Navigating the Literature Review Process: A Comprehensive Example

The literature review process is a critical component of any academic or research project. It involves
surveying scholarly articles, books, and other sources relevant to a particular topic to provide a
comprehensive understanding of existing research and identify gaps or areas for further investigation.
However, crafting a literature review can be a daunting task, requiring extensive time, effort, and
expertise to ensure accuracy and coherence.

One of the primary challenges of writing a literature review is the sheer volume of available
literature. With an ever-expanding body of research across various disciplines, sifting through
numerous sources to find relevant and credible information can be overwhelming. Moreover,
synthesizing this information into a coherent narrative while maintaining academic rigor adds another
layer of complexity.

Furthermore, the process of identifying and evaluating sources requires a discerning eye and critical
thinking skills. Researchers must assess the credibility, relevance, and reliability of each source to
ensure the validity of their literature review. This involves scrutinizing methodologies, data collection
techniques, and theoretical frameworks employed in previous studies.

Moreover, structuring and organizing the literature review can pose challenges. Researchers must
decide how to categorize and present the information in a logical and coherent manner, whether
chronologically, thematically, or methodologically. This requires careful planning and consideration to
ensure the literature review effectively communicates the state of the field and its implications for
the research question or topic at hand.

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Persuasiveness -- which of the author's theses are most convincing or least convincing. This can be a
challenging task, but good preparation and the right tools will help you to set off in the right
direction. Lit reviews can also be standalone pieces, either as assignments in a class or as
publications. Or, does is merely add more of the same thing being said. These themes will also be
used as the headings for your Matrix, which will be discussed in detail in Section B: Planning and
Researching. Simply indicating what an author claims or has found is not sufficient. Let’s Recap In
this post, we’ve covered how to research and write up a high-quality literature review chapter. So, if
you have a 10,000-word research paper, the minimum word count could be 1500. For the Internet in
American presidential politics project, one methodological approach would be to look at cultural
differences between the portrayal of American presidents on American, British, and French
websites. If you have used sources from different disciplines that use a variety of research methods,
you might want to compare the results in light of the different methods and discuss how the topic
has been approached from different sides. For example, a review of the Internet’s impact on
American presidential politics could focus on the development of online political satire. Make sure
the sources you use are credible, and make sure you read any landmark studies and major theories in
your field of research. The most interesting literature reviews are often written as arguments (again,
as mentioned at the beginning of the page, this is discipline-specific and doesn’t work for all
situations). Look for peer-reviewed articles, books, and other academic sources that are relevant to
your research question or topic. Subject headings will differ across databases, for example, the
PubMed database uses 'Qualitative Research' whilst the CINHAL database uses 'Qualitative
Studies.' (3) Limiting search results Databases enable sets of results to be limited or filtered by
specific fields, look for options such as Publication Type, Article Type, etc. The results of a literature
review may be an entire report or article OR may be part of a article, thesis, dissertation, or grant
proposal. The literature represents background and research developments related to a specific
research question, interpreted and analyzed by you in a synthesized way. A literature review can be a
part of a research paper or scholarly article, usually falling after the introduction and before the
research methods sections. It will also help them to choose the most appropriate method for their
own study. 4. How to cite a literature review in APA format. The summary effect size is a value that
reflects the average magnitude of the intervention effect for a particular outcome of interest or, more
generally, the strength of a relationship between two variables across all studies included in the
systematic review. You can elaborate more on the topic of your thesis. I wish everybody good luck
with writing a review of the literature. Limitations of Literature Review Limitations of Literature
Review are as follows: Limited scope: Literature reviews can only cover the existing literature on a
particular topic, which may be limited in scope or depth. Systematic reviewer pro-tip: Copy and paste
the search strategy to avoid introducing typos 3. What are the similarities, what are the differences.
Instantly correct all language mistakes in your text Be assured that you'll submit flawless writing.
Identify any key debates which have contributed to shaping the direction of the research. Write a
literature review on the role of digital signatures and cryptography. A proposed typology and
guidance for systematic reviewers in the medical and health sciences. Apply them only when you
want to emphasize the author’s point and cannot rewrite it in your own words.
Try to analyze the patterns, turning points, and key debates that have shaped the direction of the
field. Scoping Review The Scoping Review is often used at the beginning of an article, dissertation,
or research proposal. Then this Literature Review Examples may help you to write your thesis in no
time. Writing a literature review can be overwhelming when starting out and if it is your first
literature review. Strong alignment between these sections, as well as your research aims and
questions is therefore very important. Do I need to provide any definitions or background
information. University of Toronto; Writing a Literature Review. Try to analyse patterns, turning
points and key debates that have shaped the direction of the field. You can use it to discuss various
theories, models, and definitions of key concepts. A systematic literature review is one of the types
of literature review that aims to summarize all existing information about a phenomenon in an
impartial and complete manner. Use Caution When Paraphrasing When paraphrasing a source that is
not your own, be sure to represent the author's information or opinions accurately and in your own
words. Sometimes scoping reviews are an exploratory preparation step for a systematic review, and
sometimes they are a standalone project. Many systematic reviews, but not all, use statistical
methods to combine the results of independent studies into a single quantitative estimate or
summary effect size. Demonstrates why a topic is significant to a subject area. To successfully
conduct a narrative review, you need to have a suitable research question. The exact keywords can
be extended to widen your research over other databases and academic search engines like: Google
Scholar Microsoft Academic Science.gov Besides, it is not advisable to go through every resource
word by word. Literature Reviews: A Recap Reading Journal Articles Does it Describe a Literature
Review? 1. A scoping review on the conduct and reporting of scoping reviews. Methodological
limitations can vary greatly from study to study, ranging from common issues such as time and
budget constraints to issues of sample or selection bias. What exactly you discuss here will depend
largely on the type of study you’re conducting (i.e., qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods). In
this case, devote most of your space to explaining the connections between sources, but you must
also include a thesis and a conclusion, even though they will be brief. It assists in enabling researchers
to gain a better understanding of complex concepts, social interactions or cultural phenomena.
Remember that any error in planning could compromise your entire research. Overview: The
Methodology Chapter The purpose of the methodology chapter Why you need to craft this chapter
(really) well How to write and structure the chapter Methodology chapter example Essential
takeaways What (exactly) is the methodology chapter. Next, validity characterizes the degree to
which the review process was conducted appropriately. It is important to have an idea of the
structure you should use before you write. An academic essay is written for a scholarly audience. In
such a case, the timescale is divided not by decades but by periods characterized by a predominant
methodology or preferred theme. The theoretical literature review helps to establish what theories
already exist, the relationships between them, to what degree the existing theories have been
investigated, and to develop new hypotheses to be tested. Naturally, this means that this research
strategy would be far less suitable if your research aims involve identifying causation, but it would
be very valuable if you’re looking to explore and examine a group culture, for example.
Chapter 9?Methods for Literature Reviews - Handbook of eHealth Evaluation: An Evidence-based
Approach Your browsing activity is empty. In other words, whether the data for your study were all
collected at one point in time (cross-sectional) or at multiple points in time (longitudinal). For
example, groups of scholars disagree about the best way to measure a physiological event, and as a
result, use different instruments and methodologies. If the same thing is being said, just by different
people, then this likely demonstrates that the research problem has hit a conceptual dead end.
Moreover, you can sort the results based on the publishing date, citation count, and relevance. It is
important to keep track of your sources with citations to avoid plagiarism. As a researcher, you
should use it to set the context, build your argument, and establish the need for your study. We
recommend that an expert on the subject of the review review the issues still in the protocol
construction phase. In this post, we’ll unpack the topic, step by step. Popular Publications Qualitative
Methods Quantitative Methods Insiderness Using Non-Textual Elements Limitations of the Study
Common Grammar Mistakes Writing Concisely Avoiding Plagiarism Footnotes or Endnotes.
Covidence’s data extraction tool saves reviewers’ comments and notes in the system as they work.
Repeat the planning steps as many times as necessary to be sure. The only proofreading tool
specialized in correcting academic writing The academic proofreading tool has been trained on 1000s
of academic texts and by native English editors. Careful planning will also help you to provide
insightful analysis. For example, look at the following two passages and note that Student A merely
describes the literature, whereas Student B takes a more analytical and evaluative approach by
comparing and contrasting. I’m delighted coming to know you even before the commencement of
my dissertation which hopefully is expected in not more than six months from now. 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. Importantly, this chapter should
comprehensively describe and justify all the methodological choices you made in your study. Steps
in Conducting a Literature Review A literature review is an integrated analysis-- not just a summary-
- of scholarly writings and other relevant evidence related directly to your research question. Chapter
2: Systematic reviews of qualitative evidence. Publication-based: You can order your sources by
publication, if the way you present the order of your sources demonstrates a more important trend.
Third, identify patterns in approaches to your topic. Consult your library subject guide to review
databases appropriate for your topic. I know it’s very tempting, but don’t try to kill two birds with
one stone and write as you read. It outlines the objectives of the review, the research question or
hypothesis, and the scope of the review. Like any other academic text, your literature review should
have an introduction, a main body, and a conclusion. Include information on the thesis, perspective,
historical approach, arguments, sources, and methodology. In-text citations are key to a good
literature review. To achieve this ambitious objective, the authors performed a bibliometric analysis of
medical informatics citations indexed in medline using publication trends, journal frequencies,
impact factors, Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) term frequencies, and characteristics of citations.
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.
Fifth, situate your own research within the current literature in your field. It is a formal piece of
writing where you analyze the existing theoretical framework, principles, and assumptions and use
that as a base to shape your approach to the research question. What challenges does this research
paper pose to the existing theory What are the possible contributions or benefits it adds to the
subject domain. Download Word doc Download Google doc Before you begin searching for
literature, you need a clearly defined topic. We’ve written a step-by-step guide that you can follow
below. Graduate student theses are an important type of gray literature, which you can search using
the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD). If your lit review is a
standalone piece, the introduction and conclusion take up more space and give you a place to discuss
your goals, research methods, and conclusions separately from where you discuss the literature itself.
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). The
purpose of such a review is to find out the key patterns, central debates, and turning points of the
prevailing opinion at specific periods. These resources include examples, printable handouts, and
additional links. 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. Frodeman, Robert.
The Oxford Handbook of Interdisciplinarity. Most, if not all, peer-reviewed journals in the fields of
medical informatics publish review articles of some type. For instance, in the humanities, authors
might include more overt argumentation and interpretation of source material in their literature
reviews, whereas in the sciences, authors are more likely to report study designs and results in their
literature reviews; these differences reflect these disciplines’ purposes and conventions in
scholarship. It aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the current state of knowledge on
a particular topic. Remember to use refine options such as books, ebooks, subject, and publication
date. (2) Subject headings in Databases Databases categorise their records using subject terms, or a
controlled vocabulary (thesaurus). Objectivity -- is the author's perspective even-handed or
prejudicial. Covidence can also calculate Cohen’s kappa to enable review teams to report the level of
agreement among individual reviewers during screening. By combining information from all relevant
studies, meta-analysis can provide more precise estimates of the effects than those derived from the
individual studies included within a review. Critical literature review: This type of review evaluates
the strengths and weaknesses of the existing literature on a particular topic or research question.
Finding out in advance will help you to plan what to include. I wish everybody good luck with
writing a review of the literature. Resolve conflicts amongst seemingly contradictory previous
studies. Literature reviews are commonly used in fields such as sociology, psychology, anthropology,
and political science. To get the most from the literature review process, you must keep all four
points front of mind as you review the literature (more on this shortly), or you’ll land up with a
wonky foundation. However, only include what is necessary for the reader to locate your study
within the larger scholarship about the research problem. Also look for publication patterns by
investigating if certain approaches to the topic were common during a specific time. Probability
sampling involves a random (and therefore representative) selection of participants from a
population, whereas non-probability sampling entails selecting participants in a non-random (and
therefore non-representative) manner. However, it could be hard to go through everything that has
been written.
Remember that any error in planning could compromise your entire research. While you probably
already have a decent base of this from your research proposal, you need to expand on this
substantially in the dissertation or thesis itself. In these cases, the lit review just needs to cover
scholarship that is important to the issue you are writing about; sometimes it will also cover key
sources that informed your research methodology. 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. It should also include: The research topic and your motivation behind selecting it A one-
sentence thesis statement An explanation of the kinds of literature featured in the review Summary
of what you've learned Conclusions you drew from the literature you reviewed Potential implications
and future scope for research Here's an example of the abstract of a literature review Is a literature
review written in the past tense. It aims to provide a critical analysis of the literature and identify
areas where further research is needed. It also helps to justify the significance of their findings in
relation to existing research and literature. An interesting approach for when we have a large amount
of primary studies is to have a researcher to extract data and another to check the data that has
already been extracted. The introduction should clearly establish the focus and purpose of the
literature review. To circumvent these limitations, Pawson, Greenhalgh, Harvey, and Walshe (2005)
have proposed a new approach for synthesizing knowledge that seeks to unpack the mechanism of
how “complex interventions” work in particular contexts. It would help if you tried preparing a list
of citations to ensure that there lies no repetition of authors, publications, or articles in the literature
review. 3. Examine and assess the sources It is nearly impossible for you to go through every detail
in the research article. Write in well-structured paragraphs: use transitions and topic sentences to
draw connections, comparisons and contrasts. The research team started with an exploratory review
of background documents and research studies to identify ways in which patient portals may
contribute to health service delivery and patient outcomes. As a research student, you learn better
with your learning tips in research I was really stuck in reading and gathering information but after
watching these things are cleared thanks, it is so helpful. Because of differences in how we extract
data from sources and what information is relevant, the analysis within and structure of our literature
reviews will vary. Ensure you capture the author’s name and the page number for each excerpt and
print them out. Therefore, this section of your methodology chapter is where you’ll discuss the
trade-offs you had to make, and why these were justified given the context. Often this form is used
to help establish a lack of appropriate theories or reveal that current theories are inadequate for
explaining new or emerging research problems. The unit of analysis can focus on a theoretical
concept or a whole theory or framework. London: SAGE Publications; 2006. Pawson R., Greenhalgh
T., Harvey G., Walshe K. Realist review—a new method of systematic review designed for complex
policy interventions. Heterogeneity between the included studies in terms of reported outcomes and
measures precluded the use of meta-analytic methods. In this case, the theoretical approach is the
most effective way to structure the report. Remember, some parts, such as the introduction and
conclusion, may vary based on the purpose of your literature review. The exceptions are when you
have statements describing events that happened earlier than the literature you are reviewing or
events that are currently occurring; then, you can use the past perfect or present perfect tenses.
Establishing the significance of your research: A literature review helps to establish the significance
of your own research by placing it in the context of existing research. The methodology chapter is
where you outline the philosophical underpinnings of your research and outline the specific
methodological choices you’ve made. BMC Med Res Methodol. 2016;16(1):15. Tricco AC, Lillie E,
Zarin W, et al. Funding Statement This work was funded by the French Foundation for Research on
Biodiversity (FRB) through its Centre for Synthesis and Analysis of Biodiversity data (CESAB), as
part of the NETSEED research project. Be always mindful that you refer only to credible and
authentic resources. Synthesising quantitative and qualitative evidence to inform guidelines on
complex interventions: clarifying the purposes, designs and outlining some methods. Since I have
been watching and reading instructions, I have started my research proposal to write.
Once that’s decided, you need to draw up an outline of your entire chapter in bullet point format.
Lockwood C, Porritt K, Munn Z, Rittenmeyer L, Salmond S, Bjerrum M, Loveday H, Carrier J,
Stannard D. It critically analyzes, synthesizes, and evaluates the sources to give your reader a clear
picture that you are conversant with the subject. These authors reviewed the existing literature on
personal health record ( phr ) systems including design, functionality, implementation, applications,
outcomes, and benefits. Both authors independently reviewed each of the identified articles to
determine eligibility and extract study information. Narrow Your Topic In order to choose the
suitable literature to review, you need a specific topic, not just a general idea. A literature review is a
type of review that uses a less systematic and formal approach than a systematic review. Evaluate
and select literature. 4. Analyze the literature. 5. Plan the structure of your literature review. 6. Write
your literature review. SciSpace GPT: Choose the Best GPT for Research Literature Review and
Theoretical Framework: Understanding the Differences Types of Essays in Academic Writing An
official website of the United States government The.gov means it’s official. Seven Steps to Writing
a Literature Review Seven Steps to Writing a Literature Review - Write a Literature Review -
Guides at University of Guelph 1. Find the enveloped and figure out which order you will start with.
Try to analyze the patterns, turning points, and key debates that have shaped the direction of the
field. For example, a book surveying the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict may include a
chapter on the role Egypt has played in mediating the conflict, or look in the index for the pages
where Egypt is mentioned in the text. Research the archeological articles studying the ancient Roman
roads. Also note when your sources were published and if any important social, political, or
economic events occurred at roughly the same time. The purpose of this descriptive or mapping
review was to characterize publication trends in the medical informatics literature over a 20-year
period (1987 to 2006). If allowed by your professor, you can even add your interpretation.
Communications of the Association of Information Systems, 37 (43), 879-910. 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. Gray
literature: Gray literature includes documents produced by governments, universities, and other
institutions that aren’t published by traditional publishers. The impact of patient, intervention,
comparison, outcome (PICO) as a search strategy tool on literature search quality: a systematic
review. JMLA. 2018;106(4):420. Ferrari R. Writing narrative style literature reviews. Prevent
plagiarism. Run a free check. To begin organizing your literature review’s argument and structure, be
sure you understand the connections and relationships between the sources you’ve read. Sitemap
case study creative writing presentation problem solving rewiew prompts websites tips. When you
find a useful book or article, you can check the bibliography to find other relevant sources. Guidance
on Conducting a Systematic Literature Review In this article, through a systematic search on the
methodology of literature review, we categorize a typology of literature reviews, discuss steps in
conducting a systematic literature review, and provide suggestions on how to enhance rigor in
literature reviews in planning education and research. You can get a topic to research on by
brainstorming, consulting your professor, or checking for relevant issues on the matter. This means
drawing connections between sources to create a picture of the scholarly conversation on a topic
over time. Take notes that you can later incorporate into the text of your literature review. Findings
from eight rct s involving 6,615 participants were pooled into meta-analyses to calculate the
magnitude of effects that mobile text message reminders have on the rate of attendance at healthcare
appointments compared to no reminders and phone call reminders. Alternatively, you can compare
the qualitative and quantitative, empirical and theoretical, or any other incompatible methodology.
We also unpack our free methodology chapter template so that you can see how best to structure
your chapter. Because most historical writing uses the Chicago Manual of Style as a reference
system, most historiographies will also require you to use the Chicago Manual of Style. Seven Steps
to Writing a Literature Review Seven Steps to Writing a Literature Review - Write a Literature
Review - Guides at University of Guelph 1. Problem-oriented literature review: This review focuses
on a specific problem or issue and examines the literature to identify potential solutions or
interventions. SciSpace Discover is a one-stop solution to do an effective literature search and get
barrier-free access to scientific knowledge. A proposed typology and guidance for systematic
reviewers in the medical and health sciences. It’s outstanding and brilliant how the outline process is
explained herewith. Thanks. Make sure that you only get articles and books in those areas, even if
you come across fascinating books in other areas. In case your results are different, you can use a
literature review to discuss why your results are different and mention if the difference is important
in the research topic. Review the literature Some questions to help you analyze the research: What
was the research question of the study you are reviewing. Often, the literature review is where you
can establish your research as filling a particular gap or as relevant in a particular way. As a research
student, you learn better with your learning tips in research I was really stuck in reading and
gathering information but after watching these things are cleared thanks, it is so helpful. They each
have expertise in specific topic fields and background in academic writing. You’ll need to discuss the
studies and assess their overall quality. Debates, conflicts and contradictions: where do sources
disagree. An academic essay is written for a scholarly audience. Make sure your research question is
not too broad or too narrow. There is an increasing interest in the visual aspects of social media.
Standards: Description of the way in which you present your information. Conclusion: Summarize
the key findings you have taken from the literature and emphasize their significance Connect it back
to your primary research question How should I organize my lit review. Your professor will probably
not expect you to read everything that's available about the topic, but you'll make the act of
reviewing easier if you first limit scope of the research problem. Hypothesis or Research Question(s)
Clearly stated. The basic research question — what works? — which is usually associated with
systematic reviews changes to: what is it about this intervention that works, for whom, in what
circumstances, in what respects and why. You should be able to answer it based only on a review of
existing publications. Literature reviews can take two major forms. The most prevalent one is the
“literature review” or “background” section within a journal paper or a chapter in a graduate thesis.
How does the publication relate to other literature in the field. 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. Top 5 Tips for High-Quality
Systematic Review Data Extraction Data extraction can be a complex step in the systematic review
process. Literature reviews can help researchers identify areas where more research is needed and
provide insights into the latest developments in a particular field. Journal citation reports ISI ( Web
of Science ) Google scholar Google books.