This guide provides a detailed overview of what the literature review is, the types of literature reviews, and what review is appropriate for a project.
Original research papers written by those who conducted the study; immediate, first hand accounts of a topic.
Examples: original research papers; photographs, video or audio materials that capture an event; conference proceedings.
Secondary Source Materials
Papers or other materials that summarize the original work of others (primary sources).
Examples: summary of the literature in a scientific paper (literature reviews); a book chapter that summarizes or provides a description on a treatment or disease; systematic reviews and practice guidelines
What is a Literature Review?
A literature review summarizes and evaluates a body of writing about a specific topic.
Conducting a literature review can have several benefits:
it can give the reader or researcher a general overview of a body of research with which they are not familiar
it can reveal what has already been done
provide new ideas that can be used in research
help the reader or researcher determine where there are problems in existing research
enable a person to place their research in a larger context; show what new conclusions might result from new research
The purpose of the literature review can be:
to produce a stand-alone publication
narrative review, rapid review, scoping review, etc.
inform and support the development of a larger research project
thesis or dissertation proposals, preliminary research
to produce a component of a final research report
help show how your final conclusions relate to the existing wisdom concerning your subject
to give the reviewer the information needed to deal with a specific problem or think creatively about a specific topic.
To get started, ask yourself:
is your topic broad or narrow?
how will you synthesize or summarize the information you gathered?
what is your familiarity with this field (methodologies, vocabularies, etc) ?
