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Title: Mastering the Art of Literature Review: A Comprehensive Guide

Welcome to our comprehensive guide on mastering the art of literature review! If you're a student or
a researcher, you're likely familiar with the challenges posed by crafting a thorough and insightful
literature review. This critical component of academic writing requires meticulous research, analysis,
and synthesis of existing literature relevant to your topic. However, fear not, as we're here to provide
you with invaluable insights and tips to streamline the process.

One of the most daunting aspects of writing a literature review is the sheer volume of information
available. Navigating through countless scholarly articles, books, and other sources can quickly
become overwhelming, leaving you unsure of where to begin. Additionally, distinguishing between
relevant and irrelevant sources while ensuring the inclusion of all pertinent information further
complicates the task.

Moreover, organizing the literature in a coherent and logical manner poses another significant
challenge. Crafting a narrative that effectively summarizes existing knowledge, identifies gaps, and
presents a clear argument requires careful planning and execution. Without a well-defined
methodology, your literature review risks being disjointed and lacking in focus, ultimately
diminishing its impact.

To help alleviate these challenges, consider employing the example methodology outlined below:

1. Define Your Research Question: Begin by clearly defining the scope of your literature review
and identifying the key research question(s) you aim to address. This will provide a solid
foundation upon which to structure your review and guide your search for relevant literature.
2. Conduct a Comprehensive Search: Utilize a variety of databases, libraries, and online
resources to gather a diverse range of sources relevant to your topic. Be sure to use a
combination of keywords and Boolean operators to refine your search and capture the most
relevant literature.
3. Screen and Evaluate Sources: Once you've compiled a list of potential sources, carefully
evaluate each one to determine its relevance, reliability, and credibility. Consider factors such
as the author's expertise, the publication venue, and the currency of the information to ensure
that only high-quality sources are included in your review.
4. Synthesize the Literature: Analyze and synthesize the findings of the selected sources,
identifying common themes, patterns, and contradictions. Organize the literature into
thematic categories or chronological order to facilitate a clear and coherent presentation of
the information.
5. Critically Evaluate and Interpret Findings: Critically evaluate the strengths and limitations of
the existing literature, identifying gaps, inconsistencies, and areas for future research. Offer
your insights and interpretations, highlighting the significance of the findings and their
implications for your research.

By following this example methodology, you can streamline the process of writing a literature
review and produce a well-structured and insightful analysis of the existing literature. However, if
you find yourself struggling with this task, don't hesitate to seek assistance from professionals.

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Analysis: Involves critically evaluating and summarizing key findings, methodologies, and debates
found in academic literature. 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. 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. If you are writing a literature review, you can
take a sample note of the following points. Thus, all the materials that do not pass the evaluation
should be eliminated and excluded from your research. Narrow Your Topic In order to choose the
suitable literature to review, you need a specific topic, not just a general idea. This general process
may help: familiarise yourself with the literature to learn what's been done and what's already known
organise the materials around themes, issues or questions rather than individual papers critically
review the information to identify things like assumptions, limitations, deficiencies, lack of clarity,
methodological weaknesses, gaps, controversies and problems in existing knowledge or practice that
need to be addressed. This article is part of an ongoing series on academic writing help of scholarly
articles. 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. The word literature commonly known as pieces of writing
that are valued as works. This helps to predetermine the finding of similar research hence on a
principle that related studies will have a common truth. - Integrative Review is to be one of the
broadest methodological approach of analyses. The methodology section should generally be written
in the past tense. Get material not at RMIT Further help What are research methods. A body, which
divides your literature review into different sections. This square may be circled by discussing the
wider implications of the reviewed topic for other disciplines. Therefore, it can be a good choice if
you have research aims that involve identifying causal relationships. It is often used when time and
resources are limited. It comprises theoretical literature, experimental and non-experimental
researches. This is awesome! I wish I come across GradCoach earlier enough. Literature reviews are
set up similarly to other academic texts, with an introduction, a main body, and a conclusion. Pivotal
publications: are there any influential theories or studies that changed the direction of the field. Some
scientists may be overly enthusiastic about what they have published, and thus risk giving too much
importance to their own findings in the review. By reviewing the literature, you can identify the
strengths and limitations of different research methods and techniques, and select the most
appropriate ones for your own research. I have to say that the information that was delivered was
congruent, concise, and quite helpful. The literature review usually comes near the beginning of your
thesis or dissertation. What makes a systematic review different from other types of reviews is that
the research methods are designed to reduce bias. Make a list of keywords Start by creating a list of
keywords related to your research topic. My advice is, while reading, to start writing down
interesting pieces of information, insights about how to organize the review, and thoughts on what to
write. The Literature Review: A Few Tips On Conducting It. This is a group of about six people who
have experience in the topic you’re researching.
Or the review might focus on the fundraising impact of the Internet on a particular political party. In
this case, the purpose is to evaluate the current state of research and demonstrate your knowledge of
scholarly debates around a topic. It assists in enabling researchers to gain a better understanding of
complex concepts, social interactions or cultural phenomena. At this stage, it’s common to feel a bit
of writer’s block and find yourself procrastinating under the pressure of finally having to put
something on paper. It requires extensive reading, plus you have to consider market trends and
technological and political changes, which tend to change in the blink of an eye. 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. I have an amazing supervisor but one also knows they are
super busy. Your literature review should be guided by your central research question. This is the
reason, many literature reviews are mistily focused. Take notes that you can later incorporate into the
text of your literature review. 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). Therefore literature review is guiding the researcher from introduction to draw the
conclusion of the study. 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). Use a citation manager, such as
EndNote as the repository for your citations. For example, a review of the Internet’s impact on
American presidential politics could focus on the development of online political satire. Introduction
5. The Literature Review A literature review may consist of simply a summary of key sources, but in
the social sciences, a literature review usually has an organizational pattern and combines both
summary and synthesis, often within specific conceptual categories.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 in a way that. Get the complete picture in no time SciSpace Discover’s personalized
suggestion engine helps you stay on course and get the complete picture of the topic from one place.
Related to this, you’ll need to indicate whether your study adopts a qualitative, quantitative or
mixed approach. You should be able to answer it based only on a review of existing publications.
Decide the scope of your review: This depends on the nature of your study. AMSTAR 2: a critical
appraisal tool for systematic reviews that include randomised or non-randomised studies of
healthcare interventions, or both. Brit Med J. 2017;358 Sterne JA, Hernan MA, Reeves BC, et al.
Literature Reviews From the University of North Carolina Writing Center. Given that you are
presenting what the literature says about a field of study, not what you think or believe, you must
cite those authors that actually make and provide the research evidence, theories, frameworks for
practice etc. The first step is to recognize a topic about which you want to write the literature review.
Better systematic review management Head office, working for an institution or organisation. This
could include datasets, a flowchart to show what happened to. This includes the purpose of the
study, who were the participants, how was the study conducted, and then ultimately, what was
found. In the conclusion, you should summarise the key findings you have taken from the literature
and emphasise their significance. Assess credibility of papers quickly When doing the literature
review, it is critical to establish the quality of your sources. It answers a clearly formulated research
question and explicitly states the methods used to arrive at the answer.
Sometime the explanation given for literature review is in a different perspective for instance,
Merriam and Simpson (2000) and Tonette and Rocco (2009) highlights that literature review is
carried out for the formation of a conceptual frame work or to discover a relevant zone for research.
Systematic Approaches to a Successful Literature Review. Research methodology and design
clarifies a plan of collecting data either qualitative or quantitative. You Might Also Like: 37
Comments Thank you very much. A review of the literature is a type of analysis with respect to
articles and journals associated with a field of study, or a specific theory, and therefore the
completion of a crucial assessment of the work in question. 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. If this is not
going beyond the requirements of writing a sample of literature review, why not. Using the notes that
you have taken and summary tables develop an outline of your final review. When the review of the
literature is complete, attention should be directed to the theoretical part of the research. When Boyle
and Tang disagreed about whether a study should be excluded, they discussed it with Varigos until
the three researchers came to an agreement. They’re thorough: they summarize all available evidence.
The relevance of systematic reviews to educational policy and practice. This form of review is
known as qualitative systematic review. I have to say that the information that was delivered was
congruent, concise, and quite helpful. What you include in each depends on the objective of your
literature review. These authors synthesized published articles that describe the development process
of mobile health ( m-health ) interventions for patients’ cancer care self-management. Make sure the
sources you use are credible, and make sure you read any landmark studies and major theories in
your field of research. Take notes that you can later incorporate into the text of your literature review.
As such, reviewers may selectively ignore or limit the attention paid to certain studies in order to
make a point. Your librarian can help you determine the best databases to use for your topic, assess
scope, and formulate a search strategy. 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. The literature review must be
defined by a guiding concept (eventually your research objective, the problem or issue you are
discussing, or your argumentative thesis). Systematic reviews typically answer their research
question by synthesizing all available evidence and evaluating the quality of the evidence. Lit
reviews can also be standalone pieces, either as assignments in a class or as publications.
Nevertheless, a good literature review can be structured according to the chronological, thematic,
methodological, or theoretical framework approach. This article is part of an ongoing series on
academic writing help of scholarly articles. Introduction Plan your search Where to search Refine and
update your search Finding grey literature Writing the review Referencing Research methods
overview Finding literature on research methodologies, sage research methods online. I want to have
some coach but I’m still student and don’t have any budget to hire one. If you want to make your
research seem more credible, then there is absolutely no option, except to understand in detail how to
write a methodology. It is often assigned as part of the research process for a paper.
This helps to predetermine the finding of similar research hence on a principle that related studies
will have a common truth. - Integrative Review is to be one of the broadest methodological approach
of analyses. Summarize subject, issue or theory under consideration, along with objectives of the
review; Divide works under review into categories (e.g. those in support of a particular position,
those against, those offering alternative theories entirely) Explain how each work is similar to and
how it varies from the others Sample Literature Reviews Literature Review Sample 1 Literature
Review Sample 2 Literature Review Sample 3 Have an exemplary literature review. One strategy is
to scan relevant journals or conference proceedings. 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. Purpose of Literature Review Some of the specific purposes
of a literature review are as follows: To provide context: A literature review helps to provide context
for your research by situating it within the broader body of literature on the topic. However, bias
could also occur in the other direction: some scientists may be unduly dismissive of their own
achievements, so that they will tend to downplay their contribution (if any) to a field when
reviewing it. Gradually work to the more specific aspects you will be looking at. Therefore, read the
abstract first to determine whether the rest of the source is worth your time. Literature reviews give
an overview of knowledge on a subject, helping you identify relevant theories and methods, as well
as gaps in existing research. The Integrative Literature Review Example holds some ideas on how to
present your version along with citing some best examples. What you include in each depends on the
objective of your literature review. In addition to choosing your topic, you should also select a target
audience. Narrow Your Topic In order to choose the suitable literature to review, you need a specific
topic, not just a general idea. Make a list of keywords Start by creating a list of keywords related to
your research topic. Organize the Research Sources Logically To present your literature to your
audience, you will need to be able to organize it in a way they will understand. Search for the articles
and other materials needed for you, using numerous online databases and libraries, university
bookstores, and departmental collections for relevant and clear resources needed. We’ll discuss
limitations in a bit more detail later in this post, so stay tuned. However, if you choose this strategy,
be careful to avoid simply listing and summarising sources in order. You must prepare a list of
keywords and their different variations. Tip: If you ?nd that each paragraph begins with a
researcher's name, it might indicate that, instead of evaluating and comparing the research literature
from an analytical point of view, you have simply described what research has been done. What are
some strategies or tips I can use while writing my lit review. Systematic Approaches to a Successful
Literature Review. A literature review is a survey of credible sources on a topic, often used in
dissertations, theses, and research papers. The only proofreading tool specialized in correcting
academic writing - try for free. When searching the literature for pertinent papers and reviews, the
usual rules apply: be thorough, use different keywords and database sources (e.g., DBLP, Google
Scholar, ISI Proceedings, JSTOR Search, Medline, Scopus, Web of Science), and look at who has
cited past relevant papers and book chapters. I wish everybody good luck with writing a review of
the literature. Create a matrix of the studies for easy analysis, and synthesis, across all of the studies.
Therefore, as with every other methodological choice, it’s essential to justify why you chose the
research strategy you did. Review authors should consider the scope of the literature review when
selecting a type and method. As a result, the reader may think that you’re a better scholar compare
with experts in the subject field.
The academic proofreading tool has been trained on 1000s of academic texts and by native English
editors. You must prepare a list of keywords and their different variations. A Step-by-Step Guide to
Writing Literature Review In this step, you will screen and select resources closely related to your
research question. In these cases the lit review just needs to cover scholarship that is important to the
issue you are writing about. A literature review is a type of review that uses a less systematic and
formal approach than a systematic review. Evaluate and synthesize the studies' ?ndings and
conclusions. How a Learning Adviser can help Further support UQ Library guide to literature
reviews Guide for research students (PDF, 1.7 MB) Example literature review analysis 10 Easy Steps
for Writing a Literature Review A literature review is one of the essential steps in the research
process. Critical Evaluation Critical evaluation involves assessing the quality and validity of the
literature. Consider joining the Center for Cancer Research (CCR) at the National Cancer Institute
Bethesda, Maryland (US) NIH National Cancer Institute (NCI) Postdoctoral Fellow (PhD) Sign up
for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily. Then this
Literature Review Examples may help you to write your thesis in no time. Pivotal publications: are
there any influential theories or studies that changed the direction of the field. 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. Instead, looking for similar themes and
subjects, you are supposed to discuss how different researchers approached the same issues. As
another methodological contribution, vom Brocke et al. (2009) offered a series of guidelines for
conducting literature reviews, with a particular focus on how to search and extract the relevant body
of knowledge. Contrasted with this, interpretivism, which is often the underlying research
philosophy in qualitative studies, assumes that the researcher performs a role in observing the world
around them and that reality is unique to each observer. It is often used as an introductory section of
a research paper. Make referring sources super easy To ensure you don't lose track of your sources,
you must start noting down your references when doing the literature review. 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. The topic must at least be: interesting to you
(ideally, you should have come across a series of recent papers related to your line of work that call
for a critical summary), an important aspect of the field (so that many readers will be interested in
the review and there will be enough material to write it), and a well-defined issue (otherwise you
could potentially include thousands of publications, which would make the review unhelpful).
However, you should justify why a quantitative approach wasn’t possible. Review the abstracts of
research studies carefully. That means that you will have to be able to summarize each source and
evaluate the quality of each source, the assumptions each author made, and the value of their data
and conclusions. Ideas and insights also come from discussions with coauthors and colleagues, as
well as feedback from reviewers and editors. Literature review is a mandatory part of any research
project. To describe how study data were combined for analysis and synthesis, reviewers outline the
type of synthesis (narrative or quantitative, for example), the methods for grouping data, the
challenges that came up, and how these were dealt with. Book an appointment Consider your
specific area of study. You could also use a reference manager like Paperpile to automatically save,
manage, and cite your references. Proceedings of the European Conference on Information Systems;
2011. When writing your review, keep in mind these issues. Please see our Privacy Policy for more
information.
What you include in each depends on the objective of your literature review. Such logic is
appropriate for fields like medicine and education where findings of randomized controlled trials can
be aggregated to see whether a new treatment or intervention does improve outcomes. Sort through
other current bibliographies or literature reviews in the field to get a sense of what your discipline
expects. Tip: Decide on the structure of your literature review before you start writing. Boyle and
Tang read through the articles to decide if any more studies needed to be excluded based on the
selection criteria. 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.
Some default research instruments may not work, so searching for trends is a great option. 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). Writing the literature review: A practical guide Available 3rd floor of Perkins
Writing literature reviews: A guide for students of the social and behavioral sciences Available online.
After that, there is an option to highlight the key points and give recommendations for future studies
or research. Even though the issue of the study has been subjected to previous research. This
landscape informs the reader that the author has indeed assimilated all (or the vast majority of)
previous, significant works in the field into her or his research. How to write up the methodology
chapter First off, it’s worth noting that the exact structure and contents of the methodology chapter
will vary depending on the field of research (e.g., humanities, chemistry or engineering) as well as
the university. An instance of a pupil literature evaluate in psychology and lecturer’s feedback is
right here. “” Guideline collection is coordinated by Helen Mongan-Rallis of the Schooling Division
on the College of Minnesota Duluth. It also helps researchers to identify relevant data sources and
identify potential data analysis techniques. Often, your educational institution provides you with
access. Time. A professional systematic review is a time-consuming process: it will take the lead
author about six months of full-time work. These studies were identified through a formal and
systematic search in four databases between 2003 and 2013. How to Write a Literature Review: 3
Minute Step-by-step Guide 45K 2.6M views 3 years ago Everything you Need to Write a Strong
Dissertation Don't know how to write a literature review or where to begin. A literature review does
function as a summary of sources, but it also allows you to analyze further, interpret, and examine
the stated theories, methods, viewpoints, and, of course, the gaps in the existing content. This is an
important step because having a plan allows you to work more efficiently and reduces bias. When
Boyle and Tang disagreed about whether a study should be excluded, they discussed it with Varigos
until the three researchers came to an agreement. Sometimes you may need to quote certain
terminology that was coined by the author, is not common knowledge, or taken directly from the
study. The common final function is to present the ideas in a specific problem and the theories for to
support the phenomenon. (Schrijven, 2017). Make a list of keywords Start by creating a list of
keywords related to your research topic. What has the literature revealed? (not what do you seek to
discuss). Ideas and insights also come from discussions with coauthors and colleagues, as well as
feedback from reviewers and editors. Make sure your research question is not too broad or too
narrow. Instantly correct all language mistakes in your text Be assured that you'll submit flawless
writing. If you’re not clear on this, take the time to get clarity before you make any further
methodological choices. Narrow Your Topic In order to choose the suitable literature to review, you
need a specific topic, not just a general idea.
In this section, you need to detail and justify the key methodological choices you’ve made in a
logical, intuitive fashion. There are two options here: cross-sectional and longitudinal. Outline and
identify the purpose of a literature review As a first step on how to write a literature review, you
must know what the research question or topic is and what shape you want your literature review to
take. What are the strengths and weaknesses of the research. You need a resolution because, as
readers, we would like to know what happened to the characters. You will need to visit your school’s
library, either in person or virtually, to research material about your topic. Thedocumentation reviews
are used when the organization wants to figure out the impact ofprogram operating in the
organization without interrupting the program and its functions. 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. In the video below, we explain each of these in
plain language. Instantly correct all language mistakes in your text Be assured that you'll submit
flawless writing. Theoretical Review This form aims to examine the corpus of theory accumulated
regarding an issue, concept, theory, and phenomenon. This should be followed by the overview or
the simple outline, which includes the scope of work (in this case, it is the scope of review). The
second type of coverage consists of presenting materials that are representative of most other works
in a given field or area. If you’re working with Grad Coach, this is a good time to have your
Research Specialist review your chapter. 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. You do proper evaluation of the discovered sources and your readers should know for
sure that academic sources are valid. Types of Literature Reviews It is important to think of
knowledge in a given field as consisting of three layers. Is contrary data considered or is certain
pertinent information ignored to prove the author's point. In addressing these points, you argue for
your place in the conversation, which tends to make the lit review more compelling than a simple
reporting of other sources. Like descriptive reviews, the research questions are generic and usually
relate to publication patterns and trends. This objective could be achieved through review of up-to-
date studies. According to the professional dissertation literature review tips, you have to summarize
all the relevant current researches and writings and determine which way they match the dissertation.
Their in-depth analysis of the literature signalled that there is little solid evidence from randomized
controlled trials or other studies through the use of phr s. A set of predetermined rules provides a
basis for including or excluding certain studies. Lit reviews can also be standalone pieces, either as
assignments in a class or as publications. No single information source will supply all that you need.
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. Can you find a lot of citations from this
author’s research. Thank you so much!. justdoing my research now, thanks for the guidance. Once
you’re satisfied that you have digested and distilled all the relevant literature in your mind, it’s time
to put pen to paper (or rather, fingers to keyboard).

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