Gemstone

A Literature Review:

• Synthesizes previously published knowledge about an issue or practice.
• Helps readers by providing that synthesis.
• Establishes grounds for existing knowledge to be extended.
• Leads readers through a narrative of the past to clear space for a future argument.

Citation: Macri, L. & Corlett-Rivera, K. (2016). How to write a literature review: An introduction to writing & research in graduate school. https://umd.app.box.com/s/ilc7c9fvr10lh1p7p23d3chll1ty9buz 

Step 1: Define Your Research Scope

• What is the specific research question that your literature review helps to define?
• Are there a maximum or minimum number of sources that your review should include?
• Talk with your team librarian to help define your research scope!

Step 2: Identify the Literature

This is where you will need to search using tools such as UMD Discover, the library databases, and Google Scholar to find scholarly sources for your literature review. Your team librarian will show you strategies for searching in these tools. 

During this stage, you will want to develop an understanding of what information is already out there, what key terms are accurate and helpful.

Citation chaining can be a great strategy to use to track how scholars interact with, and build upon, previous research:

• Mine the references cited section of each relevant source for additional key sources.
• Use UMD Discover, Google Scholar, or Scorpus to find other sources that have cited a particular work.

Step 3: Critically Analyze Literature

The key to your literature review is a critical analysis of the literature collected around your topic. The analysis will explore relationships, major themes, and any critical gaps in the research expressed in the work. Read and summarize each source with an eye toward analyzing authority, currency, coverage, methodology, and relationship to other works.

Step 4: Categorize Your Resources

Now that you have collected your sources, you will need to organize them. Use a research matrix to help you spot themes between your sources.

Content from this guide was originally created by: University of Arizona Libraries, © [2024] The Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of The University of Arizona, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Literature reviews require you to keep track of many sources. Use a citation manager like Zotero to keep track of your sources. Your team librarian can help you get started with using Zotero.

If you need help with your literature review, check out the below resources!