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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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Useful resources on literature or systematic reviews

What is a literature review.

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• Griffith school of environment - systematic quantitative literature review Developed by the school of environment at Griffith University for environmental science students, this resource shows how to systematically search the literature using online databases; save and manage the information and quantify the current status of the literature.
• Systematic searching for environmental evidence using multiple tools and sources Environmental evidence - the official journal of the collaboration for environmental evidence, 2017, 6(23). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13750-017-0099-6
• Guidelines for systematic reviews in environmental management Collaboration for environmental evidence. 2013. Guidelines for systematic review and evidence synthesis in environmental management. Version 4.2. http://environmentalevidence.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Review-guidelinesversion-4.2-finalPRINT.pdf
• GEOS6001 qualitative research and literature reviews Slides prepared by Tiffany Morrison for GEOS6001 research philosophy, design & implementation 11/03/2014
• Literature reviews guide How to search for, store, organise, evaluate and critique information for your literature review. Includes techniques, books, articles and more to help you do your literature review.
• Systematic reviews guide

A literature review is a critical assessment of the literature pertaining to a particular topic or subject.  It is a 'systematic, explicit, and reproducible method for identifying, evaluating and synthesising the existing body of completed and recorded work produced by researchers, scholars, and practitioners'  Fink, (2005).

What's its purpose?

• justify your research
• provide context for your research
• identify new ways, to interpret and highlight gaps in previous research
• ensure that the research has not been done before
• signpost a way forward for further research
• show where the research fits into the existing literature
• highlight flaws in previous research
• UQ Student Support - writing a literature review A guide to the process of planning and writing a literature review.
• Annotated bibliography A useful guide on how to write entries for your annotated bibliography, from UQ Student Support
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Geography: Literature Reviews

Specialized literature review resources.

• Google Scholar Use the advanced search feature to limit by publication date, journal, author, discipline; use the "cited by" and "related articles" feature to connect to other scholars

Selected books on literature reviews

Search the UW-only catalog by the following subjects to find books on Geography lit reviews and research methods:

Geography -- Methodology Human Geography -- Methodology Qualitative Research Methodology Quantitative Research Methodology Social Sciences -- Research -- Methodology

Strategies for Reading & Evaluating Scholarly Literature

These resources from the Bothell Campus Library can help you make informed decisions about which articles to include in your literature review and why.

• Strategies for reading academic articles From UW Bothell /Cascadia CC Campus Library
• Characteristics of Scholarly Sources From UW Bothell/Cascadia CC Campus Library
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ImagesLitReviews

Help for those preparing a literature review.

The following resources give tips on how to prepare a review of the literature -- an important step in a research project because it helps clarify what's already known about a topic. For additional help, please contact us.

• Literature Reviews Descriptive overview of the process of writing a literature review. A light, breezy style makes it easy to read while covering the topic in-depth. Writing Center, Univ. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• Write a Literature Review A concise overview of a literature review's components and purpose; Univ. Libraries, Univ. of Southern California, Santa Cruz

Literature Reviews: An Overview for Graduate Students

(9:38) Addresses the function and utility of reviews of the scholarly literature as well as the process of preparing a literature review. North Carolina State Univ. Libraries

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What is a literature review, what should a literature review include, how is a literature review organized, how much time does it take to write a literature review.

• Types of Literature
• Searching the Literature: Books
• Searching the Literature: Online Sources
• Creating Figures and Tables
• Citing Sources

A literature review surveys scholarly articles, books and other sources relevant to a particular subject. It provides a description, summary, and critical evaluation of each source. Thus, the purpose of a literature review is to provide an overview of significant literature published on a particular topic. A literature review is not just a simple summary of the sources though - it should have an organizational pattern and a combination of both summary and synthesis.

Main Objectives of a Literature Review

• Surveys the literature on a particular topic
• Synthesizes the information in that literature into a summary
• Critically analyzes the information gathered
• Presents the literature in an organized way

A literature review should include:

• An overview of the subject, issue or theory under consideration, along with the objectives of the literature review
• Division of the sources into categories (see below)
• Explanation of how each source is similar to one another and how it varies from the others
• Conclusions as to which sources 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

A literature review must contain at least three basic elements: an introduction or background information section, the body of the review containing the discussion of sources, and a conclusion and/or recommendations section to end the paper.

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

Organizing the body

Create a thematic organizational method to focus this section:

• Organize your sources around themes, theoretical concepts, and topics. Literature reviews organized thematically should have subtopics based upon factors that relate to the theme or issue.
• General characteristics and distinctive features (geography, length, width, elevation, topography, cultural significance, resource importance, notable or notorious)
• Plate tectonic setting
• Major structural features and description of general style of deformation
• Age and timing of formation of the major structural features in relation to plate tectonics 

A literature review, particularly one of this length (15-20 pages), takes months  to complete. To avoid leaving the assignment to the last minute (or the last few days) at the expense of the quality of your work, develop a timeline with specific milestones for each stage of the literature review process. These stages are:

• Planning : Identify the focus, type, and scope of the review you intend to write.
• Reading and research : Collect and read research on your topic. Select only those sources that are most relevant to your paper.
• Analyzing : Summarize, synthesize, critique, and compare your sources in order to assess the field of research as a whole.
• Drafting : Develop a thesis and decide how to organize your material.
• Revising : Revise and refine the structural, stylistic, and grammatical issues of your paper.
• Redrafting : The first draft is a coherent, but not perfect, document. Be prepared to redraft and revise multiple times throughout this process.
• Revising : Your final draft should be coherent, free of spelling and grammatical errors, complete with references and figures, and properly formatted.

If you want to write a high quality literature review, a timeline with specific milestones is essential, so set a due date for each stage of the process. Having a date planned and written down will help you stay on track for each stage and reduce feeling overwhelmed when writing.

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The A level independent investigation literature review

The literature review is an important part of your independent investigation; this unit takes you through how to structure it, and think through using the review to best effect.

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• What is a Literature Review? | Guide, Template, & Examples

What is a Literature Review? | Guide, Template, & Examples

Published on 22 February 2022 by Shona McCombes . Revised on 7 June 2022.

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.

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 summarise sources – it analyses, synthesises, and critically evaluates to give a clear picture of the state of knowledge on the subject.

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Table of contents

Why write a literature review, examples of literature reviews, step 1: search for relevant literature, step 2: evaluate and select sources, step 3: identify themes, debates and gaps, step 4: outline your literature review’s structure, step 5: write your literature review, frequently asked questions about literature reviews, introduction.

• Quick Run-through
• Step 1 & 2

When you write a dissertation or thesis, you will 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 scholarly context
• Develop a theoretical framework and methodology for your research
• Position yourself in relation to other researchers and theorists
• Show how your dissertation addresses a gap or contributes to a debate

You might also have to write a literature review as a stand-alone assignment. In this case, the purpose is to evaluate the current state of research and demonstrate your knowledge of scholarly debates around a topic.

The content will look slightly different in each case, but the process of conducting a literature review follows the same steps. We’ve written a step-by-step guide that you can follow below.

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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 objectives and questions .

If you are writing a literature review as a stand-alone assignment, you will have to choose a focus and develop a central question to direct your search. Unlike a dissertation research question, this question has to be answerable without collecting original data. You should be able to answer it based only on a review of existing publications.

Make a list of keywords

Start by creating a list of keywords related to your research topic. 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 if 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 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 use boolean operators to help narrow down your search:

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.

To identify the most important publications on your topic, take note of recurring citations. If the same authors, books or articles keep appearing in your reading, make sure to seek them out.

You probably won’t be able to read absolutely everything that has been written on the topic – you’ll have to evaluate which sources are most relevant to your questions.

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?
• How does the publication contribute to your understanding of the topic? What are its key insights and arguments?
• 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 find out how many times an article has been cited on Google Scholar – a high citation count means the article has been influential in the field, and should certainly be included in your literature review.

The scope of your review will depend on your topic and discipline: in the sciences you usually only review recent literature, but in the humanities you might take a long historical perspective (for example, to trace how a concept has changed in meaning over time).

Remember that you can use our template to summarise and evaluate sources you’re thinking about using!

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’s important to keep track of your sources with references to avoid plagiarism . It can be helpful to make an annotated bibliography, where you compile full reference 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.

You can use our free APA Reference Generator for quick, correct, consistent citations.

Prevent plagiarism, run a free check.

To begin organising your literature review’s argument and structure, you need to 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 organising the body of a literature review. You should have a rough idea of your strategy before you start writing.

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 summarising sources in order.

Try to analyse 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 organise 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.

If you are writing the literature review as part of your dissertation or thesis, reiterate your central problem or research question and give a brief summary of the scholarly context. You can emphasise the timeliness of the topic (“many recent studies have focused on the problem of x”) or highlight a gap in the literature (“while there has been much research on x, few researchers have taken y into consideration”).

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, make sure to follow these tips:

• Summarise and synthesise: give an overview of the main points of each source and combine them into a coherent whole.
• Analyse and interpret: don’t just paraphrase other researchers – add your own interpretations, 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 transitions and topic sentences to draw connections, comparisons and contrasts.

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

If the literature review is part of your dissertation or thesis, reiterate how your research addresses gaps and contributes new knowledge, or discuss how you have drawn on existing theories and methods to build a framework for your research. This can lead directly into your methodology section.

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 dissertation , thesis, research paper , or proposal .

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

• To familiarise 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  dissertation . After the introduction , it grounds your research in a scholarly field and leads directly to your theoretical framework or methodology .

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 Reference Generator.

McCombes, S. (2022, June 07). What is a Literature Review? | Guide, Template, & Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved 1 April 2024, from https://www.scribbr.co.uk/thesis-dissertation/literature-review/

Is this article helpful?

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What is a literature review?

A literature review discusses published information in a particular subject area, and sometimes information in a particular subject area within a certain time period.

A literature review can be just a simple summary of the sources, but it usually has an organizational pattern and combines both summary and synthesis. A summary is a recap of the important information of the source, but a synthesis is a re-organization, or a reshuffling, of that information. It might give a new interpretation of old material or combine new with old interpretations. Or it might trace the intellectual progression of the field, including major debates. And depending on the situation, the literature review may evaluate the sources and advise the reader on the most pertinent or relevant.

But how is a literature review different from an academic research paper?

The main focus of an academic research paper is to develop a new argument, and a research paper is likely to contain a literature review as one of its parts. In a research paper, you use the literature as a foundation and as support for a new insight that you contribute. The focus of a literature review, however, is to summarize and synthesize the arguments and ideas of others without adding new contributions.

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Writing Center

https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/literature-reviews/

A literature review is an explanation of what has been published on a subject by recognized researchers. Occasionally you will be asked to write one as a separate assignment (sometimes in the form of an annotated bibliography, but more often it is part of the introduction to a   research report, essay, thesis or dissertation.)

A literature review can be just a simple summary of the sources, but it usually has an organizational pattern and combines both summary and synthesis. A summary is a recap of the important information of the source, but a synthesis is a re-organization, or a reshuffling, of that information

Critical literature reviews help to write your literature review more effectively: A literature review must do these things: a. be organized around and related directly to the thesis or research question you are developing b. synthesize results into a summary of what is and is not known c. identify areas of controversy in the literature d. formulate questions that need further research Before writing literature review ask yourself questions like these:

1. What is the specific thesis, problem, or research question that my review of literature helps to define?

2. What type of literature review am I conducting? Am I looking at issues of theory? methodology? policy? quantitative research (e.g. on the effectiveness of a new procedure)? qualitative research (e.g., studies )?

3. What is the scope of my literature review? What types of publications am I using (e.g., journals, books, government documents, popular media)? What discipline am I working in (e.g., management , organizational behavior, 

marketing)?

4. How good was my information seeking? Has my search been wide enough to ensure I've found all the relevant material? Has it been narrow enough to exclude irrelevant material? Is the number of sources I've used appropriate for the length of my paper?

5. Have I critically analyzed the literature I use? Do I follow through a set of concepts and questions, comparing items to each other in the ways they deal with them? Instead of just listing and summarizing items, do I assess them, discussing strengths and weaknesses?

6. Have I cited and discussed studies contrary to my perspective?

7. Will the reader find my literature review relevant, appropriate, and useful?

Tips on writing a literature review (Hart 1998)

Lit Review Tips

Search for the most recent articles that deal with your topic; many of them will summarize the prior literature in the area, saving you valuable time. Remember to attribute even if you paraphrase!

Literature reviews can be overwhelming. You can't find everything. Just find the literature that gets discussed the most or is most relevant to your topic.

The goal of the literature review is to show that you understand the 'bigger picture' and can put your research and recommendations in context of others working in the field.

Need help writing a literature review?

Writing Literature Reviews : A Guide for Students of the Social and Behavioral Sciences by Jose L. Galvan.

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H 61.8 G34 2014

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GEOG_GEOL4120: Introduction to Research: Literature Review

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This is an excellent video from NC State on the processes involved in a literature review.   It is a little lengthy, but worth watching! 

Here are some titles from the Zach S Henderson Library catalog to help guide you as you write your Literature Review and Research Proposal.

What is a review of the literature?

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 (sometimes in the form of an annotated bibliography), but more often it is part of the introduction to an essay, research report and/or proposal, or thesis. In writing the literature review, your purpose is to convey to your reader what knowledge and ideas have been established on a topic, and what their strengths and weaknesses are. As a piece of writing, the literature review must be defined by a guiding concept (e.g., your research objective, the problem or issue you are discussing, or your argumentative thesis). It is not just a descriptive list of the material available, or a set of summaries.

* Written by Dena Taylor, Health Sciences Writing Centre   (University of Toronto)

What a Literature Review is NOT:

A literature review is a piece of discursive prose, not a list describing or summarizing one piece of literature after another. It's usually a bad sign to see every paragraph beginning with the name of a researcher.

Instead, organize the literature review into sections that present themes or identify trends , including relevant theory. You are not trying to list all the material published, but to synthesize and evaluate it according to the guiding concept of your thesis or research question .  (Taylor, D.)

Step 1: Search the Literature

Use a variety of sources: books, articles, conference proceedings, government reports, thesis and dissertations, etc!  Do NOT rely solely on electronic full-text material (which is readily available).  Reference resources, such as dictionaries, may be useful in defining key terminology, and encyclopedic sources may provide a good introduction in to specific areas of the topic. 

The MOST IMPORTANT PART of this step is to REVIEW and ANALYZE the literature you collect!  The review process is ongoing - you may need to go back to locate additional materials as you identify new ideas to see if others have written on similar topics.

During the review, you can begin to notice patterns in the literature, and to separate your findings in to different categories. 

Step 2: Write the Review

Remember, a literature review is NOT simply a list of the resources with a summary of each one!

You can organize the review in many ways; for example, you can center the review historically (how this topic has been dealt with over time); or center it on the theoretical positions surrounding your topic (those for a position vs. those against, for example); or you can focus on how each of your sources contributes to your understanding of your project.

Reviewing the Literature is an Adventure!

Remember! All you have to find is two or three really strong sources, and then let those sources lead you to others!

• If you don't know how to find a source from the citation in a reference, please ASK! I'll be happy to walk you through the process!
• Be sure to use that " Cited By " or " Times Cited in this Database " feature of the database. This will lead you to Newer additional sources!
• You can also use the " Find Similar " or " See Related " articles feature! 

Exploring the research in a field is exciting and may lead you to an area of research you never imagined!

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What is a Literature Review?

A Literature Review Is Not:

• just a summary of sources
• a grouping of broad, unrelated sources
• a compilation of everything that has been written on a particular topic
• literature criticism (think English) or a book review

So, what is it then?

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

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

Why is it important?

A literature review is important because it:

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

Literature Review Tutorial

1. choose a topic. define your research question..

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

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

2. Decide on the scope of your review.

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

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

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

Make a list of the databases you will search.  Remember to include comprehensive databases such as WorldCat and Dissertations & Theses, if you need to.

Where to find databases:

• Find Databases by Subject UWF Databases categorized by discipline
• Find Databases via Research Guides Librarians create research guides for all of the disciplines on campus! Take advantage of their expertise and see what discipline-specific search strategies they recommend!

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

• Review the abstracts of research studies carefully. This will save you time.
• Write down the searches you conduct in each database so that you may duplicate them if you need to later (or avoid dead-end searches   that you'd forgotten you'd already tried).
• Use the bibliographies and references of research studies you find to locate others.
• Ask your professor or a scholar in the field if you are missing any key works in the field.
• Use RefWorks to keep track of your research citations. See the RefWorks Tutorial if you need help.

5. Review the literature.

Some questions to help you analyze the research:

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

Tips: 

• Again, review the abstracts carefully.  
• Keep careful notes so that you may track your thought processes during the research process.

Theme Based Organization

The most common way that literature reviews are organized it by theme. Think of "themes" are the different subheadings you will use. Within each subheadhing, you should clarify how that section relates to other articles within the other sections of your paper.

Your lit review is theme based, not author based. This template shows examples of the different ways that articles can contribute to a discussion of each theme. It is your job to draw conclusions from the relationships between the articles

Imagine that each theme is a bucket and each source fits into one bucket. The same source may fit into multiple themes and buckets.

Images from: Cisco, J. (2014). Teaching the literature review: A practical approach for college instruction. Teaching & Learning Inquiry, 2 (2), 41-57.

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

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

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

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

There are five key steps to writing a literature review:

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

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

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Table of contents

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

• Quick Run-through
• Step 1 & 2

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

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

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

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

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

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

Download Word doc Download Google doc

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

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

Make a list of keywords

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

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

Search for relevant sources

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

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

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

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

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

For each publication, ask yourself:

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

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

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

Take notes and cite your sources

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Chronological

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

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

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

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

Methodological

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

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

Theoretical

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

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

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

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

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

As you write, you can follow these tips:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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A literature review displays what has been published on a particular subject/topic by recognized researchers. Usually, it is part of the introduction to a research report, essay, thesis or dissertation.

A literature review can be a simple summary of the sources, but more often, it is organized with a summary and synthesis. A summary is a recap of the important information of the source; a synthesis is a re-organization of that information.

Search for the most recent articles that deal with your topic; many of them will summarize the prior literature in the area, saving you valuable time. Remember to attribute the source even if you paraphrase.

Literature reviews can be overwhelming. You can't find everything. Just find the literature that gets discussed the most or is most relevant to your topic.

The goal of a literature review is to show an understanding of the bigger picture ; it puts research and recommendations in context of others working in the field.

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Geography and Literature by Juha Ridanpää LAST REVIEWED: 24 June 2019 LAST MODIFIED: 26 February 2013 DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199874002-0013

In human and cultural geographies, fictive literature, novels, and poems have been used in different manners for over a century. Literature has been an object of study, a thematic context for research, a perspective through which the world is perceived, a methodological tool, and more. This relatively understudied field of geographic research, often titled “literary geography,” includes several overlapping perspectives following the main epistemological and theoretical turns in the fields of human and cultural geographies. In the early years, literature was often used to add aesthetic nuances to geographic descriptions or, slightly paradoxically, to function as a database for separating fact from fiction. Subsequently, before the 1960s and the rising interest in regionalism, literary geography was not actually geographic analysis of literature but rather a helping hand in descriptive geographic portrayals. Regionalist, humanist, and socially critical perspectives diversified the ways literature could be used in analytic terms and thereby turned literature into an object of study. Since the “cultural turn” of human geographies at the end of the 1980s, more-variable approaches have occurred, and the manner of perceiving the world through the lens of literature has become an increasingly natural and not so exceptional perspective of research. In addition, in a similar fashion to that in the early years of literary geography, quotations, excerpts, and sections from literature are constantly referred to in geographic studies to illustrate or explain the topics discussed in “other words” or—what is actually a more plausible reason—to add certain aesthetic nuances to arguments. The field of geographic studies of literature has been categorized thematically by following the development of research in human and cultural geographies in a somewhat chronological manner. This is a specifically geographic viewpoint; although there are several interesting literary studies that focus on questions related to spatiality, these studies are not included in this article.

The field of literary geography is relatively difficult to place into systematic categories because topics and viewpoints often overlap, and it may be for this reason that the number of general overviews has been low. The best general overviews are relatively old and therefore outdated, but Noble and Dhussa 1990 still provides a good perspective on the background of tradition and major turns in the early development. In a similar fashion, Pocock 1988 takes a decent chronological look at how literature has been used in the course of geographic studies. Some overviews include a specific critical argument, as with the excellent coverage in Brosseau 1994 , where the stance is purposely critical, arguing that in literary geography the text itself should function more as a target of research. Similarly, Sharp 2000 dissects the tradition and development of literary geography from a more critical perspective. Other overviews instead dissect the course of research from certain theoretical perspectives, such as the overview offered in Lando 1996 , which is focused more toward humanist approaches, whereas Mallory and Simpson-Housley 1987 , an edited collection, attempts to be, as its title suggests, “a meeting of the disciplines.” In taking a look at the development of the geographic study of literature, several fresh articles include good overviews of the development in the field.

Brosseau, Marc. “Geography’s Literature.” Progress in Human Geography 18.3 (1994): 333–353.

DOI: 10.1177/030913259401800304

An excellent critical overview of the historical background of literary geography, ending in a critical argument of how geographers should give more voice to the text itself. Relies partly on French geographic studies of literature. Available online for purchase or by subscription.

Lando, Fabio. “Fact and Fiction: Geography and Literature.” GeoJournal 38.1 (1996): 3–18.

A general introduction to the bibliography on the geographic studies of real and literary landscapes, understandings of the sense of place, the concepts of rooting and uprooting, and the definitions of inscapes and territorial consciousness. The focus is specifically on humanist geography and its epistemological reflections. Available online for purchase or by subscription.

Mallory, William E., and Paul Simpson-Housley, eds. Geography and Literature: A Meeting of the Disciplines . Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1987.

Collection of diverse papers that dissect the literary aspects of landscape, from several points of view. In addition to humanist perspectives, the volume includes realistic, socially critical, symbolic, metaphoric, and surrealistic interpretations of literary landscapes.

Noble, Allen G., and Ramesh Dhussa. “Image and Substance: A Review of Literary Geography.” Journal of Cultural Geography 10.2 (1990): 49–65.

DOI: 10.1080/08873639009478447

A historical review of major developments in the course of studies focusing on the subjective meanings associated with landscape. Gives a wider perspective on how the literature and the perspective of geography have been applied together. Available online for purchase or by subscription.

Pocock, Douglas C. D. “Geography and Literature.” Progress in Human Geography 12.1 (1988): 87–102.

DOI: 10.1177/030913258801200106

The article thoroughly reviews the interface between geography and literature, by dissecting how literature has been “utilized” in the history of geographic research. Available online for purchase or by subscription.

Sharp, Joanne P. “Towards a Critical Analysis of Fictive Geographies.” Area 32.3 (2000): 327–334.

DOI: 10.1111/j.1475-4762.2000.tb00145.x

This paper critiques both humanist and regional perspectives as well as critical geographers for taking a limited view of the relationship between geography and literature. It offers an engagement with literary fiction that analyzes the content and form of the text, leaving room for its distinctive voice. Available online for purchase or by subscription.

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1 Introduction: Literary Geographies/Geographies of Literature

• Published: October 2022
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This chapter introduces the key concepts of spatial humanities that focuses on the matters like space, place, topography, geography, etc. in literature. There are several ways in which space and place evince themselves in literature. Literature’s movement through space and time is unmistakably related to the idea of navigation and a writer, from that point of view, acts like a cartographer. No literary work can grow in void, and setting is a key idea of literature. These literary spaces, unlike some rigid constraints of an earth science like geography, can move freely between real and imaginary. By doing so, it brings out a sense of place or a spirit of place that creates and recreates known geographies. Again, literature shows the rare capacity of referring to the social, cultural, and political dimensions of place making the scope of literary space criticism quite varied and divergent .

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