitz, R. E. (1990). Information Problem-Solving: the Big Six Skills Approach to Library & Information Skills Instruction . Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing.
1. Define your topic.
I. Define your topic
A. Many students have difficulty selecting a topic. You want to find a topic you find interesting and will enjoy learning more about.
B. Students often select a topic that is too broad. You may have a broad topic in mind initially and will need to narrow it.
1. To help narrow a broad topic :
a. Brainstorm.
1). Try this technique for brainstorming to narrow your focus.
a) Step 1. Write down your broad topic.
b) Step 2. Write down a "specific kind" or "specific aspect" of the topic you identified in step 1.
c) Step 3. Write down an aspect --such as an attribute or behavior-- of the "specific kind" you identified in step 2.
d) Step 4. Continue to add levels of specificity as needed to get to a focus that is manageable. However, you may want to begin researching the literature before narrowing further to give yourself the opportunity to explore what others are doing and how that might impact the direction that you take for your own research.
2) Three examples of using the narrowing technique. These examples start with very, very broad topics, so the topic at step 3 or 4 in these examples would be used for a preliminary search in the literature in order to identify a more specific focus. Greater specificity than level 3 or 4 will ultimately be necessary for developing a specific research question. And we may discover in our preliminary research that we need to alter the direction that we originally were taking.
a) Example 1.
Step 1. information security
Step 2. protocols
Step 3. handshake protocol
Brainstorming has brought us to focus on the handshake protocol.
b) Example 2.
Step 1. information security
Step 2. single sign-on authentication
Step 3. analyzing
Step 4. methods
Brainstorming has brought us to focus on methods for analyzing the security of single sign-on authentication
c) Example 3. The diagram below is an example using the broad topic of "software" to show two potential ways to begin to narrow the topic.
C. Once you have completed the brainstorming process and your topic is more focused, you can do preliminary research to help you identify a specific research question .
1) Examine overview sources such as subject-specific encyclopedias and textbooks that are likely to break down your specific topic into sub-topics and to highlight core issues that could serve as possible research questions. [See section II. below on developing a strategy to learn how to find these encyclopedias]
2). Search the broad topic in a research database that includes scholarly journals and professional magazines (to find technical and scholarly articles) and scan recent article titles for ideas. [See section II. below on developing a strategy to learn how to find trade and scholarly journal articles]
D. Once you have identified a research question or questions, ask yourself what you need to know to answer the questions. For example,
1. What new knowledge do I need to gain?
2. What has already been answered by prior research of other scholars?
E. Use the answers to the questions in C. to identify what words to use to describe the topic when you are doing searches.
1. Identify key words
a. For example , if you are investigating "security audits in banking", key terms to combine in your searches would be: security, audits, banking.
2. Create a list of alternative ways of referring to a key word or phrase
a.For example , "information assurance" may be referred to in various ways such as: "information assurance," "information security," and "computer security."
b. Use these alternatives when doing searches.
3. As you are searching, pay attention to how others are writing about the topic and add new words or phrases to your searches if appropriate.
2. Develop a strategy.
II. Develop a strategy for finding the information.
A. Start by considering what types of source might contain the information you need . Do you need a dictionary for definitions? a directory for an address? the history of a concept or technique that might be in a book or specialized encyclopedia? today's tech news in an online tech magazine or newspaper? current research in a journal article? background information that might be in a specialized encyclopedia? data or statistics from a specific organization or website? Note that you will typically have online access to these source types.
B. This section provides a description of some of the common types of information needed for research.
1. For technical and business analysis , look for articles in technical and trade magazines . These articles are written by information technology professionals to help other IT professionals do their jobs better. Content might include news on new developments in hardware or software, techniques, tools, and practical advice. Technical journals are also likely to have product ads relevant to information technology workers and to have job ads. Examples iof technical magazines include Network Computing and IEEE Spectrum .
2. To read original research studies , look for articles in scholarly journals and conference proceedings . They will provide articles written by information technology professionals who are reporting original research; that is, research that has been done by the authors and is being reported for the first time. The audience for original research articles is other information technology scholars and professionals. Examples of scholarly journals include Journal of Applied Security Research , Journal of Management Information Systems , IEEE Transactions on Computers , and ACM Transactions on Information and System Security .
3. For original research being reported to funding agencies , look for technical reports on agency websites. Technical reports are researcher reports to funding agencies about progress on or completion of research funded by the agency.
4. For in-depth, comprehensive information on a topic , look for book-length volumes . All chapters in the book might be written by the same author(s) or might be a collection of separate papers written by different authors.
5. To learn about an unfamiliar topic , use textbooks , specialized encyclopedias and handbooks to get get overviews of topics, history/background, and key issues explained.
6. For instructions for hardware, software, networking, etc., look for manuals that provide step-by-step instructions.
7. For technical details about inventions (devices, instruments, machines), look for patent documents .
C. NOTE - In order to search for and find original research studies, it will help if you understand how information is produced, packaged and communicated within your profession. This is explained in the tab "Research Communication: Graphic."
3. Locate the information.
III. Locate the information
A. Use search tools designed to find the sources you want. Types of sources were described in section II. above.
Always feel free to Ask a librarian for assistance when you have questions about where and how locate the information you need.
B. Evaluate the search results (no matter where you find the information)
1. Evaluate the items you find using at least these 5 criteria:
a. accuracy -- is the information reliable and error free?
1) Is there an editor or someone who verifies/checks the information?
2) Is there adequate documentation: bibliography, footnotes, credits?
3) Are the conclusions justified by the information presented?
b. authority -- is the source of the information reputable?
1) How did you find the source of information: an index to edited/peer-reviewed material, in a bibliography from a published article, etc.?
2) What type of source is it: sensationalistic, popular, scholarly?
c. objectivity -- does the information show bias?
1) What is the purpose of the information: to inform, persuade, explain, sway opinion, advertise?
2) Does the source show political or cultural biases?
d. currency -- is the information current? does it cover the time period you need?
e. coverage -- does it provide the evidence or information you need?
2. Is the search producing the material you need? -- the right content? the right quality? right time period? right geographical location? etc. If not, are you using
a. the right sources?
b. the right tools to get to the sources?
c. are you using the right words to describe the topic?
3. Have you discovered additional terms that should be searched? If so, search those terms.
4. Have you discovered additional questions you need to answer? If so, return to section A above to begin to answer new questions.
4. Use and evaluate the information.
IV. Use the information.
A. Read, hear or view the source
1. Evaluate: Does the material answer your question(s)? -- right content? If not, return to B.
2. Evaluate: Is the material appropriate? -- right quality? If not, return to B.
B. Extract the information from the source : copy/download information, take notes, record citation, keep track of items using a citation manager.
1. Note taking (these steps will help you when you begin to write your thesis and/or document your project.):
a. Write the keywords you use in your searches to avoid duplicating previous searches if you return to search a research database again. Keeping track of keywords used will also save you time if your search is interrupted or you need return and do the search again for some other reason. It will help you remember which search terms worked successfully in which databases
b. Write the citations or record the information needed to cite each article/document you plan to read and use, or make sure that any saved a copy of the article includes all the information needed to cite it. Some article pdf files may not include all of the information needed to cite, and it's a waste of your valuable time to have to go back to search and find the items again in order to be able to cite them. Using citation management software such as EndNote will help keep track of citations and help create bibliographies for your research papers.
c. Write a summary of each article you read and/or why you want to use it.
5. Synthesize.
V. Synthesize.
A. Organize and integrate information from multiple sources
B. Present the information (create report, speech, etc. that communicates)
C. Cite material using the style required by your professor or by the venue (conference, publication, etc.). For help with citation styles, see Guide to Citing Sources . A link to the citing guide is also available in the "Get Help" section on the left side of the Library home page
6. Evaluate your work.
VI. Evaluate the paper, speech, or whatever you are using to communicate your research.
A. Is it effective?
B. Does it meet the requirements?
C. Ask another student or colleague to provide constructive criticism of your paper/project.
- << Previous: Research Communication Graphic
- Next: Evaluating information >>
- Last Updated: Jan 27, 2023 8:13 AM
- URL: https://library.dsu.edu/graduate-research
Karl E. Mundt Library, Dakota State University, Madison, South Dakota 57042 605-256-5203

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by Yen Cabag | 5 comments

If you’re a college or graduate student, you will likely have to write a thesis or dissertation. As an employee in a corporate office, you may also be called on to do some research.
Writing an academic paper doesn’t have to be daunting when you know the different components, why they matter, and how to write them. The literature review is one of the first steps to writing an academic paper, and also one of the most important.
What Is a Literature Review?
A literature review is a compilation of scholarly sources that discuss the topic you are researching. Because it serves as an overview of existing research, a literature review lets you highlight relevant principles and methods, while also identifying gaps in whatever research currently exists. This builds a strong foundation for everything else in your paper.
Note that a literature review may also be a stand-alone paper you are assigned to write. This is the case when you are called on to look into the current state of research around your topic, and to analyze and synthesize your findings.
Writing a literature review requires you to collect, evaluate, and analyze existing publications, including journal articles and books that relate to the research question you have chosen.
Purpose of a Literature Review
The literature review is an important part of the research process. It serves the following critical functions:
- It helps familiarize you with the topic.
- It helps you construct a theoretical framework and come up with a methodology for your research.
- It lets you place yourself within the context of other theorists and researchers.
- It shows readers how your paper adds to an existing debate or addresses a given gap that you highlight from existing research.
In addition, if you’re a nonfiction author, you might want to write up a literature review to survey the existing research surrounding your topic, so you can be sure to fill any gaps and address new reader needs.
What Should Be Included in the Literature Review?
Your literature review should include the following information:
- All relevant findings related to your subject, with their sources properly cited
- Any existing debates or controversial discussions
- Any gaps in the existing research that you can meet in your research
How to Write a Literature Review
Since the literature review forms the backbone of your research, writing a clear and thorough review is essential. The steps below will help you do so:
1. Search for relevant information and findings.
In research, information published on a given subject is called “literature” or “background literature.” Assuming you already have a clearly-defined topic, the first step you need to take is searching for the relevant literature.
Before the boom of the internet, searching for relevant literature involved going to the library and weeding through tons of journal articles or research papers on a subject. These days, you can quickly access these articles and other publications with a simple internet search.
Because of this, your first step will include listing down the keywords that will help you find the results you need. List down everything that is related to your research topic. For example, if your research question is “What effect does social media have on depression?” you might include specific keywords like “Facebook” and “Instagram” to find more results.
Also, because the Internet is overflowing with information and not all of it may be relevant, you will have to learn how to do an efficient search. This includes learning technical search phrases that let you refine your results.
One of the most important tools is the term “site:” which lets you specify which website to search in.
For example, when you type “site: www.usa.gov ” followed by a space and then the keyword, the search will be done automatically only on the U.S. Data and Statistics website.
Other tools include what we call boolean operators or search terms, which can help you focus your search:
- AND – helps you find sources that have more than one keyword
- OR – helps you find sources containing one of a given number of keywords
- NOT – lets you exclude results that contain certain keywords
Some examples of useful databases where you can search for articles and journals are:
- Google Scholar
- Project Muse – for social sciences and humanities topics
- Medline – for biomedicine and life sciences research subjects
- EconLit – for economic research
- Inspec – for computer science, physics, and engineering topics
2. Evaluate your sources and select the most relevant ones.
Because you will not have the time to read every single article you find, you need to evaluate which sources will be the most relevant to your research question. First, look through the most credible sources, and also be sure to read major theories and landmark studies.
For publications that may not be too clear in terms of credibility or undisputed authority, the following questions can help you evaluate them:
- What problem does this article address?
- What are its key concepts and how does the author define them?
- What key theories, models, or methods does the author use? Do they use established frameworks or a more innovative slant?
- What conclusions does the author reach in this study?
- How does this article relate to other publications in the same field? Does it add to, confirm, or refute other articles?
- How does this article add to your understanding of your research question? What key insights and arguments can you glean from it?
- What are its strengths and weaknesses?
- How many times has it been cited on Google Scholar? (This helps you determine how influential the article is in its field: the higher the citation count, the greater its influence.)
3. Identify key topics, debates, and research gaps.
After you’ve compiled your sources, it’s time to start organizing them. You can do this by first identifying any underlying themes. These can come in the form of:
- Patterns or trends: Are there approaches that are becoming more or less well-known over time?
- Themes: Are there recurring concepts that stand out to you from all the literature you compiled?
- Conflicts, contradictions, or debates: In what areas do your sources disagree?
- Landmark publications : What other study or theory is greatly impacting the way the field is developing?
- Research gaps: What areas have not been covered in detail in the background literature you compiled? What weaknesses do you think should be addressed in your paper?
4. Prepare your outline.
For academic papers, it’s always best to formulate your outline before you begin writing. This helps you organize your thoughts and all your findings into a coherent whole.
After all, you don’t want your literature review to look like a shopping list that simply compiles every piece of information you found, without any thought as to how they all come together.
Your outline should include an introduction, main body, and conclusion.
5. Write the contents of your literature review.
With your outline in place, you can now start to write your literature review.
For the introduction, establish the purpose of your literature review. Here you can explain whether the literature review is part of a larger work or if it’s a stand-alone piece.
In the body of the paper, you will start to elaborate on the points you put in your outline. Use subheadings to make the paragraphs clearer.
These additional tips will also help you make a literature review that adds value to others:
- Summarize your findings: When writing your literature review, don’t just copy and paste whatever you find. Summarize and paraphrase as much as possible.
- Analyze: Then, add your own analysis. A literature review is valuable because of the insights you provide.
- Evaluate critically: Be sure to remain as objective as possible.
- Structure your paragraphs: Keep each paragraph to one main theme, and include transitional sentences to make each paragraph flow neatly to the next.
- State your references: As you write, be sure to note down which sources gave which ideas or findings. Depending on the requirements, you can use the AP Style or Chicago Style of referencing.
How Do You Structure a Literature Review?
You can structure your literature review in the following ways:
- Thematic : In a thematic outline, you will be compiling your information to revolve around a specific theme. Different parts of your research may go into different subsections that focus on certain parts of your topic.
- Chronological : This approach lets you show the development of your topic over time. While this is helpful in showing how theories change, be sure to add your own analysis of patterns, turning points, or debates, showing how they helped shape where the field is going. One way of doing this is interpreting how or why the specific developments happened.
- Methodological: In this format, you will be looking at the different research methods your sources used, comparing how they arrived at conclusions or recommendations. You can discuss how and why the different sources opted for those methods, perhaps looking at whether the source is sociological, cultural, or historical.
- Theoretical: A theoretical framework lets you focus on discussing the different models, theories, and key concepts surrounding your topic.
Writing a Lit Review
Writing a literature review does not have to be a tedious process as long as you know what you need to do.
Knowing how to choose sources will save you a lot of time and energy, and analyzing the information as you read it will also let you write more efficiently, resulting in a literature review that is useful for your own research.
Did you find this post helpful? Let us know in the comments below!
If you enjoyed this post, then you might also like:
- How to Write a Research Paper: The Complete Guide for Students
- 31 Best Online Research Tools
- 10 of the Best Citation Generators to Make Your Research Easier
- How to Write a Thesis Statement
Yen Cabag is the Blog Writer of TCK Publishing. She is also a homeschooling mom, family coach, and speaker for the Charlotte Mason method, an educational philosophy that places great emphasis on classic literature and the masterpieces in art and music. She has also written several books, both fiction and nonfiction. Her passion is to see the next generation of children become lovers of reading and learning in the midst of short attention spans.
This article is very useful and has helped me understand better how to approach my literature review. Thank you
Wonderfully concise, easily understood and makes me feel I can do this! Thank you Yen, you have filled my day with hope and confidence.
We’re so glad Yen’s post has helped you! :)
It has really helped me to do my research thank you.
You’re very welcome, we’re so happy to help!
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Research Process :: Step by Step
- Introduction
- Select Topic
- Identify Keywords
- Background Information
- Develop Research Questions
- Refine Topic
- Search Strategy
- popular databases
- Evaluate Sources
- Reading Scholarly Articles
- Types of Periodicals
- Primary & Secondary Sources
- Organize / Take Notes
- Writing & Grammar Resources
- Annotated Bibliography
- Literature Review
- Citation Styles
- Paraphrasing
- Privacy / Confidentiality

Organize the literature review into sections that present themes or identify trends, including relevant theory. You are not trying to list all the material published, but to synthesize and evaluate it according to the guiding concept of your thesis or research question.
What is a literature review?
A literature review is an account of what has been published on a topic by accredited scholars and researchers. Occasionally you will be asked to write one as a separate assignment, but more often it is part of the introduction to an essay, research report, or thesis. In writing the literature review, your purpose is to convey to your reader what knowledge and ideas have been established on a topic, and what their strengths and weaknesses are. As a piece of writing, the literature review must be defined by a guiding concept (e.g., your research objective, the problem or issue you are discussing, or your argumentative thesis). It is not just a descriptive list of the material available, or a set of summaries
A literature review must do these things:
- be organized around and related directly to the thesis or research question you are developing
- synthesize results into a summary of what is and is not known
- identify areas of controversy in the literature
- formulate questions that need further research
Ask yourself questions like these:
- What is the specific thesis, problem, or research question that my literature review helps to define?
- What type of literature review am I conducting? Am I looking at issues of theory? methodology? policy? quantitative research (e.g. on the effectiveness of a new procedure)? qualitative research (e.g., studies of loneliness among migrant workers)?
- What is the scope of my literature review? What types of publications am I using (e.g., journals, books, government documents, popular media)? What discipline am I working in (e.g., nursing psychology, sociology, medicine)?
- How good was my information seeking? Has my search been wide enough to ensure I've found all the relevant material? Has it been narrow enough to exclude irrelevant material? Is the number of sources I've used appropriate for the length of my paper?
- Have I critically analyzed the literature I use? Do I follow through a set of concepts and questions, comparing items to each other in the ways they deal with them? Instead of just listing and summarizing items, do I assess them, discussing strengths and weaknesses?
- Have I cited and discussed studies contrary to my perspective?
- Will the reader find my literature review relevant, appropriate, and useful?
Ask yourself questions like these about each book or article you include:
- Has the author formulated a problem/issue?
- Is it clearly defined? Is its significance (scope, severity, relevance) clearly established?
- Could the problem have been approached more effectively from another perspective?
- What is the author's research orientation (e.g., interpretive, critical science, combination)?
- What is the author's theoretical framework (e.g., psychological, developmental, feminist)?
- What is the relationship between the theoretical and research perspectives?
- Has the author evaluated the literature relevant to the problem/issue? Does the author include literature taking positions she or he does not agree with?
- In a research study, how good are the basic components of the study design (e.g., population, intervention, outcome)? How accurate and valid are the measurements? Is the analysis of the data accurate and relevant to the research question? Are the conclusions validly based upon the data and analysis?
- In material written for a popular readership, does the author use appeals to emotion, one-sided examples, or rhetorically-charged language and tone? Is there an objective basis to the reasoning, or is the author merely "proving" what he or she already believes?
- How does the author structure the argument? Can you "deconstruct" the flow of the argument to see whether or where it breaks down logically (e.g., in establishing cause-effect relationships)?
- In what ways does this book or article contribute to our understanding of the problem under study, and in what ways is it useful for practice? What are the strengths and limitations?
- How does this book or article relate to the specific thesis or question I am developing?
Text written by Dena Taylor, Health Sciences Writing Centre, University of Toronto
http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/advice/specific-types-of-writing/literature-review
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What is a Literature Review?
Description.
A literature review, also called a review article or review of literature, surveys the existing research on a topic. The term "literature" in this context refers to published research or scholarship in a particular discipline, rather than "fiction" (like American Literature) or an individual work of literature. In general, literature reviews are most common in the sciences and social sciences.
Literature reviews may be written as standalone works, or as part of a scholarly article or research paper. In either case, the purpose of the review is to summarize and synthesize the key scholarly work that has already been done on the topic at hand. The literature review may also include some analysis and interpretation. A literature review is not a summary of every piece of scholarly research on a topic.
Why are literature reviews useful?
Literature reviews can be very helpful for newer researchers or those unfamiliar with a field by synthesizing the existing research on a given topic, providing the reader with connections and relationships among previous scholarship. Reviews can also be useful to veteran researchers by identifying potentials gaps in the research or steering future research questions toward unexplored areas. If a literature review is part of a scholarly article, it should include an explanation of how the current article adds to the conversation. (From: https://researchguides.drake.edu/englit/criticism)
How is a literature review different from a research article?
Research articles: "are empirical articles that describe one or several related studies on a specific, quantitative, testable research question....they are typically organized into four text sections: Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion." Source: https://psych.uw.edu/storage/writing_center/litrev.pdf)
Steps for Writing a Literature Review
1. Identify and define the topic that you will be reviewing.
The topic, which is commonly a research question (or problem) of some kind, needs to be identified and defined as clearly as possible. You need to have an idea of what you will be reviewing in order to effectively search for references and to write a coherent summary of the research on it. At this stage it can be helpful to write down a description of the research question, area, or topic that you will be reviewing, as well as to identify any keywords that you will be using to search for relevant research.
2. Conduct a Literature Search
Use a range of keywords to search databases such as PsycINFO and any others that may contain relevant articles. You should focus on peer-reviewed, scholarly articles . In SuperSearch and most databases, you may find it helpful to select the Advanced Search mode and include "literature review" or "review of the literature" in addition to your other search terms. Published books may also be helpful, but keep in mind that peer-reviewed articles are widely considered to be the “gold standard” of scientific research. Read through titles and abstracts, select and obtain articles (that is, download, copy, or print them out), and save your searches as needed. Most of the databases you will need are linked to from the Cowles Library Psychology Research guide .
3. Read through the research that you have found and take notes.
Absorb as much information as you can. Read through the articles and books that you have found, and as you do, take notes. The notes should include anything that will be helpful in advancing your own thinking about the topic and in helping you write the literature review (such as key points, ideas, or even page numbers that index key information). Some references may turn out to be more helpful than others; you may notice patterns or striking contrasts between different sources; and some sources may refer to yet other sources of potential interest. This is often the most time-consuming part of the review process. However, it is also where you get to learn about the topic in great detail. You may want to use a Citation Manager to help you keep track of the citations you have found.
4. Organize your notes and thoughts; create an outline.
At this stage, you are close to writing the review itself. However, it is often helpful to first reflect on all the reading that you have done. What patterns stand out? Do the different sources converge on a consensus? Or not? What unresolved questions still remain? You should look over your notes (it may also be helpful to reorganize them), and as you do, to think about how you will present this research in your literature review. Are you going to summarize or critically evaluate? Are you going to use a chronological or other type of organizational structure? It can also be helpful to create an outline of how your literature review will be structured.
5. Write the literature review itself and edit and revise as needed.
The final stage involves writing. When writing, keep in mind that literature reviews are generally characterized by a summary style in which prior research is described sufficiently to explain critical findings but does not include a high level of detail (if readers want to learn about all the specific details of a study, then they can look up the references that you cite and read the original articles themselves). However, the degree of emphasis that is given to individual studies may vary (more or less detail may be warranted depending on how critical or unique a given study was). After you have written a first draft, you should read it carefully and then edit and revise as needed. You may need to repeat this process more than once. It may be helpful to have another person read through your draft(s) and provide feedback.
6. Incorporate the literature review into your research paper draft. (note: this step is only if you are using the literature review to write a research paper. Many times the literature review is an end unto itself).
After the literature review is complete, you should incorporate it into your research paper (if you are writing the review as one component of a larger paper). Depending on the stage at which your paper is at, this may involve merging your literature review into a partially complete Introduction section, writing the rest of the paper around the literature review, or other processes.
These steps were taken from: https://psychology.ucsd.edu/undergraduate-program/undergraduate-resources/academic-writing-resources/writing-research-papers/writing-lit-review.html#6.-Incorporate-the-literature-r
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Write a Literature Review
1. narrow your topic and select papers accordingly, 2. search for literature, 3. read the selected articles thoroughly and evaluate them, 4. organize the selected papers by looking for patterns and by developing subtopics, 5. develop a thesis or purpose statement, 6. write the paper, 7. review your work.
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Consider your specific area of study. Think about what interests you and what interests other researchers in your field.
Talk to your professor, brainstorm, and read lecture notes and recent issues of periodicals in the field.
Limit your scope to a smaller topic area (ie. focusing on France's role in WWII instead of focusing on WWII in general).
- Four Steps to Narrow Your Research Topic (Video) This 3-minute video provides instructions on how to narrow the focus of your research topic.
- Developing a Research Question + Worksheet Use this worksheet to develop, assess, and refine your research questions. There is also a downloadable PDF version.
Define your source selection criteria (ie. articles published between a specific date range, focusing on a specific geographic region, or using a specific methodology).
Using keywords, search a library database.
Reference lists of recent articles and reviews can lead to other useful papers.
Include any studies contrary to your point of view.
Evaluate and synthesize the studies' findings and conclusions.
Note the following:
- Assumptions some or most researchers seem to make
- Methodologies, testing procedures, subjects, material tested researchers use
- Experts in the field: names/labs that are frequently referenced
- Conflicting theories, results, methodologies
- Popularity of theories and how this has/has not changed over time
- Findings that are common/contested
- Important trends in the research
- The most influential theories
Tip: If your literature review is extensive, find a large table surface, and on it place post-it notes or filing cards to organize all your findings into categories.
- Move them around if you decide that (a) they fit better under different headings, or (b) you need to establish new topic headings.
- Develop headings/subheadings that reflect the major themes and patterns you detected
Write a one or two sentence statement summarizing the conclusion you have reached about the major trends and developments you see in the research that has been conducted on your subject.
- Templates for Writing Thesis Statements This template provides a two-step guide for writing thesis statements. There is also a downloadable PDF version.
- 5 Types of Thesis Statements Learn about five different types of thesis statements to help you choose the best type for your research. There is also a downloadable PDF version.
- 5 Questions to Strengthen Your Thesis Statement Follow these five steps to strengthen your thesis statements. There is also a downloadable PDF version.
Follow the organizational structure you developed above, including the headings and subheadings you constructed.
Make certain that each section links logically to the one before and after.
Structure your sections by themes or subtopics, not by individual theorists or researchers.
- Tip: If you find that each paragraph begins with a researcher's name, it might indicate that, instead of evaluating and comparing the research literature from an analytical point of view, you have simply described what research has been done.
Prioritize analysis over description.
- For example, look at the following two passages and note that Student A merely describes the literature, whereas Student B takes a more analytical and evaluative approach by comparing and contrasting. You can also see that this evaluative approach is well signaled by linguistic markers indicating logical connections (words such as "however," "moreover") and phrases such as "substantiates the claim that," which indicate supporting evidence and Student B's ability to synthesize knowledge.
Student A: Smith (2000) concludes that personal privacy in their living quarters is the most important factor in nursing home residents' perception of their autonomy. He suggests that the physical environment in the more public spaces of the building did not have much impact on their perceptions. Neither the layout of the building nor the activities available seem to make much difference. Jones and Johnstone make the claim that the need to control one's environment is a fundamental need of life (2001), and suggest that the approach of most institutions, which is to provide total care, may be as bad as no care at all. If people have no choices or think that they have none, they become depressed.
Student B: After studying residents and staff from two intermediate care facilities in Calgary, Alberta, Smith (2000) came to the conclusion that except for the amount of personal privacy available to residents, the physical environment of these institutions had minimal if any effect on their perceptions of control (autonomy). However, French (1998) and Haroon (2000) found that availability of private areas is not the only aspect of the physical environment that determines residents' autonomy. Haroon interviewed 115 residents from 32 different nursing homes known to have different levels of autonomy (2000). It was found that physical structures, such as standardized furniture, heating that could not be individually regulated, and no possession of a house key for residents limited their feelings of independence. Moreover, Hope (2002), who interviewed 225 residents from various nursing homes, substantiates the claim that characteristics of the institutional environment such as the extent of resources in the facility, as well as its location, are features which residents have indicated as being of great importance to their independence.
- How to Integrate Critical Voice into Your Literature Review (Video)
- Look at the topic sentences of each paragraph. If you were to read only these sentences, would you find that your paper presented a clear position, logically developed, from beginning to end? The topic sentences of each paragraph should indicate the main points of your literature review.
- Make an outline of each section of the paper and decide whether you need to add information, to delete irrelevant information, or to re-structure sections.
- Read your work out loud. That way you will be better able to identify where you need punctuation marks to signal pauses or divisions within sentences, where you have made grammatical errors, or where your sentences are unclear.
- Since the purpose of a literature review is to demonstrate that the writer is familiar with the important professional literature on the chosen subject, check to make certain that you have covered all of the important, up-to-date, and pertinent texts. In the sciences and some of the social sciences it is important that your literature be quite recent; this is not so important in the humanities.
- Make certain that all of the citations and references are correct and that you are referencing in the appropriate style for your discipline. If you are uncertain which style to use, ask your professor.
- Check to make sure that you have not plagiarized either by failing to cite a source of information, or by using words quoted directly from a source. (Usually if you take three or more words directly from another source, you should put those words within quotation marks, and cite the page.)
- Text should be written in a clear and concise academic style; it should not be descriptive in nature or use the language of everyday speech.
- There should be no grammatical or spelling errors.
- Sentences should flow smoothly and logically.
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IMAGES
VIDEO
COMMENTS
of a literature review are. The Purpose of a Literature Review A literature review demonstrates your ability to research; it also showcases your expertise on your chosen topic. By including a literature review in your project or thesis, you are also providing your reader with the most prevalent theories and studies on your topic, evaluations ...
• Writing the review • References literature {Table 2). The first step involves identifying the subject ofthe literature review. The researcher undertaking a quantitative study may have decided this already. However, for the individual undertaking a non-research based literature review this will be the first step. Selecting a review topic
A literature review is an integrated analysis-- not just a summary-- of scholarly writings and other relevant evidence related directly to your research question.That is, it represents a synthesis of the evidence that provides background information on your topic and shows a association between the evidence and your research question.
CONDUCTING YOUR LITERATURE REVIEW 6 produce a reliable and unbiased summary of the existing research. This book will walk you through those steps one by one. Each chapter targets a specific part or stage in the literature review. Throughout this book, the elements and reporting structure of a systematic review serve as a
The Literature Review by Diana Ridley The Literature Review is a step-by-step guide to conducting a literature search and writing up the literature review chapter in Masters dissertations and in Ph.D. and professional doctorate theses. The author provides strategies for reading, conducting searches, organizing information and writing the review.
The proposed guideline follows: 1- Find literature associated with the topic. 2- Search and analyze the literature. 3- Evaluate the paper before reading. 4- Cite literature properly. 5- Make a ...
A literature review is a summary of a subject field that supports the identification of specific research questions. A literature review needs to draw on and evaluate a range of different types of ...
Steps for Conducting a Lit Review. 1. Choose a topic. Define your research question. 2. Decide on the scope of your review. 3. Select the databases you will use to conduct your searches. 4. Conduct your searches and find the literature. Keep track of your searches! 5. Review the literature. Finding "The Literature" Organizing/Writing; APA Style
The meticulous nature of the systematic review research methodology differentiates a systematic review from a narrative review (literature review or authoritative review). This paper provides a brief step by step summary of how to conduct a systematic review, which may be of interest for clinicians and researchers.
The type of information you choose to mention should relate directly to the review's focus, whether it is thematic, methodological, or chronological. Use quotes sparingly. Falk and Mills do not use any direct quotes. That is because the survey nature of the literature review does not allow for in-depth discussion or detailed quotes from the text.
Conducting a Literature Review So far we have discussed the initial stages of any a typical research project: hypothesis formation, conceptualization, measurement, and the development of a suitable research design. At some point early in the process it is important to spend time reading others' reports of similar research.
literature review process. In an attempt to demystify this process, very recently, these authors have written chapters and books that provide stepby-step guides to conducting - literature reviews that begin to capture the critical and interpretive aspects of conducting a comprehensive literature review (Combs et al., 2010; Dellinger & Leech ...
approach, the current paper suggests a three-step literature review process to guide novice re-searchers on the development of a sound and effective literature review. The three steps of the proposed literature review process are: 1) Inputs, 2) Processing, and 3) Outputs. Figure 1 provides an overall view of the process proposed.
Examples of literature reviews. Step 1 - Search for relevant literature. Step 2 - Evaluate and select sources. Step 3 - Identify themes, debates, and gaps. Step 4 - Outline your literature review's structure. Step 5 - Write your literature review. Free lecture slides. Frequently asked questions. Introduction.
Their system provides an excellent guide for getting through the massive amounts of literature for any purpose: in a dissertation, an M.A. thesis, or preparing a research article for publication in any field of study. Below is a summary of the steps they outline as well as a step-by-step method for writing a literature review.
C. Once you have completed the brainstorming process and your topic is more focused, you can do preliminary research to help you identify a specific research question.. 1) Examine overview sources such as subject-specific encyclopedias and textbooks that are likely to break down your specific topic into sub-topics and to highlight core issues that could serve as possible research questions.
Since the literature review forms the backbone of your research, writing a clear and thorough review is essential. The steps below will help you do so: 1. Search for relevant information and findings. In research, information published on a given subject is called "literature" or "background literature.".
In writing the literature review, your purpose is to convey to your reader what knowledge and ideas have been established on a topic, and what their strengths and weaknesses are. As a piece of writing, the literature review must be defined by a guiding concept (e.g., your research objective, the problem or issue you are discussing, or your ...
6. Incorporate the literature review into your research paper draft. (note: this step is only if you are using the literature review to write a research paper. Many times the literature review is an end unto itself). After the literature review is complete, you should incorporate it into your research paper (if you are writing the review as one ...
Seven Steps to Writing a Literature Review. 1. Narrow your topic and select papers accordingly; 2. Search for literature; 3. Read the selected articles thoroughly and evaluate them; 4. Organize the selected papers by looking for patterns and by developing subtopics; 5. Develop a thesis or purpose statement; 6. Write the paper; 7. Review your work
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