The Process of Literature Review

A literature review is a critical component of academic research and scholarly writing. It involves
examining and evaluating existing literature, scholarly articles, books, and other sources relevant to a
particular topic or research question. This process is essential for gaining a thorough understanding of
the existing knowledge in a field, identifying gaps in the literature, and informing the direction of
new research.

The process of conducting a literature review can be challenging and time-consuming. It requires
careful planning, organization, and analysis to ensure that all relevant sources are identified and
thoroughly reviewed. Here's a breakdown of the steps involved in conducting a literature review:

1. Define the scope and objectives: Before diving into the literature, it's essential to clearly
define the scope of your review and establish specific objectives. Determine the research
question or topic you want to explore and identify the key themes or concepts you'll be
focusing on.
2. Conduct comprehensive searches: Once you've defined your scope, begin searching for
relevant literature using academic databases, libraries, online journals, and other scholarly
sources. Use a combination of keywords, search terms, and Boolean operators to refine your
searches and retrieve the most relevant articles and publications.
3. Evaluate and select sources: As you identify potential sources, evaluate them based on their
relevance, credibility, and reliability. Consider the author's credentials, the publication's
reputation, and the quality of the research methodology. Select sources that provide valuable
insights and contribute to your understanding of the topic.
4. Read and analyze the literature: Once you've selected your sources, thoroughly read and
analyze each one to extract key findings, arguments, and conclusions. Take notes, highlight
important passages, and organize your thoughts to identify common themes, trends, and
patterns across the literature.
5. Synthesize and summarize: After reviewing the literature, synthesize the information you've
gathered to create a coherent and comprehensive summary of the existing knowledge in the
field. Identify the main points, debates, and controversies, and organize your findings in a
logical and structured manner.
6. Critically evaluate the literature: Finally, critically evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of
the literature, including any biases, limitations, or gaps in the research. Consider how each
source contributes to your understanding of the topic and where further research may be
needed.

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Instead, you need to read first and distil the information, then plan and execute the writing. When it
is just a chapter, sources should equal the total number of pages in your article's body. The literature
review usually comes near the beginning of your dissertation. Historical review Historical literature
reviews focus on examining research throughout a period, often starting with the first time an issue,
concept, theory, or phenomenon emerged in the literature, then tracing its evolution within the
scholarship of a discipline. Make sure the sources you use are credible, and make sure you read any
landmark studies and major theories in your field of research. Organize your notes using a table,
mind map, or other technique. Integrative review It is a type of literature review focused on building
a comprehensive understanding of a topic by combining available theoretical frameworks and
empirical evidence. Analyze its literature review, the samples and variables used, the results, and the
conclusions. Your final review needs to show that you analyzed the literature critically and organized
each piece you include within a theme or argument. Identifies major themes, concepts, and
researchers on a topic. A literature review tells your readers what others have researched on your
topic and helps to demonstrate why your topic is both original and essential to the field of research.
Follow the organizational structure you developed above, including the headings and subheadings
you constructed. In this post, I’ll show you exactly how to write a literature review in three
straightforward steps, so you can conquer this vital chapter (the smart way). Using referencing
software from the very beginning of your endeavour will save you time. These are the words you
need to use when you search the databases. You might argue for the relevance of a specific
theoretical approach, or combine various theoretical concepts to create a framework for your
research. It should not merely be descriptive—it should present definitions, theories, debates, and
research data in the field of interest. Methodological approach: A methodological approach focuses
on the methods used by the researcher. You must prepare a list of keywords and their different
variations. Four Steps to Narrow Your Research Topic (Video) This 3-minute video provides
instructions on how to narrow the focus of your research topic. A literature review may be a stand
alone work or the introduction to a larger research paper, depending on the assignment. Identify the
main purpose of the 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.
Once you’ve got a full first draft (however rough it may be), step away from it for a day or two
(longer if you can) and then come back at it with fresh eyes. Knowing the type of claim needed to
answer your research question will let you know the kinds of arguments you need to be looking for
as you gather and analyze the literature. Connection: Not establishing a very clear connection
between the literature and your research even though it is extremely critical. Summary: Write a brief
summary of the things that are present and otherwise. Most valuably, it tells you how many times
each article has been cited, which gives you an idea of how credible (or at least, popular) it is. Adobe
InDesign Design pixel-perfect content like flyers, magazines and more with Adobe InDesign. 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 ).
Appreciate and good reference in guiding me in my research journey. Open Google Slides Download
PowerPoint 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. They
are familiar with research tools and databases and can often direct you to sources you may not have
found on your own. 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. It is not just a descriptive
list of the material available, or a set of summaries. Make certain that all of the citations and
references are correct and that you are referencing in the appropriate style for your discipline.
Connection: Not establishing a very clear connection between the literature and your research even
though it is extremely critical. It shouldn't just list and summarise what you've read. Refine your
second draft and get a layman’s perspective on it. A literature review does not demonstrate what you
know but what you have learned from your analysis of the topic or field. It should provide you with
even more relevant sources. If you are interested in getting your research published, scanning the
professional environment in your area can be especially useful.Focus focusfocus! You will probably
be refining your topic as you search the literature and develop your lit review, BUT you should still
start with as focused a topic as possible. Some reviews declare that they have scanned the literature
up to a certain point in time, but given that peer review can be a rather lengthy process, a full search
for newly appeared literature at the revision stage may be worthwhile. Consider Literature Review
Writing Help Developing your literature review can be a challenge, and professional help from an
expert writer can often make the difference between a decent paper and one that has an exceptional
literature review. Craft a list of search terms to use to identify likely sources. For each publication,
ask yourself: What question or problem is the author addressing. 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.
Eminent researcher and academic Arlene Fink, in her book Conducting Research Literature Reviews,
defines it as the following: “A literature review surveys books, scholarly articles, and any other
sources relevant to a particular issue, area of research, or theory, and by so doing, provides a
description, summary, and critical evaluation of these works in relation to the research problem being
investigated. I am at a stage where I need to start writing my one. Ideas and insights also come from
discussions with coauthors and colleagues, as well as feedback from reviewers and editors. Finally,
tighten it up and send it off to your supervisor for comment. So rather than trying to fetch every
detail, you have to analyze and decide which research sources resemble closest and appear relevant
to your chosen domain. Do a quick scan of the titles and see what seems relevant, then search for the
relevant ones in your university’s database. Literature review is a mandatory part of any research
project. For you to identify the gap(s) in the literature and then use this as justification for your own
research topic. We will make assist you in writing your dissertation applying the appropriate and best
literature review and a laudable literate review. Along with preventing it, a literature review also
underlines the things that can be taken up for research. Systematic review This form consists of an
overview of existing evidence pertinent to a clearly formulated research question, which uses pre-
specified and standardized methods to identify and critically appraise relevant research and collect,
report, and analyze data from the studies included in the review. While your are working on your
analysis, you should ask the following questions: What are the key terms, concepts and problems
addressed by the author. Ideally, the literature review should take up 15%-40% of the total length of
your manuscript.
Simply put, it’s essential to build your own catalogue of the literature. Meta-analysis review Meta-
analysis uses statistical methods to summarize the results of independent studies. Something to be
conducted at the end of your research. 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.
Scope: Make an effort to understand the extent of scope that your topic offers. A literature review is
a comprehensive summary of previous research on a topic. If you want to work smart, you don't want
to miss this. Summary: Write a brief summary of the things that are present and otherwise.
Assignment types Steps for writing assignments Literature review example analysis Learning
Advisers Our advisers can help undergraduate and postgraduate students in all programs clarify ideas
from workshops, help you develop skills and give feedback on assignments. Look for Gaps in the
Literature As you evaluate the literature, try to look for gaps in your sources, areas where no one has
yet researched an aspect of your topic. Rule 4: Choose the Type of Review You Wish to Write After
having taken notes while reading the literature, you will have a rough idea of the amount of material
available for the review. Question: You must state a question based on your comprehensive
understanding of all studies; it can act as a starting point for your research. 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). Really agreed. Admirable effort thank you for this beautiful well explained recap.
Again, I would advise you speak with your professor, but there are also a lot of books available in
the library about topic selection and refinement. Really helpful, Thank you for the effort in showing
such information This is super helpful thank you very much. The literature review surveys scholarly
articles, books, and other scholarly sources relevant to a particular area of research. Long story short,
this chapter is a pretty big deal, which is why you want to make sure you get it right. Does it confirm,
add to, or challenge established knowledge. There are a variety of possible approaches that you can
take. So Nature asked editors and working scientists with well-cited reviews for their tips. This is,
after all, one of the main purposes of the literature review process (i.e. to familiarise yourself with the
current state of research in your field). Make a list of keywords Start by creating a list of keywords
related to your research question. The research justification for HIV prevention programming for
lesbian and bis. Check with your professor, or a subject expert in the field, if you are missing any
key works in the field. 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). You might argue for the
relevance of a specific theoretical approach, or combine various theoretical concepts to create a
framework for your research. What are the different types of literature reviews. But before you go,
Six Online Tools for Easy Literature Review Evaluating literature review: systematic vs. In this
article, we’ll take a look at ten steps for writing a literature review in order to see the right way to
develop a literature review to show your readers why your project is new, meaningful, and worth
their time to read and understand.
When searching the literature for pertinent papers and reviews, the usual rules apply: be thorough,
use different keywords and database sources (e.g., DBLP, Google Scholar, ISI Proceedings, JSTOR
Search, Medline, Scopus, Web of Science), and look at who has cited past relevant papers and book
chapters. QR Codes Generate QR Codes for your digital content. There is probably a continuum
between mini- and full reviews. Are all the key ideas, findings and trends presented backed up by
multiple sources. Always keep track of important information or data you can present in your
literature review right from the beginning. It is not just a descriptive list of the material available, or
a set of summaries. For you to identify the gap(s) in the literature and then use this as justification
for your own research topic. 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). This will be useful for making an argument about gaps in the research.
An academic essay is written for a scholarly audience. The literature review chapter of your
dissertation, thesis or research project is where you synthesise this prior work and lay the theoretical
foundation for your own research. Make sure you thoroughly go through appropriate reference
sources like books, reports, journal articles, government docs, and web-based resources. My advice
is, while reading, to start writing down interesting pieces of information, insights about how to
organize the review, and thoughts on what to write. When it is just a chapter, sources should equal
the total number of pages in your article's body. Writing literature reviews is a particularly important
skill if you want to apply for graduate school or pursue a career in research. You must prepare a list
of keywords and their different variations. However, bias could also occur in the other direction:
some scientists may be unduly dismissive of their own achievements, so that they will tend to
downplay their contribution (if any) to a field when reviewing it. The topic must at least be:
interesting to you (ideally, you should have come across a series of recent papers related to your line
of work that call for a critical summary), an important aspect of the field (so that many readers will
be interested in the review and there will be enough material to write it), and a well-defined issue
(otherwise you could potentially include thousands of publications, which would make the review
unhelpful). All you have to do is skim through literature review chapters of existing dissertations
related to your topic and you’ll find a gold mine of potential literature. If you have used sources
from different disciplines that use a variety of research methods, you might want to compare the
results in light of the different methods and discuss how the topic has been approached from
different sides. Additionally, you should know that the narrower your research topic is, the swifter it
will be for you to restrict the number of sources to be analyzed. 2. Search relevant literature Dig
deeper into search engines to discover what has already been published around your chosen topic. If
you’re working with Grad Coach, this is a good time to have your Research Specialist review your
chapter. The exceptions are when you have statements describing events that happened earlier than
the literature you are reviewing or events that are currently occurring; then, you can use the past
perfect or present perfect tenses. This saves time when you want to redo, or modify, the searches.
Points out Errors: It points out glaring errors and overlooked questions in your research. 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. The research justification for HIV prevention programming for lesbian and bis. Help
Center Here you'll find an answer to your question. Evaluate and select literature. 4. Analyze the
literature. 5. Plan the structure of your literature review. 6. Write your literature review. Consider
joining the Center for Cancer Research (CCR) at the National Cancer Institute Bethesda, Maryland
(US) NIH National Cancer Institute (NCI) Postdoctoral Fellow (PhD) Sign up for the Nature
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Make sure to read the abstract to find out whether an article is relevant to your question. Unlike a
dissertation research question, this question has to be answerable without collecting original data.
The chances are high that someone will already have published a literature review ( Figure 1 ), if not
exactly on the issue you are planning to tackle, at least on a related topic. To put it bluntly, if you
don’t understand the function and purpose of the literature review process, there’s no way you can
pull it off well. Look for links between the various articles and try to develop a bigger picture view
of the state of the research. In reviews written by multiple authors, this may be achieved by
assigning the review of the results of a coauthor to different coauthors. While your are working on
your analysis, you should ask the following questions: What are the key terms, concepts and
problems addressed by the author. The literature review usually comes near the beginning of your
thesis or dissertation. Review the literature Some questions to help you analyze the research: What
was the research question of the study you are reviewing. 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. Purpose: It serves to provide a comprehensive overview of the current state of
knowledge within a particular field. If your paper does not depend entirely on references, then it will
be short. Ideas and insights also come from discussions with coauthors and colleagues, as well as
feedback from reviewers and editors. Sources for a literature review should be as current as possible
or not older than ten years. Submit a Comment Cancel reply Your email address will not be
published. Video Say more by seamlessly including video within your publication. This will be
useful for making an argument about gaps in the research. Evaluate and select literature. 4. Analyze
the literature. 5. Plan the structure of your literature review. 6. Write your literature review. How to
Write a Literature Review: 3 Minute Step-by-step Guide 45K 2.6M views 3 years ago Everything
you Need to Write a Strong Dissertation Don't know how to write a literature review or where to
begin. I am doing two papers on my final year thesis, and I must stay I feel very confident to face
both headlong after reading this article. My proposal was accepted late last year but I honestly did
not know where to start Like the name of your YouTube implies you are GRAD (great,resource
person, about dissertation). If you are providing a self-contained review of writings on a topic, state
your project's purpose. If you are evaluating scientific theories, develop a hypothesis to examine.
Your librarian can help you determine the best databases to use for your topic, assess scope, and
formulate a search strategy. Does the study help me understand the topic better. 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. Make a list of keywords Start by
creating a list of keywords related to your research question. Let’s do a quick recap of the key
takeaways: It is essential to understand the WHY of the literature review before you read or write
anything. Steps to Write a Literature Review What is a Literature Review. This square may be
circled by discussing the wider implications of the reviewed topic for other disciplines.
It is a formal piece of writing where you analyze the existing theoretical framework, principles, and
assumptions and use that as a base to shape your approach to the research question. Narrow Your
Topic In order to choose the suitable literature to review, you need a specific topic, not just a general
idea. Instantly correct all language mistakes in your text Be assured that you'll submit flawless
writing. Which points do the researchers agree (and disagree) on. It is a synthesis. A literature review
is meant to be the product of more advanced study. If you are confused, be sure and ask for
clarification on your assignment from your professor. It is not enough for a review to be a summary
of the latest growth in the literature: the. Look for links between the various articles and try to
develop a bigger picture view of the state of the research. Does the study help me understand the
topic better. How to write a superb literature review The best proposals are timely and clearly explain
why readers should pay attention to the proposed topic. Most valuably, it tells you how many times
each article has been cited, which gives you an idea of how credible (or at least, popular) it is. Also,
keep a note of the: authors' names page numbers Keeping track of the bibliographic information for
each source will save you time when you’re ready to create citations. Come up with a list of relevant
keywords and then start your search with your institution's library catalog, and extend it to other
useful databases and academic search engines like: Google Scholar Science.gov ?? Our guide on
how to collect data for your thesis might be helpful at this stage of your research as well as the top
list of academic search engines. Literature reviews are set up similarly to other academic texts, with
an introduction, a main body, and a conclusion. 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. Now you need to find out
what has been written on the topic and search for literature related to your research topic. SciSpace
Discover is a one-stop solution to do an effective literature search and get barrier-free access to
scientific knowledge. This can lead directly into your methodology section. For example, US-based,
respondents aged 25-35, lower- income, etc. Make sure you thoroughly go through appropriate
reference sources like books, reports, journal articles, government docs, and web-based resources.
You will need to visit your school’s library, either in person or virtually, to research material about
your topic. Also, note any issues you feel arise due to the methodology. When we say “literature
review” or refer to “the literature,” we are talking about the research ( scholarship ) in a given field.
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.
There are so many issues in contemporary science that you could spend a lifetime of attending
conferences and reading the literature just pondering what to review. Thank you for a very useful
literature review session. Feedback is vital to writing a good review, and should be sought from a
variety of colleagues, so as to obtain a diversity of views on the draft. Fullscreen Sharing Deliver a
distraction-free reading experience with a simple link. Review the abstracts of research studies
carefully.
For example, you may use a literature review to develop an argument that: justifies the significance
or interest of a research question demonstrates your professional competence in a field of research
critically reviews theory or methodological approaches weighs evidence to reach a conclusion or
recommendation. You will need to visit your school’s library, either in person or virtually, to research
material about your topic. After having read a review of the literature, a reader should have a rough
idea of: the major achievements in the reviewed field, the main areas of debate, and the outstanding
research questions. Are all the key ideas, findings and trends presented backed up by multiple
sources. 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. Is it manageable?
Begin writing down terms that are related to your question. Check with your professor, or a subject
expert in the field, if you are missing any key works in the field. If you are providing a self-
contained review of writings on a topic, state your project's purpose. Publications Account settings
Advanced Search Journal List PLoS Comput Biol v.9(7); 2013 Jul Ten Simple Rules for Writing a
Literature Review Marco pautasso. 1 Centre for Functional and Evolutionary Ecology (CEFE),
CNRS, Montpellier, France 2 Centre for Biodiversity Synthesis and Analysis (CESAB), FRB, Aix-
en-Provence, France Literature reviews are in great demand in most scientific fields. Structure your
sections by themes or subtopics, not by individual theorists or researchers. As for how to draft one,
you can follow the same fundamental idea when preparing an abstract for a literature review. Outline
and identify the purpose of a literature review As a first step on how to write a literature review, you
must know what the research question or topic is and what shape you want your literature review to
take. Write in well-structured paragraphs: use transitions and topic sentences to draw connections,
comparisons and contrasts. Analysis: Involves critically evaluating and summarizing key findings,
methodologies, and debates found in. Justification: Your theoretical framework will justify your
choice of topic by giving out sufficient data about similar theories to the reader. You might argue for
the relevance of a specific theoretical approach, or combine various theoretical concepts to create a
framework for your research. Haroon interviewed 115 residents from 32 different nursing homes
known to have different levels of autonomy (2000). When printing this page, you must include the
entire legal notice. This technique will give you a strong indication of which points were clearly
communicated and which weren’t. You will often see the terms “the research,” “the scholarship,” and
“the literature” used mostly interchangeably. A good starting point could be to look at some
examples, depending on what kind of literature review you’d like to write. Was the research funded
by a source that could influence the findings. Once you’ve got a full first draft (however rough it
may be), step away from it for a day or two (longer if you can) and then come back at it with fresh
eyes. When starting from scratch, reviewing the literature can require a titanic amount of work. Also,
without the bird’s eye view that a catalogue provides, you’ll miss connections between various
articles, and have no view of how the research developed over time. On the one hand, if you take
several years to choose, several other people may have had the same idea in the meantime. Include
any studies contrary to your point of view. 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 if you discover new
keywords in the process of your literature search. How to Integrate Critical Voice into Your
Literature Review (Video) Look at the topic sentences of each paragraph. It is often written as part
of a dissertation, thesis, research paper, or proposal.