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• 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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Writing a Literature Review

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A literature review is a document or section of a document that collects key sources on a topic and discusses those sources in conversation with each other (also called synthesis ). The lit review is an important genre in many disciplines, not just literature (i.e., the study of works of literature such as novels and plays). When we say “literature review” or refer to “the literature,” we are talking about the research ( scholarship ) in a given field. You will often see the terms “the research,” “the scholarship,” and “the literature” used mostly interchangeably.

Where, when, and why would I write a lit review?

There are a number of different situations where you might write a literature review, each with slightly different expectations; different disciplines, too, have field-specific expectations for what a literature review is and does. For instance, in the humanities, authors might include more overt argumentation and interpretation of source material in their literature reviews, whereas in the sciences, authors are more likely to report study designs and results in their literature reviews; these differences reflect these disciplines’ purposes and conventions in scholarship. You should always look at examples from your own discipline and talk to professors or mentors in your field to be sure you understand your discipline’s conventions, for literature reviews as well as for any other genre.

A literature review can be a part of a research paper or scholarly article, usually falling after the introduction and before the research methods sections. In these cases, the lit review just needs to cover scholarship that is important to the issue you are writing about; sometimes it will also cover key sources that informed your research methodology.

Lit reviews can also be standalone pieces, either as assignments in a class or as publications. In a class, a lit review may be assigned to help students familiarize themselves with a topic and with scholarship in their field, get an idea of the other researchers working on the topic they’re interested in, find gaps in existing research in order to propose new projects, and/or develop a theoretical framework and methodology for later research. As a publication, a lit review usually is meant to help make other scholars’ lives easier by collecting and summarizing, synthesizing, and analyzing existing research on a topic. This can be especially helpful for students or scholars getting into a new research area, or for directing an entire community of scholars toward questions that have not yet been answered.

What are the parts of a lit review?

Most lit reviews use a basic introduction-body-conclusion structure; if your lit review is part of a larger paper, the introduction and conclusion pieces may be just a few sentences while you focus most of your attention on the body. If your lit review is a standalone piece, the introduction and conclusion take up more space and give you a place to discuss your goals, research methods, and conclusions separately from where you discuss the literature itself.

Introduction:

• An introductory paragraph that explains what your working topic and thesis is
• A forecast of key topics or texts that will appear in the review
• Potentially, a description of how you found sources and how you analyzed them for inclusion and discussion in the review (more often found in published, standalone literature reviews than in lit review sections in an article or research paper)
• Summarize and synthesize: Give an overview of the main points of each source and combine them into a coherent whole
• Analyze and interpret: Don’t just paraphrase other researchers – add your own interpretations where possible, discussing the significance of findings in relation to the literature as a whole
• Critically Evaluate: Mention the strengths and weaknesses of your sources
• Write in well-structured paragraphs: Use transition words and topic sentence to draw connections, comparisons, and contrasts.

Conclusion:

• Summarize the key findings you have taken from the literature and emphasize their significance
• Connect it back to your primary research question

How should I organize my lit review?

Lit reviews can take many different organizational patterns depending on what you are trying to accomplish with the review. Here are some examples:

• Chronological : The simplest approach is to trace the development of the topic over time, which helps familiarize the audience with the topic (for instance if you are introducing something that is not commonly known in your field). If you choose this strategy, be careful to avoid simply listing and summarizing sources in order. Try to analyze the patterns, turning points, and key debates that have shaped the direction of the field. Give your interpretation of how and why certain developments occurred (as mentioned previously, this may not be appropriate in your discipline — check with a teacher or mentor if you’re unsure).
• Thematic : If you have found some recurring central themes that you will continue working with throughout your piece, you can organize your literature review into subsections that address different aspects of the topic. For example, if you are reviewing literature about women and religion, key themes can include the role of women in churches and the religious attitude towards women.
• Qualitative versus quantitative research
• Empirical versus theoretical scholarship
• Divide the research by sociological, historical, or cultural sources
• Theoretical : In many humanities articles, the literature review is the foundation for the theoretical framework. You can use it to discuss various theories, models, and definitions of key concepts. You can argue for the relevance of a specific theoretical approach or combine various theorical concepts to create a framework for your research.

What are some strategies or tips I can use while writing my lit review?

Any lit review is only as good as the research it discusses; make sure your sources are well-chosen and your research is thorough. Don’t be afraid to do more research if you discover a new thread as you’re writing. More info on the research process is available in our "Conducting Research" resources .

As you’re doing your research, create an annotated bibliography ( see our page on the this type of document ). Much of the information used in an annotated bibliography can be used also in a literature review, so you’ll be not only partially drafting your lit review as you research, but also developing your sense of the larger conversation going on among scholars, professionals, and any other stakeholders in your topic.

Usually you will need to synthesize research rather than just summarizing it. This means drawing connections between sources to create a picture of the scholarly conversation on a topic over time. Many student writers struggle to synthesize because they feel they don’t have anything to add to the scholars they are citing; here are some strategies to help you:

• It often helps to remember that the point of these kinds of syntheses is to show your readers how you understand your research, to help them read the rest of your paper.
• Writing teachers often say synthesis is like hosting a dinner party: imagine all your sources are together in a room, discussing your topic. What are they saying to each other?
• Look at the in-text citations in each paragraph. Are you citing just one source for each paragraph? This usually indicates summary only. When you have multiple sources cited in a paragraph, you are more likely to be synthesizing them (not always, but often
• Read more about synthesis here.

The most interesting literature reviews are often written as arguments (again, as mentioned at the beginning of the page, this is discipline-specific and doesn’t work for all situations). Often, the literature review is where you can establish your research as filling a particular gap or as relevant in a particular way. You have some chance to do this in your introduction in an article, but the literature review section gives a more extended opportunity to establish the conversation in the way you would like your readers to see it. You can choose the intellectual lineage you would like to be part of and whose definitions matter most to your thinking (mostly humanities-specific, but this goes for sciences as well). In addressing these points, you argue for your place in the conversation, which tends to make the lit review more compelling than a simple reporting of other sources.

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Annotated Bibliography vs. Literature Review

What's the big deal.

There are fundamental differences between an annotated bibliography and a literature review that are crucial to completing the assignment correctly. The chart below is provides an overview of the biggest differences between the two types of assignments in a side-by-side comparison. However, if you need more specific information about either assignment, visit our Annotated Bibliography and/or Literature Review pages for more detailed information on how to complete them. 

Differences between an annotated bibliography and literature review

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Annotated bibliographies, writing the literature review, matrix for organizing sources for literature reviews / annotated bibliographies, sample literature reviews.

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A literature review is a synthesis of published information on a particular research topics. The purpose is to map out what is already known about a certain subject, outline methods previously used, prevent duplication of research, and, along these lines, reveal gaps in existing literature to justify the research project.

Unlike an annotated bibliography, a literature review is thus organized around ideas/concepts, not the individual sources themselves. Each of its paragraphs stakes out a position identifying related themes/issues, research design, and conclusions in existing literature.

An annotated bibliography  is a bibliography that gives a summary of each article or book. The purpose of annotations is to provide the reader with a summary and an evaluation of the source. Each summary should be a concise exposition of the source's central idea(s) and give the reader a general idea of the source's content.

The purpose of an annotated bibliography is to:

• review the literature of a particular subject;
• demonstrate the quality and depth of reading that you have done;
• exemplify the scope of sources available—such as journals, books, websites and magazine articles;
• highlight sources that may be of interest to other readers and researchers;
• explore and organize sources for further research.

Further Reading:

• Annotated Bibliographies (Purdue OWL)
• How to Prepare an Annotated Bibliography (Cornell University)

" Literature Reviews: An Overview for Graduate Students " 2009. NC State University Libraries

Review the following websites for tips on writing a literature review:

Literature Reviews. The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 

Write a Literature Review: Virginia Commonwealth University. 

• Matrix for Organizing Sources

Levac, J., Toal-Sullivan, D., & O`Sullivan, T. (2012). Household Emergency Preparedness: A Literature Review.  Journal Of Community Health ,  37 (3), 725-733. doi:10.1007/s10900-011-9488-x

Geale, S. K. (2012). The ethics of disaster management.  Disaster Prevention and Management,  21 (4), 445-462. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09653561211256152

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Structure of a Literature Review

Preliminary steps for literature review.

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What is a Literature Review?

A literature review is a comprehensive summary and analysis of previously published research on a particular topic. Literature reviews should give the reader an overview of the important theories and themes that have previously been discussed on the topic, as well as any important researchers who have contributed to the discourse. This review should connect the established conclusions to the hypothesis being presented in the rest of the paper.

What a Literature Review Is Not:

• Annotated Bibliography: An annotated bibliography summarizes and assesses each resource individually and separately. A literature review explores the connections between different articles to illustrate important themes/theories/research trends within a larger research area. 
• Timeline: While a literature review can be organized chronologically, they are not simple timelines of previous events. They should not be a list of any kind. Individual examples or events should be combined to illustrate larger ideas or concepts.
• Argumentative Paper: Literature reviews are not meant to be making an argument. They are explorations of a concept to give the audience an understanding of what has already been written and researched about an idea. As many perspectives as possible should be included in a literature review in order to give the reader as comprehensive understanding of a topic as possible.

Why Write a Literature Review?

After reading the literature review, the reader should have a basic understanding of the topic. A reader should be able to come into your paper without really knowing anything about an idea, and after reading the literature, feel more confident about the important points.

A literature review should also help the reader understand the focus the rest of the paper will take within the larger topic. If the reader knows what has already been studied, they will be better prepared for the novel argument that is about to be made.

A literature review should help the reader understand the important history, themes, events, and ideas about a particular topic. Connections between ideas/themes should also explored. Part of the importance of a literature review is to prove to experts who do read your paper that you are knowledgeable enough to contribute to the academic discussion. You have to have done your homework.

A literature review should also identify the gaps in research to show the reader what hasn't yet been explored. Your thesis should ideally address one of the gaps identified in the research. Scholarly articles are meant to push academic conversations forward with new ideas and arguments. Before knowing where the gaps are in a topic, you need to have read what others have written.

As mentioned in other tabs, literature reviews should discuss the big ideas that make up a topic. Each literature review should be broken up into different subtopics. Each subtopic should use groups of articles as evidence to support the ideas. There are several different ways of organizing a literature review. It will depend on the patterns one sees in the groups of articles as to which strategy should be used. Here are a few examples of how to organize your review:

Chronological

If there are clear trends that change over time, a chronological approach could be used to organize a literature review. For example, one might argue that in the 1970s, the predominant theories and themes argued something. However, in the 1980s, the theories evolved to something else. Then, in the 1990s, theories evolved further. Each decade is a subtopic, and articles should be used as examples. 

Themes/Theories

There may also be clear distinctions between schools of thought within a topic, a theoretical breakdown may be most appropriate. Each theory could be a subtopic, and articles supporting the theme should be included as evidence for each one. 

If researchers mainly differ in the way they went about conducting research, literature reviews can be organized by methodology. Each type of method could be a subtopic,  and articles using the method should be included as evidence for each one.

• Define your research question
• Compile a list of initial keywords to use for searching based on question
• Search for literature that discusses the topics surrounding your research question
• Assess and organize your literature into logical groups
• Identify gaps in research and conduct secondary searches (if necessary)
• Reassess and reorganize literature again (if necessary)
• Write review

Here is an example of a literature review, taken from the beginning of a research article. You can find other examples within most scholarly research articles. The majority of published scholarship includes a literature review section, and you can use those to become more familiar with these reviews.

Source:  Perceptions of the Police by LGBT Communities

There are many books and internet resources about literature reviews though most are long on how to search and gather the literature. How to literally organize the information is another matter.

Some pro tips:

• Be thoughtful in naming the folders, sub-folders, and sub, sub-folders.  Doing so really helps your thinking and concepts within your research topic.
• Be disciplined to add keywords under the tabs as this will help you search for ALL the items on your concepts/topics.
• Use the notes tab to add reminders, write bibliography/annotated bibliography
• Your literature review easily flows from your statement of purpose (SoP).  Therefore, does your SoP say clearly and exactly the intent of your research?  Your research assumption and argument is obvious?
• Begin with a topic outline that traces your argument. pg99: "First establish the line of argumentation you will follow (the thesis), whether it is an assertion, a contention, or a proposition.
• This means that you should have formed judgments about the topic based on the analysis and synthesis of the literature you are reviewing."
• Keep filling it in; flushing it out more deeply with your references

Other Resources/Examples

• ISU Writing Assistance The Julia N. Visor Academic Center provides one-on-one writing assistance for any course or need. By focusing on the writing process instead of merely on grammar and editing, we are committed to making you a better writer.
• University of Toronto: The Literature Review Written by Dena Taylor, Health Sciences Writing Centre
• Purdue OWL - Writing a Lit Review Goes over the basic steps
• UW Madison Writing Center - Review of Literature A description of what each piece of a literature review should entail.
• USC Libraries - Literature Reviews Offers detailed guidance on how to develop, organize, and write a college-level research paper in the social and behavioral sciences.
• Creating the literature review: integrating research questions and arguments Blog post with very helpful overview for how to organize and build/integrate arguments in a literature review
• Understanding, Selecting, and Integrating a Theoretical Framework in Dissertation Research: Creating the Blueprint for Your “House” Article focusing on constructing a literature review for a dissertation. Still very relevant for literature reviews in other types of content.

A note that many of these examples will be far longer and in-depth than what's required for your assignment. However, they will give you an idea of the general structure and components of a literature review. Additionally, most scholarly articles will include a literature review section. Looking over the articles you have been assigned in classes will also help you.

• Understanding, Selecting, and Integrating a Theoretical Framework in Dissertation Research: Creating the Blueprint for Your “House” Excellent article detailing how to construct your literature review.
• Sample Literature Review (Univ. of Florida) This guide will provide research and writing tips to help students complete a literature review assignment.
• Sociology Literature Review (Univ. of Hawaii) Written in ASA citation style - don't follow this format.
• Sample Lit Review - Univ. of Vermont Includes an example with tips in the footnotes.

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Content on this page was provided by Grace Allbaugh

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Bibliographic research

The search and collection of information from published sources (books, journals, newspapers, etc.) nowadays may include other types of documents, such as websites, reports from bibliographic databases, etc.

Searching for bibliographic sources relevant to your project is an integral and unavoidable part of the thesis work.

To find out how to conduct your bibliographic research, we suggest you consult the Bibliographic Research Guide .

For a start, you can consult the Library books on academic writing (how to write assignments, presentations, theses ...):

Literature review

Literature review is the analysis of the academic literature (articles, books, dissertations, theses, etc.) that you have identified when performing your search on the topic.

A review of the relevant literature for the topic selected is a key element of any academic project (dissertation or PhD thesis, writing an article for an academic journal…) for several reasons:

• it provides you with the conceptual context for your research

• it allows you to acquire, deepen and organize knowledge in the chosen research area

• helps you define or better focus your research objectives

Furthermore, its objectives are:

• describing the state-of-the-art on the given subject (what is the knowledge achieved so far in the research area in which your project fits?)
• identifying strengths and weaknesses, potential gaps in the current knowledge, unexplored empirical issues, or issues that need to be updated
• understanding how the research question is positioned within the field (to what extent does your work provide an original contribution to the research context?)

Want to learn more about the literature review? Explore the Project Planner on SAGE Research Methods .

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References & Further Reading

Manuals & guidelines, print books.

• Beyond PICO: the SPIDER tool for qualitative evidence synthesis Cooke, A., Smith, D., & Booth, A. (2012). Qualitative Health Research, 22(10), 1435-1443.
• Checking reference lists to find additional studies for systematic reviews Horsley, T., Dingwall, O., & Sampson, M. (2011). The Cochrane Library, 8.
• Domain Definition and Search Techniques in Meta-analyses of L2 Research (Or why 18 meta-analyses of feedback have different results) Plonsky, L., & Brown, D. (2015). Second Language Research, 31(2), 267–278.
• Effectiveness and Efficiency of Search Methods in Systematic Reviews of Complex Evidence: Audit of Primary Sources Greenhalgh, T., & Peacock, R. (2005). BMJ, 331(7524), 1064-1065. Only 30% of sources were obtained from the protocol defined at the outset of the study (that is, from the database and hand searches). Fifty one per cent were identified by “snowballing” (such as pursuing references of references), and 24% by personal knowledge or personal contacts. Conclusion: Systematic reviews of complex evidence cannot rely solely on protocol-driven search strategies.
• An Empirical Assessment of A Systematic Search Process for Systematic Reviews Zhang, H., Babar, M. A., Bai, X., Li, J., & Huang, L. (2011, April). In Evaluation & Assessment in Software Engineering (EASE 2011), 15th Annual Conference on (pp. 56-65). IET.
• The Impact of Limited Search Procedures for Systematic Literature Reviews – A Participant-Observer Case Study Kitchenham, B., Brereton, P., Turner, M., Niazi, M., Linkman, S., Pretorius, R., & Budgen, D. (2009, October). In Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement, 2009. ESEM 2009. 3rd International Symposium on (pp. 336-345). IEEE.
• Information retrieval in systematic reviews: Challenges in the public health arena Beahler, C. C., Sundheim, J. J., & Trapp, N. I. (2000). American Journal of Preventive Medicine, (18)4, 6-10.
• Literature Searching for Social Science Systematic Reviews: Consideration of a range of search techniques. Papaioannou, D. , Sutton, A. , Carroll, C. , Booth, A. and Wong, R. (2010). Health Information & Libraries Journal, 27, 114-122.
• Literature search strategies for conducting knowledge‐building and theory‐generating qualitative systematic reviews Finfgeld‐Connett, D., & Johnson, E. D. (2013). Journal of Advanced Nursing, 69(1), 194-204.
• Performing a Literature Review. Reed, L. E. (1998, November). In fie (pp. 380-383). IEEE.
• Searching for qualitative research for inclusion in Systematic Reviews: A Structured Methodological Review Booth, A. (2016). Systematic Reviews, (5)74, 1-23.
• Should We Exclude Inadequately Reported Studies From Qualitative Systematic Reviews? An Evaluation of Sensitivity Analyses in Two Case Study Reviews Carroll, C., Booth, A., & Lloyd-Jones, M. (2012). Qualitative Health Research, 22(10), 1425-1434.
• Systematic Literature Studies: Database Searches vs. Backward Snowballing Jalali, S., & Wohlin, C. (2012, September). In Proceedings of the ACM-IEEE international symposium on Empirical software engineering and measurement (pp. 29-38). ACM.
• Text-Mining Techniques and Tools for Systematic Literature Reviews: A Systematic Literature Review Feng, L., Chiam, Y. K., & Lo, S. K. (2017, December). In Asia-Pacific Software Engineering Conference (APSEC), 2017 24th (pp. 41-50). IEEE. Also available open access: http://eprints.um.edu.my/18515/1/All.pdf
• Use of information-seeking strategies for developing systematic reviews and engaging in evidence-based practice: the application of traditional and comprehensive Pearl Growing. A review Schlosser, R. W., Wendt, O., Bhavnani, S., & Nail‐Chiwetalu, B. (2006). International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 41(5), 567-582.
• What is your research question? An introduction to the PICOT format for clinicians. Riva, J. J., Malik, K. M., Burnie, S. J., Endicott, A. R., & Busse, J. W. (2012). The Journal of the Canadian Chiropractic Association, 56(3), 167-71.
• Writing a Literature Review
• ECO 495: Senior Economic Project: Literature Review
• Ethical use of Sources and Writing

For Conducting a Systematic Review or Meta-analysis

• Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions (Version 5.1.0) Higgins JPT, Green S (editors). The Cochrane Collaboration, 2011.
• Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses: The PRISMA Statement Moher, D., Liberati, A., Tetzlaff, J., & Altman, D. G. (2009). Annals of Internal Medicine, 151(4), 264-269.
• Standards for Systematic Reviews (Report) The National Academies of Science, Engineering, Medicine. Released 3/23/2011. Copyright © 2018 National Academy of Sciences.
• Systematic Reviews: CRD's guidance for undertaking reviews in health care Centre for Reviews and Dissemination, University of York (2008). York, UK: York Publishing Services Ltd.
• Procedures for Performing Systematic Reviews Kitchenham, B. (2004). Keele University, 33(2004), 1-26. Software Engineering Group, Department of Computer Science, Keele, UK.
• A Roadmap for Systematic Reviews & Meta-analyses Adapted from: Pai, M. et al. (2004). The National Medical Journal of India, 17(2):86-95.
• Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses: An Illustrated, Step-By-Step Guide. Pai, M., McCulloch, M., Gorman, J. D., Pai, N., Enanoria, W., Kennedy, G., ... & Colford, J. J. (2004). The National Medical Journal of India, 17(2), 86-95.
• Systematic Reviews of Health Promotion and Public Health Interventions (Version 2) July 2007. Armstrong, R., & Waters, E. on behalf of the Guidelines for Systematic Reviews in Health Promotion and Public Health Taskforce.
• A Guideline for Applying Systematic Reviews to Child Language Intervention Hargrove, P., Lund, B., & Griffer, M. (2005). Communication Disorders Quarterly, 26(4), 226–235.
• A Tutorial on Conducting Meta-Analyses of Clinical Outcome Research Robey, R. R., & Dalebout, S. D. (1998). Journal of Speech, Language & Hearing Research, 41(6), 1227-1241.
• Handbook of Meta-analysis in Ecology and Evolution Koricheva J., Gurevitch J., & Mengersen K. (Eds.). (2013). Princeton University Press.

Across Disciplines

• Qualitative Case Study Methodology: Study Design and Implementation for Novice Researchers Baxter, P., & Jack, S. (2008). The Qualitative Report, 13(4), 544-559. Discusses differences between exploratory and other types of case studies.
• Research Methods for Postgraduates Greenfield, Tony, and Sue Greener. Research Methods for Postgraduates. Third ed. 2016. Print.
• Case Study Research and Applications: Design and methods (3rd ed.). Summary Yin, R. K. (1994). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Summary only. 6th edition (2018) available in Chester Fritz Library. Discusses exploratory and other types of case studies.
• The Book Review: Scholarly and Editorial Responsibility Felber, L. (2002). Journal of Scholarly Publishing, 33(3), 166.
• Special Section on the Value of Scholarly Book Reviews. Gump, S. E. (2018). Journal of Scholarly Publishing, 50(1), 1-7. University of Toronto Press.
• Use of Scholarly Book Reviews: Implications for Electronic Publishing and Scholarly Communication Spink, A., Robins, D., & Schamber, L. (1998). Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 49(4), 364-374.
• What Synthesis Methodology Should I Use? A Review and Analysis of Approaches to Research Synthesis Schick-Makaroff, K., MacDonald, M., Plummer, M., Burgess, J., Neander, W. (2016). AIMS Public Health, 3(1), 172–215. From health and social sciences perspectives.
• Use of Content Analysis to Conduct Knowledge-Building and Theory-Generating Qualitative Systematic Reviews Finfgeld-Connett, D. (2014). Qualitative Research, 14(3), 341-352.
• HARKing: Hypothesizing After the Results are Known Kerr, N. L. (1998). Personality and Social Psychology Review, 2(3), 196–217.
• p-Curve and Effect Size: Correcting for Publication Bias Using Only Significant Results Simonsohn, U., Nelson, L. D., & Simmons, J. P. (2014). Perspectives on Psychological Science, 9(6), 666–681.

Medicine & Public Health

• How to Write a Scholarly Book Review for Publication in a Peer-reviewed Journal: A Review of the Literature Lee, A. D., Green, B. N., Johnson, C. D., & Nyquist, J. (2010). Journal of Chiropractic Education, 24(1), 57-69.
• Writing a Literature Review Steward, B. (2004). British Journal of Occupational Therapy, 67(11), 495–500.
• How to Read a Paper: Papers that Summarise other Papers: Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis. Greenalgh, T. (1997). British Medical Journal, 315, 672-675.
• A Typology of Reviews: An Analysis of 14 Review Types and Associated Methodologies Grant, M. J., & Booth, A. (2009). Health Information And Libraries Journal, 26(2), 91–108.
• Five Steps to Conducting a Systematic Review Khan, K. S., Kunz, R., Kleijnen, J., & Antes, G. (2003). Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 96(3), 118-121.
• Criteria for the Systematic Review of Health Promotion and Public Health Interventions Jackson, N. & Waters, E. for the Guidelines for Systematic Reviews in Health Promotion and Public Health Taskforce. (2005). Health Promotion International, Volume 20, Issue 4(1), Pages 367–374.
• Qualitative Research in Systematic Reviews -- Has established a place for itself Dixon-Woods, M., & Fitzpatrick, R. (2001). BMJ (Clinical research ed.), 323(7316), 765-6.
• A Brief History of Research Synthesis Chalmers, I., Hedges, L. V., & Cooper, H. (2002). Evaluation & the Health Professions, 25(1), 12–37.
• Methods for the Thematic Synthesis of Qualitative Research in Systematic Reviews Thomas, J., & Harden, A. (2008). BMC Medical Research Methodology, 8(1), 45.
• The Mass Production of Redundant, Misleading, and Conflicted Systematic Reviews and Meta‐analyses Ioannidis, J. P. (2016). The Milbank Quarterly, 94(3), 485-514.
• Methodologic Issues in Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses Montori, V. M., Swiontkowski, M. F., & Cook, D. J. (2003). Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research®, 413, 43-54.
• I Have the Answer, Now What's the Question?: Why Metaanalyses Do Not Provide Definitive Solutions Streiner, D. L. (2005). The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 50(13), 829–831.

Social Sciences

• Book Reviews and Scientist-Practitioner Currency: A Critical Lever. Jones RG, Fleenor JW, Summers L. (2004). The Industrial-Organizational Psychologist, 41, 22-25.
• All in the Family: Systematic Reviews, Rapid Reviews, Scoping Reviews, Realist Reviews, and More Moher, D., Stewart, L., & Shekelle, P. (2015). Systematic Reviews, 4(183), 1–2.
• Writing a Literature Review Baumeister, R. F. (2013). In M. J. Prinstein (Ed.), The Portable Mentor (pp. 119–132). New York, NY: Springer New York.
• Writing a Review Article for Psychological Bulletin Bem, D. J. (1995). Psychological Bulletin, 118(2), 172-177.
• Systematic Reviews in the Social Sciences: A Practical Guide [Book Review] Suri, H. (2009). Evaluation Journal of Australaisa, 9(1), 62-63. Book Reviewed: Petticrew, M. & Roberts, H. (2006). Malden, MA: Blackwell. ISBN: 978-1-4051-2110-1 Book in library collection: https://odin-primo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com:443/und:all:ODIN_ALEPH008277698
• Using Logic Models to Capture Complexity in Systematic Reviews Anderson, L. M., Petticrew, M. , Rehfuess, E., Armstrong, R. , Ueffing, E. , Baker, P. , Francis, D. and Tugwell, P. (2011). Research Synthesis Methods, (2), 33-42.
• Scoping Studies: Towards a Methodological Framework. Arksey, H., & O'Malley, L. (2005). International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 8(1), 19-32.
• Face Validity of Meta-Analyses in Emotional or Behavioral Disorders. Mostert, M. (2004). Behavioral Disorders, 29(2), 89-118.
• Meta-analytic Decisions and Reliability: A Serendipitous Case of Three Independent Telecommuting Meta-analyses. Nieminen, L., Nicklin, J., McClure, T., & Chakrabarti, M. (2011). Journal of Business and Psychology, 26(1), 105-121.
• Research Transparency in Psychological Science: How & Why? Gernsbacher, M. A. (2018a, October 26. [Video File]. Presented at the Northern Lights Psychology Conference 2018, UND, Grand Forks, ND, https://commons.und.edu/nlp-conference/2018/
• Rewarding Research Transparency Gernsbacher, M. A. (2018). Trends in Cognitive Sciences.
• Writing Empirical Articles: Transparency, Reproducibility, Clarity, and Memorability Gernsbacher, M. A. (2018). Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science, 1, 403-414.

Education & Public Policy

• Teaching the Literature Review: A Practical Approach for College Instructors Cisco, J. (2014). Teaching & Learning Inquiry: The ISSOTL Journal, 2(2), 41-57.
• Producing Policy Relevant Systematic Reviews: Navigating the Policy-Research Interface Oliver, S., Bangpan, M., & Dickson, K. (2018). Evidence & Policy: A Journal of Research, Debate and Practice, 14(2), 197-220.
• Use and Impacts of Campbell Systematic Reviews on Policy, Practice, and Research Maynard, B. R. & Dell, N. A. (2018). Research on Social Work Practice, 28(1), 13 -18.
• The Relevance of Systematic Reviews to Educational Policy and Practice. Davies, P. (2000). Oxford Review of Education, 26(3/4), 365-378.
• The Place of Systematic Reviews in Education Research Andrews, R. (2005). British Journal of Educational Studies, 53(4), 399-416.
• The Relationship Between Sample Sizes and Effect Sizes in Systematic Reviews in Education Slavin, R., & Smith, D. (2009). Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 31(4), 500-506.
• Application of Systematic Reviews in Speech‐and‐Language Therapy Marshall, J. (2011). International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 46(3), 261 -272.
• A Review of Meta-Analyses in Education: Methodological Strengths and Weaknesses. Ahn, S., Ames, A., & Myers, N. (2012). Review of Educational Research, 82(4), 436-476.
• Deficiencies of Reporting in Meta-Analyses and Some Remedies. Harwell, M., & Maeda, Y. (2008). The Journal of Experimental Education, 76(4), 403-428.
• Effect Sizes and Statistical Methods for Meta-Analysis in Higher Education. Bowman, N. (2012). Research in Higher Education, 53(3), 375-382.
• Meta-Analysis With Complex Research Designs: Dealing With Dependence From Multiple Measures and Multiple Group Comparisons. Scammacca, N., Roberts, G., & Stuebing, K. (2014). Review of Educational Research, 84(3), 328-364.
• Meta-Analysis in Higher Education: An Illustrative Example Using Hierarchical Linear Modeling Denson, N., & Seltzer, M. (2011). Research in Higher Education, 52(3), 215-244.

(Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics)

• The Evolving Practice of Scholarly Book Reviews. Jinfa Cai. (2015). Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 46(3), 250-252.
• Workshop in Conducting Integrative Literature Reviews Carliner, S. (2011, October). In Professional Communication Conference (IPCC), 2011 IEEE International (pp. 1-3). IEEE.
• Repeatability of Systematic Literature Reviews Kitchenham, B., Brereton, P., Li, Z., Budgen, D., & Burn, A. (2011). Proceedings of EASE 2011 (15th Annual Conference on Evaluation & Assessment in Software Engineering)
• Methodology for Systematic Literature Review Applied to Engineering and Education Torres-Carrión, P. V., González-González, C. S., Aciar, S., & Rodríguez-Morales, G. (2018, April). In Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON), 2018 IEEE (pp. 1364-1373). IEEE.
• Identifying Barriers to the Systematic Literature Review Process Carver, J. C., Hassler, E., Hernandes, E., & Kraft, N. A. (2013, October). In Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement, 2013 ACM/IEEE International Symposium on (pp. 203-212). IEEE.
• Visualizing Systematic Literature Reviews to Identify New Areas of Research Godwin, A. (2016, October). In Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), 2016 IEEE (pp. 1-8). IEEE.
• Review: Power and Information Technology Research: A Metatriangulation Review Jasperson, J., Carte, T. A., Saunders, C. S., Butler, B. S., Croes, H. J. P., & Zheng, W. (2002). MIS Quarterly, 26(4), 397–459.
• Statistical Issues in Ecological Meta-Analyses Gurevitch, J., & Hedges, L. (1999). Ecology, 80(4), 1142-1149.

Business & Management

• Extending a Provocative Tradition: Book Reviews and Beyond at AMR Bartunek, J. M., & Ragins, B. R. (2015). The Academy of Management Review, 40(3), 474–479
• Compliments and Criticisms in Book Reviews About Business Communication Mackiewicz, J. (2007). Journal of Business & Technical Communication, 21(2), 188–215.
• Writing Integrative Literature Reviews: Guidelines and Examples Torraco, R. J. (2005). Human Resource Development Review, 4(3), 356–367.
• Towards a Methodology for Developing Evidence‐informed Management Knowledge by Means of Systematic Review Tranfield, D., Denyer, D., & Smart, P. (2003). British Journal of Management, 14(3), 207-222.
• Shades of Grey: Guidelines for Working with the Grey Literature in Systematic Reviews for Management and Organizational Studies Adams, R. J., Smart, P., & Huff, A. S. (2017). International Journal of Management Reviews, 19(4), 432–454.
• Meta-Analysis in Advertising Research. Eisend, M. (2017). Journal of Advertising, 46(1), 21–35.
• Meta-analyses in Sales Research. Johnson, J. S., & Jaramillo, F. (2017). Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, 37(2), 134–152.
• Qualitative Inquiry in Management: Methodological Dilemmas and Concerns in Meta-Analysis. Point, S., Fendt, J., & Jonsen, K. (2017). European Management Review, 14(2), 185–204.
• The Suitability of Simulations and Meta-Analyses for Submissions to Academy of Management Journal Shaw, J. D., & Ertug, G. (2017). Academy of Management Journal, 60(6), 2045–2049. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2017.4006
• The Scholarly Book Review in the Humanities: An Academic Cinderella? East, J. W. (2011). Journal of Scholarly Publishing 43(1), 52-67. University of Toronto Press.
• H-Net Book Reviews: Enhancing Scholarly Communication with Technology McGrath, E. L., Metz, W. F., & Rutledge, J. B. (2005). College & Research Libraries, 66(1), 8-19.
• Literature Reviews and the Hermeneutic Circle Boell, S. K., & Cecez-Kecmanovic, D. (2010) Australian Academic & Research Libraries, (41)2, 129-144.
• Meta-analysis in Second Language Research: Choices and Challenges Annual Review of Applied Linguistics (2010), 30, 85–110
• Publication Practices in Motion: The Benefits of Open Access Publishing for the Humanities. Adema, J., & Ferwerda, E. (2014). In Dávidházi P. (Ed.), New Publication Cultures in the Humanities: Exploring the Paradigm Shift (pp. 131-146). Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
• Going Open Smith, S. (2016). In Manifesto for the Humanities: Transforming Doctoral Education in Good Enough Times (pp. 67-84). ANN ARBOR: University of Michigan Press.
• Qualitative Research
• Journal of Scholarly Publishing
• Systematic Reviews
• International Journal of Social Research Methodology
• Campbell Systematic Reviews

Hover over the title for a brief overview and click on the title to be taken to the listing in the catalog where you can find more information such as location and call number. If you want to find additional print books on literature reviews, send me an email or ask a librarian around the clock using our  Ask Us 24/7  chat service!

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• URL: https://libguides.und.edu/literature-reviews

Citation Styles

• Chicago Style
• Annotated Bibliographies

What is a Lit Review?

How to write a lit review.

• Video Introduction to Lit Reviews

Main Objectives

Examples of lit reviews, additional resources.

• Zotero (Citation Management)

What is a literature review?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Your literature review should:

• Be focused on and organized around your topic.
• Synthesize your research into a summary of what is and is not known about your topic.
• Identify any gaps or areas of controversy in the literature related to your topic.
• Suggest questions that require further research.
• Have your voice and perspective at the forefront rather than merely summarizing others' work.
• Cyberbullying: How Physical Intimidation Influences the Way People are Bullied
• Use of Propofol and Emergence Agitation in Children
• Eternity and Immortality in Spinoza's 'Ethics'
• Literature Review Tutorials and Samples - Wilson Library at University of La Verne
• Literature Reviews: Introduction - University Library at Georgia State
• Literature Reviews - The Writing Center at UNC Chapel Hill
• Writing a Literature Review - Boston College Libraries
• Write a Literature Review - University Library at UC Santa Cruz
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Writing a Literature Review

Literature reviews vs. annotated bibliographies, what is a literature review, literature review overviews and examples.

• Citing sources and managing citations

Learn more about...

• Ask A Librarian Hours
• Schedule a Research Consultation
• Interlibrary Loan
• Off-Campus Access
• Borrowing Library Materials
• Citing Sources
• Avoiding Plagiarism
• Using RefWorks

Literature reviews typically include the following elements:

• Citations for the referenced materials
• A discussion of the materials' research purpose, methods, and findings
• A discussion of how those findings relate to your research
• A discussion of the differences between cited materials 
• A discussion of the gaps created by the material referenced and how your research can close those gaps

Literature Reviews synthesize information available on a topic.

Annotated bibliography components:

• A citation for the information source
• A summary of the source
• A reflection on how you think you will use the source in your project

Annotated bibliographies look at individual sources.

Be sure to review your assignment prompt and/or speak to your professor.

• Annotated Bibliography and Literature Reviews (Stetson Writing Center) This Writing Center handout describes annotated bibliographies and literature reviews and how to write them.

17 - what is a literature review from Joshua Vossler on Vimeo .

What is a Literature Review? , Joshua Vossler:  https://vimeo.com/90324266

This video provides a definition and comprehensive overview of the literature review. Also explains how a literature review differs from an annotated bibliography, in that an annotated bibliography lists and evaluates sources individually, whereas a literature review is a synthesized analysis of sources.

• Literature Reviews (Writing Center, UNC Chapel Hill) Overview of lit reviews and tips on writing one.
• Writing a Literature Review (Dartmouth University Library) Overview of writing a literature review.
• Writing a Literature Review (Purdue OWL) Describes when and how to write a Lit Review along with ways to organize one.
• Next: Citing sources and managing citations >>
• Last Updated: Jul 20, 2023 3:05 PM
• URL: https://guides.stetson.edu/litreview

Have a question? Ask a librarian! Email [email protected]. Call or text 386-747-9028.

• How to Prepare an Annotated Bibliography
• East Tennessee State University
• Literature Reviews
• What is an Annotated Bibliography?
• Examples of Annotated Bibliographies

Difference between Annotated Bibliography and Literature Review

Although both types of writing involve examining sources, a literature review attempts to correlate the information and draw connections between the sources.

Examples of Literature Reviews

• Student Example
• Journal Example

Citation Help

• MLA Center The Modern Language Association website can help you cite sources in MLA style.
• APA Style Blog The American Psychology Association can help you cite sources in APA style.
• Chicago Manual of Style Use this site to help you site sources in Chicago Manual of Style.
• Purdue's Online Writing Lab (OWL) Purdue's Online Language Writing Lab contains up-to-date information on MLA and APA styles.

What is a Literature Review?

Literature Review - from The Writing Center at UNC Chapel Hill

A literature review discusses published information in a particular subject area, and sometimes information in a particular subject area within a certain time period. It usually has an organizational pattern and combines both summary and synthesis. A summary is a recap of the important information of the source, but a synthesis is a re-organization, or a reshuffling, of that information. It might give a new interpretation of old material or combine new with old interpretations. Or it might trace the intellectual progression of the field, including major debates.

Organizing a Literature Review

There is not one "standard" for literature reviews but they should include the following:

• Introduction: Gives a quick idea of the topic of the literature review, such as the central theme or organizational pattern.
• Body: Contains your discussion of sources and is organized either chronologically, thematically, or methodologically (see below for more information on each).
• Conclusions/Recommendations: Discuss what you have drawn from reviewing literature so far. Where might the discussion proceed?

Organizing your literature review:

• Chronological: If your review follows the chronological method, you write about your materials according to when they were published. The oldest date is first and the most recent publication date is last.
• By publication: Order your sources by publication chronology, then, only if the order demonstrates a more important trend.
• By trend: A better way to organize sources chronologically is to examine the sources under another trend, such as the history of whaling. Then your review would have subsections according to eras within this period.
• Thematic: Thematic reviews of literature are organized around a topic or issue, rather than the progression of time. However, progression of time may still be an important factor in a thematic review. For instance, a thematic review of material on sperm whales might examine how they are portrayed as "evil" in cultural documents. The subsections might include how they are personified, how their proportions are exaggerated, and their behaviors misunderstood. A review organized in this manner would shift between time periods within each section according to the point made.
• Methodological: A methodological approach differs from the two above in that the focusing factor usually does not have to do with the content of the material. Instead, it focuses on the "methods" of the researcher or writer. A methodological scope will influence either the types of documents in the review or the way in which these documents are discussed.
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Things to remember.

Be Selective

Summarize and Synthesize

Keep Your Own Voice

Use Caution When Paraphrasing

Revise, Revise, Revise

Source: Literature Reviews - The Writing Center at UNC Chapel Hill

Things to Clarify

Items to clarify if not in assignment:

• How many sources should be included?
• What types of sources should be included? (scholarly articles, books, websites, etc.)
• Should information be reviewed by a common theme or issue?
• Should subheadings and background information be provided? (i.e. definitions and/or a history?)
• Should the review be in chronological or publication order?
• Last Updated: Aug 14, 2023 10:48 AM
• URL: https://libraries.etsu.edu/guides/howto/lib101annotatedbibliographies

Literature Reviews: A How-To Guide

Faculty training: getting started with a literature review, temperature check, what is a literature review, purpose of a literature review, types of literature reviews, traditional (narrative) literature review, systematic review.

• Develop a Research Question
• Search for Previous Reviews
• Search the Literature
• Organize Key Findings
• Select a Reference Manager This link opens in a new window

Searching the literature is a professional skills that takes time and practice.

Learning Outcomes:

• Understand the purpose of a literature review, different types of reviews
• Understand the iterative nature of search and question development
• Develop and document search strategies using appropriate databases, terminology and search tools, revising and iterating the search to improve results
• Stay organized using various productivity tools and templates
• Poll Results

A literature review...

• generally describes what is known (or not) about a topic
• provides background for a larger piece of empirical work or can stand on their own
• guided by a clear and purposeful question
• essential first step in any research project
• helps to situate a study's research question(s), methodology and potential contributions to the field

Steinert, Y. & Thomas, A. (2016). When I say...literature reviews . Medical Education, 50 (4): 398-399.

The study example shown above goes on to review additional literature in the background section of the article.

Gill, A.C., Zhou, Y., Greely, J.T., Beasley, A.T., Purkiss, J., & Juneja, M. (2022). Longitudinal outcomes one year following implicit bias training in medical students. Medical Teacher, 44 (7): 744-751. https://doi.org/10.1080/0142159X.2021.2023120

The term literature reviews refers to both a process and an output product.

As a PROCESS, a literature review is a survey of scholarly publications related to a specific research question or topic.

As a PRODUCT, a literature review can be integrated into a research study

There are a multitude of review types, each differing in their purpose, degree of process and rigor.

For additional information on a variety of review methods, see the following article for an excellent overview:

Grant, M.J., & Booth, A. (2009). A typology of reviews: an analysis of 14 different review types and associated methodologies . Health Information and Libraries Journal, 26 : 91-108. DOI: 10.1111/j.1471-1842.2009.00848.x

Also see the following two guides from other libraries that include excellent descriptions and examples of a variety of review types (integrative, scoping, meta-analysis, etc.):

• Literature Reviews in Medicine and Health - Unv of Illinois Library
• How to Conduct a Literature Review (Health Sciences and Beyond) - Virginia Commonwealth Unv Library

A traditional (narrative) review summarizes a body of evidence on a topic using informal methods to find and interpret studies.

• summarizes and critiques the body of literature on a specific issue or topic
• research questions tend to be more general and broader
• provides context for research, identifies gaps in the literature, and situates research within an area of study
• often included with introduction to research study
• can be publication in its own right, and provides a deeper look at a specific issue or topic
• can be one or more authors
• can be completed in a few weeks to months

The rest of this guide focuses on the steps to complete a traditional (narrative) review.

Systematic reviews seek to collate evidence that fits pre-specified eligibility criteria in order to answer a specific research question. They aim to minimize bias by using explicit, systematic methods documented in advance with a protocol ( Cochrane Handbook ).

Features of a systematic review:

• Begins with a focused answerable clinical question (PICO framework)
• Establishes pre-specified, explicit, and reproducible eligibility criteria
• Uses comprehensive and exhaustive literature searches in multiple sources
• Employs comprehensive analysis of quality and validity of findings
• Reports collective interpretation of results
• Typically takes up to 1 year or more to complete
• Needs a team of experts - at least 3
• Next: Develop a Research Question >>
• Last Updated: May 16, 2024 2:55 PM
• URL: https://medlib.belmont.edu/LitReviews

• Library Homepage

Literature Review: The What, Why and How-to Guide: Evaluating Sources & Literature Reviews

• Literature Reviews?
• Strategies to Finding Sources
• Keeping up with Research!
• Evaluating Sources & Literature Reviews
• Organizing for Writing
• Writing Literature Review
• Other Academic Writings

Evaluating Literature Reviews and Sources

• Tips for Evaluating Sources (Print vs. Internet Sources) Excellent page that will guide you on what to ask to determine if your source is a reliable one. Check the other topics in the guide: Evaluating Bibliographic Citations and Evaluation During Reading on the left side menu.

Criteria to evaluate sources:

• Authority : Who is the author? What are the author's credentials and areas of expertise? Is he or she affiliated with a university?
• Usefulness : How this source related to your topic? How current or relevant it is to your topic?
• Reliability : Does the information comes from a reliable, trusted source such as an academic journal?
• Critically Analyzing Information Sources: Critical Appraisal and Analysis (Cornell University Library) Ten things to look for when you evaluate an information source.

Reading Critically

Reading critically (summary from how to read academic texts critically).

• Who is the author? What is his/her standing in the field?
• What is the author’s purpose? To offer advice, make practical suggestions, solve a specific problem, critique or clarify?
• Note the experts in the field: are there specific names/labs that are frequently cited?
• Pay attention to methodology: is it sound? what testing procedures, subjects, materials were used?
• Note conflicting theories, methodologies, and results. Are there any assumptions being made by most/some researchers?
• Theories: have they evolved over time?
• Evaluate and synthesize the findings and conclusions. How does this study contribute to your project?
• How to Read Academic Texts Critically Excellent document about how best to read critically academic articles and other texts.
• How to Read an Academic Article This is an excellent paper that teach you how to read an academic paper, how to determine if it is something to set aside, or something to read deeply. Good advice to organize your literature for the Literature Review or just reading for classes.
• << Previous: Keeping up with Research!
• Next: Organizing for Writing >>
• Last Updated: Mar 5, 2024 11:44 AM
• URL: https://guides.library.ucsb.edu/litreview

Literature Reviews and Annotated Bibliographies

Initial databases for a literature review.

What is a Literature Review?

• How to Write a Literature Review?
• Graduate Research and the Literature Review
• What is an Annotated Bibliography?
• How to Evaluate Sources?
• Citation & Avoiding Plagiarism

The databases listed here are interdisciplinary and suitable for most disciplines. For databases specific to your discipline see our Research Guides  

Academic Search Ultimate  Includes some full text

A great place to start to search for magazine and journal articles on almost all topics. Tip : Check "peer reviewed" box to limit your search to scholarly journals.

Dissertations and Theses   (1861+) Indexes dissertations accepted for doctoral degrees by accredited North American educational institutions and over 200 other institutions. Also covers masters theses since 1962. Starting in the early to mid-1900's, the full text is included for an increasingly comprehensive number of dissertations and theses. 

Google Scholar   Enables you to search specifically for scholarly literature, including peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports from all broad areas of research. Use Google Scholar to find articles from a widevariety of academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories and universities, as well as scholarly articles available across the web

Humanities and Social Science Retrospective   Bibliographic database that provides citations to articles in a wide range of English language journals in the humanities and social sciences for the period 1907-1984.

  JSTOR Includes full text Includes long runs of backfiles of scholarly journals. Subjects covered include Anthropology, Asian Studies, Ecology, Economics, Education, Finance, History, Mathematics, Philosophy, Political Science, Population Studies, and Sociology.

Periodical Archives Online- (1770-1995) Includes full text; Full text archive of hundreds of periodicals in the humanities and social sciences from their first issues to 1995 Allows date-limited searching. Periodical Index Online, 1665 - 1995

"A literature review is an account of what has been published on a topic by accredited scholars and researchers. Occasionally you will be asked to write one as a separate assignment, ..., but more often it is part of the introduction to an essay, research report, or thesis. In writing the literature review, your purpose is to convey to your reader what knowledge and ideas have been established on a topic, and what their strengths and weaknesses are. As a piece of writing, the literature review must be defined by a guiding concept (e.g., your research objective, the problem or issue you are discussing, or your argumentative thesis). It is not just a descriptive list of the material available, or a set of summaries."

--Written by Dena Taylor, Health Sciences Writing Centre and available at http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/advice/specific-types-of-writing/literature-review (Accessed August 8th, 2011)

Writing the Literature Review sites :

  Literature Reviews: UNC - Chapel Hill

Write a Literature Review: UC-Santa Cruz  

Writing a Literature Review: Perdue OWL

Methods Map: Literature Review

What are the goals of creating a Literature Review?

• To develop a new theory
• To evaluate a theory or theories
• To survey what’s known about a topic
• Identify a problem in a field of research 
• Provide a historical overview of the development of a topic

Type of Literature Reviews:

• Mature and/or established topic: Topic is well-known and the purpose of this type of review is to analyze and synthesize this accumulated body of research.
• Emerging Topic: The purpose of this type of review to identify understudy or new emerging research area.
• << Previous: Home
• Next: How to Write a Literature Review? >>
• Last updated: Jan 8, 2024 2:52 PM
• URL: https://libguides.asu.edu/LiteratureReviews

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Writing a Literature Review

• Steps for Conducting a Lit Review
• Finding "The Literature"
• Organizing/Writing
• Peer Review
• Citation/Style Guides

1. Choose a topic. Define your research question.

Your literature review should be guided by a central research question.  Remember, it is not a collection of loosely related studies in a field but instead represents background and research developments related to a specific research question, interpreted and analyzed by you in a synthesized way.

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

2. Decide on the scope of your review.

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

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

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

Make a list of the databases you will search.  You can use a Discovery Service , such as and individual database.   

Tips: 

• Look at the library's research guides in your discipline to select discipline-specific databases.  Don't forget to look at books!
• Make an appointment with or contact your librarian to make sure you aren't missing major databases.

4. Conduct your searches and find the literature. Keep track of your searches!

• Review the abstracts of research studies carefully. This will save you time.
• Write down the searches you conduct in each database so that you may duplicate them if you need to later (or avoid dead-end searches   that you'd forgotten you'd already tried).
• Save your searches and results by creating an account and signing in.
• Use the bibliographies and references of research studies you find to locate others.
• Ask your professor or a scholar in the field if you are missing any key works in the field.
• Keep track of your searches by using Zotero or another bibliographic tool.

5. Review the literature.

Some questions to help you analyze the research:

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

Conducting a literature review is usually recursive, meaning that somewhere along the way, you'll find yourself repeating steps out-of-order.

That is actually a good sign.  

Reviewing the research should lead to more research questions and those questions will likely lead you to either revise your initial research question or go back and find more literature related to a more specific aspect of your research question.

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• Last Updated: Jun 18, 2024 1:28 PM
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Video: What is a Literature Review?

What is a literature review? What purpose does it serve in research? What should you expect when writing one? Find out here!

Hello, I am Elan, and I am Cas and we’re here to talk about literature reviews. Literature reviews are common assignments in classes, as well as vital components of larger research projects.

The goal of the literature review is to learn enough information about the topic to form or clarify a research question. During the literature review process you will read and review the existing research - or literature - on a given topic. Many research articles include a literature review section, but sometimes the review is the whole paper. 

In this video we will share strategies and processes for synthesizing literature to address a research question. This video won’t cover strategies for finding research articles – for guidance on literature  searching , check out our other videos or get in touch with the Ask Us desk! Before we get into literature review strategies, let’s talk about the length and scope of your review.

The number of sources you’ll review depends on the topic and the purpose of the literature review. If you are writing this review as an assignment for a semester-long course, your instructor may require a minimum number of sources.  

If this is part of your master's thesis or dissertation, the review will be much more thorough and will provide a comprehensive view of the major scholarly works published on your topic. 

So, how do you know when you’ve done enough research and you’re ready to begin writing? There’s no easy answer to this question. A good indicator is when you’re no longer learning new details, and you’re not finding leads on any new resources. At this point you're ready to begin writing and are in the synthesis stage. 

Synthesis goes beyond simply summarizing each source you’ve found. Synthesizing requires organizing the resources and arguments into subtopics by tracing the connections between what you’ve found and your larger research topic. You’ll be discussing, comparing, contrasting, or otherwise connecting smaller topics and arguments to tell the “story” of the research.   

You can think of the synthesis process like baking a pie. When you eat a slice of apple pie, you can’t taste the individual ingredients – flour, eggs, sugar, and butter all combine to form a new creation. Literature reviews are the same – you don’t want to focus too much on any individual source. Instead, you’re transforming the sources that you found into an entirely new creation that addresses your research question and is written in your voice. 

Keep in mind that research is an iterative process. 

Once you begin writing your literature review you may find that you haven’t fully addressed your research question and need to go back to search for more sources.  There are multiple strategies that can help you synthesize the literature that you found.  One way to get started is with an annotated bibliography, which is a list of citations accompanied by a descriptive and critical summary. 

The annotations summarize each source, assess its usefulness, and reflect on its benefit to your topic. An annotated bibliography can help you identify themes and serve as a foundation to your literature review. 

However, it is important to move beyond a summary because a literature review  synthesizes the information presented in the sources. Another strategy that can be used to plan and organize your review is a Synthesis Matrix  synthesis-matrix . 

The synthesis matrix is a chart that allows you to sort and categorize different arguments presented on an issue. Across the top of the chart are the spaces to record sources, and along the side of the chart are the spaces to record the main points of argument on the topic at hand. 

Organize your literature by taking notes on the main ideas of each article. After your chart is complete, you’ll notice patterns of information. You may find that your sources discuss very similar material, or that they deal with completely different aspects of your topic. These patterns can be useful in creating a thesis statement that can guide your writing and keep you focused as you begin your draft. 

When examining how each source ties into your research question, some important considerations that can influence how you synthesize your findings include: 

• The background & credibility of the author
• The main focus or purpose of the work 
• How useful the source is to your research topic 
• The methods or theories used in the study and how they compare to each other 
• Limitations or gaps mentioned in the sources that you find 
• Special features of the work that you found unique or helpful and
• Conclusions or observations reached by the author and by you! 

Depending on what fits your topic best, here are a few options for organizing your review (Transition to ANI slate)

• Chronological: This approach shows how findings progressed over time. (example articles- Timeline one old train of thought compared to new)
• Thematic: This would include subheadings specifically related to your topic. A thematic structure shows how different components of the literature tie into your argument (example- schools of thought- )
• Methodological: This approach focuses on the research methods used in all of the sources that you found. (example - different methods -same result - parts of the school of thought - engine cogs different)

However you decide to organize your literature review and synthesize the information, the goal is still the same: to present your reader with a broad overview of the major research findings related to your topic. (Talking Head)

For help with your literature review, finding articles in Libraries databases, or keeping track of your citations, check out our other Research Tips videos or ask a librarian for help! 

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Literature Review vs. Annotated Bibliography vs. Research Paper... What's the difference?

Literature Review

The purpose of a literature review is to provide an overview of existing academic literature on a specific topic and an evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the author’s arguments. You are summarizing what research is available on a certain topic and then drawing conclusions about the topic. To make gathering your research easier, be sure to start with a narrow/specific topic and then widen your topic if necessary.

A literature review is helpful when determining what research has already been discovered through academic research and what further research still needs to be done. Are there gaps? Are there opportunities for further research? What is missing from my collection of resources? Are more resources needed?

It is important to note that the conclusions described in the literature you gather may contradict each other completely or in part.  A literature review gives the researcher an overview and understanding of research findings to date on a particular topic or issue.

Annotated Bibliography

An annotated bibliography is a list of resources that you have gathered on a topic that includes an annotation following the reference.  Like a References list, annotated bibliographies gather all resources discovered in the research process in one document. Each citation in the bibliography is followed by an annotation a 5-7 sentence paragraph consisting of a summary, an evaluation, and a reflection of that resource.

An annotated bibliography is different from a literature review because it serves a different purpose. Annotated bibliographies focus on sources gathered for a specific research project. A literature review attempts to take a comprehensive approach to evaluate all of the research available on a particular question or a topic to create the foundation for a research paper. 

For more information, please visit the annotated bibliography page of our APA guide.

Research Paper

A research paper presents a single argument/idea on a topic supported by research that you have gathered. Your own thoughts and opinions will be supported by research that you have gathered on your topic. The resources used in your research paper typically support the argument that you are making.

For more information on writing a research paper, check out our Writing guide .

Generally, either an annotated bibliography or a literature review are written first and set the framework for the final product: your research paper. 

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Q. What is a literature review? Is it the same thing as an annotated bibliography?

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Answered By: Ning Zou Last Updated: Mar 11, 2022     Views: 49

An annotated bibliography is a list of books, journals, and other citations typically accompanied by a short summary or evaluation of each source. A literature review summarizes the published material on a topic to address a specific research question and requires synthesizing evidence or critiquing the literature. For more details about this assignment type, check out our resource on literature reviews .

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Annotated Bibliography: Annotated Bibliography vs. Literature Review

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• Annotated Bibliography vs. Literature Review

Literature Review vs. Annotated Bibliography

The purpose of a literature review is to provide an overview of existing academic literature on a specific topic and an evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the author’s arguments. You are summarizing what research is available on a certain topic and then drawing conclusions about the topic.

An annotated bibliography is a list of resources that you have gathered on a topic that includes an annotation following the reference.  Like a References list, annotated bibliographies gather all resources discovered in the research process in one document. Each citation in the bibliography is followed by an annotation, a summary of that source.

An annotated bibliography is different from a literature review because it serves a different purpose. Annotated bibliographies focus on sources gathered for a specific research project. A literature review attempts to take a comprehensive approach to evaluate all of the research available on a particular question or a topic to create the foundation for a research paper. This review is often incorporated at the beginning of a research paper in its own section but it may also form the thesis for the paper.

Or as the University of North Alabama puts it " An annotated bibliography examines each source based on its relationship to the topic; a literature review draws together multiple sources to examine where they agree or disagree ."

Comparison Chart

Literature Review Example

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