Creating a literature review
There are two kinds of literature reviews you might write at university: one that students are asked to write as a stand-alone assignment in a course, often as part of their training in the research processes in their field, and the other that is written as part of an introduction to, or preparation for, a longer work, usually a thesis or research report. Literature review is not an annotated bibliography in which you summarize briefly each article that you have reviewed. However, a general introduction of the context and, toward the end, a recapitulation of the main points covered and take-home messages make sense also in the case of reviews.
Constructing a literature review
5: keep the review focused, but make it of broad interestwhether your plan is to write a mini- or a full review, it is good advice to keep it focused 16,17. Med educ 46: 943–s m (2009) the task force on systematic reviews and guidelines (2009) the value of “traditional” reviews in the era of systematic reviewing. A careful selection of diagrams and figures relevant to the reviewed topic can be very helpful to structure the text too [22].
A mini-review is not necessarily a minor review: it may well attract more attention from busy readers, although it will inevitably simplify some issues and leave out some relevant material due to space limitations. The literature review: six steps to d with permission and thanks from how to write a literature review originally created by kenneth lyons, mchenry library, university of california, santa last updated on: thursday 14 september 2017. Some scientists may be overly enthusiastic about what they have published, and thus risk giving too much importance to their own findings in the review.
You may also note that studies fall into different categories (categories that you see emerging or ones that are already discussed in the literature). This is probably a good time to decide whether to go for a mini- or a full review. This implies that literature reviewers would do well to keep an eye on electronic lists of papers in press, given that it can take months before these appear in scientific databases.
Major trends or patterns: as you read a range of articles on your topic, you should make note of trends and patterns over time as reported in the literature. S m (2009) the task force on systematic reviews and guidelines (2009) the value of “traditional” reviews in the era of systematic reviewing. If your journal club has exactly this sort of team, then you should definitely write a review of the literature!
A full review will have the advantage of more freedom to cover in detail the complexities of a particular scientific development, but may then be left in the pile of the very important papers “to be read” by readers with little time to spare for major is probably a continuum between mini- and full reviews. Some tips for identifying suitable literature and narrowing your search :Start with a general descriptor from the database thesaurus or one that you know is already a well defined descriptor based on past work that you have done in this field. Note: although you may collect a large number of quotes during the note taking phase of your review, when you write the review, use quotes very sparingly.
Critical race theory in education: a review of past literature and a look to the future. 9: include your own relevant research, but be objectivein many cases, reviewers of the literature will have published studies relevant to the review they are writing. A similar distinction exists between narrative and systematic reviews: while narrative reviews are qualitative, systematic reviews attempt to test a hypothesis based on the published evidence, which is gathered using a predefined protocol to reduce bias [13], [14].
Literature review asks: what do we know - or not know - about this particular issue/ topic/ subject? If the review is preliminary to your own thesis or research project, its purpose is to make an argument that will justify your proposed research. Synthesis matrix helps you record the main points of each source and document how sources relate to each ture review: synthesizing multiple g a literature review & using a synthesis a matrix to organize this matrix g the literature review part s what a literature review is - and is g the literature review part zing sources, basic steps in the writing ture review overview for graduate tand how studies relate to one another, how your own ideas fit within the existing ctive tutorial for literature reviews in education & behavioral sciences.
If you do include tables as part of your review each must be accompanied by an analysis that summarizes, interprets and synthesizes the literature that you have charted in the can plan your table or do the entire summary chart of your literature using a concept map (such as using inspiration). If the review is a stand-alone assignment for a course, it should suggest any practical applications of the research as well as the implications and possibilities for future steps to writing a literature review. With reviews, the usual subdivision of research papers into introduction, methods, results, and discussion does not work or is rarely used.
You will need to experiment with different searches, such as limiting your search to descriptors that appear only in the document titles, or in both the document title and in the ne your topic if needed: as you search you will quickly find out if the topic that you are reviewing is too broad. This could create a conflict of interest: how can reviewers report objectively on their own work [25]? If you include studies prior to the past five years that are not landmark studies, you should defend why you have chosen these rather than more current 5: summarize the literature in table or concept map (2006) recommends building tables as a key way to help you overview, organize, and summarize your findings, and suggests that including one or more of the tables that you create may be helpful in your literature review.
