how to start foreign literature in research

How to Write a Literature Review: Six Steps to Get You from Start to Finish

Writing-a-literature-review-six-steps-to-get-you-from-start-to-finish.

Tanya Golash-Boza, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of California

February 03, 2022

Writing a literature review is often the most daunting part of writing an article, book, thesis, or dissertation. “The literature” seems (and often is) massive. I have found it helpful to be as systematic as possible when completing this gargantuan task.

Sonja Foss and William Walters* describe an efficient and effective way of writing a literature review. Their system provides an excellent guide for getting through the massive amounts of literature for any purpose: in a dissertation, an M.A. thesis, or preparing a research article for publication in any field of study. Below is a summary of the steps they outline as well as a step-by-step method for writing a literature review.

How to Write a Literature Review

Step One: Decide on your areas of research:

Before you begin to search for articles or books, decide beforehand what areas you are going to research. Make sure that you only get articles and books in those areas, even if you come across fascinating books in other areas. A literature review I am currently working on, for example, explores barriers to higher education for undocumented students.

Step Two: Search for the literature:

Conduct a comprehensive bibliographic search of books and articles in your area. Read the abstracts online and download and/or print those articles that pertain to your area of research. Find books in the library that are relevant and check them out. Set a specific time frame for how long you will search. It should not take more than two or three dedicated sessions.

Step Three: Find relevant excerpts in your books and articles:

Skim the contents of each book and article and look specifically for these five things:

1. Claims, conclusions, and findings about the constructs you are investigating

2. Definitions of terms

3. Calls for follow-up studies relevant to your project

4. Gaps you notice in the literature

5. Disagreement about the constructs you are investigating

When you find any of these five things, type the relevant excerpt directly into a Word document. Don’t summarize, as summarizing takes longer than simply typing the excerpt. Make sure to note the name of the author and the page number following each excerpt. Do this for each article and book that you have in your stack of literature. When you are done, print out your excerpts.

Step Four: Code the literature:

Get out a pair of scissors and cut each excerpt out. Now, sort the pieces of paper into similar topics. Figure out what the main themes are. Place each excerpt into a themed pile. Make sure each note goes into a pile. If there are excerpts that you can’t figure out where they belong, separate those and go over them again at the end to see if you need new categories. When you finish, place each stack of notes into an envelope labeled with the name of the theme.

Step Five: Create Your Conceptual Schema:

Type, in large font, the name of each of your coded themes. Print this out, and cut the titles into individual slips of paper. Take the slips of paper to a table or large workspace and figure out the best way to organize them. Are there ideas that go together or that are in dialogue with each other? Are there ideas that contradict each other? Move around the slips of paper until you come up with a way of organizing the codes that makes sense. Write the conceptual schema down before you forget or someone cleans up your slips of paper.

Step Six: Begin to Write Your Literature Review:

Choose any section of your conceptual schema to begin with. You can begin anywhere, because you already know the order. Find the envelope with the excerpts in them and lay them on the table in front of you. Figure out a mini-conceptual schema based on that theme by grouping together those excerpts that say the same thing. Use that mini-conceptual schema to write up your literature review based on the excerpts that you have in front of you. Don’t forget to include the citations as you write, so as not to lose track of who said what. Repeat this for each section of your literature review.

Once you complete these six steps, you will have a complete draft of your literature review. The great thing about this process is that it breaks down into manageable steps something that seems enormous: writing a literature review.

I think that Foss and Walter’s system for writing the literature review is ideal for a dissertation, because a Ph.D. candidate has already read widely in his or her field through graduate seminars and comprehensive exams.

It may be more challenging for M.A. students, unless you are already familiar with the literature. It is always hard to figure out how much you need to read for deep meaning, and how much you just need to know what others have said. That balance will depend on how much you already know.

For people writing literature reviews for articles or books, this system also could work, especially when you are writing in a field with which you are already familiar. The mere fact of having a system can make the literature review seem much less daunting, so I recommend this system for anyone who feels overwhelmed by the prospect of writing a literature review.

*Destination Dissertation: A Traveler's Guide to a Done Dissertation

Image Credit/Source: Goldmund Lukic/Getty Images

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CAREER COLUMN
30 January 2019

How to write effectively for international journals

Simon Wang 0 &
Yongyan Li 1

Simon Wang is a lecturer in English at the Language Centre of Hong Kong Baptist University.

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Yongyan Li is an associate professor of English at the Faculty of Education of the University of Hong Kong.

Scholars whose first language is not English often struggle to publish their research in international journals. As university language teachers and researchers, we have spent years working with novice scholars from various disciplines to help them improve their manuscripts for publication. Here, we offer a few suggestions on how to write more effectively for international journals.

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This is an article from the Nature Careers Community, a place for Nature readers to share their professional experiences and advice. Guest posts are encouraged. You can get in touch with the editor at [email protected].

Cargill, M. & O’Connor, P. Writing Scientific Research Articles: Strategy and Steps. (Wiley-Blackwell, 2013).

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Subject guide

International Studies: how to write your thesis

This Subject Guide is designed to support students of International Studies with writing their BA thesis and research papers. This guide focuses on the research process, and suggests effective ways to: 1. find a topic and formulate a good research question; 2. search, find and evaluate literature; 3. search, find and organize primary sources; and 4. organize the research and writing process.

A. Getting Started & Staying Organized

Writing a thesis, or a larger research paper, can often be a challenge. It requires not only research skills, but also organizational skills to break down the process in smaller steps and make a realistic planning.

Sage Research Methods is a tool that helps you develop your research from the first to the last step .

B. Finding a good Topic

Leiden University’s library offers a number of tools to help you find a good research topic: Start your thesis .

Portland State University’s library, too, offers a good tool to help you get started: the DIY Library , and Ohio State University offers a handbook .

Three short videos that can help you get started are: Picking a topic IS research (by NC State); Choosing a Research Paper Topic (by University of Minnesota Libraries); How to Develop a Good Research Topic (by Kansas State Libraries).

C. Formulating a Research Question

The instruction page ‘ How to write a research question ’ of George Mason University’s Writing Center can form a good starting point, as well as this handbook .

You can also watch these short videos to help you get started: Developing a Research Question (by Steely Library); and Research Questions tutorial (by George Washington University Library).

D. Finding & Evaluating literature

Leiden University’s library offers help with finding and evaluating literature for your thesis or research paper.

You can find tutorials on searching for literature ; as well as tutorials on evaluating sources , or use this handbook .

You can also ask for help by asking questions directly to library staff; or by a meeting with a subject librarian .

Two helpful short videos on finding literature include: One perfect source? (by NC State); and Tips & Tricks: Phrase Searching (by NC State).

E. Finding Primary Sources

The library provides access to a large number of digital resources, databases and archives . The Subject Guide for International Studies provides an overview of the various resources.

Four examples of digital primary sources are digital & digitised newspapers ; the Global Encyclopedia of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) History ; the Economist Intelligence Unit , which provides economic profiles and country reports; and the The Digital National Security Archive , which contains declassified CIA and US government documents.

You can gain an overview of the databases and e-resources offered through the library via this link .

F. Planning your Research Project

Students often struggle with making a realistic time-plan and then sticking with it. The following tools can help:

The Open University’s interactive website Time Management Skills portal helps you to develop your time management skills. See the following links for topics such as: - setting goals , - how to prepare a schedule and -tips for time management .

G. Help & Support

For questions about finding the right literature, you can approach the library, by asking questions directly to library staff; or by requesting a one-on-one meeting with a subject librarian .

For help with writing your thesis or research paper, you can also contact the International Studies Writing Lab .

For help with developing your Study skills & managing your studies (for example help with managing your time or coping with study stress), you can approach the Student Support Services for various workshops and courses .

If you are coping with more serious study-related or mental issues, you contact the study advisers or the university’s student psychologist , or visit the university’s website on well being .

Find a topic, formulate a research question, make a realistic time-plan

As a student you will have to do research assignments, write papers and hand in your final thesis before graduation. In order to succeed in this, you need to choose a good topic, formulate a researchable question, and make a realistic planning.

An effective tool for designing your research process in an effective way, is the SAGE Research Methods website . This website is user-friendly and helps you to break down your research process into smaller blocks. It also provides help with planning your research project.

Tips on how to choose a topic

Get inspired: Take inspiration from your required readings for a course you like, browse the books in the Wijnhaven Library reading room , explore topics in peer-reviewed international studies journals , or have a look at other theses by former students . Ask yourself: which question has not yet been answered? What information seems to be missing? What can you add to the discussion?
Brainstorm: Write down possible topic that comes to mind. These tutorials can help you with your brainstorm.
P ick something you like : If you have little influence over your thesis topic, try and steer your assigned topic in the direction you would like to take it to. This can be a specific discipline (sociology, anthropology, politics, linguistics) era (historical approach) or method (surveys, data sets, newspapers, personal stories etc).
Make sure you can make it into an academic treatise: A good number of students choose a thesis topic that aligns with their private interests. However, it can be a challenge to turn such topics into an academic treatise, because you may not have enough (1) relevant (2) academic and (3) accessible sources about the topic to base your argument on. Make sure that you choose a topic that you are passionate about, but that also has received scholarly interest, on which there is literature available, as well as other sources. If you start searching for sources in an early stage you can quickly determine whether your topic is in fact viable as a thesis topic or not.
Mind the size of your topic: it is important to narrow down your topic to a manageable size. Too few sources means you may want to expand your topic a bit. On the other hand, having too many sources on your topic means you need to narrow your topic down further. This is one of the reasons why starting to search for sources early is an important step in pinpointing a research topic that is just the right size for you.
Use the Sage Project Planner or other tutorials for defining a topic

Tips on how to formulate a good question

Avoid questions that can be answered with ‘yes’ or ‘no’
Have a voice: Ideally you already have a hypothesis, idea or point of view through which you can enter this topic. Often times you will adjust your view on the topic the more you learn about it.
Formulate a ‘problem’ that you need to answer: Think about the big questions, such as ‘why’, ‘how’, ‘when’, and ‘who’. This will give you an open-ended question through which you can explore your topic.
Avoid ‘Compare A to B and see what happens’ scenarios: There needs to be a formulation of a ‘problem’ and a point of view.
Use these tutorials or the Sage project planner to develop a researchable question

Tips on how to meet your deadline

Start with a general overview of the amount of time you have: When is your deadline? When can (and when should) you get started? How many hours can you realistically spend per week on this project?
Write down the steps you need to take from start to end: Go through this research guide to get an idea of how much time you need for your research. Don’t forget about things that might not be included here, such as spell checks, format checks, printing and binding etc.
You can use the Sage project planner to make a planning .
Be realistic: A realistic planning will help you to set goals and avoid stress by impeding deadlines. Underestimating the amount of work needed to write a well-researched, well-written paper is the number one reason students experience a lot of overwhelm from the research process. Therefore, be realistic about the amount of work you can put in in a day.
Write down your daily top 3: Write down three achievable things you want to have finished by the time you are done for the day and start with the most important thing.
Don’t forget to take a break: It is important to put away what you wrote for a bit so you can revisit it later. Oftentimes, when you go back to your text at a later point, you see little inconsistencies that you overlooked earlier; or you have new insights to add to your argument.
Time Management Skills: Planning your research is about much more than just prioritizing and setting goals. It is also about how you deal with distractions, procrastination, and what to do if you fall behind. Time management skills are essential skills not only for now, but also for when you find employment. Read more about Time Management Skills : - setting goals , - how to prepare a schedule and -tips for time management .

Recommended Books

Yvonne N. Bui - How to Write a Master’s Thesis
Umberto Eco - Hoe schrijf ik een scriptie
Umberto Eco - How to write a thesis (e-book)
Nel Verhoeven – Doing Research: the hows and whys of applied research
Choosing & Using Sources: A Guide to Academic Research

A. Finding literature is not like a trip to the supermarket

Some students approach the act of gathering information for their research as if they were taking a trip to the supermarket; they expect to be able to find exactly what they need within a certain set amount of time. Unlike a supermarket trip, however, searching for scholarly information is difficult, and you do not always get the results you want. This is mostly due to the fact that it is easy to (1) overestimate the quality and availability of the sources you need, and (2) underestimate the amount of time and skill needed to find these sources amidst the millions of sources out there.

In other words, some students expect to find ‘perfect sources’ for their thesis topic – meaning; academic sources that ‘tick all the right boxes’ of their thesis topic – fully downloadable, and found with little effort with just a few keywords and clicks. In reality, however, the ‘perfect source’ likely does not exist, many sources you need will not be available digitally, it will take quite some time and effort to find these sources, and you will have to pick up some new search skills along the way. This often causes students to experience the ‘search’ and ‘access’ phase as the most frustrating, unsatisfactory experience in the whole research experience.

Frustration, coupled with a lack of time, makes it tempting for students to turn to less trustworthy or relevant sources because they are more familiar (Google), or more easily available (full-text search only). This, however, leads to an unbalanced and incomplete list of sources. It is therefore important to think about how you search; are your expectations realistic? What are your pitfalls when pressed for time or when something does not work out immediately? How can you avoid them?

The good news is that you don’t need to find a ‘perfect source’, and this brief video shows you why : ‘Good research isn’t about finding the perfect article that makes all the connections for you, it’s about finding information that helps you form your ideas, and tying it together yourself to form a cohesive argument.’

If the perfect source already existed, there would not be a reason for you to write your thesis or paper. As a researcher, your assignment is to get to know the literature on a topic, identify what is missing, and add to the existing knowledge with our own writing. Sage Research Methods helps you to approach your research project in exactly this way.

Second, there are many ways the library can help you get access to difficult-to-obtain sources and teach you how to search. Third, if you make a project plan early and manage your time, you should have enough time to search for the sources you need, thus avoiding a lot of stress and frustration.

B. First Step: Background Search

The best way to start your search is getting yourself more acquainted with the topic; you know some things about it, but there is a lot that you do not (yet) know. Background search can help you to identify important facts (dates, events, people, terminology) refine your topic (what aspect about this topic is it that truly interests you?), and give you additional information and tips on where to search (dictionaries, encyclopedias, databases). For your background search you can use Google, Wikipedia, your textbooks, bibliographies and encyclopedias .

At this stage of your research, important tools to start with are Google Scholar , which allows you to search and browse journal articles as well as the bibliographies that you can find in this Subject Guide for International Studies . The bibliographies are curated by a specialized staff and are more complete and systematic.

When doing background research you can start with a couple of keywords. You can use keywords from titles or abstracts. Specific keywords can narrow or broaden the amount of information you will find. Try out different (combinations of) keywords/synonyms to see what kind of information you get and which terms are useful. Learn more in these tutorials about keywords.

You can also use the so-called snowball-method to find literature on your topic: simply browse the bibliography at the end of a book or article that you found convincing to see if it contains other titles related to your topic.

C. Searching in the Library Catalogue

Try out different search terms when you start searching in the catalogue. The catalogue automatically searches for all of the entered search terms in one document unless you use OR. You can use NOT if you want specific words to be excluded. If you don’t know how to spell a word or it can be written in different ways, you can use the symbol # or ? (wom#n finds woman and women). When you have found a relevant item, you can also use the references or citations as new sources. It is not recommended to limit yourself to things only available in Leiden University by selecting ‘Leiden Collections’ instead of ‘All content’ in the search screen. See our catalogue tutorial .

D. Find Literature Elsewhere

Though Leiden University provides access to an extensive collection of literature related to International Studies, many more can be found elsewhere.

Recommended Library Catalogues

Worldcat : is the biggest world-wide search engine for library holdings. You can use it to search information about books, but also to locate the nearest library (inside or outside the library) that holds a copy. If any book or journal you found is unavailable in Leiden, you can either visit the holding library (which is often free for Dutch University Students) or request the item through (International) Inter Library Loan .

Recommended Online Search Engines

Google Scholar is Google’s search engine for scientific articles and academic books. It is recommended not to limit your search activities to Google, but it does offer a good starting point.

Recommended Bibliographies

A great number of specialized, academically curated bibliographies on many topics and fields can be found through the Subject Guide for International Studies .

A. Digital and Paper Sources

Tips for accessing digital sources.

If you have found a digital source in the catalogue that you wish to access from home you need to login via the library catalogue, using your ULCN credentials, and not via a publisher portal. You can also use the Get Access browser extension .
If you come across a source in the catalogue that is listed as “Online Access” or “Open Access” but you cannot get access, click the ‘report a problem’ option within the record.

Tips for accessing Paper sources

You need a valid LU card for access in most buildings.
Leiden University Libraries consists of several library locations. Depending on your research topic, you may need to access physical books from these different locations.

B. Not available in Leiden?

There are a number of ways in which you can get access to materials that are not available at Leiden University Libraries.

How to get access to materials not available in Leiden

Look up the book or journal in Worldcat . If you enter your zip code, you can find the library nearest to you that has a copy, such as the Royal Library in the Hague or other University Libraries.
The Royal Library in the Hague offers a 50% discount for students for a one-year membership. Leiden University Students can apply for a library card free of charge at all Dutch Universities.
Request the item through Inter Library Loan (ILL ) or through International ILL .
Ask Leiden University to acquire the item : You can file a request for the library to purchase a book, access to a journal or database. All requests are considered by the relevant subject librarian, and a decision is made depending on collection policy, available budget and price of the item. Please keep in mind that, in case an item is purchased, it can take several weeks for the item to be shipped and processed.
Contact your subject librarian . If the above measures did not help, reach out to your subject librarian. It is possible that they know different means and methods within their field of expertise to obtain access to the materials you need.

A. Why do I need to evaluate scholarly publications – wasn´t that evaluated already?

Students are required to be critical of all their sources, including the ones you find in the library catalogue, academic databases, and those quoted in other scholarly publications. In today’s world, publishing and sharing information has become accessible to all, which also has made it easier to publish misinformation.

Academic information, at least, has put up a number of hurdles to tackle misinformation and disinformation from spreading, such as peer review . However, aside from the fact that these measures are far from failsafe , journals, books and authors can certainly be biased or prejudiced while working within the academic framework. It is your job as a scholar to be critical of all sources you use – academic or not – and train yourself in recognizing credible sources and using them in a critical fashion.

B. Popular & Scholarly

At the beginning of your student career at Leiden University, you may sometimes miss the difference between scholarly information and popular sources, and why this difference is important.

Media like YouTube videos, blog posts, or magazine articles can be tempting to use in a paper, because they (1) mainly focus on being entertaining instead of being informative, (2) use clear and easy to understand language, and (3) due to algorithms, are likely to confirm your pre-existing worldview and ideas. The goal of a research project, however, is to approach a certain problem in an open way, and embark on a research as an open-ended process. For such a project, usage of scholarly publications is crucial.

One of the main differences between popular sources and scholarly sources is the scientific rigor that lies at the basis of an analysis and argument, and transparent presentation of the used methods and sources. These are part of the scholarly format of peer-reviewed and annotated texts. Illustrative of the importance of this format is the fact that an op-ed written by a professor is categorized as a popular source, while an article in a scientific journal by the same professor is categorized as a scholarly text.

It is especially tricky when opinions of the author are presented as ‘facts’ that seem correct due to being based on cherry-picked data. If you are not yet confident in discerning between scholarly and popular sources, we recommend you follow a couple of tutorials .

C. Evaluating information

It is important you ask yourself a number of questions while reading a source, such as: Who wrote the information, why did they publish it, is there an agenda and when/where was it published? All of this comes before you can think about the text itself. This follows a technique used by professional factcheckers, called lateral reading , where you first consider the container of the text, before you look at the text itself.

The above is useful for information found both in print and online. For information found solely online there is an additional method, called the SIFT method . SIFT stands for Stop, Investigate the Source, Find trusted coverage, Trace claims, quotes, and media back to the original context. In many cases it will take about 30 seconds to quickly check whether for example a news report is true once you have trained yourself in the four moves of SIFT.

Take a look at these tutorials about evaluating information.

A. Reading and searching: two sides of the same coin

The most conventional method of discovering relevant authors and publications for your research is discovering them citations and references of other publications. We therefore recommend to make enough time to read your sources, and then do follow-up searches. When reading ask yourself: which authors are talking about my topic, what do they say, what books/articles did they write, which sources do they cite and how was the research conducted?

You may think that reading all the sources you find in order to do follow up search will take too long. However, in this part of the research process, you are only reading your sources to (1) confirm that they match your information need, (2) double-check that they are academic (3) not too old for your topic of choice, and (4) find references to other scholars and publication about your topic.

Tips on strategic reading

Scan : Quickly go through a text by reading just the titles of chapters, abstracts of papers, paragraph titles, or the first sentence of a new paragraph, and the conclusion. This will help you determine whether or not you want to read the source more in detail, and which parts you can easily skip.
Reading and Note making: You will have to read, process and remember information from a lot of different sources. To stay organized, it is important to make efficient notes while reading. Look here for a top five of critical reading techniques and a brief course on critical reading .
Don’t forget to write down where your information comes from ! If you are not sure where the information comes from when you start writing, you are at risk of plagiarism. Tip: The quickest way to make a short note when you are reading is taking the last name of the author + page. For example: Hall, p. 31. If you use multiple sources by the same author, add the publication year. (Hall, 2005, p. 31)
For more information see the Critical Reading Techniques .

Rinse and Repeat

At this stage, you have found a good number of sources, read them, took notes, and likely found other publications authors and data that you have not found before. This marks the second round of searching for sources – look up that interesting looking book you found in a citation, find out what else the author of that book wrote, see if you can get it through Leiden University or other means, and... read! By repeating this cycle of read-search-access-read two or three times, you are very likely to find (1) the majority of relevant publications on your topic of choice, (2) the majority of authors writing about your topic of choice, and (3) a good overview of primary sources relating to your topic of choice. Only once you have followed this thorough and deliberate way of locating your sources are you ready to move forward.

B. Refine your topic

This is a good point in your research to revisit your topic and your research question. While reading you may have found that there is much more information available about your topic than you initially thought – or not enough. You may have found that your research question has already been dealt with in length by other scholars, while at the same time, another question that is even more interesting may have come to mind. Perhaps you would like to take your research into a whole different direction after doing some reading and follow up research? When you are refining your topic, allow yourself to be flexible. It is common to modify your topic during the research process.

Take some time to visit the checklist for your topic and research question again, and see if you need to make any chances. If you have already handed in your topic and research question to your supervisor, you should always inform them of any major changes you wish to make. Have a look at this overview of tips for refining your research topic .

In some cases, using primary sources for your research is optional, in other cases it is an obligatory part of your research. Students can use a variety of primary sources for their projects, depending on their topics. Different sources may require different research methodologies.

Central to all primary research projects is, however, that you systematically analyze a well-delineated corpus of sources. The delineation refers both to the source and the time-frame. For example, instead of analyzing how ‘the media’ reported on a topic, choose a specific media outlet (for example one newspaper) or set of media outlets (a well-delineated set of newspaper titles), and research the news reports over a specific time-frame (for example: how did the New York Times report on North Korea’s nuclear weapons program between 2010 and 2020). A similar systematic can be used when analyzing statistical data, CIA reports, the correspondence between Marx and Engels, etc.

Sage Research Methods provides a good overview of the most important primary source research methods , as well as examples and cases.

The library provides access to a large number of digital resources, databases and archives . The Subject Guide for International Studies provides an overview of the various resources.

A. Managing your research project

Once you have found, evaluated, and read all of your literature (for now) it is time to think about what you have read and to organize your findings. This can be a challenging phase in the research project. If you feel overwhelmed by the work you have to do, various actions may help: 1.) break down the project into smaller steps; 2.) make a time plan that enables you to find a good balance between reading, researching, writing, and free time; 3.) break down your thesis or paper into smaller blocks that you can separately work on.

Tools that can help you to break down your project into smaller parts and to manage time-planning are: the Sage project planner ; and the Open University’s Time Management Skills portal. See the following links for topics such as: setting goals , how to prepare a schedule> tips for time management .

For help with developing your study skills & managing your studies (for example help with managing your time or coping with study stress), you can approach the Student Support Services for various workshops and courses .

B. Synthesizing; Interrogating the literature

Your thesis or research paper needs to clearly relate to the existing literature on a topic: you need to show who you (dis)agree with and what you are adding to the existing body of knowledge. This means that you need to identify at least the following three points (1) common themes between sources, (2) points on which the sources/authors (direct or indirect) disagree and (3) gaps in the literature (what is missing?).

This does not mean that you should just give a number of summaries of articles. Instead, it is important to compare and contrast, broaden the argument and give your own thoughts and conclusions. For a more detailed explanation on synthesizing and integrating information, use one of the following sources:

“Help…I’ve been asked to synthesize!”
Simply Psychology – how to synthesize written information from multiple sources.

C. Footnotes, Citations and Citation Managers

For your thesis or research paper you are potentially going to refer to a large body of sources. Typing up all the footnotes by hand, and maintaining one consistent reference style is time-consuming. Therefore, it is highly recommended to use an electronic citation manager. Learning how to work with a reference manager is a new skill, but it will save you time in the long run – the more papers you write, the more time you save.

Mendeley, EndNote and Zotero are three of the main refence managers. You can learn more about these programmes on our page about reference managers.

There are brief introductory videos on Mendeley , Endnote , and Zotero .

There are various citation methods. International Studies theses and papers are to use CMS as their citation style. The most important thing about using a citation style is consistency . Do not mix up the different styles and rules! If you are uncertain which style you should use for your paper or thesis, always consult with your supervisor. See these tutorials and books below that can help you get started with making your own citations below.

Recommended Books:

Cite Right : a quick guide to citation styles.
Doing honest work in college: how to prepare citations, avoid plagiarism and achieve real academic success : deals with today’s issues, like citing podcasts or social media posts, using mobile devices during tests, and the pro-s and cos of reference managers.
Cite them right : the essential referencing guide.

D. Writing the Report

For the actual writing of your thesis or research paper, structure is important in a double sense of the word. First of all, it is important to structure your thesis into smaller parts that you can write in subsequent order. Secondly, it is important to structure your working day and working week in such a way that you can find a productive balance between working on your thesis and doing other things.

Next to the Sage project planner , the website of the Australian National University can help you to design an effective structure for your thesis.

For structuring your working day and working week, you can take cue from the Open University’s Time Management Skills portal. See the following links for topics such as: setting goals , how to prepare a schedule and tips for time management .

Another helpful website is the Thesis Whisperer , which among other offers advice on How to become a literature searching Ninja , and on How to write 1000 words a day (and not go bat shit crazy) .

Library For questions about finding the right literature, you can approach the library, by asking questions directly to library staff; or by requesting a one-on-one meeting with a subject librarian . If you would like to suggest purchase requests, contact the subject librarian for International Studies, Nathaniël Linssen .

Writing Lab For help with writing your thesis or research paper, you can also contact the International Studies Writing Lab .

Workshops on Managing Time and Coping with Study Stress For help with developing your Study skills & managing your studies (for example help with managing your time or coping with study stress), you can approach the Student Support Services for various workshops and courses.

Study-related and Mental Support If you are coping with more serious study-related or mental issues, you contact the study advisers or the university’s student psychologist , or visit the university’s website .

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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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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.

Prevent plagiarism. Run a free check.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

Chronological

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

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

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

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

Methodological

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

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

Theoretical

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

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

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

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

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

As you write, you can follow these tips:

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

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

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

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

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

Open Google Slides Download PowerPoint

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

Sampling methods
Simple random sampling
Stratified sampling
Cluster sampling
Likert scales
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Statistical power
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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 .

Cite this Scribbr article

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

McCombes, S. (2023, September 11). How to Write a Literature Review | Guide, Examples, & Templates. Scribbr. Retrieved August 19, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/dissertation/literature-review/

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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.

What is 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

A literature review must do these things:

be organized around and related directly to the thesis or research question you are developing
synthesize results into a summary of what is and is not known
identify areas of controversy in the literature
formulate questions that need further research

Ask yourself questions like these:

What is the specific thesis, problem, or research question that my literature review helps to define?
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 of loneliness among migrant workers)?
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., nursing psychology, sociology, medicine)?
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?
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?
Have I cited and discussed studies contrary to my perspective?
Will the reader find my literature review relevant, appropriate, and useful?

Ask yourself questions like these about each book or article you include:

Has the author formulated a problem/issue?
Is it clearly defined? Is its significance (scope, severity, relevance) clearly established?
Could the problem have been approached more effectively from another perspective?
What is the author's research orientation (e.g., interpretive, critical science, combination)?
What is the author's theoretical framework (e.g., psychological, developmental, feminist)?
What is the relationship between the theoretical and research perspectives?
Has the author evaluated the literature relevant to the problem/issue? Does the author include literature taking positions she or he does not agree with?
In a research study, how good are the basic components of the study design (e.g., population, intervention, outcome)? How accurate and valid are the measurements? Is the analysis of the data accurate and relevant to the research question? Are the conclusions validly based upon the data and analysis?
In material written for a popular readership, does the author use appeals to emotion, one-sided examples, or rhetorically-charged language and tone? Is there an objective basis to the reasoning, or is the author merely "proving" what he or she already believes?
How does the author structure the argument? Can you "deconstruct" the flow of the argument to see whether or where it breaks down logically (e.g., in establishing cause-effect relationships)?
In what ways does this book or article contribute to our understanding of the problem under study, and in what ways is it useful for practice? What are the strengths and limitations?
How does this book or article relate to the specific thesis or question I am developing?

Text written by Dena Taylor, Health Sciences Writing Centre, University of Toronto

http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/advice/specific-types-of-writing/literature-review

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Start your International Relations research with these key resources:

Academic Search Premier This link opens in a new window Always a good database with which to begin research. Multi-disciplinary indexed database containing full text for nearly 4,700 publications, including more than 3,600 peer-reviewed publications. Coverage 1880s-present more... less... Language: English, Spanish, Russian, Portuguese, Turkish, French, Chinese, Arabic etc. Keywords: ASP
Worldwide Political Science Abstracts This link opens in a new window Excellent selective database for articles in IR, global coverage. Citations for articles in more than 300 political science and government journals. 1984-present more... less... Worldwide Political Science Abstracts is the electronic counterpart and continuation of the print publication Political Science Abstracts. Language: English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, German
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PAIS Index This link opens in a new window Why search here? Good for abstracts and citations of politcal science literature from a wide range of international and domestic sources. Content type: Abstracts and citations for scholarly articles, monographs, government documents, statistical directories, research reports, conference papers, web content Coverage dates: 1915-present more... less... PAIS Index combines two databases: PAIS International and PAIS Archive. PAIS International is the electronic version and continuation of the print publications PAIS Bulletin and PAIS Foreign Language Index. PAIS Archive is the electronic version of the print publication PAIS Annual Cumulated Bulletin. Language: English, German, French, Spanish
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Please review this video: Getting Started with Literature Reviews tutorial

What is a literature review?

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.

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 will 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.

How do I know when I can stop?

Literature reviews can be tricky because you don't want to stop before you've found everything relevant to your topic. There are a couple of guidelines for knowing when to stop looking for materials.

Searched all relevant databases, using a variety of keywords and subject headings
Mined article bibliographies for their cited references
Looked in Google Scholar or Web of Science to see who has cited those articles
Think of the assignment timeline. If you are writing your PhD thesis you can spend more time doing a comprehensive lit review than if you only have a few weeks until an assignment is due. At some point you need to stop.


Synthesizes available research	Basically an annotated bibliography
Critical evaluation of sources	Analysis confined to describing the work
Appropriated breadth and depth	Narrow and Shallow
Clear and concise	Confusing and Longwinded
Uses rigorous and consistent methods	Constructed arbitrarily

Government Information This is an in-house research guide that provides direction on finding government information in many formats, paper, microform, and online.
Data and Statistics: International Guide to data and statistics specifically for international sources.
Legal Research Guide to Legal Research, mostly United States.
Economics Research Guide Guide to research resources in Economics.

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How to Write a Literature Review

6. Synthesize
Literature Reviews: A Recap
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What is synthesis?	What synthesis is NOT:

Approaches to Synthesis

You can sort the literature in various ways, for example:

How to Begin?

Read your sources carefully and find the main idea(s) of each source

Look for similarities in your sources – which sources are talking about the same main ideas? (for example, sources that discuss the historical background on your topic)

Use the worksheet (above) or synthesis matrix (below) to get organized

This work can be messy. Don't worry if you have to go through a few iterations of the worksheet or matrix as you work on your lit review!

Four Examples of Student Writing

In the four examples below, only ONE shows a good example of synthesis: the fourth column, or Student D . For a web accessible version, click the link below the image.

Long description of "Four Examples of Student Writing" for web accessibility

Download a copy of the "Four Examples of Student Writing" chart

Click on the example to view the pdf.

From Jennifer Lim

<< Previous: 5. Critically Analyze and Evaluate
Next: 7. Write a Literature Review >>
Last Updated: Aug 12, 2024 11:48 AM
URL: https://researchguides.uoregon.edu/litreview

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Literary Research in Harvard Libraries

Get Organized
Find Background
Where to Search
Search Vocabulary
Obscure/Recent Topics
Literary Journalism Search (under construction!)
Find Primary or Archival Material
Literary Theory
Foreign Language Literatures
Distant Reading, Close Reading

KEY DATABASES

For every project : MLA International Bibliography - a subject-specific index to worldwide scholarship on literature and media studies since 1926. Also includes linguistics and folklore. Strongest for Europe, the Americas, and Anglophone scholarship.
For an overview :Oxford Bibliographies Online - use this database when you need to understand the full picture of scholarship on an author, genre, or critical concept. Frequently updated. If you do not find a relevant Oxford Bibliography, visit Find Background for more options.
For theory and schools of criticism : Johns Hopkins Guide to Theory and Criticism - use this encyclopedia when you need to understand literary theories and schools of criticism. An old standby.

SEARCH WORDS

Search terms that can help you improve your results in HOLLIS , Academic Search Premier , and other multidisciplinary resources:

Literature, “criticism and interpretation,” rhetoric
genre terms (novel, fiction, poetry, drama)
geographic terms (United States, American)
time period terms (19th, "to 1500")
Terms for region or language (Italian, Asian)

See Search Vocabulary for more details

HOW TO USE THIS GUIDE

Each page of this guide recommends my favorite tools and strategies:

Get Organized - access, organize, and cite
Find Background - from simple encyclopedia entries to detailed guides and histories
Basics - understand what you're looking for
Where to Search - specialized search engines and techniques for using them
Search Vocabulary - the specialized language search engines use for literary topics
Obscure/Recent Topics - tips for when standard research methods won't find the material you need
Find Primary or Archival Material - when you need newspaper articles, first editions, manuscripts...
Literary Theory - deceptively tricky to search for!
Foreign Language Literatures - if you're working with languages other than English
Distant Reading, Close Reading - computational tools (e.g. chart word usage over time), the OED, rhetorical figures

Literature: A Guide for Graduate Students supplements this guide with:

Get Started - a to-do list for new graduate students
Find a Database - how to locate the best search engines for your field or project
Research Dos & Don'ts - tips to help you be productive and efficient

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Literary Research in Harvard Libraries was originally written by Sue Gilroy and Laura Farwell Blake, and remains deeply indebted to their work.

FURTHER GUIDANCE

Odile Harter

Research & Pedagogy Librarian

Email Odile

Next: Get Organized >>

Except where otherwise noted, this work is subject to a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , which allows anyone to share and adapt our material as long as proper attribution is given. For details and exceptions, see the Harvard Library Copyright Policy ©2021 Presidents and Fellows of Harvard College.

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How to Make a Literature Review in Research (RRL Example)

What is an RRL in a research paper?

A relevant review of the literature (RRL) is an objective, concise, critical summary of published research literature relevant to a topic being researched in an article. In an RRL, you discuss knowledge and findings from existing literature relevant to your study topic. If there are conflicts or gaps in existing literature, you can also discuss these in your review, as well as how you will confront these missing elements or resolve these issues in your study.

To complete an RRL, you first need to collect relevant literature; this can include online and offline sources. Save all of your applicable resources as you will need to include them in your paper. When looking through these sources, take notes and identify concepts of each source to describe in the review of the literature.

A good RRL does NOT:

A literature review does not simply reference and list all of the material you have cited in your paper.

Presenting material that is not directly relevant to your study will distract and frustrate the reader and make them lose sight of the purpose of your study.
Starting a literature review with “A number of scholars have studied the relationship between X and Y” and simply listing who has studied the topic and what each scholar concluded is not going to strengthen your paper.

A good RRL DOES:

Present a brief typology that orders articles and books into groups to help readers focus on unresolved debates, inconsistencies, tensions, and new questions about a research topic.
Summarize the most relevant and important aspects of the scientific literature related to your area of research
Synthesize what has been done in this area of research and by whom, highlight what previous research indicates about a topic, and identify potential gaps and areas of disagreement in the field
Give the reader an understanding of the background of the field and show which studies are important—and highlight errors in previous studies

How long is a review of the literature for a research paper?

The length of a review of the literature depends on its purpose and target readership and can vary significantly in scope and depth. In a dissertation, thesis, or standalone review of literature, it is usually a full chapter of the text (at least 20 pages). Whereas, a standard research article or school assignment literature review section could only be a few paragraphs in the Introduction section .

Building Your Literature Review Bookshelf

One way to conceive of a literature review is to think about writing it as you would build a bookshelf. You don’t need to cut each piece by yourself from scratch. Rather, you can take the pieces that other researchers have cut out and put them together to build a framework on which to hang your own “books”—that is, your own study methods, results, and conclusions.

What Makes a Good Literature Review?

The contents of a literature review (RRL) are determined by many factors, including its precise purpose in the article, the degree of consensus with a given theory or tension between competing theories, the length of the article, the number of previous studies existing in the given field, etc. The following are some of the most important elements that a literature review provides.

Historical background for your research

Analyze what has been written about your field of research to highlight what is new and significant in your study—or how the analysis itself contributes to the understanding of this field, even in a small way. Providing a historical background also demonstrates to other researchers and journal editors your competency in discussing theoretical concepts. You should also make sure to understand how to paraphrase scientific literature to avoid plagiarism in your work.

The current context of your research

Discuss central (or peripheral) questions, issues, and debates in the field. Because a field is constantly being updated by new work, you can show where your research fits into this context and explain developments and trends in research.

A discussion of relevant theories and concepts

Theories and concepts should provide the foundation for your research. For example, if you are researching the relationship between ecological environments and human populations, provide models and theories that focus on specific aspects of this connection to contextualize your study. If your study asks a question concerning sustainability, mention a theory or model that underpins this concept. If it concerns invasive species, choose material that is focused in this direction.

Definitions of relevant terminology

In the natural sciences, the meaning of terms is relatively straightforward and consistent. But if you present a term that is obscure or context-specific, you should define the meaning of the term in the Introduction section (if you are introducing a study) or in the summary of the literature being reviewed.

Description of related relevant research

Include a description of related research that shows how your work expands or challenges earlier studies or fills in gaps in previous work. You can use your literature review as evidence of what works, what doesn’t, and what is missing in the field.

Supporting evidence for a practical problem or issue your research is addressing that demonstrates its importance: Referencing related research establishes your area of research as reputable and shows you are building upon previous work that other researchers have deemed significant.

Types of Literature Reviews

Literature reviews can differ in structure, length, amount, and breadth of content included. They can range from selective (a very narrow area of research or only a single work) to comprehensive (a larger amount or range of works). They can also be part of a larger work or stand on their own.

A course assignment is an example of a selective, stand-alone work. It focuses on a small segment of the literature on a topic and makes up an entire work on its own.
The literature review in a dissertation or thesis is both comprehensive and helps make up a larger work.
A majority of journal articles start with a selective literature review to provide context for the research reported in the study; such a literature review is usually included in the Introduction section (but it can also follow the presentation of the results in the Discussion section ).
Some literature reviews are both comprehensive and stand as a separate work—in this case, the entire article analyzes the literature on a given topic.

Literature Reviews Found in Academic Journals

The two types of literature reviews commonly found in journals are those introducing research articles (studies and surveys) and stand-alone literature analyses. They can differ in their scope, length, and specific purpose.

Literature reviews introducing research articles

The literature review found at the beginning of a journal article is used to introduce research related to the specific study and is found in the Introduction section, usually near the end. It is shorter than a stand-alone review because it must be limited to very specific studies and theories that are directly relevant to the current study. Its purpose is to set research precedence and provide support for the study’s theory, methods, results, and/or conclusions. Not all research articles contain an explicit review of the literature, but most do, whether it is a discrete section or indistinguishable from the rest of the Introduction.

How to structure a literature review for an article

When writing a literature review as part of an introduction to a study, simply follow the structure of the Introduction and move from the general to the specific—presenting the broadest background information about a topic first and then moving to specific studies that support your rationale , finally leading to your hypothesis statement. Such a literature review is often indistinguishable from the Introduction itself—the literature is INTRODUCING the background and defining the gaps your study aims to fill.

The stand-alone literature review

The literature review published as a stand-alone article presents and analyzes as many of the important publications in an area of study as possible to provide background information and context for a current area of research or a study. Stand-alone reviews are an excellent resource for researchers when they are first searching for the most relevant information on an area of study.

Such literature reviews are generally a bit broader in scope and can extend further back in time. This means that sometimes a scientific literature review can be highly theoretical, in addition to focusing on specific methods and outcomes of previous studies. In addition, all sections of such a “review article” refer to existing literature rather than describing the results of the authors’ own study.

In addition, this type of literature review is usually much longer than the literature review introducing a study. At the end of the review follows a conclusion that once again explicitly ties all of the cited works together to show how this analysis is itself a contribution to the literature. While not absolutely necessary, such articles often include the terms “Literature Review” or “Review of the Literature” in the title. Whether or not that is necessary or appropriate can also depend on the specific author instructions of the target journal. Have a look at this article for more input on how to compile a stand-alone review article that is insightful and helpful for other researchers in your field.

How to Write a Literature Review in 6 Steps

So how do authors turn a network of articles into a coherent review of relevant literature?

Writing a literature review is not usually a linear process—authors often go back and check the literature while reformulating their ideas or making adjustments to their study. Sometimes new findings are published before a study is completed and need to be incorporated into the current work. This also means you will not be writing the literature review at any one time, but constantly working on it before, during, and after your study is complete.

Here are some steps that will help you begin and follow through on your literature review.

Step 1: Choose a topic to write about—focus on and explore this topic.

Choose a topic that you are familiar with and highly interested in analyzing; a topic your intended readers and researchers will find interesting and useful; and a topic that is current, well-established in the field, and about which there has been sufficient research conducted for a review. This will help you find the “sweet spot” for what to focus on.

Step 2: Research and collect all the scholarly information on the topic that might be pertinent to your study.

This includes scholarly articles, books, conventions, conferences, dissertations, and theses—these and any other academic work related to your area of study is called “the literature.”

Step 3: Analyze the network of information that extends or responds to the major works in your area; select the material that is most useful.

Use thought maps and charts to identify intersections in the research and to outline important categories; select the material that will be most useful to your review.

Step 4: Describe and summarize each article—provide the essential information of the article that pertains to your study.

Determine 2-3 important concepts (depending on the length of your article) that are discussed in the literature; take notes about all of the important aspects of this study relevant to the topic being reviewed.

For example, in a given study, perhaps some of the main concepts are X, Y, and Z. Note these concepts and then write a brief summary about how the article incorporates them. In reviews that introduce a study, these can be relatively short. In stand-alone reviews, there may be significantly more texts and more concepts.

Step 5: Demonstrate how these concepts in the literature relate to what you discovered in your study or how the literature connects the concepts or topics being discussed.

In a literature review intro for an article, this information might include a summary of the results or methods of previous studies that correspond to and/or confirm those sections in your own study. For a stand-alone literature review, this may mean highlighting the concepts in each article and showing how they strengthen a hypothesis or show a pattern.

Discuss unaddressed issues in previous studies. These studies that are missing something you address are important to include in your literature review. In addition, those works whose theories and conclusions directly support your findings will be valuable to review here.

Step 6: Identify relationships in the literature and develop and connect your own ideas to them.

This is essentially the same as step 5 but focused on the connections between the literature and the current study or guiding concepts or arguments of the paper, not only on the connections between the works themselves.

Your hypothesis, argument, or guiding concept is the “golden thread” that will ultimately tie the works together and provide readers with specific insights they didn’t have before reading your literature review. Make sure you know where to put the research question , hypothesis, or statement of the problem in your research paper so that you guide your readers logically and naturally from your introduction of earlier work and evidence to the conclusions you want them to draw from the bigger picture.

Your literature review will not only cover publications on your topics but will include your own ideas and contributions. By following these steps you will be telling the specific story that sets the background and shows the significance of your research and you can turn a network of related works into a focused review of the literature.

Literature Review (RRL) Examples

Because creating sample literature reviews would take too long and not properly capture the nuances and detailed information needed for a good review, we have included some links to different types of literature reviews below. You can find links to more literature reviews in these categories by visiting the TUS Library’s website . Sample literature reviews as part of an article, dissertation, or thesis:

Critical Thinking and Transferability: A Review of the Literature (Gwendolyn Reece)
Building Customer Loyalty: A Customer Experience Based Approach in a Tourism Context (Martina Donnelly)

Sample stand-alone literature reviews

Literature Review on Attitudes towards Disability (National Disability Authority)
The Effects of Communication Styles on Marital Satisfaction (Hannah Yager)

Additional Literature Review Format Guidelines

In addition to the content guidelines above, authors also need to check which style guidelines to use ( APA , Chicago, MLA, etc.) and what specific rules the target journal might have for how to structure such articles or how many studies to include—such information can usually be found on the journals’ “Guide for Authors” pages. Additionally, use one of the four Wordvice citation generators below, choosing the citation style needed for your paper:

Wordvice Writing and Academic Editing Resources

Finally, after you have finished drafting your literature review, be sure to receive professional proofreading services , including paper editing for your academic work. A competent proofreader who understands academic writing conventions and the specific style guides used by academic journals will ensure that your paper is ready for publication in your target journal.

See our academic resources for further advice on references in your paper , how to write an abstract , how to write a research paper title, how to impress the editor of your target journal with a perfect cover letter , and dozens of other research writing and publication topics.

How to do Research on Literature

Selected Subject Headings

Listed below is a sample of a few broad Library of Congress subject headings—made up of one word or more representing concepts under which all library holdings are divided and subdivided by subject—which you can search under and use as subject terms as well when searching online library catalogs for preliminary and/or additional research, such as books, audio and video recordings, and other references, related to your research paper topic. When researching materials on your topic, subject heading searching may be more productive than searching using simple keywords. However, keyword searching when using the right search method (Boolean, etc.) and combination of words can be equally effective in finding materials more closely relevant to the topic of your research paper.

Academic Writing, Editing, Proofreading, And Problem Solving Services

Get 10% off with 24start discount code, suggested research topics in literature:.

American Literature
English Literature
Fiction and Juvenile Literatures
Literature and Society
Literature, Comparative
Literature, Dictionaries
Literature—History and collections
Literature—History and criticism
Literature Research
Romance Literature
Short Stories, American—History and criticism
Teutonic literatures

Selected Keyword Search Strategies and Guides

If your topic is “banned books and American literature,” for example, enter “banned books” and “American literature” with “and” on the same line to locate sources directly compatible with the primary focus of your paper. To find research on more specific aspects of your topic, alternate with one new keyword at a time with “and” in between (for example, “banned books and authors,” “banned books and the U.S. Constitution,” “banned books and politics,” “banned books and racism,” “banned books and religion,” etc.).

For additional help with keyword searching, navigation or user guides for online indexes and databases by many leading providers—including Cambridge Scientific Abstracts, EBSCO, H.W. Wilson, OCLC, Ovid Technologies, ProQuest, and Thomson Gale—are posted with direct links on library Web sites to guides providing specific instruction to using whichever database you want to search. They provide additional guidance on how to customize and maximize your search, including advanced searching techniques and grouping of words and phrases using the Boolean search method—of your research paper topic, of bibliographic records, and of full-text articles, and other documents related to your subject.

Selected Source and Subject Guides

As part of your preliminary research to find appropriate resources for your research paper, information source and research guides are available at most public and academic libraries and are keyword searchable through your library’s online catalog (to search and locate guides, enter your “subject” followed by these keywords one search at a time: “information sources,” “reference sources,” and “research guide”). Printed guides available for this subject area include

Literary Research Guide: An Annotated Listing of Reference Sources in English Literary Studies , 5th ed., by James L. Harner, 826 pages (New York: Modern Language Association of America, 2009)

Reference Works in British and American Literature , 2nd ed., by James K. Bracken, 727 pages (Englewood, Colo.: Libraries Unlimited, 1998)

A Reference Guide for English Studies , by Michael J. Marcuse, 790 pages (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990)

A Research Guide for Undergraduate Students: English and American Literature , 6th ed., by Nancy L. Baker and Nancy Huling, 96 pages (New York: Modern Language Association of America, 2006)

In addition to these sources of research, most college and university libraries offer online subject guides arranged by subject on the library’s Web page; others also list searchable course-related “LibGuides” by subject. Each guide lists more recommended published and Web sources—including books and references, journal, newspaper and magazines indexes, full-text article databases, Web sites, and even research tutorials—that you can access to expand your research on more specific issues and relevant to the topic of your research paper.

Selected Books and References

Anthologies.

Norton Anthology of American Literature , 7th ed., 5 vols., edited by Nina Baym et al., 2,600 pages (New York: W.W. Norton, 2007)

Classic, broadly focused anthology of American literature featuring the works of 212 well-known writers, including 38 new additions—many in their entirety—from Native American to postmodern women writers. Thirty complete works are included in this two-volume set, among them The Awakening, A Streetcar Named Desire, and newer entries, such as Allen Ginsberg’s Howl, and David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross.

Oxford Companion to American Literature , 6th ed., edited by James David Hart and Philip Leininger, 800 pages (New York: Oxford University Press 1995)

This anthology encompasses more than 5,000 scholarly entries treating all areas of American literature. Among the entries are more than 2,000 biographical profiles of U.S. and foreign authors examining each author’s style, subjects, and major literary works. In addition, 1,100 summaries discuss major American novels, biographies and autobiographies, essays, plays, poems, and stories. Many other subjects related to writing in America are highlighted as well, such as literary awards, literary and social history, and all are extensively cross-referenced and indexed for easy use.

Biography and Literary Criticism

Contemporary Authors , 296 vols. (Detroit, Mich.: Gale Research, 1962– )

Published since 1962, this multivolume source supplies biographical and bibliographic information on more than 120,000 modern fiction and nonfiction writers from many countries and fields, including novelists, poets, playwrights, scriptwriters, journalists, biographers, and essayists. This popular reference series is also available as an e-book and on the Web separately and as part of Gale’s Literary Index by subscription.

Contemporary Literary Criticism , 292 vols. (Detroit, Mich.: Gale Research, 1973– )

First published in 1973, this ongoing reference series offers critical essays of authors now living or deceased since 1960 originally published in books, scholarly and popular periodicals, and newspapers with bibliographical citations to the full critical study for further reference. A separate cumulative title index accompanies the set, and the entire series is also offered online.

Contemporary Novelists , 7th ed., edited by Josh Lauer and Neil Schlager, 1,166 pages (Detroit, Mich.: St. James Press, 2000)

This encyclopedic reference, originally published in 1972, includes biographies, bibliographies, and critical essays on approximately 650 contemporary English-language novelists, including 100 new entries. Includes nationality and title indexes. Also offered online as part of Gale’s Literary Index, a master index of literary references published by Gale, and in e-book form.

Contemporary Poets , 7th ed., 1,443 pages (Detroit, Mich.: St. James Press, 2000)

Fully revised and updated reference featuring biographical and bibliographical data on 787 contemporary English-language poets, with 120 new entries added. Coverage includes personal and career information, critical essays, and detailed bibliographies covering each poet’s works. Nationality and title indices are provided for cross-referencing of subjects. Written by noted experts, this reference is also accessible online as part of Gale’s Literary Index, featuring 130 literature references from Gale and other publishers’ imprints and in an e-book version.

Dictionary of Literary Biography , 357 vols. (Detroit, Mich.: Gale Group, 1978– )

With nearly 300 volumes published since 1978, this reference series provides detailed biographical and critical information on more than 10,000 authors grouped by period, genre, or movement from a wide range of historical periods and nationalities written by more than 8,000 editors and contributors. Each entry includes a biography, a complete listing of the author’s writings, and a selection of critical sources for further study. Mostly focusing on English or American authors, the series also covers 20th-century American and British science fiction and fantasy writers prior to World War I. Yearbooks, published annually since 1980, feature updates of previously included authors and new authors. The final volume indexes the authors by name and corresponds with entries to all volumes. The entire contents of the series are available as a single online database and also as part of Gale’s Literary Index, and in an e-book edition.

Magill’s Bibliography of Literary Criticism: Selected Sources for the Study of More Than 2,500 Outstanding Works of Western Literature , edited by Frank N. Magill, 4 vols., 2,380 pages (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Salem Press, 1979)

This four-volume set indexes criticism of more than 2,500 books and periodicals and all types of literature from biblical times through 1979. Each volume contains an author-title index, and Volume 4 is a title index.

Magill’s Critical Survey of Long Fiction, 2nd rev. ed., edited by Carl Rollyson and Frank N. Magill, 8 vols., 4,392 pages (Pasadena, Calif.: Salem Press, 2000)

Revised in 2000, this multivolume series, formerly edited by Frank N. Magill and first published in 1983, supplies critical studies and in-depth overviews of major authors of long fiction.

Magill’s Critical Survey of Poetry , 2nd rev. ed., edited by Philip K. Jason and Frank N. Magill, 8 vols., 5,352 pages (Pasadena, Calif.: Salem Press, 2002)

Revised version of the original 1982 edition edited by Frank N. Magill featuring scholarly articles and in-depth essays on 368 English-language poets, including 27 new entries, examining the work of major and minor poets. Each entry, averaging 10 pages each, surveys subjects’ backgrounds and achievements combined with critical analysis of their major works. Updated and annotated bibliographies accompany all entries.

Magill’s Guide to Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature , edited by T. A. Shippey and A. J. Sobczak, 4 vols., 1,126 pages (Pasadena, Calif.: Salem Press, 1996)

Provides a plot summary and brief critical analysis for several hundred works of science fiction and fantasy, arranged by the title of the work. Volume 4 includes bibliographies, lists of prizewinners, and much more.

Magill’s Literary Annual , edited by Frank N. Magill, et al. (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Salem Press, 1977– )

Each edition of this annually published two-volume set contains critical essays, reviews, and sources for further study of 200 major literary works published in the United States each year. In addition, the set includes four cumulative indexes—biographical works by subject, a category index, a title index, and an author index—listing titles reviewed in past editions from 1977 to 2004 in Volume 2. Updates Magill’s Masterplots annual.

Magill’s Masterplots , edited by Frank N. Magill, 11 vols. (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Salem Press, 1954– )

First launched in 1954, This multivolume work offers critical essays and synopses with principal characters drawn from world literature arranged by title. An author index accompanies the series. Also since 1954, Salem Press publishes an annual series called Masterplots Annual that includes reviews of 100 outstanding books each year. A cumulative print index, Index to Masterplots: Cumulative Indexes 1963–1990, also indexes many volumes in the series.

Magill’s Masterplots II , edited by Frank N. Magill, 30 vols. (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Salem Press, 1986– )

Newer series of interpretive essays and criticisms with summaries and brief bibliographies on the works of 20th-century authors, published as fourto six-volume sets on different genres of literature published around the world. Titles in the series include Masterplots II: African-American Literature Series (1994– ); Masterplots II: British and Commonwealth Series (1989– ); Masterplots II: Drama Series (1990– ); Masterplots II: Juvenile and Young Adult Fiction Series (1991– ); Masterplots II: Nonfiction Series (1989– ); Masterplots II: Short Story Series (1986– ); and Masterplots II: World Fiction Series (1987– ). Salem Press’s Index to Masterplots: Cumulative Indexes 1963–1990 also indexes the series.

Magill’s Survey of American Literature , edited by Frank N. Magill, 8 vols., 2,896 pages (New York: Marshall Cavendish Corp., 1991–94)

Features critical surveys of major American writers from the 17th to the late 20th century representing all forms of literature.

Magill’s Survey of Contemporary Literature , edited by Frank N. Magill, 19 vols., 13,701 pages (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Salem Press, 1971, 1977)

This major multivolume literary series contains 500 updated reprints of 2,000 reviews from Masterplots annuals from 1954 to 1976 on authors of contemporary literature. Each essay includes brief biographical data about the author and publication data about the work, a brief description of the work and a critical essay.

Magill’s Survey of Modern Fantasy Literature , edited by Frank N. Magill, 5 vols., 2,589 pages (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Salem Press, 1983)

Featuring 500 critical essays covering individual works, collections, series, trilogies, and short fiction, this five-volume set includes biographical information about each author, dates of publication, descriptions of their work, and criticisms. The fifth and final volume features 19 critical essays on theories of fantasy, eroticism, witchcraft, fantasy poetry, and other forms of fantasy.

Magill’s Survey of Science Fiction Literature: Five Hundred 2,000-Word Essay Reviews of World-Famous Science Fiction Novels with 2,500 Bibliographical References , edited by Frank N. Magill, 5 vols., 2,542 pages (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Salem Press, 1979– )

A five-volume set providing lengthy and detailed essays and plot summaries of science fiction with critical analysis of each author’s style, content, and individual works covering some of the most significant science fiction novels ever written. In 1982, Salem Press published a bibliographical supplement to the series.

Magill’s Survey of Short Fiction , 2nd Ed., edited by Charles E. May and Frank N. Magill, 7 vols. 2,900 pages (Pasadena, Calif.: Salem Press, 2001)

Part of Salem Press’s award-winning Critical Survey series, this seven-volume set examines the work of 500 short fiction writers, including such diverse writers as Hans Christian Andersen, Woody Allen, Ursula Le Guin, and Alice Walker. Entries offer biographical information, critical analysis of specific works, a list of literary works, dates of publication, and an annotated bibliography for each author reviewed.

Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism , 240 vols. (Detroit, Mich.: Gale Research Co., 1978– )

Features excerpts from criticism of the works of more than 500 novelists, poets, playwrights, short story writers, and other creative writers living between 1900 and 1999. Every fourth volume in the series is devoted to literary topics that could not be covered under the author approach.

World Authors , 9 vols. (Bronx, N.Y.: New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1975– )

First published in 1975, this nine-volume reference set—a companion volume to H.W. Wilson’s now outdated biographical dictionary Twentieth Century Authors (1942–79)—features biographical sketches on internationally known authors. The first volume in the set spans 20 years (1950–70), with each subsequent volume covering a five-year period, including 1970–75, 1975–80, 1980–85, 1985–90, 1990–95, 1995–2000, and 2000–05.

Encyclopedias

Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia of American Literature , 5th ed., edited by Bruce Murphy, 1,232 pages (New York: HarperCollins, 2008)

This classic, fully revised and updated, explores all aspects of world literature. Entries encompass biographies of poets, playwrights, novelists, and belletrists, plot summaries and character sketches from major works, historical information on literary schools, movements, terms, and awards, myths and legends, and much more. Coverage is given to African, African-American, Eastern European, Middle Eastern, South American, and women’s literature, and more.

Encyclopedia of Folklore and Literature , edited by Mary Ellen Brown and Bruce A. Rosenberg, 784 pages (Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO, 1999)

Authoritatively surveys the connections between folklore and literature in 350 alphabetically arranged entries. Divided into four categories, entries explore writers who used folklore as a source in their literary works, concepts, themes, and characters with folklore origins found in written literature and studies in the field of folklore and literature by leading scholars. Major emphasis is given to European and Western themes, including classical Greek and Roman mythology.

Encyclopedia of the Novel , edited by Paul Schellinger, 2 vols., 1,652 pages (Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 1998)

Designed for more advanced literature students, this highly recommended encyclopedia comprehensively covers the history and development of the novel in 650 scholarly essays. All aspects of novel are explored, including classic novels, famous novelists, novels, novels about a specific country or region, and other subjects, such as theory, influence, and criticism. Each entry includes brief biographies, lists of works, and additional readings.

Encyclopedia of World Literature in the 20th Century , 3rd ed., edited by Steven R. Serafin, 4 vols., 3,000 pages (Detroit, Mich.: St. James Press, 1998)

This widely acclaimed four-volume encyclopedic set offers in-depth criticisms of more than 2,000 individual authors discussing “genres, movements, and trends in literature” of authors from around the world, including Chinua Achebe, James Baldwin, Samuel Beckett, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, and Virginia Woolf, and entries on numerous other topics. Bibliographies are included.

The Facts On File Companion to the American Short Story , 2nd ed., edited by Abby H. P. Werlock (New York: Facts On File, 2009)

This updated guide, written in a clear, easy-to read style, discusses American short fiction from the 19th century to the 1990s. Approximately 675 entries, listed in alphabetical order, cover author biographies, famous characters, influential events, themes and theories, and detailed summaries of major stories. Author entries provide personal and career information, including important dates, biographies, lists of stories, critical reaction, and a list of references. Also included are appendixes, covering short story awards and winners, stories by subject and setting, and a selected bibliography of critical histories and theoretical approaches to short story writing. Other useful references include The Facts On File Companion to American Drama, The Facts On File Companion to Classical Drama, and other titles in the Facts On File literature list.

The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Literature , edited by Jay Parini, 4 vols., 2,280 pages (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003)

Suitable for high school and university students and literature enthusiasts, this multivolume reference examines American literature from colonial times to the present. Throughout this outstanding resource are 350 historical and topical articles discussing all genres of literature. Includes an extensive index and bibliographies for further reading.

General References

Literary Research Guide: A Guide to Reference Sources for the Study of Literatures in English and Related Topics , 5th ed., edited by James L. Horner, 826 pages (New York: Modern Language Association of America, 2008)

Complete bibliographic reference of sources available for study of literature and related topics. Items covered in this revised fourth edition include databases, dissertations, guides to manuscripts and archives, indexes, literary genres, periodicals, and American, English, Irish, Scottish, and Welsh literature.

World Literature and Its Times , edited by Joyce Moss and Lorraine Valestuk, 8 vols. (Detroit, Mich.: Gale Group, 1999– )

Each volume of this highly acclaimed academic reference set spans 50 entries of major fiction, nonfiction, and poetry from countries listed in alphabetical order by title. Each entry combines literary and historical information and discusses the social and political background, plot or contents, social, political or literary events of the author’s life and influences on each work. The six-volume set covers the literatures of Africa, Asia, India, Italy, France, England, Ireland, Latin America, the Middle East, Portugal, and Spain. Also published in e-book form.

Selected Full-Text Article Databases

ABELL: Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature (Ann Arbor, Mich.: ProQuest. 1892 )

Indexes 860,000 citations of journal articles on all aspects and periods of English literature, with full-text availability of articles from 120 scholarly journals from 1892 to date.

Academic Search Elite (Ipswich, Mass.: EBSCOHost, indexing/abstracting: 1984– , full text: 1990– )

Indexes more than 2,700 journals with full-text coverage of 1,530 academic titles in the fields of humanities, education, and general science. Full text extends back to January 1990, while indexing and abstracting is from January 1984 to the present. This subscription database is an ideal place to look up book reviews, criticisms, and reviews of creative works, from poems to short stories.

Bloom’s Literary Reference Online (New York: Infobase Publishing, 2006– )

Full-text collection of critical articles published in the long-standing Bloom’s Literary Criticism series, including Bloom’s Modern Literary Views and Bloom’s Modern Literary Interpretations. Also includes full text of literature reference books published by Facts On File, including the Companion to Literature and the Critical Companion series. Ideal for high school and college students researching authors or works.

Contemporary Authors (Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale, 19th century– )

Web edition of this reference series includes biographical and bibliographical information on more than 120,000 contemporary writers. Covers novelists, poets, essayists, journalists, and other writers. Includes full text of journals on literature and literary criticism.

DiscLit: American Authors (Boston: G. K. Hall & Co./OCLC, 1992– )

CD-ROM collection of full-text biographical and critical overviews of 140 American authors from books in Twayne’s United States Authors series published before 1991. Entries include chronologies, references, and selected bibliographies of each author and his or her literary work.

DiscLit: British Authors (Boston: G. K. Hall & Co./OCLC, 1992– )

Compact disc reference of literary criticism of selected British authors from Twayne’s English Authors series containing the full text of 145 volumes by authors ranging from Chaucer to Shakespeare, as well as the OCLC British Authors Catalog featuring 200,000 citations of widely held books by and about British authors from the OCLC Online Union Catalog.

DISCovering Authors (Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale, GaleNet, 1992– )

First published in 1992 on CD-ROM as DISCovering Authors: Biographies and Criticism on 300 Most Studied Authors, this online full-text bio-bibliographical version features fully illustrated biographical sketches and excerpts from literary criticism of 1,260 of the world’s most-studied novelists, poets, and dramatists. Authors are from a variety of nations, cultures, time periods, and genres, from Maya Angelou to William Shakespeare.

Expanded Academic ASAP (Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale InfoTrac, 1980– )

Indexes some 8.5 million articles from 3,000 journals, magazines, and newspapers, with full text available for selected literary journals.

Humanities Full Text (Bronx, N.Y.: H.W. Wilson Co., WilsonWeb/Ovid Technologies, Inc./Thomson DIALOG, indexing: 1984– ; full text: January 1995– )

Provides online indexing of 160 journal articles, some full text, from 400 major humanities periodicals in the fields of archaeology, classical studies, film, folklore, gender studies, history, journalism, communications, language, literature, literary and political criticism, performing arts, philosophy, and religion.

International Index to Black Periodicals Full-Text (Ann Arbor, Mich.: Chadwyck-Healey/ProQuest, 1902– )

Web adaptation of the printed volume offering current and retrospective bibliographic citations and abstracts from 150 scholarly and popular journals, newspapers, and newsletters from the United States, Africa, and the Caribbean since 1902, and full-text coverage of 40 black studies periodicals from 1988 to the present. Coverage spans cultural, economic, historical, religious, social, and political issues in the area of black studies.

JSTOR (Ann Arbor, Mich.: Journal Storage Project, 1996– )

Full-text collection of more than 300 scholarly journals covering the arts and sciences, including such literature journals as African American Review, Comparative Literature, ELH, Modern Language Journal, New Literary History, Review of English Studies, and Shakespeare Quarterly.

LION: Literature Online (Ann Arbor, Mich.: ProQuest, 600– )

This subscription-based library bills itself as “the world’s largest cross-searchable database of literature and literary criticism.” It covers more than 350,000 works of English and American poetry, drama and prose, 400 author bibliographies, 1,000 biographies of the most studied authors, 200 journals (with 30 in full text), and links to author Web sites and ABELL (Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature).

Literature Resource Center (Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale)

Online database providing direct access to biographical, bibliographical, and critical analysis, based on Gale’s library of literary references, including Contemporary Authors, Dictionary of Literacy Criticism, and some 371,000 full-text articles from more than 230 literary journals, 38,000 critical essays, and 4,329 plot summaries and overviews. Areas covered include drama, history, journalism, nonfiction, and poetry. Also includes a link to the full-text version of Merriam-Webster’s Encyclopedia of Literature and links to 5,000 Web sites focusing on major authors and their works.

NewsBank Newsfile Collection (Naples, Fla.: NewsBank, 1991– )

Besides covering current events, this fully searchable collection includes full-text articles from 500 U.S. regional and national newspapers, news broadcasts, and wire services from 1991 to the present. Coverage includes newspaper book reviews and literary news topics found under the category “General News: Arts and Sports Reviews.”

Periodicals Index Online (Ann Arbor, Mich.: Chadwyck-Healey/ProQuest, 1770–1995)

This major online periodical database (formerly called Periodicals Contents Index) offers full text and retrospective coverage of the content (including book reviews) of thousands of humanities and social science periodicals since their first issues from 1770 to 1995.

ProjectMUSE (Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990– )

Full-text collection of more than 100 scholarly journals in arts and humanities, mathematics, and social sciences, including 31 literature titles.

ProQuest Research Library II (Ann Arbor, Mich.: ProQuest/UMI, indexing: 1971– , full text: 1986– )

Offers complete citations with abstracts to some 2,500 periodicals, including the current six months of the New York Times and Wall Street Journal. Publications index includes 396 humanities and 239 general-interest periodicals with full-text article searchable from approximately 600 titles.

Selected Periodicals

American Literature: A Journal of Literary History, Criticism, and Bibliography (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press; published in cooperation with the Modern Language Association 1929– , quarterly)

Regarded as “the preeminent journal in its field,” this quarterly scholarly journal features criticisms of a broad spectrum of literary periods and literary genres. Each issue contains articles written by leading scholars and critics covering the works of American authors, and a large book review section. The journal is indexed and abstracted in such leading references as America: History and Life, Historical Abstracts, Humanities Index, Index to Book Reviews in the Humanities, MLA International Bibliography, and many others. Links to full text of recent articles is available through JSTOR (1929–99) and ProjectMUSE (2003– ).

Comparative Literature (Eugene: University of Oregon, 1949– , quarterly)

Founded in 1949, this official publication of the American Comparative Literature Association is devoted to the worldwide exploration of important issues of literary history and theory. Published quarterly by the University of Oregon, each issue typically contains scholarly articles covering a broad range of theoretical and critical approaches. EBSCOHost’s Academic Search Premier (1975– ) and Wilson Select Full Text Plus (1995– ) are among the online databases that offer full-text indexing of articles from past issues. Online access to the first 50 volumes is available through JSTOR (1949–98).

Contemporary Literature (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1968– )

Written by leaders in their field and some of the most respected writers today, this quarterly journal focuses on the study of contemporary American, British, and Continental literature. Available in print and online, content typically includes interviews with emerging authors, articles on contemporary literature, and reviews of recently published critical works. Articles are indexed in such popular online databases as Biography Resource Center (1993–99), EBSCOHost’s Academic Search Premier (1975– ) and Expanded Academic ASAP (1992), excluding the most recent 12 months. Back issues of Contemporary Literature are available in full-text form through JSTOR, and also accessible through ProjectMUSE.

ELH: Journal of Literary History (Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1934– , quarterly)

This quarterly academic journal offers “superior studies that interpret the conditions affecting major works in English and American literature.” Articles offer a scholarly view of historical, critical, and theoretical concerns relative to its subject. One of the first journals offered in electronic form by ProjectMUSE, ELH is available as part of its online collection starting with the winter 1993 issue, and through JSTOR (1934–94) with links to full-text recent issues (1995–2003).

Journal of Modern Literature (Philadelphia: Temple University; Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1970– , quarterly)

More than 30 years after its founding, the Journal of Modern Literature is widely recognized as “the journal of record on modern literature.” Each issue addresses contemporary writing and literature written from 1900 to the present. Contents include essays, interviews, position papers, and political manifestos on related subjects. Full-text articles are available through Academic Search Premier (1975– ), Wilson Select Full Text Plus (1997– ), and ProjectMUSE (1998–present)

The New York Review of Books (New York: Arno Press, 1963– , biweekly)

Widely regarded as “the premier literary intellectual magazine in the English language,” this biweekly magazine founded during a New York newspaper publishing strike in 1963 features informative and critical essays on culture, current affairs, and literature. Articles from recent editions are accessible online at http://www.nybooks.com/ .

The New York Times Book Review (New York: Arno Press, 1896–; Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 2001– , weekly)

Distributed separately or as part of Sunday’s New York Times, this weekly literary tabloid reviews new nonfiction and fiction books, and includes essays on literary culture, previews of upcoming books, discussion of publishing trends, and more. Visitors can browse recent articles online at http://www.nytimes.com/pages/books/ .

PMLA (Publications of the Modern Language Association) (New York: Modern Language Association of America, 1884– , 6 times a year)

Published six times yearly since 1884, this journal of the Modern Language Association of America offers a variety of articles geared toward university and college scholars and teachers of English and foreign languages. Four issues per year (January, March, May, and October) feature a collection of essays written by association members on language and literature. A directory is published in September listing all members, including names and addresses, and a program is published in November for the association’s annual convention. A collection of past issues is accessible to subscribers at JSTOR (1889–1990).

Publishers Weekly: The International News Magazine of Publishing (New York: F. Leypoldt, 1872– , weekly)

The longest-active trade publication of its kind, this weekly newsmagazine offers international coverage of book publishing, including interviews with authors, industry news, and a list of the latest nonfiction and fiction bestsellers. Every issue covers all segments of publishing, from the creation and production of books to sales and marketing. The Web site offers current and past articles, including news, features, book reviews, and special reports, at http://www.publishersweekly.com/ . Full access is restricted to subscribers only.

TLS: The Times Literary Supplement (London: Times Newspapers Ltd., 1902– , weekly)

Weekly literary supplement published by the Times Newspapers of London featuring comprehensive and entertaining essays on new and forthcoming books, both hardcover and paperback, on the arts, history, politics, and world literature. Full-text images of previous issues from 1902 to 1994 are available as part of a subscription database, TLS: Times Literary Supplement, offered by the Gale Group.

World Literature Today (Norman: University of Oklahoma, 1927– , quarterly)

Founded in 1927 by Oklahoma scholar Roy Temple House, this quarterly scholarly journal upholds his original vision, featuring interviews, reviews, and essays on authors and literature from around the world. Content includes reviews of fiction, poetry, and criticism, divided by language, and articles and columns discussing global and regional trends, children’s literature, and writers’ conferences. Full-text articles of World Literature Today are available at InfoTrac’s Expanded Academic ASAP (1994– ).

For a complete and current list of literature journals, not including newsletters, see:

MLA Directory of Periodicals: A Guide to Journals and Serials in Language and Literature , 2nd Ed. 2 vols., (Modern Language Association, 1991–96)

Produced by the Modern Language Association of America, this second edition, two-volume directory lists periodicals, indexed in the MLA International Bibliography, in the fields of literature, language, linguistics, culture, and folklore. All entries provide such basic information as title, publisher, editor name, and language. In 2000, the directory was offered online via subscription through EBSCO Publishing. Content is keyword-searchable by subject, title, and more.

Selected Web Sites

English Literature on the Web ( http://www.lang.nagoya-u.ac.jp/~matsuoka/EngLit.html )

Large online directory of literature sites on the Web.

English Literature: A Guide to Sources ( http://guides.library.cornell.edu/englishlit )

Compiled by Fred Muratori of Cornell University libraries, this Web page features a selected bibliography of library resources, such as chronologies, handbooks, indexes, and sources of literary criticism on English literature.

Literary Sources on the Net ( http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Lit/ )

A comprehensive collection of electronic sources for the study of literature covering such areas as classical, biblical, medieval, Victorian, and more with links.

Voice of the Shuttle: English Literature ( http://vos.ucsb.edu/ )

Provides access to both primary and secondary resources for students and instructors from elementary school, high school, and the general public on all academic disciplines, including English literature.

Careers Related to Literature

Literary Arts Career Field ( http://career.iresearchnet.com/career-fields/literary-arts-career-field/ )

From the earliest times, people have wanted to communicate with other people, and one of the best means of communication is language. Before the invention of writing, people could only transmit information orally. After writing was invented, which may have occurred in Sumer in approximately 4000 BC, writers could communicate with people who were not within speaking distance. Written communication took various forms in various cultures, and over the centuries a wide range of forms came into existence. As time passed, these forms were developed and refined.

Book Publishing Career Field ( http://career.iresearchnet.com/career-fields/book-publishing-career-field/ )

The earliest known books were the clay tablets of Mesopotamia and the papyrus rolls of Egypt. Examples of both date from about 3000 BC. According to archeological findings, the Chinese developed books about 1300 BC. Early Chinese books were made of wood or bamboo strips and bound together with cords.

With the spread of Greek culture and the Greek alphabet in the third century b.c., books became accessible to more people. For the first time, the general public began to read on a wide range of topics. Up until that point, books had been primarily produced for scholarly research or for use by royalty.

Writers Career Information ( http://career.iresearchnet.com/career-information/writer-careers/ )

Writers express, edit, promote, and interpret ideas and facts in written form for books, magazines, trade journals, newspapers, technical studies and reports, company newsletters, radio and television broadcasts, and advertisements.

Writers develop fiction and nonfiction ideas for plays, novels, poems, and other related works; report, analyze, and interpret facts, events, and personalities; review art, music, film, drama, and other artistic presentations; and persuade the general public to choose or favor certain goods, services, and personalities. There are approximately 192,000 salaried writers, authors, and technical writers employed in the United States.

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Literature Review

Where to search when doing a literature review.

Find examples of literature reviews
How to write a literature review
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Grey literature

Aim to be as comprehensive as possible when conducting a literature review. Knowing exactly where to search for information is important.

Work through the steps to find out the best databases to search for information on your research topic.

1. Start with research databases

Scopus and Web of Science are good databases to start with for any research topic and literature review.

Scopus Scopus is a large multidisciplinary database covering published material in the humanities and sciences. It also provides citation analysis of authors and subject areas. Searching Scopus tutorial - Includes access to Scival via expanded top menu (Elsevier personal registration required).
Web of Science - Core Collection The leading citation index' of scholarly literature, chemical reactions and author information. Includes citation databases: Sciences Expanded (1965+), Social Sciences (1965+), Arts & Humanities (1975+). Conference Proceedings (1990+), Emerging Sources Citation (2005+) , Current Chemical Reactions (1985+) and Index Chemicus (1993+) Access InCites benchmarking & analytics tools via the menu bar at the top of the screen.

2. Focus your search with specific databases

Select two or three discipline/specialist databases to conduct your search for comprehensive results.

Our subject guides will help you find databases relevant to major subject areas in each discipline and specific materials relevant to your research.

Discipline subject guides
News sources

3. Find books, theses and more

If you're looking for a specific medium (book, thesis, journal, etc.) for your research, try the following:

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Review of Related Literature: Format, Example, & How to Make RRL

A review of related literature is a separate paper or a part of an article that collects and synthesizes discussion on a topic. Its purpose is to show the current state of research on the issue and highlight gaps in existing knowledge. A literature review can be included in a research paper or scholarly article, typically following the introduction and before the research methods section.

The picture provides introductory definition of a review of related literature.

This article will clarify the definition, significance, and structure of a review of related literature. You’ll also learn how to organize your literature review and discover ideas for an RRL in different subjects.

🔤 What Is RRL?

❗ Significance of Literature Review
🔎 How to Search for Literature
🧩 Literature Review Structure
📋 Format of RRL — APA, MLA, & Others
✍️ How to Write an RRL
📚 Examples of RRL

🔗 References

A review of related literature (RRL) is a part of the research report that examines significant studies, theories, and concepts published in scholarly sources on a particular topic. An RRL includes 3 main components:

A short overview and critique of the previous research.
Similarities and differences between past studies and the current one.
An explanation of the theoretical frameworks underpinning the research.

❗ Significance of Review of Related Literature

Although the goal of a review of related literature differs depending on the discipline and its intended use, its significance cannot be overstated. Here are some examples of how a review might be beneficial:

It helps determine knowledge gaps .
It saves from duplicating research that has already been conducted.
It provides an overview of various research areas within the discipline.
It demonstrates the researcher’s familiarity with the topic.

🔎 How to Perform a Literature Search

Including a description of your search strategy in the literature review section can significantly increase your grade. You can search sources with the following steps:

	You should specify all the keywords and their synonyms used to look for relevant sources.
	Using your search terms, look through the online (libraries and databases) and offline (books and journals) sources related to your topic.
	It is not possible to discuss all of the sources you have discovered. Instead, use the works of the most notable researchers and authors.
	From the remaining references, you should pick those with the most significant contribution to the research area development.
	Your literature should prioritize new publications over older ones to cover the latest research advancements.

🧩 Literature Review Structure Example

The majority of literature reviews follow a standard introduction-body-conclusion structure. Let’s look at the RRL structure in detail.

This image shows the literature review structure.

Introduction of Review of Related Literature: Sample

An introduction should clarify the study topic and the depth of the information to be delivered. It should also explain the types of sources used. If your lit. review is part of a larger research proposal or project, you can combine its introductory paragraph with the introduction of your paper.

Here is a sample introduction to an RRL about cyberbullying:

Bullying has troubled people since the beginning of time. However, with modern technological advancements, especially social media, bullying has evolved into cyberbullying. As a result, nowadays, teenagers and adults cannot flee their bullies, which makes them feel lonely and helpless. This literature review will examine recent studies on cyberbullying.

Sample Review of Related Literature Thesis

A thesis statement should include the central idea of your literature review and the primary supporting elements you discovered in the literature. Thesis statements are typically put at the end of the introductory paragraph.

Look at a sample thesis of a review of related literature:

This literature review shows that scholars have recently covered the issues of bullies’ motivation, the impact of bullying on victims and aggressors, common cyberbullying techniques, and victims’ coping strategies. However, there is still no agreement on the best practices to address cyberbullying.

Literature Review Body Paragraph Example

The main body of a literature review should provide an overview of the existing research on the issue. Body paragraphs should not just summarize each source but analyze them. You can organize your paragraphs with these 3 elements:

Claim . Start with a topic sentence linked to your literature review purpose.
Evidence . Cite relevant information from your chosen sources.
Discussion . Explain how the cited data supports your claim.

Here’s a literature review body paragraph example:

Scholars have examined the link between the aggressor and the victim. Beran et al. (2007) state that students bullied online often become cyberbullies themselves. Faucher et al. (2014) confirm this with their findings: they discovered that male and female students began engaging in cyberbullying after being subject to bullying. Hence, one can conclude that being a victim of bullying increases one’s likelihood of becoming a cyberbully.

Review of Related Literature: Conclusion

A conclusion presents a general consensus on the topic. Depending on your literature review purpose, it might include the following:

Introduction to further research . If you write a literature review as part of a larger research project, you can present your research question in your conclusion .
Overview of theories . You can summarize critical theories and concepts to help your reader understand the topic better.
Discussion of the gap . If you identified a research gap in the reviewed literature, your conclusion could explain why that gap is significant.

Check out a conclusion example that discusses a research gap:

There is extensive research into bullies’ motivation, the consequences of bullying for victims and aggressors, strategies for bullying, and coping with it. Yet, scholars still have not reached a consensus on what to consider the best practices to combat cyberbullying. This question is of great importance because of the significant adverse effects of cyberbullying on victims and bullies.

📋 Format of RRL — APA, MLA, & Others

In this section, we will discuss how to format an RRL according to the most common citation styles: APA, Chicago, MLA, and Harvard.

Writing a literature review using the APA7 style requires the following text formatting:

	Times New Roman or Arial, 12 pt
	Double spacing
	All sides — 1″ (2.54 cm)
	Top right-hand corner, starting with the title page

When using APA in-text citations , include the author’s last name and the year of publication in parentheses.
For direct quotations , you must also add the page number. If you use sources without page numbers, such as websites or e-books, include a paragraph number instead.
When referring to the author’s name in a sentence , you do not need to repeat it at the end of the sentence. Instead, include the year of publication inside the parentheses after their name.
The reference list should be included at the end of your literature review. It is always alphabetized by the last name of the author (from A to Z), and the lines are indented one-half inch from the left margin of your paper. Do not forget to invert authors’ names (the last name should come first) and include the full titles of journals instead of their abbreviations. If you use an online source, add its URL.

The RRL format in the Chicago style is as follows:

	12-pt Times New Roman, Arial, or Palatino
	Double spacing, single spacing is used to format block quotations, titles of tables and figures, footnotes, and bibliographical entries.
	All sides — 1″ (2.54 cm)
	Top right-hand corner. There should be no numbered pages on the title page or the page with the table of contents.

Author-date . You place your citations in brackets within the text, indicating the name of the author and the year of publication.
Notes and bibliography . You place your citations in numbered footnotes or endnotes to connect the citation back to the source in the bibliography.
The reference list, or bibliography , in Chicago style, is at the end of a literature review. The sources are arranged alphabetically and single-spaced. Each bibliography entry begins with the author’s name and the source’s title, followed by publication information, such as the city of publication, the publisher, and the year of publication.

Writing a literature review using the MLA style requires the following text formatting:

Font	12-pt Times New Roman or Arial
Line spacing	Double spacing
Margins	All sides — 1″ (2.54 cm)
Page numbers	Top right-hand corner. Your last name should precede the page number.
Title page	Not required. Instead, include a header in the top left-hand corner of the first page with content. It should contain:

In the MLA format, you can cite a source in the text by indicating the author’s last name and the page number in parentheses at the end of the citation. If the cited information takes several pages, you need to include all the page numbers.
The reference list in MLA style is titled “ Works Cited .” In this section, all sources used in the paper should be listed in alphabetical order. Each entry should contain the author, title of the source, title of the journal or a larger volume, other contributors, version, number, publisher, and publication date.

The Harvard style requires you to use the following text formatting for your RRL:

	12-pt Times New Roman or Arial
	Double spacing
	All sides — 1″ (2.54 cm)
	Top right-hand corner. Your last name should precede the page number.

In-text citations in the Harvard style include the author’s last name and the year of publication. If you are using a direct quote in your literature review, you need to add the page number as well.
Arrange your list of references alphabetically. Each entry should contain the author’s last name, their initials, the year of publication, the title of the source, and other publication information, like the journal title and issue number or the publisher.

✍️ How to Write Review of Related Literature – Sample

Literature reviews can be organized in many ways depending on what you want to achieve with them. In this section, we will look at 3 examples of how you can write your RRL.

This image shows the organizational patterns of a literature review.

Thematic Literature Review

A thematic literature review is arranged around central themes or issues discussed in the sources. If you have identified some recurring themes in the literature, you can divide your RRL into sections that address various aspects of the topic. For example, if you examine studies on e-learning, you can distinguish such themes as the cost-effectiveness of online learning, the technologies used, and its effectiveness compared to traditional education.

Chronological Literature Review

A chronological literature review is a way to track the development of the topic over time. If you use this method, avoid merely listing and summarizing sources in chronological order. Instead, try to analyze the trends, turning moments, and critical debates that have shaped the field’s path. Also, you can give your interpretation of how and why specific advances occurred.

Methodological Literature Review

A methodological literature review differs from the preceding ones in that it usually doesn’t focus on the sources’ content. Instead, it is concerned with the research methods . So, if your references come from several disciplines or fields employing various research techniques, you can compare the findings and conclusions of different methodologies, for instance:

empirical vs. theoretical studies;
qualitative vs. quantitative research.

📚 Examples of Review of Related Literature and Studies

We have prepared a short example of RRL on climate change for you to see how everything works in practice!

Climate change is one of the most important issues nowadays. Based on a variety of facts, it is now clearer than ever that humans are altering the Earth's climate. The atmosphere and oceans have warmed, causing sea level rise, a significant loss of Arctic ice, and other climate-related changes. This literature review provides a thorough summary of research on climate change, focusing on climate change fingerprints and evidence of human influence on the Earth's climate system.

Physical Mechanisms and Evidence of Human Influence

Scientists are convinced that climate change is directly influenced by the emission of greenhouse gases. They have carefully analyzed various climate data and evidence, concluding that the majority of the observed global warming over the past 50 years cannot be explained by natural factors alone. Instead, there is compelling evidence pointing to a significant contribution of human activities, primarily the emission of greenhouse gases (Walker, 2014). For example, based on simple physics calculations, doubled carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere can lead to a global temperature increase of approximately 1 degree Celsius. (Elderfield, 2022). In order to determine the human influence on climate, scientists still have to analyze a lot of natural changes that affect temperature, precipitation, and other components of climate on timeframes ranging from days to decades and beyond.

Fingerprinting Climate Change

Fingerprinting climate change is a useful tool to identify the causes of global warming because different factors leave unique marks on climate records. This is evident when scientists look beyond overall temperature changes and examine how warming is distributed geographically and over time (Watson, 2022). By investigating these climate patterns, scientists can obtain a more complex understanding of the connections between natural climate variability and climate variability caused by human activity.

Modeling Climate Change and Feedback

To accurately predict the consequences of feedback mechanisms, the rate of warming, and regional climate change, scientists can employ sophisticated mathematical models of the atmosphere, ocean, land, and ice (the cryosphere). These models are grounded in well-established physical laws and incorporate the latest scientific understanding of climate-related processes (Shuckburgh, 2013). Although different climate models produce slightly varying projections for future warming, they all will agree that feedback mechanisms play a significant role in amplifying the initial warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions. (Meehl, 2019).

In conclusion, the literature on global warming indicates that there are well-understood physical processes that link variations in greenhouse gas concentrations to climate change. In addition, it covers the scientific proof that the rates of these gases in the atmosphere have increased and continue to rise fast. According to the sources, the majority of this recent change is almost definitely caused by greenhouse gas emissions produced by human activities. Citizens and governments can alter their energy production methods and consumption patterns to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and, thus, the magnitude of climate change. By acting now, society can prevent the worst consequences of climate change and build a more resilient and sustainable future for generations to come.

Have you ever struggled with finding the topic for an RRL in different subjects? Read the following paragraphs to get some ideas!

Nursing Literature Review Example

Many topics in the nursing field require research. For example, you can write a review of literature related to dengue fever . Give a general overview of dengue virus infections, including its clinical symptoms, diagnosis, prevention, and therapy.

Another good idea is to review related literature and studies about teenage pregnancy . This review can describe the effectiveness of specific programs for adolescent mothers and their children and summarize recommendations for preventing early pregnancy.

📝 Check out some more valuable examples below:

Hospital Readmissions: Literature Review .
Literature Review: Lower Sepsis Mortality Rates .
Breast Cancer: Literature Review .
Sexually Transmitted Diseases: Literature Review .
PICO for Pressure Ulcers: Literature Review .
COVID-19 Spread Prevention: Literature Review .
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: Literature Review .
Hypertension Treatment Adherence: Literature Review .
Neonatal Sepsis Prevention: Literature Review .
Healthcare-Associated Infections: Literature Review .
Understaffing in Nursing: Literature Review .

Psychology Literature Review Example

If you look for an RRL topic in psychology , you can write a review of related literature about stress . Summarize scientific evidence about stress stages, side effects, types, or reduction strategies. Or you can write a review of related literature about computer game addiction . In this case, you may concentrate on the neural mechanisms underlying the internet gaming disorder, compare it to other addictions, or evaluate treatment strategies.

A review of related literature about cyberbullying is another interesting option. You can highlight the impact of cyberbullying on undergraduate students’ academic, social, and emotional development.

📝 Look at the examples that we have prepared for you to come up with some more ideas:

Mindfulness in Counseling: A Literature Review .
Team-Building Across Cultures: Literature Review .
Anxiety and Decision Making: Literature Review .
Literature Review on Depression .
Literature Review on Narcissism .
Effects of Depression Among Adolescents .
Causes and Effects of Anxiety in Children .

Literature Review — Sociology Example

Sociological research poses critical questions about social structures and phenomena. For example, you can write a review of related literature about child labor , exploring cultural beliefs and social norms that normalize the exploitation of children. Or you can create a review of related literature about social media . It can investigate the impact of social media on relationships between adolescents or the role of social networks on immigrants’ acculturation .

📝 You can find some more ideas below!

Single Mothers’ Experiences of Relationships with Their Adolescent Sons .
Teachers and Students’ Gender-Based Interactions .
Gender Identity: Biological Perspective and Social Cognitive Theory .
Gender: Culturally-Prescribed Role or Biological Sex .
The Influence of Opioid Misuse on Academic Achievement of Veteran Students .
The Importance of Ethics in Research .
The Role of Family and Social Network Support in Mental Health .

Education Literature Review Example

For your education studies , you can write a review of related literature about academic performance to determine factors that affect student achievement and highlight research gaps. One more idea is to create a review of related literature on study habits , considering their role in the student’s life and academic outcomes.

You can also evaluate a computerized grading system in a review of related literature to single out its advantages and barriers to implementation. Or you can complete a review of related literature on instructional materials to identify their most common types and effects on student achievement.

📝 Find some inspiration in the examples below:

Literature Review on Online Learning Challenges From COVID-19 .
Education, Leadership, and Management: Literature Review .
Literature Review: Standardized Testing Bias .
Bullying of Disabled Children in School .
Interventions and Letter & Sound Recognition: A Literature Review .
Social-Emotional Skills Program for Preschoolers .
Effectiveness of Educational Leadership Management Skills .

Business Research Literature Review

If you’re a business student, you can focus on customer satisfaction in your review of related literature. Discuss specific customer satisfaction features and how it is affected by service quality and prices. You can also create a theoretical literature review about consumer buying behavior to evaluate theories that have significantly contributed to understanding how consumers make purchasing decisions.

📝 Look at the examples to get more exciting ideas:

Leadership and Communication: Literature Review .
Human Resource Development: Literature Review .
Project Management. Literature Review .
Strategic HRM: A Literature Review .
Customer Relationship Management: Literature Review .
Literature Review on International Financial Reporting Standards .
Cultures of Management: Literature Review .

To conclude, a review of related literature is a significant genre of scholarly works that can be applied in various disciplines and for multiple goals. The sources examined in an RRL provide theoretical frameworks for future studies and help create original research questions and hypotheses.

When you finish your outstanding literature review, don’t forget to check whether it sounds logical and coherent. Our text-to-speech tool can help you with that!

Literature Reviews | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Writing a Literature Review | Purdue Online Writing Lab
Learn How to Write a Review of Literature | University of Wisconsin-Madison
The Literature Review: A Few Tips on Conducting It | University of Toronto
Writing a Literature Review | UC San Diego
Conduct a Literature Review | The University of Arizona
Methods for Literature Reviews | National Library of Medicine
Literature Reviews: 5. Write the Review | Georgia State University

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Progress in remote sensing and gis-based fdi research based on quantitative and qualitative analysis.

1. Introduction

2. research methods and data, 2.1. research methods, 2.2. data sources and screening, 2.3. data processing, 3. subject categories and publication trends, 3.1. subject evolution, 3.2. trends in the number and cited times of published papers, 4. the intellectual structure, 4.1. quantitative analysis, 4.2. qualitative analysis, 4.2.1. macro-environmental research at national, regional, and city scales, 4.2.2. global industrial development and layout, 4.2.3. research on global value chains, 4.2.4. micro-information geography of tncs, 4.2.5. internationalization and commercialization of geo-information industry, 4.2.6. multiple data and interdisciplinary approaches, 5. discussions and conclusions, data availability statement, acknowledgments, conflicts of interest.

1	(accessed on 13 July 2024). One date of launch is missing from the data set, but this has a minimal impact on the overall trend.
2	, accessed on 13 July 2024) is selected as the primary quantitative analysis tool in this paper.

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Click here to enlarge figure

Step	Description	Details
1	Topic identification	Identify a knowledge domain using the broadest possible terms
2	Data collection	Collect data of commonly used sources of scientific literature
3	Terms extract	Extract research front terms
4	Time slicing	Build time series models over time
5	Outcome layout	Analyze domains and generate visualizations

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Share and Cite

Li, Z. Progress in Remote Sensing and GIS-Based FDI Research Based on Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis. Land 2024 , 13 , 1313. https://doi.org/10.3390/land13081313

Li Z. Progress in Remote Sensing and GIS-Based FDI Research Based on Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis. Land . 2024; 13(8):1313. https://doi.org/10.3390/land13081313

Li, Zifeng. 2024. "Progress in Remote Sensing and GIS-Based FDI Research Based on Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis" Land 13, no. 8: 1313. https://doi.org/10.3390/land13081313

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Foreign Language Literatures
Start with the MLA International Bibliography. The MLA International Bibliography is both international and multilingual, making it a great general tool for research in literary scholarship. You can use the drop-down list to specify a Subject Literature by nation or region (Scottish, North African, etc.).
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Contain information from articles, essays, book reviews, monographs, conference proceedings, technical reports, interviews and brief notes published in journals edited in 24 different countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as from publications that focus on Pan-American issues. Spanish language articles.
How to Write a Literature Review: Six Steps to Get You from Start to Finish
Step One: Decide on your areas of research: Before you begin to search for articles or books, decide beforehand what areas you are going to research. Make sure that you only get articles and books in those areas, even if you come across fascinating books in other areas. A literature review I am currently working on, for example, explores ...
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Try to understand the construction of the texts: ask not what the authors have to say; examine how they say it. Researchers should look at the 'stages' of arguments that other authors create ...
International Studies: how to write your thesis
This Subject Guide is designed to support students of International Studies with writing their BA thesis and research papers. This guide focuses on the research process, and suggests effective ways to: 1. find a topic and formulate a good research question; 2. search, find and evaluate literature; 3. search, find and organize primary sources ...
Literature: A Research Guide for Graduate Students
Literature: A Research Guide for Graduate Students. A guide to help get you started on your graduate work in English, Comparative Literature, and related fields. ... The Search Vocabulary page on the general topic guide for literary studies is a great place to start for subject vocabularies. DON'T search in just one place. Judicious ...
Literature: A Research Guide for Graduate Students
This guide is maintained by Odile Harter, the library liaison to the departments of Comparative Literature and English. Here you'll find: Get Started - a to-do list for new graduate students. Find a Database - how to locate the best search engines for your field or project. Research Dos & Don'ts - tips to help you be productive and efficient.
Research Guides: Global Language Literatures: Finding Articles
Literature, Film, Couse Assignments in Languages. The Literary Encyclopedia publishes biographies of major and minor writers; scholarly descriptions of all interesting texts written by these authors, including those often neglected; and a variety of descriptive and critical essays on literary, cultural and historical matters, which provide a finer understanding of the social contexts in which ...
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This guide is meant to assist you in searching for Global language literatures. It has information on how to search our library for Global language titles, as well as selected resources for various language literatures.
How to Write a Literature Review
Examples of literature reviews. Step 1 - Search for relevant literature. Step 2 - Evaluate and select sources. Step 3 - Identify themes, debates, and gaps. Step 4 - Outline your literature review's structure. Step 5 - Write your literature review.
How to do research in Literature
Odile Harter, the library liaison for English and Comparative Literature, is available to support researchers via email or in-person consultation. These services are intended primarily for Harvard University faculty, staff and students. If you are not affiliated with Harvard, please use these services only to request information about the ...
Libraries: Foreign Language and Literature: Research Methods
SAGE Research Methods; Little Green Books (Quantitative Methods) Little Blue Books (Qualitative Methods) Dictionaries and Encyclopedias ; Case studies of real research projects; Sample datasets for hands-on practice; Streaming video--see methods come to life; Methodspace--a community for researchers; SAGE Research Methods Course Mapping
Literature Review
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 ...
Get Started on Research
Start your International Relations research with these key resources: ... (Non-Governmental Organizations), (from the U.S. foreign Affairs viewpoint) Some academic journals. more ... 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 ...
Research Guides: How to Write a Literature Review: 6. Synthesize
Describing how sources converse each other. Organizing similar ideas together so readers can understand how they overlap. Synthesis helps readers see where you add your own new ideas to existing knowledge. Critiquing a source. Simply comparing and contrasting sources. A series of summaries. Direct quotes without using your own voice.
Research Guides: Literary Research in Harvard Libraries: Home
For every project: MLA International Bibliography - a subject-specific index to worldwide scholarship on literature and media studies since 1926. Also includes linguistics and folklore. Strongest for Europe, the Americas, and Anglophone scholarship. For an overview :Oxford Bibliographies Online - use this database when you need to understand ...
How to Make a Literature Review in Research (RRL Example)
A course assignment is an example of a selective, stand-alone work.It focuses on a small segment of the literature on a topic and makes up an entire work on its own. The literature review in a dissertation or thesis is both comprehensive and helps make up a larger work.; A majority of journal articles start with a selective literature review to provide context for the research reported in the ...
How to do Research on Literature
For any research paper on the analysis, interpretation, evaluation, or comparison of literature, you can find many resources to help you understand and interpret the work you are studying. In print or electronic form, and on the Web, you can find articles, essays, book reviews, scholarly and popular journals, dictionaries, encyclopedias, and ...
Where to search when doing a literature review
Start with research databases. Scopus and Web of Science are good databases to start with for any research topic and literature review. Scopus. Scopus is a large multidisciplinary database covering published material in the humanities and sciences. It also provides citation analysis of authors and subject areas.
Writing Chapter 2
Took too long for the Chapter 2, but here it is! Thank you for the continuous support everyone :) I would be studying Chapter 3 na so I could teach it to you...
(PDF) A Literature Review: Strategies to Teach English as A Foreign
Discussion. Based on researchers' findings reg arding strategies that can be u sed to teach English as a. foreign language, several effec tive strategies that can be used by educators include ...
Review of Related Literature: Format, Example, & How to Make RRL
your first order! Use discount. A review of related literature (RRL) is a part of the research report that examines significant studies, theories, and concepts published in scholarly sources on a particular topic. An RRL includes 3 main components: A short overview and critique of the previous research.
Sample Foreign Literature of Chapter 2 (Thesis Writing)
Chapter 2. RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES. This chapter presents the literature and studies taken from the various sources like books, unfinished thesis and the like. The presentation starts with the foreign literature, local literature, and then followed by foreign studies and lastly, the local studies. The synthesis of the works, data and ...
Progress in Remote Sensing and GIS-Based FDI Research Based on ...
Foreign direct investment (FDI) by transnational companies (TNCs) is the primary indicator of urban globalization. The initial publication on the topic of remote sensing and geographic information system-based urban globalization research was published in 1981. However, the number of publications on this topic remains relatively limited. Despite some advances in the field in recent decades ...

How to Write a Literature Review: Six Steps to Get You from Start to Finish

How to Write a Literature Review

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Quick links

International Studies: how to write your thesis

A. Getting Started & Staying Organized

B. Finding a good Topic

C. Formulating a Research Question

D. Finding & Evaluating literature

E. Finding Primary Sources

F. Planning your Research Project

G. Help & Support

Find a topic, formulate a research question, make a realistic time-plan

Tips on how to choose a topic

Tips on how to formulate a good question

Tips on how to meet your deadline

Recommended Books

A. Finding literature is not like a trip to the supermarket

B. First Step: Background Search

C. Searching in the Library Catalogue

D. Find Literature Elsewhere

Recommended Library Catalogues

Recommended Online Search Engines

Recommended Bibliographies

A. Digital and Paper Sources

Tips for accessing Paper sources

B. Not available in Leiden?

How to get access to materials not available in Leiden

A. Why do I need to evaluate scholarly publications – wasn´t that evaluated already?

B. Popular & Scholarly

C. Evaluating information

A. Reading and searching: two sides of the same coin

Tips on strategic reading

Rinse and Repeat

B. Refine your topic

A. Managing your research project

B. Synthesizing; Interrogating the literature

C. Footnotes, Citations and Citation Managers

Recommended Books:

D. Writing the Report

Global Language Literatures

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

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Table of contents

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Make a list of keywords

Search for relevant sources

Take notes and cite your sources

Chronological

Methodological

Theoretical

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How to do research in Literature

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