The Basics of Literature Reviews

What is a literature review? “A literature review surveys scholarly articles, books and other sources (e.g. dissertations, conference proceedings) relevant to a particular issue, area of research, or theory, providing a description, summary, and critical evaluation of each work.” (Lyons, 2005). The point of a literature review is to inform the reader about your area of study and to give context for how your research furthers existing knowledge. A literature review is not the same as a book report! Your review should not just be a list of citations or summaries of articles.

Why conduct a literature review? A literature review will help you determine if your research is actually needed – has the problem been studied before? Does it need to be replicated? A literature review will also give you background on your research, such as the pre-eminent scholars in the field or major previous advancements

Outline of review process Define your topic – What topic or field is being examined? What are its component issues? Search the literature – Find literature relevant to your area of study and problem Evaluate the data – Determine which literature is significant to the field or to your area of study Analyze and interpret – Discuss the findings and conclusions of pertinent literature (Lyons, 2005).

Define your topic Pick a topic you are interested in! If you are not interested, it will be difficult to stay motivated Pick something not too broad but not too narrow. “Type 2 Diabetes” will return too many results. “Type 2 Diabetes in obese Irish men over 80 with comorbid schizophrenia” will return too few results. Don’t be afraid to refine your topic based on your initial results

Search the literature Perform a preliminary search using basic keywords to give you an idea of the scope of existing literature If your topic has already been explored in depth, now is the time to pick another topic. If there is some research, you can refine your topic or see if there are any important replication studies that need to be done. From your initial search, develop a list of keywords and subject headings that relate to your topic. See our tutorial on the Basics of PubMed to learn more about subject headings.

Where to search Search across multiple databases and information resources! Don’t just rely on PubMed. Depending on your topic, the library generally recommends searching PubMed, Cochrane Library, CINAHL, TripPro, Google Scholar, and ClinicalTrials.gov For topics on education, try ERIC (Educational Resources Information Center) For topics on psychiatry or psychology, try PsycINFO For topics on osteopathic manipulation or practice, use PubMed. You may also try OSTMED.DR (Osteopathic Medicine Digital Repository) although it is not updated frequently. Your librarians have lots of resources for various topics – get in touch with them for the most recent list of resources

Selecting literature Start by reading abstracts of your top papers. Make sure that all papers chosen are from peer-reviewed publications. In theory, your goal is to read every source relevant to your topic. In practice, that is impossible – your goal instead should be to read the most relevant and significant works. You can’t decide what is relevant until you know what is out there! After you have read around ten to twenty articles, you should start to see themes in the literature. As you read, think about your topic and start to make decisions on what is relevant and what is not.

Questions to consider as you read What do we already know? What are the main theories or findings? Where are the gaps in knowledge? What evidence is lacking, inconclusive, contradictory or too limited? What contribution can my study be expected to make?

Analyze & interpret We recommend you take notes as you read through each paper so you can remember each paper later The notes should include: Topic of the study Research design and methods Results Anything notable As you read, you can group papers based on common themes based on your notes

Writing the literature review Your literature review should explain why the topic is important and what you are going to do. Group research studies and other types of literature according to theme. The more space you devote to something, the more important it is. You don't need to summarize each article, but just cover main findings and conclusions and how they relate to the overall body of knowledge. Offer your own interpretations of what the literature means and what research is needed.

How do I write a literature review? The best way to find out how to write literature reviews is to read lots of published literature reviews. The more papers you read, the more you’ll get an idea of the style of literature reviews in your field. Literature reviews should generally follow the layout of a paper, with an introduction, major themes supported by sources, and a conclusion.

Be accurate and thorough Your review acts as a guide of your topic for others who may not know about the topic being studied. It should be professional and clear, and free of grammar or spelling errors. Define abbreviations the first time you use them, and then use the abbreviation consistently through the rest of the paper. Citations are incredibly important! Use the citation style of the journal or the style your instructor chooses. Use the same citation style for the entire paper. If Paper A’s literature review cites interesting findings from Paper B & C, you must find, read, and cite Paper B and Paper C. You may not cite Paper A to indirectly cite Papers B & C. We recommend using a citation manager like Zotero or Mendeley to help organize your citations.

Citation managers Citation managers (also called reference managers or bibliographic managers) are software designed to help scholars save, organize, and cite references. Citation managers allow you to import references from articles or databases, automatically create bibliographies based on what you have imported, and more. The most popular citation managers are EndNote, Meneley, RefWorks, and Zotero. PNWU recommends Zotero and Mendeley since they are free to use. Learn more about Zotero Learn more about Mendeley

References Lyons, K. (2005). UCSC Library - Write a Literature Review. Retrieved 12/01/2017, from http://library.ucsc.edu/ref/howto/literaturereview.html Flynn, D. How to Write A Literature Review [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from medlib.bu.edu/training/gms/modules/litReview/litReviewPres.ppt.