LibGuides: Literature Review Guide: Finding, Reading & Organising Information

There is a significant amount of work required to produce a comprehensive literature review, much of which involves a high level of reading and research before you even start writing. Think of a literature review as a process that involves several stages, before you begin writing, follow the steps below to start off on the right track:

Define Your Research Topic

Before undertaking a literature review, you will need to have an initial topic area in mind.

Pick a topic that interests you and that you're enthusiastic about
Do some preliminary reading to gather inspiration from existing research and to explore what is currently being researched in your area
Identify an ongoing problem or issue evident in previous research that needs further investigation

Formulate Your Research Question

When you have your topic area determined, you will need to work on developing your initial research question. A clearly defined research question helps to guide and focus your project and also supplies keywords that you can use when searching for related research. Your research question should clearly outline the specific research problem or issue you are investigating. However, do expect your research question to evolve during the literature review process.

Seek inspiration from previous research
Invest time in the precise wording of your research question
But be prepared to alter it as you read and research more - the more you read, the more your question will develop

Develop a Search Strategy

It is important to make sure you are searching for the right type of information and in the right place. You need to focus on recent peer-reviewed journal articles which are not commonly available for free online, so you will need to know how to access and use the library's Discovery search engine and databases relevant to your subject area.

You need to be targeted and efficient when searching for information for a literature review. There are several techniques that you can use to improve the effectiveness of your searches:

Use specific keywords relevant to your topic and related to your research question
Put two or three word phrases in inverted commas
Use Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) to make your search more effective
Use filters (peer-reviewed, last 12 months, last 5 years etc.) to limit your results
Use Discovery's advanced search function to search in journal article abstracts/titles for more relevant results

The Importance of Keywords

Keywords, also known as search terms, are the words you use when searching for information. They represent the main concepts of your research topic and are the words used to describe it. Using the right keywords is essential for locating the journal articles you need for your literature review. You may discover additional keywords as you read and research, so it is a good idea to keep a list as you go. Also, pay attention to common terminology used in your field or topic area which can help make your search more complete.

See the Discovery Guide for more search tips or contact the Library Academic Support Centre for personalised search strategies.

Read Strategically

It is important to read with a purpose or goal in mind when reading academic journal articles for a literature review.

Start with the abstract, introduction and conclusion (pay particular attention to any recommendations for further research).
Use ctrl+f to search for keywords in the text to speed up the reading process
When you have determined a particular article is relevant, then do a deeper read of the entire paper
Remember to take notes as you read and keep a record of the articles you are using so you can reference them later

Each article you read refines your understanding of your topic and any specific terminology, helps indicate which papers are significant, suggests new angles to follow up and further defines your criteria for whether an article is “in” or “out”.

Overall, Your Reading Should Help You To:

Establish that your work is worthy of study
Understand current theory, discoveries, and debates (the current research progress)
Identify new lines of questioning or investigation
Gain fresh perspectives on your topic

Remember, critical analysis is an important part of a literature review, so there are certain things you are looking for when reading:

Trends in the literature over time
Key themes
Debates and disagreements
Pivotal publications
Research gaps

All academic journal articles reference other articles and in turn are referenced themselves. Following this chain of citation can be a useful strategy to discover related research.

Scopus is a useful database to follow chains of citations, find highly cited articles and identify trends in research or emerging topics (access here).
Look for other papers by the same authors or in the same journal or conference.

Keep Track & Take Notes

It is important to take detailed notes as you read to keep track of the information you are using and to further your critical analysis. Remember to evaluate the sources you are using and to able to present your thoughts coherently and in your own words.

The Research Planning Guidelines can help you to keep track of and organise the information you have collected into key themes for your literature review. It helps you to organise your ideas and points based on the information you have collected in order to help develop your critical analysis and build a structure for your literature review.

Mendeley is a referencing tool that allows you to store references and sometimes, the full article in PDF format. It is useful for keeping track of articles as you read. It also allows you to generate references.

Begin Your First Draft

Using your notes and findings from your reading you can begin to put together an initial draft of your literature review. Remember, the first draft is not the finished product, writing is an evolving process that takes time so you will need to redraft, revise and edit your work as you go.

See the Academic Writing Skills Guide for more information on planning, structuring and beginning your writing.