Literature reviews

  • What is a literature review?

    A literature review examines, evaluates and critiques the literature on a topic.  In this context, ‘literature’ refers to academic sources of information such as books, book chapters, peer-reviewed journal articles, conference papers, theses and postgraduate dissertations.  For some subjects you will also examine reports as part of a literature review, such as government reports.  Check with your tutor what sources of information you should use.

    A literature review is undertaken for different types of academic work and publications, for example:

    • The introduction to, or a specific section of, a dissertation or thesis
    • The introduction to a research journal article
    • The entire content of a journal article, known as a review article
    • An individual assignment where the sole focus of the assignment is a review of the literature

    Literature reviews written for an individual assignment or as an introduction to a journal article tend to be more selective in the literature reviewed.  Whereas literature reviews written as review articles or as part of a dissertation or thesis are more comprehensive in terms of reviewing the literature on that topic.

    Literature reviews that are more comprehensive, require a structured approach to literature searching in order to provide a thorough overview of the research previously undertaken on the topic.

    Don’t forget to read your assignment brief or unit handbook, or seek guidance form your tutor for the specific requirements of your literature review.>

  • Why do a literature review?

    The purpose of a literature review is to place your own research in the context of the wider research that has already been published in that field or topic.  Undertaking a literature review is an essential part of the research process and it will help you to understand the topic and develop your own ideas in the area. When writing up your literature review you will be demonstrating your knowledge and understanding of that topic.

    When examining the literature on a topic you will:

    • Build your knowledge
    • Identify trends, issues but also gaps in research
    • Identify theorists and the key authors of research on that topic
    • Identify and understand appropriate research methodologies in the field
    • Justify your research question/area and position it in the context of existing and current research>

How do I search for literature?

How do I search for literature?

We can help you find the literature you need to review.  For comprehensive literature reviews, such as when writing a dissertation or thesis, it’s useful to have a structured approach to your searching.  This includes creating a plan for the search terms you will use and the resources (for example, journal databases) you will search. 

It’s also useful to record the searches you have done so that you don’t repeat the same searches at another time and so you can be sure you have used all of the resources available to you.

  • Scope the topic by carrying out broad searches on it. Library Search is a good starting point to do this.
  • Read literature review journal articles on the topic and related topics
    • Use Library Search and enter “literature review” as a search term along with broad search terms related to your topic.
    • Use journal databases and refine your search by document type to ‘review’ or ‘literature review’.

How do I create a search strategy?

Searching with keywords

Search techniques