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What is a Literature Review?

The scholarly conversation.

A literature review provides an overview of previous research on a topic that critically evaluates, classifies, and compares what has already been published on a particular topic. It allows the author to synthesize and place into context the research and scholarly literature relevant to the topic. It helps map the different approaches to a given question and reveals patterns. It forms the foundation for the author’s subsequent research and justifies the significance of the new investigation.

A literature review can be a short introductory section of a research article or a report or policy paper that focuses on recent research. Or, in the case of dissertations, theses, and review articles, it can be an extensive review of all relevant research.

• The format is usually a bibliographic essay; sources are briefly cited within the body of the essay, with full bibliographic citations at the end.
• The introduction should define the topic and set the context for the literature review. It will include the author's perspective or point of view on the topic, how they have defined the scope of the topic (including what's not included), and how the review will be organized. It can point out overall trends, conflicts in methodology or conclusions, and gaps in the research.
• In the body of the review, the author should organize the research into major topics and subtopics. These groupings may be by subject, (e.g., globalization of clothing manufacturing), type of research (e.g., case studies), methodology (e.g., qualitative), genre, chronology, or other common characteristics. Within these groups, the author can then discuss the merits of each article and analyze and compare the importance of each article to similar ones.
• The conclusion will summarize the main findings, make clear how this review of the literature supports (or not) the research to follow, and may point the direction for further research.
• The list of references will include full citations for all of the items mentioned in the literature review.

Key Questions for a Literature Review

A literature review should try to answer questions such as

• Who are the key researchers on this topic?
• What has been the focus of the research efforts so far and what is the current status?
• How have certain studies built on prior studies? Where are the connections? Are there new interpretations of the research?
• Have there been any controversies or debate about the research? Is there consensus? Are there any contradictions?
• Which areas have been identified as needing further research? Have any pathways been suggested?
• How will your topic uniquely contribute to this body of knowledge?
• Which methodologies have researchers used and which appear to be the most productive?
• What sources of information or data were identified that might be useful to you?
• How does your particular topic fit into the larger context of what has already been done?
• How has the research that has already been done help frame your current investigation ?

Examples of Literature Reviews

Example of a literature review at the beginning of an article: Forbes, C. C., Blanchard, C. M., Mummery, W. K., & Courneya, K. S. (2015, March). Prevalence and correlates of strength exercise among breast, prostate, and colorectal cancer survivors . Oncology Nursing Forum, 42(2), 118+. Retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com.sonoma.idm.oclc.org/ps/i.do?p=HRCA&sw=w&u=sonomacsu&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA422059606&asid=27e45873fddc413ac1bebbc129f7649c Example of a comprehensive review of the literature: Wilson, J. L. (2016). An exploration of bullying behaviours in nursing: a review of the literature.   British Journal Of Nursing ,  25 (6), 303-306. For additional examples, see:

Galvan, J., Galvan, M., & ProQuest. (2017). Writing literature reviews: A guide for students of the social and behavioral sciences (Seventh ed.). [Electronic book]

Pan, M., & Lopez, M. (2008). Preparing literature reviews: Qualitative and quantitative approaches (3rd ed.). Glendale, CA: Pyrczak Pub. [ Q180.55.E9 P36 2008]

Useful Links

• Write a Literature Review (UCSC)
• Literature Reviews (Purdue)
• Literature Reviews: overview (UNC)
• Review of Literature (UW-Madison)

Evidence Matrix for Literature Reviews

The  Evidence Matrix  can help you  organize your research  before writing your lit review.  Use it to  identify patterns  and commonalities in the articles you have found--similar methodologies ?  common  theoretical frameworks ? It helps you make sure that all your major concepts covered. It also helps you see how your research fits into the context  of the overall topic.

• Evidence Matrix Special thanks to Dr. Cindy Stearns, SSU Sociology Dept, for permission to use this Matrix as an example.
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Sociology Research Guide

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• Literature Reviews

What is a Lit Review?

How to write a lit review.

• Video Introduction to Lit Reviews

Main Objectives

Examples of lit reviews, additional resources.

• SOC1: Morales (Cultural Artifact)
• SOC4: Ie (Literature Review)

What is a literature review?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Your literature review should:

• Be focused on and organized around your topic.
• Synthesize your research into a summary of what is and is not known about your topic.
• Identify any gaps or areas of controversy in the literature related to your topic.
• Suggest questions that require further research.
• Have your voice and perspective at the forefront rather than merely summarizing others' work.
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• Literature Review Tutorials and Samples - Wilson Library at University of La Verne
• Literature Reviews: Introduction - University Library at Georgia State
• Literature Reviews - The Writing Center at UNC Chapel Hill
• Writing a Literature Review - Boston College Libraries
• Write a Literature Review - University Library at UC Santa Cruz
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Sociology: lit reviews.

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Literature Review

In a  literature review you explore research that has come before you and is relevant to your topic. It can help you identify:

• Core research in the field
• Experts in the subject area
• Methodology you may want to use (or avoid)
• Gaps in the literature -- or where your research would fit in

Helpful approaches:

• See what literature reviews already exist on your topic! Databases like Oxford Bibliographies Online: Sociology and Sociological Abstracts (limit the document type to literature review) can save you a lot of time. Also don’t forget the Annual Review of Sociology , and the Proquest Dissertations and Theses database; these in-depth pieces usually have comprehensive lists of references.
• Citation slogging (aka "snowballing") -- work your way back through citations (or footnotes) to key articles
• Forward citation -- see who has cited key articles using  Google Scholar  and  Web of Science Cited Reference Search  . ​

Writing Guidelines:

• Start with Writing for Sociology  from the UC Berkeley Sociology Department—it’s packed with great content!
• A great overview of the entire process from the Writing Center at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill
• A piece from the blog Everyday Sociology on “ How (and Why) to Write a Literature Review ”

Systematic Reviews

Systematic reviews are not the same as literature reviews; instead, they can be considered an extremely rigorous subset of literature reviews.  Generally, systematic reviews take a team of professionals and one to two years to complete, and they usually can't be done for avenues of research which are newly being explored (there needs to be an established body of literature to examine).  This makes them very helpful resources if they exist for your topic of interest!

You may wish to peruse UCSF's  Systematic Review Guide  for information.

If you do decide to do a systematic review, UC Berkeley licenses  Covidence , a tool to help you. In Covidence, you can  import citations ,  screen titles and abstracts ,  upload references ,  screen full text ,  create forms for critical appraisal ,  perform risk of bias tables ,  complete data extraction , and  export a PRISMA flowchart  summarizing your review process. As an institutional member, our users have priority access to Covidence support.   To access Covidence using the UC Berkeley institutional account ,  start at this page  and follow the instructions.

Great brief overview, from NCSU

Synthesizing the literature

Now That You Have All Those Articles, How Do You Synthesize Them?

Unlike the annotated bibliography, the literature review does not just summarize each article or book. Instead, they synthesize. Some researchers find it helpful to develop a framework, making a column for each element that they want to compare. The elements vary depending on the research, making it easier to understand the relationships between  all  the articles and how they relate to your research. Here's  one example !

How To Organize and Cite Your Research

Citation management tools  help you manage your research, collect and cite sources, and create bibliographies in a variety of citation styles.  Each one has its strengths and weaknesses, but any are easier than doing it by hand! The Library offers   workshops  on Endnote, Zotero, and Refworks. I'm also happy to help arrange a small group workshop, or one on one help with Zotero. 

For more information on the various tools available, and more on Zotero, see the "Managing Citations" tab in this guide!

Find Dissertations

Dissertations and Theses (Dissertation Abstracts) Full Text : indexes dissertations from over 1,000 North American, and selected European, graduate schools and universities from 1861 to the present. Full text for most of the dissertations added since 1997.

UC Berkeley dissertations : Search UC Library Search  by author. Also helpful to see dissertations written in your department which you can do by doing a subject search:

• subject:  university of california berkeley dept of psychology dissertations
• subject:  dissertations academic ucb psychology

Recent UC Berkeley dissertations are freely available online to anyone, anywhere with access to the internet. Also see  Find Dissertations and Theses  for other specialized sources.

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Sociology Course Guides: 10 Tips for Writing a Literature Review

• Introduction
• APA Citations
• SOC340/CHLS 350
• 10 Tips for Writing a Literature Review
• Library Program Assessment

1.   Check your assignment instructions - number of journals may vary by instructor. Make sure you know the number and type (Qualitative, Quantitative, Archival etc.) of journals needed to ensure you are fulfilling the first requirement for the assignment. Identify if you are using ASA or APA. HINT: Use Z otero (10 or more articles) or Citation Machine (10 or less articles) if you are using ASA.

2.   Don’t put the full title of the article in your paper- just refer to it as "this study" or "Research found" or "Studies on this issue". HINT: Check out the literature reviews of some of the articles you are reading as a perfect example of how to refer to your articles.

3.   Refer to authors by last name only - if it is multiple authors (ASA), for three authors , give all last names in the first citation in the text; in subsequent citations, use the first name and et al. For four or more authors , use the first author's last name plus et al. in all citations. For multiple authors (APA) Three to Five Authors : List all the authors in the signal phrase or in parentheses the first time you cite the source. Use the word "and" between the authors' names within the text and use the ampersand in parentheses. Six or More Authors : Use the first author's name followed by et al. in the signal phrase or in parentheses

4.   FOCUS on the meat of the article not their lit reviews: Findings, Discussion, Results….Avoid any sentences in the paper that cite someone else! use sentences written by the author you are reading. 

5.   References are in alphabetical order by last name of the first author starting with A- in text citations- do NOT re-order names of authors in a single article alphabetically.

6.   No personal stories - or really cool introductions- no OPINION and no arguing the “obvious” point of view- there is no BIAS in lit reviews

7.   Social Science D IRECT QUOTE= page number… If you are summarizing NO PAGE number needed for APA/ASA.

8.    Make sure that you are not neglecting key studies in the field. Make sure your sources are relevant both on topic and timeliness. ITS OK TO HAVE ARTICLES THAT DO NOT AGREE WITH YOU. Address them and see why they may not match the findings of other research (different population, different variables, different analysis etc.)  

9.   This is NOT a book report - you need to synthesize your articles- arrange them by concept or theme or similarities- differences- Some articles may be mentioned in more than one section. One section may only have one relevant article. don't forget to mention any limitations and future research that should be done on your topic! 

10. Grade yourself with the grade sheet given to you by your professor so you don't leave anything out!!!

For Additional Assistance....

• Make an Appointment with the Writing Center The Writing Center on campus can help you with the outline and organizing of articles - it is best if you have a rough draft or solid knowledge of what you want to write about!
• Writing Handouts (CSU Writing Center) These are great for reviewing grammar or help with different parts of the writing process.
• Write a Literature Review UC Santa Cruz

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How to use Scientific Articles in a Literature Review

Video explanations of a literature review, what is a literature review, types of literature reviews.

• Ten Simple Rules for Writing a Literature Review

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

- Taylor, D. (n.d). The literature review: A few tips on conducting it. Retrieved from  http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/advice/specific-types-of-writing/literature-review

What are the goals of creating a Literature Review?

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

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

What kinds of literature reviews are written?

Systematic review - "The authors of a systematic review use a specific procedure to search the research literature, select the studies to include in their review, and critically evaluate the studies they find." (p. 139)

- Nelson, L.K. (2013). Research in Communication Sciences and Disorders . San Diego, CA: Plural Publishing.

Meta-analysis - "Meta-analysis is a method of reviewing resarch findings in a quantitative fashion by transforming the data from individual studies into what is called an effect size and then pooling and analyzing this information. The basic goal in meta-analysis is to explain why different outcomes have occured in different studies." (p. 197)

-Roberts, M.C. & Ilardi, S.S. (2003). Handbook of Research Methods in Clinical Psychology . Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub.

Meta-synthesis - " Qualitative meta-synthesis is a type of qualitative study that uses as data the findings from other qualitative studies linked by the same or related topic." (p.312)

-Zimmer, L. (2006). Qualitative meta-synthesis: A question of dialoguing with texts. Journal of Advanced Nursing , 53 (3), 311-318. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2648.2006.03721.x

From University of Connecticut Library

Traditional or Narrative

• Provides background for understanding current knowledge
• Critiques, summarizes and draws conclusions from a body of knowledge
• Identifies gaps or inconsistencies to be filled or corrected through further research and study
• Helps to refine the topic and research question
• Carries the flaw of becoming less useful as more information becomes available
• Identifies, appraises and synthesizes available evidence in order to answer a specified research question
• Applies a more rigorous approach that details the time frame of selected literature and method of critique and analysis
• Uses explicit and well-defined methods in order to minimize bias and increase reliability
• Includes as comprehensive an amount of studies as possible that includes both published and unpublished findings, such as "grey literature"

Meta-Analysis

• Systematically locates, appraises and synthesizes data from a large body of findings using statistical analysis and techniques
• Similar to a systematic review in that it integrates the findings of a large body of knowledge
• Attempts to correct flaws of traditional or narrative reviews by allowing researchers to synthesize a greater amount of studies
• Integrates and draws conclusions on research findings and seeks to detect broad patterns and relationships between studies

Meta-Synthesis

• Attempts to bring together, juxtapose, re-analyze and combine findings from multiple qualitiative studies using non-statistical techniques
• Seeks to discover or provide new interpretations, conceptions or theoretical developments
• Combines multiple studies to identify common key themes and elements
• May use findings from phenomenological, grounded theory or ethnographic studies

Borenstein, M.H., Viggins, L.V. & Julian, P.T. (2009). Introduction to Meta-Analysis. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley

Cronin, P., Ryan, F. & Coughlan, M. (2008). Undertaking a literature review: A step-by-step approach . British Journal of Nursing, 17 (1), 38-43.

Glasziou, P. (2001). Systematic Reviews in Health Care : A Practical Guide. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Mays, C., Popay, N. & Jennie (2007).  Synthesising Qualitative and Quantitative Health Research : A Guide to Methods . Great Britain: Open University Press.

From Bow Valley College Library

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SOCIOL 495S: Sociology Honors Thesis Seminar

• Getting Started
• Writing Your Literature Review
• Finding Articles
• Finding General Data
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What is a Literature Review?

A literature review is a “critical analysis of a segment of a published body of knowledge through summary, classification, and comparison of prior research studies, reviews of literature, and theoretical articles” (University of Wisconsin Writing Center).

Do not confuse a literature review with an annotated bibliography.

Information for this page is taken from the Thompson Writing Program .

• The introduction should explain why you are writing the review (“so what/who cares?”) and make some central claims about the current state of the literature (e.g. trends, debates, gaps, etc.).
• Organize the body of the paper by common denominators among sources, such as methodologies, conclusions, philosophical approaches, or possibly chronology (assuming topical subsections)
• The conclusion should summarize significant contributions to the field, situate the reviewed literature in the larger context of the discipline, point out flaws or gaps in the research, and/or suggest future areas of study.

Lit Review Process

Literature Review Tutorial

Questions to Ask

• How are sources similar in terms of methodologies, philosophies, claims, choice and interpretation of evidence, reliability, etc.?
• How do they differ?
• Do you observe gaps in the research or areas that require further study?
• Do particular issues or problems stand out?
• Do you want to compare texts in general or hone in on a specific issue or question?
• Determine your purpose.Understanding the purpose and expectations of the prompt will help you place appropriate emphasis on analysis or summary.
• Keep track of sources by writing a brief summary for each.
• Consider making a table or chart to map how different sources relate to/contrast with one another.
• Consider the significance of each work to the field. The amount of space you dedicate to an individual source denotes its significance within the body of literature.
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Sociology: Writing a Literature Review

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What is a Literature Review?

The literature review surveys and evaluates the relevant and related scholarship on a particular area of research or issue. It summarizes and evaluates the discussions and debate surrounding the topic, noting limitations, interpretations and approaches that support and establish the significance of your argument, research or methodology.  

• Presents a justification for your paper/research: show how your work fills a gap, or fulfills a need that has been identified by other researchers in the field.
• Informs your methodology
• Provides data that can be used to test your theories or results.
• Helps generate a new theory.

• SAGE Research Methods Reviewing the Literature

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Literature Reviews (about this page)

Literature reviews/about this page:.

Literature reviews may be sections in a paper or full articles that categorized as literature reviews. This page on your course guide simply provides examples. For assignment clarification and details, always check with your instructor/professor to ensure you achieve the best outcome possible. I hope this helps gets you started!

Literature Review Guides

• Writing a Literature Review [Owl at Purdue website] 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). ... 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....

Video: Writing a Literature Review Section by SJSU King Library

Writing a Literature Review Section from SJSU King Library on Vimeo .

A key part of any research paper is the literature review section. Learn how to research, structure and write this important part of your project

• Learn How to Write a Review of Literature A succinct description of the literature review process from The Writing Center at The University of Wisconsin-Madison.
• Writing the Literature Review, Part I [Video]  In this YouTube video, David Taylor at the University of Maryland University College gives a practical, clear explanation of the process. The sound isn't high quality, but his presentation is. 5:22 minutes.
• Writing the Literature Review, Part 2 This YouTube video is a continuation of the one above. 7:40 minutes.
• How to Evaluate Journal Articles A list of questions to ask when evaluating an article for a literature review, written by Naomi Lederer at the Colorado State University Libraries.
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What is a Literature Review?

A literature review is an essential component of every research project. It requires “re-viewing” what credible scholars in the field have said, done, and found in order to help you:

• Identify what is currently known in your area of interest
• Establish an empirical/ theoretical/ foundation for your research
• Identify potential gaps in knowledge that you might fill
• Develop viable research questions and hypotheses
• Determine appropriate methodologies
• Decide upon the scope of your research
• Demonstrate the importance of your research to the field
• VCU Libraries Guide: How to Write a Literature Review

Helpful Tools for Literature Reviews

• Academic Phrasebank Examples of common phrases used in literature reviews and reports of research findings. The items in the Academic Phrasebank are mostly content neutral and generic in nature; in using them, therefore, you are not stealing other people’s ideas and this does not constitute plagiarism.
• How to Read a Journal Article Tips and tricks to make reading and understanding social science journal articles easier from ICPSR.

As you read, you'll encounter various ideas, disagreements, methods, and perspectives which can be hard to organize in a meaningful way. Because you'll be reading a number of resources, a synthesis matrix helps you record the main points of each source and document how sources relate to each other.

• Writing a Literature Review & Using a Synthesis Matrix
• Excel Matrix Customize columns to fit your needs
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About Literature Reviews

Resources: how to write a literature review, templates for organizing your notes.

• Cite Sources
• Get Help This link opens in a new window

A Literature Review...

A literature review discusses published information in a particular subject area. A literature review combines summary and synthesis of research on a particular topic and is an examination and interpretation of the existing scholarly literature on that topic. It can be thought of as a summary of the answers to your research question. Some of the following questions may help as you evaluate the literature on your topic:

• What are the major themes in the existing research on your topic?
• Are there any debates in the literature, such that scholars taking opposing sides in their research?
• Are there any gaps in the extant literature, such that there are questions that are not sufficiently answered?
• What is the state of the research on this topic and how does it all fit together?

How to write a literature review

• Literature reviews (The Writing Center at UNC-Chapel Hill)
• Literature Reviews (OWL Purdue)
• The Literature Review (USC)
• Research Prospectus
• The Literature Review: Six Steps to Success

Samples -  Literature Review

• Search for Literature Reviews (Find Good Models)

Because literature reviews convey so much information in a condensed space, it is crucial to organize your review in a way that helps readers make sense of the studies you are reporting on. Two common approaches to literature reviews are chronological —ordering studies from oldest to most recent—and topical —grouping studies by subject or theme.

How are you going to organize the literature?

• Organizing Your Sources
• Topical grouping studies by subject or theme
• Chronological ordering studies from oldest to most recent
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• Last Updated: Aug 1, 2024 10:11 PM
• URL: https://libguides.lmu.edu/sociology

Penn State University Libraries

Soc 001: introductory sociology.

• Literature Reviews: Strategies for Writing
• Fake News and Evaluating Sources

Literature Reviews

What is a Literature Review? The literature review is a critical look at the existing research that is significant to the work that you are carrying out. This overview identifies prominent research trends in addition to assessing the overall strengths and weaknesses of the existing research.

Purpose of the Literature Review

• To provide background information about a research topic.
• To establish the importance of a topic.
• To demonstrate familiarity with a topic/problem.
• To “carve out a space” for further work and allow you to position yourself in a scholarly conversation.

Characteristics of an effective literature review In addition to fulfilling the purposes outlined above, an effective literature review provides a critical overview of existing research by

• Outlining important research trends.
• Assessing strengths and weaknesses (of individual studies as well the existing research as a whole).
• Identifying potential gaps in knowledge.
• Establishing a need for current and/or future research projects.

Steps of the Literature Review Process

1) Planning: identify the focus, type, scope and discipline of the review you intend to write. 2) Reading and Research: collect and read current research on your topic. Select only those sources that are most relevant to your project. 3) Analyzing: summarize, synthesize, critique, and compare your sources in order to assess the field of research as a whole. 4) Drafting: develop a thesis or claim to make about the existing research and decide how to organize your material. 5) Revising: revise and finalize the structural, stylistic, and grammatical issues of your paper.

This process is not always a linear process; depending on the size and scope of your literature review, you may find yourself returning to some of these steps repeatedly as you continue to focus your project.

These steps adapted from the full workshop offered by the Graduate Writing Center at Penn State. 

Literature Review Format

 Introduction

• Provide an overview of the topic, theme, or issue.
• Identify your specific area of focus.
• Describe your methodology and rationale. How did you decide which sources to include and which to exclude? Why? How is your review organized?
• Briefly discuss the overall trends in the published scholarship in this area.
•  Establish your reason for writing the review.
•  Find the best organizational method for your review.
•  Summarize sources by providing the most relevant information.
•  Respectfully and objectively critique and evaluate the studies.
•  Use direct quotations sparingly and only if appropriate.

 Conclusion

•  Summarize the major findings of the sources that you reviewed, remembering to keep the focus on your topic.
•  Evaluate the current state of scholarship in this area (ex. flaws or gaps in the research, inconsistencies in findings) 
•  Identify any areas for further research.
•  Conclude by making a connection between your topic and some larger area of study such as the discipline. 
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• Last Updated: Oct 20, 2023 10:48 AM
• URL: https://guides.libraries.psu.edu/shenangosoc001

How to Write a Literature Review - A Self-Guided Tutorial

• Literature Reviews: A Recap
• Reading Journal Articles
• Does it describe a Literature Review?
• 1. Identify the question
• 2. Review discipline styles
• Searching article databases - video
• Finding the article full-text
• Citation trails
• When to stop searching
• Citation Managers
• 5. Critically analyze and evaluate
• 6. Synthesize
• 7. Write literature review
• Additional Resources

You can meet with a librarian to talk about your literature review, or other library-related topics.

Review discipline styles

Each discipline has its own style for writing a literature review; social science lit reviews may look different than those from the biological sciences or engineering. Depending on the discipline, it might not be in a section specifically entitled "literature review."

The best way to become familiar with lit reviews in your field of study is to look at published journal articles and note how they present the information.

Here are a few examples of articles which contain a literature review section of the article. The Sawesi et al. article is a systematic review article . Click on the links at the end of each citation to view the article.

Science examples:

• Gibau, G. S. (2015). Considering Student Voices: Examining the Experiences of Underrepresented Students in Intervention Programs. CBE Life Sciences Education, 14 (3). http://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.14-06-0103
• León, D., Arzola, N., & Tovar, A. (2015). Statistical analysis of the influence of tooth geometry in the performance of a harmonic drive. Journal of the Brazilian Society of Mechanical Sciences and Engineering, 37 (2), 723-735. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s40430-014-0197-0

Health Sciences examples:

• Mosher, C. E., Given, B. A., & Ostroff, J. S. (2015). Barriers to mental health service use among distressed family caregivers of lung cancer patients. European Journal of Cancer Care, 24(1), 50–59. http://doi.org/10.1111/ecc.12203
• Sawesi, S., Rashrash, M., Phalakornkule, K., Carpenter, J. S., & Jones, J. F. (2016). The Impact of Information Technology on Patient Engagement and Health Behavior Change: A Systematic Review of the Literature. JMIR Medical Informatics, 4 (1), e1. http://doi.org/10.2196/medinform.4514

Arts & Humanities examples:

• Grüne-Yanoff, T., & Weirich, P. (2010). The philosophy and epistemology of simulation: A review.  Simulation & Gaming ,  41 (1), 20-50.  https://doi.org/10.1177/1046878109353470

Social Sciences examples:

• Han, K. T., Scull, W. R., & Harbour, C. P. (2021). Listening to counternarratives of faculty of color: Studying rural racism in one of most conservative communities in America. The Urban Review, 53 , 470-490.  https://doi.org/10.1007/s11256-020-00576-w  
• Latapí Agudelo, M. A., Jóhannsdóttir, L., & Davídsdóttir, B. (2019). A literature review of the history and evolution of corporate social responsibility.  International Journal of Corporate Social Responsibility ,  4 (1), 1-23.  https://doi.org/10.1186/s40991-018-0039-y
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• Next: 3. Search the literature >>
• Last Updated: Aug 16, 2024 10:53 AM
• URL: https://libguides.ucmerced.edu/literature-review

• UConn Library
• Sociology Subject Guide
• Write a Literature Review

Sociology Subject Guide — Write a Literature Review

• Navigating & Using the Library Homepage
• Recommended Databases
• Finding Books
• Selecting a Topic
• Citing Sources
• OER at UConn — Sociology
• Preliminary Research
• Where to Find Articles?
• Last Updated: Aug 2, 2024 3:39 PM
• URL: https://guides.lib.uconn.edu/soci

• Brandeis Library
• Research Guides

Doing a Literature Review in Sociology

• Organizing: Getting Ready to Write
• Searching: Early in the Process

Organizing Your Personal Library

Use transitional words and phrases.

As Wendy said, the search strategies are the same at this stage, but hopefully, not quite as time-consuming as earlier stages. You should only need to do a few searches to follow up on on what’s most relevant.

What’s arguably more important at this stage is organizing your personal library and making sure it’s ready for your drafting process.This is why citation management tools like Zotero and EndNote are so important. You don’t want to create all your references at the end. Ideally, you build your library as you go. When you sit down to write, you can quickly and easily access your references to create citations.

• Brandeis Library guide to Zotero:  http://guides.library.brandeis.edu/zotero
• Brandeis Library guide to EndNote:  http://guides.library.brandeis.edu/EndNote
• Transitional Words and Phrases Transitional words and phrases clue the reader in to the logic of your paper, and can help you to organize sources in your literature review. This list from the Writing Center at UW Madison helps you to choose the right transition.
• << Previous: Searching: Early in the Process
• Last Updated: Mar 19, 2024 1:25 PM
• URL: https://guides.library.brandeis.edu/soclitreviews

Workshop: Literature Reviews- What you need to know

• How to write a literature review

Useful Titles for All of your Boxes

The Seven Steps to Producing a Literature Review:

1. Identify your question

2. Review discipline style

3. Search the literature

4. Manage your references

5. Critically analyze and evaluate

6. Synthisize

7. Write the review

• University of North Carolina Writing Center "How To" UNC Chapel Hill Writing Center "How To" on writing a literature review.
• Purdue Owl Purdue Owl help on writing a literature review

Feedback and Additional Information

• Library Workshop Evaluation Brief survey for workshop participants. Your feedback is greatly appreciated.
• TTU Library Workshops Additional information about TTU Library Workshops. All workshops are taught by Personal Librarians in Instruction Lab 150 unless otherwise noted.
• Last Updated: Aug 19, 2024 10:48 AM
• URL: https://guides.library.ttu.edu/litreview

Sociology Library Guide: How To Do A Literature Review

• Databases & Journals for Sociology
• Newspaper archives
• Research & Writing Skills
• Free interdisciplinary online books
• Referencing
• Finding Seminal Authors and Mapping the Shape of the Literature
• Systematic Reviews in the Social Sciences: A Practical Guide
• Search template
• Tracking Your Academic Footprint This link opens in a new window
• Other Resources
• Last Updated: Apr 15, 2024 8:49 AM
• URL: https://libguides.lib.uct.ac.za/sociology