How to Write a Literature Review: An Informative Guide for Researchers

One of the most common questions asked by researchers today is how to write a literature review, and we understand how this can be confusing. In this article, we try to simplify the process of writing a good literature review.  

What is a literature review in research papers? 

A literature review forms a section or part of a dissertation or scholarly article, but it can also be considered a standalone piece of work. But why do we need to write a literature review? The aim of a writing a good literature review is to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the academic literature on a specific topic placed in context. Schwarz and his colleagues listed the main objectives of the literature review as follows:¹

• Summarize prior research
• Explain the results of prior research
• Critically examine past research
• Clarify alternative views of past research

You can find useful guides on how to write a literature review, including examples of literature reviews in a research paper, online or from university websites; note that these can vary depending on the nature of your study. However, literature review writing is not a simple or linear process, and that is why the answer to how to write a literature review for a research paper is not a straightforward one. As an author, you must go back and forth between different studies to reformulate or readjust those ideas. Sometimes you are constantly working on the literature review before, during, and even after your research study is completed. The type of literature review can vary depending on your research approach and design.²

• The most widely used is the traditional or narrative literature review, which critiques and summarizes the body of literature. It also draws conclusions and identifies gaps in a body of knowledge. Use a narrative approach when you have a highly focused research question.
• A systematic review is the best approach when your research focus is on understanding feasibility, suitability, or effectiveness.
• Opt for a scoping review if you are looking for an alternative to a literature review to clarify a concept or theory.
• Theoretical reviews establish the existing theories, derive relationships between them, and develop new hypotheses to be tested.

Regardless of the nature of literature review, writing a good literature review is sometimes confusing and a laborious process that early career researchers, especially graduate students, find challenging. These include, but are not limited, to challenges in:

• critical evaluation of previous related studies and research gap identification.
• indicating the theoretical position/framework.
• citing and referencing.
• achieving coherence and cohesion in writing.

Tips for literature review writing 

When wondering how to write a literature review, the first point to remember is not to include studies that are not directly relevant to your study, as it will distract and frustrate the reader. It makes them lose sight of the purpose of your study. Also, you cannot create a strong literature review by simply listing who has studied the topic and what each scholar concluded. The following guide can help you write a good review regardless of the research type.³

1. Get your topic and research question correct: A unique, thought-provoking topic is what makes a good literature review stand out. Select interesting and useful topics that are hotspots in your field of study, but make sure that the research question is manageable. Understand the key terms related to your area of study. Discuss the topics with your supervisors or peers to understand landmark/seminal literature works. 

2. Decide the scope of your review: This depends on the nature of your study. Decide on the number of articles you want to read, the recentness of these articles, and how comprehensive these are. 

3. Go for reliable data sources: An important step in writing a good literature review is collecting data. Your data sources should include scholarly articles, books, conventions, conferences, dissertations, and theses. An easy place to look is the discipline-wise research guides created by librarians. Other tools that minimize your literature search time include R Discovery, SciSpace Discover, Sysrev, and Colandr. 

4. Track your searches: Use RefWorks, Mendeley, or Zotero to provide templates and help track your research citations. Read the abstract to determine articles of interest. Use maps and charts to identify connecting research and outline important categories. More relevant studies can be identified from bibliographies or references of these research studies. 

5. Keep notes: This is useful to writing a good literature review as it helps you remember the important concepts discussed in the literature. It will also help you track your thought processes during the early stages of research. 

6. Structure your literature review: Before thinking what to write in a good literature review, think about its structure. Like a research article, the template of a good literature review should have an introduction, the main body, and a conclusion. 

• The introduction section will define your topic, establish reasons for reviewing the selected literature sources, and decide the review’s scope. 
• The main body begins with a wider general view of the topic being considered and ends with a specific focus of your study. 
• The conclusion section evaluates the current state of existing research, identifies gaps in the existing literature to link your research, and outlines areas for future study. Your research question, hypothesis, or problem statement will also go here.

7. Length of the literature review: It varies depending on the purpose and audience. The best literature review length for journal articles is at least 2 pages or a few pages, depending on the length of your article. For example, for a 5,000-word journal article, the literature review can be between 1,200-2,000 words. 

We hope the article explains and answers your question how to write a good literature review, and the tips for literature review given above can help you write your next literature review easily.  

References:

1. Schwarz, A., Mehta, M., Johnson, N., & Chin, W. W. Understanding frameworks and reviews: a commentary to assist us in moving our field forward by analyzing our past. ACM SIGMIS Database: the DATABASE for Advances in Information Systems, 38(3), 29-50 (2007).
2. Munn, Z., Peters, M. D., Stern, C., Tufanaru, C., McArthur, A., & Aromataris, E. Systematic review or scoping review? Guidance for authors when choosing between a systematic or scoping review approach. BMC medical research methodology, 18(1), 1-7 (2018).
3. Paul, J., & Criado, A. R. The art of writing literature review: What do we know and what do we need to know? International Business Review, 29(4), 101717 (2020).