evaluating sources for literature review

Conducting a Literature Review

• Getting Started
• Define your Research Question
• Finding Sources
• Evaluating Sources
• Organizing the Review
• Cite and Manage your Sources

Introduction

The process of evaluating sources can take place when you first encounter a source, when you're reading it over, and as you incorporate it into your project. In general, some level of evaluation should take place at all of these stages, with different goals for each. The last evaluation will be discussed in "Organizing the Review," but we'll go over the first two here.

The overall purpose of evaluating sources is to make sure that your review has the most relevant, accurate, and unbiased literature in the field, so that you can determine what has already been learned about your topic and where further research may be needed.

Additional Resources

• Evaluate Sources by Kansas State University Libraries
• How to Evaluate Any Source by Skyline College Library

Evaluating Sources During the Initial Search Process

When you first encounter a potential source, you'll want to know very quickly whether it is worth reading in detail and considering for your literature review. To avoid wasting time on unhelpful sources as much as possible, it's generally best to run each article, book, or other resource you find through a quick checklist, using information you can find by skimming through the summary and introduction.

The two most common forms of early source evaluation are the "Big 5 Criteria" and the "CRAAP Test." These cover the same most significant variables for evaluation, and which one to use comes down to preference.

Big 5 Criteria:

The most important criteria for evaluating a potential resource are:

• Currency : When the source was published
• Coverage/Relevance : How closely related the source is to your topic and research question
• Authority : Who wrote the source and whether they are likely to be credible on the subject
• Accuracy : Whether the information is accurate or not (this will be more heavily evaluated further on in the research process, but you should skim through quickly for any obviously inaccurate information as a means of disqualifying the source)
• Objectivity/Purpose : Whether or not the source presents a biased point of view or agenda

A good rule of thumb for  Currency  is that medical, scientific, and technology resources should be published within the last 5 years to prevent the information from being out-of-date; for less time-sensitive topics like history or the humanities, resources published within the last 5-10 years are often acceptable.

CRAAP Test:

A helpful mnemonic to remember the evaluation criteria, CRAAP is an acronym for:

Helpful questions for initial evaluation:

• When was this source published?
• Is this source relevant to your topic?
• What are the author or authors' qualifications?
• Is the resource scholarly/peer-reviewed?
• Are sources cited to support the author's claims?
• Does the website or journal the source comes from have a bias to their reporting?
• Do you notice biased or emotional language in the summary or introduction?
• Do you notice spelling or grammatical errors in a quick examination of the source?
• Writing a Research Paper: Evaluate Sources by Kansas State University

Evaluating Sources During the Reading Process

Once a resource has passed the initial evaluation, you are ready to begin reading through it to more carefully determine if it belongs in your project. In addition to the questions posed above, which are always relevant to evaluating sources, you should look at your potential sources of literature with an eye to the following questions:

1. Is there any bias visible in the work?

You already began this process in the previous step and hopefully eliminated the most obviously unreliable sources, but as you read it is always important to keep an eye out for potential blind spots the author might have based on their own perspective. Bias is not inherently disqualifying -- a biased article may still have accurate information -- but it is essential to know if a bias exists and be aware of how it might impact how the information was gathered, evaluated, or delivered.

Peer-reviewed sources tend to be less likely to have this risk, because multiple editors had to go through the resource looking for mistakes or biases. They need to meet a much higher academic threshold.

2. How was the research conducted? Are there any strengths or weaknesses in its methodology?

It is important to understand how the study in your source was administered; a significant part of the literature review will be about potential gaps in the current research, so you need to understand how the existing research was done.

3. How does the author justify their conclusions?

Either through the results of their own research or by citing external evidence, an article, book, or other type of resource should provide proof of its claims. In the initial research process you checked to make sure that there was evidence supporting the author's assertions; now it is time to take a look at that evidence and see if you find it compelling, or if you think it doesn't justify the conclusions drawn by the article.

4. What similarities do these articles share?

Grouping your literature review by categories based on subtopic, findings, or chronology can be an extremely helpful way to organize your work. Take notes while you're reading of common themes and results to make planning the review easier.

5. Where does this research differ from the other sources?

While very close to the previous question, this one emphasizes what unique information, methodology, or insights a particular source brings to the overall understanding of the topic. What  new  knowledge is being brought to the table by this source that would justify it appearing in your literature review?

6. Does this source leave any unanswered questions or opportunities for further research?

Most scholarly journal articles will include a section near the end of the article addressing limits of their study and opportunities for further research. Examine these closely and see where other sources you have fill in the gaps, and where perhaps additional research needs to be done to gain a more complete understanding of your topic.

As you go through this process, you might find yourself eliminating certain sources that no longer seem like they fit with your project's goals, or getting inspired to search for additional sources based on new information you've found. This is a normal part of the research process, and additional searching may be necessary to fill in any gaps left after evaluating the sources you already have.

• << Previous: Finding Sources
• Next: Organizing the Review >>
• Last Updated: Apr 12, 2024 10:37 AM
• URL: https://libraryservices.acphs.edu/lit_review

Literature Review - what is a Literature Review, why it is important and how it is done

• Strategies to Find Sources

Evaluating Literature Reviews and Sources

Reading critically, tips to evaluate sources.

• Tips for Writing Literature Reviews
• Writing Literature Review: Useful Sites
• Citation Resources
• Other Academic Writings
• Useful Resources

A good literature review evaluates a wide variety of sources (academic articles, scholarly books, government/NGO reports). It also evaluates literature reviews that study similar topics. This page offers you a list of resources and tips on how to evaluate the sources that you may use to write your review.

• A Closer Look at Evaluating Literature Reviews Excerpt from the book chapter, “Evaluating Introductions and Literature Reviews” in Fred Pyrczak’s Evaluating Research in Academic Journals: A Practical Guide to Realistic Evaluation , (Chapter 4 and 5). This PDF discusses and offers great advice on how to evaluate "Introductions" and "Literature Reviews" by listing questions and tips. First part focus on Introductions and in page 10 in the PDF, 37 in the text, it focus on "literature reviews".
• 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.

To be able to write a good Literature Review, you need to be able to read critically. Below are some tips that will help you evaluate the sources for your paper.

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, to 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 overtime?
• Evaluate and synthesize the findings and conclusions. How does this study contribute to your project?

Useful links:

• How to Read a Paper (University of Waterloo, Canada) 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.

Criteria to evaluate sources:

• Authority : Who is the author? what is his/her credentials--what university he/she is affliliated? Is his/her area of expertise?
• 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?

Useful site - Critically Analyzing Information Sources (Cornell University Library)

• << Previous: Strategies to Find Sources
• Next: Tips for Writing Literature Reviews >>
• Last Updated: Jun 11, 2024 12:14 PM
• URL: https://lit.libguides.com/Literature-Review

The Library, Technological University of the Shannon: Midwest

Have a language expert improve your writing

Run a free plagiarism check in 10 minutes, generate accurate citations for free.

• Knowledge Base

Methodology

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

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

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

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

There are five key steps to writing a literature review:

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

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

Instantly correct all language mistakes in your text

Upload your document to correct all your mistakes in minutes

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.

Don't submit your assignments before you do this

The academic proofreading tool has been trained on 1000s of academic texts. Making it the most accurate and reliable proofreading tool for students. Free citation check included.

Try for free

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.

Prevent plagiarism. Run a free check.

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.

Open Google Slides Download PowerPoint

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

• 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 .  

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.

McCombes, S. (2023, September 11). How to Write a Literature Review | Guide, Examples, & Templates. Scribbr. Retrieved June 24, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/dissertation/literature-review/

Is this article helpful?

Shona McCombes

Other students also liked, what is a theoretical framework | guide to organizing, what is a research methodology | steps & tips, how to write a research proposal | examples & templates, get unlimited documents corrected.

✔ Free APA citation check included ✔ Unlimited document corrections ✔ Specialized in correcting academic texts

Purdue Online Writing Lab Purdue OWL® College of Liberal Arts

Writing a Literature Review

Welcome to the Purdue OWL

This page is brought to you by the OWL at Purdue University. When printing this page, you must include the entire legal notice.

Copyright ©1995-2018 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use.

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.

Literature Review - Finding the Resources

• The Literature
• Search Tools
• Formulating your search statement
• Buliding on what you have found
• Keeping Track

Evaluating your sources

Scholarly journals vs. non-scholarly journals, evaluate websites, critical reading.

• Academic Reading
• Citing Sources
• The Learning Lounge

Before deciding whether or not to incorporate what you have found into your literature review, you need to evaluate the resources to make sure that they contain information which is valuable and pertinent . This is especially true when the resources you retrieved are not collected by an academic library, but conveniently accessible through Internet search. Web resources need more careful thought to ensure their quality. Thus it is always a good practice to begin your search using CityU LibraryFind and databases for more authoritative and reliable resources.

Evaluation Criteria

Accuracy, authority, objectivity, currency and coverage are the five basic criteria for evaluating information from any sources.

It has been mentioned on " The Literature " page of this guide that a literature review generally consists of scholarly works. In addition to dissertations and theses, scholarly journal articles are another important sources to be incorporated in a literature review.

Many Library databases contain articles of various types of periodicals, including scholarly journals, magazines and newspapers. Most of these databases allow you to further limit your search results to "Scholarly Articles" so that you can view only academic research articles that in general report current original research.

• EBSCOhost Databases
• ProQuest Databases

The document below assists you in distinguishing scholarly journals from non-scholarly journals:

• Types of Periodicals - Scholarly vs. Non-Scholarly Periodicals

Bearing in mind that the Web is a vast network of unfiltered information sources, (i.e., anyone can put anything on it, bypassing editorial or peer review). It is of utmost importance that we evaluate information on the Web before it is used and cited.

Here are some quick hints that can help you decide whether the information given in a particular web page is reliable or not:

• Look for information about the author, e.g., links that say "Who we are", "About this site", etc.  
• See if the author/web master provides e-mail address or other contact information so that he or she can be contacted for enquiries or further information.  
• .com / .co -- a commercial site (may be trying to sell a product)
• .edu  / .ac -- an educational institution (usually reliable but may not if it is a personal web page of a member of the institution)
• .gov  -- a government department or agent
• .net -- network access provider
• .org -- a non-profit organization (may or may not be biased)  
• a "~" in the URL usually indicates it is a personal web page e.g., http://personal.univ.edu/~smith/abc.htm The quality of information can vary greatly among personal web pages.

For more about evaluating information, visit the following sites:

Critically Analyzing Information Sources , from Research & Learning Serivces, Cornell University Library.

Evaluating Resources , from UC Berkeley Library.

Fake News, Propaganda, and Disinformation: Learning to Critically Evaluate Media Sources , from Cornell University Library.

• << Previous: Keeping Track
• Next: Academic Reading >>
• Last Updated: Jun 27, 2024 5:24 PM
• URL: https://libguides.library.cityu.edu.hk/litreview

© City University of Hong Kong | Copyright | Disclaimer

The Research Process

• Topic Development
• Research Questions
• Search Strategies
• Finding & Using Sources

Evaluating Sources

Literature reviews, fact-checking.

• Writing and Citing

As a researcher, you need to perpetually evaluate sources to determine how or if you will use them. Here are some criteria and questions to consider as you review sources:

How is this source a good fit for your project? Does it help you do what you want to do?

Does it offer relevant background information?

Does it provide you with evidence to analyze, or to support your claims?

Does its argument help you articulate your own claims?

Does it define key terms, methods, or frameworks you will use?

Does your research require that you use particular kinds of sources? (e.g., scholarly journal articles)

Can you justify why you would use this source, why it is important to your work?

Who is the author of this work, and w hat else have they written?

Have others cited their work? How have those authors characterized this author's work?

In what communities does this author hold expertise? How do these communities relate to your project?

What is the author's positionality?

Do they identify their gender, ethnic, racial, political, or sexual orientations, and address how these matter to their work?

Do they accrue authority from an institutional position? (e.g., as a college professor)

What kinds of evidence do they provide? Is this evidence sufficient to back up their claims?

How would you characterize the source's intended audience? What does authority or credibility look like for this audience?

Why was this source created? (e.g., to inform, educate, entertain, persuade)

How does the author communicate their purpose?

What questions does the author ask and answer?

What might be at stake for the author in publishing this source? (e.g., for profit or public benefit)

Publication

Where was the source published?  I n a scholarly journal or by a university press? (This matters if you need to rely on academic sources.)

What was the editorial process?

Did it go through peer review (sometimes known as refereed)?

Was it edited by someone with expertise in the field?

Was it self-published?

What was the medium for publication? (e.g., blog, newspaper article, social media platform, zine)

What can the medium tell us about the audience, purpose, and scope of the source?

Relationships

Who does the author cite? Whose voices and perspectives are included in this source?

Are there voices and perspectives you want to include that are not here? Where would you find them?

Does the author affiliate themselves (through citation or direct mention) with schools of thought, intellectual or political projects, communities of practice, or social movements?

Who has cited this source in their work? How have they used it?

When was the source published?

Does it reflect current thinking in the field(s) in which you're working?

Do you need to do additional research to fill in gaps since it was published? (e.g., look for updates to legislation or case law, or more contemporary statistics)

This content is informed by the Evaluating Resources guide from the University of California Berkeley Library.

When you conduct a literature review, you familiarize yourself with the scholarly literature related to your research topic or question, and present an overview of that literature to your readers. Your literature review demonstrates your awareness of the scholarship on your topic, and allows you to position your research question and your argument in relation to other scholars' work. 

These resources can help you through the literature review process:

• Writing a Literature Review This guide offers an in-depth, comprehensive overview of the process. It was created by Boston College Libraries
• Literature Reviews This concise guide covers literature review strategies and composition. It was created by the Writing Center at UNC-Chapel Hill
• How to Read a Secondary Source (the STAMP method) The STAMP method helps you focus on the aspects of a source that are most relevant to your literature review. From the online textbook Reading, Writing and Researching for History by Professor Patrick Rael of Bowdoing College.
• Use the Bucket Method to Write Effective Literature Reviews This blog post, by Prof. Michael Harris, outlines a method you can use to organize your sources and craft a literature review.

If you want to evaluate a source for bias, misinformation, or misrepresentation, practice fact-checking.

• Four Moves Four strategies, or moves, you can make to get closer to the truth when we encounter a claim.
• Snopes.com The staff of Snopes.com fact-check popular news stories, internet posts, rumors, videos, and more.
• FactCheck.org Monitors the factual accuracy of what is said by major U.S. political players in the form of TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews and news releases. A nonpartisan project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center.
• << Previous: Finding & Using Sources
• Next: Writing and Citing >>
• Last Updated: Jun 26, 2024 11:21 AM
• URL: https://libguides.amherst.edu/research

The Sheridan Libraries

• Write a Literature Review
• Sheridan Libraries
• Find This link opens in a new window
• Evaluate This link opens in a new window

What Will You Do Differently?

Please help your librarians by filling out this two-minute survey of today's class session..

Professor, this one's for you .

Introduction

Literature reviews take time. here is some general information to know before you start.  .

•  VIDEO -- This video is a great overview of the entire process.  (2020; North Carolina State University Libraries) --The transcript is included --This is for everyone; ignore the mention of "graduate students" --9.5 minutes, and every second is important  
• OVERVIEW -- Read this page from Purdue's OWL. It's not long, and gives some tips to fill in what you just learned from the video.  
• NOT A RESEARCH ARTICLE -- A literature review follows a different style, format, and structure from a research article.  

Steps to Completing a Literature Review

• Next: Find >>
• Last Updated: Sep 26, 2023 10:25 AM
• URL: https://guides.library.jhu.edu/lit-review

• UConn Library
• Literature Review: The What, Why and How-to Guide
• Strategies to Find Sources

Literature Review: The What, Why and How-to Guide — Strategies to Find Sources

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

The Research Process

Planning : Before searching for articles or books, brainstorm to develop keywords that better describe your research question.

Searching : While searching, take note of what other keywords are used to describe your topic, and use them to conduct additional searches

     ♠ Most articles include a keyword section

     ♠ Key concepts may change names throughout time so make sure to check for variations

Organizing : Start organizing your results by categories/key concepts or any organizing principle that make sense for you . This will help you later when you are ready to analyze your findings

Analyzing : While reading, start making notes of key concepts and commonalities and disagreement among the research articles you find.

♠ Create a spreadsheet  to record what articles you are finding useful and why.

♠ Create fields to write summaries of articles or quotes for future citing and paraphrasing .

Writing : Synthesize your findings. Use your own voice to explain to your readers what you learned about the literature on your topic. What are its weaknesses and strengths? What is missing or ignored?

Repeat : At any given time of the process, you can go back to a previous step as necessary.

Advanced Searching

All databases have Help pages that explain the best way to search their product. When doing literature reviews, you will want to take advantage of these features since they can facilitate not only finding the articles that you really need but also controlling the number of results and how relevant they are for your search. The most common features available in the advanced search option of databases and library online catalogs are:

• Boolean Searching (AND, OR, NOT): Allows you to connect search terms in a way that can either limit or expand your search results 
• Proximity Searching (N/# or W/#): Allows you to search for two or more words that occur within a specified number of words (or fewer) of each other in the database
• Limiters/Filters : These are options that let you control what type of document you want to search: article type, date, language, publication, etc.
• Question mark (?) or a pound sign (#) for wildcard: Used for retrieving alternate spellings of a word: colo?r will retrieve both the American spelling "color" as well as the British spelling "colour." 
• Asterisk (*) for truncation: Used for retrieving multiple forms of a word: comput* retrieves computer, computers, computing, etc.

Want to keep track of updates to your searches? Create an account in the database to receive an alert when a new article is published that meets your search parameters!

• EBSCOhost Advanced Search Tutorial Tips for searching a platform that hosts many library databases
• Library's General Search Tips Check the Search tips to better used our library catalog and articles search system
• ProQuest Database Search Tips Tips for searching another platform that hosts library databases

There is no magic number regarding how many sources you are going to need for your literature review; it all depends on the topic and what type of the literature review you are doing:

► Are you working on an emerging topic? You are not likely to find many sources, which is good because you are trying to prove that this is a topic that needs more research. But, it is not enough to say that you found few or no articles on your topic in your field. You need to look broadly to other disciplines (also known as triangulation ) to see if your research topic has been studied from other perspectives as a way to validate the uniqueness of your research question.

► Are you working on something that has been studied extensively? Then you are going to find many sources and you will want to limit how far back you want to look. Use limiters to eliminate research that may be dated and opt to search for resources published within the last 5-10 years.

• << Previous: How to Pick a Topic
• Next: Evaluating Sources & Lit. Reviews >>
• Last Updated: Sep 21, 2022 2:16 PM
• URL: https://guides.lib.uconn.edu/literaturereview

• USC Libraries
• Research Guides

Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Paper

• 5. The Literature Review
• Purpose of Guide
• Design Flaws to Avoid
• Independent and Dependent Variables
• Glossary of Research Terms
• Reading Research Effectively
• Narrowing a Topic Idea
• Broadening a Topic Idea
• Extending the Timeliness of a Topic Idea
• Academic Writing Style
• Applying Critical Thinking
• Choosing a Title
• Making an Outline
• Paragraph Development
• Research Process Video Series
• Executive Summary
• The C.A.R.S. Model
• Background Information
• The Research Problem/Question
• Theoretical Framework
• Citation Tracking
• Content Alert Services
• Evaluating Sources
• Primary Sources
• Secondary Sources
• Tiertiary Sources
• Scholarly vs. Popular Publications
• Qualitative Methods
• Quantitative Methods
• Insiderness
• Using Non-Textual Elements
• Limitations of the Study
• Common Grammar Mistakes
• Writing Concisely
• Avoiding Plagiarism
• Footnotes or Endnotes?
• Further Readings
• Generative AI and Writing
• USC Libraries Tutorials and Other Guides
• Bibliography

A literature review surveys prior research published in books, scholarly articles, and any other sources relevant to a particular issue, area of research, or theory, and by so doing, provides a description, summary, and critical evaluation of these works in relation to the research problem being investigated. Literature reviews are designed to provide an overview of sources you have used in researching a particular topic and to demonstrate to your readers how your research fits within existing scholarship about the topic.

Fink, Arlene. Conducting Research Literature Reviews: From the Internet to Paper . Fourth edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, 2014.

Importance of a Good Literature Review

A literature review may consist of simply a summary of key sources, but in the social sciences, a literature review usually has an organizational pattern and combines both summary and synthesis, often within specific conceptual categories . 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 in a way that informs how you are planning to investigate a research problem. The analytical features of a literature review might:

• Give a new interpretation of old material or combine new with old interpretations,
• Trace the intellectual progression of the field, including major debates,
• Depending on the situation, evaluate the sources and advise the reader on the most pertinent or relevant research, or
• Usually in the conclusion of a literature review, identify where gaps exist in how a problem has been researched to date.

Given this, the purpose of a literature review is to:

• Place each work in the context of its contribution to understanding the research problem being studied.
• Describe the relationship of each work to the others under consideration.
• Identify new ways to interpret prior research.
• Reveal any gaps that exist in the literature.
• Resolve conflicts amongst seemingly contradictory previous studies.
• Identify areas of prior scholarship to prevent duplication of effort.
• Point the way in fulfilling a need for additional research.
• Locate your own research within the context of existing literature [very important].

Fink, Arlene. Conducting Research Literature Reviews: From the Internet to Paper. 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2005; Hart, Chris. Doing a Literature Review: Releasing the Social Science Research Imagination . Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1998; Jesson, Jill. Doing Your Literature Review: Traditional and Systematic Techniques . Los Angeles, CA: SAGE, 2011; Knopf, Jeffrey W. "Doing a Literature Review." PS: Political Science and Politics 39 (January 2006): 127-132; Ridley, Diana. The Literature Review: A Step-by-Step Guide for Students . 2nd ed. Los Angeles, CA: SAGE, 2012.

Types of Literature Reviews

It is important to think of knowledge in a given field as consisting of three layers. First, there are the primary studies that researchers conduct and publish. Second are the reviews of those studies that summarize and offer new interpretations built from and often extending beyond the primary studies. Third, there are the perceptions, conclusions, opinion, and interpretations that are shared informally among scholars that become part of the body of epistemological traditions within the field.

In composing a literature review, it is important to note that it is often this third layer of knowledge that is cited as "true" even though it often has only a loose relationship to the primary studies and secondary literature reviews. Given this, while literature reviews are designed to provide an overview and synthesis of pertinent sources you have explored, there are a number of approaches you could adopt depending upon the type of analysis underpinning your study.

Argumentative Review This form examines literature selectively in order to support or refute an argument, deeply embedded assumption, or philosophical problem already established in the literature. The purpose is to develop a body of literature that establishes a contrarian viewpoint. Given the value-laden nature of some social science research [e.g., educational reform; immigration control], argumentative approaches to analyzing the literature can be a legitimate and important form of discourse. However, note that they can also introduce problems of bias when they are used to make summary claims of the sort found in systematic reviews [see below].

Integrative Review Considered a form of research that reviews, critiques, and synthesizes representative literature on a topic in an integrated way such that new frameworks and perspectives on the topic are generated. The body of literature includes all studies that address related or identical hypotheses or research problems. A well-done integrative review meets the same standards as primary research in regard to clarity, rigor, and replication. This is the most common form of review in the social sciences.

Historical Review Few things rest in isolation from historical precedent. Historical literature reviews focus on examining research throughout a period of time, often starting with the first time an issue, concept, theory, phenomena emerged in the literature, then tracing its evolution within the scholarship of a discipline. The purpose is to place research in a historical context to show familiarity with state-of-the-art developments and to identify the likely directions for future research.

Methodological Review A review does not always focus on what someone said [findings], but how they came about saying what they say [method of analysis]. Reviewing methods of analysis provides a framework of understanding at different levels [i.e. those of theory, substantive fields, research approaches, and data collection and analysis techniques], how researchers draw upon a wide variety of knowledge ranging from the conceptual level to practical documents for use in fieldwork in the areas of ontological and epistemological consideration, quantitative and qualitative integration, sampling, interviewing, data collection, and data analysis. This approach helps highlight ethical issues which you should be aware of and consider as you go through your own study.

Systematic Review This form consists of an overview of existing evidence pertinent to a clearly formulated research question, which uses pre-specified and standardized methods to identify and critically appraise relevant research, and to collect, report, and analyze data from the studies that are included in the review. The goal is to deliberately document, critically evaluate, and summarize scientifically all of the research about a clearly defined research problem . Typically it focuses on a very specific empirical question, often posed in a cause-and-effect form, such as "To what extent does A contribute to B?" This type of literature review is primarily applied to examining prior research studies in clinical medicine and allied health fields, but it is increasingly being used in the social sciences.

Theoretical Review The purpose of this form is to examine the corpus of theory that has accumulated in regard to an issue, concept, theory, phenomena. The theoretical literature review helps to establish what theories already exist, the relationships between them, to what degree the existing theories have been investigated, and to develop new hypotheses to be tested. Often this form is used to help establish a lack of appropriate theories or reveal that current theories are inadequate for explaining new or emerging research problems. The unit of analysis can focus on a theoretical concept or a whole theory or framework.

NOTE: Most often the literature review will incorporate some combination of types. For example, a review that examines literature supporting or refuting an argument, assumption, or philosophical problem related to the research problem will also need to include writing supported by sources that establish the history of these arguments in the literature.

Baumeister, Roy F. and Mark R. Leary. "Writing Narrative Literature Reviews."  Review of General Psychology 1 (September 1997): 311-320; Mark R. Fink, Arlene. Conducting Research Literature Reviews: From the Internet to Paper . 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2005; Hart, Chris. Doing a Literature Review: Releasing the Social Science Research Imagination . Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1998; Kennedy, Mary M. "Defining a Literature." Educational Researcher 36 (April 2007): 139-147; Petticrew, Mark and Helen Roberts. Systematic Reviews in the Social Sciences: A Practical Guide . Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 2006; Torracro, Richard. "Writing Integrative Literature Reviews: Guidelines and Examples." Human Resource Development Review 4 (September 2005): 356-367; Rocco, Tonette S. and Maria S. Plakhotnik. "Literature Reviews, Conceptual Frameworks, and Theoretical Frameworks: Terms, Functions, and Distinctions." Human Ressource Development Review 8 (March 2008): 120-130; Sutton, Anthea. Systematic Approaches to a Successful Literature Review . Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publications, 2016.

Structure and Writing Style

I.  Thinking About Your Literature Review

The structure of a literature review should include the following in support of understanding the research problem :

• An overview of the subject, issue, or theory under consideration, along with the objectives of the literature review,
• Division of works under review into themes or categories [e.g. works that support a particular position, those against, and those offering alternative approaches entirely],
• An explanation of how each work is similar to and how it varies from the others,
• Conclusions as to which pieces are best considered in their argument, are most convincing of their opinions, and make the greatest contribution to the understanding and development of their area of research.

The critical evaluation of each work should consider :

• Provenance -- what are the author's credentials? Are the author's arguments supported by evidence [e.g. primary historical material, case studies, narratives, statistics, recent scientific findings]?
• Methodology -- were the techniques used to identify, gather, and analyze the data appropriate to addressing the research problem? Was the sample size appropriate? Were the results effectively interpreted and reported?
• Objectivity -- is the author's perspective even-handed or prejudicial? Is contrary data considered or is certain pertinent information ignored to prove the author's point?
• Persuasiveness -- which of the author's theses are most convincing or least convincing?
• Validity -- are the author's arguments and conclusions convincing? Does the work ultimately contribute in any significant way to an understanding of the subject?

II.  Development of the Literature Review

Four Basic Stages of Writing 1.  Problem formulation -- which topic or field is being examined and what are its component issues? 2.  Literature search -- finding materials relevant to the subject being explored. 3.  Data evaluation -- determining which literature makes a significant contribution to the understanding of the topic. 4.  Analysis and interpretation -- discussing the findings and conclusions of pertinent literature.

Consider the following issues before writing the literature review: Clarify If your assignment is not specific about what form your literature review should take, seek clarification from your professor by asking these questions: 1.  Roughly how many sources would be appropriate to include? 2.  What types of sources should I review (books, journal articles, websites; scholarly versus popular sources)? 3.  Should I summarize, synthesize, or critique sources by discussing a common theme or issue? 4.  Should I evaluate the sources in any way beyond evaluating how they relate to understanding the research problem? 5.  Should I provide subheadings and other background information, such as definitions and/or a history? Find Models Use the exercise of reviewing the literature to examine how authors in your discipline or area of interest have composed their literature review sections. Read them to get a sense of the types of themes you might want to look for in your own research or to identify ways to organize your final review. The bibliography or reference section of sources you've already read, such as required readings in the course syllabus, are also excellent entry points into your own research. Narrow the Topic The narrower your topic, the easier it will be to limit the number of sources you need to read in order to obtain a good survey of relevant resources. Your professor will probably not expect you to read everything that's available about the topic, but you'll make the act of reviewing easier if you first limit scope of the research problem. A good strategy is to begin by searching the USC Libraries Catalog for recent books about the topic and review the table of contents for chapters that focuses on specific issues. You can also review the indexes of books to find references to specific issues that can serve as the focus of your research. For example, a book surveying the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict may include a chapter on the role Egypt has played in mediating the conflict, or look in the index for the pages where Egypt is mentioned in the text. Consider Whether Your Sources are Current Some disciplines require that you use information that is as current as possible. This is particularly true in disciplines in medicine and the sciences where research conducted becomes obsolete very quickly as new discoveries are made. However, when writing a review in the social sciences, a survey of the history of the literature may be required. In other words, a complete understanding the research problem requires you to deliberately examine how knowledge and perspectives have changed over time. Sort through other current bibliographies or literature reviews in the field to get a sense of what your discipline expects. You can also use this method to explore what is considered by scholars to be a "hot topic" and what is not.

III.  Ways to Organize Your Literature Review

Chronology of Events If your review follows the chronological method, you could write about the materials according to when they were published. This approach should only be followed if a clear path of research building on previous research can be identified and that these trends follow a clear chronological order of development. For example, a literature review that focuses on continuing research about the emergence of German economic power after the fall of the Soviet Union. By Publication Order your sources by publication chronology, then, only if the order demonstrates a more important trend. For instance, you could order a review of literature on environmental studies of brown fields if the progression revealed, for example, a change in the soil collection practices of the researchers who wrote and/or conducted the studies. Thematic [“conceptual categories”] A thematic literature review is the most common approach to summarizing prior research in the social and behavioral sciences. Thematic reviews are organized around a topic or issue, rather than the progression of time, although the progression of time may still be incorporated into a thematic review. For example, a review of the Internet’s impact on American presidential politics could focus on the development of online political satire. While the study focuses on one topic, the Internet’s impact on American presidential politics, it would still be organized chronologically reflecting technological developments in media. The difference in this example between a "chronological" and a "thematic" approach is what is emphasized the most: themes related to the role of the Internet in presidential politics. Note that more authentic thematic reviews tend to break away from chronological order. A review organized in this manner would shift between time periods within each section according to the point being made. Methodological A methodological approach focuses on the methods utilized by the researcher. For the Internet in American presidential politics project, one methodological approach would be to look at cultural differences between the portrayal of American presidents on American, British, and French websites. Or the review might focus on the fundraising impact of the Internet on a particular political party. A methodological scope will influence either the types of documents in the review or the way in which these documents are discussed.

Other Sections of Your Literature Review Once you've decided on the organizational method for your literature review, the sections you need to include in the paper should be easy to figure out because they arise from your organizational strategy. In other words, a chronological review would have subsections for each vital time period; a thematic review would have subtopics based upon factors that relate to the theme or issue. However, sometimes you may need to add additional sections that are necessary for your study, but do not fit in the organizational strategy of the body. What other sections you include in the body is up to you. However, only include what is necessary for the reader to locate your study within the larger scholarship about the research problem.

Here are examples of other sections, usually in the form of a single paragraph, you may need to include depending on the type of review you write:

• Current Situation : Information necessary to understand the current topic or focus of the literature review.
• Sources Used : Describes the methods and resources [e.g., databases] you used to identify the literature you reviewed.
• History : The chronological progression of the field, the research literature, or an idea that is necessary to understand the literature review, if the body of the literature review is not already a chronology.
• Selection Methods : Criteria you used to select (and perhaps exclude) sources in your literature review. For instance, you might explain that your review includes only peer-reviewed [i.e., scholarly] sources.
• Standards : Description of the way in which you present your information.
• Questions for Further Research : What questions about the field has the review sparked? How will you further your research as a result of the review?

IV.  Writing Your Literature Review

Once you've settled on how to organize your literature review, you're ready to write each section. When writing your review, keep in mind these issues.

Use Evidence A literature review section is, in this sense, just like any other academic research paper. Your interpretation of the available sources must be backed up with evidence [citations] that demonstrates that what you are saying is valid. Be Selective Select only the most important points in each source to highlight in the review. The type of information you choose to mention should relate directly to the research problem, whether it is thematic, methodological, or chronological. Related items that provide additional information, but that are not key to understanding the research problem, can be included in a list of further readings . Use Quotes Sparingly Some short quotes are appropriate if you want to emphasize a point, or if what an author stated cannot be easily paraphrased. Sometimes you may need to quote certain terminology that was coined by the author, is not common knowledge, or taken directly from the study. Do not use extensive quotes as a substitute for using your own words in reviewing the literature. Summarize and Synthesize Remember to summarize and synthesize your sources within each thematic paragraph as well as throughout the review. Recapitulate important features of a research study, but then synthesize it by rephrasing the study's significance and relating it to your own work and the work of others. Keep Your Own Voice While the literature review presents others' ideas, your voice [the writer's] should remain front and center. For example, weave references to other sources into what you are writing but maintain your own voice by starting and ending the paragraph with your own ideas and wording. Use Caution When Paraphrasing When paraphrasing a source that is not your own, be sure to represent the author's information or opinions accurately and in your own words. Even when paraphrasing an author’s work, you still must provide a citation to that work.

V.  Common Mistakes to Avoid

These are the most common mistakes made in reviewing social science research literature.

• Sources in your literature review do not clearly relate to the research problem;
• You do not take sufficient time to define and identify the most relevant sources to use in the literature review related to the research problem;
• Relies exclusively on secondary analytical sources rather than including relevant primary research studies or data;
• Uncritically accepts another researcher's findings and interpretations as valid, rather than examining critically all aspects of the research design and analysis;
• Does not describe the search procedures that were used in identifying the literature to review;
• Reports isolated statistical results rather than synthesizing them in chi-squared or meta-analytic methods; and,
• Only includes research that validates assumptions and does not consider contrary findings and alternative interpretations found in the literature.

Cook, Kathleen E. and Elise Murowchick. “Do Literature Review Skills Transfer from One Course to Another?” Psychology Learning and Teaching 13 (March 2014): 3-11; Fink, Arlene. Conducting Research Literature Reviews: From the Internet to Paper . 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2005; Hart, Chris. Doing a Literature Review: Releasing the Social Science Research Imagination . Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1998; Jesson, Jill. Doing Your Literature Review: Traditional and Systematic Techniques . London: SAGE, 2011; Literature Review Handout. Online Writing Center. Liberty University; Literature Reviews. The Writing Center. University of North Carolina; Onwuegbuzie, Anthony J. and Rebecca Frels. Seven Steps to a Comprehensive Literature Review: A Multimodal and Cultural Approach . Los Angeles, CA: SAGE, 2016; Ridley, Diana. The Literature Review: A Step-by-Step Guide for Students . 2nd ed. Los Angeles, CA: SAGE, 2012; Randolph, Justus J. “A Guide to Writing the Dissertation Literature Review." Practical Assessment, Research, and Evaluation. vol. 14, June 2009; Sutton, Anthea. Systematic Approaches to a Successful Literature Review . Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publications, 2016; Taylor, Dena. The Literature Review: A Few Tips On Conducting It. University College Writing Centre. University of Toronto; Writing a Literature Review. Academic Skills Centre. University of Canberra.

Writing Tip

Break Out of Your Disciplinary Box!

Thinking interdisciplinarily about a research problem can be a rewarding exercise in applying new ideas, theories, or concepts to an old problem. For example, what might cultural anthropologists say about the continuing conflict in the Middle East? In what ways might geographers view the need for better distribution of social service agencies in large cities than how social workers might study the issue? You don’t want to substitute a thorough review of core research literature in your discipline for studies conducted in other fields of study. However, particularly in the social sciences, thinking about research problems from multiple vectors is a key strategy for finding new solutions to a problem or gaining a new perspective. Consult with a librarian about identifying research databases in other disciplines; almost every field of study has at least one comprehensive database devoted to indexing its research literature.

Frodeman, Robert. The Oxford Handbook of Interdisciplinarity . New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.

Another Writing Tip

Don't Just Review for Content!

While conducting a review of the literature, maximize the time you devote to writing this part of your paper by thinking broadly about what you should be looking for and evaluating. Review not just what scholars are saying, but how are they saying it. Some questions to ask:

• How are they organizing their ideas?
• What methods have they used to study the problem?
• What theories have been used to explain, predict, or understand their research problem?
• What sources have they cited to support their conclusions?
• How have they used non-textual elements [e.g., charts, graphs, figures, etc.] to illustrate key points?

When you begin to write your literature review section, you'll be glad you dug deeper into how the research was designed and constructed because it establishes a means for developing more substantial analysis and interpretation of the research problem.

Hart, Chris. Doing a Literature Review: Releasing the Social Science Research Imagination . Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1 998.

Yet Another Writing Tip

When Do I Know I Can Stop Looking and Move On?

Here are several strategies you can utilize to assess whether you've thoroughly reviewed the literature:

• Look for repeating patterns in the research findings . If the same thing is being said, just by different people, then this likely demonstrates that the research problem has hit a conceptual dead end. At this point consider: Does your study extend current research?  Does it forge a new path? Or, does is merely add more of the same thing being said?
• Look at sources the authors cite to in their work . If you begin to see the same researchers cited again and again, then this is often an indication that no new ideas have been generated to address the research problem.
• Search Google Scholar to identify who has subsequently cited leading scholars already identified in your literature review [see next sub-tab]. This is called citation tracking and there are a number of sources that can help you identify who has cited whom, particularly scholars from outside of your discipline. Here again, if the same authors are being cited again and again, this may indicate no new literature has been written on the topic.

Onwuegbuzie, Anthony J. and Rebecca Frels. Seven Steps to a Comprehensive Literature Review: A Multimodal and Cultural Approach . Los Angeles, CA: Sage, 2016; Sutton, Anthea. Systematic Approaches to a Successful Literature Review . Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publications, 2016.

• << Previous: Theoretical Framework
• Next: Citation Tracking >>
• Last Updated: Jun 18, 2024 10:45 AM
• URL: https://libguides.usc.edu/writingguide

Literature Review: Evaluating and summarizing sources

• Evaluating and summarizing sources
• Organizing a literature review
• Cited Reference Search

Evaluation Criteria

Evaluation Criteria:

• What are the author’s credentials? 
• What sources does the author use to support his/her conclusion?
• Is the article biased?
• Is the author objective and fair, or does the author ignore certain data or information contradictory to his/her conclusions? 
• Does the author’s argument make sense and is it persuasive? 
• How does the article fit with other research on the topic? 

Tips for writing literature review paragraphs

How to summarize and review each source

• Use evidence to back up any claims you make about the article or author.
• Use only the most important information that relates directly to your topic and organizational method. 
• Avoid quotes as these paragraphs are really not long enough to support many quotations. 
• Strive to consistently show how this article is important and how it relates to your thesis or topic. 
• Maintain your own voice – you are reviewing the work of others so the paragraph should be from your point-of-view and how you perceive their work. 
• Be careful when paraphrasing and be sure to attribute paraphrased information to the author in the text by using the author’s name, or cite the paraphrased information. 

From: Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. (n.d.). Literature Reviews. Retrieved from http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/literature-reviews/

• << Previous: Home
• Next: Organizing a literature review >>
• Last Updated: Mar 12, 2024 9:03 AM
• URL: https://libguides.unco.edu/litreview

Literature Reviews

• Step 1: Understanding Literature Reviews
• Step 2: Gathering Information
• Step 3: Organizing your Information (Intellectually and Physically)

Analyzing and Evaluating the Literature

Evaluating your sources, analysing your sources.

• Step 5: Writing Your Literature Review
• Other Resources

How to evaluate a source

Consider the more obvious elements of the paper:.

• Is its title clear? Does it accurately reflect the content of the paper?
• Is the abstract well-structured (providing an accurate, albeit brief, description of the purpose, method, theoretical background of the research, as well as its results or conclusions?)
• What does their bibliography look like? For example, if most of their references are quite old despite being a newer paper, you should see if they provide an explanation for that in the paper itself. If not, you may want to consider why they do not have any newer sources informing their research.
• Is the journal its published in prestigious and reputable, or does the journal stand to gain something from publishing this paper? You may need to consider the biases of not only the author, but the publisher!

Evaluate the content:

• Look for identifiable gaps in their method, as well as potential problems with their interpretation of the data.
• Look for any obvious manipulations of the data.
• Do they themselves identify any biases or limitations, or do you notice any that they haven’t identified? 

You are not just looking at what they are saying, but also at what they have NOT said. If they didn’t identify a clear gap or bias, why not? What does that say about the rest of the paper? If at all possible, you may want to see if you can identify where the funding for their study came from if you’re noticing these gaps, in case it is possible to spot a conflict of interest.

How do you analyze your sources?

It can be daunting to logically analyze the argument. If they are only showing one side and not addressing the topic from multiple perspectives, you may want to consider why, and if you feel they do a fair job of trying to present a holistic argument – if they don’t bring up conflicting information and demonstrate how they argument works against it, why not? You can also look for key red flags like:

• logical fallacies: mistakes in your reasoning that undermine the logic of the argument – usually identified due to a lack of evidence
• slippery slopes: a conclusion based on the idea that if one thing happens, it will trigger a series of other small steps leading to a drastic conclusion
• post hoc ergo propter hoc: a conclusion that says that if one event occurs after another, that it was the first event that caused the second due to chronology rather than evidence
• circular arguments: these are arguments that simply restate their premises rather than providing proof
• moral equivalence: this compares minor actions with major atrocities and concludes that both are equally immoral
• ad hominem: these are arguments that attack the character of the person making the argument rather than the argument itself

This is just a sample of the types or red flags that occur in academic writing. For more examples or further explanation, consult Purdue Owl’s academic writing guide, “ Logic in Argumentative Writing .”

• << Previous: Step 3: Organizing your Information (Intellectually and Physically)
• Next: Step 5: Writing Your Literature Review >>
• Last Updated: Feb 6, 2024 5:46 PM
• URL: https://yorkvilleu.libguides.com/LiteratureReviews

How to write a Literature Review: Evaluating sources

• Literature review process
• Purpose of a literature review

Evaluating sources

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

Useful Tips

Ask these questions about possible Internet and/or database sources:

• Does the website's  author list qualifications ? Is the author an authority? Government and university websites are reputable.
• Does the author cite sources ? Are those sources referenced?
• Does the website or article sound credible ? Is the tone authoritative?
• Is the article from a peer-reviewed source ? This lends credibility.
• Is the article timely ? Was it written in the last 3-5 years? Depending on the field of research, earlier information may have been disproven or modified.
• Is the information fair and objective ?
• Does the information validate or refute your understanding of the issue? Can the article be used as evidence in your document?
• Does the author back up his or her arguments with sound evidence?
• Is the website active? Check that the URL links still lead to live sites and/ or documents.
• Was the information retrieved from Wikipedia ? This is useful source for an informal search, but it is  not a reputable source for formal research . Look up and study any reference material at the bottom of the Wiki page for possible use.

This guide will help you evaluate web resources.

The key features of a literature review

Literature reviews require you to  critically evaluate the literature.

To ‘critically evaluate’ a source is to scrutinise it to determine its strengths and weaknesses. The following REVIEW criteria will help you to critically evaluate your sources:

R is for Relevance

Does the reference completely cover your topic, or only one aspect of it? Have you read widely to determine how relevant it is in relation to other sources?

E is for Expertise of author

What is the educational background of the author? What are their qualifications? Are they writing in their area of expertise? Are they regularly cited by other authors in the field?

V is for Viewpoint of author/organisation

Does the author have any personal or professional affiliations that may bias their work, in other words, do they have any conflicts of interest? Has the research been sponsored by an organisation with a vested interest in the topic? What is the purpose of the source – to inform, persuade or entertain?

I is for Intended audience

Is the reference aimed at the general public or a scholarly audience? Is it intended for professionals in the field or a community of researchers? Is it intended for a large or small readership?

E is for Evidence

Are opinions supported by scholarly evidence? Is a particular referencing style used properly and consistently? Has the reference been subjected to peer review?

W is for When published

Was the reference published recently? Have significant developments been made in the subject area since the reference was published?

Always evaluate the information you read. Be particularly careful when consulting  Wikipedia  and similar Internet sites as the authority and reliability of the content cannot be guaranteed. Remember to work SMART:

Source  - is the source well-known, reliable, up to date?

Motivation  - why does this website exist? Are they selling a product? Supporting a particular lobby?

Authority  - is the author's name on the page? Is the author well-known in the field?

Review  - has the information been reviewed or checked by others working in the field?

Two sources  - is the information supported by other reliable sources?

The  databases the Unisa Library subscribes to  generally index articles that have been  peer reviewed by experts  in the field before being accepted for publication. These databases also allow you to limit your search to peer reviewed journals only.

Some of the the information on this page is indebted to the sources below:

Stapleton, P. & Helms-Park, R. 2006.  Evaluating web sources in an EAP course: introducing a multi-trait instrument for feedback and assessment .  English for specific purposes . 25(4): 438 - 455.

University of Cape Town Libraries

UC Berkeley

• << Previous: Purpose of a literature review
• Next: Managing sources >>
• Last Updated: Apr 30, 2024 1:19 PM
• URL: https://libguides.unisa.ac.za/literature_review

Literature Reviews and Annotated Bibliographies

• What is a Literature Review?
• How to Write a Literature Review?
• Graduate Research and the Literature Review
• What is an Annotated Bibliography?

Tips to Evaluate Sources

Reading critically, evaluating primary sources on the internet, useful links.

• Citation & Avoiding Plagiarism

Criteria to evaluate sources :

• Authority : Who is the author? what is his/her credentials--what university he/she is affliliated? Is his/her area of expertise?
• 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?

Use the C.R.A.P. test to evaluate information

Source: geoedtrek

C urrency:   When was it written?

R eliability:  Where did the information come from? What are the sources? Are there working links? Are the references / sources reliable?

A uthority:  Who is the author? Is there contact information? Name? Organization?

P urpose:   Why was it published? Primary or Secondary?

Does this source provide you with the quality information?

• Evaluating Sources A step-by-step guide to evaluating the who, what, where, when, and why of resources.

Reading critically (summary from How to Read Academic Texts Critically)

• Who is the author? His/her standing in the field.
• What is the author’s purpose? Offer advice, make practical suggestions, solve a specific problem, to 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 overtime?
• Evaluate and synthesize the findings and conclusions. How does this study contribute to your project?

Across the articles that you read, what are the:

• Common/contested findings
• Important trends
• Influential theories.

Evaluating Primary Source Sites on the Internet

          Evaluating Primary Sources ( From American Memory)   Guidelines for Evaluating Historical Websites Who: Who is the author or sponsor of the website? Is that person or organization named? Is any supporting documentation available? What: What is the mission or purpose of the website? Is it clearly articulated? What kinds of materials are on the website? Are they properly cited and acknowledged? What is the document format on the web? Where: Where is the site located? Is there a physical address with phone number and email address for a contact person? Does the site have a .edu, .org, or .com address? Why: Why does the site exist? Does it have a point of view or opinion? Is it pedagogical or polemic? Does it want something from you?

Useful sites

• How to read a Paper (University of Waterloo, Canada): 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: What is an Annotated Bibliography?
• Next: Citation & Avoiding Plagiarism >>
• Last updated: Jan 8, 2024 2:52 PM
• URL: https://libguides.asu.edu/LiteratureReviews

The ASU Library acknowledges the twenty-three Native Nations that have inhabited this land for centuries. Arizona State University's four campuses are located in the Salt River Valley on ancestral territories of Indigenous peoples, including the Akimel O’odham (Pima) and Pee Posh (Maricopa) Indian Communities, whose care and keeping of these lands allows us to be here today. ASU Library acknowledges the sovereignty of these nations and seeks to foster an environment of success and possibility for Native American students and patrons. We are advocates for the incorporation of Indigenous knowledge systems and research methodologies within contemporary library practice. ASU Library welcomes members of the Akimel O’odham and Pee Posh, and all Native nations to the Library.

• Library Homepage

Literature Review: The What, Why and How-to Guide: Strategies to Finding Sources

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

Useful Tool to Develop your Topic

Watch this video about Concept Mapping to become a Research Pro!

• Mind Mapping (also known as Concept Mapping) A helpful handout to show step by step how to create a concept map to map out a topic.

The Research Process

Planning : Before searching for articles or books, brainstorm to develop keywords that best describe your research question.

Searching : While searching take note of what other keywords are used to describe your topic  and use them to do more searches

     ♠ Most articles include a keyword section

     ♠ Key concepts names may change through time so make sure to check for variations

Organizing : Start organizing your results by categories/key concepts or any organizing principle that make sense for you. This will help you later when you are ready to analyze your findings

Analyzing : While reading, start making notes of key concepts and commonalities and disagreement among the research articles you find.

♠ Create a spreadsheet document to record what articles you are finding useful and why.

♠ Create fields to write summaries of articles or quotes for future citing and paraphrasing .

Writing : Synthesize your findings. Use your own voice to explain to your readers what you learned about the literature your search; its weaknesses and strengths; what is missing or ignored

Repeat : at any given time of the process you can go back to a previous step as necessary

Advanced Searching

• Boolean Searching (AND, OR, NOT): Words that help you connect your terms in a logical way for the system understand you 
• Proximity Searching (N/# or W/#): It allows you to search for two or more words that occur within a specified number of words (or fewer) of each other in the databases.
• Limiters/Filters : These are options available on the advanced page to let you control what type of document you want to search (articles), dates, language, peer-review, etc...
• Question mark (?) or a pound sign (#) for wildcard: useful when you don't know how something is spelled out, e.g. if you are looking about articles about color, if you want to find articles with the spelling colour (British English), you can use colo?r to find either spelling.
• Asterisk (*) for truncation: useful for getting results with keywords with multiple endings, e.g. comput* for computer, computers, computing , etc.
• UC Library Search Explained! Check the Search tips to better used our library catalog and articles search system
• EBSCOhost Searching Tips An useful guide about how to best search EBSCOhost databases
• ProQuest Database Search Tips An useful guide about how to best search ProQuest databases
• Are you working on an emerging topic? You are not likely to find many sources, which is good because you are trying to prove that this is a topic that needs more research. But, it is not enough to say that you found few or no articles on your topic in your field. You need to look broadly to other disciplines (also known as triangulation ) to see if your research topic has been studied from other perspectives as a way to validate the uniqueness of your research question.
• Are you working on something that has been studied extensively? Then you are going to find many sources and you will want to limit how far you want to look back. Use limiters to eliminate research that may be dated and opt to search for resources published within the last 5-10 years.
• Want to keep track of your searches , send alerts to your email when new articles in your topic are available? Create an account in any of our databases!

Following the Citation Trail!

Many databases today have special featured that show you how many times an article was cited by and by who and offer you links to those articles.

See below some recommended resources:

The UC has partnered with Google Scholar to allow our users to click on the familiar "Get it at UC" button to reach full text of some items indexed. Use the "Scholar Preferences" link and select "University of California, Santa Barbara - Get it at UC" before saving your preferences.

• << Previous: Literature Reviews?
• Next: Keeping up with Research! >>
• Last Updated: Mar 5, 2024 11:44 AM
• URL: https://guides.library.ucsb.edu/litreview

Want to create or adapt books like this? Learn more about how Pressbooks supports open publishing practices.

Chapter 4: Where to Find the Literature

Learning objectives.

At the conclusion of this chapter, you will be able to:

• Search a library catalog to locate electronic and print books.
• Search databases to find scholarly articles, dissertations, and conference proceedings.
• Retrieve a copy or the full text of information sources
• Identify and locate core resources in your discipline or topic area

4.1 Overview of discovery

Discovery, or background research, is something that happens at the beginning of the research process when you are just learning about a topic. It is a search for general information to get the big picture of a topic for exploration, ideas about subtopics and context for the actual focused research you will do later. It is also a time to build a list of distinctive, broad, narrow, and related search terms.

Discovery happens again when you are ready to focus in on your research question and begin your own literature review. There are two crucial elements to discovering the literature for your review with the least amount of stress as possible: the places you look and the words you use in your search .

The places you look depend on:

• The stage you are in your research
• The disciplines represented in your research question
• The importance of currency in your research topic

Review the information and publication cycles discussed in Chapter 2 to put those sources of this information in context.

The words you use will help you locate existing literature on your topic, as well as topics that may be closely related to yours. There are two categories for these words:

• Keywords – the natural language terms we think of when we discuss and read about a topic
• Subject terms – the assigned vocabulary for a catalog or database

The words you use during both the initial and next stage of discovery should be recorded in some way throughout the literature search process. Additional terms will come to light as you read and as your question becomes more specific. You will want to keep track of those words and terms, as they will be useful in repeating your searches in additional databases, catalogs, and other repositories. Later in this chapter, we will discuss how putting the two elements (the places we look and the words we use) together can be enhanced by the use of Boolean operators and discipline-specific thesauri.

Discovery is an iterative process. There is not a straight, bright line from beginning to end. You will go back into the literature throughout the writing of your literature review as you uncover gaps in the evidence and as additional questions arise.

4.2 Finding sources: Places to look

Let’s take some time to look at where the information sources you need for your literature review are located, indexed, and stored. At this stage, you have a general idea of your research area and have done some background searching to learn the scope and the context of your topic. You have begun collecting keywords to use in your later searching. Now, as you focus in on your literature review topic, you will take your searches to the databases and other repositories to see what the other researchers and scholars are saying about the topic.

The following resources are ordered from the more general and established information to the more recent and specific. Although it is possible to find some of these resources by searching the open web, using a search engine like Google or Google Scholar, this is not the most efficient or effective way to search for and discover research material. As a result, most of the resources described in this section are found from within academic library catalogs and databases, rather than internet search engines.

4.2.1 Finding books and ebooks

4.2.1.1 books.

Look to books for broad and general information that is useful for background research. Books are “essential guides to understanding theory and for helping you to validate the need for your study, confirm your choice of literature, and certify (or contradict) its findings.” ( Fink, 4th ed., 2014, p. 77 ). In this section, we will consider print and electronic books as well as print and electronic encyclopedias.

Most academic libraries use the Library of Congress classification system to organize their books and other resources. The Library of Congress classification system divides a library’s collection into 21 classes or categories. A specific letter of the alphabet is assigned to each class. More detailed divisions are accomplished with two and three letter combinations. Book shelves in most academic libraries are marked with a Library of Congress letter-number combination to correspond to the Library of Congress letter-number combination on the spines of library materials. This is often referred to as a call number and it is noted in the catalog record of every physical item on the library shelves. ( Bennard et al, 2014a )

The Library of Congress (LC) classification for Education (General) is L7-991, with LA, LB, LC, LD, LE, LG, LH, LJ, and LT subclasses. For example,

LB3012.2.L36 1995 Beyond the Schoolhouse Gate: Free Speech and the Inculcation of Values

In Nursing, the LC subject range is RT1-120. A book with this LC call number might look like: R121.S8 1990 Stedman’s Medical Dictionary . Areas related to nursing that are outside that range include:

R121 Medical dictionaries

R726.8 Hospice care

R858-859.7 Medical informatics

RB37 Diagnostic and laboratory tests

RB115 Nomenclature (procedural coding – CPT, ICD9)

RC69-71 Diagnosis

RC86.7 Emergency medicine

RC266 Oncology nursing

RC952-954.6 Geriatrics

RD93-98 Wound care

RD753 Orthopedic nursing

RG951 Maternal child nursing / Obstetrical nursing

RJ245 Pediatric nursing

RM216 Nutrition and diet therapy

RM301.12 Drug guides

In most libraries, there is a collection of reference material kept in a specific section. These books, consisting of encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesauri, handbooks, atlases, and other material contain useful background or overview information about topics. Ask the librarian for help in finding an appropriate reference book. Although reference material can only be used in the library, other print books will likely be in what’s called the “circulating collection,” meaning they are available to check out.

4.2.1.2 Ebooks

The library also provides access to electronic reference material. Some are subject specific and others are general reference sources. Although each resource will have a different “look” just as different print encyclopedias and dictionaries look different, each should have a search box. Most will have a table of contents for navigation within the work. Content includes pages of text in books and encyclopedias and occasionally, videos. In all cases you will be able to collect background information and search terms to use later.

North American academic libraries buy or subscribe to individual ebook titles as well as collections of ebooks. Ebooks appear on various publisher and platforms, such as Springer, Cambridge, ebrary (ProQuest), EBSCO, and Safari to name a few. Although access to these ebooks varies by platform, you can find the ebook titles your library has access to through the library catalog. You can generally read the entire book online, and you can often download single chapters or a limited number of pages. You may be able to download an entire ebook without restrictions, or you may have to ‘check it out’ for a limited period of time. Some downloads will be in PDF format, others use another type of free ebook viewing software, like ePUB. Unlike public library ebook collections, most academic library ebooks are not be downloadable to ereader devices, such as Amazon’s Kindle

4.2.1.3 The Library Catalog

In general, everything owned or licensed by a library is indexed in “the library catalog”. Although most library catalogs are now sophisticated electronic products called ‘integrated library systems’, they began as wooden card filing cabinets where researchers could look for books by author, title, or subject.

While the look and feel of current integrated library systems vary between libraries, they operate in similar ways. Most library catalogs are quickly found from a library’s home page or website. The library catalog is the quickest way to find books and ebooks on your topic.

Here are some general tips for locating books in a library catalog:

• Use the search box generally found on a library’s home page to start a search.
• Type a book title, author name, or subject keywords into the search box.
• You will be directed to a results page.
• If you click on a book title or see an option to see more details about the book, you can look at its full bibliographic record, which provides more information about the book, as well as where to find the book. Pay particular attention to subjects associated with the item, adding relevant and appropriate terms to your list of search terms for future use.
• Look for an “Advanced Search” option near the basic or single search box
• Publication Year
• Call number
• There is generally a “Format” list on the advanced search page screen. This list will give you options for limiting format to Print Books or Ebooks.
• You can limit searches to a specific library or libraries to narrow by location or ‘search everything’ to broaden your search.

OCLC WorldCat ( https://www.worldcat.org/ ) is the world’s largest network of library content and it provides another way to search for books and ebooks. For students who do not have immediate access to an academic library catalog, WorldCat is a way to search many library catalogs at once for an item and then locate a library near you that may own or subscribe to it. Whether you will be able check the item out, request it, place an interlibrary loan request for it, or have it shipped will depend on local library policy. Note that like your own library catalog, WorldCat has a single search box, an Advanced search feature, and a way to limit by format and location.

4.2.2 Finding scholarly articles

While books and ebooks provide good background information on your topic, the main body of the literature in your research area will be found in academic journals. Scholarly journals are the main forum for research publication. Unlike books and professional magazines that may comment or summarize research findings, articles in scholarly journals are written by a researcher or research team. These authors will report in detail original study findings, and will include the data used. Articles in academic journals also go through a screening or peer-review process before publication,implying a higher level of quality and reliability. For the most current, authoritative information on a topic, scholars and researchers look to the published, scholarly literature. That said,

Journals, and the articles they contain, are often quite expensive. Libraries spend a large part of their collection budget subscribing to journals in both print and online formats. You may have noticed that a Google Scholar search will provide the citation to a journal article but will not link to the full text. This happens because Google does not subscribe to journals. It only searches and retrieves freely available web content. However, libraries do subscribe to journals and have entered into agreements to share their journal and book collections with other libraries. If you are affiliated with a library as a student, staff, or faculty member, you have access to many other libraries’ resources, through a service called interlibrary loan. Do not pay the large sums required to purchase access to articles unless you do not have another way to obtain the material, and you are unable to find a substitute resource that provides the information you need. ( Bennard et al, 2014 a)

4.2.2.1 Databases

A database is an electronic system for organizing information. Journal databases are where the scholarly articles are organized and indexed for searching. Anyone with an internet connection has free access to public databases such as PubMed and ERIC. Students can also search in library-subscribed general information databases (such as EBSCO’s Academic Search Premier) or a specialized or subject specific database (for example, a ProQuest version of CINAHL for Nursing or ERIC for Education).

Library databases store and display different types of information sets than a library catalog or Google Scholar. There are different types of databases that include:

• Indexes– with citations only
• Abstract databases – with citations and abstracts only
• Full text databases – with citations and the full text of articles, reports, and other materials

Library databases are often connected to each other by means of a “link resolver”, allowing different databases to “talk to each other.” For example, if you are searching an index database and discover an article you want to read in its entirety, you can click on a link resolver that takes you to another database where the full-text of the article is held. If the full-text is not available, an automated form to request the item from another library may be an option.

Why search a database instead of Google Scholar or your library catalog? Both can lead you to good articles BUT:

• The content is wide-ranging but not comprehensive or as current as a database that may be updated daily.
• Google Scholar doesn’t disclose its criteria for what makes the results “scholarly’ and search results often vary in quality and availability.
• Neither gives you as much control over your search as you get in a database.

4.2.2.2 Citation searches

Another way to find additional books and articles on your topic is to mine the reference lists of books and articles you already found. By tracing literature cited in published titles, you not only add to your understanding of the scholarly conversation about your research topic but also enrich your own literature search.

A citation is a reference to an item that gives enough information for you to identify it and find it again if necessary. You can use the citations in the material you found to lead you to other resources. Generally, citations include four elements:

For example,

For a good summary of how to read a citation for a book, book chapter, and journal article in both APA and MLA format, see this explanation   at: https://www.slideshare.net/opensunytextbooks/gathering-components-of-a-citation

4.2.3 Finding conference papers

Conference papers are often overlooked because they can be difficult to locate in full-text. Sometimes the papers from an annual proceeding are treated like an individual book, or a single special issue of a journal. Sometimes the papers from a conference are not published and must be requested from the original author. Despite publication inconsistency, conference papers may be the first place a scholar presents important findings and, as such, are relevant to your own research. Places to look for conference papers:

4.2.3.1 WorldCat

• use keywords from the conference name (NOT the article title)
• it often helps to leave out terms like: conference, proceedings, transactions, congresses, symposia/symposium, exposition, workshop or meeting
• include the year of the conference
• include the city in which the conference took place

4.2.3.2 Google Scholar

• Search by keyword and add the word ‘conference’ and the year to your search, for example: ‘conference education 2008′

4.2.3.3 Databases

• For Education: ERIC, limit to ‘Collected Works–Proceedings’ or ‘Speeches/Meeting papers’
• For Nursing: CINAHL, limit to proceedings in the “Publication Type” box
• For Education: Education Full Text, limit to ‘proceeding’ in the “Document Type” box
• PsychInfo: limit to ‘Conference Proceedings’ in the “Record Type” Box
• Web of Science: limit to ‘conference’

4.2.3.4 Professional Societies & Other Sponsoring Organizations

Check the web sites of the organizations that sponsor conferences. Listings of conference proceedings are often under a “Publications” or “Meetings” tab/link. The National Library of Medicine maintains a conference proceedings subject guide for health-related national and international conferences. Though many papers/proceedings are not available for free, the organization web site will often contain citations of proceedings that you can request through interlibrary loan.

4.2.4 Finding dissertations

In addition to journal articles, original research is also published in books, reports, conference proceedings, theses and dissertations. Both theses and dissertations are very detailed and comprehensive accounts of research work. Dissertations and theses are a primary source of original research and include “referencing, both in text and in the reference list, so that, in principle, any reference to the literature may be easily traced and followed up.” ( Wallace & Wray, p. 187 ). Citation searching of the reference list or bibliography in a dissertation is another method for discovering the relevant literature for your own research area. Like conference papers, they are more difficult to locate and retrieve than books and articles. Some may be available electronically in full-text at no cost. Others may only be available to the affiliates of the university or college where a degree was granted. Others are behind paywalls and can only be accessed after purchasing. Both CINAHL and ERIC index dissertations. Individual universities and institutional repositories often list dissertations held locally. Other places to look for theses and dissertations include:

Dissertations Express – search for dissertations from around the world. Search by subject or keyword, results include author, title, date, and where the degree was granted. Some are available in full-text at no cost, however most requirement payment.

EThOS – the national thesis service for the United Kingdom, managed by the British Library. It is a national aggregated record of all doctoral theses awarded by UK Higher Education institutions, providing free access to the full text of many theses for use by all researchers to further their own study.

Theses Canada – a collaborative program between Library and Archives Canada (LAC) and nearly 70 accredited Canadian universities. The collection contains both microfiche and electronic theses and dissertations that are for personal or academic research purposes.

4.3 Advanced searching

Now that you have an idea of some of the places to look for information on your research topic and the form that information takes (books, ebooks, journals, conference papers, and dissertations), it’s time to consider not only how to use the specialized resources for your discipline but how to get the most out of those resources. To do a graduate-level literature review and find everything published on your topic, advanced search and retrieval skills are needed.

4.3.1 Search Operators

Literature review research often necessitates the use of Boolean operators to combine keywords. The operators – AND, OR, and NOT — are powerful tools for searching in a database or search engine. By using a combination of terms and one or more Boolean operator, you can focus your search and narrow your search results to a more specific area than a basic keyword search allows.

Boolean operators – allow you to combine your search terms using the keywords AND , OR and NOT . Look at the diagrams in Figure 4.6 to see how these terms will affect your results.

Truncation – If you use truncation (or wildcards), your search results will contain documents including variations of that term.

For example: light* will retrieve, of course, light , but also terms like: lighting , lightning , lighters and lights . Note that the truncation symbol varies depending on where you search. The most common truncation symbols are the asterisk (*) and question mark (?).

Phrase searching – Phrase searching is used to make sure your search retrieves a specific concept. For example “ durable wood products ” will retrieve more relevant documents than the same terms without quotation marks.

For a description of these more advanced search features, watch this short video tutorial on effective search strategies. ( Clark, 2016 ).

4.3.2 Finding sources in your discipline or topic area

It’s time to put these tips and your search skills to use. This is the point, if you have not done so already, to talk to a librarian. The librarian will direct you to the resources you need, including research databases to which the library subscribes, for your discipline or subject area. Literature reviews rely heavily on data from online databases, such as CINAHL for Nursing and ERIC for Education. Unfortunately, the costs to subscribe to vendor-provided products is high. Students affiliated with large university libraries that can afford to subscribe to these products will have access to many databases, while those who do not have fewer options.

Students who do not have access to subscription databases such as CINAHL or ERIC through Ebsco and ProQuest should use PubMed for Nursing at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/ and the public version of ERIC at https://eric.ed.gov/ for literature review research.

Although a librarian is the best resource for learning how to use a specific tool, an online tutorial on how to search PubMed may be useful and informative for those who do not have access to a librarian or a subscription database: Likewise, this document, titled “ How does the ERIC search work ,” provided by the Institute of Education Sciences provides some helpful tips for searching the public version ERIC.

4.3.3 Specialized vocabulary

One major source of search terms in a database is a specialized dictionary, or thesaurus, used to index journal articles. Thesauri provide a consistent and standardized way to retrieve information, especially when different terms are used for the same concept. According to Fink ( 2014 ), “evidence exists that using thesaurus terms produces more of the available citations than does reliance on key words…Using the appropriate subject heading will enable the reviewer to find all citations regardless of how the author uses the term.” (p. 24).

In Education and Nursing, thesauri are available. In subscription databases, as well as in PubMed and the public version of ERIC, look for the thesaurus to guide you to appropriate and relevant subject terms.

4.3.4 Citation Searching

Citation searching works best when you already have a relevant work that is on topic. From the document you identified as useful for your own literature review, you can either search citations forward or backward to gather additional resources. Cited reference searching and reference or bibliography mining are advanced search techniques that may also help generate new ideas as well as additional keywords and subject areas.

For cited reference searching, use Google Scholar or library databases such as Web of Science or Scopus. These tools trace citations forward to link to newly published books, journal articles, book chapters, and reports that were written after the document you found. Through cited reference searching, you may also locate works that have been cited numerous times, indicating what may be a seminal work in your field.

With citation mining, you will look at the references or works cited list in the resource you located to identify other relevant works. In this type of search, you will be tracing citations backward to find significant books, journal articles, book chapters, and reports that were written before the document you found. For a brief discussion about citation searching , check out this article by Hammond & Brown ( 2008 ).

The two most important finding tools you will use are a library catalog and databases. Looking for information in catalogs and databases takes practice.

Get started by setting aside some dedicated time to become familiar with the process:

• Practice by locating one reference book and one ebook in your library catalog or WorldCat
• Practice searching in freely available databases such as PubMed or ERIC
• Try some of the limiters to see what each does to your search results
• Once you find an article, what do you need to do to get it in full-text?
• Find out how to use interlibrary loan or document delivery.

Next, complete this exercise:

• Browse through a popular or scientific publication such as the science section of the New York Times or Scientific American . Find a short article that looks interesting and is easy to understand.
• an article that reports on a recent study published in a scholarly journal;
• the title of the journal;
• the name of the author(s); and
• an indication of when the original study appeared. Note: sometimes the source will say that the research was published in a latest issue of Science or Nature .
• Once you find some of these facts (journal title and the authors should be sufficient), you can start to search for the primary source in a library catalog or the library’s databases.
• Catalog search: find out if your school subscribes to a particular journal by searching for the journal by title.
• Electronic subscription—great! It means you can access the journal right away. Once you get to the online (or electronic) version of the journal, you are given a choice of searching within this publication. An author search should be sufficient to locate the article.
• Print subscription version—good! You can search in databases or a discovery service tool for your article by entering the journal title and the authors. Once you locate a record about the article, which will include volume and issue number, page numbers, the article title, you can go to the shelves where you will find the issue of the journal that includes your article.
• Microform version—still good! Again, after searching databases and locating the exact information about the article, you should be able to locate the appropriate microfilm reel or microfiche. Before the widespread and easy access to online versions of materials, microforms were used to save space by preserving documents on film. Libraries are equipped with microform readers—if you need help using a reader, ask the library staff. ( Bennard et al, 2014b )

Test Yourself

Get an article.

• Access PubMed or ERIC
• Do a subject search, using the thesaurus (for ERIC) or MeSH terms (for PubMed)
• Do a keyword search
• Supplement your subject search with keywords, using advanced search tools like Boolean operators, truncation, or phrase searching
• Limit your search by language, date of publication or PICO factor
• Access the full text of an article you find.
• If full text is not available, find out how to request the article through interlibrary loan

In your general topic area, do you know:

• The core source materials?
• The most significant theories?
• The major issues and debates surrounding your topic area?
• The key political, social, economic, legal, environmental, and/or technological aspects of your topic?
• The origins of your topic?
• The definitions for your topic?
• How knowledge in your topic area is organized?
• What problems or solutions have been addressed to date?
• If you don’t know the answers to these questions, do you know how to find the answers?

Image attributions

Literature Reviews for Education and Nursing Graduate Students Copyright © by Linda Frederiksen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

Share This Book

Literature Review

• 1. Find Sources

Evaluate Sources

Evaluate your sources, cite your findings, article citation numbers.

• 3. Organize Information

Evaluate your sources, read through the literature, and cite your sources to facilitate finding them again.

Summarize and evaluate the literature for its contributions.

Analyse the information and identify any strengths, weaknesses, contradictions and gaps in the research.

• What are the author's credentials and affiliations?
• Is the publisher or journal known and reputable?
• Who is the publisher? Are they reputable? It is an academic press?
• Does the author provide references to support their statements?
• Is the source  peer-reviewed ? (Has the information been verified by other professionals or researchers in the field?)
• How current does your information need to be?
• What is the publication date?
• Is the information outdated?
• Is it a key historical piece of literature on your topic?
• Who is the audience: the general public, professionals, or researchers?
• Is the information general or in-depth?
• Point of View
• Is the information balanced and without bias?
• Does the author have a specific goal or objective? (For example: to persuade, to entertain, to inform?)

Reference and  cite all the documents you find - you may want to use them for your literature review. This will help you keep track of the literature you have reviewed and facilitate retrieval of the document later.

Using a citation management tool can help you download and organize you citations and keep track of sources.

Use citators to evaluate an article based on how often it has been cited:

• << Previous: 1. Find Sources
• Next: 3. Organize Information >>
• Last Updated: Mar 18, 2024 1:56 PM
• URL: https://guides.library.ontariotechu.ca/literaturereview

Literature review sources

Sources for literature review can be divided into three categories as illustrated in table below. In your dissertation you will need to use all three categories of literature review sources:

Sources for literature review and examples

Generally, your literature review should integrate a wide range of sources such as:

• Books . Textbooks remain as the most important source to find models and theories related to the research area. Research the most respected authorities in your selected research area and find the latest editions of books authored by them. For example, in the area of marketing the most notable authors include Philip Kotler, Seth Godin, Malcolm Gladwell, Emanuel Rosen and others.
• Magazines . Industry-specific magazines are usually rich in scholarly articles and they can be effective source to learn about the latest trends and developments in the research area. Reading industry magazines can be the most enjoyable part of the literature review, assuming that your selected research area represents an area of your personal and professional interests, which should be the case anyways.
• Newspapers can be referred to as the main source of up-to-date news about the latest events related to the research area. However, the proportion of the use of newspapers in literature review is recommended to be less compared to alternative sources of secondary data such as books and magazines. This is due to the fact that newspaper articles mainly lack depth of analyses and discussions.
• Online articles . You can find online versions of all of the above sources. However, note that the levels of reliability of online articles can be highly compromised depending on the source due to the high levels of ease with which articles can be published online. Opinions offered in a wide range of online discussion blogs cannot be usually used in literature review. Similarly, dissertation assessors are not keen to appreciate references to a wide range of blogs, unless articles in these blogs are authored by respected authorities in the research area.

Your secondary data sources may comprise certain amount of grey literature as well. The term grey literature refers to type of literature produced by government, academics, business and industry in print and electronic formats, which is not controlled by commercial publishers. It is called ‘grey’ because the status of the information in grey literature is not certain. In other words, any publication that has not been peer reviewed for publication is grey literature.

The necessity to use grey literature arises when there is no enough peer reviewed publications are available for the subject of your study.

John Dudovskiy

Physical Therapy

• Critical Appraisal
• Getting Started with Research
• Reference Resources
• Evidence Summaries and Clinical Guidelines
• Health Data and Statistics
• Patient/Consumer Facing Materials
• Images and Streaming Video
• Database Tutorials and Search Guidance
• Crafting a Search
• Narrowing/Filtering the Search
• Expanding the Search
• Find Grey Literature
• Save Your Searches
• Cite and Manage Sources
• What are Literature Reviews?
• Conducting & Reporting Systematic Reviews
• Finding Systematic Reviews
• Tutorials & Tools for Literature Reviews

Types of Literature Reviews

Literature reviews are comprehensive summaries and syntheses of the previous research on a given topic.

The review purpose, methods used, and the results produced vary among different kinds of literature reviews. Some of the common types of literature review are detailed below.

Common Types of Literature Reviews 1

Narrative (literature) review.

• A broad term referring to reviews with a wide scope and non-standardized methodology
• Search strategies, comprehensiveness of literature search, time range covered and method of synthesis will vary and do not follow an established protocol

Integrative Review

• A type of literature review based on a systematic, structured literature search
• Often has a broadly defined purpose or review question
• Seeks to generate or refine and theory or hypothesis and/or develop a holistic understanding of a topic of interest
• Relies on diverse sources of data (e.g. empirical, theoretical or methodological literature; qualitative or quantitative studies)

Systematic Review

• Systematically and transparently collects and categorize existing evidence on a question of scientific, policy or management importance
• Follows a research protocol that is established  a priori
• Some sub-types of systematic reviews include: SRs of intervention effectiveness, diagnosis, prognosis, etiology, qualitative evidence, economic evidence, and more.
• Time-intensive and often takes months to a year or more to complete 
• The most commonly referred to type of evidence synthesis; sometimes confused as a blanket term for other types of reviews

Meta-Analysis

• Statistical technique for combining the findings from disparate quantitative studies
• Uses statistical methods to objectively evaluate, synthesize, and summarize results
• Often conducted as part of a systematic review

Scoping Review

• Systematically and transparently collects and categorizes existing evidence on a broad question of scientific, policy or management importance
• Seeks to identify research gaps, identify key concepts and characteristics of the literature and/or examine how research is conducted on a topic of interest
• Useful when the complexity or heterogeneity of the body of literature does not lend itself to a precise systematic review
• Useful if authors do not have a single, precise review question
• May critically evaluate existing evidence, but does not attempt to synthesize the results in the way a systematic review would 
• May take longer than a systematic review

Rapid Review

• Applies a systematic review methodology within a time-constrained setting
• Employs methodological "shortcuts" (e.g., limiting search terms and the scope of the literature search), at the risk of introducing bias
• Useful for addressing issues requiring quick decisions, such as developing policy recommendations

Umbrella Review

• Reviews other systematic reviews on a topic
• Often defines a broader question than is typical of a traditional systematic review
• Most useful when there are competing interventions to consider

1. Adapted from:

Eldermire, E. (2021, November 15). A guide to evidence synthesis: Types of evidence synthesis. Cornell University LibGuides.  https://guides.library.cornell.edu/evidence-synthesis/types

Nolfi, D. (2021, October 6). Integrative Review: Systematic vs. Scoping vs. Integrative. Duquesne University LibGuides.  https://guides.library.duq.edu/c.php?g=1055475&p=7725920

Delaney, L. (2021, November 24). Systematic reviews: Other review types. UniSA LibGuides.  https://guides.library.unisa.edu.au/SystematicReviews/OtherReviewTypes

• << Previous: Doing a Literature Review
• Next: Conducting & Reporting Systematic Reviews >>
• Last Updated: Jun 26, 2024 3:00 PM
• URL: https://guides.nyu.edu/pt

Information

• Author Services

Initiatives

You are accessing a machine-readable page. In order to be human-readable, please install an RSS reader.

All articles published by MDPI are made immediately available worldwide under an open access license. No special permission is required to reuse all or part of the article published by MDPI, including figures and tables. For articles published under an open access Creative Common CC BY license, any part of the article may be reused without permission provided that the original article is clearly cited. For more information, please refer to https://www.mdpi.com/openaccess .

Feature papers represent the most advanced research with significant potential for high impact in the field. A Feature Paper should be a substantial original Article that involves several techniques or approaches, provides an outlook for future research directions and describes possible research applications.

Feature papers are submitted upon individual invitation or recommendation by the scientific editors and must receive positive feedback from the reviewers.

Editor’s Choice articles are based on recommendations by the scientific editors of MDPI journals from around the world. Editors select a small number of articles recently published in the journal that they believe will be particularly interesting to readers, or important in the respective research area. The aim is to provide a snapshot of some of the most exciting work published in the various research areas of the journal.

Original Submission Date Received: .

• Active Journals
• Find a Journal
• Proceedings Series
• For Authors
• For Reviewers
• For Editors
• For Librarians
• For Publishers
• For Societies
• For Conference Organizers
• Open Access Policy
• Institutional Open Access Program
• Special Issues Guidelines
• Editorial Process
• Research and Publication Ethics
• Article Processing Charges
• Testimonials
• Preprints.org
• SciProfiles
• Encyclopedia

Article Menu

• Subscribe SciFeed
• Recommended Articles
• Google Scholar
• on Google Scholar
• Table of Contents

Find support for a specific problem in the support section of our website.

Please let us know what you think of our products and services.

Visit our dedicated information section to learn more about MDPI.

JSmol Viewer

Powering the future: an integrated framework for clean renewable energy transition.

1. Introduction

2. background, 2.1. clean renewable energy community transition dynamics, 2.2. role of dimensions, indicators, and metrics in energy transition, 3. methodology, 3.1. literature review, 3.2. conceptual framework, 3.2.1. efficient built environment, 3.2.2. reliable energy system, 3.2.3. accessible energy system, 4. review of renewable energy transition metrics, 4.1. environmental dimension metrics, 4.2. technical dimension metrics, 4.3. social dimension metrics, 4.4. economic dimension metrics, 4.5. political and institutional dimension metrics, 5. discussion, 5.1. challenges associated with metrics identification, 5.2. evaluating metrics for clean renewable energy communities transition.

• High and Easy are assigned a value of 3, reflecting optimal conditions or the highest degree of relevance or ease of application.
• Medium or Moderate levels are given a value of 2, indicating an intermediate state.
• Hard and Data Availability Varies are scored as 1, denoting challenging conditions or inconsistent data availability.

5.3. Classification of Metrics Based on Clean Renewable Energy Communities Transition Objectives

6. future research and limitations, 7. conclusions, supplementary materials, institutional review board statement, informed consent statement, data availability statement, acknowledgments, conflicts of interest.

• Minx, J.W. Comprehensive. Earth Syst. Sci. Data 2021 , 13 , 5213–5252. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Bogdanov, D.G. Full Energy Sector Transition towards 100% Renewable Energy Supply: Integrating Power, Heat, Transport and Industry Sectors Including Desalination. Appl. Energy 2021 , 283 , 116273. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Bhattarai, U.; Maraseni, T.; Apan, A. Assay of Renewable Energy Transition: A Systematic Literature Review. Sci. Total Environ. 2022 , 33 , 155159. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Adedoyin, F.; Bekun, F.; Alola, A. Growth Impact of Transition from Non-Renewable to Renewable Energy in the EU: The Role of Research and Development Expenditure. Renew. Energy 2020 , 159 , 1139–1145. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Shandiz, S.F. Resilience Framework and Metrics for Energy Master Planning of Communities. Energy 2020 , 203 , 117856. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Smith, P.; Gregory, P.J.; Van Vuuren, D.; Obersteiner, M.; Havlík, P.; Rounsevell, M.; Woods, J.; Stehfest, E.; Bellarby, J. Competition for Land. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. 2010 , 365 , 2941–2957. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• United Nations. World Population Prospects 2022: Summary of Results 2022 ; United Nations: New York, NY, USA, 2022. [ Google Scholar ]
• Becker, J.; Kaza, N. Tale of Two Sprawls: Energy Planning and Challenges for Smart Growth. In Handbook on Smart Growth Promise, Principles, and Prospects for Planning ; Knaap, G.J., Lewis, R., Chakraborty, A., June-Friesen, K., Eds.; Edward Elgar Publishing: Cheltenham, UK, 2022; pp. 291–306. [ Google Scholar ]
• Horner, R.; Clark, C. Characterizing Variability and Reducing Uncertainty in Estimates of Solar Land Use Energy Intensity. Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 2013 , 23 , 129–137. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Omri, E.; Nouri Chtourou, N.; Bazin, D. Technological, Economic, Institutional, and Psychosocial Aspects of the Transition to Renewable Energies: A Critical Literature Review of a Multidimensional Process. Renew. Energy Focus 2022 , 43 , 37–49. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Rosen, M. Energy Sustainability: A Pragmatic Approach and Illustrations. Sustainability 2009 , 1 , 50–80. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Kime, S. Evaluating Equity and Justice in Low-Carbon Energy Transitions. Environ. Res. Lett. 2023 , 18 , 123003. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Mar, A.; Pereira, P.; Martins, J. Resilience Metrics Applied to Renewable Energy Communities. In Proceedings of the 2023 IEEE 17th International Conference on Compatibility, Power Electronics and Power Engineering (CPE-POWERENG), Tallinn, Estonia, 14–16 June 2023; pp. 1–5. [ Google Scholar ]
• Akella, A.K.; Saini, R.; Sharma, M. Social, Economical and Environmental Impacts of Renewable Energy Systems. Renew. Energy 2009 , 34 , 390–396. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Kabeyi, M.; Olanrewaju, O. Sustainable Energy Transition for Renewable and Low Carbon Grid Electricity Generation and Supply. Front. Energy Res. 2022 , 9 , 743114. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Andrews, J. Energy Conversion Goes Local: Implications for Planners. Am. Plan. Assoc. 2008 , 74 , 231–254. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Holechek, J.; Geli, H. A Global Assessment: Can Renewable Energy Replace Fossil Fuels by 2050? Sustainability 2022 , 14 , 4792. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Kirkman, R. At Home in the Seamless Web: Agency, Obduracy, and the Ethics of Metropolitan Growth. Sci. Technol. Hum. Values 2009 , 34 , 234–258. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Fulcher, J.; Scott, J. Sociology ; Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK, 1999. [ Google Scholar ]
• Fisher, L. Community” as a Reference for American Minority Groups: A Theory of Unintended Negative Consequences. Open J. Soc. 2017 , 5 , 224–237. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Moroni, S. Energy Communities in Distributed-Energy Scenario: Four Different Kinds of Community Arragements. In Smart and Sustainable Planning for Cities and Regions: Results of SSPCR ; Bisello, D.V.A., Ed.; Springer: Berlin/Heidelberg, Germany, 2017; pp. 429–437. [ Google Scholar ]
• Spasova, D.; Braungardt, S. The EU Policy Framework for Energy Communities. Energy Communities: Customer-Centered, Market-Driven, Welfare-Enhancing? In Energy Power ; Academic Press: Cambridge, MA, USA, 2022; pp. 25–42. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Walker, G.; Devine-Wright, P. Community Renewable Energy: What Should It Mean? Energy Policy 2008 , 36 , 497–500. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Seyfang, G.; Haxeltine, A. Growing Grassroots Innovations: Exploring the Role of Community-Based Initiatives in Governing Sustainable. Energy Transit. 2012 , 30 , 381–400. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Schoor, T.; Scholtens, B. Power to the People: Local Community Initiatives and the Transition to Sustainable Energy. Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 2015 , 43 , 666–675. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Henderson, J.; Sen, A. The Energy Transition: Key Challenges for Incumbent and New Players in the Global Energy System ; The Oxford Institute for Energy Studies: Oxford, UK, 2021. [ Google Scholar ]
• Saraji, M.; Streimikiene, D. Challenges to the Low Carbon Energy Transition: A Systematic Literature Review and Research Agenda. Energy Strategy Rev. 2023 , 49 , 101163. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Iddrisu, I.; Bhattacharyya, S. Sustainable Energy Development Index: A Multi-Dimensional Indicator for Measuring Sustainable Energy Development. Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 2015 , 50 , 513–530. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Meadows, D.H. Indicators and Information Systems for Sustainable Development ; Balaton Group: Toronto, ON, Canada, 1998. [ Google Scholar ]
• Wang, J.; Zuo, W.; Rhode-Barbarigos, L.; Lu, X.; Wang, J.; Lin, Y. Literature Review on Modeling and Simulation of Energy Infrastructures from a Resilience Perspective. Reliab. Eng. Syst. Saf. 2019 , 183 , 360–373. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Afzal, S.; Mokhlis, H. State-of-the-Art Review on Power System Resilience and Assessment Techniques. IET Gener. Transm. Distrib. 2021 , 14 , 6107–6121. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Panteli, M.M. Metrics and Quantification of Operational and Infrastructure Resilience in Power Systems. IEEE Trans. Power Syst. 2017 , 32 , 4732–4742. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Panteli, M.; Mancarella, P. Modeling and Evaluating the Resilience of Critical Electrical Power Infrastructure to Extreme Weather Events. IEEE Spectr. J. 2017 , 11 , 1733–1742. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Gui, E.; MacGil, I. Typology of Future Clean Energy Communities: An Exploratory Structure, Opportunities, and Challenges. Energy Res. Soc. Sci. 2018 , 35 , 94–107. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Kiehbadroudinezhad, M. The Role of Energy Security and Resilience in the Sustainability of Green Microgrids: Paving the Way to Sustainable and Clean Production. Sustain. Energy Technol. Assess 2023 , 60 , 103485. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Sharifi, A.; Yamagata, Y. Principles and Criteria for Assessing Urban Energy Resilience: A Literature Review. Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 2016 , 60 , 1654–1677. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Linkov, I.B. Changing the Resilience Paradigm. Nat. Clim. Change 2014 , 4 , 407–409. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Bhowmik, C.; Bhowmik, S.; Ray, A. Optimal Green Energy Source Selection: An Eclectic Decision. Energy Environ. 2020 , 31 , 842–859. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Köhler, J. An Agenda for Sustainability Transitions Research: State of the Art and Future Directions. Environ. Innov. Soc. Transit. 2019 , 31 , 1–32. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Lv, Y. Transitioning to Sustainable Energy: Opportunities, Challenges, and the Potential of Blockchain Technology. Front. Energy Res. 2023 , 11 , 1258044. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Zhang, W.; Li, B.; Xue, R.; Wang, C.; Cao, W. A Systematic Bibliometric Review of Clean Energy Transition: Implications for Low-Carbon Development. PLoS ONE 2021 , 16 , 0261091. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Bridge, G. Geographies of Energy Transition: Space, Place and the Low-Carbon Economy. Energy Policy 2013 , 53 , 331–340. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Cagle, A.; Shephers, M. Standardized Metrics to Quantify Solar Energy-Land Relationships: A Global Systematic Review. Front. Sustain. 2023 , 3 , 1035705. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Romero-Castro, N.; Miramontes-Viña, V.; López-Cabarcos, M.Á. Understanding the Antecedents of Entrepreneurship and Renewable Energies to Promote the Development of Community Renewable Energy in Rural Areas. Sustainability 2022 , 14 , 1234. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Tennant, J. Web of Science and Scopus Are Not Global Databases of Knowledge. Eur. Sci. Ed. 2020 , 46 , e51987. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Alvarez-Melgarejo, M.; Torres-Barreto, M.L. Resources and Capabilities from Their Very Outset: A Bibliometric Comparison Between Scopus and the Web of Science. Rev. Eur. Stud. 2018 , 10 , 1. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Martín-Martín, A.; Orduna-Malea, E.; Delgado López-Cózar, E. Coverage of Highly-Cited Documents in Google Scholar, Web of Science, and Scopus: A Multidisciplinary Comparison. Scientometrics 2018 , 116 , 2175–2188. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Wu, C.-Y.; Hu, M.-C. The Development Trajectory and Technological Innovation Capabilities in the Global Renewable Energy Industry. In Proceedings of the 2015 Portland International Conference on Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), Portland, OR, USA, 2–6 August 2015; pp. 2574–2580. [ Google Scholar ]
• Malmedal, K.; Kroposki, B.; Sen, P.K. Energy Policy Act of 2005 and Its Impact on Renewable Energy Applications in USA. In Proceedings of the 2007 IEEE Power Engineering Society General Meeting, Tampa, FL, USA, 24–28 June 2007; pp. 1–8. [ Google Scholar ]
• Rosen, M. Sustainability: Concepts, Definitions, and Applications. In Building Sustainable Cities ; Alvarez-Risco, A.R.-A.-A., Ed.; Springer: Cham, Switzerland, 2020; pp. 15–26. [ Google Scholar ]
• Kabeyi, M.; Olanrewaju, O. Managing Sustainability in Electricity Generation ; IEEE: Piscataway, NJ, USA, 2021. [ Google Scholar ]
• Thrän, D.G. Energy Landscapes of Today and Tomorrow. Energy Sustain. Soc. 2020 , 10 , 43. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Lovering, J.; Swain, M.; Blomqvist, L.; Hernandez, R.R. Land-Use Intensity of Electricity Production and Tomorrow’s Energy Landscape. PLoS ONE 2022 , 17 , 0270155. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Hachem-Vermette, C. Mixed-Use Solar Neighborhoods. In Solar Buildings and Neighborhoods ; Springer: Cham, Switzerland, 2020; pp. 229–264. [ Google Scholar ]
• Boer, C.H. Local Power and Land Use: Spatial Implications for Local Energy Development. Energy Sustain. Soc. 2015 , 5 , 31. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Si, S.; Sun, W.; Wang, Y. A Decentralized Dispatch Model for Multiple Micro Energy Grids System Considering Renewable Energy Uncertainties and Energy Interactions. J. Renew. Sustain. Energy 2024 , 16 , 015301. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Della Valle, N.; Bertoldi, P. Promoting Energy Efficiency: Barriers, Societal Needs and Policies. Front. Energy Res. 2022 , 9 , 804091. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Silva, M.; Leal, V.; Oliveria, V.; Horta, I. A Scenario-Based Approach for Assessing the Energy Performance of Urban Development Pathways. Sustain. Cities Soc. 2018 , 40 , 372–382. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Trepci, E.; Maghelal, P.; Azar, E. Effect of Densification and Compactness on Urban Building Energy Consumption: Case of a Transit-Oriented Development in Dallas, TX. Sustain. Cities Soc. 2020 , 56 , 101987. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• O’Brien, W.; Kennedy, C.A. The Relationship between Net Energy Use and the Urban Density of Solar Building. Environ. Plan. 2010 , 37 , 1002–1021. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Amini, F.G. Electrical Energy Systems Resilience: A Comprehensive Review on Definitions, Challenges, Enhancements and Future Proceedings. IET Renew. Power Gener. 2023 , 17 , 1835–1858. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Hosseinzadeh-Bandbafha, H.; Aghaei, S.; Aghbashlo, M.; Kiehbadroudinezhad, M.; Gupta, V.K.; Mohammadi, P. Biodiesel Plants: Real-World Sustainability Analysis Using Environmental and Social Life Cycle Assessment. In Sustainable Biodiesel ; Academic Press: Cambridge, MA, USA, 2023; pp. 301–332. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Singh, S.; Ru, J. Accessibility, Affordability, and Efficiency of Clean Energy: A Review and Research Agenda. Environ. Sci. Pollut. Res. 2022 , 29 , 18333–18347. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Hoffacker, M.K.; Hernandez, R.R. Local Energy: Spatial Proximity of Energy Providers to Their Power Resources. Front. Sustain. 2020 , 1 , 585110. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Anvari-Moghaddam, A.; Mohammadi-Ivatloo, B.; Asadi, S.; Guldstrand Larsen, K.; Shahidehpour, M. Sustainable Energy Systems Planning, Integration, and Management. Appl. Sci. 2019 , 9 , 4451. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Anderson, K. Integrating the Value of Electricity Resilience in Energy Planning and Operations Decisions. IEEE Syst. J. 2021 , 15 , 204–214. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Tryndina, N.; An, J.; Varyash, I.; Litvishko, O.; Khomyakova, L.; Barykin, S.; Kalinina, O. Renewable Energy Incentives on the Road to Sustainable Development during Climate Change: A Review. Front. Environ. Sci. 2022 , 10 , 1016803. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Şengül, Ü.; Eren, M.; Eslamian Shiraz, S.; Gezder, V.; Şengül, A.B. Fuzzy TOPSIS Method for Ranking Renewable Energy Supply Systems in Turkey. Renew. Energy 2015 , 75 , 617–625. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Turney, A.; Fthenakis, V. Environmental Impacts from the Installation and Operation of Large-Scale Solar Power Plants. Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 2011 , 15 , 3261–3270. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Chen, C. Comparing the Energy Transitions in Germany and China: Synergies and Recommendations. Energy Rep. 2019 , 5 , 1249–1260. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Mehedi, T.; Gemechu, E.; Kumar, A. Life Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Energy Footprints of Utility-Scale Solar Energy Systems. Appl. Energy 2022 , 314 , 118918. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Kapila, S.; Oni, A.O.; Gemechu, E.D.; Kumar, A. Development of Net Energy Ratios and Life Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Large-Scale Mechanical Energy Storage Systems. Energy 2019 , 170 , 592–603. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Tran, T.; Egermann, M. Land-Use Implications of Energy Transition Pathways towards Decarbonisation—Comparing the Footprints of Vietnam, New Zealand and Finland. Energy Policy 2022 , 166 , 112951. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Rej, S.; Nag, B. Land and Clean Energy Trade-off:Estimating India’s Future Land Requirement to Fulfil INDC Commitment. Int. J. Energy Sect. Manag. 2021 , 15 , 1104–1121. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Hammond, G.; Howard, H.; Hanumant, R. Environmental and Resource Burdens Associated with Low Carbon, More Electric Transition Pathways to 2050: Footprint Components from Carbon Emissions and Land Use to Waste Arisings and Water Consumption. Glob. Transit. 2019 , 1 , 28–43. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Davidsson, S.; Höök, M.; Wall, G. A Review of Life Cycle Assessments on Wind Energy Systems. Int. J. Life Cycle Assess. 2012 , 17 , 729–742. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Wen, Y.; Bin Cai, B.; Xinxin Yang, X.; Yusheng Xue, Y. Quantitative Analysis of China’s Low-Carbon Energy Transition. Int. J. Electr. Power Energy Syst. 2020 , 119 , 105854. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Gul, E.; Baldinelli, G.; Bartocci, P. Energy Transition: Renewable Energy-Based Combined Heat and Power Optimization Model for Distributed Communities. Energies 2022 , 15 , 6740. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Saarinen, L.; Tokimatsi, K. Flexibility Metrics for Analysis of Power System Transition—A Case Study of Japan and Sweden. Renew. Energy 2021 , 170 , 764–772. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Olowosejeje, S. A Practical Approach for Increased Electrification, Lower Emissions and Lower Energy Costs in Africa. Sustain. Futur. 2020 , 2 , 100022. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Guo, Z. Power system flexibility quantitative evaluation based on improved universal generating function method: A case study of Zhangjiakou. Energy 2020 , 205 , 117963. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Lannoye, E.; Flynn, D.; O’Malley, M. Evaluation of Power System Flexibility. IEEE 2012 , 27 , 922–931. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Kraan, O. The Influence of the Energy Transition on the Significance of Key Energy Metrics. Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 2019 , 111 , 215–223. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Elkadeem, M.R.; Younes, A.; Sharshir, S.W.; Campana, P.E.; Wang, S. Sustainable Siting and Design Optimization of Hybrid Renewable Energy. Appl. Energy 2021 , 295 , 117071. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Heylen, E.; Deconinck, G.; Hertem, D. Review and Classification of Reliability Indicators for Power Systems with a High Share of Renewable Energy Sources. Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 2018 , 97 , 554–568. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Kontokosta, C.E.; Reina, V.J.; Bonczak, B. Energy Cost Burdens for Low-Income and Minority Households: Evidence From Energy Benchmarking and Audit Data in Five U.S. Cities J. Am. Plan. Assoc. 2019 , 86 , 89–105. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Lennon, B.; Dunphy, N.; Sanvicente, E. Community Acceptability and the Energy Transition: A Citizens’ Perspective. Energy Sustain. Soc. 2019 , 9 , 35. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• González, A.M.; Sandoval, H.; Acosta, P.; Henao, F. On the Acceptance and Sustainability of Renewable Energy Projects—A Systems Thinking Perspective. Sustainability 2016 , 8 , 1171. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Gulagi, A. Current Energy Policies and Possible Transition Scenarios Adopting Renewable Energy: A Case Study for Bangladesh. Renew. Energy 2020 , 155 , 899–920. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Abdin, Z.; Mérida, W. Hybrid Energy Systems for Off-Grid Power Supply and Hydrogen Production Based on Renewable Energy: A Techno-Economic Analysis. Energy Convers. Manag. 2019 , 196 , 1068–1079. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Simpson, J.; Loth, E.; Dykes, K. Cost of Valued Energy for Design of Renewable Energy Systems. Renew. Energy 2020 , 153 , 290–300. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Somoye, O.; Ozdeser, H.; Seraj, M. Modeling the Determinants of Renewable Energy Consumption in Nigeria: Evidence from Autoregressive Distributed Lagged in Error Correction Approach. Renew. Energy 2022 , 190 , 606–616. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Lui, G. Examining and Prioritizing the Effect of Sustainable Energy on the Job Market to Advance China’s Green Workforce. Heliyon 2023 , 9 , e22710. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Capellan-Perez, I.; Castro, C.; Gonzalez, L. Dynamic Energy Return on Energy Investment (EROI) and Material Requirements in Scenarios of Global Transition to Renewable Energies. Energy Strategy Rev. 2019 , 26 , 100399. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Tsai, C.; Beza, T.M.; Molla, E.M.; Kuo, C. Analysis and Sizing of Mini-Grid Hybrid Renewable Energy System for Islands. IEEE Access 2020 , 8 , 70013–70029. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• International Renewable Energy Agency. Renewable Energy Benefits: Measuring the Economics ; International Renewable Energy Agency: Masdar City, United Arab Emirates, 2016. [ Google Scholar ]
• Breetz, H.; Mildenberger, M.; Stokes, L. The Political Logics of Clean Energy Transitions. Bus. Politics 2018 , 20 , 492–522. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Laurentis, C.; Pearson, P.J.G. Policy-Relevant Insights for Regional Renewable Energy Deployment. Energy Sustain. Soc. 2021 , 11 , 19. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Bauwens, T. Explaining the Diversity of Motivations behind Community Renewable Energy. Energy Policy 2016 , 93 , 278–290. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Ahi, P.; Searcy, C.; Jaber, M. Energy-Related Performance Measures Employed in Sustainable Supply Chains: A Bibliometric Analysis. Sustain. Prod. Consum. 2016 , 7 , 2352–5509. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Engel-Cox, J.; Chapman, A. Accomplishments and Challenges of Metrics for Sustainable Energy, Population, and Economics as Illustrated through Three Countries. Front. Sustain. Energy Policy 2023 , 2 , 1203520. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Buytaert, V. Owards Integrated Sustainability Assessment for Energetic Use of Biomass: A State of the Art Evaluation of Assessment Tools. Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 2011 , 15 , 3918–3933. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Jumare, I.A.; Bhandari, R.; Zerga, A. Assessment of a Decentralized Gridconnected Photovoltaic (PV)/Wind/Biogas Hybrid Power System in Northern Nigeria. Energy Sustain. Soc. 2020 , 10 , 30. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Barlow, J.; Tapio, R.; Tarekegne, B. Advancing the State of Energy Equity Metrics. Electr. J. 2022 , 35 , 107208. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Niu, M.; Xu, N.Z.; Kong, X.; Ngin, H.T.; Ge, Y.Y.; Liu, J.S.; Liu, Y.T. Reliability Importance of Renewable Energy Sources to Overall Generating Systems. IEEE Access 2021 , 9 , 20450–20459. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Mahmudi, S. The Financial Metrics and Risk Management Tools in Supporting Renewable Energy Investment. International. J. Acad. Res. Bus. Soc. Sci. 2022 , 12 , 238–249. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Baker, E.; Goldstein, A.P.; Azevedo, I.M. A Perspective on Equity Implications of Net Zero Energy Systems. Energy Clim. Change 2021 , 2 , 100047. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Goyal, N.; Taeihagh, A.; Howlett, M. Whither Policy Innovation? Mapping Conceptual Engagement with Public Policy in Energy Transitions Research. Energy Res. Soc. Sci. 2022 , 89 , 102632. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Gatto, A.; Drago, C. When Renewable Energy, Empowerment, and Entrepreneurship Connect: Measuring Energy Policy Effectiveness in 230 Countries. Energy Res. Soc. Sci. 2021 , 78 , 101977. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Curran, M. Assessing Environmental Impacts of Biofuels Using Lifecycle-based Approaches. Manag. Environ. Qual. 2013 , 24 , 34–52. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]

Click here to enlarge figure

Share and Cite

Wehbi, H. Powering the Future: An Integrated Framework for Clean Renewable Energy Transition. Sustainability 2024 , 16 , 5594. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16135594

Wehbi H. Powering the Future: An Integrated Framework for Clean Renewable Energy Transition. Sustainability . 2024; 16(13):5594. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16135594

Wehbi, Hanan. 2024. "Powering the Future: An Integrated Framework for Clean Renewable Energy Transition" Sustainability 16, no. 13: 5594. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16135594

Article Metrics

Article access statistics, supplementary material.

ZIP-Document (ZIP, 248 KiB)

Further Information

Mdpi initiatives, follow mdpi.

Subscribe to receive issue release notifications and newsletters from MDPI journals

• Submit a Manuscript
• Advanced search

American Journal of Neuroradiology

Advanced Search

Does Long-term Surveillance Imaging Improve Survival in Patients Treated for Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma? A Systematic Review of the Current Evidence

• Find this author on Google Scholar
• Find this author on PubMed
• Search for this author on this site
• Info & Metrics

This article requires a subscription to view the full text. If you have a subscription you may use the login form below to view the article. Access to this article can also be purchased.

BACKGROUND: Long-term post-treatment surveillance imaging algorithms for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma are not standardized due to debates over optimal surveillance strategy and efficacy. Consequently, current guidelines do not provide long-term surveillance imaging recommendations beyond 6 months.

PURPOSE: We performed a systematic review to evaluate the impact of long-term imaging surveillance (i.e., imaging beyond 6 months following treatment completion) on survival in patients treated definitively for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

DATA SOURCES: A search was conducted on PubMed, Embase, Scopus, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, and Web of Science for English literature published between 2003 and 2024 evaluating the impact of long-term surveillance imaging on survival in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

STUDY SELECTION: 718 abstracts were screened and 9 5 underwent full-text review, with 2 articles meeting inclusion criteria. The Risk of Bias in Non-randomized Studies of Interventions assessment tool was used.

DATA ANALYSIS: A qualitative assessment without a pooled analysis was performed for the two studies meeting inclusion criteria.

DATA SYNTHESIS: No randomized prospective controlled trials were identified. Two retrospective two-arm studies were included comparing long-term surveillance imaging with clinical surveillance and were each rated as having moderate risk of bias. Each study included heterogeneous populations with variable risk profiles and imaging surveillance protocols. Both studies investigated the impact of long-term surveillance imaging on overall survival and came to a different conclusion with one study reporting a survival benefit for long-term surveillance imaging with FDG PET/CT in patients with stage III or IV disease or an oropharyngeal primary tumor and the other study demonstrating no survival benefit.

LIMITATIONS: Limited heterogeneous retrospective data available precludes definitive conclusions on the impact of long-term surveillance imaging in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

CONCLUSIONS: There is insufficient quality evidence regarding the impact of long-term surveillance imaging on survival in patients treated definitively for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. There is a lack of standardized definition of long-term surveillance, variable surveillance protocols, and inconsistencies in results reporting, underscoring the need for a prospective multi-center registry assessing outcomes.

ABBREVIATIONS: HNSCC = Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma; RT= radiotherapy; NCCN = National Comprehensive Cancer Network; MPC = metachronous primary cancer; CR = complete response; OS = overall survival; CRT = chemoradiotherapy; HPV = human papillomavirus; PFS = progression-free survival; CFU = clinical follow up; NI-RADS = Neck Imaging Reporting and Data System.

The authors declare no conflicts of interest related to the content of this article.

• © 2024 by American Journal of Neuroradiology

Log in using your username and password

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on American Journal of Neuroradiology.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Citation Manager Formats

• EndNote (tagged)
• EndNote 8 (xml)
• RefWorks Tagged
• Ref Manager

• Tweet Widget
• Facebook Like
• Google Plus One

Jump to section

Related articles.

• No related articles found.
• Google Scholar

Cited By...

• No citing articles found.

This article has not yet been cited by articles in journals that are participating in Crossref Cited-by Linking.

More in this TOC Section

• Endovascular Thrombectomy for Carotid Pseudo-occlusion in the Setting of Acute Ischemic Stroke: A Comparative Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
• Double stent-retriever technique for mechanical thrombectomy: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Similar Articles

The good, the bad, and the ugly: how counterfeiting is addressed in operations and supply chain management literature

• Published: 28 June 2024

Cite this article

• Raul Beal Partyka   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-7941-2152 1 ,
• Rafael Teixeira   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-7643-6084 2 ,
• Roger Augusto Luna   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-2827-4719 1 &
• Ely Laureano Paiva   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-1203-0584 1  

Explore all metrics

This article aims to identify counterfeiting state-of-the-art and expand the Operations and Supply chain Management (OSCM) field from the identified gaps and bottlenecks to understand the real-life phenomenon and critically evaluate the existing body of knowledge. This is a systematic literature review from 63 relevant articles identified from Scopus and Web of Science. This is a reflection exercise to identify gaps and bottlenecks to subsidy research opportunities. Clearly, the strategies for combating counterfeiting could be more reactive or proactive, for example, reactive in the purchasing/co-opting offenders and proactive by blockchain adoption and marketing communication with tips to identify fake products. Therefore, the results also identified some central aspects related to the evolution of counterfeiting studies in the OSCM field and relevant gaps. We provide theoretical evidence that an interesting and broad field exists to expand from the identified gaps and bottlenecks. We also present up-to-date, state-of-the-art literature on all the aspects and facets of counterfeiting.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price includes VAT (Russian Federation)

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Rent this article via DeepDyve

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Supply chain disruptions and resilience: a major review and future research agenda

The role of digitalization in business and management: a systematic literature review

Blockchain smart contracts: Applications, challenges, and future trends

Data availability.

The author confirms that all data generated or analyzed during this study are included in the article, including the Supplementary File.

Agrawal TK, Koehl L, Campagne C (2018) A secured tag for implementation of traceability in textile and clothing supply chain. Int J Adv Manuf Technol Int J Adv Manuf Technol 99:9–12. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-018-2638-x

Article   Google Scholar  

Amaral NB (2020) What can be done to address luxury counterfeiting? An integrative review of tactics and strategies. J Brand Manage Palgrave Macmillan UK 27(6):691–709. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41262-020-00206-6

Ames J, Souza DZ (2012) Counterfeiting of drugs in Brazil. Rev Saude Publica 46(1):154–159. https://doi.org/10.1590/S0034-89102012005000005

Berman B (2008) Strategies to detect and reduce counterfeiting activity. Bus Horiz 51(3):191–199. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2008.01.002

Bian X, Moutinho L (2011) Counterfeits and branded products: effects of counterfeit ownership. J Prod Brand Manage 20(5):379–393. https://doi.org/10.1108/10610421111157900

Böhle C, Hellingrath B, Deuter P (2014) Towards process reference models for secure supply chains. J Transp Secur 7(3):255–276. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12198-014-0142-6

Busby JS (2019) The co-evolution of competition and parasitism in the resource-based view: a risk model of product counterfeiting. Eur J Oper Res 276(1):300–313. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2018.12.039

Cataldo A, Grieco A, Prete A, Del, Cannazza G, Benedetto E, De (2016) Innovative method for traceability of hides throughout the leather manufacturing process. Int J Adv Manuf Technol Int J Adv Manuf Technol 86:9–12. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-016-8489-4

Cho SH, Fang X, Tayur S (2015) Combating strategic counterfeiters in licit and illicit supply chains. Manuf Service Oper Manage 17(3):273–289. https://doi.org/10.1287/msom.2015.0524

Choi TM, Feng L, Li R, Elsevier BV (2020) Vol. 221 No. July 2019, 107473, doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2019.08.008

Cole R, Stevenson M, Aitken J (2019) Blockchain technology: implications for operations and supply chain management. Supply Chain Manage 24(4):469–483. https://doi.org/10.1108/SCM-09-2018-0309

Cordell VV, Wongtada N, Kieschnick RL Jr. (1996) Counterfeit purchase intentions: role of lawfulness attitudes and product traits as determinants. J Bus Res 35(95):41–53. https://doi.org/10.1016/0148-2963(95)00009-7

Crettez B, Hayek N, Zaccour G (2018) Brand imitation: A dynamic-game approach, International Journal of Production Economics , Vol. 205 No. November, pp. 139–155, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2018.09.010

Danese P, Mocellin R, Romano P (2021) Designing blockchain systems to prevent counterfeiting in wine supply chains: a multiple-case study. Int J Oper Prod Manage 41:1–33. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOPM-12-2019-0781

Durach CF, Kembro JH, Wieland A (2021) How to advance theory through literature reviews in logistics and supply chain management. Int J Phys Distribution Logistics Manage ahead–of–p(No ahead–of–print). https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPDLM-11-2020-0381

Falasca M, Dellana S, Rowe WJ, Kros JF (2021) The impact of counterfeit risk management on healthcare supply chain performance: an empirical analysis. Int J Productivity Perform Manage. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPPM-08-2020-0426

Gao SY, Lim WS, Tang C (2017) The impact of the potential entry of copycats: Entry conditions, Consumer Welfare, and Social Welfare. Decis Sci 48(4):594–624. https://doi.org/10.1111/deci.12235

Garg P, Gupta B, Chauhan AK, Sivarajah U, Gupta S, Modgil S (2021) Measuring the perceived benefits of implementing blockchain technology in the banking sector, Technological Forecasting and Social Change , Elsevier Inc., Vol. 163 No. June 2020, p. 120407, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2020.120407

Ghadge A, Duck A, Er M, Caldwell N (2021) Deceptive counterfeit risk in global supply chains, Supply Chain Forum , Taylor & Francis, Vol. 22 No. 2, pp. 87–99, https://doi.org/10.1080/16258312.2021.1908844

Ghamat S, Pun H, Critchley G, Hou P (2021) Using intellectual property agreements in the presence of supplier and third-party copycatting, European Journal of Operational Research , Elsevier B.V., Lazaridis School of Business and Economics, Wilfrid Laurier University, 64 University Ave W, Waterloo, ON N2L 3C7, Canada, Vol. 291 No. 2, pp. 680–692, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2020.09.041

Gnezdova JV, Barilenko VI, Kozenkova TA, Chernyshev AV, Vasina NV (2018) evna. Food safety auditing in Russia in a climate of foreign sanctions and a policy of import substitution, Quality - Access to Success , Vol. 19 No. 167, pp. 155–158

Hoecht A, Trott P (2014) How should firms deal withcounterfeiting? A review of the success conditions of anti-counterfeiting strategies. Int J Emerg Markets 9(1):98–119

Itkis D, Daim T, Basoglu N (2009) Balancing efficiency and competitiveness in outsourcing decisions. Int J Serv Oper Manage 5(5):662–686. https://doi.org/10.1504/IJSOM.2009.025120

Jaeger SR, Worch T, Phelps T, Jin D, Cardello AV (2021) Effects of ‘craft’ vs. ‘traditional’ labels to beer consumers with different flavor preferences: a comprehensive multi-response approach. Food Qual Prefer 87(No May 2020). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodqual.2020.104043

Jæger B, Menebo MM, Upadhyay A (2021) Identification of environmental supply chain bottlenecks: a case study of the Ethiopian healthcare supply chain. Manage Environ Quality: Int J 32(6):1233–1254. https://doi.org/10.1108/MEQ-12-2019-0277

Kamenivskyy Y, Palisetti A, Hamze L, Saberi S (2022) A blockchain-based solution for COVID-19 vaccine distribution. IEEE Eng Manage Rev 50(1):43–53. https://doi.org/10.1109/EMR.2022.3145656

Kasuma J, Noor NM, Abdurahman AZA, Sawangchai A, Jemari MA (2020) The influence of information susceptibility and normative susceptibility on counterfeit manufacturing products purchase intention. Int J Supply Chain Manage 9(2):234–239

Google Scholar  

Kros JF, Falasca M, Dellana S, Rowe WJ (2020) Mitigating counterfeit risk in the supply chain: an empirical study. TQM J 32(5):983–1002. https://doi.org/10.1108/TQM-02-2019-0054

Kumar S, Dieveney E, Dieveney A (2009) Reverse logistic process control measures for the pharmaceutical industry supply chain. Int J Productivity Perform Manage 58(2):188–204. https://doi.org/10.1108/17410400910928761

Kwong KK, Yau OHM, Lee JSY, Sin LYM, Tse ACB (2003) The effects of Attitudinal and demographic factors on intention to Buy Pirated CDs: the case of Chinese consumers. J Bus Ethics 47(3):223–235. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1026269003472

Leng J, Jiang P, Xu K, Liu Q, Zhao JL, Bian Y, Shi R (2019) Makerchain: a blockchain with chemical signature for self-organizing process in social manufacturing. J Clean Prod 234:767–778. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.06.265

Li Z, Xu X, Bai Q, Guan X, Zeng K (2021) The interplay between blockchain adoption and channel selection in combating counterfeits, Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review , Vol. 155 No. December 2020, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tre.2021.102451

Lima FRP, Da de AL, Godinho Filho M, Dias EM (2018) Systematic review: resilience enablers to combat counterfeit medicines. Supply Chain Manage 23(2):117–135. https://doi.org/10.1108/SCM-04-2017-0155

Liu K, Li JA, Lai KK (2004) Single period, single product newsvendor model with random supply shock. Eur J Oper Res 158(3):609–625. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0377-2217(03)00382-5

Liu K, Li JA, Wu Y, Lai KK (2005) Analysis of monitoring and limiting of commercial cheating: a newsvendor model. J Oper Res Soc 56(7):844–854. https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jors.2601913

Liu F, Liu K, Xie XL (2016) Monitoring and limiting deceptive counterfeiting: a two-stage model. J Oper Res Soc China 4(3):265–308. Operations Research Society of China10.1007/s40305-016-0130-6

Lohne J, Kjesbu NE, Engebø A, Young B, Lædre O (2019) Scoping Literature Review of Crime in the AEC industry. J Constr Eng Manag 145(6):1–14. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001648

Longo F, Nicoletti L, Padovano A, d’Atri G, Forte M (2019) Blockchain-enabled supply chain: an experimental study. Computers Industrial Eng 136(No July):pp57–69. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cie.2019.07.026

Lu W, Jiang Y, Chen Z, Ji X (2022) Blockchain adoption in a supply chain system to combat counterfeiting, Computers and Industrial Engineering , Vol. 171 No. July, p. 108408, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cie.2022.108408

Machado SM, Paiva EL, da Silva EM (2018) Counterfeiting: addressing mitigation and resilience in supply chains. Int J Phys Distribution Logistics Manage 48(2):139–163. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPDLM-01-2017-0004

Manchanda M, Deb M, Lomo-David E (2021) Scrutinizing the efficacy of branded apps quality to counter counterfeiting and restore trust in m-commerce, Quality Management Journal , Taylor & Francis, Vol. 28 No. 3, pp. 156–174, https://doi.org/10.1080/10686967.2021.1920869

Minchin RE, Cui S, Walters RC, Issa R, Pan J (2013) Sino-american opinions and perceptions of counterfeiting in the Construction Supply Chain. J Constr Eng Manag 139(1):1–8

Naderpajouh N, Hastak M, Gokhale S, Bayraktar ME, Iyer A, Arif F (2015) Counterfeiting risk governance in the Capital projects Supply Chain. J Constr Eng Manag 141(3):1–12. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000943

O’Leary DE (2017) Configuring blockchain architectures for transaction information in blockchain consortiums: the case of accounting and supply chain systems. Intell Syst Acc Finance Manage 24(4):138–147. https://doi.org/10.1002/isaf.1417

OECD (2021) Global Trade in fakes: a worrying threat. OECD Publishing, Paris

Book   Google Scholar  

OECD (2022) Dangerous fakes: Trade in Counterfeit Goods that Pose Health, Safety and Environmental risks. OECD Publishing, Paris. https://doi.org/10.1787/117e352b-en

Pecht BM, Tiku S (2006) Bogus! IEEE Spectr 43(5):37–46

Pour PD, Nazzal MA, Darras BM (2022) The role of industry 4.0 technologies in overcoming pandemic challenges for the manufacturing sector. Concur Eng Res Appl 30(2):190–205. https://doi.org/10.1177/1063293X221082681

Pun H, Swaminathan JM, Hou P (2021) Blockchain Adoption for combating deceptive counterfeits. Prod Oper Manage 30(4):864–882. https://doi.org/10.1111/poms.13348

Qian Y (2008) Impacts of entry by counterfeiters. Quart J Econ 123(4):1577–1609. https://doi.org/10.1162/qjec.2008.123.4.1577

Qian Y, Gong Q, Chen Y (2015) Untangling searchable and experiential quality responses to counterfeits. Mark Sci 34(4):522–538. https://doi.org/10.1287/mksc.2014.0867

Rogerson M, Parry GC (2020) Blockchain: case studies in food supply chain visibility. Supply Chain Manage 25:601–614. https://doi.org/10.1108/SCM-08-2019-0300

Sandborn M, Olea C, White J, Williams C, Tarazaga PA, Sturm L, Albakri M et al (2021) Towards secure cyber-physical information association for parts, Journal of Manufacturing Systems , Vol. 59 No. October 2020, pp. 27–41, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmsy.2021.01.003

Scuderi A, Foti V, Timpanaro G (2019) The supply chain value of pod and pgi food products through the application of blockchain. Qual - Access Success 20(S2):580–587

Şerbancea F, Stănescu A, Lazăr V (2018) Ethics in Knowledge Management. Food Saf Manage 19(167):159–165

Shen B, Xu X, Yuan Q (2020) Selling secondhand products through an online platform with blockchain, Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review , Elsevier, Vol. 142 No. August, p. 102066, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tre.2020.102066

Shen B, Cheng M, Dong C, Xiao Y (2023) Battling counterfeit masks during the COVID-19 outbreak: quality inspection vs. blockchain adoption. Int J Prod Res 61(11):3634–3650. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207543.2021.1961038

Shi J, Zhou J, Zhu Q (2019) Barriers of a closed-loop cartridge remanufacturing supply chain for urban waste recovery governance in China. J Clean Prod 212:1544–1553. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.12.114

Shultz CJ, Saporito B (1996) Protecting intellectual property: strategies and recommendations to Deter Counterfeiting and Brand Piracy in Global Markets. Columbia J World Bus 31(1):18–28. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-5428(96)90003-4

Stevenson M, Busby J (2015) An exploratory analysis of counterfeiting strategies: towards counterfeit-resilient supply chains. Int J Oper Prod Manage 35(1):110–144. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOPM-04-2012-0174

Sun Z, Xu Q, Shi B (2022) Price and product quality decisions for a two-Echelon Supply Chain in the Blockchain era. Asia-Pac J Oper Res 39(1):1–31. https://doi.org/10.1142/S0217595921400169

Thaichon P, Quach S (2016) Dark motives-counterfeit purchase framework: Internal and external motives behind counterfeit purchase via digital platforms, Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services , Elsevier, Vol. 33, pp. 82–91, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2016.08.003

Ting SL, Tsang AHC (2014) Using social network analysis to combat counterfeiting. Int J Prod Res 52:4456–4468. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207543.2013.861947

Tranfield D, Denyer D, Smart P (2003) Towards a methodology for developing evidence-informed management knowledge by means of systematic review. Br J Manag 14(3):207–222. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.00375

Urciuoli L (2010) Supply chain security-mitigation measures and a logistics multi-layered framework. J Transp Secur 3(1):1–28. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12198-009-0034-3

Urciuoli L, Paulraj A, Näslund D (2013) The role of the law enforcement agencies in transport security, a survey with Swedish operators. Logistics Res 6(4):145–157. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12159-013-0102-8

Wagner L, Gürbüz M, Ҫagri, Parlar M (2019) Is it fake? Using potentially low quality suppliers as back-up when genuine suppliers are unavailable, International Journal of Production Economics , Vol. 213 No. August 2018, pp. 185–200, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2019.03.016

Wang L, Kowk SK, Ip WH (2012) A radio frequency identification-based quality evaluation system design for the wine industry. Int J Comput Integr Manuf 25(1):11–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/0951192X.2011.562542

Wang Y, Lin J, Choi TM (2020) Gray market and counterfeiting in supply chains: A review of the operations literature and implications to luxury industries, Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review , Vol. 133 No. November 2019, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tre.2019.101823

Webster J, Watson RT (2002) Analyzing the Past to Prepare for the Future: Writing a Literature Review. MIS Quarterly 26(2):xiii–xxiii. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4132319

Whittemore R, Knafl K (2005) The integrative review: updated methodology, Journal of Advanced Nursing , John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, Vol. 52 No. 5, pp. 546–553, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2648.2005.03621.x

Wyld DC, Jones MA (2007) RFID is no fake: the adoption of radio frequency identification technology in the pharmaceutical supply chain. Int J Integr Supply Manage 3(2):156–171. https://doi.org/10.1504/IJISM.2007.011974

Xie D, Zhu W, Zhao X, Xie J (2021) An experimental study on the sale of counterfeit products under monitoring policies, Journal of the Operational Research Society , Taylor & Francis, Vol. 72 No. 1, pp. 93–108, https://doi.org/10.1080/01605682.2019.1650623

Yi Z, Yu M, Cheung KL (2022) Impacts of counterfeiting on a global supply chain. Manuf Service Oper Manage 24(1):159–178. https://doi.org/10.1287/msom.2020.0912

Zhang J, Zhang RQ (2015) Supply chain structure in a market with deceptive counterfeits. Eur J Oper Res 240(1):84–97. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2014.06.041

Zhang J, Hong LJ, Zhang RQ (2012) Fighting strategies in a market with counterfeits. Ann Oper Res 192(1):49–66

Download references

This work was supported by the Coordination for the improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) and National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), foundations within The Brazilian Ministry of Education.

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Fundação Getulio Vargas’s Sao Paulo, School of Business Administration (FGV EAESP), 474 Itapeva St, 8th Floor, Bela Vista, São Paulo, 01332-000, SP, Brazil

Raul Beal Partyka, Roger Augusto Luna & Ely Laureano Paiva

Department of Supply Chain and Information Management, School of Business, College of Charleston, 66 George St, Beatty 334, Charleston, SC, 29424, USA

Rafael Teixeira

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Raul Beal Partyka .

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest.

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Publisher’s note.

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary Material 1

Rights and permissions.

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Partyka, R.B., Teixeira, R., Luna, R.A. et al. The good, the bad, and the ugly: how counterfeiting is addressed in operations and supply chain management literature. Manag Rev Q (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11301-024-00453-w

Download citation

Received : 18 July 2023

Accepted : 19 June 2024

Published : 28 June 2024

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s11301-024-00453-w

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Counterfeiting
• Operations management
• Supply chain management
• Find a journal
• Publish with us
• Track your research