how to write literature review for a final year project

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What is a Literature Review? How to Write It (with Examples)

A literature review is a critical analysis and synthesis of existing research on a particular topic. It provides an overview of the current state of knowledge, identifies gaps, and highlights key findings in the literature. 1 The purpose of a literature review is to situate your own research within the context of existing scholarship, demonstrating your understanding of the topic and showing how your work contributes to the ongoing conversation in the field. Learning how to write a literature review is a critical tool for successful research. Your ability to summarize and synthesize prior research pertaining to a certain topic demonstrates your grasp on the topic of study, and assists in the learning process.

What is the purpose of literature review?
a. Habitat Loss and Species Extinction:
b. Range Shifts and Phenological Changes:
c. Ocean Acidification and Coral Reefs:
d. Adaptive Strategies and Conservation Efforts:

How to write a good literature review

Choose a Topic and Define the Research Question:
Decide on the Scope of Your Review:
Select Databases for Searches:
Conduct Searches and Keep Track:
Review the Literature:
Organize and Write Your Literature Review:
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Frequently asked questions

What is a literature review?

A well-conducted literature review demonstrates the researcher’s familiarity with the existing literature, establishes the context for their own research, and contributes to scholarly conversations on the topic. One of the purposes of a literature review is also to help researchers avoid duplicating previous work and ensure that their research is informed by and builds upon the existing body of knowledge.

What is the purpose of literature review?

A literature review serves several important purposes within academic and research contexts. Here are some key objectives and functions of a literature review: 2

1. Contextualizing the Research Problem: The literature review provides a background and context for the research problem under investigation. It helps to situate the study within the existing body of knowledge.

2. Identifying Gaps in Knowledge: By identifying gaps, contradictions, or areas requiring further research, the researcher can shape the research question and justify the significance of the study. This is crucial for ensuring that the new research contributes something novel to the field.

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3. Understanding Theoretical and Conceptual Frameworks: Literature reviews help researchers gain an understanding of the theoretical and conceptual frameworks used in previous studies. This aids in the development of a theoretical framework for the current research.

4. Providing Methodological Insights: Another purpose of literature reviews is that it allows researchers to learn about the methodologies employed in previous studies. This can help in choosing appropriate research methods for the current study and avoiding pitfalls that others may have encountered.

5. Establishing Credibility: A well-conducted literature review demonstrates the researcher’s familiarity with existing scholarship, establishing their credibility and expertise in the field. It also helps in building a solid foundation for the new research.

6. Informing Hypotheses or Research Questions: The literature review guides the formulation of hypotheses or research questions by highlighting relevant findings and areas of uncertainty in existing literature.

Literature review example

Let’s delve deeper with a literature review example: Let’s say your literature review is about the impact of climate change on biodiversity. You might format your literature review into sections such as the effects of climate change on habitat loss and species extinction, phenological changes, and marine biodiversity. Each section would then summarize and analyze relevant studies in those areas, highlighting key findings and identifying gaps in the research. The review would conclude by emphasizing the need for further research on specific aspects of the relationship between climate change and biodiversity. The following literature review template provides a glimpse into the recommended literature review structure and content, demonstrating how research findings are organized around specific themes within a broader topic.

Literature Review on Climate Change Impacts on Biodiversity:

Climate change is a global phenomenon with far-reaching consequences, including significant impacts on biodiversity. This literature review synthesizes key findings from various studies:

a. Habitat Loss and Species Extinction:

Climate change-induced alterations in temperature and precipitation patterns contribute to habitat loss, affecting numerous species (Thomas et al., 2004). The review discusses how these changes increase the risk of extinction, particularly for species with specific habitat requirements.

b. Range Shifts and Phenological Changes:

Observations of range shifts and changes in the timing of biological events (phenology) are documented in response to changing climatic conditions (Parmesan & Yohe, 2003). These shifts affect ecosystems and may lead to mismatches between species and their resources.

c. Ocean Acidification and Coral Reefs:

The review explores the impact of climate change on marine biodiversity, emphasizing ocean acidification’s threat to coral reefs (Hoegh-Guldberg et al., 2007). Changes in pH levels negatively affect coral calcification, disrupting the delicate balance of marine ecosystems.

d. Adaptive Strategies and Conservation Efforts:

Recognizing the urgency of the situation, the literature review discusses various adaptive strategies adopted by species and conservation efforts aimed at mitigating the impacts of climate change on biodiversity (Hannah et al., 2007). It emphasizes the importance of interdisciplinary approaches for effective conservation planning.

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Writing a literature review involves summarizing and synthesizing existing research on a particular topic. A good literature review format should include the following elements.

Introduction: The introduction sets the stage for your literature review, providing context and introducing the main focus of your review.

Opening Statement: Begin with a general statement about the broader topic and its significance in the field.
Scope and Purpose: Clearly define the scope of your literature review. Explain the specific research question or objective you aim to address.
Organizational Framework: Briefly outline the structure of your literature review, indicating how you will categorize and discuss the existing research.
Significance of the Study: Highlight why your literature review is important and how it contributes to the understanding of the chosen topic.
Thesis Statement: Conclude the introduction with a concise thesis statement that outlines the main argument or perspective you will develop in the body of the literature review.

Body: The body of the literature review is where you provide a comprehensive analysis of existing literature, grouping studies based on themes, methodologies, or other relevant criteria.

Organize by Theme or Concept: Group studies that share common themes, concepts, or methodologies. Discuss each theme or concept in detail, summarizing key findings and identifying gaps or areas of disagreement.
Critical Analysis: Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of each study. Discuss the methodologies used, the quality of evidence, and the overall contribution of each work to the understanding of the topic.
Synthesis of Findings: Synthesize the information from different studies to highlight trends, patterns, or areas of consensus in the literature.
Identification of Gaps: Discuss any gaps or limitations in the existing research and explain how your review contributes to filling these gaps.
Transition between Sections: Provide smooth transitions between different themes or concepts to maintain the flow of your literature review.

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Conclusion: The conclusion of your literature review should summarize the main findings, highlight the contributions of the review, and suggest avenues for future research.

Summary of Key Findings: Recap the main findings from the literature and restate how they contribute to your research question or objective.
Contributions to the Field: Discuss the overall contribution of your literature review to the existing knowledge in the field.
Implications and Applications: Explore the practical implications of the findings and suggest how they might impact future research or practice.
Recommendations for Future Research: Identify areas that require further investigation and propose potential directions for future research in the field.
Final Thoughts: Conclude with a final reflection on the importance of your literature review and its relevance to the broader academic community.

Conducting a literature review

Conducting a literature review is an essential step in research that involves reviewing and analyzing existing literature on a specific topic. It’s important to know how to do a literature review effectively, so here are the steps to follow: 1

Choose a Topic and Define the Research Question:

Select a topic that is relevant to your field of study.
Clearly define your research question or objective. Determine what specific aspect of the topic do you want to explore?

Decide on the Scope of Your Review:

Determine the timeframe for your literature review. Are you focusing on recent developments, or do you want a historical overview?
Consider the geographical scope. Is your review global, or are you focusing on a specific region?
Define the inclusion and exclusion criteria. What types of sources will you include? Are there specific types of studies or publications you will exclude?

Select Databases for Searches:

Identify relevant databases for your field. Examples include PubMed, IEEE Xplore, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar.
Consider searching in library catalogs, institutional repositories, and specialized databases related to your topic.

Conduct Searches and Keep Track:

Develop a systematic search strategy using keywords, Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT), and other search techniques.
Record and document your search strategy for transparency and replicability.
Keep track of the articles, including publication details, abstracts, and links. Use citation management tools like EndNote, Zotero, or Mendeley to organize your references.

Review the Literature:

Evaluate the relevance and quality of each source. Consider the methodology, sample size, and results of studies.
Organize the literature by themes or key concepts. Identify patterns, trends, and gaps in the existing research.
Summarize key findings and arguments from each source. Compare and contrast different perspectives.
Identify areas where there is a consensus in the literature and where there are conflicting opinions.
Provide critical analysis and synthesis of the literature. What are the strengths and weaknesses of existing research?

Organize and Write Your Literature Review:

Literature review outline should be based on themes, chronological order, or methodological approaches.
Write a clear and coherent narrative that synthesizes the information gathered.
Use proper citations for each source and ensure consistency in your citation style (APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.).
Conclude your literature review by summarizing key findings, identifying gaps, and suggesting areas for future research.

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How to write a literature review faster with Paperpal?

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Here’s how to use the Research feature:

Ask a question: Get started with a new document on paperpal.com. Click on the “Research” feature and type your question in plain English. Paperpal will scour over 250 million research articles, including conference papers and preprints, to provide you with accurate insights and citations.
Review and Save: Paperpal summarizes the information, while citing sources and listing relevant reads. You can quickly scan the results to identify relevant references and save these directly to your built-in citations library for later access.
Cite with Confidence: Paperpal makes it easy to incorporate relevant citations and references into your writing, ensuring your arguments are well-supported by credible sources. This translates to a polished, well-researched literature review.

The literature review sample and detailed advice on writing and conducting a review will help you produce a well-structured report. But remember that a good literature review is an ongoing process, and it may be necessary to revisit and update it as your research progresses. By combining effortless research with an easy citation process, Paperpal Research streamlines the literature review process and empowers you to write faster and with more confidence. Try Paperpal Research now and see for yourself.

Frequently asked questions

A literature review is a critical and comprehensive analysis of existing literature (published and unpublished works) on a specific topic or research question and provides a synthesis of the current state of knowledge in a particular field. A well-conducted literature review is crucial for researchers to build upon existing knowledge, avoid duplication of efforts, and contribute to the advancement of their field. It also helps researchers situate their work within a broader context and facilitates the development of a sound theoretical and conceptual framework for their studies.

Literature review is a crucial component of research writing, providing a solid background for a research paper’s investigation. The aim is to keep professionals up to date by providing an understanding of ongoing developments within a specific field, including research methods, and experimental techniques used in that field, and present that knowledge in the form of a written report. Also, the depth and breadth of the literature review emphasizes the credibility of the scholar in his or her field.

Before writing a literature review, it’s essential to undertake several preparatory steps to ensure that your review is well-researched, organized, and focused. This includes choosing a topic of general interest to you and doing exploratory research on that topic, writing an annotated bibliography, and noting major points, especially those that relate to the position you have taken on the topic.

Literature reviews and academic research papers are essential components of scholarly work but serve different purposes within the academic realm. 3 A literature review aims to provide a foundation for understanding the current state of research on a particular topic, identify gaps or controversies, and lay the groundwork for future research. Therefore, it draws heavily from existing academic sources, including books, journal articles, and other scholarly publications. In contrast, an academic research paper aims to present new knowledge, contribute to the academic discourse, and advance the understanding of a specific research question. Therefore, it involves a mix of existing literature (in the introduction and literature review sections) and original data or findings obtained through research methods.

Literature reviews are essential components of academic and research papers, and various strategies can be employed to conduct them effectively. If you want to know how to write a literature review for a research paper, here are four common approaches that are often used by researchers. Chronological Review: This strategy involves organizing the literature based on the chronological order of publication. It helps to trace the development of a topic over time, showing how ideas, theories, and research have evolved. Thematic Review: Thematic reviews focus on identifying and analyzing themes or topics that cut across different studies. Instead of organizing the literature chronologically, it is grouped by key themes or concepts, allowing for a comprehensive exploration of various aspects of the topic. Methodological Review: This strategy involves organizing the literature based on the research methods employed in different studies. It helps to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of various methodologies and allows the reader to evaluate the reliability and validity of the research findings. Theoretical Review: A theoretical review examines the literature based on the theoretical frameworks used in different studies. This approach helps to identify the key theories that have been applied to the topic and assess their contributions to the understanding of the subject. It’s important to note that these strategies are not mutually exclusive, and a literature review may combine elements of more than one approach. The choice of strategy depends on the research question, the nature of the literature available, and the goals of the review. Additionally, other strategies, such as integrative reviews or systematic reviews, may be employed depending on the specific requirements of the research.

The literature review format can vary depending on the specific publication guidelines. However, there are some common elements and structures that are often followed. Here is a general guideline for the format of a literature review: Introduction: Provide an overview of the topic. Define the scope and purpose of the literature review. State the research question or objective. Body: Organize the literature by themes, concepts, or chronology. Critically analyze and evaluate each source. Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the studies. Highlight any methodological limitations or biases. Identify patterns, connections, or contradictions in the existing research. Conclusion: Summarize the key points discussed in the literature review. Highlight the research gap. Address the research question or objective stated in the introduction. Highlight the contributions of the review and suggest directions for future research.

Both annotated bibliographies and literature reviews involve the examination of scholarly sources. While annotated bibliographies focus on individual sources with brief annotations, literature reviews provide a more in-depth, integrated, and comprehensive analysis of existing literature on a specific topic. The key differences are as follows:

References

Denney, A. S., & Tewksbury, R. (2013). How to write a literature review.  Journal of criminal justice education ,  24 (2), 218-234.
Pan, M. L. (2016).  Preparing literature reviews: Qualitative and quantitative approaches . Taylor & Francis.
Cantero, C. (2019). How to write a literature review.  San José State University Writing Center .

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Writing a Literature Review

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A literature review is a document or section of a document that collects key sources on a topic and discusses those sources in conversation with each other (also called synthesis ). 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). When we say “literature review” or refer to “the literature,” we are talking about the research ( scholarship ) in a given field. You will often see the terms “the research,” “the scholarship,” and “the literature” used mostly interchangeably.

Where, when, and why would I write a lit review?

There are a number of different situations where you might write a literature review, each with slightly different expectations; different disciplines, too, have field-specific expectations for what a literature review is and does. 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. You should always look at examples from your own discipline and talk to professors or mentors in your field to be sure you understand your discipline’s conventions, for literature reviews as well as for any other genre.

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. 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.

Lit reviews can also be standalone pieces, either as assignments in a class or as publications. In a class, a lit review may be assigned to help students familiarize themselves with a topic and with scholarship in their field, get an idea of the other researchers working on the topic they’re interested in, find gaps in existing research in order to propose new projects, and/or develop a theoretical framework and methodology for later research. As a publication, a lit review usually is meant to help make other scholars’ lives easier by collecting and summarizing, synthesizing, and analyzing existing research on a topic. This can be especially helpful for students or scholars getting into a new research area, or for directing an entire community of scholars toward questions that have not yet been answered.

What are the parts of a lit review?

Most lit reviews use a basic introduction-body-conclusion structure; if your lit review is part of a larger paper, the introduction and conclusion pieces may be just a few sentences while you focus most of your attention on the body. 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.

Introduction:

An introductory paragraph that explains what your working topic and thesis is
A forecast of key topics or texts that will appear in the review
Potentially, a description of how you found sources and how you analyzed them for inclusion and discussion in the review (more often found in published, standalone literature reviews than in lit review sections in an article or research paper)
Summarize and synthesize: Give an overview of the main points of each source and combine them into a coherent whole
Analyze and interpret: Don’t just paraphrase other researchers – add your own interpretations where possible, discussing the significance of findings in relation to the literature as a whole
Critically Evaluate: Mention the strengths and weaknesses of your sources
Write in well-structured paragraphs: Use transition words and topic sentence to draw connections, comparisons, and contrasts.

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?

Lit reviews can take many different organizational patterns depending on what you are trying to accomplish with the review. Here are some examples:

Chronological : The simplest approach is to trace the development of the topic over time, which helps familiarize the audience with the topic (for instance if you are introducing something that is not commonly known in your field). If you choose this strategy, be careful to avoid simply listing and summarizing sources in order. Try to analyze the patterns, turning points, and key debates that have shaped the direction of the field. Give your interpretation of how and why certain developments occurred (as mentioned previously, this may not be appropriate in your discipline — check with a teacher or mentor if you’re unsure).
Thematic : If you have found some recurring central themes that you will continue working with throughout your piece, you can organize your literature review into subsections that address different aspects of the topic. For example, if you are reviewing literature about women and religion, key themes can include the role of women in churches and the religious attitude towards women.
Qualitative versus quantitative research
Empirical versus theoretical scholarship
Divide the research by sociological, historical, or cultural sources
Theoretical : In many humanities articles, the literature review is the foundation for the theoretical framework. You can use it to discuss various theories, models, and definitions of key concepts. You can argue for the relevance of a specific theoretical approach or combine various theorical concepts to create a framework for your research.

What are some strategies or tips I can use while writing my lit review?

Any lit review is only as good as the research it discusses; make sure your sources are well-chosen and your research is thorough. Don’t be afraid to do more research if you discover a new thread as you’re writing. More info on the research process is available in our "Conducting Research" resources .

As you’re doing your research, create an annotated bibliography ( see our page on the this type of document ). Much of the information used in an annotated bibliography can be used also in a literature review, so you’ll be not only partially drafting your lit review as you research, but also developing your sense of the larger conversation going on among scholars, professionals, and any other stakeholders in your topic.

Usually you will need to synthesize research rather than just summarizing it. This means drawing connections between sources to create a picture of the scholarly conversation on a topic over time. Many student writers struggle to synthesize because they feel they don’t have anything to add to the scholars they are citing; here are some strategies to help you:

It often helps to remember that the point of these kinds of syntheses is to show your readers how you understand your research, to help them read the rest of your paper.
Writing teachers often say synthesis is like hosting a dinner party: imagine all your sources are together in a room, discussing your topic. What are they saying to each other?
Look at the in-text citations in each paragraph. Are you citing just one source for each paragraph? This usually indicates summary only. When you have multiple sources cited in a paragraph, you are more likely to be synthesizing them (not always, but often
Read more about synthesis here.

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). Often, the literature review is where you can establish your research as filling a particular gap or as relevant in a particular way. 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. You can choose the intellectual lineage you would like to be part of and whose definitions matter most to your thinking (mostly humanities-specific, but this goes for sciences as well). 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.

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Writing a literature review for your final year project.

To have a great final year project, many things have to be carefully put in place; a literature review is one of those things. Aside from helping achieve the aim of your final year project , your literature review helps to provide ground information on your selected topic.

Let me explain, a literature review is a play by play analysis and evaluation of all resource materials used in your project. These works are explained, showing their support or opposition to your project topic stance, and how this particular material helps solidify your project topic. The strengths and weaknesses of these works of literature are also presented but, in a very objective manner.

These materials are usually presented in a summarized and linked form in the literature review so the meaning and connection between all the resource materials used as well as your background topic are not lost. The aim of the literature review and its direction will be lost on your reader and professors if you cannot connect seamlessly all facts and theories presented by the materials used in your literature review.

The idea is to present to your readers prior knowledge already established and shared by experts or more experienced researchers in your field regarding your project topic. Now review does not necessarily mean ‘ this is what I think ’ rather it is more of ‘ this is what the material is saying .’ You present it in a way that helps people understand their relationship to your research topic.

Why a Literature review?

It shows you have done ample research on your topic and have been brought up to speed (by yourself, of course) on the current happenings in the field you are carrying out your research.

It also helps in providing background knowledge on the topic your project aims to discuss. These materials help to either show the chronological development in the field of your project topic, the themes surrounding it, or research methods used by researchers to speak on the matter. A literature review works both ways.

So, how exactly does one write a literature review?

Have a chat with your Supervisor

The project is the whole and your literature review is just a part of it. If the topic for your project is not selected, you cannot create a table of content let alone a literature review. You need to sit with your supervisor to;

• Talk about your topic. You get to select one but he/she has to approve of it. Also, if you having a hard time getting a topic, your supervisor might be able to help with that.

• Talk about the scope of your literature review and how much freedom you have with it. Some boundaries are set by them or your academic institution concerning literature reviews and final year projects in general. These you need to know about as well as the existing restrictions;

for example, some do not permit students to review materials written less than five years ago from the date of your project or some do not appreciate the use of projects submitted by students of any level. So, you need to know the parameters of your literature review. That way, when you go researching, you do not select the wrong material and earn a minus in the process.

Research and Evaluate Your Selected Materials

There is a lot of information out there, trust me! It is very important that in the course of your research you, stick to your project topic and its requirements. Do not get carried away by the information that has no place in your project unless you realize it is going to be extremely useful.

When materials are selected, evaluate them. Ask yourself certain questions on them;

• Do they provide any valuable information for what I am trying to make in my project?

• What was the aim of the author when he/she was writing this?

• What are the strengths and weaknesses of this publication? Is this publication objective enough or is it bias?

• Is the material from a credible source and is this Author an expert or one with a considerable amount of knowledge in this field.

Do you have your resource materials, have you asked and answered all the questions concerning their validity and the direction of your project? Then, it is time to write! A literature review is best delivered in three parts;

Introduction: In introduction, you present your project topic, the objective of your literature review, its parameters, and the importance of your literature review and project as well.

Body: This is where the bulk of your work is. The review of these materials is done in this part and should be done with orderliness and abiding by a laid down structure. What do I mean? Your review of these materials will follow a pattern depending on the aim of your project as a whole; is it to show a progression, support a claim, or simply explore your topic.

If it is for progressive study, your review will most likely follow a chronological order. This will show how things have progressed in the said field, using the materials reviewed. If otherwise, you could decide to team the materials up by their shared theories or the similar research methodology used by the Authors.

Whichever structure you decide to use, make sure your ideas are not scattered all over the place and your review is presented in a connected manner that shows the connection between the materials selected, why you choose them and how they help you bring home the overall point of your final year project. These materials, their ideas, and stance must be linked back to your topic and the goal of your final project; whatever it may be.

Also, note that it is not a monotonous description of these works. You are not there to list stuff and jump to the next one or quote stuff and jump to the next one. Try as much as possible to summarize and evaluate every material referenced, showing their strength, weaknesses as well as their connection to your project topic and stance.

Conclusion: Summarize all that you have said from the beginning till the last idea shared in the last paragraph of your body (you know you are going to paragraph it, right?). Reiterate the stance or overall idea of your literature review here and close with a final tone.

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Selecting a Topic
Searching Tools & Tips

Introduction

Accessing resources not found in ntu library, what a literature review is not, searching for resources, more readings and resources, getting started on your literature review, research mindset, purpose of a literature review.

Grey Literature
Evaluating Sources
Research Methods
Academic Integrity & Citations
Submitting FYP to DR-NTU

What is a Literature Review?

A literature review is a systematic analysis and summary of the published academic writings directly relating to your topic of research. It should provide the reader with background information on your topic, and explain the significance of your research, and how your research relates to the rest of the academic publications on the topic.

This section will guide you on what a literature review is and is not, why you need a literature review, and how you should go about getting started with your literature review.

Be sure to check out the below links with more details on how to evaluate the sources for your literature review as well as the usage of grey literature in your literature review!

Using Grey Literature
Document Delivery - For Journal Articles
Inter-library Loan - For Books

Take note that a literature review forms the basis and provides background information about your research - some common mistakes students make is when they write a literature review that fails to meet its purpose.

Your literature review should NOT be an annotated bibliography , where you list and summarize a number of articles or academic works about your research topic. The literature review should identify important academic developments of your topic, and analyze them, so as to situate your own research in this background.

Your literature review should also NOT provide only a biased view , where you only choose articles that support your findings. Remember that a literature review needs to provide a picture of how the academic debate surrounding your research topic as developed, as well as areas that are being debated, so that you can position your research within the context of the wider academic discussion.

Searching Tools and Tips For a more in-depth guide on how to search for resources you need for your literature review, refer to this section of the guide.
University of Wisconsin Guide on Literature Review
University of Pittsburgh Guide on Literature Review

Four major steps:

1.Problem definition

identify a research problem or idea
formulate research questions
identify relevant KEYWORDS

2.Search strategies

identify your information needs
develop information seeking strategies
identify relevant information sources
use KEYWORDS to conduct searches
retrieve relevant articles, books, etc.
review and summarise articles
take detailed notes
focus on identifying and comparing issues, variables, theories, methods and gaps
extract key information and tabulate key items in a matrix or summarised fashion
include pertinent variables, main issues and theories
analyse how your study relates to the available literature
highlight gaps in research works
compare and contrast studies and findings
create a list of references - a BIBLIOGRAPHY

Research is not done in a vacuum or in isolation. It has to be positioned into the existing scholarly work. The researcher needs to know what has already been covered in his/her field of research, like:

what variables were analysed?
what were the relationships amongst the variables?
what are the existing definitions, theories and findings?

Purpose of literature review

to explore the works of others
to look at existing relevant works in your research area
to identify important variables from other studies pertinent to your research
to identify gaps, misconceptions, contradictions in the issues relevant to your research
to assist in developing your research design

Literature review is an essential entity in research and is a part of:

dissertations
papers
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What is a Literature Review? | Guide, Template, & Examples

What is a Literature Review? | Guide, Template, & Examples

Published on 22 February 2022 by Shona McCombes . Revised on 7 June 2022.

What is a literature review? A literature review is a survey of scholarly sources on a specific topic. It provides an overview of current knowledge, allowing you to identify relevant theories, methods, and gaps in the existing research.

There are five key steps to writing a literature review:

Search for relevant literature
Evaluate sources
Identify themes, debates and gaps
Outline the structure
Write your literature review

A good literature review doesn’t just summarise sources – it analyses, synthesises, and critically evaluates to give a clear picture of the state of knowledge on the subject.

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Why write a literature review, examples of literature reviews, step 1: search for relevant literature, step 2: evaluate and select sources, step 3: identify themes, debates and gaps, step 4: outline your literature review’s structure, step 5: write your literature review, frequently asked questions about literature reviews, introduction.

Quick Run-through
Step 1 & 2

When you write a dissertation or thesis, you will have to conduct a literature review to situate your research within existing knowledge. The literature review gives you a chance to:

Demonstrate your familiarity with the topic and scholarly context
Develop a theoretical framework and methodology for your research
Position yourself in relation to other researchers and theorists
Show how your dissertation addresses a gap or contributes to a debate

You might also have to write a literature review as a stand-alone assignment. In this case, the purpose is to evaluate the current state of research and demonstrate your knowledge of scholarly debates around a topic.

The content will look slightly different in each case, but the process of conducting a literature review follows the same steps. We’ve written a step-by-step guide that you can follow below.

Prevent plagiarism, run a free check.

Writing literature reviews can be quite challenging! A good starting point could be to look at some examples, depending on what kind of literature review you’d like to write.

Example literature review #1: “Why Do People Migrate? A Review of the Theoretical Literature” ( Theoretical literature review about the development of economic migration theory from the 1950s to today.)
Example literature review #2: “Literature review as a research methodology: An overview and guidelines” ( Methodological literature review about interdisciplinary knowledge acquisition and production.)
Example literature review #3: “The Use of Technology in English Language Learning: A Literature Review” ( Thematic literature review about the effects of technology on language acquisition.)
Example literature review #4: “Learners’ Listening Comprehension Difficulties in English Language Learning: A Literature Review” ( Chronological literature review about how the concept of listening skills has changed over time.)

You can also check out our templates with literature review examples and sample outlines at the links below.

Download Word doc Download Google doc

Before you begin searching for literature, you need a clearly defined topic .

If you are writing the literature review section of a dissertation or research paper, you will search for literature related to your research objectives and questions .

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. Unlike a dissertation research question, this question has to be answerable without collecting original data. You should be able to answer it based only on a review of existing publications.

Make a list of keywords

Start by creating a list of keywords related to your research topic. 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 if you discover new keywords in the process of your literature search.

Social media, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, TikTok
Body image, self-perception, self-esteem, mental health
Generation Z, teenagers, adolescents, youth

Search for relevant sources

Use your keywords to begin searching for sources. Some databases to search for journals and articles include:

Your university’s library catalogue
Google Scholar
Project Muse (humanities and social sciences)
Medline (life sciences and biomedicine)
EconLit (economics)
Inspec (physics, engineering and computer science)

You can use boolean operators to help narrow down your search:

Read the abstract to find out whether an article is relevant to your question. When you find a useful book or article, you can check the bibliography to find other relevant sources.

To identify the most important publications on your topic, take note of recurring citations. If the same authors, books or articles keep appearing in your reading, make sure to seek them out.

You probably won’t be able to read absolutely everything that has been written on the topic – you’ll have to evaluate which sources are most relevant to your questions.

For each publication, ask yourself:

What question or problem is the author addressing?
What are the key concepts and how are they defined?
What are the key theories, models and methods? Does the research use established frameworks or take an innovative approach?
What are the results and conclusions of the study?
How does the publication relate to other literature in the field? Does it confirm, add to, or challenge established knowledge?
How does the publication contribute to your understanding of the topic? What are its key insights and arguments?
What are the strengths and weaknesses of the research?

Make sure the sources you use are credible, and make sure you read any landmark studies and major theories in your field of research.

You can find out how many times an article has been cited on Google Scholar – a high citation count means the article has been influential in the field, and should certainly be included in your literature review.

The scope of your review will depend on your topic and discipline: in the sciences you usually only review recent literature, but in the humanities you might take a long historical perspective (for example, to trace how a concept has changed in meaning over time).

Remember that you can use our template to summarise and evaluate sources you’re thinking about using!

Take notes and cite your sources

As you read, you should also begin the writing process. Take notes that you can later incorporate into the text of your literature review.

It’s important to keep track of your sources with references to avoid plagiarism . It can be helpful to make an annotated bibliography, where you compile full reference information and write a paragraph of summary and analysis for each source. This helps you remember what you read and saves time later in the process.

You can use our free APA Reference Generator for quick, correct, consistent citations.

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

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

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

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

There are various approaches to organising the body of a literature review. You should have a rough idea of your strategy before you start writing.

Depending on the length of your literature review, you can combine several of these strategies (for example, your overall structure might be thematic, but each theme is discussed chronologically).

Chronological

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

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

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

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

Methodological

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

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

Theoretical

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

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

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

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

If you are writing the literature review as part of your dissertation or thesis, reiterate your central problem or research question and give a brief summary of the scholarly context. You can emphasise the timeliness of the topic (“many recent studies have focused on the problem of x”) or highlight a gap in the literature (“while there has been much research on x, few researchers have taken y into consideration”).

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

As you write, make sure to follow these tips:

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

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

If the literature review is part of your dissertation or thesis, reiterate how your research addresses gaps and contributes new knowledge, or discuss how you have drawn on existing theories and methods to build a framework for your research. This can lead directly into your methodology section.

A literature review is a survey of scholarly sources (such as books, journal articles, and theses) related to a specific topic or research question .

It is often written as part of a dissertation , thesis, research paper , or proposal .

There are several reasons to conduct a literature review at the beginning of a research project:

To familiarise yourself with the current state of knowledge on your topic
To ensure that you’re not just repeating what others have already done
To identify gaps in knowledge and unresolved problems that your research can address
To develop your theoretical framework and methodology
To provide an overview of the key findings and debates on the topic

Writing the literature review shows your reader how your work relates to existing research and what new insights it will contribute.

The literature review usually comes near the beginning of your dissertation . After the introduction , it grounds your research in a scholarly field and leads directly to your theoretical framework or methodology .

Cite this Scribbr article

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Literature review

How to write a literature review in 6 steps

How do you write a good literature review? This step-by-step guide on how to write an excellent literature review covers all aspects of planning and writing literature reviews for academic papers and theses.

How to write a systematic literature review [9 steps]

How do you write a systematic literature review? What types of systematic literature reviews exist and where do you use them? Learn everything you need to know about a systematic literature review in this guide

What is a literature review? [with examples]

Not sure what a literature review is? This guide covers the definition, purpose, and format of a literature review.

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Ten Simple Rules for Writing a Literature Review

Marco pautasso.

1 Centre for Functional and Evolutionary Ecology (CEFE), CNRS, Montpellier, France

2 Centre for Biodiversity Synthesis and Analysis (CESAB), FRB, Aix-en-Provence, France

Literature reviews are in great demand in most scientific fields. Their need stems from the ever-increasing output of scientific publications [1] . For example, compared to 1991, in 2008 three, eight, and forty times more papers were indexed in Web of Science on malaria, obesity, and biodiversity, respectively [2] . Given such mountains of papers, scientists cannot be expected to examine in detail every single new paper relevant to their interests [3] . Thus, it is both advantageous and necessary to rely on regular summaries of the recent literature. Although recognition for scientists mainly comes from primary research, timely literature reviews can lead to new synthetic insights and are often widely read [4] . For such summaries to be useful, however, they need to be compiled in a professional way [5] .

When starting from scratch, reviewing the literature can require a titanic amount of work. That is why researchers who have spent their career working on a certain research issue are in a perfect position to review that literature. Some graduate schools are now offering courses in reviewing the literature, given that most research students start their project by producing an overview of what has already been done on their research issue [6] . However, it is likely that most scientists have not thought in detail about how to approach and carry out a literature review.

Reviewing the literature requires the ability to juggle multiple tasks, from finding and evaluating relevant material to synthesising information from various sources, from critical thinking to paraphrasing, evaluating, and citation skills [7] . In this contribution, I share ten simple rules I learned working on about 25 literature reviews as a PhD and postdoctoral student. Ideas and insights also come from discussions with coauthors and colleagues, as well as feedback from reviewers and editors.

Rule 1: Define a Topic and Audience

How to choose which topic to review? There are so many issues in contemporary science that you could spend a lifetime of attending conferences and reading the literature just pondering what to review. On the one hand, if you take several years to choose, several other people may have had the same idea in the meantime. On the other hand, only a well-considered topic is likely to lead to a brilliant literature review [8] . 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).

Ideas for potential reviews may come from papers providing lists of key research questions to be answered [9] , but also from serendipitous moments during desultory reading and discussions. In addition to choosing your topic, you should also select a target audience. 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. Five pieces of advice here:

keep track of the search items you use (so that your search can be replicated [10] ),
keep a list of papers whose pdfs you cannot access immediately (so as to retrieve them later with alternative strategies),
use a paper management system (e.g., Mendeley, Papers, Qiqqa, Sente),
define early in the process some criteria for exclusion of irrelevant papers (these criteria can then be described in the review to help define its scope), and
do not just look for research papers in the area you wish to review, but also seek previous reviews.

The chances are high that someone will already have published a literature review ( Figure 1 ), if not exactly on the issue you are planning to tackle, at least on a related topic. If there are already a few or several reviews of the literature on your issue, my advice is not to give up, but to carry on with your own literature review,

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The bottom-right situation (many literature reviews but few research papers) is not just a theoretical situation; it applies, for example, to the study of the impacts of climate change on plant diseases, where there appear to be more literature reviews than research studies [33] .

discussing in your review the approaches, limitations, and conclusions of past reviews,
trying to find a new angle that has not been covered adequately in the previous reviews, and
incorporating new material that has inevitably accumulated since their appearance.

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.

Rule 3: Take Notes While Reading

If you read the papers first, and only afterwards start writing the review, you will need a very good memory to remember who wrote what, and what your impressions and associations were while reading each single paper. 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. This way, by the time you have read the literature you selected, you will already have a rough draft of the review.

Of course, this draft will still need much rewriting, restructuring, and rethinking to obtain a text with a coherent argument [11] , but you will have avoided the danger posed by staring at a blank document. Be careful when taking notes to use quotation marks if you are provisionally copying verbatim from the literature. It is advisable then to reformulate such quotes with your own words in the final draft. It is important to be careful in noting the references already at this stage, so as to avoid misattributions. Using referencing software from the very beginning of your endeavour will save you time.

Rule 4: Choose the Type of Review You Wish to Write

After having taken notes while reading the literature, you will have a rough idea of the amount of material available for the review. This is probably a good time to decide whether to go for a mini- or a full review. Some journals are now favouring the publication of rather short reviews focusing on the last few years, with a limit on the number of words and citations. A mini-review is not necessarily a minor review: it may well attract more attention from busy readers, although it will inevitably simplify some issues and leave out some relevant material due to space limitations. A full review will have the advantage of more freedom to cover in detail the complexities of a particular scientific development, but may then be left in the pile of the very important papers “to be read” by readers with little time to spare for major monographs.

There is probably a continuum between mini- and full reviews. The same point applies to the dichotomy of descriptive vs. integrative reviews. While descriptive reviews focus on the methodology, findings, and interpretation of each reviewed study, integrative reviews attempt to find common ideas and concepts from the reviewed material [12] . A similar distinction exists between narrative and systematic reviews: while narrative reviews are qualitative, systematic reviews attempt to test a hypothesis based on the published evidence, which is gathered using a predefined protocol to reduce bias [13] , [14] . When systematic reviews analyse quantitative results in a quantitative way, they become meta-analyses. The choice between different review types will have to be made on a case-by-case basis, depending not just on the nature of the material found and the preferences of the target journal(s), but also on the time available to write the review and the number of coauthors [15] .

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 . Including material just for the sake of it can easily lead to reviews that are trying to do too many things at once. The need to keep a review focused can be problematic for interdisciplinary reviews, where the aim is to bridge the gap between fields [18] . If you are writing a review on, for example, how epidemiological approaches are used in modelling the spread of ideas, you may be inclined to include material from both parent fields, epidemiology and the study of cultural diffusion. This may be necessary to some extent, but in this case a focused review would only deal in detail with those studies at the interface between epidemiology and the spread of ideas.

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. This square may be circled by discussing the wider implications of the reviewed topic for other disciplines.

Rule 6: Be Critical and Consistent

Reviewing the literature is not stamp collecting. A good review does not just summarize the literature, but discusses it critically, identifies methodological problems, and points out research gaps [19] . After having read a review of the literature, a reader should have a rough idea of:

the major achievements in the reviewed field,
the main areas of debate, and
the outstanding research questions.

It is challenging to achieve a successful review on all these fronts. A solution can be to involve a set of complementary coauthors: some people are excellent at mapping what has been achieved, some others are very good at identifying dark clouds on the horizon, and some have instead a knack at predicting where solutions are going to come from. If your journal club has exactly this sort of team, then you should definitely write a review of the literature! In addition to critical thinking, a literature review needs consistency, for example in the choice of passive vs. active voice and present vs. past tense.

Rule 7: Find a Logical Structure

Like a well-baked cake, a good review has a number of telling features: it is worth the reader's time, timely, systematic, well written, focused, and critical. It also needs a good structure. With reviews, the usual subdivision of research papers into introduction, methods, results, and discussion does not work or is rarely used. However, a general introduction of the context and, toward the end, a recapitulation of the main points covered and take-home messages make sense also in the case of reviews. For systematic reviews, there is a trend towards including information about how the literature was searched (database, keywords, time limits) [20] .

How can you organize the flow of the main body of the review so that the reader will be drawn into and guided through it? It is generally helpful to draw a conceptual scheme of the review, e.g., with mind-mapping techniques. Such diagrams can help recognize a logical way to order and link the various sections of a review [21] . This is the case not just at the writing stage, but also for readers if the diagram is included in the review as a figure. A careful selection of diagrams and figures relevant to the reviewed topic can be very helpful to structure the text too [22] .

Rule 8: Make Use of Feedback

Reviews of the literature are normally peer-reviewed in the same way as research papers, and rightly so [23] . As a rule, incorporating feedback from reviewers greatly helps improve a review draft. 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. 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.

Feedback is vital to writing a good review, and should be sought from a variety of colleagues, so as to obtain a diversity of views on the draft. 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. A diversity of feedback perspectives on a literature review can help identify where the consensus view stands in the landscape of the current scientific understanding of an issue [24] .

Rule 9: Include Your Own Relevant Research, but Be Objective

In many cases, reviewers of the literature will have published studies relevant to the review they are writing. This could create a conflict of interest: how can reviewers report objectively on their own work [25] ? 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. 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.

In general, a review of the literature should neither be a public relations brochure nor an exercise in competitive self-denial. 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. In reviews written by multiple authors, this may be achieved by assigning the review of the results of a coauthor to different coauthors.

Rule 10: Be Up-to-Date, but Do Not Forget Older Studies

Given the progressive acceleration in the publication of scientific papers, today's reviews of the literature need awareness not just of the overall direction and achievements of a field of inquiry, but also of the latest studies, so as not to become out-of-date before they have been published. Ideally, a literature review should not identify as a major research gap an issue that has just been addressed in a series of papers in press (the same applies, of course, to older, overlooked studies (“sleeping beauties” [26] )). This implies that literature reviewers would do well to keep an eye on electronic lists of papers in press, given that it can take months before these appear in scientific databases. 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. Assessing the contribution of papers that have just appeared is particularly challenging, because there is little perspective with which to gauge their significance and impact on further research and society.

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. But this is the nature of science [27] – [32] . I wish everybody good luck with writing a review of the literature.

Acknowledgments

Many thanks to M. Barbosa, K. Dehnen-Schmutz, T. Döring, D. Fontaneto, M. Garbelotto, O. Holdenrieder, M. Jeger, D. Lonsdale, A. MacLeod, P. Mills, M. Moslonka-Lefebvre, G. Stancanelli, P. Weisberg, and X. Xu for insights and discussions, and to P. Bourne, T. Matoni, and D. Smith for helpful comments on a previous draft.

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. The funders had no role in the preparation of the manuscript.

Engineering: The Literature Review Process

How to Use This Guide

What is a literature review and why is it important?

Instructions for writing the Literature Review of your Final year project

Kush Tripathi
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How to write a literature review for your final year thesis project

How many papers should I read?
How long should the literature review be?
Should I read books, articles, or …?
Is it OK to reference websites such as Wikipedia ?
Who will read my literature review and what can I assume about their knowledge of the area?
When should I start the literature review and when should it be finished?

These questions crop up frequently and will be familiar to any readers who are starting their own project. However, when you fully understand the purpose of the literature and how to go about writing one, you begin to realise that these questions are actually not that important. This post is designed to help students make that transition, from not yet understanding what the literature review is for, to having a thorough understanding of its purpose and a clear idea of how to write it up.

The meaning of a final year project

A lot of students starting off their projects talk about writing a “report” at the end of their “project” and doing some “research” as part of their literature review. This is where the subtleties of the English language tend to cause a lot of confusion. “Research” can have many different meanings, and to complete a really successful final year project the first thing to do it to understand fully what is expected of you in an academic context. Even if your final year at University is the last experience you have of academic work , remember that your work will be marked according to academic criteria, and academia has quite different aims to industry.

So, to be clear: research , in an academic context, means adding something new to the body of knowledge that humans have gathered in your area of interest. Your project as a whole will be a piece of research because you will be creating something new that has not been created before. What that is exactly will depend on the field you are studying. It might be a new perspective on a piece of literature, a new proof of a theorem, a new application of a particular technology, or something else. Since you are still an undergraduate it is likely (although not necessary) that your work will be a small step forward. It is unlikely that you will produce something completely ground breaking, so don’t be intimidated by fact that your work has to be novel. That said, it may be that you produce an excellent piece of work and your supervisor may want to turn that into a technical report or conference paper with you, which would be great for your CV (or resume).

A thesis is a statement of belief that is central to your research. Your dissertation will be a piece of writing that defends your thesis, based on your research. So, for example, if your thesis is regular, online tests help University students to learn new material then you will need to implement some sort of online tests for new material, design and run an experiment to test your thesis, and write it up in your dissertation. Equally, if your thesis is water causes cancer in mice then you will need to plan and run an experiment to determine whether or not this is true and write it up. Notice that you may disprove your thesis in your work. It may be that online tests do not help students learn, or that water doesn’t cause cancer in mice. This is absolutely fine, so long as your experiments give a clear answer to the question and you can show that your experiments were performed fairly it doesn’t matter whether your thesis turns out to be incorrect or correct (in so far as you have tested it). It may also be that your evaluation is inconclusive, which is also acceptable, so long as your experimental method is good and you can say exactly what further work is necessary to produce a definite result, you will be fine.

Alternatively, you might phrase your thesis as a research question . In which case, instead of having a thesis such as water causes cancer in mice you would ask the question does water cause cancer in mice and your dissertation would describe your efforts to answer that question.

The shape of your dissertation and where the literature fits in

Every dissertation is slightly different, but good dissertations will all contain the same elements. I should say that the advice given in this sections is likely only relevant to science based projects. If you are working in the arts or some areas in the humanities then the expectations of you may well be very different. Still, a good dissertation in the sciences will contain roughly the elements listed below. I say “roughly” because, depending on the exact nature of your work, it may be sensible to expand some sections into two chapters rather than one, or to coalesce some elements into a single chapter. Your supervisor can give you more specific advice on this.

Introduction: should introduce the reader to the broad context of the research and explain why this is an interesting area to work in. So, if your thesis is something to do with mobile computing, you might say something here about why mobile phones are important, why mobile computing is an interesting and important area, and broadly what other researchers are working on. At the end of the chapter you will want to introduce your specific research question, having said why the area you are working in (and therefore your question) is important.
Literature review: Now you have introduced the reader (who will likely not be an expert in your exact area) to the broad research agenda in the field, and your research question, you can start writing more specifically about your own project. In this chapter you will survey the work that other researchers have done to answer your research question, or related questions. At the end of the chapter you should briefly explain how your own work builds on and differs from the work that has gone before it.
Method: this chapter should describe what you did to answer your research question (or to support your thesis, if you think of it that way), and how you went about it. You should describe your work in sufficient detail that another researcher could recreate your work to check your results.
Evaluation: here, you should evaluate what you have done, and say what answer (to your research question) you have arrived at. It may be that in your method you describe some experiments, and this section records your results and analysis of those results. This is an important section — most students gain or lose marks in either their literature review or evaluation. Key to producing a convincing evaluation is to plan very early in the project what information you will need to write this section. More on that in another blog post.
Conclusions: should summarise what you have done and how you answered the research question. It may be that your work produced a very clear answer to the question, or it may be that your work points to a need for further research to clarify or confirm your answer. You should refer back to the literature review and summarise how your research differs from (hopefully improves on) the work described in the literature. Make sure you also say what research you would do if you were to continue working on your project.
References: a list of publications cited in the main text, in Harvard style or similar format.

It is likely that most chapters will be roughly the same size, although the introductory chapter and conclusions are usually slightly shorter than the others. Try to let the lengths of each chapter be guided by the amount of useful and important information you have to convey to the reader, don’t impose artificial word limits on yourself.

Practical matters: how to start, how to finish and how to do the bit in the middle

Reading and understanding the work of others is a lifetimes work for professional researchers, it is not something that starts and stops on particular dates, according to a Gantt chart. Your final year project will have a hand in deadline, so you need to be a little more circumscribed about how work.

Now you know what a literature review is for, how it fits into your dissertation and how to go about writing your own, it would probably be useful to see an example of (part of) an example review. The paragraphs below give such an example and the text [in italics] is some commentary to explain how each part of the writing contributes towards the start of a good thesis chapter. When you read this, don’t worry too much about the subject matter, just try to concentrate on the style of writing and the structure of the text.

The area of pervasive, or ubiquitous, computing was founded by Wieser (1991) [ referenced] who predicted that computers would one day be integrated into everyday objects and interact with people seamlessly. Although few such products are available today Weiser’s work has led to the creation of a number of research areas, including ambient intelligence (Eli and Epstein 1998), smart dust (Khan et al, 1999) and the Internet of Things (Brickley et al, 2001). [Sets the historical context of the area and defines related areas.]

An early application of pervasive computing was the active badge location system, described by Want et al (1992), in which users and objects were tagged with an “active” badge which could locate and identify them. This system was based on ultrasound locationing, whereas later systems might use RFID technology to achieve the same effect. [describes how the field has changed over time] Uses of the active badge system included routing phone calls, email alerts and so on to the physical location of the receiver. [contextualises the fundamental research]

The Secret of the Literature Review (teesdiary.wordpress.com)
How to review a research paper (cmeforum.wordpress.com)
Dissertation Literature Reviews (ukdissertations.wordpress.com)
Preparing For Your Dissertation (ihumanresources.wordpress.com)

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Final Year Project Literature Review

This will reveal to you my awesome reader what supervisors’ look out for in your literature review. STRUCTURE OF AN AWESOME LITERATURE REVIEW

Introduction
Theoretical Framework
Conceptual Review
Empirical Review
Summary of Chapter

N/B: The arrangement may vary considering different formats of some tertiary institutions. But for a well written review of related literature, these components are needed. Introduction A brief introduction in your literature review will enable readers know what the chapter is all about. Not just that, it will also earn you good points. The introduction in the literature review section should be concise and it should spell out or highlight items to be discussed. Ideally, it should not exceed a standard page. Example ‘’This chapter gives an insight into various studies conducted by outstanding researchers, as well as explained terminologies with regards to the Challenges of Income Taxation in Ghana. The chapter also gives a resume of the history and present status of the problem delineated by a concise review of previous studies into closely related problems.’’ Theoretical Framework This section of literature review is very important and should be included in order to earn good marks in your research project. To ace your research project, you must do some research to develop relevant contents here. Students are expected to capture theories related to their study. These theories will later form the basis in which you study is based on. For easy understanding, if a student is writing on the effect of motivation on employee productivity; the Abraham Maslow’s Theory of motivation, Expectancy theory, Herzberg two factor theory etc., should come to mind. Conceptual Framework Another necessary aspect of the Literature Review is the conceptual framework or review. The conceptual framework covers all terminologies associated with the variables in the research. At a higher level (especially at the Masters and PhD levels), conceptual framework comes in form of a diagram or a figure showing how various variables interplay in the achievement of the research objectives or constructed ideas to solve an identified research problem. As revealed above, a conceptual framework should define each variable present in the research. (click here to read more on variables). For example, using our topic ‘effects of motivation on employee productivity: two key-words stand out: Motivation Independent variable Employee productivity Dependent variables Picking out the independent variable (motivation), a good conceptual framework will encompass subject in form of sub-headings such as: Types of motivation Forms of motivation Factors of motivation Problems of Motivating Employees in an organization etc. Same should follow for the dependent variables Empirical Review What has others done concerning your study? What studies already conducted relate to your work? Ever been asked these questions? Yes! …this is where you write your answers. The empirical review section is basically where you bring into light previous research studies conducted on your field of research or studies. It could be a related study or exact previous study on your research area. Using our topic mentioned earlier, the empirical review will encompass the findings and recommendations on the effects of motivation on employee productivity probably in China, Germany, Ikeja, Agege, Uyo, Oshogbo, Hong Kong etc. Here you bring in a bit of empirical evidence, properly documenting the researcher (s), year, location, sample size, finding as well as recommendations. Example: ‘’Recent research has examined the motivational effects of redesigning jobs to connect employees to their impact on the beneficiaries of their work-the clients, customers, patients, and other end users who are affected by their efforts (Grant, 2007). Organization scholars also used self determination theory to explain the motivation effects of transformational values leadership to inspire employees, model important values, and provide and judge (2003) conducted a field study and a laboratory experiment showing that transformational leaders encourage employees to set autonomous and higher performance. Interestingly, their field study suggested that transformational leadership was associated positively with antonymous motivation but had no relationship with controlled motivation, while their lab experiment indicated that transformational leadership reduced controlled motivation more strongly than it increased antonymous motivation.’’ Summary of chapter This section showcases your opinion on various related literatures reviewed in the chapter. This is where you are at liberty to state gaps identified in the research, your opinion on empirical and theoretical facts established, as well as where your study fits in the theoretical framework. Where do I get material for my literature review? 1. For conceptual framework, students can get good information from textbooks; research journals and the Internet (e.g. search engines like google.com and bing, useful research site like researchclue.com) 2. For empirical review and theoretical framework, it is imperative to read research journals. Published research journal will provide a solid foundation to source for authentic facts that relates to your study. The methodology, findings and recommendation section of a research journal will enable the student to develop empirical facts for his/her study. Examples of research journal sites are: Management: http://jom.sagepub.com http://aom.org Science: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_scientific_journals Accounting: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_accounting_journals Economics: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_economics_journals Bonus marks Literature reviewed must be related or related to the variables present in the research. References must not be too old, ideally references should not be beyond a decade (i.e. beyond 2005) All headings, diagrams and tables should be neatly arranged. Journal, text books, magazines, etc used in developing contents for the literature review should be related to your study Copy and paste from the journal published, textbook, internet, etc must be minimized.

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How to Write Literature Review for your Final Year Project (Chapter 2)

Steps on How to Write Literature Review for Your Final Year Project

After writing the introduction , which is chapter one or section one, the next most critical part of thesis writing is the literature review, known as chapter two or section two. The literature review is critical of thesis writing since it reveals what has been done in the extant literature. A literature review examines publications , research papers , and any other source materials pertaining to a specific concern, the field of knowledge, or concept and formed the basis, overview, and analysis of a research subject concerning the research gap under consideration. A literature review gives a detailed or comprehensive summary of major works and other publications on a specific subject. Academic peer-reviewed journals , publications, government reports, internet sites, and other sources may be included in the review. Each source is described, summarized, and evaluated in the literature review.

A literature review is divided into three major parts: conceptual review, theoretical review, and empirical review. The following subheadings show a step-by-step analysis and provide a detailed understanding of how a literature review should be written.

The literature should be broad enough to cover all of the necessary knowledge on the topic.
It must locate research and concepts that bolster a research question.
it must be narrow enough to exclude unimportant information from the research topic
It must be carried out using credible sources.
The literature must also be relevant, recent and adequately referenced.

Step 1: Preambles

it is essential to state or give a little introduction in chapter two. This preamble introduces the reader to what should be expected in the chapter. A preamble is an opening summary, a foreword, an overview of the component of a statute, obligation, or the like that states the reasons for and the purpose of what following sections. A preamble is an introductory and expressive statement in a thesis that outlines the intent and underpinning concept of the research. When introduced to the first research paragraphs, it narrates essential evidence relevant to the researcher’s intention.

Step 2: Conceptual Review

A comprehensive and detailed conceptual review necessitates the author identifying all conceivably essential and relevant papers (both empirical and conceptual) applicable to the realm under consideration. Conceptual review is seen as a methodology in which research is carried out by studying and interpreting previously available information about a particular topic . Conceptual research does not include any practical experiments. It has something to do with abstract concepts or ideas. For instance, while writing on the topic “ Branding and Firm Performance “, the following steps should be taken:

Determine the specific variables identified in this study and how they are connected. Some academic papers include the variables, and the key points may therefore serve a purpose. If these aren’t available, look for a summary of the research paper . If the variables are not explicitly stated in summary, return to the research methods or findings and discussion of the study to accurately identify the variables in this study and needed information. Here, the key variables are “Branding” and “Firm Performance.”
Explain what branding is about by looking at what different authors have said. Discuss various scholars opinions on the concept of “branding.” The first step here is to look at the meaning. Make sure current and relevant literature are used. This is 2021. It is expected that 80% of your literature cited must be between 2015-2021.
The dimensions of branding. Here, the measurement of branding or the components of branding should be discussed. The author should state how the study intends to measure branding and why those measures were adopted.
Write on “Firm Performance”. Consider what different studies have said about firm performance. Look at the different measures of firm performance, explain the different factors affecting firm performance and indicate how performance is used in the study.
Provide a link between your independent variable (Branding) and dependent variable (firm performance)
Create your conceptualization by combining the variables from the research papers you’ve read. Your statement of the problem or purpose of the study provides a starting point for writing it. In essence, your investigation will be sought to address a query that other investigators have not yet addressed. Your study should fill a knowledge gap.

Step 3: Theoretical Review

The theoretical review examines theoretical models (philosophies or entire theories), their interactions, the extent to which the theories have been investigated, and the development of new assumptions. The theoretical review consists of theories and models appropriate to the knowledge being considered and how they relate to the broader areas of knowledge. In this section, it is expected that the researcher will reveal all the theories relating to Branding and Firm Performance. It is also imperative that the author reveal the theories or theory on which the study is anchored from all the examined theories. The underpinning theory should be relevant to the discussion and gap the author seeks to address.

The theoretical framework enhances the research in the following areas.

An affirmative statement of fundamental propositions evaluates a study’s overall review of them.
The theoretical framework links the researcher to previously known information. You are provided with a foundation for your research objective and methods based on an existing theoretical view.
Conveying a study’s underlying concepts compels you to answer how and why questions. It enables you to progress from merely stating an existing behaviour to making assumptions about various facets of that phenomenon.
I am having a theory aids in identifying the limitations of those assumptions. A theoretical review specifies which key variables influence an exciting phenomenon. It informs you to investigate under what and how conditions those critical points could deviate.

Step 4: Empirical Literature Review

An empirical literature review investigates previous studies to answer a specific research question. The empirical review simply discusses the various studies research and recommendations for the future on your topic or people’s relevant literature comparable to your research work . Various researchers’ identities must be connected to their observations or statements. An empirical literature review, also known as a literature review, explores previous studies to answer a specific research question. The goal of the empirical review is to identify gaps in the literature. The empirical review is divided into three.

Developed Economies (Advanced Economies). Here the author is expected to examine all the literature done in the advanced countries on the topic in focus. The advanced countries include Canada, France, U.S.A, Britain and Italy.
Emerging Economies (Developing Countries): The literature from developing countries such as Brazil, India, Turkey, Malaysia, Indonesia, etc. should be considered in the study
The country where the study is carried out: For instance, Nigeria. Various studies carried out on the researches area of study in the country of origin should be considered.

It is critical to state here that the Literature review will provide the author and the reader with what variables and theories the author intends to use or has used. Hence, relevant literature should be considered and various arguments examined in this section.

Getting Started with your FYP (Final Year Project)

What is a FYP?
Research Topic
Research Question
Key Section: Literature Review
Key Section: Methodology
Recommended Reading
Some Final Tips

Reference List

Bogan, T. (2014) The research process. Available at : https://wellmanneredlibrarian.com/2014/03/10/research-process-infographic/ (Accessed: 27 April 2020).

Cambridge Online Dictionary (2020) Dissertation . Available at : https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/dissertation (Accessed: 27 April 2020).

Clark, T. & Foster, L. (2019) Top tips for students getting started on their research project. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfAG38jtld4 ( Accessed: 30 April 2020).

Cluny Library (2016) Writing a research question. Available at : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYImrVPIhEU (Accessed: 30 April 2020).

Emerald (2020) Writing a literature review . Available at : https://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/services/authors/author-how-guides/writing-a-literature-review (Accessed:1 May 2020).

Gacho, F. (2018) Starting the literature review. Available at: http://cmgtwriting.uscannenberg.org/starting-the-literature-review/ (Accessed: 8 May 2020).

Kelly, J.M. (2014) How to find a research topic. Available at : https://www.jasonmkelly.com/jason-m-kelly/2014/01/08/flowchart-how-to-find-a-research-topic (Accessed: 28 April 2020).

Kibin (2017) How to make a thesis statement the easy way . Available at : https://www.kibin.com/essay-writing-blog/how-to-make-a-thesis-statement-the-easy-way-infographic/ (Acce sse d: 8 May 2020).

Lewak, J. (2015) What do we mean by a research question . Available at : https://www.slideshare.net/BruceH99/what-do-wemeanbyaresearchquestion (Accessed: 30 April 2020).

NC State University Libraries (2013) Picking your topic is research . Available at : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0B3Gjlu-1o (Accessed: 28 April 2020).

pediaa.com (2016) Quantitative research versus qualitative research. Available at : https://pediaa.com/difference-between-quantitative-and-qualitative-research (Accessed: 7 May 2020).

Steely Library (2015) What is a literature review? Available at : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ry_54WleO7Y ( Accessed: 1 May 2020 ).

UC San Diego (2020) Do's and don't of creating a research question. Available at: https://ucsd.libguides.com/ MCWP / researchquestions ( Accessed: 30 April 2020).

University Now (2014) Quantitative vs. qualitative r esearch . Available at : https ://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCuwX35MHyE (Accesse d: 7 May 2020).

Visually (2019) 10 tips for writing a fast thesis. Available at : https://visual.ly/community/infographic/10-tips-fast-thesis-writing (Accesse d: 7 May 2020).

Waterloo University Library (2013) Brainstorming your research topic. Available at : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBwPb7XhQuY (Accessed: 30 April 2020).

Wolfson, S. (2013) Focus on a topic you find intriguing . Available at : https://www.theguardian.com/education/2013/mar/21/how-to-plan-your-dissertation ( Accessed: 1 May 2020 ).

This guide was created by Nora Hegarty, LIT Library

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Last Updated: Apr 10, 2024 2:41 PM
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Literature Review: What is and How to do it?

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How to Write a Literature Review
Examples of literature reviews. Step 1 - Search for relevant literature. Step 2 - Evaluate and select sources. Step 3 - Identify themes, debates, and gaps. Step 4 - Outline your literature review's structure. Step 5 - Write your literature review.
What is a Literature Review? How to Write It (with Examples)
A literature review is a critical analysis and synthesis of existing research on a particular topic. It provides an overview of the current state of knowledge, identifies gaps, and highlights key findings in the literature. 1 The purpose of a literature review is to situate your own research within the context of existing scholarship ...
Writing a Literature Review
Writing a Literature Review. A literature review is a document or section of a document that collects key sources on a topic and discusses those sources in conversation with each other (also called synthesis ). The lit review is an important genre in many disciplines, not just literature (i.e., the study of works of literature such as novels ...
How to Write a Literature Review for Your Final Year Project
The project is the whole and your literature review is just a part of it. If the topic for your project is not selected, you cannot create a table of content let alone a literature review. You need to sit with your supervisor to; • Talk about your topic. You get to select one but he/she has to approve of it.
How To Write A Literature Review (+ Free Template)
Okay - with the why out the way, let's move on to the how. As mentioned above, writing your literature review is a process, which I'll break down into three steps: Finding the most suitable literature. Understanding, distilling and organising the literature. Planning and writing up your literature review chapter.
How To Write A Literature Review
1. 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. Ensure you understand the research topic inside out, or else seek clarifications.
How to Write a Literature Review for Your Final Year Project
Then, it is time to write! A literature review is best delivered in three parts; Introduction: In introduction, you present your project topic, the objective of your literature review, its parameters, and the importance of your literature review and project as well. Body: This is where the bulk of your work is.
How To Structure A Literature Review (Free Template)
Demonstrate your knowledge of the research topic. Identify the gaps in the literature and show how your research links to these. Provide the foundation for your conceptual framework (if you have one) Inform your own methodology and research design. To achieve this, your literature review needs a well-thought-out structure.
Literature Review
A literature review is a systematic analysis and summary of the published academic writings directly relating to your topic of research. It should provide the reader with background information on your topic, and explain the significance of your research, and how your research relates to the rest of the academic publications on the topic.
What is a Literature Review?
A literature review is a survey of scholarly sources on a specific topic. It provides an overview of current knowledge, allowing you to identify relevant theories, methods, and gaps in the existing research. There are five key steps to writing a literature review: Search for relevant literature. Evaluate sources. Identify themes, debates and gaps.
Writing a literature review
How to write a literature review in 6 steps. How do you write a good literature review? This step-by-step guide on how to write an excellent literature review covers all aspects of planning and writing literature reviews for academic papers and theses.
PDF Writing a Literature Review FINAL
How to write a strong literature review. There are several steps toward writing a strong literature review: 1. Synthesize and evaluate information 2. Identify the main ideas of the literature 3. Identify the main argument of the literature review 4. Organize the main points of the literature review 5. Write literature review.
Ten Simple Rules for Writing a Literature Review
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.
PDF Writing an Effective Literature Review
You begin any writing project in academia not by writing at all, but by reading. And in the case of a literature review, the necessary first step is finding what you should read. I do not intent to go into detail here about how we search the literature. This will be a routine task familiar to most of you and will always involve the use of
Writing a literature review
A formal literature review is an evidence-based, in-depth analysis of a subject. There are many reasons for writing one and these will influence the length and style of your review, but in essence a literature review is a critical appraisal of the current collective knowledge on a subject. Rather than just being an exhaustive list of all that ...
Engineering: The Literature Review Process
The author puts the literature review within Chapter Two presenting it as part of the background information of her topic. Note that the literature review within a thesis or dissertation more closely resembles the scope and depth of a stand- alone literature review as opposed to the briefer reviews appearing within journal articles.
(PDF) Student's Guide For Final Year Project Thesis: BSc ...
Abstract. A final year project represents a demonstration of a student's ability to integrate the knowledge they acquired from more than one course and subject, to produce a final work that ...
Instructions for writing the Literature Review of your Final year project
A long time ago I wrote an article on how to pass your final year thesis project, which several studentsfound helpful. In the same vein, this post deals with a particular aspect of the final year project: the literature review.Every year I see students doing projects. I find students tend to ask the same questions about their literature review ...
Final Year Project Literature Review
This section of literature review is very important and should be included in order to earn good marks in your research project. To ace your research project, you must do some research to develop relevant contents here. Students are expected to capture theories related to their study. These theories will later form the basis in which you study ...
Advice on Final Year Projects:Writing a Literature Review (FYP)
The Penn State University Libraries Conducting a Literature Search also reinforces this advice in a short but well structured article. Practical sources of advice on the process of writing a literature review in Final Year Projects (FYP). Written by Mike Hart, Professor of Business and Informatics, King Alfred's College, Winchester, UK.
How to Write Literature Review for your Final Year Project (Chapter 2)
Step 4: Empirical Literature Review. An empirical literature review investigates previous studies to answer a specific research question. The empirical review simply discusses the various studies research and recommendations for the future on your topic or people's relevant literature comparable to your research work.
References
Final year projects; Dissertation; Thesis
write a FIRST CLASS final year project research, thesis or ...
how to write a first class project research, thesis or dissertation (chapter 1-5 etc) abstract,. literature review, introduction bla bla blah | Divine Ofomaj...

What is a Literature Review? How to Write It (with Examples)

Table of Contents

How to write a good literature review

What is a literature review?

What is the purpose of literature review?

Literature review example

Literature Review on Climate Change Impacts on Biodiversity:

a. Habitat Loss and Species Extinction:

b. Range Shifts and Phenological Changes:

c. Ocean Acidification and Coral Reefs:

d. Adaptive Strategies and Conservation Efforts:

Conducting a literature review

Choose a Topic and Define the Research Question:

Decide on the Scope of Your Review:

Select Databases for Searches:

Conduct Searches and Keep Track:

Review the Literature:

Organize and Write Your Literature Review:

How to write a literature review faster with Paperpal?

Frequently asked questions

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Writing a Literature Review

Welcome to the Purdue OWL

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Introduction

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Table of contents

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Make a list of keywords

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Chronological

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Literature review

How to write a literature review in 6 steps

How to write a systematic literature review [9 steps]

What is a literature review? [with examples]

Ten Simple Rules for Writing a Literature Review

Rule 1: Define a Topic and Audience

Rule 2: Search and Re-search the Literature

Rule 3: Take Notes While Reading

Rule 4: Choose the Type of Review You Wish to Write

Rule 5: Keep the Review Focused, but Make It of Broad Interest

Rule 6: Be Critical and Consistent

Rule 7: Find a Logical Structure

Rule 8: Make Use of Feedback

Rule 9: Include Your Own Relevant Research, but Be Objective

Rule 10: Be Up-to-Date, but Do Not Forget Older Studies

Acknowledgments

Funding Statement

Engineering: The Literature Review Process

What is a literature review and why is it important?

Instructions for writing the Literature Review of your Final year project

How to write a literature review for your final year thesis project

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Final Year Project Literature Review

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How to Write Literature Review for your Final Year Project (Chapter 2)

Steps on How to Write Literature Review for Your Final Year Project

Step 1: Preambles

Step 2: Conceptual Review