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What is a literature review?

A literature review is an integrated analysis -- not just a summary-- of scholarly writings and other relevant evidence related directly to your research question.  That is, it represents a synthesis of the evidence that provides background information on your topic and shows a association between the evidence and your research question.

A literature review may be a stand alone work or the introduction to a larger research paper, depending on the assignment.  Rely heavily on the guidelines your instructor has given you.

Why is it important?

A literature review is important because it:

• Explains the background of research on a topic.
• Demonstrates why a topic is significant to a subject area.
• Discovers relationships between research studies/ideas.
• Identifies major themes, concepts, and researchers on a topic.
• Identifies critical gaps and points of disagreement.
• Discusses further research questions that logically come out of the previous studies.

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1. Choose a topic. Define your research question.

Your literature review should be guided by your central research question.  The literature represents background and research developments related to a specific research question, interpreted and analyzed by you in a synthesized way.

• Make sure your research question is not too broad or too narrow.  Is it manageable?
• Begin writing down terms that are related to your question. These will be useful for searches later.
• If you have the opportunity, discuss your topic with your professor and your class mates.

2. Decide on the scope of your review

How many studies do you need to look at? How comprehensive should it be? How many years should it cover? 

• This may depend on your assignment.  How many sources does the assignment require?

3. Select the databases you will use to conduct your searches.

Make a list of the databases you will search. 

Where to find databases:

• use the tabs on this guide
• Find other databases in the Nursing Information Resources web page
• More on the Medical Library web page
• ... and more on the Yale University Library web page

4. Conduct your searches to find the evidence. Keep track of your searches.

• Use the key words in your question, as well as synonyms for those words, as terms in your search. Use the database tutorials for help.
• Save the searches in the databases. This saves time when you want to redo, or modify, the searches. It is also helpful to use as a guide is the searches are not finding any useful results.
• Review the abstracts of research studies carefully. This will save you time.
• Use the bibliographies and references of research studies you find to locate others.
• Check with your professor, or a subject expert in the field, if you are missing any key works in the field.
• Ask your librarian for help at any time.
• Use a citation manager, such as EndNote as the repository for your citations. See the EndNote tutorials for help.

Review the literature

Some questions to help you analyze the research:

• What was the research question of the study you are reviewing? What were the authors trying to discover?
• Was the research funded by a source that could influence the findings?
• What were the research methodologies? Analyze its literature review, the samples and variables used, the results, and the conclusions.
• Does the research seem to be complete? Could it have been conducted more soundly? What further questions does it raise?
• If there are conflicting studies, why do you think that is?
• How are the authors viewed in the field? Has this study been cited? If so, how has it been analyzed?

Tips: 

• Review the abstracts carefully.  
• Keep careful notes so that you may track your thought processes during the research process.
• Create a matrix of the studies for easy analysis, and synthesis, across all of the studies.
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Literature Review - what is a Literature Review, why it is important and how it is done

What are literature reviews, goals of literature reviews, types of literature reviews, about this guide/licence.

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 What is a literature review? "A literature review is an account of what has been published on a topic by accredited scholars and researchers. In writing the literature review, your purpose is to convey to your reader what knowledge and ideas have been established on a topic, and what their strengths and weaknesses are. As a piece of writing, the literature review must be defined by a guiding concept (e.g., your research objective, the problem or issue you are discussing, or your argumentative thesis). It is not just a descriptive list of the material available, or a set of summaries. " - Quote from Taylor, D. (n.d) "The literature review: A few tips on conducting it"

Source NC State University Libraries. This video is published under a Creative Commons 3.0 BY-NC-SA US license.

What are the goals of creating a Literature Review?

• To develop a theory or evaluate an existing theory
• To summarize the historical or existing state of a research topic
• Identify a problem in a field of research 

- Baumeister, R.F. & Leary, M.R. (1997). "Writing narrative literature reviews," Review of General Psychology , 1(3), 311-320.

When do you need to write a Literature Review?

• When writing a prospectus or a thesis/dissertation
• When writing a research paper
• When writing a grant proposal

In all these cases you need to dedicate a chapter in these works to showcase what have been written about your research topic and to point out how your own research will shed a new light into these body of scholarship.

Literature reviews are also written as standalone articles as a way to survey a particular research topic in-depth. This type of literature reviews look at a topic from a historical perspective to see how the understanding of the topic have change through time.

What kinds of literature reviews are written?

• Narrative Review: The purpose of this type of review is to describe the current state of the research on a specific topic/research and to offer a critical analysis of the literature reviewed. Studies are grouped by research/theoretical categories, and themes and trends, strengths and weakness, and gaps are identified. The review ends with a conclusion section which summarizes the findings regarding the state of the research of the specific study, the gaps identify and if applicable, explains how the author's research will address gaps identify in the review and expand the knowledge on the topic reviewed.
• Book review essays/ Historiographical review essays : This is a type of review that focus on a small set of research books on a particular topic " to locate these books within current scholarship, critical methodologies, and approaches" in the field. - LARR
• Systematic review : "The authors of a systematic review use a specific procedure to search the research literature, select the studies to include in their review, and critically evaluate the studies they find." (p. 139). Nelson, L.K. (2013). Research in Communication Sciences and Disorders . San Diego, CA: Plural Publishing.
• Meta-analysis : "Meta-analysis is a method of reviewing research findings in a quantitative fashion by transforming the data from individual studies into what is called an effect size and then pooling and analyzing this information. The basic goal in meta-analysis is to explain why different outcomes have occurred in different studies." (p. 197). Roberts, M.C. & Ilardi, S.S. (2003). Handbook of Research Methods in Clinical Psychology . Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub.
• Meta-synthesis : "Qualitative meta-synthesis is a type of qualitative study that uses as data the findings from other qualitative studies linked by the same or related topic." (p.312). Zimmer, L. (2006). "Qualitative meta-synthesis: A question of dialoguing with texts," Journal of Advanced Nursing , 53(3), 311-318.

Guide adapted from "Literature Review" , a guide developed by Marisol Ramos used under CC BY 4.0 /modified from original.

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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.

Citation Styles

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What is a Lit Review?

How to write a lit review.

• Video Introduction to Lit Reviews

Main Objectives

Examples of lit reviews, additional resources.

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What is a literature review?

• Either a complete piece of writing unto itself or a section of a larger piece of writing like a book or article
• A thorough and critical look at the information and perspectives that other experts and scholars have written about a specific topic
• A way to give historical perspective on an issue and show how other researchers have addressed a problem
• An analysis of sources based on your own perspective on the topic
• Based on the most pertinent and significant research conducted in the field, both new and old

• A descriptive list or collection of summaries of other research without synthesis or analysis
• An annotated bibliography
• A literary review (a brief, critical discussion about the merits and weaknesses of a literary work such as a play, novel or a book of poems)
• Exhaustive; the objective is not to list as many relevant books, articles, reports as possible
• To convey to your reader what knowledge and ideas have been established on a topic
• To explain what the strengths and weaknesses of that knowledge and those ideas might be
• To learn how others have defined and measured key concepts    
• To keep the writer/reader up to date with current developments and historical trends in a particular field or discipline
• To establish context for the argument explored in the rest of a paper
• To provide evidence that may be used to support your own findings
• To demonstrate your understanding and your ability to critically evaluate research in the field
• To suggest previously unused or underused methodologies, designs, and quantitative and qualitative strategies
• To identify gaps in previous studies and flawed methodologies and/or theoretical approaches in order to avoid replication of mistakes
• To help the researcher avoid repetition of earlier research
• To suggest unexplored populations
• To determine whether past studies agree or disagree and identify strengths and weaknesses on both sides of a controversy in the literature

• Choose a topic that is interesting to you; this makes the research and writing process more enjoyable and rewarding.
• For a literature review, you'll also want to make sure that the topic you choose is one that other researchers have explored before so that you'll be able to find plenty of relevant sources to review.

• Your research doesn't need to be exhaustive. Pay careful attention to bibliographies. Focus on the most frequently cited literature about your topic and literature from the best known scholars in your field. Ask yourself: "Does this source make a significant contribution to the understanding of my topic?"
• Reading other literature reviews from your field may help you get ideas for themes to look for in your research. You can usually find some of these through the library databases by adding literature review as a keyword in your search.
• Start with the most recent publications and work backwards. This way, you ensure you have the most current information, and it becomes easier to identify the most seminal earlier sources by reviewing the material that current researchers are citing.

The organization of your lit review should be determined based on what you'd like to highlight from your research. Here are a few suggestions:

• Chronology : Discuss literature in chronological order of its writing/publication to demonstrate a change in trends over time or to detail a history of controversy in the field or of developments in the understanding of your topic.  
• Theme: Group your sources by subject or theme to show the variety of angles from which your topic has been studied. This works well if, for example, your goal is to identify an angle or subtopic that has so far been overlooked by researchers.  
• Methodology: Grouping your sources by methodology (for example, dividing the literature into qualitative vs. quantitative studies or grouping sources according to the populations studied) is useful for illustrating an overlooked population, an unused or underused methodology, or a flawed experimental technique.

• Be selective. Highlight only the most important and relevant points from a source in your review.
• Use quotes sparingly. Short quotes can help to emphasize a point, but thorough analysis of language from each source is generally unnecessary in a literature review.
• Synthesize your sources. Your goal is not to make a list of summaries of each source but to show how the sources relate to one another and to your own work.
• Make sure that your own voice and perspective remains front and center. Don't rely too heavily on summary or paraphrasing. For each source, draw a conclusion about how it relates to your own work or to the other literature on your topic.
• Be objective. When you identify a disagreement in the literature, be sure to represent both sides. Don't exclude a source simply on the basis that it does not support your own research hypothesis.
• At the end of your lit review, make suggestions for future research. What subjects, populations, methodologies, or theoretical lenses warrant further exploration? What common flaws or biases did you identify that could be corrected in future studies?

• Double check that you've correctly cited each of the sources you've used in the citation style requested by your professor (APA, MLA, etc.) and that your lit review is formatted according to the guidelines for that style.

Your literature review should:

• Be focused on and organized around your topic.
• Synthesize your research into a summary of what is and is not known about your topic.
• Identify any gaps or areas of controversy in the literature related to your topic.
• Suggest questions that require further research.
• Have your voice and perspective at the forefront rather than merely summarizing others' work.
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Literature reviews

Literature reviews are not easy to write. They are complex and there are many things to consider. But if you approach them methodically, they will become easier with practice.

A literature review is the presentation, classification and evaluation of what other researchers have written on a particular subject. It is not simply a “shopping list” of what others have said, however. It is organised according to your research objective, research question , and/or the problem/issue you wish to address . With the research objective, the literature review forms a focused and structured outline of what others have done in the area that you are concerned with investigating.

North Carolina State University Libraries. (July, 2009). Literature reviews: An overview for graduate students.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2d7y_r65HU

Why do a literature review?

Surveying and evaluating the literature that has already been written on a subject provides context for your own research. It enables you to clarify and sharpen your own research focus and methodology . Evaluating each publication by reviewing it can also clarify what has been established with a degree of certainty, and what is considered acceptable research work in a given field of study.

Literature reviews are essential in higher degree by research work (i.e., PhDs and Masters thesis writing). But occasionally you will have to ‘review the literature’ when writing an undergraduate essay. While the expectations and level of sophistication differs in these cases, the process is the same.

See more about writing a literature review here . Download more information in our helpsheet, Literature Reviews: Detailed.

What is literature?

Primary, secondary and tertiary sources.

‘ Literature’ refers to all the texts and works concerning a particular topic. If you’ve been asked to do a literature review on the history of the Aztecs, the ‘literature’ refers to any books, journals, conference papers, letters or documents or other pieces work about (or by) the Aztecs. Literature is generally divided into primary, secondary and tertiary sources.

A primary source about the Aztecs would be a first-hand report of an encounter with them, or any work by an Aztec. Primary sources are always considered the strongest means of evidence. In the university context, a primary source is also a seminal paper by an author that outlines for the first time a key concept, theory or methodology that is later used by other researchers. It’s the first time something important is published.

Secondary sources evaluate or discuss primary sources. A secondary source is based on the work of another person and is usually an analysis of the original source. It’s important to not take any single secondary source as a complete representation as they might be  unsubtle, misinformed, or wrong. Secondary sources can be valuable in terms of determining the degree of influence of primary source material, but when using secondary sources read widely and read critically.

Tertiary sources collate a broad array of information on a topic and compiles it in one location. A text book, for example, is a tertiary source, as it takes a lot of information within a field and presents it conveniently in one document. Tertiary sources can be useful in working out the ‘lay of the land’ in terms of a field of study. It’s good to start out with tertiary sources, but quickly drill down to primary and secondary sources when you are clear about the focus of your research.

How many references are needed?

There is no guide for how many sources you might need to consult when doing a literature review. It depends on your level of study and the topic itself. A “hot” topic in an area of cancer research for a PhD student might require keeping abreast of hundreds of research publications a week. A “cold” topic such as St Anselm’s third version of the ontological argument for God’s existence, might have a very limited range of research publications worldwide, and no recent publications. For a “luke-warm” topic there is likely to be dozens of useful recent research papers that you need to read.

The following is a general guide only and you should always check with your lecturer first.

• Undergraduate review: 5-20 titles depending on level
• Honours dissertation: 20+ titles
• Masters thesis: 40+ titles
• Doctoral thesis: 50+ titles

What are you aiming for?

If you are writing a thesis or dissertation, the aim of writing a literature review is to understand the context of your own research by surveying and evaluating what has already been written on the topic. Surveying the literature can enable you to clarify your own focus and methodology. Evaluating each publication can also clarify what are considered valid and important areas in your field of study.

Crucially, a literature review helps to establish the research gaps in a particular area and, in so doing, outlines areas that require further research and investigation. When reviewing literature, you refer to what others have written or done on a topic and compare and contrast the work of others. Your aim is to find a gap: i.e., what others have done and what needs to be done in your particular area of study. The literature review puts this gap into focus. Filling the gap is what you then go on and do in your research. For more on finding the Gap , see here .

Narrowing the focus of the literature review is vital. It is not easy to find a gap in a research area such as: Computer crime . The area is too vast. However, if you were reviewing literature on Embezzlement via the use of targeted malware attacks on global supply chains of conglomerates in the footwear and clothing industry, you might have more luck. This is because your narrow area will have a limited range of research papers to investigate, and there are more likely to be discernible gaps. In general, being narrowly focussed is a good thing for research projects and literature reviews.

Structuring a review

The structure of a literature review is very similar to an essay with an Introduction, Body and Conclusion. However, there is more detail in terms of one’s analysis of the literature compared to a standard essay. There is also important links between what is set up in the Introduction and what is delivered in the Body. Note that for an undergraduate literature review not everything listed here is expected.

The Introduction

There are several distinct steps here. The Introduction:

• Outlines the general topic or issue, setting up the context for the review
• Narrows down to the specific area that you are interested in reviewing
• Isolates what has been published on this topic before and what needs further investigation, i.e., the ‘ gap’ in research
• States the research question or hypothesis(es)
• Articulates a thesis statement or argument to frame the discussion
• Provides an outline of the parts of the review that are to follow.

Optionally the Introduction can also:

• Present reasons for reviewing the literature on this topic, outlining what criteria will be used to analyse and compare the literature
• Provide a justification for the research in terms of why it is needed

The Body is where the detailed reviewing of literature occurs.  There are several considerations:

• Each article or source should be summarised briefly with details highlighted depending on what you want to emphasise. It’s important to emphasise key ideas related to your topic and not dwell on less significant or tangential discussion points.
• Paragraphs need to be set out in a logical order and avoid repetition, and inadequate analysis (equally one cannot cover everything). There is always a danger of going “off topic” in a literature review. This also should be avoided.
• There should be a progressive narrowing of the review sections, moving from wider, more general discussions to more specific technical details and towards subtle refinements in the argument being made. There are a number of ways this can be done.
• One has to ensure a fair review in the case of contrary perspectives to those being advanced by the writer. Each perspective on the topic being covered needs a fair hearing, and needs to be compared and contrasted with more established perspectives.
• Literature should be grouped in clear ways (see below, ‘Reporting on literature’). This can be done by combining qualitative or quantitative methodological approaches , clustering the findings and conclusions reached by authors,  sorting via a chronological treatment (earlier to later), or by means of grouping differences in argumentation. One way of doing this is via a writing taxonomy (see below).
• Above all else, a clear argument needs to be made by the reviewer themselves in light of the literature being discussed. A literature review is never adequate if it is merely an overview of other perspectives.  Importantly, a literature review is not simply a “shopping list” of theories or approaches. In reviewing the literature one is looking to articulate and expose your response to the research gap . The aim of it is to find your “eye in the storm” of published information.

Download our helpsheet on the topic, Literature Review: Structure.

The Conclusion

Typically, the Conclusion of a literature review should:

• Summarise the significance and contributions of the literature to your overall topic
• Evaluate the general consensus, but include any limitations or flaws in any research papers
• Articulate how your analysis of the literature exposes a research gap that is worthy of further investigation in the following pages (e.g., in a research thesis)
• Include a general comment on your topic and the importance/relevance to your discipline area.

Writing it up

To start with, you need to do research — a lot of it. You have to cover the  topic you have chosen extensively, and be succinct and yet comprehensive (a difficult balancing act). Find any and all pertinent literature on the topic. Start with tertiary literature to find a broad topic and then drill down to secondary and primary literature.

While you need to read widely it doesn’t mean that you have to use every document ever written in your area (that is not possible anyway). But you need to make sure that you give an accurate portrayal of the literature in the field in the area you have chosen to investigate. This will take some time. The quantity you’ll be required to read, and the sophistication of the literature review expected, will depend on your year level and the degree program you are undertaking.

Organise the literature you’ve found, either chronologically or based on similar views or approaches. Create a writing taxonomy (see below). This could serve as a basic plan for the overall literature review. At the end of that, you should know what each paragraph will be about and what order they will go in.

A literature review must be written in complete sentences . Provide in-text and reference list citations for all the articles you’ve used just as you would in an essay.

Developing a writing taxonomy

Designing an outline that gives shape to your literature review can help in the process of writing one. Attempts have been made to develop writing taxonomies (Rochecouste, 2005). A good way to think of this is as a series of nested categories with ‘vertical’ and ‘horizontal’ axes. An example of an outline on the topic of Euthanasia is provided below.

The first box represents the Introduction that sets the scene. The last box sums up the debates. The Body content is in the boxes in-between. Of course, this is simple for the purposes of elucidation.

The ‘vertical’ categories (the “outer” boxes) are: a) Literature supporting euthanasia, b) Literature in opposition to euthanasia, and c) Literature supportive/against euthanasia, but with reservations. They are ‘vertical’ because they add new content ideas to advance the discussion. The ‘horizontal’ categories (the “inner” boxes) are various arguments or evidence-based considerations for each position. They are ‘horizontal’ as they essentially “fill out” examples of the positions articulated in the vertical boxes. You now have the beginnings of a literature review! It is merely a matter of filling in the details.

Of course, this kind of outline can be expanded infinitely, as needed depending on the complexity of the review.

Download our helpsheet on the topic, Literature Review: Planning .

Reporting on literature

There are a number of ways to group literature and report on it when writing a literature review. It’s essential to do this. Writing without structure just leads to a big mess of ideas.

1. Grouping literature

Group literature in different ways. (Notice the difference in tense in the examples below):

• Difference of approach: ‘While Jones (2002) argues … Smith (1999 )… claims that …’
• From distantly to closely related: ‘Smith (1999) and Jones (2001) both showed that … However, Hutchison (2002) demonstrated that …’.
• Chronologically: ‘Early marketing theory owes its development to … Many studies contributed to … for example, Jones and Smith (1986). Hunt (1987) was recognised for … but later Jamison (1999) showed that..’.

2. Reporting information

Use different ways of reporting on data, so that your literature review does  not sound monotonous:

• Information prominent: ‘Research indicates that … (Becker, 1997, p. 9) (present tense)
• Weak author prominent: ‘Research has shown/ Some have argued that  … (Becker, 1997, p. 9). (present perfect tense)
• Author prominent: ‘Becker (1997, p. 9) argues that … (present tense).

3. Citing information using Critical Review Language

Make use of a variety of different reporting phrases :

• In Becker’s view … (Becker, 1997, p. 9)
• ‘Becker’s point seems to be that … (Becker, 1997, p. 9)
• ‘Becker rejects the idea that… (1997, p. 9)
• ‘Becker questions the idea that… (1997, p. 9)
• ‘Becker investigates the idea that … (1997, p. 9)
• According to Becker … (1997, p. 9)
• ‘ Becker undermines the position that …(1997, p. 9).

Below are some excerpts of literature reviews of varying quality, and an analysis of each.

Smith (1990) conducted an experiment on fear and self-esteem with 150 undergraduates. In the study he tested subject self-esteem and then exposed subjects one at a time to a fear-inducing situation. He found that those with lower self-esteem felt greater fear. Jones and Jones (1982) surveyed elderly residents. The respondents who had the greatest independence, self-esteem and physical health, had the lowest degree of fear of being a victim of crime…DeSallo’s study (1984) of 45 college males found that those who had the greatest self-esteem felt the least degree of fear. Yu (1988) found the same for college females… 

• A list of experiments. It’s merely a shopping list of experiments without analytical depth. “He found … she found…”
• No clear position of the writer (no writers’ voice ).
• The point of the review, the gap, is not clear.
• Lack of subtlety in expression. No use of tentative, modal expressions like ‘seem to indicate’…  There is no appreciation that there are few “hard facts” in academic scholarship.

Example 1 improved

People with greater self-esteem appear to be less fearful. Laboratory studies with college students (DeSallo, 1984; Smith, 1990; Yu, 1988) find a strong negative relationship between self-esteem and fear. The same relationship was found in a survey of elderly people (Jones & Jones, 1982). Only one study contradicted this finding (Johnson, 1985). The contradictory finding may be due to the population used…

• Attempt made to provide analytical balance, comparing one view with others.
• Attempt to draw a conclusion about the data: “This contradictory finding may be due to…” The writer’s voice is emerging.
• Use of modal expressions: ‘appear to be less fearful…’.. ‘may be due to’…
• No clear gap.

The apparent differences between agricultural marketing and business marketing theories may not present a problem because both disciplines examine issues which are likely to require different theories and techniques for analysis (Henderson, 1999). However, concern must be expressed at the failure of researchers to comprehensively examine the marketing strategies undertaken by individual farm businesses. Businesses in the agricultural sector include farmers and other often larger and more sophisticated agribusinesses, such as input suppliers and merchants (Jackson, 2000). Business literature contains published articles examining the marketing strategies of large agribusiness companies; however, l ittle research appears to reach down to the farm business level. (McLeay & Zwart, 1993)

• Research gap is clear ( underlined text)
• Writer’s voice emerges clearly from reviewed text
• The writer is controlling the review for their own research purposes. They use the literature as support for their own perspective that has been drawn from gaps in the research work of others.

For more about literature reviews at postgraduate level, see Writing a Literature Review . Download our related helpsheets:

• Literature Reviews: Basic
• Literature Review: Planning
• Literature Review: Structure
• Literature Reviews: Detailed

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• UConn Library
• Literature Review: The What, Why and How-to Guide
• Introduction

Literature Review: The What, Why and How-to Guide — Introduction

• Getting Started
• How to Pick a Topic
• Strategies to Find Sources
• Evaluating Sources & Lit. Reviews
• Tips for Writing Literature Reviews
• Writing Literature Review: Useful Sites
• Citation Resources
• Other Academic Writings

What are Literature Reviews?

So, what is a literature review? "A literature review is an account of what has been published on a topic by accredited scholars and researchers. In writing the literature review, your purpose is to convey to your reader what knowledge and ideas have been established on a topic, and what their strengths and weaknesses are. As a piece of writing, the literature review must be defined by a guiding concept (e.g., your research objective, the problem or issue you are discussing, or your argumentative thesis). It is not just a descriptive list of the material available, or a set of summaries." Taylor, D.  The literature review: A few tips on conducting it . University of Toronto Health Sciences Writing Centre.

Goals of Literature Reviews

What are the goals of creating a Literature Review?  A literature could be written to accomplish different aims:

• To develop a theory or evaluate an existing theory
• To summarize the historical or existing state of a research topic
• Identify a problem in a field of research 

Baumeister, R. F., & Leary, M. R. (1997). Writing narrative literature reviews .  Review of General Psychology , 1 (3), 311-320.

What kinds of sources require a Literature Review?

• A research paper assigned in a course
• A thesis or dissertation
• A grant proposal
• An article intended for publication in a journal

All these instances require you to collect what has been written about your research topic so that you can demonstrate how your own research sheds new light on the topic.

Types of Literature Reviews

What kinds of literature reviews are written?

Narrative review: The purpose of this type of review is to describe the current state of the research on a specific topic/research and to offer a critical analysis of the literature reviewed. Studies are grouped by research/theoretical categories, and themes and trends, strengths and weakness, and gaps are identified. The review ends with a conclusion section which summarizes the findings regarding the state of the research of the specific study, the gaps identify and if applicable, explains how the author's research will address gaps identify in the review and expand the knowledge on the topic reviewed.

• Example : Predictors and Outcomes of U.S. Quality Maternity Leave: A Review and Conceptual Framework:  10.1177/08948453211037398  

Systematic review : "The authors of a systematic review use a specific procedure to search the research literature, select the studies to include in their review, and critically evaluate the studies they find." (p. 139). Nelson, L. K. (2013). Research in Communication Sciences and Disorders . Plural Publishing.

• Example : The effect of leave policies on increasing fertility: a systematic review:  10.1057/s41599-022-01270-w

Meta-analysis : "Meta-analysis is a method of reviewing research findings in a quantitative fashion by transforming the data from individual studies into what is called an effect size and then pooling and analyzing this information. The basic goal in meta-analysis is to explain why different outcomes have occurred in different studies." (p. 197). Roberts, M. C., & Ilardi, S. S. (2003). Handbook of Research Methods in Clinical Psychology . Blackwell Publishing.

• Example : Employment Instability and Fertility in Europe: A Meta-Analysis:  10.1215/00703370-9164737

Meta-synthesis : "Qualitative meta-synthesis is a type of qualitative study that uses as data the findings from other qualitative studies linked by the same or related topic." (p.312). Zimmer, L. (2006). Qualitative meta-synthesis: A question of dialoguing with texts .  Journal of Advanced Nursing , 53 (3), 311-318.

• Example : Women’s perspectives on career successes and barriers: A qualitative meta-synthesis:  10.1177/05390184221113735

Literature Reviews in the Health Sciences

• UConn Health subject guide on systematic reviews Explanation of the different review types used in health sciences literature as well as tools to help you find the right review type
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• Next: How to Pick a Topic >>
• Last Updated: Sep 21, 2022 2:16 PM
• URL: https://guides.lib.uconn.edu/literaturereview