A literature review is an essential part of academic research. It involves surveying and evaluating existing scholarly sources related to your research topic. This includes critically analyzing and synthesizing various published sources, such as research articles, books, reports, and conference papers. Literature reviews are useful in providing more context to your research topic since it allows you to identify gaps in the research, understand the current state of knowledge on your research topic, and explore debates within the area.
Literature reviews are often part of a larger student research project (see annotated example) or published journal article (see example). A literature review may also serve as a stand-alone student assignment or published article (see example).
With a literature review, researchers analyze secondary sources to try to understand what is known and unknown about a particular topic. The sources used to conduct a scholarly review of the literature are typically peer-reviewed sources. These sources are reviewed in order to arrive at some conclusion about overall knowledge about a topic.
Analyzing secondary sources would raise questions not raised in a literature review. For example, the researcher might examine scholarly articles to learn something about the authors (e.g., who publishes what, and where?); publication outlets (e.g., how well do different journals represent the diversity of the discipline?); or topics (e.g., how has the popularity of topics shifted over time?). This involves a study of the studies or research, as opposed to reviewing them. For example, if a researcher wanted to understand whether tourism policy demonstrated a growing concern over time for animal welfare, they can conduct a content analysis of different policies from around the world, looking for words that were associated with concern for animal.
(Adapted rom Research Methods for the Social Sciences: An Introduction by Valerie Sheppard, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
Looking for examples of published literature reviews? Add "literature review" as part of your search. Example: climate anxiety "literature review"
The following are some organization techniques when writing literature reviews:
| Organization | When to Use | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Thematically |
|
A literature review of 31 relevant articles published between January 2005 and March 2015 identified 10 variables relevant to user adoption of mobile technology: Perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, income/ wealth, employment, mobility requirement, education, social resources, etc. “User adoption variables” is the theme. |
| Methodologically (methodology review) |
|
In e-business adoption literature, various models have been used as a framework for analyzing the factors that need to be satisfied in order to guarantee business success. This review evaluates the different models used in this area with the intent of determining if standardized methodologies exist. |
| Chronologically |
|
A literature review is presented on the evolution of post traumatic stress disorder and its impact on firefighters from the late 1970s through to the present time. As part of this evolution you might discuss how the definition of PTSD has evolved over time, or how the methods used for studying this topic have evolved over time, or how treatment options have evolved over time, etc. |
(From Research Methods by Valerie Sheppard and the Justice Institute of British Columbia, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
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