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Title: Steps To A Literature Review

Are you struggling with crafting a literature review? You're not alone. Many students and researchers
find this task daunting and time-consuming. However, mastering the art of literature review writing
is crucial for academic success. Here are the steps to guide you through the process:

1. Define your research topic: Clearly identify the scope and objectives of your literature
review. What specific area of research are you focusing on? What questions are you trying to
answer?
2. Conduct comprehensive research: Utilize academic databases, journals, books, and other
credible sources to gather relevant literature related to your topic. Take notes and organize
your findings systematically.
3. Analyze and evaluate the literature: Critically examine each source, considering its relevance,
credibility, and contribution to your research topic. Identify key themes, concepts, and gaps
in the existing literature.
4. Develop a synthesis: Synthesize the information from different sources to construct a
cohesive narrative. Highlight connections, contradictions, and trends within the literature.
5. Outline your literature review: Structure your review in a logical and coherent manner.
Consider organizing it chronologically, thematically, or methodologically, depending on the
nature of your research.
6. Write your literature review: Start with an introduction that provides context and establishes
the significance of your topic. Then, present the main body of your review, incorporating
summaries, analyses, and critiques of the literature. Finally, conclude by summarizing key
findings and suggesting avenues for future research.
7. Revise and edit: Review your literature review carefully, checking for clarity, coherence, and
consistency. Make revisions as necessary to enhance the quality and effectiveness of your
writing.

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Why does a CID Research Proposal require a literature search and review. Do a literature search find
out what has been written about your topic. Keep Both New and Old Sources in Mind It’s essential
for a literature review to be current, so you’ll want to explore what’s been said recently, but don’t
neglect key older sources. Standalone 2. As a section of a research paper How SciSpace Discover
makes literature review a breeze. While a single source may only appear once in an annotated Works
Cited list, it may be mentioned multiple times in a Lit Review, depending on its significance in the
area or its relationship to other sources. This saves time when you want to redo, or modify, the
searches. Federal government websites often end in.gov or.mil. Before sharing sensitive information,
make sure you’re on a federal government site. 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. Presentation Outline: What “Literature Review” is
and its importance. This may lead in some cases to conflicting views on the merits of the paper, and
on how to improve it, but such a situation is better than the absence of feedback. What flaws do you
believe should be addressed in your paper. Scoping Review The Scoping Review is often used at the
beginning of an article, dissertation, or research proposal. It is instrumental. It encouraged me to
write a dissertation now. So rather than trying to fetch every detail, you have to analyze and decide
which research sources resemble closest and appear relevant to your chosen domain. Some might
argue that you should be sending your work to your supervisor sooner than this (indeed your
university might formally require this), but in my experience, supervisors are extremely short on time
(and often patience), so, the more refined your chapter is, the less time they’ll waste on addressing
basic issues (which you know about already) and the more time they’ll spend on valuable feedback
that will increase your mark-earning potential. In many cases, the topic (e.g., web services in
computational biology) will automatically define an audience (e.g., computational biologists), but
that same topic may also be of interest to neighbouring fields (e.g., computer science, biology, etc.).
Rule 2: Search and Re-search the Literature After having chosen your topic and audience, start by
checking the literature and downloading relevant papers. An academic essay is written for a
scholarly audience. Research question: What is the impact of technology on business. This will help
you structure your paper immensely, zeroing in on what will give your paper purpose. There is an
increasing interest in the visual aspects of social media. It all depends on the type of research you are
pursuing. Be always mindful that you refer only to credible and authentic resources. A body, which
divides your literature review into different sections. Write in. What is a Literature Review. A
literature review is a survey of credible sources on a topic, often used in dissertations, theses, and
research papers. When it is just a chapter, sources should equal the total number of pages in your
article's body. Knowledge gaps: What exactly does it fail to address, and how to bridge them with
further research. You will be with this literature review for an extended period of time and it will be
difficult to stick with it even under the best circumstances. Videos Tutorials about Literature
Reviews This 4.5 minute video from Academic Education Materials has a Creative Commons
License and a British narrator. Does the research use established frameworks or take an innovative
approach. Try to analyze the patterns, turning points, and key debates that have shaped the direction
of the field.
Rule 5: Keep the Review Focused, but Make It of Broad Interest Whether your plan is to write a
mini- or a full review, it is good advice to keep it focused 16, 17. Themes: what questions or concepts
recur across the literature. A literature review is a survey of credible sources on a topic, often used in
dissertations, theses, and research papers. The literature review section tends to be longer for
secondary research projects than primary research projects. Thank you for this whole literature
writing review.You have simplified the process. Rely heavily on the guidelines your instructor has
given you. In the sciences and some of the social sciences it is important that your literature be quite
recent; this is not so important in the humanities. Themes: what questions or concepts recur across
the literature. The first approach would be to look level you are at as a researcher. If you are dealing
with varying opinions by era or changing trends over time, chronological organization may make the
most sense. SciSpace Discover helps you assess the quality of a source by providing an overview of
its references, citations, and performance metrics. College students often write it as a standalone
project or part of their dissertation or thesis. I usually recommend Mendeley for this purpose (see the
Mendeley 101 video below), but you can use whichever software you’re comfortable with. You
must ensure that your sources are credible and note any significant theories or major landmarks in
your study. Then, find appropriate books in the library and check them out. You should be able to
answer the following questions: How many sources do I need to include. Previous literature reviews
in the same area, or in similar areas, may help to define these issues. Instantly correct all language
mistakes in your text Be assured that you'll submit flawless writing. Conducting the Literature
Review The conduct of the review must strictly follow the protocol that was developed. Analysis:
Involves critically evaluating and summarizing key findings, methodologies, and debates found in
academic literature. This technique will give you a strong indication of which points were clearly
communicated and which weren’t. If you are writing a literature review as a stand-alone assignment,
you will have to choose a focus and develop a central question to direct your search. A literature
review is a collation of survey, research, critical evaluation, and assessment of the existing literature
in a preferred domain. It is often assigned as part of the research process for a paper. Do I need to
provide any definitions or background information. Literature reviews are designed to provide an
overview of sources you have explored while researching a particular topic, and to demonstrate to
your readers how your research fits within a larger field of study.” Simply put, a literature review can
be defined as a critical discussion of relevant pre-existing research around your research question and
carving out a definitive place for your study in the existing body of knowledge. It can be difficult in
a saturated field to find many areas that have not yet been covered, but when you do, it will be much
easier to explain why your topic and approach are essential and original. Theoretical You may use a
theoretical approach to discuss theories, definitions of key ideas, and models. Make sure your
research question is not too broad or too narrow. To reduce the review bias, a data extraction form
must be defined and evaluated in the protocol review phase.
Steps in the Literature Review Process Steps in the Literature Review Process Define the research
question (for more ) You may need to some exploratory searching of the literature to get a sense of
scope, to determine whether you need to narrow or broaden your focus Steps to Write a Literature
Review What is a Literature Review. The bibliography is often first looked at to see how the author
engaged with the literature, and subject experts can quickly see if you have missed someone’s work.
PDF Writing an Effective Literature Review You have to put the necessary work in to develop your
own critical skills which often have to be honed over a long period through reading, attending
lectures, seminars and conferences and discussing your own work and that of others with your peers.
Appreciate and good reference in guiding me in my research journey. Often, professors are looking
for strict use of these formats as part of the grade. Make an outline of each section of the paper and
decide whether you need to add information, to delete irrelevant information, or to re-structure
sections. Source: image.slidesharecdn.com Writing a literature review involves finding relevant
publications. It may be helpful to use a matrix, table, or idea map to visually depict and analyze the
relationships between the different sources.Analyze the literature you have. In contrast to the non-
systematic process, the systematic review is done in a formal and meticulous manner. Given the vast
amount of literature available, it's crucial to discern which publications are most pertinent to your
study. Why conduct a literature review, stages of a literature review, lit reviews: an overview
(video), check out these books. Like any other academic text, your literature review should have an
introduction, a main body, and a conclusion. Identify the main purpose of the literature review. Also,
make sure the sources are trustworthy and come from respected places. Content from video
platforms and social media platforms is blocked by default. For example, linkages to or
disagreements with other theories, questions raised but unanswered, shortcomings or limitations, and
so forth. The Lit Review is primarily concerned with sources, while the paper’s body is concerned
with the topic you are researching. Tip: Decide on the structure of your literature review before you
start writing. Ensure you understand the research topic inside out, or else seek. Student B: After
studying residents and staff from two intermediate care facilities in Calgary, Alberta, Smith (2000)
came to the conclusion that except for the amount of personal privacy available to residents, the
physical environment of these institutions had minimal if any effect on their perceptions of control
(autonomy). What are the similarities and differences between the sources. The format of a literature
review varies and depends upon the length of the research. This means drawing connections between
sources to create a picture of the scholarly conversation on a topic over time. To reduce the review
bias, a data extraction form must be defined and evaluated in the protocol review phase. As you read
through a source (a book, article, website, etc.), record information (words, phrases, main ideas, etc.)
under the the appropriate column. One method is to interpret how or why specific developments
occurred. Does it agree with what we already know, add new info, or challenge what we thought.
Using relevant keywords and phrases in your search is essential, experimenting with diverse
combinations for a thorough collection of relevant sources. Offers Methodological Guidance: Helps
choose appropriate research methods for quality outcomes. While focus is an important feature of a
successful review, this requirement has to be balanced with the need to make the review relevant to a
broad audience.
Excellent information, Clear explanation, and Easy to follow, Many thanks Derek. Furthermore, they
provide information on which researchers are active in specific fields, which can be useful for
tracking down their other work. You might argue for the relevance of a specific theoretical approach,
or combine various theoretical concepts to create a framework for your research. A Literature
Review: Function of Bats as Disease Vectors Across Fragmented Habitats (a theoretical review).
Sources for a literature review should be as current as possible or not older than ten years. Most
students understand the first point but don’t give any thought to the rest. Where might the
discussion proceed if someone else picked it up where you left off. You can use a subheading for
each theme, time period, or methodological approach. Critically evaluate: what are the strengths and
weaknesses of your sources. The paper enumerates the current studies on the topic. Talk to your
professor, brainstorm, and read lecture notes and recent issues of periodicals in the ?eld. Keep
careful notes so that you may track your thought processes during the research process. Why conduct
a literature review, stages of a literature review, lit reviews: an overview (video), check out these
books. 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. Let’s do a quick recap of the
key takeaways: It is essential to understand the WHY of the literature review before you read or
write anything. Writing a literature review is like putting together a jigsaw puzzle. Some instructors
may ask you to do a literature review and not get more specific than that. Make certain that all of the
citations and references are correct and that you are referencing in the appropriate style for your
discipline. This is very good video which is well explained with detailed explanation Thank you
excellent piece of work and great mentoring Thanks, it was useful Thank you very much. Another
determining factor is the type of research you are doing. A literature review is a survey of scholarly
sources (such as books, journal articles, and theses) related to a specific topic or research question. In
research papers, a literature review may have its own section or it may be integrated into the
introduction, depending on the field. ?? Our guide on what is a literature review covers additional
basics about literature reviews. If you need help with assessing the credibility of any article, or with
finding relevant research in general, you can chat with one of our Research Specialists. Also, at this
stage, it’s a good idea to allocate rough word count limits for each section, so that you can identify
word count problems before you’ve spent weeks or months writing. Some might argue that you
should be sending your work to your supervisor sooner than this (indeed your university might
formally require this), but in my experience, supervisors are extremely short on time (and often
patience), so, the more refined your chapter is, the less time they’ll waste on addressing basic issues
(which you know about already) and the more time they’ll spend on valuable feedback that will
increase your mark-earning potential. Data synthesis Reporting the review Explaining how results
will be displayed sorting the data Writing the results and their interpretation Evaluating the results
Threats to Study Validity Conclusion References Appendices Conclusion Finally, we recommend
that you read the references and examples of systematic reviews we have selected below to learn
more about this type of literature review, as this article is not intended to be a complete guide. You
have some chance to do this in your introduction in an article, but the literature review section gives
a more extended opportunity to establish the conversation in the way you would like your readers to
see it. A summary can easily be made in this way and transformed into a well-flowing, logical
literature review. Does it agree with what we already know, add new info, or challenge what we
thought. Final tips on how to write a literature review A massive chunk of time and effort is required
to write a good literature review.
However, it is likely that most scientists have not thought in detail about how to approach and carry
out a literature review. How your research acknowledges gaps and adds new knowledge. Source:
miro.medium.com Whatever the reason, there are many benefits to writing a literature review.
Purpose of a literature review A literature review should demonstrate your overall understanding of
the literature and develop an argument, often by answering specific questions. The UIS provides
software training (self-paced) for referencing management software (Zotero, Mendeley and
EndNote). Academics also write it as part of their research paper to set the context for their research
and even pinpoint gaps in existing knowledge. It allows for a comprehensive exploration of various
aspects without being bound by a strict timeline. It also describes the structure of the material you
create and provides the author’s (your) reasons for reviewing the chosen sources. Critical Analysis
Don't just summarize, but critically evaluate each source. The lit review is an important genre in
many disciplines, not just literature (i.e., the study of works of literature such as novels and plays).
ExamplE 1 This review will examine the literature available on the main approaches towards
measuring rural deprivation with the view that literature overemphasises material deprivation.
Usually a literature review can be described as an objective concise and critical summary of
published research literature pertinent to the subject being. It determines that variables that ought to
be measured, the relationships that you want to establish between them. Talk to your professor,
brainstorm, and read lecture notes and recent issues of periodicals in the ?eld. Influential resources:
Significant research projects available that have been upheld as milestones or perhaps, something that
can modify the current trends Once you join the dots between various past research works, it will be
easier for you to draw a conclusion and identify your contribution to the existing knowledge base. 5.
Structure planning to write a good literature review There exist different ways towards planning and
executing the structure of a literature review. A literature review I am currently working on, for
example, explores. It is important to keep track of your sources with citations to avoid plagiarism. If
you have found some recurring central themes, you can organise your literature review into
subsections that address different aspects of the topic. Evaluate and synthesize the studies' ?ndings
and conclusions. Having read the review with a fresh mind, reviewers may spot inaccuracies,
inconsistencies, and ambiguities that had not been noticed by the writers due to rereading the
typescript too many times. Make sure to read the abstract to find out whether an article is relevant to
your question. Make sure that you only get articles and books in those areas, even if you come across
fascinating books in other areas. Personality and Individual Differences, 53(1), 16-21 5. It is however
advisable to reread the draft one more time before submission, as a last-minute correction of typos,
leaps, and muddled sentences may enable the reviewers to focus on providing advice on the content
rather than the form. The theoretical literature review helps to establish what theories exist, the
relationships between them, the degree the existing approaches have been investigated, and to
develop new hypotheses to be tested. An annotated Works Cited list, on the other hand, is just an
alphabetized list of sources with summaries and evaluations (annotations). You are not analyzing the
material and coming up with your own, fresh perspective on it. Notetaking Systems: California
Polytechnic State University At this point in the process, you have committed to a topic, found
resources on it, and now are trying to glean information from those sources. Write in well-structured
paragraphs: use transitions and topic sentences to draw connections, comparisons and contrasts. A
chronological compilation of studies The reason for conducting a literature review is to: Literature
Reviews: An Overview for Graduate Students While this 9-minute video from NCSU is geared
toward graduate students, it is useful for anyone conducting a literature review.
This lays a solid basis for the rest of your paper. In addition to choosing your topic, you should also
select a target audience. A guide for students of the behavioral sciences (3rd ed.). Start by looking
for the most recent publications in the field you're working on. To obtain the best experience, we
recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer).
It analyzes the state of the field on a given topic and creates a scholarly foundation for you to make
your own intervention. There is probably a continuum between mini- and full reviews. SciSpace
Discover is a one-stop solution to do an effective literature search and get barrier-free access to
scientific knowledge. Some reviews declare that they have scanned the literature up to a certain
point in time, but given that peer review can be a rather lengthy process, a full search for newly
appeared literature at the revision stage may be worthwhile. Similarly, this study considers the
current knowledge and skills humanities librarians possess as well as future knowledge and skills
required in order to meet the challenges of a changing academic library environment. A literature
review is one of those papers that use research in different ways, and it essentially means finding
something to say based on gaps you have identified in your study. Writing your literature review
should be an iterative process. Federal government websites often end in.gov or.mil. Before sharing
sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site. 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. It provides an overview of current knowledge, allowing you
to identify relevant theories, methods, and gaps in the existing research. 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. A literature review is meant to help your readers understand the
relevance of your research question and where it fits within the existing body of knowledge. 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. Why conduct a literature review, stages of a literature review, lit reviews: an overview
(video), check out these books. It is challenging to achieve a successful review on all these fronts.
Contextualization: Enables researchers to understand how their work fits into the broader academic
conversation and contributes to the existing body of knowledge. That is why researchers who have
spent their career working on a certain research issue are in a perfect position to review that
literature. Literature reviews should involve several pieces of information like the reason for writing
a review, a brief discussion of the topic, an organized list of all academic sources used, in addition to
a comprehensive evaluation of each one. Really helpful, Thank you for the effort in showing such
information This is super helpful thank you very much. Historical review Historical literature reviews
focus on examining research throughout a period, often starting with the first time an issue, concept,
theory, or phenomenon emerged in the literature, then tracing its evolution within the scholarship of
a discipline. Source: image.slidesharecdn.com There is no set way to do this as it will depend on your
preference for reading printed. Writing literature reviews is a particularly important skill if you want
to apply for graduate school or pursue a career in research. The literature review provides a
description, summary and evaluation of each source. Show Cookie Information Hide Cookie
Information Statistics cookies collect information anonymously. A literature review is a collation of
survey, research, critical evaluation, and assessment of the existing literature in a preferred domain.
There is also a downloadable PDF version. 5 Questions to Strengthen Your Thesis Statement Follow
these five steps to strengthen your thesis statements.
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. For example, US-based, respondents aged 25-35,
lower- income, etc. Learning From Secondary Research Evaluating Primary Research Additional
information. 1: What is a literature review. In the last part, you should summarize the key findings of
your literature review and their impact. A literature review should have its own independent section.
I usually recommend Mendeley for this purpose (see the Mendeley 101 video below), but you can
use whichever software you’re comfortable with. Decide on the number of articles you want to read,
the recentness of these articles, and how comprehensive these are. 3. Go for reliable data sources: An
important step in writing a good literature review is collecting data. There are gaps in research on
artificial intelligence and how it could change the business realm. Once you find a useful article,
check out the reference list. In reviews written by multiple authors, this may be achieved by
assigning the review of the results of a coauthor to different coauthors. If you have found some
recurring central themes, you can organize your literature review into subsections that address
different aspects of the topic. A systematic review is a more detailed and comprehensive review
compared to other types of lit reviews. Think about what interests you and what interests other
researchers in your field. Sources for a literature review should be as current as possible or not older
than ten years. 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. You Might Also Like: 37 Comments Thank
you very much. What you include in each depends on the objective of your literature review. A good
starting point could be to look at some examples, depending on what kind of literature review you’d
like to write. A literature review tells your readers what others have researched on your topic and
helps to demonstrate why your topic is both original and essential to the field of research. Literature
Review Example In the video below, we unpack an actual literature review so that you can see how
all the core components come together in reality. A literature review is an overview of the previously
published works on a specific topic. How does the publication relate to other literature in the field. If
a reviewer is up to the job of producing a well-organized and methodical review, which flows well
and provides a service to the readership, then it should be possible to be objective in reviewing one's
own relevant findings. Inevitably, new papers on the reviewed topic (including independently
written literature reviews) will appear from all quarters after the review has been published, so that
there may soon be the need for an updated review. 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. This means drawing connections
between sources to create a picture of the scholarly conversation on a topic over time. To cite a
literature review in APA style, you need to provide the author's name, the title of the article, and the
year of publication. Conclusion: The primary objective of any review is to arrive at a particular
conclusion. Due to this thoroughness, one of the advantages of a systematic review of the literature
is that it allows other researchers to make future updates to the review, if they follow the same set of
steps established in the protocol.

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