structure of a literature review psychology

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Writing Research Papers

• Writing a Literature Review

When writing a research paper on a specific topic, you will often need to include an overview of any prior research that has been conducted on that topic.  For example, if your research paper is describing an experiment on fear conditioning, then you will probably need to provide an overview of prior research on fear conditioning.  That overview is typically known as a literature review.  

Please note that a full-length literature review article may be suitable for fulfilling the requirements for the Psychology B.S. Degree Research Paper .  For further details, please check with your faculty advisor.

Different Types of Literature Reviews

Literature reviews come in many forms.  They can be part of a research paper, for example as part of the Introduction section.  They can be one chapter of a doctoral dissertation.  Literature reviews can also “stand alone” as separate articles by themselves.  For instance, some journals such as Annual Review of Psychology , Psychological Bulletin , and others typically publish full-length review articles.  Similarly, in courses at UCSD, you may be asked to write a research paper that is itself a literature review (such as, with an instructor’s permission, in fulfillment of the B.S. Degree Research Paper requirement). Alternatively, you may be expected to include a literature review as part of a larger research paper (such as part of an Honors Thesis). 

Literature reviews can be written using a variety of different styles.  These may differ in the way prior research is reviewed as well as the way in which the literature review is organized.  Examples of stylistic variations in literature reviews include: 

• Summarization of prior work vs. critical evaluation. In some cases, prior research is simply described and summarized; in other cases, the writer compares, contrasts, and may even critique prior research (for example, discusses their strengths and weaknesses).
• Chronological vs. categorical and other types of organization. In some cases, the literature review begins with the oldest research and advances until it concludes with the latest research.  In other cases, research is discussed by category (such as in groupings of closely related studies) without regard for chronological order.  In yet other cases, research is discussed in terms of opposing views (such as when different research studies or researchers disagree with one another).

Overall, all literature reviews, whether they are written as a part of a larger work or as separate articles unto themselves, have a common feature: they do not present new research; rather, they provide an overview of prior research on a specific topic . 

How to Write a Literature Review

When writing a literature review, it can be helpful to rely on the following steps.  Please note that these procedures are not necessarily only for writing a literature review that becomes part of a larger article; they can also be used for writing a full-length article that is itself a literature review (although such reviews are typically more detailed and exhaustive; for more information please refer to the Further Resources section of this page).

Steps for Writing a Literature Review

1. Identify and define the topic that you will be reviewing.

The topic, which is commonly a research question (or problem) of some kind, needs to be identified and defined as clearly as possible.  You need to have an idea of what you will be reviewing in order to effectively search for references and to write a coherent summary of the research on it.  At this stage it can be helpful to write down a description of the research question, area, or topic that you will be reviewing, as well as to identify any keywords that you will be using to search for relevant research.

2. Conduct a literature search.

Use a range of keywords to search databases such as PsycINFO and any others that may contain relevant articles.  You should focus on peer-reviewed, scholarly articles.  Published books may also be helpful, but keep in mind that peer-reviewed articles are widely considered to be the “gold standard” of scientific research.  Read through titles and abstracts, select and obtain articles (that is, download, copy, or print them out), and save your searches as needed.  For more information about this step, please see the Using Databases and Finding Scholarly References section of this website.

3. Read through the research that you have found and take notes.

Absorb as much information as you can.  Read through the articles and books that you have found, and as you do, take notes.  The notes should include anything that will be helpful in advancing your own thinking about the topic and in helping you write the literature review (such as key points, ideas, or even page numbers that index key information).  Some references may turn out to be more helpful than others; you may notice patterns or striking contrasts between different sources ; and some sources may refer to yet other sources of potential interest.  This is often the most time-consuming part of the review process.  However, it is also where you get to learn about the topic in great detail.  For more details about taking notes, please see the “Reading Sources and Taking Notes” section of the Finding Scholarly References page of this website.

4. Organize your notes and thoughts; create an outline.

At this stage, you are close to writing the review itself.  However, it is often helpful to first reflect on all the reading that you have done.  What patterns stand out?  Do the different sources converge on a consensus?  Or not?  What unresolved questions still remain?  You should look over your notes (it may also be helpful to reorganize them), and as you do, to think about how you will present this research in your literature review.  Are you going to summarize or critically evaluate?  Are you going to use a chronological or other type of organizational structure?  It can also be helpful to create an outline of how your literature review will be structured.

5. Write the literature review itself and edit and revise as needed.

The final stage involves writing.  When writing, keep in mind that literature reviews are generally characterized by a summary style in which prior research is described sufficiently to explain critical findings but does not include a high level of detail (if readers want to learn about all the specific details of a study, then they can look up the references that you cite and read the original articles themselves).  However, the degree of emphasis that is given to individual studies may vary (more or less detail may be warranted depending on how critical or unique a given study was).   After you have written a first draft, you should read it carefully and then edit and revise as needed.  You may need to repeat this process more than once.  It may be helpful to have another person read through your draft(s) and provide feedback.

6. Incorporate the literature review into your research paper draft.

After the literature review is complete, you should incorporate it into your research paper (if you are writing the review as one component of a larger paper).  Depending on the stage at which your paper is at, this may involve merging your literature review into a partially complete Introduction section, writing the rest of the paper around the literature review, or other processes.

Further Tips for Writing a Literature Review

Full-length literature reviews

• Many full-length literature review articles use a three-part structure: Introduction (where the topic is identified and any trends or major problems in the literature are introduced), Body (where the studies that comprise the literature on that topic are discussed), and Discussion or Conclusion (where major patterns and points are discussed and the general state of what is known about the topic is summarized)

Literature reviews as part of a larger paper

• An “express method” of writing a literature review for a research paper is as follows: first, write a one paragraph description of each article that you read. Second, choose how you will order all the paragraphs and combine them in one document.  Third, add transitions between the paragraphs, as well as an introductory and concluding paragraph. 1
• A literature review that is part of a larger research paper typically does not have to be exhaustive. Rather, it should contain most or all of the significant studies about a research topic but not tangential or loosely related ones. 2   Generally, literature reviews should be sufficient for the reader to understand the major issues and key findings about a research topic.  You may however need to confer with your instructor or editor to determine how comprehensive you need to be.

Benefits of Literature Reviews

By summarizing prior research on a topic, literature reviews have multiple benefits.  These include:

• Literature reviews help readers understand what is known about a topic without having to find and read through multiple sources.
• Literature reviews help “set the stage” for later reading about new research on a given topic (such as if they are placed in the Introduction of a larger research paper). In other words, they provide helpful background and context.
• Literature reviews can also help the writer learn about a given topic while in the process of preparing the review itself. In the act of research and writing the literature review, the writer gains expertise on the topic .

Downloadable Resources

• How to Write APA Style Research Papers (a comprehensive guide) [ PDF ]
• Tips for Writing APA Style Research Papers (a brief summary) [ PDF ]
• Example APA Style Research Paper (for B.S. Degree – literature review) [ PDF ]

Further Resources

How-To Videos     

• Writing Research Paper Videos
• UCSD Library Psychology Research Guide: Literature Reviews

External Resources

• Developing and Writing a Literature Review from N Carolina A&T State University
• Example of a Short Literature Review from York College CUNY
• How to Write a Review of Literature from UW-Madison
• Writing a Literature Review from UC Santa Cruz  
• Pautasso, M. (2013). Ten Simple Rules for Writing a Literature Review. PLoS Computational Biology, 9 (7), e1003149. doi : 1371/journal.pcbi.1003149

1 Ashton, W. Writing a short literature review . [PDF]     

2 carver, l. (2014).  writing the research paper [workshop]. , prepared by s. c. pan for ucsd psychology.

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What is a Literature Review?

Description.

A literature review, also called a review article or review of literature, surveys the existing research on a topic. The term "literature" in this context refers to published research or scholarship in a particular discipline, rather than "fiction" (like American Literature) or an individual work of literature. In general, literature reviews are most common in the sciences and social sciences.

Literature reviews may be written as standalone works, or as part of a scholarly article or research paper. In either case, the purpose of the review is to summarize and synthesize the key scholarly work that has already been done on the topic at hand. The literature review may also include some analysis and interpretation. A literature review is  not  a summary of every piece of scholarly research on a topic.

Why are literature reviews useful?

Literature reviews can be very helpful for newer researchers or those unfamiliar with a field by synthesizing the existing research on a given topic, providing the reader with connections and relationships among previous scholarship. Reviews can also be useful to veteran researchers by identifying potentials gaps in the research or steering future research questions toward unexplored areas. If a literature review is part of a scholarly article, it should include an explanation of how the current article adds to the conversation. (From: https://researchguides.drake.edu/englit/criticism)

How is a literature review different from a research article?

Research articles: "are empirical articles that describe one or several related studies on a specific, quantitative, testable research question....they are typically organized into four text sections: Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion." Source: https://psych.uw.edu/storage/writing_center/litrev.pdf)

Steps for Writing a Literature Review

1. Identify and define the topic that you will be reviewing.

The topic, which is commonly a research question (or problem) of some kind, needs to be identified and defined as clearly as possible.  You need to have an idea of what you will be reviewing in order to effectively search for references and to write a coherent summary of the research on it.  At this stage it can be helpful to write down a description of the research question, area, or topic that you will be reviewing, as well as to identify any keywords that you will be using to search for relevant research.

2. Conduct a Literature Search

Use a range of keywords to search databases such as PsycINFO and any others that may contain relevant articles.  You should focus on peer-reviewed, scholarly articles . In SuperSearch and most databases, you may find it helpful to select the Advanced Search mode and include "literature review" or "review of the literature" in addition to your other search terms.  Published books may also be helpful, but keep in mind that peer-reviewed articles are widely considered to be the “gold standard” of scientific research.  Read through titles and abstracts, select and obtain articles (that is, download, copy, or print them out), and save your searches as needed. Most of the databases you will need are linked to from the Cowles Library Psychology Research guide .

3. Read through the research that you have found and take notes.

Absorb as much information as you can.  Read through the articles and books that you have found, and as you do, take notes.  The notes should include anything that will be helpful in advancing your own thinking about the topic and in helping you write the literature review (such as key points, ideas, or even page numbers that index key information).  Some references may turn out to be more helpful than others; you may notice patterns or striking contrasts between different sources; and some sources may refer to yet other sources of potential interest.  This is often the most time-consuming part of the review process.  However, it is also where you get to learn about the topic in great detail. You may want to use a Citation Manager to help you keep track of the citations you have found. 

4. Organize your notes and thoughts; create an outline.

At this stage, you are close to writing the review itself.  However, it is often helpful to first reflect on all the reading that you have done.  What patterns stand out?  Do the different sources converge on a consensus?  Or not?  What unresolved questions still remain?  You should look over your notes (it may also be helpful to reorganize them), and as you do, to think about how you will present this research in your literature review.  Are you going to summarize or critically evaluate?  Are you going to use a chronological or other type of organizational structure?  It can also be helpful to create an outline of how your literature review will be structured.

5. Write the literature review itself and edit and revise as needed.

The final stage involves writing.  When writing, keep in mind that literature reviews are generally characterized by a  summary style  in which prior research is described sufficiently to explain critical findings but does not include a high level of detail (if readers want to learn about all the specific details of a study, then they can look up the references that you cite and read the original articles themselves).  However, the degree of emphasis that is given to individual studies may vary (more or less detail may be warranted depending on how critical or unique a given study was).   After you have written a first draft, you should read it carefully and then edit and revise as needed.  You may need to repeat this process more than once.  It may be helpful to have another person read through your draft(s) and provide feedback.

6. Incorporate the literature review into your research paper draft. (note: this step is only if you are using the literature review to write a research paper. Many times the literature review is an end unto itself).

After the literature review is complete, you should incorporate it into your research paper (if you are writing the review as one component of a larger paper).  Depending on the stage at which your paper is at, this may involve merging your literature review into a partially complete Introduction section, writing the rest of the paper around the literature review, or other processes.

These steps were taken from: https://psychology.ucsd.edu/undergraduate-program/undergraduate-resources/academic-writing-resources/writing-research-papers/writing-lit-review.html#6.-Incorporate-the-literature-r

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Writing a Literature Review

What is a literature review.

• Research Topic | Research Questions
• Outline (Example)
• What Types of Literature Should I Use in My Review?
• Project Planner: Literature Review
• Writing a Literature Review in Psychology
• Literature Review tips (video)

Table of Contents

• What is a literature review?
• How is a literature review different from a research article?
• The two purposes: describe/compare and evaluate
• Getting started Select a topic and gather articles
• Choose a current, well-studied, specific topic
• Search the research literature
• Read the articles
• Write the literature review
• Structure How to proceed: describe, compare, evaluate

Literature reviews survey research on a particular area or topic in psychology. Their main purpose is to knit together theories and results from multiple studies to give an overview of a field of research.

How is a Literature Review Different from a Research Article?

Research articles:

• are empirical articles that describe one or several related studies on a specific, quantitative, testable research question
• are typically organized into four text sections: Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion

The Introduction of a research article includes a condensed literature review. Its purpose is to describe what is known about the area of study, with the goal of giving the context and rationale for the study itself. Published literature reviews are called review articles. Review articles emphasize interpretation. By surveying the key studies done in a certain research area, a review article interprets how each line of research supports or fails to support a theory. Unlike a research article, which is quite specific, a review article tells a more general story of an area of research by describing, comparing, and evaluating the key theories and main evidence in that area.

The Two Purposes of a Literature Review

Your review has two purposes:

(1) to describe and compare studies in a specific area of research and

(2) to evaluate those studies. Both purposes are vital: a thorough summary and comparison of the current research is necessary before you can build a strong evaluative argument about the theories tested.

Getting Started

(1) Select a research topic and identify relevant articles.

(2) Read the articles until you understand what about them is relevant to your review.

(3) Digest the articles: Understand the main points well enough to talk about them.

(4) Write the review, keeping in mind your two purposes: to describe and compare, and to evaluate.

SELECT A TOPIC AND COLLECT ARTICLES

Choose a current, well-studied, specific topic.

Pick a topic that interests you. If you're interested in a subject, you're likely to already know something about it. Your interest will help you to choose meaningful articles, making your paper more fun both to write and to read. The topic should be both current and well studied. Your goal is to describe and evaluate recent findings in a specific area of research, so pick a topic that you find in current research journals. Find an area that is well defined and well studied, meaning that several research groups are studying the topic and have approached it from different perspectives. If all the articles you find are from the same research group (i.e., the same authors), broaden your topic or use more general search terms.

You may need to narrow your topic. The subject of a short literature review must be specific enough, yet have sufficient literature on the subject, for you to cover it in depth. A broad topic will yield thousands of articles, which is impossible to survey meaningfully. If you are drowning in articles, or each article you find seems to be about a completely different aspect of the subject, narrow your topic. Choose one article that interests to you and focus on the specific question investigated. For example, a search for ‘teenage alcohol use’ will flood you with articles, but searching for ‘teenage alcohol use and criminal behavior’ will yield both fewer and more focused articles.

You may need to broaden your topic. You need enough articles on your topic for a thorough review of the research. If you’re unable to find much literature on your topic, or if you find articles you want that are not easy to find online, broaden your topic. What’s a more general way to ask your question of interest? For example, if you’re having a hard time finding articles on ‘discrimination against Asian-American women in STEM fields,’ broaden your topic (e.g., ‘academic discrimination against Asian-American women’ or ‘discrimination against women in STEM.’)

Consider several topics, and keep an open mind. Don't fall in love with a topic before you find how much research has been done in that area. By exploring different topics, you may discover something that is newly exciting to you!

Search the Research Literature

Do a preliminary search. Use online databases to search the research literature. If you don’t know how to search online databases, ask your instructor or reference librarian. Reference librarians are invaluable!

Search for helpful articles. Find one or more pivotal articles that can be a foundation for your paper. A pivotal article may be exceptionally well written, contain particularly valuable citations, or clarify relationships between different but related lines of research. Two sources of such articles in psychology are:

• Psychological Bulletin •
• Current Directions in Psychological Science (published by the American Psychological Society) has general, short articles written by scientists who have published a lot in their research area

How many articles? Although published review articles may cite more than 100 articles, literature reviews for courses are often shorter because they present only highlights of a research area and are not exhaustive. A short literature review may survey 7-12 research articles and be about 10-15 pages long. For course paper guidelines, ask your instructor.

Choose representative articles, not just the first ones you find. This consideration is more important than the length of your review.

Choose readable articles. Some research areas are harder to understand than others. Scan articles in the topic areas you are considering to decide on the readability of the research in those areas.

READ THE ARTICLES

To write an effective review, you’ll need a solid grasp of the relevant research. Begin by reading the article you find easiest. Read, re-read, and mentally digest it until you have a conversational understanding of the paper. You don’t know what you know until you can talk about it. And if you can’t talk about it, you won’t be able to write about it.

Read selectively. Don't start by reading the articles from beginning to end. First, read just the Abstract to get an overview of the study.

Scan the article to identify the answers to these “Why-What-What-What” questions:

• Why did they do the study? Why does it matter?
• What did they do?
• What did they find?
• What does it mean?

The previous four questions correspond to these parts of a research article:

• Introduction: the research question and hypotheses

Create a summary sheet of each article’s key points. This will help you to integrate each article into your paper.

TIP: Give Scholarcy a try.

Read for depth. After you understand an article’s main points, read each section in detail for to gain the necessary indepth understanding to compare the work of different researchers.

WRITE THE LITERATURE REVIEW

Your goal is to evaluate a body of literature; i.e., to “identify relations, contradictions, gaps, and inconsistencies” and “suggest next steps to solve the research problem” (APA Publication Manual 2010, p. 10). Begin writing when you have decided on your story and how to organize your research to support that story.

Organization

Organize the literature review to highlight the theme that you want to emphasize – the story that you want to tell. Literature reviews tend to be organized something like this:

Introduction:

• Introduce the research topic (what it is, why does it matter)
• Frame the story: narrow the research topic to the studies you will discuss
• Briefly outline how you have organized the review
• Headings. Use theme headings to organize your argument (see below)
• Describe the relevant parts of each study and explain why it is relevant to the subtopic at hand.
• Compare the studies if need be, to discuss their implications (i.e., your interpretation of what the studies show and whether there are important differences or similarities)
• Evaluate the importance of each study or group of studies, as well as the implications for the subtopic, and where research should go from here (on the level of the subtopic)

Conclusion: Final evaluation, summation and conclusion

Headings. Use headings to identify major sections that show the organization of the paper. (Headings also help you to identify organizational problems while you’re writing.) Avoid the standard headings of research articles (Introduction, Method, Results, Discussion). Use specific, conceptual headings. If you are reviewing whether facial expressions are universally understood, headings might include Studies in Western Cultures and Studies in Non-Western Cultures. Organize your argument into topics that fit under each heading (one or more per heading).

Describe. For each section or subtopic, briefly describe each article or line of research. Avoid sudden jumps betewen broader and narrower ideas. Keep your story in mind to help keep your thoughts connected.

Compare. For each section or topic, compare related studies, if this is relevant to your story. Comparisons may involve the research question, hypotheses, methods, data analysis, results, or conclusions. However, you don’t want to compare everything. That wouldn’t be a story! Which parts are relevant? What evidence supports your arguments? Identifying strengths and weaknesses of each study will help you make meaningful comparisons.

If you're having trouble synthesizing information, you probably don't understand the articles well. Reread sections you don’t understand. Discuss the studies with someone: you don’t know what you know until you can talk about it.

Evaluate. Descriptions/comparisons alone are not illuminating. For each section or topic, evaluate the studies you have reviewed based on your comparisons. Tell your reader what you conclude, and why. Evaluating research is the most subjective part of your paper. Even so, always support your claims with evidence. Evaluation requires much thought and takes on some risk, but without it, your paper is just a book report.

Final evaluation and summation. On a broader scale, relating to your main theme, tell your reader what you conclude and why. Reiterate your main claims and outline the evidence that supports them.

Conclusion. How does your evaluatio change or add to current knowledge in the field field? What future studies are implied by your analysis? How would such studies add to current knowledge of the topic?

The purpose of a literature review is to survey, describe, compare, and evaluate research articles on a particular topic. Choose a current topic that is neither too broad nor too narrow. Find the story that you want to tell. Spend a lot of time reading and thinking before you write. Think critically about the main hypotheses, findings, and arguments in a line of research. Identify areas of agreement among different articles as well as their differences and areas for future study. Expect to revise your review many times to refine your story. A well-written literature review gives the reader a comprehensive understanding of the main findings and remaining questions brought about by research on that topic.

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Psychology - How to Write a Literature Review

Subject guide.

What is a literature review? 

A literature review discusses published research studies on a specific topic or subject area.  

What is the purpose of writing it?

The goal of the lit review is to describe, summarize, and evaluate previous research in a given area.  It should explain important conclusions about your topic as well as identify any gaps in the research or areas for future study.

Choose a Topic and Find Articles

Choose a topic that interests you and remember to keep an open mind.  Depending on how much research there is, you may need to narrow or broaden your topic.  

• PsycArticles This link opens in a new window Scholarly journal articles on psychology topics.
• ProQuest Central This link opens in a new window The largest single periodical resource available, bringing together complete databases across all major subject areas, including Business, Health and Medical, Social Sciences, Education, Science and Technology, and Humanities.
• Google Scholar Search for scholarly articles and books. Be aware that the full text may not always be available.

Read the Articles

You want to read and understand each of your articles.  A good starting point is to answer these 3 questions about each article:

1. What was the study's research question?  In other words, what were they trying to find out?

2. What was the study's method?  Briefly describe HOW they collected data and WHO their participant group was.

3. What do the results mean?  Or what conclusions can we draw from the results?

Write the Lit Review

Connect:   Think about what YOUR research question is for your lit review.  Each article you found should connect to your topic/theme in some way and you should be able to describe your topic as a research question and your articles as answers to that question.  Your summary for each article should show how they further our knowledge in relation to your topic.

Organize:   Can you organize your articles into a few distinct groups?  It could be by treatment method or age/ethnic group or other factor.  The way you organize will depend on your topic and the research, but it will help you if you can group articles in some way.  

Analyze:  Think beyond just summary and about what we still don't know about this topic.  Are there gaps in the research?  Do too many studies use just one method of gathering data?  What else is important to know?  The "Discussion" section of your articles may help guide you in your analysis.

Additional Sources

• College Drinking Games Literature Review Lit Review published in a scholarly journal. Good example of how lit reviews work in the field.
• How to Write a Literature Review from Psychology in Action Good advice on choosing a topic and searching for articles.
• Writing a Literature Review in Psychology from University of Washington Helpful info on all aspects of writing a lit review. Great resource.
• Literature Reviews from UNC Chapel Hill Writing Center This is not specific to Psychology, but has good tips on organizing your paper.
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• Last Updated: Oct 18, 2023 11:21 AM
• URL: https://bergen.libguides.com/litreview

How To Structure Your Literature Review

3 options to help structure your chapter.

By: Amy Rommelspacher (PhD) | Reviewer: Dr Eunice Rautenbach | November 2020 (Updated May 2023)

Writing the literature review chapter can seem pretty daunting when you’re piecing together your dissertation or thesis. As  we’ve discussed before , a good literature review needs to achieve a few very important objectives – it should:

• 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 . Get the structure of your literature review chapter wrong and you’ll struggle to achieve these objectives. Don’t worry though – in this post, we’ll look at how to structure your literature review for maximum impact (and marks!).

But wait – is this the right time?

Deciding on the structure of your literature review should come towards the end of the literature review process – after you have collected and digested the literature, but before you start writing the chapter. 

In other words, you need to first develop a rich understanding of the literature before you even attempt to map out a structure. There’s no use trying to develop a structure before you’ve fully wrapped your head around the existing research.

Equally importantly, you need to have a structure in place before you start writing , or your literature review will most likely end up a rambling, disjointed mess. 

Importantly, don’t feel that once you’ve defined a structure you can’t iterate on it. It’s perfectly natural to adjust as you engage in the writing process. As we’ve discussed before , writing is a way of developing your thinking, so it’s quite common for your thinking to change – and therefore, for your chapter structure to change – as you write. 

Need a helping hand?

Like any other chapter in your thesis or dissertation, your literature review needs to have a clear, logical structure. At a minimum, it should have three essential components – an  introduction , a  body   and a  conclusion . 

Let’s take a closer look at each of these.

1: The Introduction Section

Just like any good introduction, the introduction section of your literature review should introduce the purpose and layout (organisation) of the chapter. In other words, your introduction needs to give the reader a taste of what’s to come, and how you’re going to lay that out. Essentially, you should provide the reader with a high-level roadmap of your chapter to give them a taste of the journey that lies ahead.

Here’s an example of the layout visualised in a literature review introduction:

Your introduction should also outline your topic (including any tricky terminology or jargon) and provide an explanation of the scope of your literature review – in other words, what you  will   and  won’t   be covering (the delimitations ). This helps ringfence your review and achieve a clear focus . The clearer and narrower your focus, the deeper you can dive into the topic (which is typically where the magic lies). 

Depending on the nature of your project, you could also present your stance or point of view at this stage. In other words, after grappling with the literature you’ll have an opinion about what the trends and concerns are in the field as well as what’s lacking. The introduction section can then present these ideas so that it is clear to examiners that you’re aware of how your research connects with existing knowledge .

2: The Body Section

The body of your literature review is the centre of your work. This is where you’ll present, analyse, evaluate and synthesise the existing research. In other words, this is where you’re going to earn (or lose) the most marks. Therefore, it’s important to carefully think about how you will organise your discussion to present it in a clear way. 

The body of your literature review should do just as the description of this chapter suggests. It should “review” the literature – in other words, identify, analyse, and synthesise it. So, when thinking about structuring your literature review, you need to think about which structural approach will provide the best “review” for your specific type of research and objectives (we’ll get to this shortly).

There are (broadly speaking)  three options  for organising your literature review.

Option 1: Chronological (according to date)

Organising the literature chronologically is one of the simplest ways to structure your literature review. You start with what was published first and work your way through the literature until you reach the work published most recently. Pretty straightforward.

The benefit of this option is that it makes it easy to discuss the developments and debates in the field as they emerged over time. Organising your literature chronologically also allows you to highlight how specific articles or pieces of work might have changed the course of the field – in other words, which research has had the most impact . Therefore, this approach is very useful when your research is aimed at understanding how the topic has unfolded over time and is often used by scholars in the field of history. That said, this approach can be utilised by anyone that wants to explore change over time .

For example , if a student of politics is investigating how the understanding of democracy has evolved over time, they could use the chronological approach to provide a narrative that demonstrates how this understanding has changed through the ages.

Here are some questions you can ask yourself to help you structure your literature review chronologically.

• What is the earliest literature published relating to this topic?
• How has the field changed over time? Why?
• What are the most recent discoveries/theories?

In some ways, chronology plays a part whichever way you decide to structure your literature review, because you will always, to a certain extent, be analysing how the literature has developed. However, with the chronological approach, the emphasis is very firmly on how the discussion has evolved over time , as opposed to how all the literature links together (which we’ll discuss next ).

Option 2: Thematic (grouped by theme)

The thematic approach to structuring a literature review means organising your literature by theme or category – for example, by independent variables (i.e. factors that have an impact on a specific outcome).

As you’ve been collecting and synthesising literature , you’ll likely have started seeing some themes or patterns emerging. You can then use these themes or patterns as a structure for your body discussion. The thematic approach is the most common approach and is useful for structuring literature reviews in most fields.

For example, if you were researching which factors contributed towards people trusting an organisation, you might find themes such as consumers’ perceptions of an organisation’s competence, benevolence and integrity. Structuring your literature review thematically would mean structuring your literature review’s body section to discuss each of these themes, one section at a time.

Here are some questions to ask yourself when structuring your literature review by themes:

• Are there any patterns that have come to light in the literature?
• What are the central themes and categories used by the researchers?
• Do I have enough evidence of these themes?

PS – you can see an example of a thematically structured literature review in our literature review sample walkthrough video here.

Option 3: Methodological

The methodological option is a way of structuring your literature review by the research methodologies used . In other words, organising your discussion based on the angle from which each piece of research was approached – for example, qualitative , quantitative or mixed  methodologies.

Structuring your literature review by methodology can be useful if you are drawing research from a variety of disciplines and are critiquing different methodologies. The point of this approach is to question  how  existing research has been conducted, as opposed to  what  the conclusions and/or findings the research were.

For example, a sociologist might centre their research around critiquing specific fieldwork practices. Their literature review will then be a summary of the fieldwork methodologies used by different studies.

Here are some questions you can ask yourself when structuring your literature review according to methodology:

• Which methodologies have been utilised in this field?
• Which methodology is the most popular (and why)?
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of the various methodologies?
• How can the existing methodologies inform my own methodology?

3: The Conclusion Section

Once you’ve completed the body section of your literature review using one of the structural approaches we discussed above, you’ll need to “wrap up” your literature review and pull all the pieces together to set the direction for the rest of your dissertation or thesis.

The conclusion is where you’ll present the key findings of your literature review. In this section, you should emphasise the research that is especially important to your research questions and highlight the gaps that exist in the literature. Based on this, you need to make it clear what you will add to the literature – in other words, justify your own research by showing how it will help fill one or more of the gaps you just identified.

Last but not least, if it’s your intention to develop a conceptual framework for your dissertation or thesis, the conclusion section is a good place to present this.

Example: Thematically Structured Review

In the video below, we unpack a literature review chapter so that you can see an example of a thematically structure review in practice.

Let’s Recap

In this article, we’ve  discussed how to structure your literature review for maximum impact. Here’s a quick recap of what  you need to keep in mind when deciding on your literature review structure:

• Just like other chapters, your literature review needs a clear introduction , body and conclusion .
• The introduction section should provide an overview of what you will discuss in your literature review.
• The body section of your literature review can be organised by chronology , theme or methodology . The right structural approach depends on what you’re trying to achieve with your research.
• The conclusion section should draw together the key findings of your literature review and link them to your research questions.

If you’re ready to get started, be sure to download our free literature review template to fast-track your chapter outline.

Psst… there’s more!

This post is an extract from our bestselling short course, Literature Review Bootcamp . If you want to work smart, you don't want to miss this .

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27 Comments

Great work. This is exactly what I was looking for and helps a lot together with your previous post on literature review. One last thing is missing: a link to a great literature chapter of an journal article (maybe with comments of the different sections in this review chapter). Do you know any great literature review chapters?

I agree with you Marin… A great piece

I agree with Marin. This would be quite helpful if you annotate a nicely structured literature from previously published research articles.

Awesome article for my research.

I thank you immensely for this wonderful guide

It is indeed thought and supportive work for the futurist researcher and students

Very educative and good time to get guide. Thank you

Great work, very insightful. Thank you.

Thanks for this wonderful presentation. My question is that do I put all the variables into a single conceptual framework or each hypothesis will have it own conceptual framework?

Thank you very much, very helpful

This is very educative and precise . Thank you very much for dropping this kind of write up .

Pheeww, so damn helpful, thank you for this informative piece.

I’m doing a research project topic ; stool analysis for parasitic worm (enteric) worm, how do I structure it, thanks.

comprehensive explanation. Help us by pasting the URL of some good “literature review” for better understanding.

great piece. thanks for the awesome explanation. it is really worth sharing. I have a little question, if anyone can help me out, which of the options in the body of literature can be best fit if you are writing an architectural thesis that deals with design?

I am doing a research on nanofluids how can l structure it?

Beautifully clear.nThank you!

Lucid! Thankyou!

Brilliant work, well understood, many thanks

I like how this was so clear with simple language 😊😊 thank you so much 😊 for these information 😊

Insightful. I was struggling to come up with a sensible literature review but this has been really helpful. Thank you!

You have given thought-provoking information about the review of the literature.

Thank you. It has made my own research better and to impart your work to students I teach

I learnt a lot from this teaching. It’s a great piece.

I am doing research on EFL teacher motivation for his/her job. How Can I structure it? Is there any detailed template, additional to this?

You are so cool! I do not think I’ve read through something like this before. So nice to find somebody with some genuine thoughts on this issue. Seriously.. thank you for starting this up. This site is one thing that is required on the internet, someone with a little originality!

I’m asked to do conceptual, theoretical and empirical literature, and i just don’t know how to structure it

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What is a Literature Review?

The scholarly conversation.

A literature review provides an overview of previous research on a topic that critically evaluates, classifies, and compares what has already been published on a particular topic. It allows the author to synthesize and place into context the research and scholarly literature relevant to the topic. It helps map the different approaches to a given question and reveals patterns. It forms the foundation for the author’s subsequent research and justifies the significance of the new investigation.

A literature review can be a short introductory section of a research article or a report or policy paper that focuses on recent research. Or, in the case of dissertations, theses, and review articles, it can be an extensive review of all relevant research.

• The format is usually a bibliographic essay; sources are briefly cited within the body of the essay, with full bibliographic citations at the end.
• The introduction should define the topic and set the context for the literature review. It will include the author's perspective or point of view on the topic, how they have defined the scope of the topic (including what's not included), and how the review will be organized. It can point out overall trends, conflicts in methodology or conclusions, and gaps in the research.
• In the body of the review, the author should organize the research into major topics and subtopics. These groupings may be by subject, (e.g., globalization of clothing manufacturing), type of research (e.g., case studies), methodology (e.g., qualitative), genre, chronology, or other common characteristics. Within these groups, the author can then discuss the merits of each article and analyze and compare the importance of each article to similar ones.
• The conclusion will summarize the main findings, make clear how this review of the literature supports (or not) the research to follow, and may point the direction for further research.
• The list of references will include full citations for all of the items mentioned in the literature review.

Key Questions for a Literature Review

A literature review should try to answer questions such as

• Who are the key researchers on this topic?
• What has been the focus of the research efforts so far and what is the current status?
• How have certain studies built on prior studies? Where are the connections? Are there new interpretations of the research?
• Have there been any controversies or debate about the research? Is there consensus? Are there any contradictions?
• Which areas have been identified as needing further research? Have any pathways been suggested?
• How will your topic uniquely contribute to this body of knowledge?
• Which methodologies have researchers used and which appear to be the most productive?
• What sources of information or data were identified that might be useful to you?
• How does your particular topic fit into the larger context of what has already been done?
• How has the research that has already been done help frame your current investigation ?

Examples of Literature Reviews

Example of a literature review at the beginning of an article: Forbes, C. C., Blanchard, C. M., Mummery, W. K., & Courneya, K. S. (2015, March). Prevalence and correlates of strength exercise among breast, prostate, and colorectal cancer survivors . Oncology Nursing Forum, 42(2), 118+. Retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com.sonoma.idm.oclc.org/ps/i.do?p=HRCA&sw=w&u=sonomacsu&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA422059606&asid=27e45873fddc413ac1bebbc129f7649c Example of a comprehensive review of the literature: Wilson, J. L. (2016). An exploration of bullying behaviours in nursing: a review of the literature.   British Journal Of Nursing ,  25 (6), 303-306. For additional examples, see:

Galvan, J., Galvan, M., & ProQuest. (2017). Writing literature reviews: A guide for students of the social and behavioral sciences (Seventh ed.). [Electronic book]

Pan, M., & Lopez, M. (2008). Preparing literature reviews: Qualitative and quantitative approaches (3rd ed.). Glendale, CA: Pyrczak Pub. [ Q180.55.E9 P36 2008]

Useful Links

• Write a Literature Review (UCSC)
• Literature Reviews (Purdue)
• Literature Reviews: overview (UNC)
• Review of Literature (UW-Madison)

Evidence Matrix for Literature Reviews

The  Evidence Matrix  can help you  organize your research  before writing your lit review.  Use it to  identify patterns  and commonalities in the articles you have found--similar methodologies ?  common  theoretical frameworks ? It helps you make sure that all your major concepts covered. It also helps you see how your research fits into the context  of the overall topic.

• Evidence Matrix Special thanks to Dr. Cindy Stearns, SSU Sociology Dept, for permission to use this Matrix as an example.
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Conducting Literature Reviews

Finding literature reviews in psycinfo, more help on conducting literature reviews.

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The APA definition of a literature review (from http://www.apa.org/databases/training/method-values.html ):

 Survey of previously published literature on a particular topic to define and clarify a particular problem; summarize previous investigations; and to identify relations, contradictions, gaps, and inconsistencies in the literature, and suggest the next step in solving the problem.

 Literature Reviews should:

• Key concepts that are being researched
• The areas that are ripe for more research—where the gaps and inconsistencies in the literature are
• A critical analysis of research that has been previously conducted
• Will include primary and secondary research
• Be selective—you’ll review many sources, so pick the most important parts of the articles/books.
• Introduction: Provides an overview of your topic, including the major problems and issues that have been studied.
• Discussion of Methodologies:   If there are different types of studies conducted, identifying what types of studies have been conducted is often provided.
• Identification and Discussion of Studies: Provide overview of major studies conducted, and if there have been follow-up studies, identify whether this has supported or disproved results from prior studies.
• Identification of Themes in Literature: If there has been different themes in the literature, these are also discussed in literature reviews.   For example, if you were writing a review of treatment of OCD, cognitive-behavioral therapy and drug therapy would be themes to discuss.
• Conclusion/Discussion—Summarize what you’ve found in your review of literature, and identify areas in need of further research or gaps in the literature.

Because literature reviews are a major part of research in psychology, Psycinfo allows you to easily limit to literature reviews.  In the advanced search screen, you can select "literature review" as the methodology.

Now all you'll need to do is enter your search terms, and your results should show you many literature reviews conducted by professionals on your topic.

When you find an literature review article that is relevant to your topic, you should look at who the authors cite and who is citing the author, so that you can begin to use their research to help you locate sources and conduct your own literature review.  The best way to do that is to use the "Cited References" and "Times Cited" links in Psycinfo, which is pictured below.

This article on procrastination has 423 references, and 48 other articles in psycinfo are citing this literature review.  And, the citations are either available in full text or to request through ILL.  Check out  the article "The Nature of Procrastination" to see how these features work.

By searching for existing literature reviews, and then using the references of those literature reviews to begin your own literature search, you can efficiently gather the best research on a topic.  You'll want to keep in mind that you'll need to summarize and analyze the articles you read, and won't be able to use every single article you choose.

You can use the search box below to get started.

Adelphi Library's tutorial, Conducting a Literature Review in Education and the Behavioral Sciences covers how to gather sources from library databases for your literature review.

The University of Toronto also provides "A Few Tips on Conducting a Literature Review" that offers some good advice and questions to ask when conducting a literature review.

Purdue University's Online Writing Lab (OWL) has several resources that discuss literature reviews: 

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/666/01/

https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/994/04/   (for grad students, but is still offers some good tips and advice for anyone writing a literature review)

Journal articles (covers more than 1,700 periodicals), chapters, books, dissertations and reports on psychology and related fields.

• PsycINFO This link opens in a new window
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The Library : Psychology

What is a literature review.

A literature review is a study of the existing literature, journal articles, books, reports and other information and evidence published on a given topic. It is a critical and evaluative account of any published work around a research field, including a description and analysis of existing knowledge of the topic, the identification of any gaps in the existing body of knowledge, and - where appropriate - an explanation of how your research might further develop current understanding of the subject. 

A literature review is  not  simply a description or summary of each individual paper. It should instead be structured around the findings of the articles considered, and is therefore an opportunity to identify common themes and issues as well as highlighting opposing arguments.

• Literature reviews Further information from Skills for Learning on the purpose, structure and style of literature reviews.

The Research Process

• Your question
• Developing a search strategy
• Identify resources
• Evaluate information
• APA Referencing
• Academic writing

When you are given an assignment questions make sure you fully understand what is being asked on you. Refer to the guidance in your module handbook or lecture slides for further information, or discuss it with your tutors.

1. Identify the 'question' word(s)

You could use the 'Analysing the question' section of the Skills for Learning website to help you.

2. Identify core concepts/keywords

What is the main focus of the question?

3. Identify synonyms or related terms

Examine with reference to the literature the role of neuroscience and creativity

'Examine' is the question word - it's what you have to do

On the next tab you will find tips and tricks to help you develop your search strategy and make your searching more efficient.

Once you have identifying your keywords, synonyms and related terms you can start to construct a search strategy.

4. Use search tools: 

Phrase searching uses speech marks to help you search for phrases e.g. "cognitive neurosciences"

Truncation uses the asterisk to help you search for terms with variant endings e.g. creativ* = creativ e , creativ ity, creativ eness

5. Combine terms using AND, OR and NOT 

AND - for combining different concepts

OR - for identifying research that use synonyms or related terms. You need to put the similar terms in brackets.

NOT - use when you want to exclude a term (use with caution as it can eliminate useful results too)

("cognitive neuroscience" OR "cognitive process" OR "brain hemisphere functions") AND (creativ* OR imagination OR resourcefulness)

Some resources have an 'advanced search' feature which can help you to combine your searches.

6. Identify appropriate resources to search

   a. Reading lists  - are there any core textbooks that your tutors recommend on your topic?

        Check your modules in  MyBeckett

    b. Use  Discover  to find additional books and eBooks

    c. Use  Discover   to search our ejournals and other subscriptions

    d. Use databases  to help you focus your results - available on the 'Databases' page of this guide

You can search most databases in exactly the same way, the search screen may just look a bit different.

To help you refine your results and make them more manageable look for limiters such as 'Publication date' or 'Resource type'.

You may want to record the databases you have searched, the search terms you have used and any limits applied - this information highlights that your searching is systematic and methodical, and will be helpful for writing up your methodology (if required).

It's important that you think critically about the sources you want to use in your assignments. Evaluate what you find and make a judgment about whether it is appropriate to be used or if any flaws need identifying in your discussions.

There are several tools to help with evaluating the quality of articles and research papers. The PROMPT mnemonic can be used to help you identify key areas to evaluate when reading a paper.

P resentation: look out for poor use of language and inappropriate or ineffectual writing style

R elevance: does the paper answer your question and fit within the geographical or time period restrictions of your search strategy?

O bjectivity: look for any hidden bias or selective interpretation of data. Also authors usually list conflicts of interest and sponsorship/ funding sources at the end of the article which may influence their arguments.

M ethod: is it clear how the research was carried out? Use your knowledge from previous lectures/ tutorials to critique the methods for data collection. Question whether the methods are appropriate? Look at things like the size of the sample tested in the study, was a pilot study conducted prior to the main research to iron out any potential problems? Look at the design of the questions if a questionnaire was used.

P rovenance; look at the qualifications of the author. Do they have a particularly controversial view on the subject? Also, check whether the researcher has been sponsored. If so, are they sponsored by a commercial, voluntary or research organisation? Is the organisation well established? Remember to check the publication method. Has the article been published in a well regarded, peer reviewed journal?

T imelines; depending upon your topic, you may decide you need up to date information.

The CRAAP mnemonic is also an easy way to remember key points to look for when critiquing papers and websites

C urrency: how up to date is the research

R elevancy: does the paper answer your research question and any exclusion criteria

A ccuracy: how reliable are the methods of data collection. Has the researcher chosen the best way to investigate their question

A uthority: who has written the paper? Are they a reliable source

P urpose: why has the paper been written. was it to entertain, education or sell something?

The majority of Health and Social Sciences articles are written following the IMRAD format,  I ntroduction,  M ethod,  R esearch,  A nd  D iscussion. Here are a series of points to consider for each section of such articles when appraising them:

Introduction:  Why has the research been undertaken? What was the purpose of the research? The aims of the research should be clearly outlined in the introduction and should also contain any evidence of a literature review along with any keywords used by the author when searching.

Method:  When, where and how was the study conducted? Who or what was the subject of the study? Are any ethical issues outlined? Was a pilot study conducted to identify any potential problems with the methodology? Is the information provided detailed enough for others to replicate the research? Has the researcher chosen a qualitative or a quantitative approach to data collection? If so, what are the strengths and weaknesses of each approach for this specific research? Is there any evidence of triangulation - of data being obtained by more than one method? Was data gathered from a large and diverse enough sample size? And how effective was the response rate or other collection method? Have any potential biases or issues been acknowledged? Have any interventions been made to eliminate any potential biases or issues which might have affected the research's reliability?

Results:  Are the results comprehensibly presented? How do they relate to the original research question? Have the results - and the research's interpretation of them - been assessed by a peer-reviewer, or other form of critical friend beyond the original researcher(s)?

Discussion:  What are the practical, academic, professional and broader implications of the research? Is any of it applicable to your research, daily role, or professional practice? Has the researcher included discussion of how their study might be improved, and suggestions for further study? What is your interpretation of this information?

Not all of the above points will apply to every paper, but at least some of them should help you assess the strengths, weaknesses and relevance of information which you are considering.

Students on Psychology courses are expected to use APA style of referencing. Click the links below for some resources you may find useful. (If you have any queries about which style of referencing you should be using, please consult your module tutor).

The basics of APA  7th tutorial

How to cite ChatGPT

• APA 7th referencing short guide

• Skills for Learning The Skills for Learning webpages contain advice, resources and activities on university study, academic writing, maths and IT skills

Conducting a Systematic Review

• What is a SR?
• Developing your research question
• Searching sources
• Developing your search strategy
• Recording your searches
• Managing your results
• Critical appraisal

As part of your final year project or dissertation, you may have to conduct a Systematic Literature Review (SR). If you have searched the Cochrane Library for Systematic Reviews, you will know that these are lengthy pieces of research, often taking years to complete and involving several researchers, which combine literature and research around a given subject. Due to time restrictions, the SR which you produce will not need to be as lengthy or as in-depth, so please do discuss with your supervisor what they expect of your SR.

The key to conducting a good SR is to start with a good research question . Before starting the SR properly, conduct a scoping review of the literature around your chosen subject to ensure there is enough literature available for you to discuss in your work. You can also use this stage of your SR to identify commonly used keywords  or alternative search terms for your subject. Start by searching broadly and simply and use this time to identify gaps in the literature  or areas where further research is needed which you may wish to focus on as part of your dissertation.

Many health students use PICO to formulate a good research question. Using PICO, your research question should contain 4 main elements, e.g.

• Population  (which group of the population do you wish to discuss), e.g. Amongst elderly adults who experience repeated falls......
• Intervention  (what treatment you are considering investigating), e.g..... does the intervention of a multidisciplinary team of health care professionals ......
• Comparison  (this may be an alternative intervention if available), e.g. ......as opposed to relying solely upon the services of one team .....(please note, not all research questions have a comparison element).
• Outcome  (what are you trying to achieve or investigate), e.g. ...... lead to falls reduction .....

It is important to clearly define each of the main elements of your research question as this will help establish your inclusion and exclusion criteria. Also, think about restricting your search to a specific time period or geographical location. Finally, check Cochrane and Prospero to ensure a systematic review has not been conducted previously in your area.

Free (within England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland) database covering abstracts and full text of systematic reviews of the effects of healthcare interventions. Also contains a bibliography of controlled trials; articles on the science of research synthesis; economic evaluations of health care interventions and healthcare technology assessments.

You can also access Cochrane Clinical Answers , aimed at healthcare professionals. Each Cochrane Clinical Answer contains a clinical question, a short answer, and an opportunity to ‘drill down’ to the evidence from relevant Cochrane reviews.

• Accessibility statement for Cochrane Library.
• Prospero PROSPERO is an international database of prospectively registered systematic reviews in health and social care, welfare, public health, education, crime, justice, and international development, where there is a health related outcome.

Don't rely solely upon Discover to conduct your SR. It is important to search several sources and databases. By conducting a SR properly using your search terms and several databases, you are showing your supervisor that you have advanced research skills. In addition, in the workplace, you will be expected to keep up to date with current research by using other resources such as PubMed, Nice Evidence, TRIP, so this is a good opportunity to familiarize yourself with these which are used in professional practice.

To find a list of other databases, go to the 'Databases' tab of this subject guide or go to our A-Z list of databases .

Once you have formulated your research question and identified alternative search terms/ synonyms, think about how you can combine your search terms. In many databases, the advanced search function enables you to do this easily. Remember to start searching broadly, then narrow you search using more specific terms. You can join the key concepts of your dissertation using AND to narrow and focus your search. If you do not retrieve enough literature, you can broaden your results by joining terms with OR . You can use NOT to eliminate any irrelevant search terms from your results. For example:

(Elderly OR Age*) AND ("falls management" OR "falls prevention") AND ("multi-disciplinary teams OR interdisciplinary teams OR multidisciplinary teams")

Consider different spellings of words e.g. organization / organisation, time restrictions , and geographical limitations to make your results more focused. You may also wish to consider narrowing your search to a specific type of research method.

Also, consider how you can use truncation to search for various different endings of words e.g. child* will search for child hood , childl ike , child ish , child ren .

You may have to perform several searches to retrieve the results suitable for you, and then  transfer your searches into several other databases so make sure you keep a record of the searches you have performed even if none of the results are relevant. Remember, searching is a lengthy trial and error process.

Within CINAHL and MEDLINE you can use MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) to help you refine your search:

It is essential to write up ALL searches you perform as part of conducting your SR. Best practice is to record the date, database, search terms, limitations, number of results in total, then number of irrelevant results with a general statement as to why others have been discarded. This information can then be used as evidence (even put in the appendix at the back of your dissertation) that your searching has been thorough. You can record your searches using a simple template (see below), or register with individual databases which allow you to retain your search history.

• Search log template This is just one example of how you may want to record your searches

As part of your SR you may find that you retrieve lots of relevant articles and resources. Various different programmes such as Mendeley and EndNote allow you to store, make notes, and organise your references.

• Reference Management Software This page includes FAQs about reference management software, including EndNote and Mendeley.

Now that you have found relevant research articles, it is a case of reading them carefully to identify key themes and arguments. Initially, decide whether an article will be useful by reading the title and the abstract and decide whether it meets your inclusion and exclusion criteria.

Once you have identified the most relevant papers, you need to assess the quality of the studies. You can use tools such as the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) or the Scottish Intercollegiate Guideline Network (SIGN) to help you with this process. You might also want to look at the information above on evaluating information for more prompts and questions to ask of any research paper you wish to include.

Below you will find links to information which will help with critical appraisal.

• Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) This provides a checklist for different types of research to help you gauge its trustworthiness.
• Scottish Intercollegiate Guideline Network (SIGN)

Your Academic Librarians are available to help you with these stages of performing a Systematic Literature Review. You can find details of how to contact us on this page.

For more general help, please contact the 24-hour telephone and chat support using the Contact Us pages.

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What is a literature reveiw?

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According to the APA, a literature review is a: “Survey of previously published literature on a particular topic to define and clarify a particular problem; summarize previous investigations; identify relations, contradictions, gaps, and inconsistencies in the literature; and suggest the next step in solving the problem.”

• SAGE Research Methods Project Planner Includes a useful guide of how to review the literature.
• SAGE Research Methods Online This link opens in a new window A range of resources designed to support researchers of all levels through the research process. Books and journals, case studies and sample datasets, plus a planner tool to help organise your research project.
• SAGE Research Methods Videos This link opens in a new window Streaming videos covering every aspect of the research process and hundreds of qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods.

• Research skills (literature review and critical thinking) Higher degree study challenges you to further develop your research, writing, and critical thinking skills. This useful resource from Student Learning includes sections on Reviewing the literature, Critical thinking and Research skills.
• Writing a literature review Guide from Purdue Online Writing Lab. Outlines the parts of a literature review and how it can be organised.

When searching a research database (including Google Scholar) it’s useful to know how to search effectively. Using an advance search and Boolean operators ; AND, NOT, OR will help. 

• AND  for narrowing down the search, the more you add, the narrower the results. For example, tuberculosis AND sociology
• OR  is more. It is useful for alternative words with similar meanings. It can be helpful these terms within brackets. For example, (tuberculosis OR TB)
• NOT  to add if you didn’t want research that uses a specific word. You will not need to use NOT as often. For example, tuberculosis NOT animal, this will exclude all literature with the term “animal”.

Search strategy example; (unstable  OR  deteriorating  OR  acute)  AND  patient  AND  (elderly  OR  older  OR  aged)

“Phrase searching” , this is using quote marks. For example, searching “theory of mind” with the quotation will only show results of this exact phrase.

Truncation *  is useful to find words with different endings. Commonly using the asterisk symbol, but this may change depending on the database. Going to the help page and searching truncation, will specific what symbol to use. For example, for child* = child, childs, children, childrens, childhood OR genetic* = genetic, genetics, genetically

Wildcard  is for replacing a single character. For example, wom?n will retrieve woman or women

After identifying keywords and then searching a database you can use filters to limit your results to specific resource types and to publication date when necessary.

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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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• Background Information
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What is a Literature Review?

If this is your first time having to do a literature review, you might be wondering what a "literature review" actually is. Typically, this entails searching through various databases to find peer-reviewed research within a particular topic of interest and then analyzing what you find in order to situate your own research within the existing works.

Watch the following video to learn more:

Video Transcript

What is Peer Review?

Most of your literature review will involve searching for sources that have gone through the peer-reviewed process. These are typically academic articles that have been published in scholarly journals and have been vetted by other experts with knowledge of the topic at hand.

How Do I Find Psychology Literature?

The following database are a great place to start to find relevant, peer-reviewed literature within the broad research area of psychology:

• APA PsycInfo This link opens in a new window From the American Psychological Association (APA), PsycINFO contains nearly 2.3 million citations and abstracts of scholarly journal articles, book chapters, books, and dissertations in psychology and related disciplines. It is the largest resource devoted to peer-reviewed literature in behavioral science and mental health.
• DynaMed This link opens in a new window A clinical reference tool of more than 3000 topics designed for physicians and health care professionals for use primarily at the point-of-care. DynaMed is updated daily and monitors the content of over 500 medical journal and systemic evidence review databases.
• EMBASE This link opens in a new window EMBASE is a major biomedical and pharmaceutical database indexing over 3,500 international journals in the following fields of health sciences and biomedical research. It is considered as the European version of Medline.
• MEDLINE with Full Text This link opens in a new window A bibliographic database that contains more than 26 million references to journal articles in life sciences with a concentration on biomedicine. A distinctive feature of MEDLINE is that the records are indexed with NLM Medical Subject Headings (MeSH®).

• PubMed This link opens in a new window PubMed® comprises more than 30 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books.
• Web of Science This link opens in a new window Web of Science is a comprehensive research database. It contains records of journal articles, patents, and conference proceedings, It also provides a variety of search and analysis tools. Web of Science Core Collection is a painstakingly selected, actively curated database of the journals that researchers themselves have judged to be the most important and useful in their fields
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• Academic Resources
• Grey Literature: Resources
• Conducting a Systematic Review
• "How to" videos: searching
• Reference Management Software: Zotero This link opens in a new window
• Further Support

Systematic Reviews: Introduction

• What is a systematic review?
• How does it differ from a systematic literature review?

A systematic review is a review of research literature (often limited to randomised controlled trials) that is searched for in a systematic or exact manner, and only includes studies that have met strict inclusion criteria. The methodology of the review often follows a internationally recognized systematic review standard or guideline. 

PRISMA definition

"A systematic review is a review of a clearly formulated question that uses systematic and explicit methods to identify, select, and critically appraise relevant research, and to collect and analyze data from the studies that are included in the review." (PRISMA, 2015)

A systematic literature search is a literature review which demonstrates that you have compiled a list of appropriate search terms and includes the structure of your search history, which provides the evidence on which your assignment is based.  You may be told that you need to conduct a systematic review when in fact you just need to perform a literature search in a systematic manner. 

This is a less rigorous process than a systematic review. A systematic review usually covers a wider scope; you would be expected to look at all the available research in the area in question, systematically searching multiple academic databases.

If you are unsure about the differences between a systematic review and a literature review take a look at this guide:  What’s in a Name? The difference between a Systematic Review and a Literature Review and Why it Matters .

Systematic reviews: your research question

Your research question

• Inclusion and exclusion criteria
• PICO framework
• PICO: example

Where possible, select a research topic that you have some basic knowledge in, or are familiar with in.  If this is not possible, seek guidance from your supervisor on the most relevant terminology for your chosen topic.  This will make it easier to devise your research question, ensuring you are using the most appropriate and relevant phrasing.This is especially important when you come to build your search strategy, as the wording of your research question research question will frame your initial search. 

The search terms, phrases, words and subject headings you use in your systematic search play a vital role in your systematic review, because they determine the number and range of results you will get from each database. I f your question is too wide-reaching so will your search, and you will be overwhelmed with  an unmanageable number of search results. You also have to think very carefully about the limitations of your search - such as whether or not you will have a specific date range or limit to a particular study design.  Remember, the clue is in the name - be  systematic  in your approach. 

Inclusion and exclusion criteria 

Before you start to build your search strategy you will need to decide on your review's inclusion and exclusion criteria. This will have a bearing on your search strategy, and potentially determine which studies your systematic search captures. Systematic reviews are measured against a set of specific criteria outlined at the start.  Your inclusion and exclusion criteria dictates which studies will be included in your systematic review (they meet all aspects of your inclusion criteria) and those that will be excluded (does not match your inclusion criteria fully, or meets the exclusion criteria).  You need to think very carefully about the limitations of your research - will you limit to a specific date range or to a particular study design for example.  Remember, the clue is in the name - be  systematic  in your approach. 

Research question:

"For UK children under 5 years of age with a suspected diagnosis of ADHD, what are the recommended clinical assessments used for diagnosis?" 

Inclusion criteria:

• children 0-5 years old 
• suspected ADHD
• limited to clinical assessments specifically, for diagnosis
• UK population studies only

Exclusion criteria:

• any member of the population over the age of 5 
• animal studies
• pre-determined diagnosis of ADHD 
• assessments not defined as "clinical" 
• studies of populations outside of the UK

PICO Framework

In order to structure your search strategy  it can be helpful to use a structured framework.They are designed to help you formulate your research question, search strategy, and inclusion and exclusion criteria. The PICO framework is a popular framework for physiological and health sciences systematic reviews.

PICO stands for:

Population / Patient

Intervention 

You do not have to structure your research to fit into all of the above - it is not prescriptive, but merely a framework to guide you in building your search strategy. Your research question may not have a defined comparative intervention, for example, so you may only use PIO for your framework. 

PICO example

Research question: What impact does Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) versus pharmaceutical therapy have as treatments for diagnosed anxiety in children  in reducing their anxiety?

Systematic Reviews: the search

• Your search strategy
• Where to search
• Search techniques
• PRESS checklist
• Sample strategy

Your search strategy - where to start

The search terms, phrases, words and subject headings you use in your search play a vital role in your systematic review, because they determine the number and range of results you will get from each database. 

Start with your research question to pick out the  keywords  you will use as the basis of your search. A common practice in systematic review searches is to refer back to the framework you used to structure your research question, such as the PICO framework . This framework gives a clear picture of not only the terms you want to use in your search, but also how you will combine or connect them together in the database.

Using PICO framework for your search 

Research question: Is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) more effective than pharmaceutical therapy as a treatment for diagnosed anxiety in teenagers aged 13-18 in managing symptoms of anxiety?

Framework  

Search terms identified: 

• teen/teenager
• 13-18 year olds
• anxiety 
• CBT/cognitive behavioural the rapy
• pharmaceutical/medication
• Improved   management of symptoms

Where to search - Databases

We have grouped the key databases and online resources for psychology in the Key Resources tab . Your dissertation supervisor may also suggest or advise you on the various databases suitable to your search. Some of the most commonly searched databases include: PsycINFO, Web of Science, Cochrane, Scopus, and PubMed. The links for these can be found in the Key Resources tab. 

Where to search - Grey Literature

Depending on your research, you may also need to search grey literature sources in addition to academic database collections. Have a look at the grey literature tab  on the left hand side more information about what defines grey literature and the sources you can search. 

Search techniques 

Consider your keywords carefully 

It's often helpful to look at the abstracts and reference lists of studies or papers you have already engaged with on your topic for a sense of what terminology and specific words/phrases are most common. 

Once you have made a comprehensive list of all the keywords you want to include in your search you need to combine them using what are known as Boolean operators or search connectors. 

Boolean search operators 

In order to combine multiple facets of your search together in a database you will need to use the search operators: AND, OR, NOT. Using operators is common in systematic reviews, and improves the efficiency of your search resulting in more relevant results. Watch the Boolean searching videos to learn more about how to use operators.

Proximity operators 

Using proximity operators in your search allows you to  search for two or more words that occur within a certain number of words from each other. Proximity operators can be helpful when you don't want to limit yourself to searching an exact phrase, for example "diagnosed anxiety", but where you still want to refine your search to a degree. Each database will have its own method of proximity searching, but generally your search looks something like: diagnosed NEAR/3 anxiety - NEAR signifying near to, and 3 signifying the number of words that can appear between "diagnosed" and "anxiety". To ensure proximity searching is available in the database you are searching, have a look for their "search tips" or "search help" page. 

PRESS (Peer Review of Electronic Search Strategies)

The PRESS checklist is a comprehensive evidence-based checklist that does just that. It covers six key aspects of search strategies: 

• the translation of the research question into a search strategy
• the use of any Boolean or proximity operators
• the keywords used 
• spelling, syntax, and commands
• database filters / limits intended for use
• database Subject headings intended for use not essential, and may not apply to your strategy)

Each aspect above has a set of questions to check against your search strategy. The full checklist can be downloaded here . 

Research question

Is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) more effective than pharmaceutical therapy as a treatment for diagnosed anxiety in teenagers aged 13-18 in managing symptoms of anxiety?

Step 1: Framework

Step 2: Identify search terms

Step 3: Build search strategy with Boolean operators / commands / proximity operators

Systematic Reviews: guidelines and protocols

• Standards and guidelines
• Cochrane handbook
• Choosing a standard/guideline

Standards and guidelines 

These can serve as guidelines for the structure of your review, from what headings/sections to include, (such as methods, search strategy, etc) to best practice protocols for search strategies, reporting, etc. 

​ The School of Psychology recommends its students follow the PRISMA reporting guidance when conducting a systematic review. 

PRISMA standards

PRISM A  (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and  Meta-Analyses )  is an evidence-based protocol for reporting on systematic reviews and meta-analyses. The School of Psychology recommends its students follow the PRISMA reporting guidance when conducting a systematic review. The PRISMA checklist makes this easy, providing a checklist of criteria to be adhered to for each of the sections of your review, for example: introduction, methods, results, etc.

Useful PRISMA links: 

• PRISMA Checklist  (checklist of sections to include in your systematic review, eg: methods, results, etc.) 
• PRISMA flow chart   (charts the number of records identified, included and excluded, and the reasons for exclusions.)
• Citing PRISMA

Cochrane Handbook 

Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions  

Choosing a systematic review standard/guideline

The School of Psychology recommends its students follow the PRISMA reporting guidance when conducting a systematic review, but it is also helpful to read through the Cochrane Handbook of Systematic Review, particularly if your research topic spans both medical and human sciences.

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• 16 April 2024

Structure peer review to make it more robust

• Mario Malički 0

Mario Malički is associate director of the Stanford Program on Research Rigor and Reproducibility (SPORR) and co-editor-in-chief of the Research Integrity and Peer Review journal.

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In February, I received two peer-review reports for a manuscript I’d submitted to a journal. One report contained 3 comments, the other 11. Apart from one point, all the feedback was different. It focused on expanding the discussion and some methodological details — there were no remarks about the study’s objectives, analyses or limitations.

My co-authors and I duly replied, working under two assumptions that are common in scholarly publishing: first, that anything the reviewers didn’t comment on they had found acceptable for publication; second, that they had the expertise to assess all aspects of our manuscript. But, as history has shown, those assumptions are not always accurate (see Lancet 396 , 1056; 2020 ). And through the cracks, inaccurate, sloppy and falsified research can slip.

As co-editor-in-chief of the journal Research Integrity and Peer Review (an open-access journal published by BMC, which is part of Springer Nature), I’m invested in ensuring that the scholarly peer-review system is as trustworthy as possible. And I think that to be robust, peer review needs to be more structured. By that, I mean that journals should provide reviewers with a transparent set of questions to answer that focus on methodological, analytical and interpretative aspects of a paper.

For example, editors might ask peer reviewers to consider whether the methods are described in sufficient detail to allow another researcher to reproduce the work, whether extra statistical analyses are needed, and whether the authors’ interpretation of the results is supported by the data and the study methods. Should a reviewer find anything unsatisfactory, they should provide constructive criticism to the authors. And if reviewers lack the expertise to assess any part of the manuscript, they should be asked to declare this.

Anonymizing peer review makes the process more just

Other aspects of a study, such as novelty, potential impact, language and formatting, should be handled by editors, journal staff or even machines, reducing the workload for reviewers.

The list of questions reviewers will be asked should be published on the journal’s website, allowing authors to prepare their manuscripts with this process in mind. And, as others have argued before, review reports should be published in full. This would allow readers to judge for themselves how a paper was assessed, and would enable researchers to study peer-review practices.

To see how this works in practice, since 2022 I’ve been working with the publisher Elsevier on a pilot study of structured peer review in 23 of its journals, covering the health, life, physical and social sciences. The preliminary results indicate that, when guided by the same questions, reviewers made the same initial recommendation about whether to accept, revise or reject a paper 41% of the time, compared with 31% before these journals implemented structured peer review. Moreover, reviewers’ comments were in agreement about specific parts of a manuscript up to 72% of the time ( M. Malički and B. Mehmani Preprint at bioRxiv https://doi.org/mrdv; 2024 ). In my opinion, reaching such agreement is important for science, which proceeds mainly through consensus.

Stop the peer-review treadmill. I want to get off

I invite editors and publishers to follow in our footsteps and experiment with structured peer reviews. Anyone can trial our template questions (see go.nature.com/4ab2ppc ), or tailor them to suit specific fields or study types. For instance, mathematics journals might also ask whether referees agree with the logic or completeness of a proof. Some journals might ask reviewers if they have checked the raw data or the study code. Publications that employ editors who are less embedded in the research they handle than are academics might need to include questions about a paper’s novelty or impact.

Scientists can also use these questions, either as a checklist when writing papers or when they are reviewing for journals that don’t apply structured peer review.

Some journals — including Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , the PLOS family of journals, F1000 journals and some Springer Nature journals — already have their own sets of structured questions for peer reviewers. But, in general, these journals do not disclose the questions they ask, and do not make their questions consistent. This means that core peer-review checks are still not standardized, and reviewers are tasked with different questions when working for different journals.

Some might argue that, because different journals have different thresholds for publication, they should adhere to different standards of quality control. I disagree. Not every study is groundbreaking, but scientists should view quality control of the scientific literature in the same way as quality control in other sectors: as a way to ensure that a product is safe for use by the public. People should be able to see what types of check were done, and when, before an aeroplane was approved as safe for flying. We should apply the same rigour to scientific research.

Ultimately, I hope for a future in which all journals use the same core set of questions for specific study types and make all of their review reports public. I fear that a lack of standard practice in this area is delaying the progress of science.

Nature 628 , 476 (2024)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-01101-9

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Competing Interests

M.M. is co-editor-in-chief of the Research Integrity and Peer Review journal that publishes signed peer review reports alongside published articles. He is also the chair of the European Association of Science Editors Peer Review Committee.

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