how to write a literature review university of birmingham

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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 . Revised on September 11, 2023.

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.

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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, other interesting articles, 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.

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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

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.

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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.

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If you want to know more about the research process , methodology , research bias , or statistics , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

• Sampling methods
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• Cluster sampling
• Likert scales
• Reproducibility

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• Null hypothesis
• Statistical power
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Research bias

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• Cognitive bias
• Implicit bias
• Hawthorne effect
• Anchoring bias
• Explicit bias

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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Evidence- Based Literature Review

In this module you will focus on a biological topic, under the supervision of a member of staff. The Literature review component will provide experience in the use of information databases to research a given area and allows you to explore the chosen subject area to a high level of breadth and detail. You will critically appraise the current literature to summarise gaps in our current understanding. One particular area of the review will be presented in an oral presentation to communicate key findings to other staff and students. Semester 2 will focus on the critical analysis of select papers relevant to the gap in knowledge previously identified. The analysis will inform a research proposal. The proposal will demonstrate consideration of the safety and ethics requirements for such work. The proposal will include elements of communication to both technical and lay audiences.

The overall aim of the project is to help students become effective independent learners, using a research-led and enquiry-based approach and to enhance students’ written and verbal communication skills. The module provides an opportunity for students to develop and demonstrate skills including: Independence and organisation, library and data base research, extended writing, written and oral communication to a range of audiences, summarising and processing complex information, critical anlaysis, experimental design and interpretation. 

By the end of the module you should be able to:

• Collect, organise and synthesise a large body of information from a range of relevant sources
• Present their findings in a structured written report
• Communicate some of the work in an oral presentation
• Critically appraise the literature to identify a target area of research for further investigation
• Design appropriate experimental approaches
• Show an understanding of appropriate controls and statistical analyses
• Show an understanding of the Safety and Ethical issues of the proposed research
• Communicate and justify the concepts of the project to a diverse range of target audiences 

Systematic Reviews

• Systematic and Other Reviews
• Systematic Review - Definitions
• Key Elements of a Review
• Critical appraisal
• Other Reviews

Further Resources and Suggested Reading

• Resource List - Literature Reviews Resource list from resourcelists@bham

Openly available resources on systematic reviews 

• PROSPERO  - International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews This register includes protocol details for systematic reviews.
• PRISMA  -  P referred  R eporting  I tems for  S ystematic  R eviews and  M eta- A nalyses
• AMSTAR  - Assessing the Methodological Quality of Systematic Reviews 
• EQUATOR   - Enhancing the QUAlity and Transparency Of health Research. Library of reporting guidelines and also links to other resources relevant to research reporting and writing.
• PRESS  - Peer Review of Electronic Search Strategies: 2015 Guideline Statement (2016)
• MOOSE  - Meta-analysis Of Observational Studies in Epidemiology

(From Research Skills Team Canvas course: Literature Searching for Researchers - requires University of Birmingham login).

Cochrane Foundation

The Cochrane Interactive Learning Resource is available to University of Birmingham members (or others with an institutional subscription). This is a valuable learning tool which explores the systematic review process in more detail.

The Cochrane Foundation has a very detailed online handbook, Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions (Higgins et al ., 2022). This is aimed at authors preparing Cochrane Systematic Reviews*.

Chapters include, for example:

• Searching for and selecting studies
• Economic evidence (useful for Health Economics areas such es economic evaluation)

As of August 2023, the Cochrane Foundation announced updates and "some major changes" to its processes ( Cochrane Foundation, 2023 ).

Data and Digital Skills

If you are looking for help or information about statistical software related to data extraction, such as SPSS or NVivo, see the University of Birmingham  Digital Skills (UoB)  page or the Mathematics Support Centre information on Statistics Resources .   University of Birmingham members and others with institutional access can access video learning materials on the above on   LinkedIn Learning .

Dalhousie University Libraries' Systematic Reviews guide has a section on  Data Extraction .

Referencing Software

Software can be invaluable in storing and managing references from multiple sources and citing these in documents. At the University of Birmingham, the web-based EndNote Online is supported for undergraduate (UG) and taught postgraduate (PGT) students.  The separate, downloadable EndNote Desktop programme is supported for doctoral (PhD), post-doctoral and other academic researchers and staff. 

• Referencing software at the University of Birmingham  (iCite Guide page)

Risk of Bias Tools

A thorough literature search using a range of bibliographic databases – and grey literature if required - will reduce any perceived risk of bias in studies selected for a Review. 

Further information and tools to minimize or assess Risk of Bias can be found for example on the following:

• Risk of Bias 2 (RoB 2) Tool – Cochrane Foundation
• Riskofbias.info
• ROBIS tool - University of Bristol Medical School: Population Health Sciences
• Systematic review toolbox - Marshall et al . (2022)
• Considering bias and conflicts of interest among the included studies (Boutron et al ., 2022 )

Students are advised to discuss these tools directly with their tutor(s) if required to use them.

Other Tools

You may find that specific, specialised software tools exist that help with systematic reviews but they are not always available at the University of Birmingham. Such tools may have some limited free use but full access is dependent on institutional or School subscription.  They are generally aimed at those studying at PhD level and above in subject areas such as Medicine. 

For example:  Covidence*  and  Rayyan .  The Cochrane Foundation also has information on GRADE and RevMan **.  Another tool is EPPI Reviewer . These systematic review management tools are aimed more at the management of research traced through literature searches in the course of a systematic review, and the evaluation and synthesis processes, including viewing by other members of research teams. Covidence and RevMan are available for  use via Library Services / FindIt@Bham (see below). Students are advised to speak with their tutors for guidance on use, and to consult the supplier support information.

Available to University of Birmingham staff and students.

* Covidence .  For help with setting up with and using Covidence, see the dedicated Covidence / University of Birmingham web page , as well as the supplier knowledge base .

** RevMan .  Read the instructions on the FindIt@Bham entry for how to register to use Cochrane RevMan.

References and further reading

Aromataris, E., Fernandez, R., Godfrey, C. M., Holly, C., Khalil, H. and Tungpunkom, P. (2015) 'Summarizing systematic reviews: methodological development, conduct and reporting of an umbrella review approach', International Journal of Evidence-Based Healthcare , 13(3), pp. 132-40. doi: 10.1097/XEB.0000000000000055.

Boutron, I., Page, M.J., Higgins, J.P.T, Altman, D.G., Lundh, A. and Hróbjartsson, A. (2022) ‘Considering bias and conflicts of interest among the included studies’, In Higgins, J.P.T., Thomas, J., Chandler, J., Cumpston, M., Li, T., Page, M.J. and Welch, V.A. (eds.) (2022) Systematic Reviews of Interventions version 6.3 (updated February 2022). Cochrane, Ch. 7. Available from: https://training.cochrane.org/handbook/current/chapter-07 (Accessed 19 July 2022)

Cochrane Foundation (2023)  Cochrane’s focused review format is now available . Available at:  https://community.cochrane.org/news/cochranes-focused-review-format-now-available  (Accessed 6 November 2023)

Grant, M.J. and Booth, A. (2009) ' A typology of reviews: an analysis of 14 review types and associated methodologies ', Health Information and Libraries Journa l, 26(2), pp. 91-108. doi:  10.1111/j.1471-1842.2009.00848.x

Health Services Library, University of North Carolina (USA) (2023) Covidence.  Available at:  https://guides.lib.unc.edu/Covidence/ (Accessed 01 March 2023)

Higgins, J.P.T., Thomas, J., Chandler, J., Cumpston, M., Li, T., Page, M.J. and Welch, V.A. (eds.) (2022) Systematic Reviews of Interventions version 6.3 (updated February 2022). Cochrane. Available from www.training.cochrane.org/handbook (Accessed 18 July 2022)

Lancaster University Library (2023) Systematic Reviews . Available at: https://lancaster.libguides.com/SystematicReviews/about (Accessed 21 November 2023)

Marshall, C., Sutton, A., O'Keefe, H., Johnson, E. (eds.) (2022) The Systematic Review Toolbox. Available from: http://www.systematicreviewtools.com/ (Accessed 18 July 2022)

Munn, Z., Peters, M. D. J., Stern, C., Tufanaru, C., McArthur, A. and Aromataris, E. (2018) ' Systematic review or scoping review? Guidance for authors when choosing between a systematic or scoping review approach ', BMC Medical Research Methodology , 18(1), article 43. doi: 10.1186/s12874-018-0611-x.

Penn State University Libraries (2023) 'K now the difference! Systematic review vs. literature review ', in Nursing .  Available at: https://guides.libraries.psu.edu/c.php?g=319063&p=5222056 (Accessed 21 November 2023) 

Tricco, A., Oboirien, K., Lotfi, T. and Sambunjak, D. (2017) Scoping reviews and what you can do with them .  Available at: https://training.cochrane.org/resource/scoping-reviews-what-they-are-and-how-you-can-do-them (Accessed 21 November 2023)

University of Bath (2023) Systematic reviews: introduction . Available at: https://library.bath.ac.uk/systematic-reviews/introduction (Accessed 21 November 2023)

Western Libraries, Western University Canada (2023) Literature reviews, introduction to different types of .   Available at: https://www.lib.uwo.ca/tutorials/typesofliteraturereviews/index.html (Accessed 21 November 2023)

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Writing a Literature Review

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A literature review is a document or section of a document that collects key sources on a topic and discusses those sources in conversation with each other (also called synthesis ). The lit review is an important genre in many disciplines, not just literature (i.e., the study of works of literature such as novels and plays). When we say “literature review” or refer to “the literature,” we are talking about the research ( scholarship ) in a given field. You will often see the terms “the research,” “the scholarship,” and “the literature” used mostly interchangeably.

Where, when, and why would I write a lit review?

There are a number of different situations where you might write a literature review, each with slightly different expectations; different disciplines, too, have field-specific expectations for what a literature review is and does. For instance, in the humanities, authors might include more overt argumentation and interpretation of source material in their literature reviews, whereas in the sciences, authors are more likely to report study designs and results in their literature reviews; these differences reflect these disciplines’ purposes and conventions in scholarship. You should always look at examples from your own discipline and talk to professors or mentors in your field to be sure you understand your discipline’s conventions, for literature reviews as well as for any other genre.

A literature review can be a part of a research paper or scholarly article, usually falling after the introduction and before the research methods sections. In these cases, the lit review just needs to cover scholarship that is important to the issue you are writing about; sometimes it will also cover key sources that informed your research methodology.

Lit reviews can also be standalone pieces, either as assignments in a class or as publications. In a class, a lit review may be assigned to help students familiarize themselves with a topic and with scholarship in their field, get an idea of the other researchers working on the topic they’re interested in, find gaps in existing research in order to propose new projects, and/or develop a theoretical framework and methodology for later research. As a publication, a lit review usually is meant to help make other scholars’ lives easier by collecting and summarizing, synthesizing, and analyzing existing research on a topic. This can be especially helpful for students or scholars getting into a new research area, or for directing an entire community of scholars toward questions that have not yet been answered.

What are the parts of a lit review?

Most lit reviews use a basic introduction-body-conclusion structure; if your lit review is part of a larger paper, the introduction and conclusion pieces may be just a few sentences while you focus most of your attention on the body. If your lit review is a standalone piece, the introduction and conclusion take up more space and give you a place to discuss your goals, research methods, and conclusions separately from where you discuss the literature itself.

Introduction:

• An introductory paragraph that explains what your working topic and thesis is
• A forecast of key topics or texts that will appear in the review
• Potentially, a description of how you found sources and how you analyzed them for inclusion and discussion in the review (more often found in published, standalone literature reviews than in lit review sections in an article or research paper)
• 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 sentence to draw connections, comparisons, and contrasts.

Conclusion:

• Summarize the key findings you have taken from the literature and emphasize their significance
• Connect it back to your primary research question

How should I organize my lit review?

Lit reviews can take many different organizational patterns depending on what you are trying to accomplish with the review. Here are some examples:

• Chronological : The simplest approach is to trace the development of the topic over time, which helps familiarize the audience with the topic (for instance if you are introducing something that is not commonly known in your field). If you choose this strategy, be careful to avoid simply listing and summarizing sources in order. Try to analyze the patterns, turning points, and key debates that have shaped the direction of the field. Give your interpretation of how and why certain developments occurred (as mentioned previously, this may not be appropriate in your discipline — check with a teacher or mentor if you’re unsure).
• Thematic : If you have found some recurring central themes that you will continue working with throughout your piece, you can organize your literature review into subsections that address different aspects of the topic. For example, if you are reviewing literature about women and religion, key themes can include the role of women in churches and the religious attitude towards women.
• Qualitative versus quantitative research
• Empirical versus theoretical scholarship
• Divide the research by sociological, historical, or cultural sources
• Theoretical : In many humanities articles, the literature review is the foundation for the theoretical framework. You can use it to discuss various theories, models, and definitions of key concepts. You can argue for the relevance of a specific theoretical approach or combine various theorical concepts to create a framework for your research.

What are some strategies or tips I can use while writing my lit review?

Any lit review is only as good as the research it discusses; make sure your sources are well-chosen and your research is thorough. Don’t be afraid to do more research if you discover a new thread as you’re writing. More info on the research process is available in our "Conducting Research" resources .

As you’re doing your research, create an annotated bibliography ( see our page on the this type of document ). Much of the information used in an annotated bibliography can be used also in a literature review, so you’ll be not only partially drafting your lit review as you research, but also developing your sense of the larger conversation going on among scholars, professionals, and any other stakeholders in your topic.

Usually you will need to synthesize research rather than just summarizing it. This means drawing connections between sources to create a picture of the scholarly conversation on a topic over time. Many student writers struggle to synthesize because they feel they don’t have anything to add to the scholars they are citing; here are some strategies to help you:

• It often helps to remember that the point of these kinds of syntheses is to show your readers how you understand your research, to help them read the rest of your paper.
• Writing teachers often say synthesis is like hosting a dinner party: imagine all your sources are together in a room, discussing your topic. What are they saying to each other?
• Look at the in-text citations in each paragraph. Are you citing just one source for each paragraph? This usually indicates summary only. When you have multiple sources cited in a paragraph, you are more likely to be synthesizing them (not always, but often
• Read more about synthesis here.

The most interesting literature reviews are often written as arguments (again, as mentioned at the beginning of the page, this is discipline-specific and doesn’t work for all situations). Often, the literature review is where you can establish your research as filling a particular gap or as relevant in a particular way. You have some chance to do this in your introduction in an article, but the literature review section gives a more extended opportunity to establish the conversation in the way you would like your readers to see it. You can choose the intellectual lineage you would like to be part of and whose definitions matter most to your thinking (mostly humanities-specific, but this goes for sciences as well). In addressing these points, you argue for your place in the conversation, which tends to make the lit review more compelling than a simple reporting of other sources.

A Guide to Conducting Reviews: Literature Review

• Literature Review
• Systematic Review
• Meta-Analysis
• Scoping Review
• Rapid Review
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Tips for Conducting a Literature Review

Tips for conducting a literature review (from University of Edinburgh)

Definition :  A literature/narrative review identifies, summarizes, and critically analyzes what has been previously published on a specific topic.

Aim : To  give readers a comprehensive overview of the topic and to highlight significant areas of research.  A literature review can also help identify gaps in the research.

Key characteristics :  A literature review has a wide scope and follows a non-standardized methodology. Search strategies, comprehensiveness, and time range vary and do not follow an established protocol.

Structure : A literature review may be chronological (traces a topic's development over time), methodological (compares the results that emerge from using different methods), thematic (addresses different aspects of the topic), or theoretical (discusses various theories, models and concepts). 

Main steps : 

• Select a topic (define your research scope)
• Locate relevant literature (identify key texts)
• Briefly critique and reflect on view (read key texts, analyze and evaluate critically)
• Write the paper (synthesize and organize)

Strengths:  Sets the context for your research and provides the framework for interpreting the results fo your research. Does not take long time to complete.

Drawbacks/Limitations :  The authors may not clearly state the methodology used, and may be selective in presenting evidence to support a particular, pre-existing view. Selectivity of materials used by the author(s) makes it susceptible to bias.

Source : USU Libraries. (2017, September 26).  Conducting a literature review  [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuV9WawChwc

Further Reading: e-Books

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• Last Updated: Mar 19, 2024 9:15 AM
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URBS 400: Senior Seminar: Conducting a Literature Review

• Conducting a Literature Review
• Constructing Your Search

Starting Out on a Literature Review

• "Reviewing the literature" / David Byrne. Project Planner. SAGE Research Methods. 2017. SAGE Research Method's Project Planner guides you through your research project. This section is basic but helpful for making sure you're on the right track.
• "Literature review", in : Understanding and evaluating research : a critical guide / Sue L. T. McGregor. SAGE, 2018. pp. 177-204. A very fine presentation of both theory and practice in writing a literature review. Additional SAGE books and journal articles on literature review writing may be found in SAGE Research Methods .
• Conducting your literature review / Susanne Hempel. American Psychological Association, 2020. One of the APA's Concise Guides to Conducting Behavioral, Health, and Social Science Research series.
• More books on writing literature reviews ...

Reference works

• Oxford Bibliographies Online Useful introductions to topics with citations for seminal articles in the field. Search from the main page or navigate by subject.
• International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences A key resource for understanding unfamiliar concepts in the social sciences.
• Sage Knowledge Encyclopedias and handbooks related to social science.

Find existing lit reviews

You can jumpstart your lit review by finding lit reviews on similar topics that have already been written.

Article databases

Tip: Use Thesaurus or Index to indentify useful terms for searching.

Tip: Use proximity searching to catch variations.      E.g., literature near/3 review (ProQuest)

Dissertations

The work of doctoral students, dissertations may never be published in book form, but they can be rich resources. They invariably include a lit review as a chapter, and often have extensive bibliographies.

• ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Nearly all recent U.S. dissertations are available here in full-text.  

Annual Reviews

The Annual Reviews series of journals are entirely composed of extensive lit reviews.

• Annual Review of Sociology

Citation Indexes

Trace citations backward and forward in time to see the reception of ideas

• Scopus Indexes most peer reviewed journals in science, technology, and medicine, and many in the social sciences, arts, and humanities. Scopus also includes a number of trade publications and conference papers, and can perform author and affiliation searching.
• Web of Science
• Google Scholar Access to Google Scholar with Penn-only links to full-text articles. Once authenticated through Penn's proxy, full-text articles to which Penn Libraries subscribe will become available within the Google Scholar search results.
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• Last Updated: Dec 22, 2022 3:07 PM
• URL: https://guides.library.upenn.edu/urbs400