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15462 Research Critique and Literature Review

Warning: The information on this page is indicative. The subject outline for a particular session, location and mode of offering is the authoritative source of all information about the subject for that offering. Required texts, recommended texts and references in particular are likely to change. Students will be provided with a subject outline once they enrol in the subject. Subject handbook information prior to 2024 is available in the Archives .

Postgraduate

Description

This subject enables School of Built Environment higher doctorate research (HDR) students to learn the theoretical and practical processes of critical analysis and literature review development. In preparation for students' first assessment to confirm their candidature, students are guided through the process of critically reading journal articles and other texts appropriate to their thesis topic, leading to a written draft of their literature review chapter by the end of the session. Students are required to source and review relevant research at a rate of four papers per week (or equivalent).

The focus of this subject is on developing the skills to successfully write a literature review. These skills include effective summarisation and paraphrasing of literature, searching for relevant literature, critical evaluation of literature, synthesis of multiple literature sources into a cohesive argument, and identifying literature gaps which in turn demonstrate the relevance and contribution of the research question(s).

Subject learning objectives (SLOs)

On successful completion of this subject, students should be able to:

Course intended learning outcomes (CILOs)

This subject also contributes to the following Course Intended Learning Outcomes:

• Communicate effectively through oral communication in projects at a professional level (Oral Communication) (C.1)
• Communicate effectively through written communication in projects at a professional level (Written Communication) (C.2)
• Source and apply tools and techniques to meet contextual demands (Technique Application) (I.1)
• Think critically and synthesise complex data (Critical Engagement) (R.1)
• Define, initiate, and conduct research projects (Research) (R.2)

Contribution to the development of graduate attributes

The term CAPRI is used for the five Design, Architecture and Building faculty graduate attribute categories where:

C = communication and groupwork

A = attitudes and values

P = practical and professional

R = research and critique

I = innovation and creativity.

Course intended learning outcomes (CILOs) are linked to these categories using codes (e.g. C-1, A-3, P-4, etc.).

Teaching and learning strategies

This subject is taught online with a two-day face-to-face workshop at the City Campus. It is a requirement that students undertake a minimum of 80% of activities online and attend the workshop.

Each week students will be asked to familiarise themselves with a range of different online written and visual resources that relate to the topic which are included in the program descriptions.

Students are expected to use the online tools to ask questions, initiate student discussions with other students, and regularly respond to UTS online postings that clarify questions. Students will also work closely with their supervisors throughout the semester to guide their literature search, but articles should be searched and critiqued by students.

Students will be assessed on their critical evaluation of literature reviews published in academic journals and their peer-assessment of critical assessments completed by other students throughout the semester.

Students will be required to offer constructive feedback verbally and will have several opportunities to receive feedback during the subject. The feedback provided will vary in form, purpose and in its degree of formality:

Formative feedback will be provided during the learning process, typically provided verbally by the subject's teaching staff. It will address the content of work and a student's approach to learning, both in general and more specific ‘assessment orientated’ terms. It is designed to help students improve their performance in time for the submission of an assessment item. For this to occur students need to respond constructively to the feedback provided. This involves critically reflecting on advice given and in response altering the approach taken to a given assessment. Formative feedback may also, on occasion, be provided by other students. It is delivered informally, either in conversation during a tutorial or in the course of discussion at the scale of the whole class. It is the student’s responsibility to record any feedback given during meetings or studio sessions.

Summative feedback is provided in written form with all assessed work. It is published along with indicative grades online at UTS REVIEW. Summative feedback focuses on assessment outcomes. It is used to indicate how successfully a student has performed in terms of specific assessment criteria.

Content (topics)

Topics covered during the semester are:

• Overview of the research process
• Literature search skills and literature review approaches
• Critically evaluating journal articles
• Synthesizing literature from multiple authors to make logically structured arguments
• Using a literature review to identify a gap in the literature
• Using a literature review to develop your research question(s) and make an argument for the relevance of your research question (demonstrate how your research builds upon existing literature)

Assessment task 1: Presentation & Summary

Assessment task 2: class exercises, assessment task 3: draft literature review, minimum requirements.

Students are required to attend 80% of all classes for all enrolled subjects. Achievement of the subject’s aims is difficult if classes are not attended. Where assessment tasks are to be presented personally in class, attendance is mandatory. Pursuant to UTS rule 3.8.2 students who do not satisfy attendance requirements may be refused permission by the Responsible Academic Officer to be considered for assessment for this subject.

Please see on the UTS Canvas.

Other resources

Additional materials will be provided as needed throughout the teaching session via UTS Canvas.

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University of Tasmania, Australia

Literature reviews.

• Introduction: who will benefit from this guide?
• Getting started: what is a literature review?
• How to develop a researchable question
• How to find the literature
• How to manage the reading and take notes that make sense
• How to bring it all together: examples, templates, links, guides

Who will benefit from this guide?

This guide is written for undergraduates and postgraduate, course work students who are doing their first literature review.

Higher degree research candidates and academic researchers, please also refer to the Resources for Researchers library guides for more detailed information on writing theses and systematic reviews. 

What is a literature review?

A literature review is an examination of research in a particular field. 

• It gathers, critically analyses, evaluates, and synthesises current research literature in a discipline,
• indicates where there may be strengths, gaps,  weaknesses, and agreements in the current research.

It considers:

• what has been done,
•  the current thinking,
• research trends,
•  principal debates,
• dominant ideas,
• methods used in researching the topic
• gaps and flaws in the research.

  http://libguides.lib.msu.edu/c.php?g=96146&p=904793

Different Types of reviews

You may be asked to complete a literature review that is done in a systematic way, that is like a systematic review.

Mostly, the literature review you will be asked to do will be integrative – that is, conclusions are drawn from the literature in order to create something new, such as a new hypothesis to address a question, a solution to a complex problem, a new workplace procedure or training program.

Some elements of what you are asked to do may be like a systematic review, particularly in health fields.

Systematic approach does not mean a systematic review.

A true systematic review is a complex research project:

•  conducted in a scientific manner,
• usually with more than one person involved,
• they take a long time to complete
• are generally a project in themselves.

For more information have a look at the Systematic Review library guide .

If you would like to know more about different types of reviews, have a look at the document below: 

At the core of a literature review is a synthesis of the research. 

While both analysis and synthesis are involved, s ynthesis goes beyond analysis and is a higher order thinking.(Bloom's taxonomy).

Looking at the diagram below, it is evident that synthesis goes well beyond just analysis. 

• Analysis asks you to break something down into its parts and compare and contrast with other research findings.
• where they agree and disagree
• the major themes, arguments, ideas in a field
• the questions raised and those yet to be answered.
• This will show the relationships between different aspects of the research findings in the literature.
• It is not a summary, but rather is organised around concepts and themes, where there is a combining of elements to form something new.

Watch this short clip from Utah State University which defines how to go about achieving synthesis. 

Synthesis: True or False. 

Quick Quiz: check your understanding of synthesis from the video by deciding which of these statements are true or false .

• Next: How to develop a researchable question >>
• Last Updated: Apr 10, 2024 11:56 AM
• URL: https://utas.libguides.com/literaturereviews

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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.

• University of Texas Libraries

Literature Reviews

• What is a literature review?
• Steps in the Literature Review Process
• Define your research question
• Determine inclusion and exclusion criteria
• Choose databases and search
• Review Results
• Synthesize Results
• Analyze Results
• Librarian Support

What is a Literature Review?

A literature or narrative review is a comprehensive review and analysis of the published literature on a specific topic or research question. The literature that is reviewed contains: books, articles, academic articles, conference proceedings, association papers, and dissertations. It contains the most pertinent studies and points to important past and current research and practices. It provides background and context, and shows how your research will contribute to the field. 

A literature review should: 

• Provide a comprehensive and updated review of the literature;
• Explain why this review has taken place;
• Articulate a position or hypothesis;
• Acknowledge and account for conflicting and corroborating points of view

From  S age Research Methods

Purpose of a Literature Review

A literature review can be written as an introduction to a study to:

• Demonstrate how a study fills a gap in research
• Compare a study with other research that's been done

Or it can be a separate work (a research article on its own) which:

• Organizes or describes a topic
• Describes variables within a particular issue/problem

Limitations of a Literature Review

Some of the limitations of a literature review are:

• It's a snapshot in time. Unlike other reviews, this one has beginning, a middle and an end. There may be future developments that could make your work less relevant.
• It may be too focused. Some niche studies may miss the bigger picture.
• It can be difficult to be comprehensive. There is no way to make sure all the literature on a topic was considered.
• It is easy to be biased if you stick to top tier journals. There may be other places where people are publishing exemplary research. Look to open access publications and conferences to reflect a more inclusive collection. Also, make sure to include opposing views (and not just supporting evidence).

Source: Grant, Maria J., and Andrew Booth. “A Typology of Reviews: An Analysis of 14 Review Types and Associated Methodologies.” Health Information & Libraries Journal, vol. 26, no. 2, June 2009, pp. 91–108. Wiley Online Library, doi:10.1111/j.1471-1842.2009.00848.x.

Meryl Brodsky : Communication and Information Studies

Hannah Chapman Tripp : Biology, Neuroscience

Carolyn Cunningham : Human Development & Family Sciences, Psychology, Sociology

Larayne Dallas : Engineering

Janelle Hedstrom : Special Education, Curriculum & Instruction, Ed Leadership & Policy ​

Susan Macicak : Linguistics

Imelda Vetter : Dell Medical School

For help in other subject areas, please see the guide to library specialists by subject .

Periodically, UT Libraries runs a workshop covering the basics and library support for literature reviews. While we try to offer these once per academic year, we find providing the recording to be helpful to community members who have missed the session. Following is the most recent recording of the workshop, Conducting a Literature Review. To view the recording, a UT login is required.

• October 26, 2022 recording
• Last Updated: Oct 26, 2022 2:49 PM
• URL: https://guides.lib.utexas.edu/literaturereviews

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Learn how to create a well-thought-out search strategy to efficiently find literature on your topic. 

This workshop will cover: 

Do you want to find most relevant articles from your search, but don’t want to get too many irrelevant results?  Use the advanced features of library databases to search more effectively.  This workshop is aimed at those with basic database search

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UTS Librarians will discuss the differences between a systematic search and a systematic review as well as tips and techniques for composing an appropriate research question that will guide your search or review. 

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Literature reviews

literature review may form an assignment by itself , in which case the aim is to summarise the key research relating to your topic . Alternatively, it may form part of a larger paper, such as a thesis or a research report, in which case the aim is to explain why more research needs to be done on your chosen topic.

Process of a literature review

Deciding on a research question or topic Whether you’ ve been given a topic by your teacher , or you’ve been asked to decide upon your own topic or research question, it’s best to rephrase the topic as a specific question that you’re attempting to answer.

If your purpose is to summarise the existing research on the topic, it may be quite appropriate to have a very broad question , such as the example below.

How has COVID-19 affected the educational experience of university students in Australia?

If your purpose is to justify the need to conduct further primary research, you will need a more specific research question which takes into account how the existing research has failed to adequately answer the question you’re planning to address.

In transitioning courses online in response to COVID-19, have universities adequately taken into account existing frameworks for effective online pedagogy?

This question allows the writer to narrow the focus of their literature review and, hopefully, find gaps in the amount or type of research conducted into this very specific topic. Sometimes you may start with a broader topic or question, then conduct some initial research into the existing literature, and then narrow the focus of your research question based on what you find.

Searching the literature

When searching for relevant sources, it’s important to first decide the criteria you will use when trying to find existing research . This includes setting the scope of your research to decide what is important and why.

How old can your research papers be? Must they be from the past 5 years, or would any papers from the previous 15 years be considered acceptable? The answers may depend on:

your discipline

the purpose of your research

the amount of research that has been conducted on that topic

the speed with which findings are considered no longer valid

Which databases will you use? What types of journals are considered acceptable? Speaking with your teacher, and with a Librarian from UTS Library, can help you make these decisions.

Are you focusing on research relating to a particular country, and if so, why?

Are you focusing on particular research methods or specific theoretical approaches? If so, you need to explain to the reader what they are and why you have made these decisions.

Taking notes

What notes you take depends on your research question. Knowing what you’re trying to achieve or what question you’re trying to answer will help you choose what to focus on when reading the literature. Common aspects to look out for when reading include:

the main research findings

the researchers’ claims (usually based on their interpretation of the findings)

where, when and how the research was conducted

the scope and/or limitations of the research being reviewed

Remember to also take notes about your own response to the literature. If you see weaknesses in a particular study, or assumptions being made when interpreting the findings of a study, make a note of it, as your critical analysis of the literature is a key aspect of a literature review.

Grouping your materials

Before drafting your literature review, it’s useful to group together your sources according to theme. A good literature review is not structured based on having one paragraph for each paper that you review. Instead, paragraphs are based on topics or themes that have been identified when conducting your research, with various sources synthesised within each paragraph.

How you decide on your groupings will depend on the purpose of your literature review. You may be clear on this before you begin researching, or your themes may emerge during the research process. Examples can include:

the methodology used to conduct the research

the theoretical perspective used by the researchers

themes identified when analysing the various research findings

opinions presented by the researchers based on their analysis of the findings

Writing the review

Structure of a literature review (by themes in body)  : 

Introduction

The introduction is usually one paragraph in a short literature review, or series of paragraphs in a longer review , outlining:

the content being covered,

the structure (or how the review is organised), and

the scope of what will be covered.

[1] Education is one aspect of society that everyone has experienced, and that everyone therefore has an opinion about. However, despite decades of research into pedagogical approaches to education, there is still surprisingly little consensus regarding how learning and teaching should be conducted in order to be most effective. This is especially true with regards to critical pedagogy, which can be defined as the theory and practice of helping students achieve critical consciousness about what they are learning, how they are learning it, and the context which shapes both of these aspects (Windsor, 2018). [2] The purpose of this literature review is to demonstrate the lack of analytical approaches to teaching in the higher education sphere, and the importance of critical pedagogy in enhancing curriculum development, teacher training and classroom practice. When reviewing the literature, it soon becomes clear that research studies in the ESL field are dominated by language instruction techniques, with less attention given to ways teachers can adopt a more critical stance with their learners (Pennycook 1999; Saroub & Quadros 2015). [3] For the purposes of this review , respected ESL and Adult Education journal s , online publications, unpublished theses and academic books from the late 1980s to 2016 will be examined, with a coverage of sources from Australia, the US, Asia, the Middle East and South America. Pennycook (1994, 1999), Giroux (1988) and Freire (1970) are commonly cited in these research studies. It is rare to find authors or research questioning the value of critical pedagogy; Ellsworth (1989) and Johnson (1999) are notable exceptions. [4] This literature review covers two main areas. Firstly, research into what pre-service and existing teachers know and think about critical pedagogy is examined. The second area investigates teacher and student resistance to some critical teaching practices. 1 Introduces the overall topic being discussed, and gives some background information, including definitions of key terms. 2 Explains the main purpose of this review, and summarises the context of the existing literature. 3 Explains how the literature review will be conducted. 4 Explains the main themes (or sub-topics) that will be examined in this review.

The body paragraphs should be well organised and structured.  Rather than writing one paragraph for each piece of research being discussed,  literature reviews are usually organised so that each paragraph or section covers one theme or sub-topic.  These themes will differ depending on your topic and your purpose, but may relate to:

different theoretical perspectives on your topic

different ways of conducting research on the topic

different sub-topics within the broader topic

Each section ends with a brief summary which relates this theme to the main focus of the research area. It may do this by focusing on parts of the topic where the literature agrees or disagrees.

[1] Resistance to change is another area that was found to restrict the adoption of critical teaching practices in the ESL area. [2] Canh and Barnard’s small case study (2009) of Vietnamese teachers’ capacity to take on a national curriculum change directed by the Vietnamese government found implementation was different from the ‘idealised world of innovation designers’ (p. 30). While also recommending better teacher training, they cited the need for an adjustment of teachers’ belief systems to make change happen, since an individual’s practice ‘behind the closed doors of their classroom’ (p. 21) is a largely unobserved space, despite mandated curriculum changes.   [3] Similarly, resistance and avoidance among EFL teachers was noted by Cox & De Assis–Peterson’s Brazilian study (1999). They found that teachers often avoided political language questions from students, for example, ‘Why should we learn English if we’re Brazilian?’ [4] This suggests that any uptake of critical practices may be more dependent on teacher attitudes, reflecting their internal reality, than on external factors. 1 The topic sentence makes it clear that this paragraph is focused on a sub-topic within the broader area being discussed, in this case, “resistance to change”. 2 Two different studies that relate to this sub-topic are then briefly summarised. 3 The writer has grouped together studies that presented similar perspectives. If several studies had an opposing perspective, these studies should be grouped in a separate paragraph, with an analysis of the reasons behind their opposing opinions, along with the writer’s perspective on the strength of their arguments or the evidence used to justify those arguments. 4 This paragraph concludes with the writer discussing the implications of what has been discussed when summarising the literature on this topic.

The conclusion summarises the main themes that were identified when reviewing the literature.

[1] This review of relevant literature has quite clearly shown a lack of understanding of critical pedagogy among a range of teachers, despite the strong likelihood of it being included in their training. [2] It also demonstrated that many teachers used avoidance when faced with difficult topics or situations related to critical language education. [3] Calls for curriculum changes, better training and more teaching materials were common in research recommendations, and it may be that teachers’ personal attitudes also play an important role in changing classroom practice. 1 Summary of the main argument being made by the writer. 2 Summary of the second main conclusion reached by the writer based on the available evidence. 3 Summary of some of the recommendations made throughout the literature on how to address the problems that were discussed. Sometimes the writer might also include their own recommendations, especially regarding areas where further research needs to be conducted to help us have a better understanding of this topic.

If the literature review is part of a larger research project, the conclusion should also summarise any gaps in the existing literature, and use this to justify the need for your own proposed research project. The types of gaps in the existing literature may relate to:

a lack of research into a particular aspect of the topic, or

the fact that existing evidence is conflicting or inconclusive, and therefore more evidence is required to help provide conclusive evidence, or

problems in the methodology used in previous research, meaning that a different research method is required.

Literature review as an individual assignment

If the purpose of your literature review is to summarise the existing literature on a topic, you will be expected to:

summarise the most important (or most recent) literature on your specified topic

discuss any common themes that emerge in the literature, such as similar types of research that have been conducted, similar findings from the research, or similar interpretations of the findings

discuss any differences in the research findings or interpretation of evidence from the literature

evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the literature that you’re reviewing. Examples of things you might look for include:

Does the author make any assumptions that weaken their claims?

Are the author’s claims supported by adequate evidence?

Was the research conducted in a way that is valid and credible?

Is there anything missing from their discussion of the topic?

Literature review as part of a thesis or research report

If your literature review is part of a thesis or research report, as well as doing everything listed above, you will also need to:

discuss ‘gaps’ in the current literature, which means finding important areas of research that have not yet been adequately covered, or for which further evidence is still required

explain the significance of your research

show how your work builds on previous research

show how your work can be differentiated from previous research (i.e. what makes your research different from previous studies that have been done on this topic?)

Verb tense in literature Reviews

Always consider the verb tense when presenting a review of previously published work. There are three main verb tenses used in literature reviews. Please click on each occasion to check which verb tense is appropriate.

1. Describing a particular study

When describing a particular study or piece of research (or the researchers who conducted it), it is common to use past tense . For example:

Brown (2018) surveyed 200 undergraduate students regarding their views about online learning and found that …. After conducting a meta-review of studies on effective exam preparation techniques, Wang & Li (2016) concluded that ….

2. Giving opinions about a study

If you are sharing your own views about a previous study, or conveying the views of other experts, then present tense is more common. For example:

Smith (2019) argues that many people underestimate the importance of actively transforming the information they are studying. Although the research conducted by Lopez et al. (2017) was an important contribution to the field, their claims are too strong given the lack of supporting evidence.

3. Making generalisations

If you are making generalisations about past research, present perfect tense is used. For example:

Several researchers have studied the effects of stress on very young children (Baggio, 2014; Suarez, 2017; Van Djik et al., 2020).

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EXTENDED DEADLINE-- CFP. Still Cruising Utopia: A Utopian Studies Special Issue on Queer Utopia and the Legacy of José Esteban Muñoz

Still Cruising Utopia: A Utopian Studies Special Issue on Queer Utopia and the Legacy of José Esteban Muñoz

EXTENDED Deadline for all manuscripts: May 15, 2024

To acknowledge and celebrate the 15th Anniversary of the publication of Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity (2009) by José Esteban Muñoz (1967-2013), Utopian Studies seeks contributions for a special issue on Queer.  Scholarly writing on queer utopias and/or queer utopianism has exploded since the publication of Muñoz’s text in 2009. For this issue of Utopian Studies we are particularly interested in contributions that assess the role that Cruising Utopia and other work by Muñoz have played in the theorization of queer possibilities. How has his work–and those who have followed him–shaped the field that is, or could be, called queer utopianism? How has this work been reshaping the very field we call “utopian studies”? We encourage contributions from queer, BIPOC, Latinx, and social and gender minorities, as well as contributions from the Global South.

Utopian Studies is an interdisciplinary scholarly journal in its 35th year of publication. For more information on the journal, see: https://www.psupress.org/journals/jnls_utopian_studies.html

Types of contributions:

The journal has five sections, accommodating a variety of possible contribution formats:

•    Full-length academic articles (7,500 words max): For this issue we seek essays on any aspect of queer utopianism. All essays should be informed by contemporary theoretical debates in both utopian and queer studies. For inquiries, please contact Jennifer A. Wagner-Lawlor (Editor) at jaw55 [at] psu.edu.
•     Critical Forum: A set of essays that comprise a “dialog” around a particular theoretical question or issue. The Forum is typically organized as a discrete set of contributions (some of these groupings have started out as conference panels). This cluster of essays can run from 20,000 to 25,000 words total, comprising 4-6 contributions. For inquiries, please contact Christian Haines (Associate Editor) at chaines [at]psu.edu.
•   Desire Lines (2,500 words max): This section features academic writing in a more personal mode. Contributions might address “What would a queer utopia look like”?, for example. For inquiries, please contact Stephanie Peebles Tavera (Assistant Editor) at stephanie.tavera[at] tamuk.edu.
•    Conference Briefings: If you have attended a conference, workshop, or colloquium in the last year that pertains to the special issue topic, we accept submissions of 1,500-word critical reflections on the event. For inquiries, please contact Manuel Sousa Oliveira (Editorial Assistant and Conference Briefings Editor) at msoliveira[at] letras [dot]up [dot] pt.
• Book Reviews: We publish book reviews of recent publications. Single-book reviews have 1,500 to 2,500 words; review essays (reviewing 2 or more books) up to 5,000 words. For this issue, we particularly seek reviews related to queer history, queer theory, and queer literature and art/performance. For inquiries, please contact Elisabeth Reichel (Book Review Editor) at elisabeth.reichel[at]uni-osnabrueck.de.

ALL CONTRIBUTIONS MUST BE RECEIVED NO LATER THAN MAY 15, 2024, AND SUBMITTED THROUGH OUR EDITORIAL MANAGER SYSTEM. To submit a manuscript to the editorial office, please visit 

http://www.editorialmanager.com/uts/ and create an author profile. The online system will guide you through the steps to upload your manuscript. Submissions must follow the most recent edition of The Chicago Manual of Style.

Academic article manuscripts should not be longer than 7,500 words including abstracts and notes.

Critical Forum essays may vary in length, depending on the number of contributors.

Desire Lines should be no longer than 2,500 words.

Book Reviews should not be longer than 2,500 words (or shorter than 1,500 words); review essays should not be longer than 5,000 words.

Conference Briefings should be no longer than 1,500 words.

Please see the complete Submission Guidelines:

http://www.editorialmanager.com/uts/account/US_SubmissionGuidelines.pdf

LAST UPDATED: 15 Apr 2024