the functions of the literature review

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• Published: 28 August 2024

A systematic review and Bayesian meta-analysis provide evidence for an effect of acute physical activity on cognition in young adults

• Jordan Garrett   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-5893-5904 1 , 2 ,
• Carly Chak 1 , 2 ,
• Tom Bullock 1 , 2 &
• Barry Giesbrecht   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-1976-1251 1 , 2  

Communications Psychology volume  2 , Article number:  82 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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• Cognitive neuroscience
• Human behaviour

Physical exercise is a potential intervention for enhancing cognitive function across the lifespan. However, while studies employing long-term exercise interventions consistently show positive effects on cognition, studies using single acute bouts have produced mixed results. Here, a systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted to determine the impact of acute exercise on cognitive task performance in healthy young adults. A Bayesian hierarchical model quantified probabilistic evidence for a modulatory relationship by synthesizing 651 effect sizes from 113 studies from PsychInfo and Google Scholar representing 4,390 participants. Publication bias was mitigated using the trim-and-fill method. Acute exercise was found to have a small beneficial effect on cognition ( g  = 0.13 ± 0.04; BF = 3.67) and decrease reaction time. A meta-analysis restricted to executive function tasks revealed improvements in working memory and inhibition. Meta-analytic estimates were consistent across multiple priors and likelihood functions. Physical activities were categorized based on exercise type (e.g., cycling) because many activities have aerobic and anaerobic components, but this approach may limit comparison to studies that categorize activities based on metabolic demands. The current study provides an updated synthesis of the existing literature and insights into the robustness of acute exercise-induced effects on cognition. Funding provided by the United States Army Research Office.

Introduction

A single bout of exercise induces a cascade of neuromodulatory changes that influence multiple brain systems 1 , 2 . This includes an increase in the synthesis of neurotransmitters (e.g., acetylcholine, dopamine, GABA, glutamate) and neurotrophic factors (e.g., BDNF), which can occur in a brain-region-specific manner (see ref. 1 for review). Given these impacts on the brain, it would be reasonable to hypothesize that single brief bouts of exercise are associated with changes in performance across a range of cognitive domains. Consistent with this hypothesis, there is abundant evidence that attention 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , working memory 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , decision making 12 , 13 , and cognitive control 14 , 15 are facilitated by brief bouts of physical exercise. However, there is also evidence suggesting that exercise has little or no effect on cognitive task performance. For instance, Komiyama et al. 16 observed no difference in accuracy on a spatial delayed response task between exercise and rest conditions. Further, working memory performance has been shown to remain unchanged either during or after a single bout of exercise 6 . The discrepant pattern of results in the literature investigating the link between exercise and performance on cognitive tasks is surprising given the consistent and robust physiological effects of even brief bouts of physical activity. However, it is unclear whether this limited impact of exercise on performance reflects the true state of affairs or whether the apparent lack of robust influence is due to vast empirical discrepancies across studies in the literature. Studying the impact of single exercise sessions on cognition can provide insight into how changes in our body’s physiological state impact behavior. This understanding can then guide the creation of more effective longer-term exercise interventions, which essentially involve regularly repeating brief exercise sessions over an extended period.

Meta-analytic techniques are a set of powerful tools that can expose dominant trends within a methodologically heterogeneous literature. There is a consensus amongst narrative reviews and previous meta-analyses that an acute bout of exercise has a small positive influence on behavioral performance 1 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 . The nature of this effect is moderated by exercise protocol, cognitive tasks, and participant characteristics. For instance, Lambourne & Tomporowski 20 observed that task performance during exercise was dependent on exercise modality, the type of cognitive task, and when it was completed relative to exercise onset. Similarly, post-exercise performance was moderated by exercise modality and the type of cognitive task. Chang et al. 18 reported that post-exercise cognitive performance was influenced by exercise intensity, duration, and the time of cognitive test relative to exercise cessation. Interestingly, the authors found that study sample age was a significant moderator, where larger positive effects were found for high school (14–17 years), adult (31–60 years), and older adult (>60 years) samples compared to elementary (6–13 years) and young adult (18–30 years) samples. Multiple meta-analyses have observed that the effect of exercise is dependent on cognitive domain, with measures of executive function, attention, crystallized intelligence, and information processing speed showing the largest gains 18 , 19 , 24 , 25 , 26 . Further, there is evidence that exercise has a differential influence on the speed and accuracy of cognitive processes. McMorris et al. 21 observed that acute, intermediate exercise facilitated response times on working memory tasks, while accuracy was compromised. In contrast, exercise has been shown to boost both the accuracy and speed of cognitive control 23 . Altogether, it is important to consider cognitive task, participant, and physical activity characteristics to develop a holistic model of the relationship between exercise and cognition.

While these earlier meta-analyses have provided unique insights into understanding the relationship between acute exercise and cognition, they have two major limitations. First, the most recent holistic quantitative synthesis of the extant literature was published over a decade ago 18 . Meanwhile, the exercise and cognition literature has grown drastically. According to the electronic database Web of Science, almost 6,000 articles associated with the search term “exercise and cognition” have been published since this last holistic meta-analysis. In addition, more recent meta-analyses have primarily focused on executive processes 19 , 22 , 26 , 27 . Thus, previous models may provide an outdated and limited account of exercise-induced influences on other aspects of cognition, such as perception, long-term memory, and learning. Second, previous meta-analytic approaches employed frequentist statistical methods, which are based on a decision threshold rather than a characterization of the relevant evidence. As a result, it is possible that acute exercise and moderator variables are deemed to have a significant influence on task performance despite the fact that there may only be a small degree of probabilistic evidence in favor of this notion. In addition, relying on a decision threshold prevents these models from conveying the likelihood that an exercise protocol elicits a change in cognitive task performance. Past frequentist meta-analytic models also treated heterogeneity parameters as a fixed quantity and utilize only a point estimate, which can lead to an underestimation of the variability either between or within studies 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 . This is especially true when the number of modeled studies is low 32 , 33 , 34 . When considered together, there is a clear need for an updated meta-analysis using an approach that addresses these limitations.

The current study addressed these limitations in two ways. First, a comprehensive literature search was conducted spanning the years 1995–2023. To quantify the influence of exercise on cognition in young healthy adults, the search was limited to non-clinical studies whose subjects were between 18–45 years old. The analysis focused on subjects within this age range since exercise research has predominantly been dedicated toward studying the effects in children and older adults 35 , 36 . Studies were required to be experimental in nature, and consist of both an acute exercise manipulation and cognitive task measurements. A broad range of cognitive domains encompassing tasks probing perception to executive function were included in the meta-analysis. Similarly, a wide range of exercise types and testing contexts were included. For example, traditional laboratory exposures to exercise (e.g., cycling, running) and sport activities in real-world settings were viable candidates for analysis. By casting a wide net, the current study provides a large scope and updated summary of the current state of the exercise and cognition literature.

Second, the current study uses a Bayesian meta-analytic approach to synthesize studies across the acute exercise and cognition literature. The Bayesian approach affords a flexible modeling framework that uses reported effect sizes to characterize the relative evidence in favor of a modulatory account. Inherently, a random effects meta-analytic model is hierarchical in nature, making it well suited for Bayesian methods. When utilized within this statistical framework, priors are placed on parameters at the highest level of the model such as the estimated pooled effect size and measures of heterogeneity. This approach has several advantages compared to its frequentist counterpart. First, the use of priors on heterogeneity parameters can attenuate the underestimation of variation both between and within studies 37 , 38 , leading to a clearer understanding of sources of heterogeneity and an increased precision when estimating the pooled effect size 39 . Furthermore, priors provide additional constraints on low-level parameter estimates and a greater degree of “shrinkage” of outliers towards the overall pooled effect size or mode(s) of grouping variables 39 , 40 . Therefore, a Bayesian meta-analysis is more robust to outliers and can be more conservative when proper priors are employed. Second, the method yields a posterior distribution for all parameter estimates. This grants the capability of directly modeling the degree of uncertainty in heterogeneity estimates 37 . Posterior distributions can be used to compute the probability that an exercise protocol elicits a change in task performance of a given magnitude (e.g., large effect size). Compared to the approximation of p -values and confidence intervals, which require additional assumptions for hierarchical models, calculating the high-density interval (HDI), which indicates the most credible outcomes in the posterior distribution, for complex hierarchical models is seamless 39 . Third, it is possible to incorporate knowledge from previous meta-analyses when constructing prior distributions. This affords the ability to quantitatively compare the observed data to the predictions of previous models.

Considering the results of past meta-analyses, exercise was expected to have a small positive influence on cognition. Cognitive task and exercise characteristics were anticipated to moderate this relationship, as evidenced by nonzero parameter estimates, reflecting the selective nature of exercise-induced effects. Model comparisons were conducted to evaluate how moderator inclusion improved predictive performance, and robustness of parameter estimates were determined by employing multiple priors and likelihood functions.

Literature search

Studies investigating the impact of an acute bout of exercise on cognition were obtained through searches of the electronic databases PsychInfo and Google Scholar according to the PRISMA guidelines 41 . On 09 September 2023, databases were queried using a search string that combined the following physical activity and cognitive domain keywords: [“exercise” OR “physical activity” OR “physical exertion” OR “physical fatigue”] AND [“perception” OR “attention” OR “working memory” OR “executive function” OR “memory” OR “decision making” OR “motor skill” OR “skill acquisition” OR “language” OR “reasoning”]. For the PsychInfo search, the filters “journal article”, “English”, “empirical study”, “human”, and “peer reviewed” were applied. Search results were limited to studies published between 1995 and 2023 and whose subjects were between 18 and 45 years of age. Note, this literature search and analysis were not preregistered, nor was a review protocol prepared prior to the literature search.

Eligibility criteria

Studies were deemed eligible for inclusion in the meta-analysis if they met all of the following criteria: assessed the influence of an acute bout of exercise on cognition, compared the effects of exercise with an active and/or passive control group(s), utilized cognitive tasks that measured reaction time (RT) and/or accuracy, tested cognition either during, pre-, or post-exercise and consisted of cognitively normal subjects. Note, an acute bout was defined as an instance of physical activity that occurred within a single 24-hour period 18 . Two researchers independently screened records based on their title, abstract, and full text. In the case of discrepancies, a third researcher resolved them by reading the full-text.

Data extraction and coding

Information concerning experimental design and procedures, exercise details (i.e., type, intensity, duration), and sample characteristics were extracted from the final list of studies by a single researcher. Means and standard deviations of accuracy and/or RT measures on all cognitive tasks were inserted into an electronic spreadsheet for the calculation of effect sizes. The primary outcome measures for each domain were inserted separately if a task assessed multiple cognitive domains. Regarding studies that probed cognition at multiple time points during or post-exercise, measures for each time point were also recorded separately. If the statistics necessary for calculating effect sizes were not reported in the full-text of the article, the authors were contacted and asked to provide them.

All effect sizes were categorized into one of seven cognitive domains that were generally based on the DSM-5 42 : executive function, information processing, perception, attention, learning, motor skills, and memory. The classification criteria used for categorizing a cognitive task into a domain is provided in the Supplementary Table  1 . To account for variability in the metric used to measure exercise intensity across studies (e.g., ventilatory threshold, heart rate), each intensity was labeled as either light, moderate, or vigorous according to the American College of Sports Medicine guidelines 43 . Exercise durations were grouped into one of five time bins: ≤16 minutes, 20–27 minutes, 30–35 minutes, 40–45 minutes, ≥60 minutes. In the event that a study did not provide the exercise duration, its time bin was labeled as “not provided”. Exercise types were based on the modality reported in each study, yielding the following categorizations: cycling, high intensity interval training (HIIT), running, walking, circuit training, resistance exercise, and sports activity. The latter category encompassed studies that used sports-related exercises that did not fit into the other labels, such as rock climbing or soccer. The time at which cognitive task performance was evaluated relative to exercise was categorized as either during exercise or 0, 15, 20–75, and ≥180 minutes after cessation. Lastly, effect sizes were also coded according to task performance dependent measures (i.e., RT vs accuracy). Note, the levels of each categorical moderator were chosen with the intention of achieving a balance between specificity and statistical power to yield reliable estimates that can inform the design of future exercise studies.

Calculating effect sizes

Cohen’s d effect sizes were calculated for studies that tested cognition pre-/post-exercise without a control condition by dividing the mean change in performance by the standard deviation of the pre-test. If the study included a control group (e.g., rest), the mean change of the control condition was subtracted from the mean change of the exercise condition and divided by the pooled standard deviation of pretest scores 20 , 44 . For studies that tested cognition during, or only after exercise, the mean of the control condition was subtracted from the mean of the exercise condition and divided by the standard deviation of the control condition 21 . All effect sizes were converted into the bias-corrected standardized mean difference, Hedge’s g , by multiplying them by the correction factor \({{\rm{J}}}=1-\frac{3}{4{df}-1}\) where df is the degrees of freedom 45 . The sign of effect sizes for RT and error were reversed to reflect a positive influence of exercise on cognitive task performance. Once effect sizes were extracted from each study, inspection of a funnel plot and Egger’s regression test were conducted to assess the risk of publication bias.

Bayesian hierarchical modeling

The overall effect of exercise on cognition was assessed using a Bayesian hierarchical model 46 , 47 , which was implemented through the R package brms 48 . In the first level of the model, a study’s observed effect size(s) \({\hat{{{\rm{\theta }}}}}_{{ik}}\) was assumed to be an estimate of the true effect size \({{{\rm{\theta }}}}_{k}\) . The observed effect(s) \({\hat{\theta }}_{{ik}}\) were modeled as being sampled from a normally distributed population underlying study k with a mean equivalent to the true effect and a variance of \({{{\rm{\sigma }}}}_{k}^{2}\) . In the second level of the model, the true effect size \({\theta }_{k}\) was assumed to have been drawn from an overarching distribution whose mean represented the overall pooled effect \({{\rm{\mu }}}\) , and whose variance depicted the degree of between-study heterogeneity \({\tau }^{2}\) . The final level of the model contained weakly informative priors. A standard normal prior was used for the pooled effect, while the prior for \({\tau }^{2}\) was a Half-Cauchy distribution with location and scale parameters set to 0 and 0.5, respectively.

Following the main meta-analysis, subgroup analyses were conducted to determine potential moderators of the relationship between exercise and cognitive task performance. More specifically, we analyzed the influence of the following primary moderators: cognitive domain, time of cognitive test relative to exercise, task outcome measure, exercise intensity, duration, and type. The following secondary moderators were also analyzed to determine the influence of study and participant characteristics on the overall pooled effect size: average sample age, body mass index (BMI kg/m 2 ), height (cm), weight (kg), VO2 max (ml/kg/min), percentage of female participants, within- vs between-study design, and publication year. With the exception of publication year and the percentage of female participants, all secondary moderators were mean centered for interpretability. A standard normal distribution was used as a weakly informative prior for the difference in effect sizes between subgroups. When reporting model parameter estimates, we use the [mode ± standard deviation] and the 89% HDI of posterior distribution.

Statistical inference

For all estimated effect sizes, Bayes Factors (BFs) were used to determine the degree of evidence in favor of a difference from zero. BFs were approximated using the reciprocal of the Savage-Dickey density ratio, which was implemented using the function bayesfactor_parameters from the bayestestR package 49 . This method involves dividing the height of the prior distribution for the null value by the height of the posterior distribution at the same value, and represents the credibility of the null value for a parameter once the data has been taken into consideration. BFs were also used to ascertain the predictive performance of subgroup models. After each model was compared to a null counterpart (i.e., moderator excluded) using the function bayesfactor_models , an inclusion BF ( bayesfactor_inclusion ) was estimated to determine if including a moderator improved predictive power 50 . To estimate stable BFs, a large number of sampling iterations (10,000) and warmup samples (2000) were used for each of four chains when estimating model parameters 51 . BFs were interpreted following the guidelines proposed by Jeffreys 52 . A BF between 1 and 3 indicates “anecdotal” evidence for the alternative hypothesis, between 3 and 10 indicates “moderate” evidence, between 10 and 30 indicates “strong” evidence, and greater than 30 indicates “very strong” evidence 39 , 53 , 54 , 55 . The reciprocal of these ranges signifies evidence in favor of the null hypothesis (e.g., 0.33-1 = anecdotal evidence). When conducting subgroup analyses with more than two factors, orthonormal coding was employed to ensure that an identical prior was used for each factor level and that estimated BFs were accurate 56 . Parameter estimates were extracted from all models using the R package emmeans .

Sensitivity analysis

A popular criticism of the Bayesian approach is that priors are chosen subjectively, which in turn can bias parameter estimates and their corresponding BFs 40 , 57 . Although utilizing weakly informative priors mitigates bias, a sensitivity analysis that evaluates the contribution of both priors and the likelihood function must be conducted to determine if the model results are robust 38 , 58 , 59 , 60 . Thus, we replicated the previously described modeling approach with the exception of using two different priors for the overall pooled effect size. The first was a normal distribution with a mean of zero and standard deviation of ½. Since this prior adds greater weight to the probability that exercise has no influence on task performance, we denoted it as the no effect (NE) prior. The second prior was constructed by synthesizing estimates from previous meta-analyses on acute exercise and cognition 18 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , resulting in a normal distribution with a mean of 0.24 and standard deviation of 0.57. This prior was denoted as the positive effect (PE) prior.

The influence of the likelihood function was assessed by modeling study effect sizes as being sampled from a t -distribution. An advantage of using this likelihood function, compared to a normal distribution, is that model parameter estimates are influenced less  by outliers 40 . The Half-Cauchy prior was used for the scale of the distribution, while a standard normal prior was used for its mean. For its shape (i.e., degree of freedom) an exponential distribution with a rate equal to 1/29 served as a prior. To determine if meta-analytic estimates were robust across the alternative priors and likelihood function, we visually compared the posterior distributions across models for large deviations 58 .

Description of studies

The literature search yielded 15,900 peer reviewed journal articles, and after removing duplicates 8295 remained. Subsequent an initial screening based off the titles and abstracts, 805 studies were identified as potential candidates for modeling. 113 of these studies were deemed eligible for inclusion in the meta-analysis according to their full-text contents (Fig.  1 ). In total, 642 effect sizes were extracted from these studies, representing data from 4390 subjects. A majority of the effects measured the influence of exercise on executive function ( k  = 434) and attention ( k  = 109). Fewer effects were measured during exercise ( k  = 82) relative to after the cessation of exercise ( k  = 560). Visual inspection of a funnel plot suggested that the effect sizes were distributed symmetrically (Fig.  2a ), however there was very strong evidence for asymmetry according to Egger’s regression intercept ( \({{\rm{\beta }}}\)  = 1.18 ± 0.25; HDI = [0.78, 1.58]; BF = 253.24) suggesting the presence of publication bias. This was addressed by employing the trim and fill approach, which imputes low-precision effect sizes until the funnel plot is symmetrical 61 .

A total of 113 studies were deemed eligible for meta-analytic modeling.

a Funnel plot of 642 study effect sizes (black circles). Imputed effect sizes after using the trim and fill method are represented by the unfilled circles ( \(n=9\) ). Vertical blue line indicates the estimated pooled effect sizes, while dashed black lines represent a pseudo 95% confidence limits. b Posterior distribution of estimated pooled effect. Horizontal black line indicates bounds of 89% HDI derived using \(n=651\) effect sizes. c Empirical cumulative density function of distribution in b , where the dashed black line indicates the pooled effect. d Representation of using the Savage-Dickey ratio to calculate BFs. The density of the null value in the prior distribution (red) is divided by its density in the posterior distribution (blue) to yield probabilistic evidence in favor of the alternative hypothesis. e Posterior distributions of between and within study heterogeneity.

Overall effect

The meta-analysis indicated that there was moderate evidence for an acute bout of exercise to have a small positive influence on overall performance across cognitive domains ( g  = 0.13 ± 0.04; HDI = [0.06, 0.20]; BF = 3.67) (Fig.  2 b, d ) . According to the posterior distribution, there was a low probability that the estimated pooled effect was less than or equal to zero ( p  = 0.01) and an 80% chance that the effect size fell between the range of 0 to 0.2 (Fig.  2c ). There was a large amount of heterogeneity within ( \({{{\rm{\tau }}}}_{{within}}\,\) = 0.65 ± 0.03; HDI = [0.60, 0.70]; \({I}_{{within}}^{2}\,\) = 81.19%) and moderate amount between ( \({{{\rm{\tau }}}}_{{between}}\,\) = 0.29 ± 0.05; HDI = [0.20, 0.38]; \({I}_{{between}}^{2}\)  = 15.9%) studies (Fig.  2e ). Effect size estimates for each individual study are presented in Table  1 .

Subgroup analyses

Primary subgroup analyses revealed that acute exercise reduced RT on cognitive tasks ( g  = 0.27; HDI = [0.18, 0.36]; BF \(=6.71\times {10}^{3}\) ), but had no impact on accuracy ( g  = 0.04; HDI = [−0.04, 0.12]; BF \(=6.15\times {10}^{-2}\) ) (Table  2 ) (Fig.  3a ). Engaging in either cycling ( g  = 0.21; HDI = [0.11, 0.32]; BF =  \(14.74\) ) or HIIT ( g  = 0.73; HDI = [0.40, 1.09]; BF \(=26.05\) ) was found to have an enhancing effect on performance in cognitive tasks (Fig.  3b ). In regard to cognitive domain, there was evidence that acute exercise has a positive influence on executive processes ( g  = 0.18; HDI = [0.10, 0.27]; BF \(=36.97\) ). Furthermore, behavioral performance was found to improve immediately after exercise cessation ( g  = 0.16; HDI = [0.11, 0.30]; BF \(=4.03\) ) and in response to vigorous intensity exercises ( g  = 0.19; HDI = [0.09, 0.28]; BF \(=5.03\) ). Lastly, at least moderate evidence in favor of non-zero parameter estimates were observed for the secondary moderators publication year, within-subjects design, age, percentage of female participants, and weight (Table  3 ).

Posterior distributions of a cognitive and b exercise moderators. Horizontal black line indicates the 89% HDI interval, while the black dot represents the mode of the posterior distribution. Intervals derived using \({{\rm{n}}}=651\) effect sizes.

To test for the possible contribution of a learning effect to the estimated overall pooled effect size, a separate meta-analysis was conducted on effects from studies employing a pre-/post-test design ( N effect sizes = 298). Despite the estimated pooled effect size for this subset of data being nominally similar to the estimate for the entire dataset, there was anecdotal evidence in favor of the null hypothesis ( g  = 0.15 ± 0.06; HDI = [0.04, 0.24]; BF \(=0.95\) ). Moderator analyses indicated that there was no credible evidence for a difference in this estimated pooled effect size as a function of whether or not a control group was included in the study \(({{{\rm{BF}}}}_{{{\rm{Inclusion}}}}=0.12;\,{\mbox{w}}/{\mbox{control}}:g\,=0.18\,\pm \,0.10;\,{\mbox{HDI}}=[0.03,\,0.33];{\mbox{BF}}=0.51;{\mbox{w}}/{{\rm{o}}} {{\rm{control}}}:g=0.11\pm 0.13;{\mbox{HDI}}=\left[-0.03,\,0.26\right]{\mbox{;BF}}=0.18)\) , suggesting that the estimated influence of exercise on general cognitive performance is not driven by a learning effect.

Model comparisons

Model comparisons were performed to determine if including a moderator improved predictive performance. Only a model that included task performance measure as a moderator was more likely when compared to a null counterpart (BF Inclusion \(=357.10\) ) (Table  4 ). This is likely due to a number of factors. First, acute exercise had a negligible impact on a majority of the levels in each subgroup. Second, there was a high degree of uncertainty in estimated model coefficients, as evidenced by their wide HDI intervals. Third, Bayesian inference automatically penalizes model complexity and favors more parsimonious models. If a model has many parameters, but a majority of them are nonzero, then a simpler counterpart will be favored.

Interactions between moderators

An exploratory analysis was conducted to determine if the influence of moderator variables was contingent on one another. Due to the computationally intensive nature of Bayesian modeling, analyses were limited to the following pairs of moderators: (1) exercise intensity and type, (2) exercise intensity and duration, (3) exercise type and duration, (4) cognitive domain and exercise type, (5) cognitive domain and exercise intensity, (6) cognitive domain and task performance measure, (7) exercise type and task performance measure. Although none of the pairs of interaction models had more predictive power compared to a null counterpart ( \({{{\rm{BF}}}}_{{{\rm{Inclusion}}}}\) : Model 1 =  \(3.86\times {10}^{-6}\) ; Model \(2=1.66\times {10}^{-8}\) ; Model \(3=1.84\times {10}^{-3}\) ; Model 4 = 1.31 × 10 −4 ; Model 5 =  \(3.91\times {10}^{-5}\) ; Model 6 =  \(7.1\times {10}^{-3}\) ; Model 7 =  \(7.05\times {10}^{-4}\) ), there were two that had nonzero parameter estimates.

The first model included an interaction between cognitive domain and exercise type. There was evidence in favor of cycling improving performance on tasks that probed attention ( g  = 0.34; HDI = [0.14, 0.56]; BF \(=3.05\) ) and executive function ( g  = 0.28; HDI = [0.14, 0.40]; BF =  \(17.83\) ). HIIT exercises were found to bolster executive function ( g  = 1.01; HDI = [0.61, 1.43]; BF \(=155.33\) ), while resistance exercises had an aversive impact on attentional performance ( g  = −0.76; HDI = [−1.20, −0.38]; BF \(=18.07\) ) (Fig.  4a ). The second model included an interaction between cognitive domain and task performance measure and indicated that time-dependent measures of executive function are improved ( g  = 0.30; HDI = [0.19, 0.39]; BF \(=1.10\times {10}^{3}\) ) (Fig.  4b ).

Posterior mode estimates of models including interactions between cognitive domain and a exercise type and b task outcome measure. Width of line represents 89% HDI derived using \({{\rm{n}}}=651\) effect sizes.

Sensitivity analyses

The estimated overall effect of acute exercise on cognition was consistent across the NE prior ( g  = 0.13 ± 0.04; HDI = [0.06, 0.20]; BF = 6.52), PE prior ( g  = 0.12 ± 0.04; HDI = [0.06, 0.19]; BF \(=6.51\) ), and t likelihood function ( g  = 0.12 ± 0.04; HDI = [0.06, 0.18]; BF \(=8.77\) ) (Fig.  5a ). Interestingly, there was anecdotal-to-moderate evidence in favor of the synthesized estimate from previous meta-analyses (i.e., g  = 0.24) across the PE (BF \(=3.19\) ), NE (BF \(=2.78\) ), and standard normal (BF \(=5.27\) ) priors. Estimates of between-study heterogeneity were also robust across the NE prior ( \({{{\rm{\tau }}}}_{{between}}\,\) = 0.29 ± 0.05; HDI = [0.20, 0.37]), the PE prior ( \({{{\rm{\tau }}}}_{{between}}\,\) = 0.29 ± 0.05; HDI = [0.21, 0.37]), and t likelihood function ( \({{{\rm{\tau }}}}_{{between}}\,\) = 0.31 ± 0.03; HDI = [0.26, 0.38]) (Fig.  5b ). In contrast, within study heterogeneity was estimated to be lower when using the t likelihood function ( \({{{\rm{\tau }}}}_{{within}}\,\) = 0.17 ± 0.02; HDI = [0.13, 0.19]) relative to the NE ( \({{{\rm{\tau }}}}_{{within}}\,\) = 0.65 ± 0.03; HDI = [0.61, 0.70]) and PE ( \({{{\rm{\tau }}}}_{{within}}\,\) = 0.65 ± 0.02; HDI = [0.60, 0.70]) priors (Fig.  5c ). Note, this reduction reflects the diminished influence of outliers on variance estimates by the inclusion of the shape parameter for the t distribution ( v  = 1.52 ± 0.14; HDI = [1.30; 1.73]). In addition to testing the robustness of parameter estimates, a model comparison was conducted to determine if either the null or positive effect prior was more probable given the data. The t -likelihood function was not included in this comparison since it would only indicate if effect sizes were more likely to have been drawn from either a normal or t -distribution. When compared to a standard normal prior, there was anecdotal evidence in favor of both the PE (BF \(=2.56\) ) and NE (BF \(=1.48\) ) priors. Relative to the PE prior, there was anecdotal evidence against the NE prior (BF \(=0.73\) ). Altogether, parameter estimates were not biased by the prior or likelihood function.

Estimates for the a overall pooled effect size, b between- and c within-study heterogeneity parameters across the t-likelihood function (TL), weakly informed, null effect (NE), and positive effect (PE) priors. Color dots represent mode of posterior distributions, while color horizontal line depicts the 89% HDI derived using \(n=651\) effect sizes.

Executive function meta-analysis

Considering that the majority of the effect sizes were from tasks that probed executive function, and that this cognitive domain encompasses multiple sub-domains, a separate meta- analysis and set of meta-regressions were conducted on this subset of data. Categorization criteria from previous meta-analyses and systematic reviews 17 , 24 , 26 were used to classify effect sizes into the following sub-domains of executive function: working memory, cognitive control, decision making, planning, and inhibition. For completeness, the primary moderators used in the main meta-analysis were also tested.

The results were similar to the main meta-analysis. There was very strong evidence in favor of exercise having a small positive influence on overall task performance ( \(g\)  = 0.20 ± 0.06; HDI = [0.12, 0.30]; BF \(=29.57\) ), and a moderate degree of heterogeneity both within ( \({{{\rm{\tau }}}}_{{within}}\,\) = 0.51 ± 0.03; HDI = [0.47, 0.57]) and between studies ( \({{{\rm{\tau }}}}_{{between}}\,\) = 0.40 ± 0.06; HDI = [0.30, 0.48]). Subgroup analyses indicated that a model including the moderator task outcome measure had more predictive power relative to a null counterpart (BF Inclusion \(=48.43\) ). Paralleling the main meta-analysis, there was very strong evidence that acute exercise improved RT on executive function tasks ( g  = 0.32; HDI = [0.21, 0.42]; BF \(=748.18\) ), but no credible evidence was observed for an effect on accuracy ( g  = 0.13; HDI = [0.04, 0.23]; BF \(=0.63\) ) (Table  5 ). Furthermore, there was moderate evidence in favor of a positive impact of exercise on inhibition ( g  = 0.21; HDI = [0.09, 0.33]; BF \(=3.14\) ) and working memory ( g  = 0.22; HDI = [0.11, 0.34]; BF \(=6.89\) ) (Fig.  6 ). Yet, a model including executive function sub-domain as a moderator did not improve model performance (BF Inclusion \(=7.52\times {10}^{-4}\) ), nor did models including interactions between moderators.

Posterior distributions for executive function sub-domain. Horizontal black line indicates the 89% HDI interval, while the black dot represents the mode of the posterior distribution, which was derived using \(n=433\) effect sizes.

A large corpus of empirical work has examined how a single bout of acute exercise modulates activity within multiple brain systems that underly cognition. Despite inconsistencies in results across empirical studies, there is consensus amongst previous reviews and meta-analyses that acute exercise impacts behavioral performance 18 , 20 , 22 and that this relationship is moderated by both exercise protocol and behavioral task characteristics. The goal of the present work was to address two key limitations of previous meta-analyses. First, recent meta-analyses have a narrower focus, often limited to a single cognitive domain or a specific subset of domains. In contrast, the current meta-analysis presents an updated synthesis of the literature spanning a much wider range of cognitive domains. Second, in contrast to previous frequentist approaches, a Bayesian framework was adopted allowing for the quantification of the degree of evidence in favor of the hypothesis that acute exercise influences cognition in young healthy adults. The current meta-analysis observed that acute exercise has a small positive influence on overall cognitive task performance, and sensitivity analyses indicated that the alternative hypothesis was 6.51–8.77 times more likely than the null across multiple priors and likelihood functions. The magnitude and directionality of this effect were consistent with the results of previous meta-analyses on acute exercise and cognition 18 , 21 , 22 , 62 . Subgroup analyses suggested that this relationship is moderated by task performance measure, cognitive domain, exercise type and intensity, and the time of task completion relative to exercise cessation. Model comparison results indicated that accounting for variations amongst moderator levels did not improve predictive performance. Given our eligibility criteria, these results are limited to healthy individuals between the ages of 18–45 years old.

Similar to McMorris et al. 63 , acute exercise was found to improve RT but no credible evidence was observed for an influence on accuracy. A possible explanation for this differential impact on task outcome measures is that exercise modulates primary motor cortex (M1) excitability 64 . There is accumulating evidence that acute exercise increases M1 intracortical facilitation 65 , 66 , 67 , 68 and inhibition 69 , 70 . Yamazaki et al. 68 observed that the intracortical circuits of both exercised (i.e., legs) and non-exercised (i.e., hand) effectors are modulated by an acute bout of low intensity pedaling. Thus, alterations in the activity of excitatory or inhibitory circuits of non-exercised cortical representations may promote faster RT on cognitive tasks. However, the lack of concurrent changes in corticospinal excitability or motor-evoked potentials suggests that this explanation is not a viable account of a mechanism that engenders faster RTs. An alternative explanation is that exercise increases peripheral and central concentrations of catecholamines, such as norepinephrine, epinephrine, and dopamine, which in turn improves the speed of cognition 1 , 71 , 72 . Indeed, acute exercise has been found to improve response time on choice RT, decision-making, and interference tasks 18 , 73 , 74 . Yet, it is unclear as to why changes in neurochemical levels would facilitate RT but have no impact on accuracy. Considering that physical activity modulates population-level tuning in the sensory areas of nonhuman animals and invertebrates 75 , 76 , 77 , 78 , 79 , 80 , 81 , along with sensory responses in humans 82 , 83 , 84 , it stands to reason that the fidelity of stimulus representations would also be impacted, resulting in changes in accuracy. Changes in the fidelity of feature selective stimulus representations can be determined by applying encoding models to recorded neural activity 83 , 85 , 86 , 87 , 88 , 89 , 90 . For instance, Garrett et al. 91 applied an inverted encoding model to topographical patterns of alpha band activity, recorded at the scalp, while subjects completed a spatial working memory task both at rest and during a bout of moderate intensity cycling. Notably, it was possible to reconstruct spatially selective responses during exercise, and the selectivity of these responses decreased during exercise relative to rest. Therefore, encoding models can be a powerful tool for future research to demystify how the precision of task-relevant representations is influenced by exercise. It is also important to keep in mind that many psychological tasks are relatively simple to do, which can lead to ceiling effects that may mask the influence of exercise on accuracy measures. Lastly, the differential impact of exercise on accuracy and RT may be due to the relative sensitivities of these dependent measures to modulations of different stages of information processing. For example, there is evidence that in near-threshold tasks accuracy is sensitive to perceptual manipulations, whereas in supra-threshold (i.e., perceptually easy tasks, including many of those used in the studies in this meta-analysis) RT is sensitive to modulations in both perceptual and post-perceptual processes 92 , 93 . Indeed, Davranche et al. 73 utilized a drift diffusion model to determine which aspects of decision-making are modulated by HIIT. Importantly, drift rate and decision response boundary size increased significantly after exercise relative to before, while non-decision time decreased. This suggests there was an improvement in perceptual discrimination, the efficiency of non-decisional processes (e.g., motor execution), and the adoption of a more conservative criterion. Future research employing computational models of response time and representational fidelity is needed to develop a comprehensive understanding of the selective influence exercise on information processing speed and accuracy.

Parameter estimates of a model including exercise modality as a moderator suggested that engaging in cycling or HIIT may beneficially impact cognition, especially on attentional and executive processes. Cycling is a commonly used modality in exercise and cognition research. Numerous empirical studies have found that a bout of cycling benefits inhibition, as measured using either the Stroop or Eriksen Flanker task 15 , 94 , 95 , 96 , 97 , 98 , 99 . Improvements in planning 94 , 100 , task-switching 27 , 101 , 102 , and the speed of decision making 103 have also been reported. In contrast to the ubiquity of cycling, the use of HIIT workouts in exercise and cognition research is a relatively recent practice, hence the small number of effect sizes from studies using this modality compared to other types of exercise. The number of effect sizes is important because low-level parameters in a hierarchical model are influenced both by the subset of data directly dependent on the low-level parameter, and by high-level parameter estimates that rely on all of the data. This makes low-level parameter estimates indirectly dependent on the entire dataset, and causes shrinkage in estimates at all levels of the model. In other words, the estimated relationship between HIIT and behavioral performance is derived directly from the few representative effect sizes and indirectly from the rest of the data. The observed positive effect of HIIT on cognition corroborates previous findings. For example, Alves et al. 3 observed that the time to complete a Stroop Task decreased after ten 1-minute bouts of exercising at 80% heart rate reserve relative to a control condition. Improvements in time-dependent measures on interference tasks (i.e., Stroop and flanker) have been correlated with an increase in left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex activity, as measured with functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), and a decrease in P3 latency measured with EEG 104 . Furthermore, enhancements have also been shown to coincide with an increase in peripheral levels of neural growth factors and lactate 105 . Lastly, a recent meta-analysis on elite athletes observed that HIIT team-based sports had a positive impact on cognitive task performance 25 . Interestingly, because of the small number of published studies in the literature, it is currently unclear if the type of exercise modality used for HIIT workouts (e.g., cycling, sprinting, resistance) differentially impacts cognition.

Behavioral task performance was found to be improved by engaging in vigorous intensity exercise. These results are surprising, considering that exercise intensity is believed to have an inverted-U relationship with performance; where moderate intensity exercise elicits the greatest enhancements while more intense, fatiguing exercise imposes decrements 18 , 62 , 63 , 71 , 106 , 107 . This effect could be driven by HIIT workouts, but may also depend on multiple cognitive task and exercise protocol characteristics. For instance, Chang et al. 18 observed that exercise intensity was only a significant moderator when cognition was tested post-exercise. Similarly, Oberste et al. 23 found that exercise intensity influenced time-dependent measures of interference control but not accuracy. When considering these results, one must also consider that both aforementioned meta-analyses included studies whose subjects were children, adolescents, and older adults. In contrast, the current study was limited to young adults, and there is evidence that the effect of exercise on cognition is comparatively smaller in this age group 18 , 23 . Thus, a model containing an interaction between cognitive domain, task outcome measure, and age groups across the lifespan may be required to observe evidence for an effect of intensity. In addition, there was evidence for the enhancing effects of exercise post-cessation, corroborating previous research 1 , 18 , 94 . Interestingly, in the current meta-analysis cognition was not found to be impacted during exercise. Prior meta-analytic findings on cognition during exercise are mixed, with some reporting that it is exacerbated 20 , while others that find evidence for an enhancement 18 .

Given that the majority of the effect sizes were from tasks that probed executive function, a separate meta-analysis was conducted on this subset of data. This analysis revealed that exercise has a small positive impact on RT measures of executive processes. When looking at model parameters, there was evidence in favor of exercise-enhancing inhibition and working memory. Behavioral research has shown that both the accuracy 9 and speed of working memory 108 , 109 are facilitated by an instance of physical activity. What remains to be determined is the neural mechanisms that engender these behavioral effects. Kao et al. 108 observed that a reduction in RT on the Sternberg task post-HIIT corresponded to an increase in frontal alpha desynchronization during encoding, maintenance, and retrieval periods when working memory load is high. Neuroimaging studies have also found evidence for changes in the activation levels of frontal areas 110 and their connectivity with the intraparietal sulcus post-exercise 111 . These changes in neural activity were not accompanied by a change in behavior, suggesting that more research is needed to demystify the neuromodulatory effect of acute exercise on working memory.

Engaging in repeated bouts of acute exercise over a long period of time can have lasting changes on baseline neurochemical levels, cortical volume, and structural/functional connectivity, which can alter cognitive task performance 1 , 112 , 113 , 114 , 115 . Research investigating the influence of these long-term interventions on cognition has primarily focused on children or older adults. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses suggest that exercise has a small to moderate beneficial impact on general task performance for both of these age groups, with the largest effect sizes observed for measures of executive function, attention, and academic performance 35 . Despite the relative paucity of meta-analyses on how exercise interventions impact cognition in healthy young adults, recent work suggests that it may have a similar beneficial effect. Indeed, a recent meta-analysis, conducted by Ludyga et al. 116 , indicated that long-term exercise interventions have a small positive influence on general cognition regardless of age. The magnitude of this effect was dependent on the interaction between intervention length and exercise duration, with longer interventions and sessions producing greater benefits. Integrating these findings with the current meta-analysis, there is support for the notion that the beneficial impact of long-term interventions on cognition may be a product of repeated exposure to acute exercise induced effects.

There are a number of possible explanations as to why exercise induced effects are small. One possibility is that cognitive function is at its peak during young adulthood, leaving little room for improvements in task performance. Indeed, previous reviews and meta-analyses have observed that the effect of exercise is moderated by age 35 , with the greatest benefits observed for preadolescent children and older adults 18 , 23 , 26 . Contrary to this account, though, the largest exercise induced effects were observed for executive processes, which are believed to be at peak efficiency during this period in the lifespan 117 , 118 . Furthermore, there was moderate evidence that the impact of exercise increased as the average age of sampled young adults also increased. Another explanation may be that cognition is resilient to slight or modest perturbations in overall global state. For example, Bullock et al. 119 demonstrated there was no change in accuracy or RT on a target detection task during experimentally induced hypoxia, hypercapnia, hypocapnia, and normoxia. Meta-analytic modeling of the influence of acute stress on executive function revealed that stress has a small negative impact on working memory and cognitive flexibility, but no impact on inhibition 120 . This suggests that cognition is able to selectively adapt to changes in physiological state caused by various types of stressors, including exercise. A final more intriguing and functional explanation for exercise having a small impact on cognition is that experimental protocols do not typically require the engagement of the body to execute the cognitive task, but rather have people engage in a cognitive task while exercising (or shortly thereafter). This experimental design contrasts real-world tasks that require engagement of the body in the service of the cognitive task. When components of the exercise are incorporated into task goals, then larger changes in performance may be observed. Empirical research investigating how exercise influences task performance in embodied settings versus classic laboratory settings (see 121 for review) is necessary to test the plausibility of this explanation. In addition, the notion that the integrated action of the body and the mind are required to produce the largest effects of exercise on cognition is consistent with a recent evolutionary account of the link between cognition and exercise 122 .

The discrepancy in moderator results between the current meta-analysis and previous meta-analyses could be due to differences in the statistical approach. Frequentist methods typically conduct an omnibus test to determine if levels of a moderator are significantly different from one another and as a measure of a model’s goodness of fit. In contrast, the Bayesian approach determines how likely the observed effect sizes are under a model that includes a moderator and if predictive power is increased. There are a few key advantages to using the Bayesian approach compared to classical frequentist methods. First, it models the uncertainty involved in estimates of between- and within-study heterogeneity and returns a full posterior distribution for both parameters 123 . With these posterior distributions, one can simulate possible pooled effect sizes across credible levels of heterogeneity and develop an informed hypothesis for a subsequent meta-analysis. Similarly, the posterior distributions of effect size estimates can be used as well-informed prior distributions for new data. Importantly, this facilitates the updating of meta-analyses as new research is published. It should be mentioned that the degree of between-study heterogeneity was numerically similar to previous meta-analyses 18 , 22 , implying that they did not suffer from an issue of underestimation by assuming heterogeneity to be a fixed quantity. Second, the Bayesian approach permits the inclusion of prior knowledge. Across all tested priors, there was evidence in favor of a pooled effect derived from averaging the reported estimates of previous meta-analyses. When comparing a prior distribution based on this knowledge to a null effect prior, the former was found to be more probable. Lastly, the posterior distribution of parameter estimates can be used to ascertain the likelihood that one will observe an effect size of a given magnitude for an exercise protocol and cognitive task combination. For example, a researcher could compute the probability that the influence of a bout of cycling on cognitive control will fall within the range of large effect sizes, even if that range does not encompass the maximum a posteriori probability estimate. In contrast, the frequentist approach only produces the maximum likelihood estimate and an interval around it based on fictitious repeats of the meta-analysis. Therefore, the Bayesian approach provides more information for designing future exercise and cognition studies.

Limitations

A potential limitation in the current meta-analysis is the categorization of exercise type using the activity reported in each study. An alternative approach is to categorize exercise based on the theoretical and physiological distinctions between aerobic and anaerobic exercise. We did not adopt this approach here because many activities used in the literature typically include aerobic and anaerobic components, and basing their classification on what authors reported provides insights into the exercise modalities that have been predominantly used in the literature. Another limitation is the schema used to categorize exercise duration. In the event that a study did not report how long participants engaged in exercise, these effects were classified as “not provided”, rendering them as uninterpretable. Lastly, sensitivity analyses were not conducted for moderator parameter estimates due to the high degree of computational demands. However, considering that the pooled effect size estimate was robust across multiple priors and likelihood functions, it is likely that moderator parameter estimates are also consistent.

Conclusions

In summary, the current meta-analytic examination has shown that there is moderate evidence for an acute bout of aerobic exercise inducing a small enhancement in overall performance on cognitive tasks, especially on those that probe executive function and measure response time. Incorporating computational models of decision-making processes, such as drift-diffusion or signal detection models, into exercise research may provide useful insights into the nature of speeded executive processes. Furthermore, testing performance in a real-world setting where individuals typically engage in physical activity may amplify exercise-induced effects.

Data availability

Data have been made publicly available at https://github.com/jggarrett23/PACMAn .

Code availability

Code has been made publicly available at https://github.com/jggarrett23/PACMAn .

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Acknowledgements

This work was funded by the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Soldier Center Measuring and Advancing Soldier Tactical Readiness and Effectiveness (MASTR-E) program through award W911NF-19F-0018 under US Army Research Office contract W911NF-19-D-0001 for the Institute for Collaborative Biotechnologies. The views expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not reflect the official policies or positions of the Department of Army, the Department of Defense, or any other department or agency of the U.S. government. The funders had no role in study design, data collection, and analysis, the decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Thank you to Grace Giles, Ph.D., Julie Cantelon, Ph.D., and Neil Dundon, Ph.D., for providing guidance in conducting analyses and interpreting results. Lastly, thank you to Emily Machniak and Riddhima Chandra for assisting in data collection efforts.

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J.G., C.C., T.B., and B.G., designed the study, created the literature search criterion, and performed initial article screenings. J.G., C.C., and B.G. performed screenings of articles based on their full text. J.G., extracted effect sizes, conducted statistical analyses, and wrote the initial draft of the manuscript. B.G., T.B., and C.C. provided edits to the manuscript.

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Garrett, J., Chak, C., Bullock, T. et al. A systematic review and Bayesian meta-analysis provide evidence for an effect of acute physical activity on cognition in young adults. Commun Psychol 2 , 82 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44271-024-00124-2

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A systematic review of the key predictors of progression and mortality of rheumatoid arthritis-associated interstitial lung disease.

1. Introduction

2. materials and methods, 2.1. eligibility, 2.2. search strategy, 2.3. data extraction, 3.1. selection of studies, 3.2. demographic features of eligible studies, 3.3. risk factors of lung function decline, 3.4. prognostic factors for all-cause mortality of ra-ild, 3.5. additional analysis, 4. discussion, 5. conclusions, author contributions, institutional review board statement, informed consent statement, data availability statement, conflicts of interest.

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Groseanu, L.; Niță, C. A Systematic Review of the Key Predictors of Progression and Mortality of Rheumatoid Arthritis-Associated Interstitial Lung Disease. Diagnostics 2024 , 14 , 1890. https://doi.org/10.3390/diagnostics14171890

Groseanu L, Niță C. A Systematic Review of the Key Predictors of Progression and Mortality of Rheumatoid Arthritis-Associated Interstitial Lung Disease. Diagnostics . 2024; 14(17):1890. https://doi.org/10.3390/diagnostics14171890

Groseanu, Laura, and Cristina Niță. 2024. "A Systematic Review of the Key Predictors of Progression and Mortality of Rheumatoid Arthritis-Associated Interstitial Lung Disease" Diagnostics 14, no. 17: 1890. https://doi.org/10.3390/diagnostics14171890

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• Writing Tips

What is the Purpose of a Literature Review?

4-minute read

• 23rd October 2023

If you’re writing a research paper or dissertation , then you’ll most likely need to include a comprehensive literature review . In this post, we’ll review the purpose of literature reviews, why they are so significant, and the specific elements to include in one. Literature reviews can:

1. Provide a foundation for current research.

2. Define key concepts and theories.

3. Demonstrate critical evaluation.

4. Show how research and methodologies have evolved.

5. Identify gaps in existing research.

6. Support your argument.

Keep reading to enter the exciting world of literature reviews!

What is a Literature Review?

A literature review is a critical summary and evaluation of the existing research (e.g., academic journal articles and books) on a specific topic. It is typically included as a separate section or chapter of a research paper or dissertation, serving as a contextual framework for a study. Literature reviews can vary in length depending on the subject and nature of the study, with most being about equal length to other sections or chapters included in the paper. Essentially, the literature review highlights previous studies in the context of your research and summarizes your insights in a structured, organized format. Next, let’s look at the overall purpose of a literature review.

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Literature reviews are considered an integral part of research across most academic subjects and fields. The primary purpose of a literature review in your study is to:

Provide a Foundation for Current Research

Since the literature review provides a comprehensive evaluation of the existing research, it serves as a solid foundation for your current study. It’s a way to contextualize your work and show how your research fits into the broader landscape of your specific area of study.  

Define Key Concepts and Theories

The literature review highlights the central theories and concepts that have arisen from previous research on your chosen topic. It gives your readers a more thorough understanding of the background of your study and why your research is particularly significant .

Demonstrate Critical Evaluation 

A comprehensive literature review shows your ability to critically analyze and evaluate a broad range of source material. And since you’re considering and acknowledging the contribution of key scholars alongside your own, it establishes your own credibility and knowledge.

Show How Research and Methodologies Have Evolved

Another purpose of literature reviews is to provide a historical perspective and demonstrate how research and methodologies have changed over time, especially as data collection methods and technology have advanced. And studying past methodologies allows you, as the researcher, to understand what did and did not work and apply that knowledge to your own research.  

Identify Gaps in Existing Research

Besides discussing current research and methodologies, the literature review should also address areas that are lacking in the existing literature. This helps further demonstrate the relevance of your own research by explaining why your study is necessary to fill the gaps.

Support Your Argument

A good literature review should provide evidence that supports your research questions and hypothesis. For example, your study may show that your research supports existing theories or builds on them in some way. Referencing previous related studies shows your work is grounded in established research and will ultimately be a contribution to the field.  

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• Knowledge Base

Methodology

• How to Write a Literature Review | Guide, Examples, & Templates

How to Write a Literature Review | Guide, Examples, & Templates

Published on January 2, 2023 by Shona McCombes . Revised on September 11, 2023.

What is a literature review? A literature review is a survey of scholarly sources on a specific topic. It provides an overview of current knowledge, allowing you to identify relevant theories, methods, and gaps in the existing research that you can later apply to your paper, thesis, or dissertation topic .

There are five key steps to writing a literature review:

• Search for relevant literature
• Evaluate sources
• Identify themes, debates, and gaps
• Outline the structure
• Write your literature review

A good literature review doesn’t just summarize sources—it analyzes, synthesizes , and critically evaluates to give a clear picture of the state of knowledge on the subject.

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Table of contents

What is the purpose of a literature review, examples of literature reviews, step 1 – search for relevant literature, step 2 – evaluate and select sources, step 3 – identify themes, debates, and gaps, step 4 – outline your literature review’s structure, step 5 – write your literature review, free lecture slides, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions, introduction.

• Quick Run-through
• Step 1 & 2

When you write a thesis , dissertation , or research paper , you will likely have to conduct a literature review to situate your research within existing knowledge. The literature review gives you a chance to:

• Demonstrate your familiarity with the topic and its scholarly context
• Develop a theoretical framework and methodology for your research
• Position your work in relation to other researchers and theorists
• Show how your research addresses a gap or contributes to a debate
• Evaluate the current state of research and demonstrate your knowledge of the scholarly debates around your topic.

Writing literature reviews is a particularly important skill if you want to apply for graduate school or pursue a career in research. We’ve written a step-by-step guide that you can follow below.

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See an example

Writing literature reviews can be quite challenging! A good starting point could be to look at some examples, depending on what kind of literature review you’d like to write.

• Example literature review #1: “Why Do People Migrate? A Review of the Theoretical Literature” ( Theoretical literature review about the development of economic migration theory from the 1950s to today.)
• Example literature review #2: “Literature review as a research methodology: An overview and guidelines” ( Methodological literature review about interdisciplinary knowledge acquisition and production.)
• Example literature review #3: “The Use of Technology in English Language Learning: A Literature Review” ( Thematic literature review about the effects of technology on language acquisition.)
• Example literature review #4: “Learners’ Listening Comprehension Difficulties in English Language Learning: A Literature Review” ( Chronological literature review about how the concept of listening skills has changed over time.)

You can also check out our templates with literature review examples and sample outlines at the links below.

Download Word doc Download Google doc

Before you begin searching for literature, you need a clearly defined topic .

If you are writing the literature review section of a dissertation or research paper, you will search for literature related to your research problem and questions .

Make a list of keywords

Start by creating a list of keywords related to your research question. Include each of the key concepts or variables you’re interested in, and list any synonyms and related terms. You can add to this list as you discover new keywords in the process of your literature search.

• Social media, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, TikTok
• Body image, self-perception, self-esteem, mental health
• Generation Z, teenagers, adolescents, youth

Search for relevant sources

Use your keywords to begin searching for sources. Some useful databases to search for journals and articles include:

• Your university’s library catalogue
• Google Scholar
• Project Muse (humanities and social sciences)
• Medline (life sciences and biomedicine)
• EconLit (economics)
• Inspec (physics, engineering and computer science)

You can also use boolean operators to help narrow down your search.

Make sure to read the abstract to find out whether an article is relevant to your question. When you find a useful book or article, you can check the bibliography to find other relevant sources.

You likely won’t be able to read absolutely everything that has been written on your topic, so it will be necessary to evaluate which sources are most relevant to your research question.

For each publication, ask yourself:

• What question or problem is the author addressing?
• What are the key concepts and how are they defined?
• What are the key theories, models, and methods?
• Does the research use established frameworks or take an innovative approach?
• What are the results and conclusions of the study?
• How does the publication relate to other literature in the field? Does it confirm, add to, or challenge established knowledge?
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of the research?

Make sure the sources you use are credible , and make sure you read any landmark studies and major theories in your field of research.

You can use our template to summarize and evaluate sources you’re thinking about using. Click on either button below to download.

Take notes and cite your sources

As you read, you should also begin the writing process. Take notes that you can later incorporate into the text of your literature review.

It is important to keep track of your sources with citations to avoid plagiarism . It can be helpful to make an annotated bibliography , where you compile full citation information and write a paragraph of summary and analysis for each source. This helps you remember what you read and saves time later in the process.

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To begin organizing your literature review’s argument and structure, be sure you understand the connections and relationships between the sources you’ve read. Based on your reading and notes, you can look for:

• Trends and patterns (in theory, method or results): do certain approaches become more or less popular over time?
• Themes: what questions or concepts recur across the literature?
• Debates, conflicts and contradictions: where do sources disagree?
• Pivotal publications: are there any influential theories or studies that changed the direction of the field?
• Gaps: what is missing from the literature? Are there weaknesses that need to be addressed?

This step will help you work out the structure of your literature review and (if applicable) show how your own research will contribute to existing knowledge.

• Most research has focused on young women.
• There is an increasing interest in the visual aspects of social media.
• But there is still a lack of robust research on highly visual platforms like Instagram and Snapchat—this is a gap that you could address in your own research.

There are various approaches to organizing the body of a literature review. Depending on the length of your literature review, you can combine several of these strategies (for example, your overall structure might be thematic, but each theme is discussed chronologically).

Chronological

The simplest approach is to trace the development of the topic over time. However, if you choose this strategy, be careful to avoid simply listing and summarizing sources in order.

Try to analyze patterns, turning points and key debates that have shaped the direction of the field. Give your interpretation of how and why certain developments occurred.

If you have found some recurring central themes, you can organize your literature review into subsections that address different aspects of the topic.

For example, if you are reviewing literature about inequalities in migrant health outcomes, key themes might include healthcare policy, language barriers, cultural attitudes, legal status, and economic access.

Methodological

If you draw your sources from different disciplines or fields that use a variety of research methods , you might want to compare the results and conclusions that emerge from different approaches. For example:

• Look at what results have emerged in qualitative versus quantitative research
• Discuss how the topic has been approached by empirical versus theoretical scholarship
• Divide the literature into sociological, historical, and cultural sources

Theoretical

A literature review is often the foundation for a theoretical framework . You can use it to discuss various theories, models, and definitions of key concepts.

You might argue for the relevance of a specific theoretical approach, or combine various theoretical concepts to create a framework for your research.

Like any other academic text , your literature review should have an introduction , a main body, and a conclusion . What you include in each depends on the objective of your literature review.

The introduction should clearly establish the focus and purpose of the literature review.

Depending on the length of your literature review, you might want to divide the body into subsections. You can use a subheading for each theme, time period, or methodological approach.

As you write, you can follow these tips:

• Summarize and synthesize: give an overview of the main points of each source and combine them into a coherent whole
• Analyze and interpret: don’t just paraphrase other researchers — add your own interpretations where possible, discussing the significance of findings in relation to the literature as a whole
• Critically evaluate: mention the strengths and weaknesses of your sources
• Write in well-structured paragraphs: use transition words and topic sentences to draw connections, comparisons and contrasts

In the conclusion, you should summarize the key findings you have taken from the literature and emphasize their significance.

When you’ve finished writing and revising your literature review, don’t forget to proofread thoroughly before submitting. Not a language expert? Check out Scribbr’s professional proofreading services !

This article has been adapted into lecture slides that you can use to teach your students about writing a literature review.

Scribbr slides are free to use, customize, and distribute for educational purposes.

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

• Sampling methods
• Simple random sampling
• Stratified sampling
• Cluster sampling
• Likert scales
• Reproducibility

 Statistics

• Null hypothesis
• Statistical power
• Probability distribution
• Effect size
• Poisson distribution

Research bias

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

A literature review is a survey of scholarly sources (such as books, journal articles, and theses) related to a specific topic or research question .

It is often written as part of a thesis, dissertation , or research paper , in order to situate your work in relation to existing knowledge.

There are several reasons to conduct a literature review at the beginning of a research project:

• To familiarize yourself with the current state of knowledge on your topic
• To ensure that you’re not just repeating what others have already done
• To identify gaps in knowledge and unresolved problems that your research can address
• To develop your theoretical framework and methodology
• To provide an overview of the key findings and debates on the topic

Writing the literature review shows your reader how your work relates to existing research and what new insights it will contribute.

The literature review usually comes near the beginning of your thesis or dissertation . After the introduction , it grounds your research in a scholarly field and leads directly to your theoretical framework or methodology .

A literature review is a survey of credible sources on a topic, often used in dissertations , theses, and research papers . Literature reviews give an overview of knowledge on a subject, helping you identify relevant theories and methods, as well as gaps in existing research. Literature reviews are set up similarly to other  academic texts , with an introduction , a main body, and a conclusion .

An  annotated bibliography is a list of  source references that has a short description (called an annotation ) for each of the sources. It is often assigned as part of the research process for a  paper .  

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What Is A Literature Review?

A plain-language explainer (with examples).

By:  Derek Jansen (MBA) & Kerryn Warren (PhD) | June 2020 (Updated May 2023)

If you’re faced with writing a dissertation or thesis, chances are you’ve encountered the term “literature review” . If you’re on this page, you’re probably not 100% what the literature review is all about. The good news is that you’ve come to the right place.

Literature Review 101

• What (exactly) is a literature review
• What’s the purpose of the literature review chapter
• How to find high-quality resources
• How to structure your literature review chapter
• Example of an actual literature review

What is a literature review?

The word “literature review” can refer to two related things that are part of the broader literature review process. The first is the task of  reviewing the literature  – i.e. sourcing and reading through the existing research relating to your research topic. The second is the  actual chapter  that you write up in your dissertation, thesis or research project. Let’s look at each of them:

Reviewing the literature

The first step of any literature review is to hunt down and  read through the existing research  that’s relevant to your research topic. To do this, you’ll use a combination of tools (we’ll discuss some of these later) to find journal articles, books, ebooks, research reports, dissertations, theses and any other credible sources of information that relate to your topic. You’ll then  summarise and catalogue these  for easy reference when you write up your literature review chapter. 

The literature review chapter

The second step of the literature review is to write the actual literature review chapter (this is usually the second chapter in a typical dissertation or thesis structure ). At the simplest level, the literature review chapter is an  overview of the key literature  that’s relevant to your research topic. This chapter should provide a smooth-flowing discussion of what research has already been done, what is known, what is unknown and what is contested in relation to your research topic. So, you can think of it as an  integrated review of the state of knowledge  around your research topic. 

What’s the purpose of a literature review?

The literature review chapter has a few important functions within your dissertation, thesis or research project. Let’s take a look at these:

Purpose #1 – Demonstrate your topic knowledge

The first function of the literature review chapter is, quite simply, to show the reader (or marker) that you  know what you’re talking about . In other words, a good literature review chapter demonstrates that you’ve read the relevant existing research and understand what’s going on – who’s said what, what’s agreed upon, disagreed upon and so on. This needs to be  more than just a summary  of who said what – it needs to integrate the existing research to  show how it all fits together  and what’s missing (which leads us to purpose #2, next). 

Purpose #2 – Reveal the research gap that you’ll fill

The second function of the literature review chapter is to  show what’s currently missing  from the existing research, to lay the foundation for your own research topic. In other words, your literature review chapter needs to show that there are currently “missing pieces” in terms of the bigger puzzle, and that  your study will fill one of those research gaps . By doing this, you are showing that your research topic is original and will help contribute to the body of knowledge. In other words, the literature review helps justify your research topic.  

Purpose #3 – Lay the foundation for your conceptual framework

The third function of the literature review is to form the  basis for a conceptual framework . Not every research topic will necessarily have a conceptual framework, but if your topic does require one, it needs to be rooted in your literature review. 

For example, let’s say your research aims to identify the drivers of a certain outcome – the factors which contribute to burnout in office workers. In this case, you’d likely develop a conceptual framework which details the potential factors (e.g. long hours, excessive stress, etc), as well as the outcome (burnout). Those factors would need to emerge from the literature review chapter – they can’t just come from your gut! 

So, in this case, the literature review chapter would uncover each of the potential factors (based on previous studies about burnout), which would then be modelled into a framework. 

Purpose #4 – To inform your methodology

The fourth function of the literature review is to  inform the choice of methodology  for your own research. As we’ve  discussed on the Grad Coach blog , your choice of methodology will be heavily influenced by your research aims, objectives and questions . Given that you’ll be reviewing studies covering a topic close to yours, it makes sense that you could learn a lot from their (well-considered) methodologies.

So, when you’re reviewing the literature, you’ll need to  pay close attention to the research design , methodology and methods used in similar studies, and use these to inform your methodology. Quite often, you’ll be able to  “borrow” from previous studies . This is especially true for quantitative studies , as you can use previously tried and tested measures and scales. 

How do I find articles for my literature review?

Finding quality journal articles is essential to crafting a rock-solid literature review. As you probably already know, not all research is created equally, and so you need to make sure that your literature review is  built on credible research . 

We could write an entire post on how to find quality literature (actually, we have ), but a good starting point is Google Scholar . Google Scholar is essentially the academic equivalent of Google, using Google’s powerful search capabilities to find relevant journal articles and reports. It certainly doesn’t cover every possible resource, but it’s a very useful way to get started on your literature review journey, as it will very quickly give you a good indication of what the  most popular pieces of research  are in your field.

One downside of Google Scholar is that it’s merely a search engine – that is, it lists the articles, but oftentimes  it doesn’t host the articles . So you’ll often hit a paywall when clicking through to journal websites. 

Thankfully, your university should provide you with access to their library, so you can find the article titles using Google Scholar and then search for them by name in your university’s online library. Your university may also provide you with access to  ResearchGate , which is another great source for existing research. 

Remember, the correct search keywords will be super important to get the right information from the start. So, pay close attention to the keywords used in the journal articles you read and use those keywords to search for more articles. If you can’t find a spoon in the kitchen, you haven’t looked in the right drawer. 

Need a helping hand?

How should I structure my literature review?

Unfortunately, there’s no generic universal answer for this one. The structure of your literature review will depend largely on your topic area and your research aims and objectives.

You could potentially structure your literature review chapter according to theme, group, variables , chronologically or per concepts in your field of research. We explain the main approaches to structuring your literature review here . You can also download a copy of our free literature review template to help you establish an initial structure.

In general, it’s also a good idea to start wide (i.e. the big-picture-level) and then narrow down, ending your literature review close to your research questions . However, there’s no universal one “right way” to structure your literature review. The most important thing is not to discuss your sources one after the other like a list – as we touched on earlier, your literature review needs to synthesise the research , not summarise it .

Ultimately, you need to craft your literature review so that it conveys the most important information effectively – it needs to tell a logical story in a digestible way. It’s no use starting off with highly technical terms and then only explaining what these terms mean later. Always assume your reader is not a subject matter expert and hold their hand through a journe y of the literature while keeping the functions of the literature review chapter (which we discussed earlier) front of mind.

Example of a literature review

In the video below, we walk you through a high-quality literature review from a dissertation that earned full distinction. This will give you a clearer view of what a strong literature review looks like in practice and hopefully provide some inspiration for your own. 

Wrapping Up

In this post, we’ve (hopefully) answered the question, “ what is a literature review? “. We’ve also considered the purpose and functions of the literature review, as well as how to find literature and how to structure the literature review chapter. If you’re keen to learn more, check out the literature review section of the Grad Coach blog , as well as our detailed video post covering how to write a literature review . 

Psst… there’s more!

This post is an extract from our bestselling short course, Literature Review Bootcamp . If you want to work smart, you don't want to miss this .

16 Comments

Thanks for this review. It narrates what’s not been taught as tutors are always in a early to finish their classes.

Thanks for the kind words, Becky. Good luck with your literature review 🙂

This website is amazing, it really helps break everything down. Thank you, I would have been lost without it.

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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
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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.

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Library Guide to Capstone Literature Reviews: Library Guide to Capstone Literature Reviews

The role of the literature review.

Your literature review gives readers an understanding of the scholarly research on your topic.

In your literature review you will:

• demonstrate that you are a well-informed scholar with expertise and knowledge in the field by giving an overview of the current state of the literature
• find a gap in the literature, or address a business or professional issue, depending on your doctoral study program; the literature review will illustrate how your research contributes to the scholarly conversation
• provide a synthesis of the issues, trends, and concepts surrounding your research

Be aware that the literature review is an iterative process. As you read and write initial drafts, you will find new threads and complementary themes, at which point you will return to search, find out about these new themes, and incorporate them into your review.

The purpose of this guide is to help you through the literature review process. Take some time to look over the resources in order to become familiar with them. The tabs on the left side of this page have additional information.

Short video: Research for the Literature Review

Short Video: Research for the Literature Review

(4 min 10 sec) Recorded August 2019 Transcript 

Literature review as a dinner party

To think about the role of the literature review, consider this analogy:  pretend that you throw a dinner party for the other researchers working in your topic area. First, you’d need to develop a guest list.

• The guests of honor would be early researchers or theorists; their work likely inspired subsequent studies, ideas, or controversies that the current researchers pursue.
• Then, think about the important current researchers to invite. Which guests might agree with each other?  Which others might provide useful counterpoints?
• You likely won’t be able to include everyone on the guest list, so you may need to choose carefully so that you don’t leave important figures out. 
• Alternatively, if there aren’t many researchers working in your topic area, then your guest list will need to include people working in other, related areas, who can still contribute to the conversation.

After the party, you describe the evening to a friend. You’ll summarize the evening’s conversation. Perhaps one guest made a comment that sparked a conversation, and then you describe who responded and how the topic evolved. There are other conversations to share, too. This is how you synthesize the themes and developments that you find in your research. Thinking about your literature research this way will help you to present your dinner party (and your literature review) in a lively and engaging way.

Short video: Empirical research

Video: How to locate and identify empirical research for your literature review

(6 min 16 sec) Recorded May 2020 Transcript 

Here are some useful resources from the Writing Center, the Office of Research and Doctoral Services, and other departments within the Office of Academic Support. Take some time to look at what is available to help you with your capstone/dissertation.

• Familiarize yourself with Walden support
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You can watch recorded webinars on the literature review in our Library Webinar Archives .

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What is Literature Review? Importance, Functions, Process,

• Post last modified: 13 August 2023
• Reading time: 12 mins read
• Post category: Research Methodology

What is Literature Review?

A literature review is a critical and comprehensive analysis of existing research, studies, articles, books, and other relevant sources on a specific topic or subject. It serves as a foundational step in the research process, helping researchers understand the current state of knowledge, identify gaps in the literature, and establish a context for their own study.

Table of Content

• 1 What is Literature Review?
• 2 Importance of a Literature Review
• 3 Functions of a Literature Review
• 4.1 Search the Existing Literature in Your Field of Interest
• 4.2 Review the Literature Obtained
• 4.3 Develop a Theoretical Framework
• 4.4 Write the Literature Review
• 5 How to Write a Literature Review
• 6 Types of Sources for Review

In most research reports or research papers, you will see that literature review is an essential element and it forms the basis for advancing knowledge, facilitates theory development, discovers new research areas and closes old ones. When researchers want to understand the management dilemma, they study various books, articles and all other available sources.

In the research reports, the researchers present a summary of their search, study and evaluation of the literature that is already available related to the research topic. When the researcher presents a summary of their study of present literature in addition to their analysis of how this literature is related to or essential for the current research report; then, this process is known as literature review.

For example, in a research paper titled ‘Attrition Analysis in a Leading Sales Organisation in India’, authored by Mamta Mohapatra (International Management Institute, New Delhi, India), Amisha Gupta (Birlasoft, New Delhi, India) and Nikita Lamba (Genpact, New Delhi, India), literature review is presented as follows:

Organisations and researchers usually conduct literature review in order to establish how their own research fits within the context of existing literature.

Apart from these, some other objectives of carrying out literature review are:

• Develop an understanding of how each source of literature helps in understanding the research problem
• Examine the interrelationships among different variables
• Find out ways to interpret earlier similar researches on the topic under study
• Rectify the conflicts that exist among previously conducted studies
• Get an idea regarding the required sample size
• Get an estimate of how much variance is there in the variables of interest
• Understand the type of relationship that exists among variables
• Determine the research method that can be used in the research

Importance of a Literature Review

There are various reasons for carrying out literature review. Majorly, literature review helps in:

• Assessing the current state and level of research on a given topic
• Identifying experts related to particular research
• Identifying questions that need further research and exploration
• Identifying what methodologies have been used in the related past studies and what methodology should be used in current research
• Justifying a proposed research methodology
• Indicating the originality and relevance of the given research problem
• Demonstrating the preparedness of a researcher to complete the research

Functions of a Literature Review

Some of the major functions of literature review are:

• Establishing a context for the research
• Demonstrating that the researcher has actually read related literature extensively and is aware of most theory and methodology related to the given research topic
• Providing a shape for the research under consideration
• Establishing a connection between what the researcher is proposing and what he has already read
• Demonstrating how the findings of researcher can be integrated with the already existing research findings.
• Revealing the differences or areas of gap between present and earlier research findings
• Improving researcher’s research methodology
• Expanding researcher’s knowledge base
• Ensuring that the researcher is carrying out new research that has not been carried out earlier

Process of a Literature Review

The second step in the research process is to carry out the review of already existing literature. Before engaging in literature review, the researcher must be clear as to what is the area and topic of research. There are four steps involved in the literature review process as shown in Figure:

Search the Existing Literature in Your Field of Interest

In the literature review process, the first step is to find out what research has already been done in the area that the researcher has chosen. This step involves preparing a list or bibliography of existing sources of relevant literature such as books, journals, abstracts of articles on your research topic, citation indices and digital libraries.

Review the Literature Obtained

After the researcher has identified related literature including journals, books, research papers, etc.; the next step is to study, evaluate and analyse the literature critically. This study of literature helps a researcher identify themes and issues related to the research topic.

An evaluation of literature helps in:

• Identifying the different theories and their criticism
• Identifying different methodologies used in different studies including their sample size, data used, measurement methods
• Assessing if the researcher’s theory is confirmed beyond doubt
• Preparing a list of different opinions of different researchers and researcher should also add his/her opinion about the validity of these different opinions

Develop a Theoretical Framework

Since carrying out literature review is a time-consuming activity but the researcher has to do it within a limited time. In order to do so, the researcher usually establishes a boundary and parameters for the research work. Also, the researcher must sort information obtained from all the sources of literature. For a researcher, the theoretical framework acts as a base on which he can further or extend his research. At times, the researchers may modify their research framework after analysing the available literature.

Write the Literature Review

The last step in literature review is to make a summary of all the literature that the researcher has studied and reviewed. Usually, writing a literature review starts with a write-up on the main theme of research followed by the important ideas on which the research would focus. After this, the all the major themes and sub-themes to be discussed are organised and related. This will help the researcher in structuring the literature review. The researcher should also identify and describe the theories and studies that are relevant for the study under consideration. The researcher should then list and describe all the gaps that are present in the current body of knowledge. In addition, the researcher may also explain the recent advances and trends in the given research field. To conclude, the researcher should compare and evaluate his findings on the basis of research assumptions, related research theories, hypotheses, applied research designs, variables selected and potential future work speculated by the researchers. Finally, the researcher must acknowledge, cite and quote all the sources that he/she has used in his research. One specific characteristic of literature review is that the researcher must ensure that he gives due credit to all people who have contributed in the research work.

How to Write a Literature Review

While writing the literature review, the researcher must adopt or adhere to certain strategies as follows:

• Establish a focus around the central theme and ideas of the research
• Describe what a reader can expect from the given research study
• Organise the literature research to include basic elements such as introduction, body and conclusions

Types of Sources for Review

A researcher usually uses secondary data for literature review. Some of the major and widely used sources for literature reviews include articles in professional journals, statistical data from government websites and website material from professional organisations.

Apart from the previously mentioned sources, certain other sources of data can also be used by researchers that provide them first-hand information that is important for the study. These sources include reports, theses, emails, letters, conference proceedings, company reports, autobiographies, official reports, research articles, etc.

Apart from these, the researcher may also refer to other such as review articles, academic journals, books, newspapers, documentaries, encyclopaedias, dictionaries, bibliographies and citation indexes.

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Literature Review: Purpose of a Literature Review

• Literature Review
• Purpose of a Literature Review
• Work in Progress
• Compiling & Writing
• Books, Articles, & Web Pages
• Types of Literature Reviews
• Departmental Differences
• Citation Styles & Plagiarism
• Know the Difference! Systematic Review vs. Literature Review

The purpose of a literature review is to:

• Provide a foundation of knowledge on a topic
• Identify areas of prior scholarship to prevent duplication and give credit to other researchers
• Identify inconstancies: gaps in research, conflicts in previous studies, open questions left from other research
• Identify the need for additional research (justifying your research)
• Identify the relationship of works in the context of their contribution to the topic and other works
• Place your own research within the context of existing literature, making a case for why further study is needed.

Videos & Tutorials

VIDEO: What is the role of a literature review in research? What's it mean to "review" the literature? Get the big picture of what to expect as part of the process. This video is published under a Creative Commons 3.0 BY-NC-SA US license. License, credits, and contact information can be found here: https://www.lib.ncsu.edu/tutorials/litreview/

Elements in a Literature Review

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What is a Literature Review? How to Write It (with Examples)

A literature review is a critical analysis and synthesis of existing research on a particular topic. It provides an overview of the current state of knowledge, identifies gaps, and highlights key findings in the literature. 1 The purpose of a literature review is to situate your own research within the context of existing scholarship, demonstrating your understanding of the topic and showing how your work contributes to the ongoing conversation in the field. Learning how to write a literature review is a critical tool for successful research. Your ability to summarize and synthesize prior research pertaining to a certain topic demonstrates your grasp on the topic of study, and assists in the learning process. 

Table of Contents

• What is the purpose of literature review? 
• a. Habitat Loss and Species Extinction: 
• b. Range Shifts and Phenological Changes: 
• c. Ocean Acidification and Coral Reefs: 
• d. Adaptive Strategies and Conservation Efforts: 

How to write a good literature review 

• Choose a Topic and Define the Research Question: 
• Decide on the Scope of Your Review: 
• Select Databases for Searches: 
• Conduct Searches and Keep Track: 
• Review the Literature: 
• Organize and Write Your Literature Review: 
• How to write a literature review faster with Paperpal? 
• Frequently asked questions 

What is a literature review?

A well-conducted literature review demonstrates the researcher’s familiarity with the existing literature, establishes the context for their own research, and contributes to scholarly conversations on the topic. One of the purposes of a literature review is also to help researchers avoid duplicating previous work and ensure that their research is informed by and builds upon the existing body of knowledge.

What is the purpose of literature review?

A literature review serves several important purposes within academic and research contexts. Here are some key objectives and functions of a literature review: 2  

1. Contextualizing the Research Problem: The literature review provides a background and context for the research problem under investigation. It helps to situate the study within the existing body of knowledge. 

2. Identifying Gaps in Knowledge: By identifying gaps, contradictions, or areas requiring further research, the researcher can shape the research question and justify the significance of the study. This is crucial for ensuring that the new research contributes something novel to the field. 

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3. Understanding Theoretical and Conceptual Frameworks: Literature reviews help researchers gain an understanding of the theoretical and conceptual frameworks used in previous studies. This aids in the development of a theoretical framework for the current research. 

4. Providing Methodological Insights: Another purpose of literature reviews is that it allows researchers to learn about the methodologies employed in previous studies. This can help in choosing appropriate research methods for the current study and avoiding pitfalls that others may have encountered. 

5. Establishing Credibility: A well-conducted literature review demonstrates the researcher’s familiarity with existing scholarship, establishing their credibility and expertise in the field. It also helps in building a solid foundation for the new research. 

6. Informing Hypotheses or Research Questions: The literature review guides the formulation of hypotheses or research questions by highlighting relevant findings and areas of uncertainty in existing literature. 

Literature review example

Let’s delve deeper with a literature review example: Let’s say your literature review is about the impact of climate change on biodiversity. You might format your literature review into sections such as the effects of climate change on habitat loss and species extinction, phenological changes, and marine biodiversity. Each section would then summarize and analyze relevant studies in those areas, highlighting key findings and identifying gaps in the research. The review would conclude by emphasizing the need for further research on specific aspects of the relationship between climate change and biodiversity. The following literature review template provides a glimpse into the recommended literature review structure and content, demonstrating how research findings are organized around specific themes within a broader topic. 

Literature Review on Climate Change Impacts on Biodiversity:

Climate change is a global phenomenon with far-reaching consequences, including significant impacts on biodiversity. This literature review synthesizes key findings from various studies: 

a. Habitat Loss and Species Extinction:

Climate change-induced alterations in temperature and precipitation patterns contribute to habitat loss, affecting numerous species (Thomas et al., 2004). The review discusses how these changes increase the risk of extinction, particularly for species with specific habitat requirements. 

b. Range Shifts and Phenological Changes:

Observations of range shifts and changes in the timing of biological events (phenology) are documented in response to changing climatic conditions (Parmesan & Yohe, 2003). These shifts affect ecosystems and may lead to mismatches between species and their resources. 

c. Ocean Acidification and Coral Reefs:

The review explores the impact of climate change on marine biodiversity, emphasizing ocean acidification’s threat to coral reefs (Hoegh-Guldberg et al., 2007). Changes in pH levels negatively affect coral calcification, disrupting the delicate balance of marine ecosystems. 

d. Adaptive Strategies and Conservation Efforts:

Recognizing the urgency of the situation, the literature review discusses various adaptive strategies adopted by species and conservation efforts aimed at mitigating the impacts of climate change on biodiversity (Hannah et al., 2007). It emphasizes the importance of interdisciplinary approaches for effective conservation planning. 

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Writing a literature review involves summarizing and synthesizing existing research on a particular topic. A good literature review format should include the following elements. 

Introduction: The introduction sets the stage for your literature review, providing context and introducing the main focus of your review. 

• Opening Statement: Begin with a general statement about the broader topic and its significance in the field. 
• Scope and Purpose: Clearly define the scope of your literature review. Explain the specific research question or objective you aim to address. 
• Organizational Framework: Briefly outline the structure of your literature review, indicating how you will categorize and discuss the existing research. 
• Significance of the Study: Highlight why your literature review is important and how it contributes to the understanding of the chosen topic. 
• Thesis Statement: Conclude the introduction with a concise thesis statement that outlines the main argument or perspective you will develop in the body of the literature review. 

Body: The body of the literature review is where you provide a comprehensive analysis of existing literature, grouping studies based on themes, methodologies, or other relevant criteria. 

• Organize by Theme or Concept: Group studies that share common themes, concepts, or methodologies. Discuss each theme or concept in detail, summarizing key findings and identifying gaps or areas of disagreement. 
• Critical Analysis: Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of each study. Discuss the methodologies used, the quality of evidence, and the overall contribution of each work to the understanding of the topic. 
• Synthesis of Findings: Synthesize the information from different studies to highlight trends, patterns, or areas of consensus in the literature. 
• Identification of Gaps: Discuss any gaps or limitations in the existing research and explain how your review contributes to filling these gaps. 
• Transition between Sections: Provide smooth transitions between different themes or concepts to maintain the flow of your literature review. 

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Conclusion: The conclusion of your literature review should summarize the main findings, highlight the contributions of the review, and suggest avenues for future research. 

• Summary of Key Findings: Recap the main findings from the literature and restate how they contribute to your research question or objective. 
• Contributions to the Field: Discuss the overall contribution of your literature review to the existing knowledge in the field. 
• Implications and Applications: Explore the practical implications of the findings and suggest how they might impact future research or practice. 
• Recommendations for Future Research: Identify areas that require further investigation and propose potential directions for future research in the field. 
• Final Thoughts: Conclude with a final reflection on the importance of your literature review and its relevance to the broader academic community. 

Conducting a literature review

Conducting a literature review is an essential step in research that involves reviewing and analyzing existing literature on a specific topic. It’s important to know how to do a literature review effectively, so here are the steps to follow: 1  

Choose a Topic and Define the Research Question:

• Select a topic that is relevant to your field of study. 
• Clearly define your research question or objective. Determine what specific aspect of the topic do you want to explore? 

Decide on the Scope of Your Review:

• Determine the timeframe for your literature review. Are you focusing on recent developments, or do you want a historical overview? 
• Consider the geographical scope. Is your review global, or are you focusing on a specific region? 
• Define the inclusion and exclusion criteria. What types of sources will you include? Are there specific types of studies or publications you will exclude? 

Select Databases for Searches:

• Identify relevant databases for your field. Examples include PubMed, IEEE Xplore, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar. 
• Consider searching in library catalogs, institutional repositories, and specialized databases related to your topic. 

Conduct Searches and Keep Track:

• Develop a systematic search strategy using keywords, Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT), and other search techniques. 
• Record and document your search strategy for transparency and replicability. 
• Keep track of the articles, including publication details, abstracts, and links. Use citation management tools like EndNote, Zotero, or Mendeley to organize your references. 

Review the Literature:

• Evaluate the relevance and quality of each source. Consider the methodology, sample size, and results of studies. 
• Organize the literature by themes or key concepts. Identify patterns, trends, and gaps in the existing research. 
• Summarize key findings and arguments from each source. Compare and contrast different perspectives. 
• Identify areas where there is a consensus in the literature and where there are conflicting opinions. 
• Provide critical analysis and synthesis of the literature. What are the strengths and weaknesses of existing research? 

Organize and Write Your Literature Review:

• Literature review outline should be based on themes, chronological order, or methodological approaches. 
• Write a clear and coherent narrative that synthesizes the information gathered. 
• Use proper citations for each source and ensure consistency in your citation style (APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.). 
• Conclude your literature review by summarizing key findings, identifying gaps, and suggesting areas for future research. 

Whether you’re exploring a new research field or finding new angles to develop an existing topic, sifting through hundreds of papers can take more time than you have to spare. But what if you could find science-backed insights with verified citations in seconds? That’s the power of Paperpal’s new Research feature!  

How to write a literature review faster with Paperpal?

Paperpal, an AI writing assistant, integrates powerful academic search capabilities within its writing platform. With the Research feature, you get 100% factual insights, with citations backed by 250M+ verified research articles, directly within your writing interface with the option to save relevant references in your Citation Library. By eliminating the need to switch tabs to find answers to all your research questions, Paperpal saves time and helps you stay focused on your writing.   

Here’s how to use the Research feature:  

• Ask a question: Get started with a new document on paperpal.com. Click on the “Research” feature and type your question in plain English. Paperpal will scour over 250 million research articles, including conference papers and preprints, to provide you with accurate insights and citations. 
• Review and Save: Paperpal summarizes the information, while citing sources and listing relevant reads. You can quickly scan the results to identify relevant references and save these directly to your built-in citations library for later access. 
• Cite with Confidence: Paperpal makes it easy to incorporate relevant citations and references into your writing, ensuring your arguments are well-supported by credible sources. This translates to a polished, well-researched literature review. 

The literature review sample and detailed advice on writing and conducting a review will help you produce a well-structured report. But remember that a good literature review is an ongoing process, and it may be necessary to revisit and update it as your research progresses. By combining effortless research with an easy citation process, Paperpal Research streamlines the literature review process and empowers you to write faster and with more confidence. Try Paperpal Research now and see for yourself.  

Frequently asked questions

A literature review is a critical and comprehensive analysis of existing literature (published and unpublished works) on a specific topic or research question and provides a synthesis of the current state of knowledge in a particular field. A well-conducted literature review is crucial for researchers to build upon existing knowledge, avoid duplication of efforts, and contribute to the advancement of their field. It also helps researchers situate their work within a broader context and facilitates the development of a sound theoretical and conceptual framework for their studies.

Literature review is a crucial component of research writing, providing a solid background for a research paper’s investigation. The aim is to keep professionals up to date by providing an understanding of ongoing developments within a specific field, including research methods, and experimental techniques used in that field, and present that knowledge in the form of a written report. Also, the depth and breadth of the literature review emphasizes the credibility of the scholar in his or her field.  

Before writing a literature review, it’s essential to undertake several preparatory steps to ensure that your review is well-researched, organized, and focused. This includes choosing a topic of general interest to you and doing exploratory research on that topic, writing an annotated bibliography, and noting major points, especially those that relate to the position you have taken on the topic. 

Literature reviews and academic research papers are essential components of scholarly work but serve different purposes within the academic realm. 3 A literature review aims to provide a foundation for understanding the current state of research on a particular topic, identify gaps or controversies, and lay the groundwork for future research. Therefore, it draws heavily from existing academic sources, including books, journal articles, and other scholarly publications. In contrast, an academic research paper aims to present new knowledge, contribute to the academic discourse, and advance the understanding of a specific research question. Therefore, it involves a mix of existing literature (in the introduction and literature review sections) and original data or findings obtained through research methods. 

Literature reviews are essential components of academic and research papers, and various strategies can be employed to conduct them effectively. If you want to know how to write a literature review for a research paper, here are four common approaches that are often used by researchers.  Chronological Review: This strategy involves organizing the literature based on the chronological order of publication. It helps to trace the development of a topic over time, showing how ideas, theories, and research have evolved.  Thematic Review: Thematic reviews focus on identifying and analyzing themes or topics that cut across different studies. Instead of organizing the literature chronologically, it is grouped by key themes or concepts, allowing for a comprehensive exploration of various aspects of the topic.  Methodological Review: This strategy involves organizing the literature based on the research methods employed in different studies. It helps to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of various methodologies and allows the reader to evaluate the reliability and validity of the research findings.  Theoretical Review: A theoretical review examines the literature based on the theoretical frameworks used in different studies. This approach helps to identify the key theories that have been applied to the topic and assess their contributions to the understanding of the subject.  It’s important to note that these strategies are not mutually exclusive, and a literature review may combine elements of more than one approach. The choice of strategy depends on the research question, the nature of the literature available, and the goals of the review. Additionally, other strategies, such as integrative reviews or systematic reviews, may be employed depending on the specific requirements of the research.

The literature review format can vary depending on the specific publication guidelines. However, there are some common elements and structures that are often followed. Here is a general guideline for the format of a literature review:  Introduction:   Provide an overview of the topic.  Define the scope and purpose of the literature review.  State the research question or objective.  Body:   Organize the literature by themes, concepts, or chronology.  Critically analyze and evaluate each source.  Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the studies.  Highlight any methodological limitations or biases.  Identify patterns, connections, or contradictions in the existing research.  Conclusion:   Summarize the key points discussed in the literature review.  Highlight the research gap.  Address the research question or objective stated in the introduction.  Highlight the contributions of the review and suggest directions for future research.

Both annotated bibliographies and literature reviews involve the examination of scholarly sources. While annotated bibliographies focus on individual sources with brief annotations, literature reviews provide a more in-depth, integrated, and comprehensive analysis of existing literature on a specific topic. The key differences are as follows: 

References 

• Denney, A. S., & Tewksbury, R. (2013). How to write a literature review.  Journal of criminal justice education ,  24 (2), 218-234. 
• Pan, M. L. (2016).  Preparing literature reviews: Qualitative and quantitative approaches . Taylor & Francis. 
• Cantero, C. (2019). How to write a literature review.  San José State University Writing Center . 

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The objective of a literature review

Questions to Consider

B. In some fields or contexts, a literature review is referred to as the introduction or the background; why is this true, and does it matter?

The elements of a literature review • The first step in scholarly research is determining the “state of the art” on a topic. This is accomplished by gathering academic research and making sense of it. • The academic literature can be found in scholarly books and journals; the goal is to discover recurring themes, find the latest data, and identify any missing pieces. • The resulting literature review organizes the research in such a way that tells a story about the topic or issue.

The literature review tells a story in which one well-paraphrased summary from a relevant source contributes to and connects with the next in a logical manner, developing and fulfilling the message of the author. It includes analysis of the arguments from the literature, as well as revealing consistent and inconsistent findings. How do varying author insights differ from or conform to previous arguments?

Language in Action

A. How are the terms “critique” and “review” used in everyday life? How are they used in an academic context?

In terms of content, a literature review is intended to:

• Set up a theoretical framework for further research • Show a clear understanding of the key concepts/studies/models related to the topic • Demonstrate knowledge about the history of the research area and any related controversies • Clarify significant definitions and terminology • Develop a space in the existing work for new research

The literature consists of the published works that document a scholarly conversation or progression on a problem or topic in a field of study. Among these are documents that explain the background and show the loose ends in the established research on which a proposed project is based. Although a literature review focuses on primary, peer -reviewed resources, it may begin with background subject information generally found in secondary and tertiary sources such as books and encyclopedias. Following that essential overview, the seminal literature of the field is explored. As a result, while a literature review may consist of research articles tightly focused on a topic with secondary and tertiary sources used more sparingly, all three types of information (primary, secondary, tertiary) are critical.

The literature review, often referred to as the Background or Introduction to a research paper that presents methods, materials, results and discussion, exists in every field and serves many functions in research writing.

Adapted from Frederiksen, L., & Phelps, S. F. (2017). Literature Reviews for Education and Nursing Graduate Students. Open Textbook Library

Review and Reinforce

Two common approaches are simply outlined here. Which seems more common? Which more productive? Why? A. Forward exploration 1. Sources on a topic or problem are gathered. 2. Salient themes are discovered. 3. Research gaps are considered for future research. B. Backward exploration 1. Sources pertaining to an existing research project are gathered. 2. The justification of the research project’s methods or materials are explained and supported based on previously documented research.

Media Attributions

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Sourcing, summarizing, and synthesizing:  Skills for effective research writing  Copyright © 2023 by Wendy L. McBride is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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How to write a Literature Review: Purpose of a literature review

• Literature review process
• Purpose of a literature review
• Evaluating sources
• Managing sources
• Request a literature search
• Selecting the approach to use
• Quantitative vs qualitative method
• Summary of different research methodologies
• Research design vs research methodology
• Diagram: importance of research
• Attributes of a good research scholar

Books on writing a literature review

by Diana Ridley     by Dave Harris Conducting your literature review  by Susanne Hempel The purpose of a literature review Conducting a literature review is a means of demonstrating the  author’s knowledge  about a particular field of study, including vocabulary, theories, key variables and phenomena, and its methods and history. Conducting a literature review also informs the student of the  influential researchers and research groups  in the field (Randolph, 2009). Literature reviews: report on  knowledge and ideas  that have been established on a particular topic, including their  strengths and weaknesses  while they allow you to discover the agreed academic opinion on the topic while at the same time letting you find out the disagreements on the same subject. position your research project within the body of literature and thereby  provide perspective  for the reader. demonstrate  your knowledge  of the subject area. determine what each source contributes to the topic. understand the  relationship between the various contributions , identify and (if possible) resolve contradictions, and determine gaps or unanswered questions. justify your  choice of research design ; for instance, your choice of qualitative over quantitative approaches, or your method of data analysis. clarify how your work fills a  gap  in the scholarly literature. Writing a literature review also allows you to: gain expertise in the ability to scan the literature on a particular topic efficiently, and hone your skills in identifying and analysing unbiased and valid data on various topics or fields of study. Source: Randolph, J.J. 2009.  A guide to writing the dissertation literature review .  Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation . 14 (13): 1-13. A literature review is meant to help you to ... Source: Hart, C. 1998. Doing a literature review: releasing the social science research imagination.  London: Sage, p 27. S helf No: 300.72 HART Video clips from the Internet Click on the  links  below for video clips on how to write literature reviews: Honours & Postgraduate Diplomas workshop - Writing the Literature Review - Dr Thuli Shandu Phetla (Unisa) Literature Review: step by step guide to writing an effective literature review How to write a Literature Review in 30 minutes or less  How to Write a Literature Review in 3 Simple Steps Literature Review in 5 mins Literature Review & Theoretical Framework - Dr KS Malatji Books on writing a liteature review Doing a systematic literature review in legal scholarship  by Marnix Snel and Janaína de Moraes 340.072 SNEL Doing a literature review in nursing, health and social care  by  Michael Coughlan & Patricia Cronin 610.73072 COUG 7 steps to a comprehensive literature review : a multimodal & cultural approach by Anthony J. Onwuegbuzie & Rebecca Frels 001.42 ONWU Writing the literature review : a practical guide  by Sara Efrat Efron & Ruth Ravid 808.02 EFRO << Previous: Literature review process Next: Evaluating sources >> Last Updated: Aug 22, 2024 3:46 PM URL: https://libguides.unisa.ac.za/literature_review Chapter 9. Reviewing the Literature What is a “literature review”. No researcher ever comes up with a research question that is wholly novel. Someone, somewhere, has asked the same thing. Academic research is part of a larger community of researchers, and it is your responsibility, as a member of this community, to acknowledge others who have asked similar questions and to put your particular research into this greater context. It is not simply a convention or custom to begin your study with a review of previous literature (the “ lit review ”) but an important responsibility you owe the scholarly community. Too often, new researchers pursue a topic to study and then write something like, “No one has ever studied this before” or “This area is underresearched.” It may be that no one has studied this particular group or setting, but it is highly unlikely no one has studied the foundational phenomenon of interest. And that comment about an area being underresearched? Be careful. The statement may simply signal to others that you haven’t done your homework. Rubin ( 2021 ) refers to this as “free soloing,” and it is not appreciated in academic work: The truth of the matter is, academics don’t really like when people free solo. It’s really bad form to omit talking about the other people who are doing or have done research in your area. Partly, I mean we need to cite their work, but I also mean we need to respond to it—agree or disagree, clarify for extend. It’s also really bad form to talk about your research in a way that does not make it understandable to other academics.…You have to explain to your readers what your story is really about in terms they care about . This means using certain terminology, referencing debates in the literature, and citing relevant works—that is, in connecting your work to something else. ( 51–52 ) A literature review is a comprehensive summary of previous research on a topic. It includes both articles and books—and in some cases reports—relevant to a particular area of research. Ideally, one’s research question follows from the reading of what has already been produced. For example, you are interested in studying sports injuries related to female gymnasts. You read everything you can find on sports injuries related to female gymnasts, and you begin to get a sense of what questions remain open. You find that there is a lot of research on how coaches manage sports injuries and much about cultures of silence around treating injuries, but you don’t know what the gymnasts themselves are thinking about these issues. You look specifically for studies about this and find several, which then pushes you to narrow the question further. Your literature review then provides the road map of how you came to your very specific question, and it puts your study in the context of studies of sports injuries. What you eventually find can “speak to” all the related questions as well as your particular one. In practice, the process is often a bit messier. Many researchers, and not simply those starting out, begin with a particular question and have a clear idea of who they want to study and where they want to conduct their study but don’t really know much about other studies at all. Although backward, we need to recognize this is pretty common. Telling students to “find literature” after the fact can seem like a purposeless task or just another hurdle for completing a thesis or dissertation. It is not! Even if you were not motivated by the literature in the first place, acknowledging similar studies and connecting your own research to those studies are important parts of building knowledge. Acknowledgment of past research is a responsibility you owe the discipline to which you belong. Literature reviews can also signal theoretical approaches and particular concepts that you will incorporate into your own study. For example, let us say you are doing a study of how people find their first jobs after college, and you want to use the concept of social capital . There are competing definitions of social capital out there (e.g., Bourdieu vs. Burt vs. Putnam). Bourdieu’s notion is of one form of capital, or durable asset, of a “network of more or less institutionalized relationships of mutual acquaintance or recognition” ( 1984:248 ). Burt emphasizes the “brokerage opportunities” in a social network as social capital ( 1997:355 ). Putnam’s social capital is all about “facilitating coordination and cooperation for mutual benefit” ( 2001:67 ). Your literature review can adjudicate among these three approaches, or it can simply refer to the one that is animating your own research. If you include Bourdieu in your literature review, readers will know “what kind” of social capital you are talking about as well as what kind of social scientist you yourself are. They will likely understand that you are interested more in how some people are advantaged by their social capital relative to others rather than being interested in the mechanics of how social networks operate. The literature review thus does two important things for you: firstly, it allows you to acknowledge previous research in your area of interest, thereby situating you within a discipline or body of scholars, and, secondly, it demonstrates that you know what you are talking about. If you present the findings of your research study without including a literature review, it can be like singing into the wind. It sounds nice, but no one really hears it, or if they do catch snippets, they don’t know where it is coming from. Examples of Literature Reviews To help you get a grasp of what a good literature review looks like and how it can advance your study, let’s take a look at a few examples. Reader-Friendly Example: The Power of Peers The first is by Janice McCabe ( 2016 ) and is from an article on peer networks in the journal Contexts . Contexts presents articles in a relatively reader-friendly format, with the goal of reaching a large audience for interesting sociological research. Read this example carefully and note how easily McCabe is able to convey the relevance of her own work by situating it in the context of previous studies: Scholars who study education have long acknowledged the importance of peers for students’ well-being and academic achievement. For example, in 1961, James Coleman argued that peer culture within high schools shapes students’ social and academic aspirations and successes. More recently, Judith Rich Harris has drawn on research in a range of areas—from sociological studies of preschool children to primatologists’ studies of chimpanzees and criminologists’ studies of neighborhoods—to argue that peers matter much more than parents in how children “turn out.” Researchers have explored students’ social lives in rich detail, as in Murray Milner’s book about high school students, Freaks, Geeks, and Cool Kids , and Elizabeth Armstrong and Laura Hamilton’s look at college students, Paying for the Party . These works consistently show that peers play a very important role in most students’ lives. They tend, however, to prioritize social over academic influence and to use a fuzzy conception of peers rather than focusing directly on friends—the relationships that should matter most for student success. Social scientists have also studied the power of peers through network analysis, which is based on uncovering the web of connections between people. Network analysis involves visually mapping networks and mathematically comparing their structures (such as the density of ties) and the positions of individuals within them (such as how central a given person is within the network). As Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler point out in their book Connected , network structure influences a range of outcomes, including health, happiness, wealth, weight, and emotions. Given that sociologists have long considered network explanations for social phenomena, it’s surprising that we know little about how college students’ friends impact their experiences. In line with this network tradition, I focus on the structure of friendship networks, constructing network maps so that the differences we see across participants are due to the underlying structure, including each participant’s centrality in their friendship group and the density of ties among their friends. ( 23 ) What did you notice? In her very second sentence, McCabe uses “for example” to introduce a study by Coleman, thereby indicating that she is not going to tell you every single study in this area but is going to tell you that (1) there is a lot of research in this area, (2) it has been going on since at least 1961, and (3) it is still relevant (i.e., recent studies are still being done now). She ends her first paragraph by summarizing the body of literature in this area (after giving you a few examples) and then telling you what may have been (so far) left out of this research. In the second paragraph, she shifts to a separate interesting focus that is related to the first but is also quite distinct. Lit reviews very often include two (or three) distinct strands of literature, the combination of which nicely backgrounds this particular study . In the case of our female gymnast study (above), those two strands might be (1) cultures of silence around sports injuries and (2) the importance of coaches. McCabe concludes her short and sweet literature review with one sentence explaining how she is drawing from both strands of the literature she has succinctly presented for her particular study. This example should show you that literature reviews can be readable, helpful, and powerful additions to your final presentation. Authoritative Academic Journal Example: Working Class Students’ College Expectations The second example is more typical of academic journal writing. It is an article published in the British Journal of Sociology of Education by Wolfgang Lehmann ( 2009 ): Although this increase in post-secondary enrolment and the push for university is evident across gender, race, ethnicity, and social class categories, access to university in Canada continues to be significantly constrained for those from lower socio-economic backgrounds (Finnie, Lascelles, and Sweetman 2005). Rising tuition fees coupled with an overestimation of the cost and an underestimation of the benefits of higher education has put university out of reach for many young people from low-income families (Usher 2005). Financial constraints aside, empirical studies in Canada have shown that the most important predictor of university access is parental educational attainment. Having at least one parent with a university degree significantly increases the likelihood of a young person to attend academic-track courses in high school, have high educational and career aspirations, and ultimately attend university (Andres et al. 1999, 2000; Lehmann 2007a). Drawing on Bourdieu’s various writing on habitus and class-based dispositions (see, for example, Bourdieu 1977, 1990), Hodkinson and Sparkes (1997) explain career decisions as neither determined nor completely rational. Instead, they are based on personal experiences (e.g., through employment or other exposure to occupations) and advice from others. Furthermore, they argue that we have to understand these decisions as pragmatic, rather than rational. They are pragmatic in that they are based on incomplete and filtered information, because of the social context in which the information is obtained and processed. New experiences and information can, however, also be allowed into one’s world, where they gradually or radically transform habitus, which in turn creates the possibility for the formation of new and different dispositions. Encountering a supportive teacher in elementary or secondary school, having ambitious friends, or chance encounters can spark such transformations. Transformations can be confirming or contradictory, they can be evolutionary or dislocating. Working-class students who enter university most certainly encounter such potentially transformative situations. Granfield (1991) has shown how initially dislocating feelings of inadequacy and inferiority of working-class students at an elite US law school were eventually replaced by an evolutionary transformation, in which the students came to dress, speak and act more like their middle-class and upper-class peers. In contrast, Lehmann (2007b) showed how persistent habitus dislocation led working-class university students to drop out of university. Foskett and Hemsley-Brown (1999) argue that young people’s perceptions of careers are a complex mix of their own experiences, images conveyed through adults, and derived images conveyed by the media. Media images of careers, perhaps, are even more important for working-class youth with high ambitions as they offer (generally distorted) windows into a world of professional employment to which they have few other sources of access. It has also been argued that working-class youth who do continue to university still face unique, class-specific challenges, evident in higher levels of uncertainty (Baxter and Britton 2001; Lehmann 2004, 2007a; Quinn 2004), their higher education choices (Ball et al. 2002; Brooks 2003; Reay et al. 2001) and fears of inadequacy because of their cultural outsider status (Aries and Seider 2005; Granfield 1991). Although the number of working-class university students in Canada has slowly increased, that of middle-class students at university has risen far more steeply (Knighton and Mizra 2002). These different enrolment trajectories have actually widened the participation gap, which in tum explains our continued concerns with the potential outsider status Indeed, in a study comparing first-generation working-class and traditional students who left university without graduating, Lehmann (2007b) found that first-generation working-class students were more likely to leave university very early in some cases within the first two months of enrollment. They were also more likely to leave university despite solid academic performance. Not “fitting in,” not “feeling university,” and not being able to “relate to these people” were key reasons for eventually withdrawing from university. From the preceding review of the literature, a number of key research questions arise: How do working-class university students frame their decision to attend university? How do they defy the considerable odds documented in the literature to attend university? What are the sources of information and various images that create dispositions to study at university? What role does their social-class background- or habitus play in their transition dispositions and how does this translate into expectations for university? ( 139 ) What did you notice here? How is this different from (and similar to) the first example? Note that rather than provide you with one or two illustrative examples of similar types of research, Lehmann provides abundant source citations throughout. He includes theory and concepts too. Like McCabe, Lehmann is weaving through multiple literature strands: the class gap in higher education participation in Canada, class-based dispositions, and obstacles facing working-class college students. Note how he concludes the literature review by placing his research questions in context. Find other articles of interest and read their literature reviews carefully. I’ve included two more for you at the end of this chapter . As you learned how to diagram a sentence in elementary school (hopefully!), try diagramming the literature reviews. What are the “different strands” of research being discussed? How does the author connect these strands to their own research questions? Where is theory in the lit review, and how is it incorporated (e.g., Is it a separate strand of its own or is it inextricably linked with previous research in this area)? One model of how to structure your literature review can be found in table 9.1. More tips, hints, and practices will be discussed later in the chapter. Table 9.1. Model of Literature Review, Adopted from Calarco (2020:166) What we know about some issue Lays the foundation for your What we don't know about that issue Lays foundation for your Why that unanswered question is important to ask Hints at of your study What existing research tells us about the best way to answer that unanswered question Lays foundation for justifying your What existing research might predict as the answer to the question Justifies your "hypothesis" or Embracing Theory A good research study will, in some form or another, use theory. Depending on your particular study (and possibly the preferences of the members of your committee), theory may be built into your literature review. Or it may form its own section in your research proposal/design (e.g., “literature review” followed by “theoretical framework”). In my own experience, I see a lot of graduate students grappling with the requirement to “include theory” in their research proposals. Things get a little squiggly here because there are different ways of incorporating theory into a study (Are you testing a theory? Are you generating a theory?), and based on these differences, your literature review proper may include works that describe, explain, and otherwise set forth theories, concepts, or frameworks you are interested in, or it may not do this at all. Sometimes a literature review sets forth what we know about a particular group or culture totally independent of what kinds of theoretical framework or particular concepts you want to explore. Indeed, the big point of your study might be to bring together a body of work with a theory that has never been applied to it previously. All this is to say that there is no one correct way to approach the use of theory and the writing about theory in your research proposal. Students are often scared of embracing theory because they do not exactly understand what it is. Sometimes, it seems like an arbitrary requirement. You’re interested in a topic; maybe you’ve even done some research in the area and you have findings you want to report. And then a committee member reads over what you have and asks, “So what?” This question is a good clue that you are missing theory, the part that connects what you have done to what other researchers have done and are doing. You might stumble upon this rather accidentally and not know you are embracing theory, as in a case where you seek to replicate a prior study under new circumstances and end up finding that a particular correlation between behaviors only happens when mediated by something else. There’s theory in there, if you can pull it out and articulate it. Or it might be that you are motivated to do more research on racial microaggressions because you want to document their frequency in a particular setting, taking for granted the kind of critical race theoretical framework that has done the hard work of defining and conceptualizing “microaggressions” in the first place. In that case, your literature review could be a review of Critical Race Theory, specifically related to this one important concept. That’s the way to bring your study into a broader conversation while also acknowledging (and honoring) the hard work that has preceded you. Rubin ( 2021 ) classifies ways of incorporating theory into case study research into four categories, each of which might be discussed somewhat differently in a literature review or theoretical framework section. The first, the least theoretical, is where you set out to study a “configurative idiographic case” ( 70 ) This is where you set out to describe a particular case, leaving yourself pretty much open to whatever you find. You are not expecting anything based on previous literature. This is actually pretty weak as far as research design goes, but it is probably the default for novice researchers. Your committee members should probably help you situate this in previous literature in some way or another. If they cannot, and it really does appear you are looking at something fairly new that no one else has bothered to research before, and you really are completely open to discovery, you might try using a Grounded Theory approach, which is a methodological approach that foregrounds the generation of theory. In that case, your “theory” section can be a discussion of “Grounded Theory” methodology (confusing, yes, but if you take some time to ponder, you will see how this works). You will still need a literature review, though. Ideally one that describes other studies that have ever looked at anything remotely like what you are looking at—parallel cases that have been researched. The second approach is the “disciplined configurative case,” in which theory is applied to explain a particular case or topic. You are not trying to test the theory but rather assuming the theory is correct, as in the case of exploring microaggressions in a particular setting. In this case, you really do need to have a separate theory section in addition to the literature review, one in which you clearly define the theoretical framework, including any of its important concepts. You can use this section to discuss how other researchers have used the concepts and note any discrepancies in definitions or operationalization of those concepts. This way you will be sure to design your study so that it speaks to and with other researchers. If everyone who is writing about microaggressions has a different definition of them, it is hard for others to compare findings or make any judgments about their prevalence (or any number of other important characteristics). Your literature review section may then stand alone and describe previous research in the particular area or setting, irrespective of the kinds of theory underlying those studies. The third approach is “heuristic,” one in which you seek to identify new variables, hypotheses, mechanisms, or paths not yet explained by a theory or theoretical framework. In a way, you are generating new theory, but it is probably more accurate to say that you are extending or deepening preexisting theory. In this case, having a single literature review that is focused on the theory and the ways the theory has been applied and understood (with all its various mechanisms and pathways) is probably your best option. The focus of the literature reviewed is less on the case and more on the theory you are seeking to extend. The final approach is “theory testing,” which is much rarer in qualitative studies than in quantitative, where this is the default approach. Theory-testing cases are those where a particular case is used to see if an existing theory is accurate or accurate under particular circumstances. As with the heuristic approach, your literature review will probably draw heavily on previous uses of the theory, but you may end up having a special section specifically about cases very close to your own . In other words, the more your study approaches theory testing, the more likely there is to be a set of similar studies to draw on or even one important key study that you are setting your own study up in parallel to in order to find out if the theory generated there operates here. If we wanted to get very technical, it might be useful to distinguish theoretical frameworks properly from conceptual frameworks. The latter are a bit looser and, given the nature of qualitative research, often fit exploratory studies. Theoretical frameworks rely on specific theories and are essential for theory-testing studies. Conceptual frameworks can pull in specific concepts or ideas that may or may not be linked to particular theories. Think about it this way: A theory is a story of how the world works. Concepts don’t presume to explain the whole world but instead are ways to approach phenomena to help make sense of them. Microaggressions are concepts that are linked to Critical Race Theory. One could contextualize one’s study within Critical Race Theory and then draw various concepts, such as that of microaggressions from the overall theoretical framework. Or one could bracket out the master theory or framework and employ the concept of microaggression more opportunistically as a phenomenon of interest. If you are unsure of what theory you are using, you might want to frame a more practical conceptual framework in your review of the literature. Helpful Tips How to maintain good notes for what your read. Over the years, I have developed various ways of organizing notes on what I read. At first, I used a single sheet of full-size paper with a preprinted list of questions and points clearly addressed on the front side, leaving the second side for more reflective comments and free-form musings about what I read, why it mattered, and how it might be useful for my research. Later, I developed a system in which I use a single 4″ × 6″ note card for each book I read. I try only to use the front side (and write very small), leaving the back for comments that are about not just this reading but things to do or examine or consider based on the reading. These notes often mean nothing to anyone else picking up the card, but they make sense to me. I encourage you to find an organizing system that works for you. Then when you set out to compose a literature review, instead of staring at five to ten books or a dozen articles, you will have ten neatly printed pages or notecards or files that have distilled what is important to know about your reading. It is also a good idea to store this data digitally, perhaps through a reference manager. I use RefWorks, but I also recommend EndNote or any other system that allows you to search institutional databases. Your campus library will probably provide access to one of these or another system. Most systems will allow you to export references from another manager if and when you decide to move to another system. Reference managers allow you to sort through all your literature by descriptor, author, year, and so on. Even so, I personally like to have the ability to manually sort through my index cards, recategorizing things I have read as I go. I use RefWorks to keep a record of what I have read, with proper citations, so I can create bibliographies more easily, and I do add in a few “notes” there, but the bulk of my notes are kept in longhand. What kinds of information should you include from your reading? Here are some bulleted suggestions from Calarco ( 2020:113–114 ), with my own emendations: Citation . If you are using a reference manager, you can import the citation and then, when you are ready to create a bibliography, you can use a provided menu of citation styles, which saves a lot of time. If you’ve originally formatted in Chicago Style but the journal you are writing for wants APA style, you can change your entire bibliography in less than a minute. When using a notecard for a book, I include author, title, date as well as the library call number (since most of what I read I pull from the library). This is something RefWorks is not able to do, and it helps when I categorize. I begin each notecard with an “intro” section, where I record the aims, goals, and general point of the book/article as explained in the introductory sections (which might be the preface, the acknowledgments, or the first two chapters). I then draw a bold line underneath this part of the notecard. Everything after that should be chapter specific. Included in this intro section are things such as the following, recommended by Calarco ( 2020 ): Key background . “Two to three short bullet points identifying the theory/prior research on which the authors are building and defining key terms.” Data/methods . “One or two short bullet points with information about the source of the data and the method of analysis, with a note if this is a novel or particularly effective example of that method.” I use [M] to signal methodology on my notecard, which might read, “[M] Int[erview]s (n-35), B[lack]/W[hite] voters” (I need shorthand to fit on my notecard!). Research question . “Stated as briefly as possible.” I always provide page numbers so I can go back and see exactly how this was stated (sometimes, in qualitative research, there are multiple research questions, and they cannot be stated simply). Argument/contributions . “Two to three short bullet points briefly describing the authors’ answer to the central research question and its implication for research, theory, and practice.” I use [ARG] for argument to signify the argument, and I make sure this is prominently visible on my notecard. I also provide page numbers here. For me, all of this fits in the “intro” section, which, if this is a theoretically rich, methodologically sound book, might take up a third or even half of the front page of my notecard. Beneath the bold underline, I report specific findings or particulars of the book as they emerge chapter by chapter. Calarco’s ( 2020 ) next step is the following: Key findings . “Three to four short bullet points identifying key patterns in the data that support the authors’ argument.” All that remains is writing down thoughts that occur upon finishing the article/book. I use the back of the notecard for these kinds of notes. Often, they reach out to other things I have read (e.g., “Robinson reminds me of Crusoe here in that both are looking at the effects of social isolation, but I think Robinson makes a stronger argument”). Calarco ( 2020 ) concludes similarly with the following: Unanswered questions . “Two to three short bullet points that identify key limitations of the research and/or questions the research did not answer that could be answered in future research.” As I mentioned, when I first began taking notes like this, I preprinted pages with prompts for “research question,” “argument,” and so on. This was a great way to remind myself to look for these things in particular. You can do the same, adding whatever preprinted sections make sense to you, given what you are studying and the important aspects of your discipline. The other nice thing about the preprinted forms is that it keeps your writing to a minimum—you cannot write more than the allotted space, even if you might want to, preventing your notes from spiraling out of control. This can be helpful when we are new to a subject and everything seems worth recording! After years of discipline, I have finally settled on my notecard approach. I have thousands of notecards, organized in several index card filing boxes stacked in my office. On the top right of each card is a note of the month/day I finished reading the item. I can remind myself what I read in the summer of 2010 if the need or desire ever arose to do so…those invaluable notecards are like a memento of what my brain has been up to! Where to Start Looking for Literature Your university library should provide access to one of several searchable databases for academic books and articles. My own preference is JSTOR, a service of ITHAKA, a not-for-profit organization that works to advance and preserve knowledge and to improve teaching and learning through the use of digital technologies. JSTOR allows you to search by several keywords and to narrow your search by type of material (articles or books). For many disciplines, the “literature” of the literature review is expected to be peer-reviewed “articles,” but some disciplines will also value books and book chapters. JSTOR is particularly useful for article searching. You can submit several keywords and see what is returned, and you can also narrow your search by a particular journal or discipline. If your discipline has one or two key journals (e.g., the American Journal of Sociology and the American Sociological Review are key for sociology), you might want to go directly to those journals’ websites and search for your topic area. There is an art to when to cast your net widely and when to refine your search, and you may have to tack back and forth to ensure that you are getting all that is relevant but not getting bogged down in all studies that might have some marginal relevance. Some articles will carry more weight than others, and you can use applications like Google Scholar to see which articles have made and are continuing to make larger impacts on your discipline. Find these articles and read them carefully; use their literature review and the sources cited in those articles to make sure you are capturing what is relevant. This is actually a really good way of finding relevant books—only the most impactful will make it into the citations of journals. Over time, you will notice that a handful of articles (or books) are cited so often that when you see, say, Armstrong and Hamilton ( 2015 ), you know exactly what book this is without looking at the full cite. This is when you know you are in the conversation. You might also approach a professor whose work is broadly in the area of your interest and ask them to recommend one or two “important” foundational articles or books. You can then use the references cited in those recommendations to build up your literature. Just be careful: some older professors’ knowledge of the literature (and I reluctantly add myself here) may be a bit outdated! It is best that the article or book whose references and sources you use to build your body of literature be relatively current. Keep a List of Your Keywords When using searchable databases, it is a good idea to keep a list of all the keywords you use as you go along so that (1) you do not needlessly duplicate your efforts and (2) you can more easily adjust your search as you get a better sense of what you are looking for. I suggest you keep a separate file or even a small notebook for this and you date your search efforts. Here’s an example: Table 9.2. Keep a List of Your Keywords JSTOR search: “literature review” + “qualitative research” limited to “after 1/1/2000” and “articles” in abstracts only 5 results: go back and search titles? Change up keywords? Take out qualitative research term? JSTOR search: “literature review” + and “articles” in abstracts only 37,113 results – way too many!!!! Think Laterally How to find the various strands of literature to combine? Don’t get stuck on finding the exact same research topic you think you are interested in. In the female gymnast example, I recommended that my student consider looking for studies of ballerinas, who also suffer sports injuries and around whom there is a similar culture of silence. It turned out that there was in fact research about my student’s particular questions, just not about the subjects she was interested in. You might do something similar. Don’t get stuck looking for too direct literature but think about the broader phenomenon of interest or analogous cases. Read Outside the Canon Some scholars’ work gets cited by everyone all the time. To some extent, this is a very good thing, as it helps establish the discipline. For example, there are a lot of “Bourdieu scholars” out there (myself included) who draw ideas, concepts, and quoted passages from Bourdieu. This makes us recognizable to one another and is a way of sharing a common language (e.g., where “cultural capital” has a particular meaning to those versed in Bourdieusian theory). There are empirical studies that get cited over and over again because they are excellent studies but also because there is an “echo chamber effect” going on, where knowing to cite this study marks you as part of the club, in the know, and so on. But here’s the problem with this: there are hundreds if not thousands of excellent studies out there that fail to get appreciated because they are crowded out by the canon. Sometimes this happens because they are published in “lower-ranked” journals and are never read by a lot of scholars who don’t have time to read anything other than the “big three” in their field. Other times this happens because the author falls outside of the dominant social networks in the field and thus is unmentored and fails to get noticed by those who publish a lot in those highly ranked and visible spaces. Scholars who fall outside the dominant social networks and who publish outside of the top-ranked journals are in no way less insightful than their peers, and their studies may be just as rigorous and relevant to your work, so it is important for you to take some time to read outside the canon. Due to how a person’s race, gender, and class operate in the academy, there is also a matter of social justice and ethical responsibility involved here: “When you focus on the most-cited research, you’re more likely to miss relevant research by women and especially women of color, whose research tends to be under-cited in most fields. You’re also more likely to miss new research, research by junior scholars, and research in other disciplines that could inform your work. Essentially, it is important to read and cite responsibly, which means checking that you’re not just reading and citing the same white men and the same old studies that everyone has cited before you” ( Calarco 2020:112 ). Consider Multiple Uses for Literature Throughout this chapter, I’ve referred to the literature of interest in a rather abstract way, as what is relevant to your study. But there are many different ways previous research can be relevant to your study. The most basic use of the literature is the “findings”—for example, “So-and-so found that Canadian working-class students were concerned about ‘fitting in’ to the culture of college, and I am going to look at a similar question here in the US.” But the literature may be of interest not for its findings but theoretically—for example, employing concepts that you want to employ in your own study. Bourdieu’s definition of social capital may have emerged in a study of French professors, but it can still be relevant in a study of, say, how parents make choices about what preschools to send their kids to (also a good example of lateral thinking!). If you are engaged in some novel methodological form of data collection or analysis, you might look for previous literature that has attempted that. I would not recommend this for undergraduate research projects, but for graduate students who are considering “breaking the mold,” find out if anyone has been there before you. Even if their study has absolutely nothing else in common with yours, it is important to acknowledge that previous work. Describing Gaps in the Literature First, be careful! Although it is common to explain how your research adds to, builds upon, and fills in gaps in the previous research (see all four literature review examples in this chapter for this), there is a fine line between describing the gaps and misrepresenting previous literature by failing to conduct a thorough review of the literature. A little humility can make a big difference in your presentation. Instead of “This is the first study that has looked at how firefighters juggle childcare during forest fire season,” say, “I use the previous literature on how working parents juggling childcare and the previous ethnographic studies of firefighters to explore how firefighters juggle childcare during forest fire season.” You can even add, “To my knowledge, no one has conducted an ethnographic study in this specific area, although what we have learned from X about childcare and from Y about firefighters would lead us to expect Z here.” Read more literature review sections to see how others have described the “gaps” they are filling. Use Concept Mapping Concept mapping is a helpful tool for getting your thoughts in order and is particularly helpful when thinking about the “literature” foundational to your particular study. Concept maps are also known as mind maps, which is a delightful way to think about them. Your brain is probably abuzz with competing ideas in the early stages of your research design. Write/draw them on paper, and then try to categorize and move the pieces around into “clusters” that make sense to you. Going back to the gymnasts example, my student might have begun by jotting down random words of interest: gymnasts * sports * coaches * female gymnasts * stress * injury * don’t complain * women in sports * bad coaching * anxiety/stress * careers in sports * pain. She could then have begun clustering these into relational categories (bad coaching, don’t complain culture) and simple “event” categories (injury, stress). This might have led her to think about reviewing literature in these two separate aspects and then literature that put them together. There is no correct way to draw a concept map, as they are wonderfully specific to your mind. There are many examples you can find online. Ask Yourself, “How Is This Sociology (or Political Science or Public Policy, Etc.)?” Rubin ( 2021:82 ) offers this suggestion instead of asking yourself the “So what?” question to get you thinking about what bridges there are between your study and the body of research in your particular discipline. This is particularly helpful for thinking about theory. Rubin further suggests that if you are really stumped, ask yourself, “What is the really big question that all [fill in your discipline here] care about?” For sociology, it might be “inequality,” which would then help you think about theories of inequality that might be helpful in framing your study on whatever it is you are studying—OnlyFans? Childcare during COVID? Aging in America? I can think of some interesting ways to frame questions about inequality for any of those topics. You can further narrow it by focusing on particular aspects of inequality (Gender oppression? Racial exclusion? Heteronormativity?). If your discipline is public policy, the big questions there might be, How does policy get enacted, and what makes a policy effective? You can then take whatever your particular policy interest is—tax reform, student debt relief, cap-and-trade regulations—and apply those big questions. Doing so would give you a handle on what is otherwise an intolerably vague subject (e.g., What about student debt relief?). Sometimes finding you are in new territory means you’ve hit the jackpot, and sometimes it means you’ve traveled out of bounds for your discipline. The jackpot scenario is wonderful. You are doing truly innovative research that is combining multiple literatures or is addressing a new or under-examined phenomenon of interest, and your research has the potential to be groundbreaking. Congrats! But that’s really hard to do, and it might be more likely that you’ve traveled out of bounds, by which I mean, you are no longer in your discipline . It might be that no one has written about this thing—at least within your field— because no one in your field actually cares about this topic . ( Rubin 2021:83 ; emphases added) Don’t Treat This as a Chore Don’t treat the literature review as a chore that has to be completed, but see it for what it really is—you are building connections to other researchers out there. You want to represent your discipline or area of study fairly and adequately. Demonstrate humility and your knowledge of previous research. Be part of the conversation. Supplement: Two More Literature Review Examples Elites by harvey ( 2011 ). In the last two decades, there has been a small but growing literature on elites. In part, this has been a result of the resurgence of ethnographic research such as interviews, focus groups, case studies, and participant observation but also because scholars have become increasingly interested in understanding the perspectives and behaviors of leaders in business, politics, and society as a whole. Yet until recently, our understanding of some of the methodological challenges of researching elites has lagged behind our rush to interview them. There is no clear-cut definition of the term elite, and given its broad understanding across the social sciences, scholars have tended to adopt different approaches. Zuckerman (1972) uses the term ultraelites to describe individuals who hold a significant amount of power within a group that is already considered elite. She argues, for example, that US senators constitute part of the country’s political elite but that among them are the ultraelites: a “subset of particularly powerful or prestigious influentials” (160). She suggests that there is a hierarchy of status within elite groups. McDowell (1998) analyses a broader group of “professional elites” who are employees working at different levels for merchant and investment banks in London. She classifies this group as elite because they are “highly skilled, professionally competent, and class-specific” (2135). Parry (1998:2148) uses the term hybrid elites in the context of the international trade of genetic material because she argues that critical knowledge exists not in traditional institutions “but rather as increasingly informal, hybridised, spatially fragmented, and hence largely ‘invisible,’ networks of elite actors.” Given the undertheorization of the term elite, Smith (2006) recognizes why scholars have shaped their definitions to match their respondents . However, she is rightly critical of the underlying assumption that those who hold professional positions necessarily exert as much influence as initially perceived. Indeed, job titles can entirely misrepresent the role of workers and therefore are by no means an indicator of elite status (Harvey 2010). Many scholars have used the term elite in a relational sense, defining them either in terms of their social position compared to the researcher or compared to the average person in society (Stephens 2007). The problem with this definition is there is no guarantee that an elite subject will necessarily translate this power and authority in an interview setting. Indeed, Smith (2006) found that on the few occasions she experienced respondents wanting to exert their authority over her, it was not from elites but from relatively less senior workers. Furthermore, although business and political elites often receive extensive media training, they are often scrutinized by television and radio journalists and therefore can also feel threatened in an interview, particularly in contexts that are less straightforward to prepare for such as academic interviews. On several occasions, for instance, I have been asked by elite respondents or their personal assistants what they need to prepare for before the interview, which suggests that they consider the interview as some form of challenge or justification for what they do. In many cases, it is not necessarily the figureheads or leaders of organizations and institutions who have the greatest claim to elite status but those who hold important social networks, social capital, and strategic positions within social structures because they are better able to exert influence (Burt 1992; Parry 1998; Smith 2005; Woods 1998). An elite status can also change, with people both gaining and losing theirs over time. In addition, it is geographically specific, with people holding elite status in some but not all locations. In short, it is clear that the term elite can mean many things in different contexts, which explains the range of definitions. The purpose here is not to critique these other definitions but rather to highlight the variety of perspectives. When referring to my research, I define elites as those who occupy senior-management- and board-level positions within organizations. This is a similar scope of definition to Zuckerman’s (1972) but focuses on a level immediately below her ultraelite subjects. My definition is narrower than McDowell’s (1998) because it is clear in the context of my research that these people have significant decision-making influence within and outside of the firm and therefore present a unique challenge to interview. I deliberately use the term elite more broadly when drawing on examples from the theoretical literature in order to compare my experiences with those who have researched similar groups. ”Changing Dispositions among the Upwardly Mobile” by Curl, Lareau, and Wu ( 2018 ) There is growing interest in the role of cultural practices in undergirding the social stratification system. For example, Lamont et al. (2014) critically assess the preoccupation with economic dimensions of social stratification and call for more developed cultural models of the transmission of inequality. The importance of cultural factors in the maintenance of social inequality has also received empirical attention from some younger scholars, including Calarco (2011, 2014) and Streib (2015). Yet questions remain regarding the degree to which economic position is tied to cultural sensibilities and the ways in which these cultural sensibilities are imprinted on the self or are subject to change. Although habitus is a core concept in Bourdieu’s theory of social reproduction, there is limited empirical attention to the precise areas of the habitus that can be subject to change during upward mobility as well as the ramifications of these changes for family life. In Bourdieu’s (1984) highly influential work on the importance of class-based cultural dispositions, habitus is defined as a “durable system of dispositions” created in childhood. The habitus provides a “matrix of perceptions” that seems natural while also structuring future actions and pathways. In many of his writings, Bourdieu emphasized the durability of cultural tastes and dispositions and did not consider empirically whether these dispositions might be changed or altered throughout one’s life (Swartz 1997). His theoretical work does permit the possibility of upward mobility and transformation, however, through the ability of the habitus to “improvise” or “change” due to “new experiences” (Friedman 2016:131). Researchers have differed in opinion on the durability of the habitus and its ability to change (King 2000). Based on marital conflict in cross-class marriages, for instance, Streib (2015) argues that cultural dispositions of individuals raised in working-class families are deeply embedded and largely unchanging. In a somewhat different vein, Horvat and Davis (2011:152) argue that young adults enrolled in an alternative educational program undergo important shifts in their self-perception, such as “self-esteem” and their “ability to accomplish something of value.” Others argue there is variability in the degree to which habitus changes dependent on life experience and personality (Christodoulou and Spyridakis 2016). Recently, additional studies have investigated the habitus as it intersects with lifestyle through the lens of meaning making (Ambrasat et al. 2016). There is, therefore, ample discussion of class-based cultural practices in self-perception (Horvat and Davis 2011), lifestyle (Ambrasat et al. 2016), and other forms of taste (Andrews 2012; Bourdieu 1984), yet researchers have not sufficiently delineated which aspects of the habitus might change through upward mobility or which specific dimensions of life prompt moments of class-based conflict. Bourdieu (1999:511; 2004) acknowledged simmering tensions between the durable aspects of habitus and those aspects that have been transformed—that is, a “fractured” or “cleft” habitus. Others have explored these tensions as a “divided” or “fragmented” habitus (Baxter and Britton 2001; Lee and Kramer 2013). Each of these conceptions of the habitus implies that changes in cultural dispositions are possible but come with costs. Exploration of the specific aspects of one’s habitus that can change and generate conflict contributes to this literature. Scholars have also studied the costs associated with academic success for working-class undergraduates (Hurst 2010; Lee and Kramer 2013; London 1989; Reay 2017; Rondini 2016; Stuber 2011), but we know little about the lasting effects on adults. For instance, Lee and Kramer (2013) point to cross-class tensions as family and friends criticize upwardly mobile individuals for their newly acquired cultural dispositions. Documenting the tension many working-class students experience with their friends and families of origin, they find that the source of their pain or struggle is “shaped not only by their interactions with non-mobile family and friends but also within their own minds, by their own assessments of their social positions, and by how those positions are interpreted by others” (Lee and Kramer 2013:29). Hurst (2010) also explores the experiences of undergraduates who have been academically successful and the costs associated with that success. She finds that decisions about “class allegiance and identity” are required aspects of what it means to “becom[e] educated” (4) and that working-class students deal with these cultural changes differently. Jack (2014, 2016) also argues that there is diversity among lower-income students, which yields varied college experiences. Naming two groups, the “doubly disadvantaged” and the “privileged poor,” he argues that previous experience with “elite environments” (2014:456) prior to college informs students’ ability to take on dominant cultural practices, particularly around engagement, such as help seeking or meeting with professors (2016). These studies shed light on the role college might play as a “lever for mobility” (2016:15) and discuss the pain and difficulty associated with upward mobility among undergraduates, but the studies do not illuminate how these tensions unfold in adulthood. Neither have they sufficiently addressed potential enduring tensions with extended family members as well as the specific nature of the difficulties. Some scholars point to the positive outcomes upwardly mobile youth (Lehmann 2009) and adults (Stuber 2005) experience when they maintain a different habitus than their newly acquired class position, although, as Jack (2014, 2016) shows, those experiences may vary depending on one’s experience with elite environments in their youth. Researchers have not sufficiently explored the specific aspects of the habitus that upwardly mobile adults change or the conflicts that emerge with family and childhood friends as they reach adulthood and experience colliding social worlds. We contribute to this scholarship with clear examples of self-reported changes to one’s cultural dispositions in three specific areas: “horizons,” food and health, and communication. We link these changes to enduring tension with family members, friends, and colleagues and explore varied responses to this tension based on race. Further Readings Bloomberg, Linda Dale, and Marie F. Volpe. 2012. Completing Your Qualitative Dissertation: A Road Map from Beginning to End . 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE. In keeping with its general approach to qualitative research, includes a “road map” for conducting a literature review. Hart, Chris. 1998. Doing a Literature Review: Releasing the Social Science Research Imagination . London: SAGE. A how-to book dedicated entirely to conducting a literature review from a British perspective. Useful for both undergraduate and graduate students. Machi, Lawrence A., and Brenda T. McEvoy. 2022. The Literature Review: Six Steps to Success . 4th ed. Newbury Park, CA: Corwin. A well-organized guidebook complete with reflection sections to prompt successful thinking about your literature review. Ridley, Diana. 2008. The Literature Review: A Step-by-Step Guide for Students . London: SAGE. A highly recommended companion to conducting a literature review for doctoral-level students. The process of systematically searching through pre-existing studies (“literature”) on the subject of research; also, the section of a presentation in which the pre-existing literature is discussed. Follow-up questions used in a semi-structured interview  to elicit further elaboration.  Suggested prompts can be included in the interview guide  to be used/deployed depending on how the initial question was answered or if the topic of the prompt does not emerge spontaneously. A tool for identifying relationships among ideas by visually representing them on paper.  Most concept maps depict ideas as boxes or circles (also called nodes), which are structured hierarchically and connected with lines or arrows (also called arcs). These lines are labeled with linking words and phrases to help explain the connections between concepts.  Also known as mind mapping. The people who are the subjects of an interview-based qualitative study. In general, they are also known as the participants, and for purposes of IRBs they are often referred to as the human subjects of the research. Introduction to Qualitative Research Methods Copyright © 2023 by Allison Hurst is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted. An official website of the United States government The .gov means it’s official. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site. The site is secure. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely. 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Advanced Search Journal List CBE Life Sci Educ v.21(3); Fall 2022 Literature Reviews, Theoretical Frameworks, and Conceptual Frameworks: An Introduction for New Biology Education Researchers Julie a. luft. † Department of Mathematics, Social Studies, and Science Education, Mary Frances Early College of Education, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602-7124 Sophia Jeong ‡ Department of Teaching & Learning, College of Education & Human Ecology, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210 Robert Idsardi § Department of Biology, Eastern Washington University, Cheney, WA 99004 Grant Gardner ∥ Department of Biology, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN 37132 Associated Data To frame their work, biology education researchers need to consider the role of literature reviews, theoretical frameworks, and conceptual frameworks as critical elements of the research and writing process. However, these elements can be confusing for scholars new to education research. This Research Methods article is designed to provide an overview of each of these elements and delineate the purpose of each in the educational research process. We describe what biology education researchers should consider as they conduct literature reviews, identify theoretical frameworks, and construct conceptual frameworks. Clarifying these different components of educational research studies can be helpful to new biology education researchers and the biology education research community at large in situating their work in the broader scholarly literature. INTRODUCTION Discipline-based education research (DBER) involves the purposeful and situated study of teaching and learning in specific disciplinary areas ( Singer et al. , 2012 ). Studies in DBER are guided by research questions that reflect disciplines’ priorities and worldviews. Researchers can use quantitative data, qualitative data, or both to answer these research questions through a variety of methodological traditions. Across all methodologies, there are different methods associated with planning and conducting educational research studies that include the use of surveys, interviews, observations, artifacts, or instruments. Ensuring the coherence of these elements to the discipline’s perspective also involves situating the work in the broader scholarly literature. The tools for doing this include literature reviews, theoretical frameworks, and conceptual frameworks. However, the purpose and function of each of these elements is often confusing to new education researchers. The goal of this article is to introduce new biology education researchers to these three important elements important in DBER scholarship and the broader educational literature. The first element we discuss is a review of research (literature reviews), which highlights the need for a specific research question, study problem, or topic of investigation. Literature reviews situate the relevance of the study within a topic and a field. The process may seem familiar to science researchers entering DBER fields, but new researchers may still struggle in conducting the review. Booth et al. (2016b) highlight some of the challenges novice education researchers face when conducting a review of literature. They point out that novice researchers struggle in deciding how to focus the review, determining the scope of articles needed in the review, and knowing how to be critical of the articles in the review. Overcoming these challenges (and others) can help novice researchers construct a sound literature review that can inform the design of the study and help ensure the work makes a contribution to the field. The second and third highlighted elements are theoretical and conceptual frameworks. These guide biology education research (BER) studies, and may be less familiar to science researchers. These elements are important in shaping the construction of new knowledge. Theoretical frameworks offer a way to explain and interpret the studied phenomenon, while conceptual frameworks clarify assumptions about the studied phenomenon. Despite the importance of these constructs in educational research, biology educational researchers have noted the limited use of theoretical or conceptual frameworks in published work ( DeHaan, 2011 ; Dirks, 2011 ; Lo et al. , 2019 ). In reviewing articles published in CBE—Life Sciences Education ( LSE ) between 2015 and 2019, we found that fewer than 25% of the research articles had a theoretical or conceptual framework (see the Supplemental Information), and at times there was an inconsistent use of theoretical and conceptual frameworks. Clearly, these frameworks are challenging for published biology education researchers, which suggests the importance of providing some initial guidance to new biology education researchers. Fortunately, educational researchers have increased their explicit use of these frameworks over time, and this is influencing educational research in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. For instance, a quick search for theoretical or conceptual frameworks in the abstracts of articles in Educational Research Complete (a common database for educational research) in STEM fields demonstrates a dramatic change over the last 20 years: from only 778 articles published between 2000 and 2010 to 5703 articles published between 2010 and 2020, a more than sevenfold increase. Greater recognition of the importance of these frameworks is contributing to DBER authors being more explicit about such frameworks in their studies. Collectively, literature reviews, theoretical frameworks, and conceptual frameworks work to guide methodological decisions and the elucidation of important findings. Each offers a different perspective on the problem of study and is an essential element in all forms of educational research. As new researchers seek to learn about these elements, they will find different resources, a variety of perspectives, and many suggestions about the construction and use of these elements. The wide range of available information can overwhelm the new researcher who just wants to learn the distinction between these elements or how to craft them adequately. Our goal in writing this paper is not to offer specific advice about how to write these sections in scholarly work. Instead, we wanted to introduce these elements to those who are new to BER and who are interested in better distinguishing one from the other. In this paper, we share the purpose of each element in BER scholarship, along with important points on its construction. We also provide references for additional resources that may be beneficial to better understanding each element. Table 1 summarizes the key distinctions among these elements. Comparison of literature reviews, theoretical frameworks, and conceptual reviews Literature reviews Theoretical frameworks Conceptual frameworks Purpose To point out the need for the study in BER and connection to the field. To state the assumptions and orientations of the researcher regarding the topic of study To describe the researcher’s understanding of the main concepts under investigation Aims A literature review examines current and relevant research associated with the study question. It is comprehensive, critical, and purposeful. A theoretical framework illuminates the phenomenon of study and the corresponding assumptions adopted by the researcher. Frameworks can take on different orientations. The conceptual framework is created by the researcher(s), includes the presumed relationships among concepts, and addresses needed areas of study discovered in literature reviews. Connection to the manuscript A literature review should connect to the study question, guide the study methodology, and be central in the discussion by indicating how the analyzed data advances what is known in the field.   A theoretical framework drives the question, guides the types of methods for data collection and analysis, informs the discussion of the findings, and reveals the subjectivities of the researcher. The conceptual framework is informed by literature reviews, experiences, or experiments. It may include emergent ideas that are not yet grounded in the literature. It should be coherent with the paper’s theoretical framing. Additional points A literature review may reach beyond BER and include other education research fields. A theoretical framework does not rationalize the need for the study, and a theoretical framework can come from different fields. A conceptual framework articulates the phenomenon under study through written descriptions and/or visual representations. This article is written for the new biology education researcher who is just learning about these different elements or for scientists looking to become more involved in BER. It is a result of our own work as science education and biology education researchers, whether as graduate students and postdoctoral scholars or newly hired and established faculty members. This is the article we wish had been available as we started to learn about these elements or discussed them with new educational researchers in biology. LITERATURE REVIEWS Purpose of a literature review. A literature review is foundational to any research study in education or science. In education, a well-conceptualized and well-executed review provides a summary of the research that has already been done on a specific topic and identifies questions that remain to be answered, thus illustrating the current research project’s potential contribution to the field and the reasoning behind the methodological approach selected for the study ( Maxwell, 2012 ). BER is an evolving disciplinary area that is redefining areas of conceptual emphasis as well as orientations toward teaching and learning (e.g., Labov et al. , 2010 ; American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2011 ; Nehm, 2019 ). As a result, building comprehensive, critical, purposeful, and concise literature reviews can be a challenge for new biology education researchers. Building Literature Reviews There are different ways to approach and construct a literature review. Booth et al. (2016a) provide an overview that includes, for example, scoping reviews, which are focused only on notable studies and use a basic method of analysis, and integrative reviews, which are the result of exhaustive literature searches across different genres. Underlying each of these different review processes are attention to the s earch process, a ppraisa l of articles, s ynthesis of the literature, and a nalysis: SALSA ( Booth et al. , 2016a ). This useful acronym can help the researcher focus on the process while building a specific type of review. However, new educational researchers often have questions about literature reviews that are foundational to SALSA or other approaches. Common questions concern determining which literature pertains to the topic of study or the role of the literature review in the design of the study. This section addresses such questions broadly while providing general guidance for writing a narrative literature review that evaluates the most pertinent studies. The literature review process should begin before the research is conducted. As Boote and Beile (2005 , p. 3) suggested, researchers should be “scholars before researchers.” They point out that having a good working knowledge of the proposed topic helps illuminate avenues of study. Some subject areas have a deep body of work to read and reflect upon, providing a strong foundation for developing the research question(s). For instance, the teaching and learning of evolution is an area of long-standing interest in the BER community, generating many studies (e.g., Perry et al. , 2008 ; Barnes and Brownell, 2016 ) and reviews of research (e.g., Sickel and Friedrichsen, 2013 ; Ziadie and Andrews, 2018 ). Emerging areas of BER include the affective domain, issues of transfer, and metacognition ( Singer et al. , 2012 ). Many studies in these areas are transdisciplinary and not always specific to biology education (e.g., Rodrigo-Peiris et al. , 2018 ; Kolpikova et al. , 2019 ). These newer areas may require reading outside BER; fortunately, summaries of some of these topics can be found in the Current Insights section of the LSE website. In focusing on a specific problem within a broader research strand, a new researcher will likely need to examine research outside BER. Depending upon the area of study, the expanded reading list might involve a mix of BER, DBER, and educational research studies. Determining the scope of the reading is not always straightforward. A simple way to focus one’s reading is to create a “summary phrase” or “research nugget,” which is a very brief descriptive statement about the study. It should focus on the essence of the study, for example, “first-year nonmajor students’ understanding of evolution,” “metacognitive prompts to enhance learning during biochemistry,” or “instructors’ inquiry-based instructional practices after professional development programming.” This type of phrase should help a new researcher identify two or more areas to review that pertain to the study. Focusing on recent research in the last 5 years is a good first step. Additional studies can be identified by reading relevant works referenced in those articles. It is also important to read seminal studies that are more than 5 years old. Reading a range of studies should give the researcher the necessary command of the subject in order to suggest a research question. Given that the research question(s) arise from the literature review, the review should also substantiate the selected methodological approach. The review and research question(s) guide the researcher in determining how to collect and analyze data. Often the methodological approach used in a study is selected to contribute knowledge that expands upon what has been published previously about the topic (see Institute of Education Sciences and National Science Foundation, 2013 ). An emerging topic of study may need an exploratory approach that allows for a description of the phenomenon and development of a potential theory. This could, but not necessarily, require a methodological approach that uses interviews, observations, surveys, or other instruments. An extensively studied topic may call for the additional understanding of specific factors or variables; this type of study would be well suited to a verification or a causal research design. These could entail a methodological approach that uses valid and reliable instruments, observations, or interviews to determine an effect in the studied event. In either of these examples, the researcher(s) may use a qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods methodological approach. Even with a good research question, there is still more reading to be done. The complexity and focus of the research question dictates the depth and breadth of the literature to be examined. Questions that connect multiple topics can require broad literature reviews. For instance, a study that explores the impact of a biology faculty learning community on the inquiry instruction of faculty could have the following review areas: learning communities among biology faculty, inquiry instruction among biology faculty, and inquiry instruction among biology faculty as a result of professional learning. Biology education researchers need to consider whether their literature review requires studies from different disciplines within or outside DBER. For the example given, it would be fruitful to look at research focused on learning communities with faculty in STEM fields or in general education fields that result in instructional change. It is important not to be too narrow or too broad when reading. When the conclusions of articles start to sound similar or no new insights are gained, the researcher likely has a good foundation for a literature review. This level of reading should allow the researcher to demonstrate a mastery in understanding the researched topic, explain the suitability of the proposed research approach, and point to the need for the refined research question(s). The literature review should include the researcher’s evaluation and critique of the selected studies. A researcher may have a large collection of studies, but not all of the studies will follow standards important in the reporting of empirical work in the social sciences. The American Educational Research Association ( Duran et al. , 2006 ), for example, offers a general discussion about standards for such work: an adequate review of research informing the study, the existence of sound and appropriate data collection and analysis methods, and appropriate conclusions that do not overstep or underexplore the analyzed data. The Institute of Education Sciences and National Science Foundation (2013) also offer Common Guidelines for Education Research and Development that can be used to evaluate collected studies. Because not all journals adhere to such standards, it is important that a researcher review each study to determine the quality of published research, per the guidelines suggested earlier. In some instances, the research may be fatally flawed. Examples of such flaws include data that do not pertain to the question, a lack of discussion about the data collection, poorly constructed instruments, or an inadequate analysis. These types of errors result in studies that are incomplete, error-laden, or inaccurate and should be excluded from the review. Most studies have limitations, and the author(s) often make them explicit. For instance, there may be an instructor effect, recognized bias in the analysis, or issues with the sample population. Limitations are usually addressed by the research team in some way to ensure a sound and acceptable research process. Occasionally, the limitations associated with the study can be significant and not addressed adequately, which leaves a consequential decision in the hands of the researcher. Providing critiques of studies in the literature review process gives the reader confidence that the researcher has carefully examined relevant work in preparation for the study and, ultimately, the manuscript. A solid literature review clearly anchors the proposed study in the field and connects the research question(s), the methodological approach, and the discussion. Reviewing extant research leads to research questions that will contribute to what is known in the field. By summarizing what is known, the literature review points to what needs to be known, which in turn guides decisions about methodology. Finally, notable findings of the new study are discussed in reference to those described in the literature review. Within published BER studies, literature reviews can be placed in different locations in an article. When included in the introductory section of the study, the first few paragraphs of the manuscript set the stage, with the literature review following the opening paragraphs. Cooper et al. (2019) illustrate this approach in their study of course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs). An introduction discussing the potential of CURES is followed by an analysis of the existing literature relevant to the design of CUREs that allows for novel student discoveries. Within this review, the authors point out contradictory findings among research on novel student discoveries. This clarifies the need for their study, which is described and highlighted through specific research aims. A literature reviews can also make up a separate section in a paper. For example, the introduction to Todd et al. (2019) illustrates the need for their research topic by highlighting the potential of learning progressions (LPs) and suggesting that LPs may help mitigate learning loss in genetics. At the end of the introduction, the authors state their specific research questions. The review of literature following this opening section comprises two subsections. One focuses on learning loss in general and examines a variety of studies and meta-analyses from the disciplines of medical education, mathematics, and reading. The second section focuses specifically on LPs in genetics and highlights student learning in the midst of LPs. These separate reviews provide insights into the stated research question. Suggestions and Advice A well-conceptualized, comprehensive, and critical literature review reveals the understanding of the topic that the researcher brings to the study. Literature reviews should not be so big that there is no clear area of focus; nor should they be so narrow that no real research question arises. The task for a researcher is to craft an efficient literature review that offers a critical analysis of published work, articulates the need for the study, guides the methodological approach to the topic of study, and provides an adequate foundation for the discussion of the findings. In our own writing of literature reviews, there are often many drafts. An early draft may seem well suited to the study because the need for and approach to the study are well described. However, as the results of the study are analyzed and findings begin to emerge, the existing literature review may be inadequate and need revision. The need for an expanded discussion about the research area can result in the inclusion of new studies that support the explanation of a potential finding. The literature review may also prove to be too broad. Refocusing on a specific area allows for more contemplation of a finding. It should be noted that there are different types of literature reviews, and many books and articles have been written about the different ways to embark on these types of reviews. Among these different resources, the following may be helpful in considering how to refine the review process for scholarly journals: Booth, A., Sutton, A., & Papaioannou, D. (2016a). Systemic approaches to a successful literature review (2nd ed.). Los Angeles, CA: Sage. This book addresses different types of literature reviews and offers important suggestions pertaining to defining the scope of the literature review and assessing extant studies. Booth, W. C., Colomb, G. G., Williams, J. M., Bizup, J., & Fitzgerald, W. T. (2016b). The craft of research (4th ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. This book can help the novice consider how to make the case for an area of study. While this book is not specifically about literature reviews, it offers suggestions about making the case for your study. Galvan, J. L., & Galvan, M. C. (2017). Writing literature reviews: A guide for students of the social and behavioral sciences (7th ed.). Routledge. This book offers guidance on writing different types of literature reviews. For the novice researcher, there are useful suggestions for creating coherent literature reviews. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKS Purpose of theoretical frameworks. As new education researchers may be less familiar with theoretical frameworks than with literature reviews, this discussion begins with an analogy. Envision a biologist, chemist, and physicist examining together the dramatic effect of a fog tsunami over the ocean. A biologist gazing at this phenomenon may be concerned with the effect of fog on various species. A chemist may be interested in the chemical composition of the fog as water vapor condenses around bits of salt. A physicist may be focused on the refraction of light to make fog appear to be “sitting” above the ocean. While observing the same “objective event,” the scientists are operating under different theoretical frameworks that provide a particular perspective or “lens” for the interpretation of the phenomenon. Each of these scientists brings specialized knowledge, experiences, and values to this phenomenon, and these influence the interpretation of the phenomenon. The scientists’ theoretical frameworks influence how they design and carry out their studies and interpret their data. Within an educational study, a theoretical framework helps to explain a phenomenon through a particular lens and challenges and extends existing knowledge within the limitations of that lens. Theoretical frameworks are explicitly stated by an educational researcher in the paper’s framework, theory, or relevant literature section. The framework shapes the types of questions asked, guides the method by which data are collected and analyzed, and informs the discussion of the results of the study. It also reveals the researcher’s subjectivities, for example, values, social experience, and viewpoint ( Allen, 2017 ). It is essential that a novice researcher learn to explicitly state a theoretical framework, because all research questions are being asked from the researcher’s implicit or explicit assumptions of a phenomenon of interest ( Schwandt, 2000 ). Selecting Theoretical Frameworks Theoretical frameworks are one of the most contemplated elements in our work in educational research. In this section, we share three important considerations for new scholars selecting a theoretical framework. The first step in identifying a theoretical framework involves reflecting on the phenomenon within the study and the assumptions aligned with the phenomenon. The phenomenon involves the studied event. There are many possibilities, for example, student learning, instructional approach, or group organization. A researcher holds assumptions about how the phenomenon will be effected, influenced, changed, or portrayed. It is ultimately the researcher’s assumption(s) about the phenomenon that aligns with a theoretical framework. An example can help illustrate how a researcher’s reflection on the phenomenon and acknowledgment of assumptions can result in the identification of a theoretical framework. In our example, a biology education researcher may be interested in exploring how students’ learning of difficult biological concepts can be supported by the interactions of group members. The phenomenon of interest is the interactions among the peers, and the researcher assumes that more knowledgeable students are important in supporting the learning of the group. As a result, the researcher may draw on Vygotsky’s (1978) sociocultural theory of learning and development that is focused on the phenomenon of student learning in a social setting. This theory posits the critical nature of interactions among students and between students and teachers in the process of building knowledge. A researcher drawing upon this framework holds the assumption that learning is a dynamic social process involving questions and explanations among students in the classroom and that more knowledgeable peers play an important part in the process of building conceptual knowledge. It is important to state at this point that there are many different theoretical frameworks. Some frameworks focus on learning and knowing, while other theoretical frameworks focus on equity, empowerment, or discourse. Some frameworks are well articulated, and others are still being refined. For a new researcher, it can be challenging to find a theoretical framework. Two of the best ways to look for theoretical frameworks is through published works that highlight different frameworks. When a theoretical framework is selected, it should clearly connect to all parts of the study. The framework should augment the study by adding a perspective that provides greater insights into the phenomenon. It should clearly align with the studies described in the literature review. For instance, a framework focused on learning would correspond to research that reported different learning outcomes for similar studies. The methods for data collection and analysis should also correspond to the framework. For instance, a study about instructional interventions could use a theoretical framework concerned with learning and could collect data about the effect of the intervention on what is learned. When the data are analyzed, the theoretical framework should provide added meaning to the findings, and the findings should align with the theoretical framework. A study by Jensen and Lawson (2011) provides an example of how a theoretical framework connects different parts of the study. They compared undergraduate biology students in heterogeneous and homogeneous groups over the course of a semester. Jensen and Lawson (2011) assumed that learning involved collaboration and more knowledgeable peers, which made Vygotsky’s (1978) theory a good fit for their study. They predicted that students in heterogeneous groups would experience greater improvement in their reasoning abilities and science achievements with much of the learning guided by the more knowledgeable peers. In the enactment of the study, they collected data about the instruction in traditional and inquiry-oriented classes, while the students worked in homogeneous or heterogeneous groups. To determine the effect of working in groups, the authors also measured students’ reasoning abilities and achievement. Each data-collection and analysis decision connected to understanding the influence of collaborative work. Their findings highlighted aspects of Vygotsky’s (1978) theory of learning. One finding, for instance, posited that inquiry instruction, as a whole, resulted in reasoning and achievement gains. This links to Vygotsky (1978) , because inquiry instruction involves interactions among group members. A more nuanced finding was that group composition had a conditional effect. Heterogeneous groups performed better with more traditional and didactic instruction, regardless of the reasoning ability of the group members. Homogeneous groups worked better during interaction-rich activities for students with low reasoning ability. The authors attributed the variation to the different types of helping behaviors of students. High-performing students provided the answers, while students with low reasoning ability had to work collectively through the material. In terms of Vygotsky (1978) , this finding provided new insights into the learning context in which productive interactions can occur for students. Another consideration in the selection and use of a theoretical framework pertains to its orientation to the study. This can result in the theoretical framework prioritizing individuals, institutions, and/or policies ( Anfara and Mertz, 2014 ). Frameworks that connect to individuals, for instance, could contribute to understanding their actions, learning, or knowledge. Institutional frameworks, on the other hand, offer insights into how institutions, organizations, or groups can influence individuals or materials. Policy theories provide ways to understand how national or local policies can dictate an emphasis on outcomes or instructional design. These different types of frameworks highlight different aspects in an educational setting, which influences the design of the study and the collection of data. In addition, these different frameworks offer a way to make sense of the data. Aligning the data collection and analysis with the framework ensures that a study is coherent and can contribute to the field. New understandings emerge when different theoretical frameworks are used. For instance, Ebert-May et al. (2015) prioritized the individual level within conceptual change theory (see Posner et al. , 1982 ). In this theory, an individual’s knowledge changes when it no longer fits the phenomenon. Ebert-May et al. (2015) designed a professional development program challenging biology postdoctoral scholars’ existing conceptions of teaching. The authors reported that the biology postdoctoral scholars’ teaching practices became more student-centered as they were challenged to explain their instructional decision making. According to the theory, the biology postdoctoral scholars’ dissatisfaction in their descriptions of teaching and learning initiated change in their knowledge and instruction. These results reveal how conceptual change theory can explain the learning of participants and guide the design of professional development programming. The communities of practice (CoP) theoretical framework ( Lave, 1988 ; Wenger, 1998 ) prioritizes the institutional level , suggesting that learning occurs when individuals learn from and contribute to the communities in which they reside. Grounded in the assumption of community learning, the literature on CoP suggests that, as individuals interact regularly with the other members of their group, they learn about the rules, roles, and goals of the community ( Allee, 2000 ). A study conducted by Gehrke and Kezar (2017) used the CoP framework to understand organizational change by examining the involvement of individual faculty engaged in a cross-institutional CoP focused on changing the instructional practice of faculty at each institution. In the CoP, faculty members were involved in enhancing instructional materials within their department, which aligned with an overarching goal of instituting instruction that embraced active learning. Not surprisingly, Gehrke and Kezar (2017) revealed that faculty who perceived the community culture as important in their work cultivated institutional change. Furthermore, they found that institutional change was sustained when key leaders served as mentors and provided support for faculty, and as faculty themselves developed into leaders. This study reveals the complexity of individual roles in a COP in order to support institutional instructional change. It is important to explicitly state the theoretical framework used in a study, but elucidating a theoretical framework can be challenging for a new educational researcher. The literature review can help to identify an applicable theoretical framework. Focal areas of the review or central terms often connect to assumptions and assertions associated with the framework that pertain to the phenomenon of interest. Another way to identify a theoretical framework is self-reflection by the researcher on personal beliefs and understandings about the nature of knowledge the researcher brings to the study ( Lysaght, 2011 ). In stating one’s beliefs and understandings related to the study (e.g., students construct their knowledge, instructional materials support learning), an orientation becomes evident that will suggest a particular theoretical framework. Theoretical frameworks are not arbitrary , but purposefully selected. With experience, a researcher may find expanded roles for theoretical frameworks. Researchers may revise an existing framework that has limited explanatory power, or they may decide there is a need to develop a new theoretical framework. These frameworks can emerge from a current study or the need to explain a phenomenon in a new way. Researchers may also find that multiple theoretical frameworks are necessary to frame and explore a problem, as different frameworks can provide different insights into a problem. Finally, it is important to recognize that choosing “x” theoretical framework does not necessarily mean a researcher chooses “y” methodology and so on, nor is there a clear-cut, linear process in selecting a theoretical framework for one’s study. In part, the nonlinear process of identifying a theoretical framework is what makes understanding and using theoretical frameworks challenging. For the novice scholar, contemplating and understanding theoretical frameworks is essential. Fortunately, there are articles and books that can help: Creswell, J. W. (2018). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (5th ed.). Los Angeles, CA: Sage. This book provides an overview of theoretical frameworks in general educational research. Ding, L. (2019). Theoretical perspectives of quantitative physics education research. Physical Review Physics Education Research , 15 (2), 020101-1–020101-13. This paper illustrates how a DBER field can use theoretical frameworks. Nehm, R. (2019). Biology education research: Building integrative frameworks for teaching and learning about living systems. Disciplinary and Interdisciplinary Science Education Research , 1 , ar15. https://doi.org/10.1186/s43031-019-0017-6 . This paper articulates the need for studies in BER to explicitly state theoretical frameworks and provides examples of potential studies. Patton, M. Q. (2015). Qualitative research & evaluation methods: Integrating theory and practice . Sage. This book also provides an overview of theoretical frameworks, but for both research and evaluation. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORKS Purpose of a conceptual framework. A conceptual framework is a description of the way a researcher understands the factors and/or variables that are involved in the study and their relationships to one another. The purpose of a conceptual framework is to articulate the concepts under study using relevant literature ( Rocco and Plakhotnik, 2009 ) and to clarify the presumed relationships among those concepts ( Rocco and Plakhotnik, 2009 ; Anfara and Mertz, 2014 ). Conceptual frameworks are different from theoretical frameworks in both their breadth and grounding in established findings. Whereas a theoretical framework articulates the lens through which a researcher views the work, the conceptual framework is often more mechanistic and malleable. Conceptual frameworks are broader, encompassing both established theories (i.e., theoretical frameworks) and the researchers’ own emergent ideas. Emergent ideas, for example, may be rooted in informal and/or unpublished observations from experience. These emergent ideas would not be considered a “theory” if they are not yet tested, supported by systematically collected evidence, and peer reviewed. However, they do still play an important role in the way researchers approach their studies. The conceptual framework allows authors to clearly describe their emergent ideas so that connections among ideas in the study and the significance of the study are apparent to readers. Constructing Conceptual Frameworks Including a conceptual framework in a research study is important, but researchers often opt to include either a conceptual or a theoretical framework. Either may be adequate, but both provide greater insight into the research approach. For instance, a research team plans to test a novel component of an existing theory. In their study, they describe the existing theoretical framework that informs their work and then present their own conceptual framework. Within this conceptual framework, specific topics portray emergent ideas that are related to the theory. Describing both frameworks allows readers to better understand the researchers’ assumptions, orientations, and understanding of concepts being investigated. For example, Connolly et al. (2018) included a conceptual framework that described how they applied a theoretical framework of social cognitive career theory (SCCT) to their study on teaching programs for doctoral students. In their conceptual framework, the authors described SCCT, explained how it applied to the investigation, and drew upon results from previous studies to justify the proposed connections between the theory and their emergent ideas. In some cases, authors may be able to sufficiently describe their conceptualization of the phenomenon under study in an introduction alone, without a separate conceptual framework section. However, incomplete descriptions of how the researchers conceptualize the components of the study may limit the significance of the study by making the research less intelligible to readers. This is especially problematic when studying topics in which researchers use the same terms for different constructs or different terms for similar and overlapping constructs (e.g., inquiry, teacher beliefs, pedagogical content knowledge, or active learning). Authors must describe their conceptualization of a construct if the research is to be understandable and useful. There are some key areas to consider regarding the inclusion of a conceptual framework in a study. To begin with, it is important to recognize that conceptual frameworks are constructed by the researchers conducting the study ( Rocco and Plakhotnik, 2009 ; Maxwell, 2012 ). This is different from theoretical frameworks that are often taken from established literature. Researchers should bring together ideas from the literature, but they may be influenced by their own experiences as a student and/or instructor, the shared experiences of others, or thought experiments as they construct a description, model, or representation of their understanding of the phenomenon under study. This is an exercise in intellectual organization and clarity that often considers what is learned, known, and experienced. The conceptual framework makes these constructs explicitly visible to readers, who may have different understandings of the phenomenon based on their prior knowledge and experience. There is no single method to go about this intellectual work. Reeves et al. (2016) is an example of an article that proposed a conceptual framework about graduate teaching assistant professional development evaluation and research. The authors used existing literature to create a novel framework that filled a gap in current research and practice related to the training of graduate teaching assistants. This conceptual framework can guide the systematic collection of data by other researchers because the framework describes the relationships among various factors that influence teaching and learning. The Reeves et al. (2016) conceptual framework may be modified as additional data are collected and analyzed by other researchers. This is not uncommon, as conceptual frameworks can serve as catalysts for concerted research efforts that systematically explore a phenomenon (e.g., Reynolds et al. , 2012 ; Brownell and Kloser, 2015 ). Sabel et al. (2017) used a conceptual framework in their exploration of how scaffolds, an external factor, interact with internal factors to support student learning. Their conceptual framework integrated principles from two theoretical frameworks, self-regulated learning and metacognition, to illustrate how the research team conceptualized students’ use of scaffolds in their learning ( Figure 1 ). Sabel et al. (2017) created this model using their interpretations of these two frameworks in the context of their teaching. Conceptual framework from Sabel et al. (2017) . A conceptual framework should describe the relationship among components of the investigation ( Anfara and Mertz, 2014 ). These relationships should guide the researcher’s methods of approaching the study ( Miles et al. , 2014 ) and inform both the data to be collected and how those data should be analyzed. Explicitly describing the connections among the ideas allows the researcher to justify the importance of the study and the rigor of the research design. Just as importantly, these frameworks help readers understand why certain components of a system were not explored in the study. This is a challenge in education research, which is rooted in complex environments with many variables that are difficult to control. For example, Sabel et al. (2017) stated: “Scaffolds, such as enhanced answer keys and reflection questions, can help students and instructors bridge the external and internal factors and support learning” (p. 3). They connected the scaffolds in the study to the three dimensions of metacognition and the eventual transformation of existing ideas into new or revised ideas. Their framework provides a rationale for focusing on how students use two different scaffolds, and not on other factors that may influence a student’s success (self-efficacy, use of active learning, exam format, etc.). In constructing conceptual frameworks, researchers should address needed areas of study and/or contradictions discovered in literature reviews. By attending to these areas, researchers can strengthen their arguments for the importance of a study. For instance, conceptual frameworks can address how the current study will fill gaps in the research, resolve contradictions in existing literature, or suggest a new area of study. While a literature review describes what is known and not known about the phenomenon, the conceptual framework leverages these gaps in describing the current study ( Maxwell, 2012 ). In the example of Sabel et al. (2017) , the authors indicated there was a gap in the literature regarding how scaffolds engage students in metacognition to promote learning in large classes. Their study helps fill that gap by describing how scaffolds can support students in the three dimensions of metacognition: intelligibility, plausibility, and wide applicability. In another example, Lane (2016) integrated research from science identity, the ethic of care, the sense of belonging, and an expertise model of student success to form a conceptual framework that addressed the critiques of other frameworks. In a more recent example, Sbeglia et al. (2021) illustrated how a conceptual framework influences the methodological choices and inferences in studies by educational researchers. Sometimes researchers draw upon the conceptual frameworks of other researchers. When a researcher’s conceptual framework closely aligns with an existing framework, the discussion may be brief. For example, Ghee et al. (2016) referred to portions of SCCT as their conceptual framework to explain the significance of their work on students’ self-efficacy and career interests. Because the authors’ conceptualization of this phenomenon aligned with a previously described framework, they briefly mentioned the conceptual framework and provided additional citations that provided more detail for the readers. Within both the BER and the broader DBER communities, conceptual frameworks have been used to describe different constructs. For example, some researchers have used the term “conceptual framework” to describe students’ conceptual understandings of a biological phenomenon. This is distinct from a researcher’s conceptual framework of the educational phenomenon under investigation, which may also need to be explicitly described in the article. Other studies have presented a research logic model or flowchart of the research design as a conceptual framework. These constructions can be quite valuable in helping readers understand the data-collection and analysis process. However, a model depicting the study design does not serve the same role as a conceptual framework. Researchers need to avoid conflating these constructs by differentiating the researchers’ conceptual framework that guides the study from the research design, when applicable. Explicitly describing conceptual frameworks is essential in depicting the focus of the study. We have found that being explicit in a conceptual framework means using accepted terminology, referencing prior work, and clearly noting connections between terms. This description can also highlight gaps in the literature or suggest potential contributions to the field of study. A well-elucidated conceptual framework can suggest additional studies that may be warranted. This can also spur other researchers to consider how they would approach the examination of a phenomenon and could result in a revised conceptual framework. It can be challenging to create conceptual frameworks, but they are important. Below are two resources that could be helpful in constructing and presenting conceptual frameworks in educational research: Maxwell, J. A. (2012). Qualitative research design: An interactive approach (3rd ed.). Los Angeles, CA: Sage. Chapter 3 in this book describes how to construct conceptual frameworks. Ravitch, S. M., & Riggan, M. (2016). Reason & rigor: How conceptual frameworks guide research . Los Angeles, CA: Sage. This book explains how conceptual frameworks guide the research questions, data collection, data analyses, and interpretation of results. CONCLUDING THOUGHTS Literature reviews, theoretical frameworks, and conceptual frameworks are all important in DBER and BER. Robust literature reviews reinforce the importance of a study. Theoretical frameworks connect the study to the base of knowledge in educational theory and specify the researcher’s assumptions. Conceptual frameworks allow researchers to explicitly describe their conceptualization of the relationships among the components of the phenomenon under study. Table 1 provides a general overview of these components in order to assist biology education researchers in thinking about these elements. It is important to emphasize that these different elements are intertwined. When these elements are aligned and complement one another, the study is coherent, and the study findings contribute to knowledge in the field. When literature reviews, theoretical frameworks, and conceptual frameworks are disconnected from one another, the study suffers. The point of the study is lost, suggested findings are unsupported, or important conclusions are invisible to the researcher. In addition, this misalignment may be costly in terms of time and money. Conducting a literature review, selecting a theoretical framework, and building a conceptual framework are some of the most difficult elements of a research study. It takes time to understand the relevant research, identify a theoretical framework that provides important insights into the study, and formulate a conceptual framework that organizes the finding. In the research process, there is often a constant back and forth among these elements as the study evolves. 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CBE—Life Sciences Education , 17 ( 1 ), ar11. https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.17-08-0190 [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ] 358 IMAGES what are functions of literature review what are functions of literature review The Importance of Literature Review in Scientific Research Writing review of related literature function Writing a Literature Review elements of a literature review COMMENTS A systematic review and Bayesian meta-analysis provide ... Description of studies. The literature search yielded 15,900 peer reviewed journal articles, and after removing duplicates 8295 remained. Subsequent an initial screening based off the titles and ... Literature Reviews Literature Review Definitions. Below are definitions from: Booth, A. Papaioannou, D., and Sutton, A. (2016) Systematic approaches to a successful literature review.London: SAGE Publications, Ltd. Mapping Review: "A rapid search of the literature aiming to give a broad overview of the characteristics of a topic area. Mapping of existing research, identification of gaps, and a summary assessment ... Diagnostics Background: Rheumatoid arthritis-associated interstitial lung disease (RA-ILD) is an important extra-articular manifestation of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Identifying patients at risk of progression and death is crucial for improving RA-ILD management and outcomes. This paper explores current evidence on prognostic factors in RA-ILD. Methods: We conducted a systematic literature review to ... Real-time fMRI-based neurofeedback to restore brain function in The primary aim of this review is to address this evidence gap by systematically synthesising the literature on fMRI-neurofeedback-related neurobehavioural changes in SUDs. Second, we aimed to systematically summarise the evidence on the association between fMRI-neurofeedback-related brain functional changes, craving, and substance use. A Literature Review on Data Sources and Methodologies for Enriching Gas The literature review covers the following topics: flight trajectory modeling, EO/environmental condition data, as well as engine performance, condition, and deterioration modeling. Methods and data sources in these different areas are reviewed while simultaneously presenting the currently researched analytical approach. DNAH11 and a Novel Genetic Variant Associated with Situs Inversus: A Over 300 genes have been identified to be involved in the function and morphology of the cilia, and at least 40 genes are involved in the inappropriate function of the cilia . Dynein axonemal heavy chain 5 (DNAH5) and dynein axonemal intermediate chain 1 (DNAI1) are the most disease-causing genes involved in the pathogenesis of PCD . The Impact of Kundalini Yoga on Cognitive Function and Memory: A This systematic review aims to evaluate the effects of KY on cognitive function, memory impairment, and related neurobiological and psychological outcomes in older adults. A comprehensive literature search was conducted across PubMed, MEDLINE, Scopus, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Library, covering studies published from January 2000 to ... Literature reviews: functions, types and methods A literature review section as part of a longer report should provide context and support a rationale for the new study. In a health sciences journal article, this section can sometimes be very short; in a dissertation, there is usually a whole chapter as a literature review, but prior literature should also be used throughout - for example to support methods and discussion sections. What is the purpose of a literature review? A literature review is a survey of scholarly sources (such as books, journal articles, and theses) related to a specific topic or research question. It is often written as part of a thesis, dissertation, or research paper, in order to situate your work in relation to existing knowledge. What is the Purpose of a Literature Review? A literature review is a critical summary and evaluation of the existing research (e.g., academic journal articles and books) on a specific topic. It is typically included as a separate section or chapter of a research paper or dissertation, serving as a contextual framework for a study. Literature reviews can vary in length depending on the ... How to Write a Literature Review Examples of literature reviews. Step 1 - Search for relevant literature. Step 2 - Evaluate and select sources. Step 3 - Identify themes, debates, and gaps. Step 4 - Outline your literature review's structure. Step 5 - Write your literature review. What Is A Literature Review? The literature review chapter has a few important functions within your dissertation, thesis or research project. Let's take a look at these: Purpose #1 - Demonstrate your topic knowledge. The first function of the literature review chapter is, quite simply, to show the reader (or marker) that you know what you're talking about. In other ... 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 ... Library Guide to Capstone Literature Reviews The literature review is not a comprehensive history of your topic, but a way to provide context to your reader about research that has preceded your study. Be aware that the literature review is an iterative process. As you read and write initial drafts, you will find new threads and complementary themes, at which point you will return to ... What Is Literature Review? Importance, Functions, Process, A literature review is a critical and comprehensive analysis of existing research, studies, articles, books, and other relevant sources on a specific topic or subject. It serves as a foundational step in the research process, helping researchers understand the current state of knowledge, identify gaps in the literature, and establish a context ... Purpose of a Literature Review The purpose of a literature review is to: Provide a foundation of knowledge on a topic; Identify areas of prior scholarship to prevent duplication and give credit to other researchers; Identify inconstancies: gaps in research, conflicts in previous studies, open questions left from other research; The literature review structure and function Review and Reinforce. The goal of the literature review is to present an argument defending the relevance and value of a research question. To that end, a literature review must be balanced. For example, in proposing a new theory, both findings that are consistent with that theory and contradictory evidence must be discussed. What is a Literature Review? How to Write It (with Examples) A literature review is a critical analysis and synthesis of existing research on a particular topic. It provides an overview of the current state of knowledge, identifies gaps, and highlights key findings in the literature. 1 The purpose of a literature review is to situate your own research within the context of existing scholarship ... PDF Literature review purpose Literature review purpose. The purpose of a literature review is to gain an understanding of the existing research and debates relevant to a particular topic or area of study, and to present that knowledge in the form of a written report. Conducting a literature review helps you build your knowledge in your field. The objective of a literature review The literature review, often referred to as the Background or Introduction to a research paper that presents methods, materials, results and discussion, exists in every field and serves many functions in research writing. Adapted from Frederiksen, L., & Phelps, S. F. (2017). Literature Reviews for Education and Nursing Graduate Students. Literature review as a research methodology: An ... As mentioned previously, there are a number of existing guidelines for literature reviews. Depending on the methodology needed to achieve the purpose of the review, all types can be helpful and appropriate to reach a specific goal (for examples, please see Table 1).These approaches can be qualitative, quantitative, or have a mixed design depending on the phase of the review. (PDF) Literature Reviews, Conceptual Frameworks, and Theoretical A literature review was conducted to further develop the framework (the three traditional components of human research development [HRD]—training and development, career development, and ... PDF Conceptualizing the Pathways of Literature Review in Research Box1: Functions, Roles, or Uses of Literature Review To show the groundwork of research by means of summary, description, and critical evaluation (critique) of LR types (non-research LR to provide background and contextual information; theoretical LR to provide theoretical foundations; and research LR to present evidence for the present study. PDF Literature Reviews, Conceptual Frameworks, and Theoretical Frameworks 2001, p. 4). Although literature review and conceptual and theoretical frameworks share similar functions, each takes a manuscript in a different direction. Functions The literature review and conceptual and theoretical frameworks share five functions: (a) to build a foundation, (b) to demonstrate how a study advances How to write a Literature Review: Purpose of a literature review Conducting a literature review is a means of demonstrating the author's knowledge about a particular field of study, including vocabulary, theories, key variables and phenomena, and its methods and history.Conducting a literature review also informs the student of the influential researchers and research groups in the field (Randolph, 2009). ... PDF Literature reviews and its functions A literature review, in essence, identifies, analyses, and synthesises significant literature in a certain field of study. It ... It functions to discover and clarify areas of disagreement and agreement among experts in the field, as well as to identify prevailing viewpoints [5]. Keywords: catalogue, conceptual framework, contextualise, Internet In summary, a literature review has the following functions: • It provides a theoretical background to your study. • It helps you establish the links between what you are proposing to examine ... Chapter 9. Reviewing the Literature A literature review is a comprehensive summary of previous research on a topic. It includes both articles and books—and in some cases reports—relevant to a particular area of research. Ideally, one's research question follows from the reading of what has already been produced. For example, you are interested in studying sports injuries ... (PDF) The Literature Review The Literature Review. September 2015. DOI: 10.23912/978-1-910158-51-7-2790. In book: Research Methods for Business and Management. Publisher: Goodfellow Publishers Limited. Editors: Robert ... Literature Reviews, Theoretical Frameworks, and Conceptual Frameworks By summarizing what is known, the literature review points to what needs to be known, which in turn guides decisions about methodology. Finally, notable findings of the new study are discussed in reference to those described in the literature review. Within published BER studies, literature reviews can be placed in different locations in an ... assignment essay homework phd report resume review speech thesis