- 1 The research question
- 2 Preliminary search
- 3 Retrieving and evaluating information
- 4 Comprehensive search
- 5 Search alerts
- 6 Cited reference search
- 7 Organising the literature
- 7.1 Specialist research software
- 7.2 Bibliographic management
- 7.3 Coding the literature
- 7.4 Keeping useful notes
- 7.5 Topic 7: Knowledge check
- 8 Managing data
- 9 Collaboration
- 10 Getting published
- 11 Publication metrics
- 12 Building further skills
Coding the literature
Once you have a bibliographic management system in place, you can begin your reading and coding the literature for relevance to your research question. This section will help you create a code to skim, scan and select literature efficiently and effectively.
Background reading
Foss, S. K. & Waters, W. (2007). Destination dissertation: A traveler's guide to a done dissertation . Maryland MD: Rowman & Littlefield : 75-112
Wallace, M. & Wray, A. (2011). Critical reading and writing for postgraduates . London: Sage.
How to start
Students often think that a research topic is established after reading the literature. However, reading the literature is best done after defining a research question. A well written research question helps you to quickly read and scan the literature for new ideas or 'research gaps' while remaining focussed on your topic. You may alter and narrow the scope of your research question as you progress through the research process while remaining confident that you are answering your question directly.
Categorising your literature
The categories you need to code your literature come directly from the terms of your research question. The key terms of your research question become the major areas of your literature review. The categories of literature need to form a logical sequence of ideas that lead to a coherent, well-argued position.
Example: The bodies of literature relevant to answering the research question: 'What factors characterise a successful mentoring relationship for minority students?' would include:
- factors of successful mentoring
- factors of successful academic mentoring of minority students
- factors of successful academic mentoring of university students
- factors that affect the completion of graduate degrees (you would include this body of literature because you are defining successful in the question as completion of degree).
Then you need to establish a system for coding reference material for each category. Coding allows you to categorise literature according to themes and sub-themes, such as relevant topics, points of view, research inter-relationships, or new or challenging ideas and theories. Using the coding system helps you avoid writing notes on areas of interest that aren't directly relevant to your research question.
To begin, establish a coding system that is meaningful to you as you plan the first version of your literature review outline (headings, paragraphs etc.). Consider using:
- a word or short phrase
- a numerical code
- an abbreviation.
You can also use software such as Leximancer to help you with coding your literature. Leximancer examines a body of text and produces a ranked list of terms based on frequency and related occurrence. These terms are then visually represented to show connections between concepts.
Watch the video: Introduction to Leximancer (YouTube video, 8m04s)
Activity – Coding your literature
- Identify the categories of literature you need to cover in your literature review from your research question. Add these to your resource log.
- Determine a code that delineates each of these categories.
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- How to Write a Literature Review | Guide, Examples, & Templates
How to Write a Literature Review | Guide, Examples, & Templates
Published on January 2, 2023 by Shona McCombes . Revised on September 11, 2023.
What is a literature review? A literature review is a survey of scholarly sources on a specific topic. It provides an overview of current knowledge, allowing you to identify relevant theories, methods, and gaps in the existing research that you can later apply to your paper, thesis, or dissertation topic .
There are five key steps to writing a literature review:
- Search for relevant literature
- Evaluate sources
- Identify themes, debates, and gaps
- Outline the structure
- Write your literature review
A good literature review doesn’t just summarize sources—it analyzes, synthesizes , and critically evaluates to give a clear picture of the state of knowledge on the subject.
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Table of contents
What is the purpose of a literature review, examples of literature reviews, step 1 – search for relevant literature, step 2 – evaluate and select sources, step 3 – identify themes, debates, and gaps, step 4 – outline your literature review’s structure, step 5 – write your literature review, free lecture slides, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions, introduction.
- Quick Run-through
- Step 1 & 2
When you write a thesis , dissertation , or research paper , you will likely have to conduct a literature review to situate your research within existing knowledge. The literature review gives you a chance to:
- Demonstrate your familiarity with the topic and its scholarly context
- Develop a theoretical framework and methodology for your research
- Position your work in relation to other researchers and theorists
- Show how your research addresses a gap or contributes to a debate
- Evaluate the current state of research and demonstrate your knowledge of the scholarly debates around your topic.
Writing literature reviews is a particularly important skill if you want to apply for graduate school or pursue a career in research. We’ve written a step-by-step guide that you can follow below.
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See an example
Writing literature reviews can be quite challenging! A good starting point could be to look at some examples, depending on what kind of literature review you’d like to write.
- Example literature review #1: “Why Do People Migrate? A Review of the Theoretical Literature” ( Theoretical literature review about the development of economic migration theory from the 1950s to today.)
- Example literature review #2: “Literature review as a research methodology: An overview and guidelines” ( Methodological literature review about interdisciplinary knowledge acquisition and production.)
- Example literature review #3: “The Use of Technology in English Language Learning: A Literature Review” ( Thematic literature review about the effects of technology on language acquisition.)
- Example literature review #4: “Learners’ Listening Comprehension Difficulties in English Language Learning: A Literature Review” ( Chronological literature review about how the concept of listening skills has changed over time.)
You can also check out our templates with literature review examples and sample outlines at the links below.
Download Word doc Download Google doc
Before you begin searching for literature, you need a clearly defined topic .
If you are writing the literature review section of a dissertation or research paper, you will search for literature related to your research problem and questions .
Make a list of keywords
Start by creating a list of keywords related to your research question. Include each of the key concepts or variables you’re interested in, and list any synonyms and related terms. You can add to this list as you discover new keywords in the process of your literature search.
- Social media, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, TikTok
- Body image, self-perception, self-esteem, mental health
- Generation Z, teenagers, adolescents, youth
Search for relevant sources
Use your keywords to begin searching for sources. Some useful databases to search for journals and articles include:
- Your university’s library catalogue
- Google Scholar
- Project Muse (humanities and social sciences)
- Medline (life sciences and biomedicine)
- EconLit (economics)
- Inspec (physics, engineering and computer science)
You can also use boolean operators to help narrow down your search.
Make sure to read the abstract to find out whether an article is relevant to your question. When you find a useful book or article, you can check the bibliography to find other relevant sources.
You likely won’t be able to read absolutely everything that has been written on your topic, so it will be necessary to evaluate which sources are most relevant to your research question.
For each publication, ask yourself:
- What question or problem is the author addressing?
- What are the key concepts and how are they defined?
- What are the key theories, models, and methods?
- Does the research use established frameworks or take an innovative approach?
- What are the results and conclusions of the study?
- How does the publication relate to other literature in the field? Does it confirm, add to, or challenge established knowledge?
- What are the strengths and weaknesses of the research?
Make sure the sources you use are credible , and make sure you read any landmark studies and major theories in your field of research.
You can use our template to summarize and evaluate sources you’re thinking about using. Click on either button below to download.
Take notes and cite your sources
As you read, you should also begin the writing process. Take notes that you can later incorporate into the text of your literature review.
It is important to keep track of your sources with citations to avoid plagiarism . It can be helpful to make an annotated bibliography , where you compile full citation information and write a paragraph of summary and analysis for each source. This helps you remember what you read and saves time later in the process.
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To begin organizing your literature review’s argument and structure, be sure you understand the connections and relationships between the sources you’ve read. Based on your reading and notes, you can look for:
- Trends and patterns (in theory, method or results): do certain approaches become more or less popular over time?
- Themes: what questions or concepts recur across the literature?
- Debates, conflicts and contradictions: where do sources disagree?
- Pivotal publications: are there any influential theories or studies that changed the direction of the field?
- Gaps: what is missing from the literature? Are there weaknesses that need to be addressed?
This step will help you work out the structure of your literature review and (if applicable) show how your own research will contribute to existing knowledge.
- Most research has focused on young women.
- There is an increasing interest in the visual aspects of social media.
- But there is still a lack of robust research on highly visual platforms like Instagram and Snapchat—this is a gap that you could address in your own research.
There are various approaches to organizing the body of a literature review. Depending on the length of your literature review, you can combine several of these strategies (for example, your overall structure might be thematic, but each theme is discussed chronologically).
Chronological
The simplest approach is to trace the development of the topic over time. However, if you choose this strategy, be careful to avoid simply listing and summarizing sources in order.
Try to analyze patterns, turning points and key debates that have shaped the direction of the field. Give your interpretation of how and why certain developments occurred.
If you have found some recurring central themes, you can organize your literature review into subsections that address different aspects of the topic.
For example, if you are reviewing literature about inequalities in migrant health outcomes, key themes might include healthcare policy, language barriers, cultural attitudes, legal status, and economic access.
Methodological
If you draw your sources from different disciplines or fields that use a variety of research methods , you might want to compare the results and conclusions that emerge from different approaches. For example:
- Look at what results have emerged in qualitative versus quantitative research
- Discuss how the topic has been approached by empirical versus theoretical scholarship
- Divide the literature into sociological, historical, and cultural sources
Theoretical
A literature review is often the foundation for a theoretical framework . You can use it to discuss various theories, models, and definitions of key concepts.
You might argue for the relevance of a specific theoretical approach, or combine various theoretical concepts to create a framework for your research.
Like any other academic text , your literature review should have an introduction , a main body, and a conclusion . What you include in each depends on the objective of your literature review.
The introduction should clearly establish the focus and purpose of the literature review.
Depending on the length of your literature review, you might want to divide the body into subsections. You can use a subheading for each theme, time period, or methodological approach.
As you write, you can follow these tips:
- Summarize and synthesize: give an overview of the main points of each source and combine them into a coherent whole
- Analyze and interpret: don’t just paraphrase other researchers — add your own interpretations where possible, discussing the significance of findings in relation to the literature as a whole
- Critically evaluate: mention the strengths and weaknesses of your sources
- Write in well-structured paragraphs: use transition words and topic sentences to draw connections, comparisons and contrasts
In the conclusion, you should summarize the key findings you have taken from the literature and emphasize their significance.
When you’ve finished writing and revising your literature review, don’t forget to proofread thoroughly before submitting. Not a language expert? Check out Scribbr’s professional proofreading services !
This article has been adapted into lecture slides that you can use to teach your students about writing a literature review.
Scribbr slides are free to use, customize, and distribute for educational purposes.
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If you want to know more about the research process , methodology , research bias , or statistics , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.
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A literature review is a survey of scholarly sources (such as books, journal articles, and theses) related to a specific topic or research question .
It is often written as part of a thesis, dissertation , or research paper , in order to situate your work in relation to existing knowledge.
There are several reasons to conduct a literature review at the beginning of a research project:
- To familiarize yourself with the current state of knowledge on your topic
- To ensure that you’re not just repeating what others have already done
- To identify gaps in knowledge and unresolved problems that your research can address
- To develop your theoretical framework and methodology
- To provide an overview of the key findings and debates on the topic
Writing the literature review shows your reader how your work relates to existing research and what new insights it will contribute.
The literature review usually comes near the beginning of your thesis or dissertation . After the introduction , it grounds your research in a scholarly field and leads directly to your theoretical framework or methodology .
A literature review is a survey of credible sources on a topic, often used in dissertations , theses, and research papers . Literature reviews give an overview of knowledge on a subject, helping you identify relevant theories and methods, as well as gaps in existing research. Literature reviews are set up similarly to other academic texts , with an introduction , a main body, and a conclusion .
An annotated bibliography is a list of source references that has a short description (called an annotation ) for each of the sources. It is often assigned as part of the research process for a paper .
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Carmen Keates - Tips for Writing a Literature Review
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Systematic Quantitative Literature Review
A smart and effective method for undertaking literature reviews particularly for research students and others new to a discipline.
"Narrative methods that are commonly used in many research theses, rely on the expertise and experience of the author, making them challenging for novices. In contrast, the method we use and recommend involves systematically searching the literature using online database and other sources to find all relevant papers that fit specific criteria (systematically identifying the literature), entering information about each study into a personal database, then compiling tables that summarise the current status of the literature (quantifying the literature). The results are reliable, quantifiable and reproducible.
Using this method, it’s also possible to determine if there are suitable datasets for meta-analysis. By mapping the literature we can not only identify what is known, but also, but where there are gaps: a critical issue in advancing research and designing PhD research programs."
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The role of a protocol in a systematic literature review
Bandara, Wasana & Syed, Rehan (2023) Correction to: The role of a protocol in a systematic literature review. Journal of Decision Systems .
Open access copy at publisher website
Description
A good literature review that effectively synthesises current knowledge can contribute to the cumulative knowledge growth and advancement of a field. This tutorial-paper complements the existing methodological guidelines, with a particular focus on the ‘literature review protocol’- which can significantly improve the quality, efficiency, and impact of a literature review endeavour. In this paper, we describe what a ‘literature review protocol’ is, discuss its major components, and provide essential design guidelines. In particular, we provide a comprehensive toolkit with step-by-step instructions, templates, and illustrative examples that users may adapt to their own projects. This information is appropriate for novice and expert researchers conducting a literature review for publication purposes, and also for reviewers or editors who assess literature review papers. It is also beneficial for educators engaged in research trainings.
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Literature Reviews
Business & Econ LibrarianClick to Chat with a LibrarianText: (571) 248-7542 What is a literature review?A literature review discusses published information in a particular subject area. Often part of the introduction to an essay, research report or thesis, the literature review is literally a "re" view or "look again" at what has already been written about the topic, wherein the author analyzes a segment of a published body of knowledge through summary, classification, and comparison of prior research studies, reviews of literature, and theoretical articles. Literature reviews provide the reader with a bibliographic history of the scholarly research in any given field of study. As such, as new information becomes available, literature reviews grow in length or become focused on one specific aspect of the topic. A literature review can be just a simple summary of the sources, but usually contains an organizational pattern and combines both summary and synthesis. A summary is a recap of the important information of the source, whereas a synthesis is a re-organization, or a reshuffling, of that information. The literature review might give a new interpretation of old material or combine new with old interpretations. Or it might trace the intellectual progression of the field, including major debates. Depending on the situation, the literature review may evaluate the sources and advise the reader on the most pertinent or relevant. A literature review is NOT:
What is the difference between a literature review and a research paper?The focus of a literature review is to summarize and synthesize the arguments and ideas of others without adding new contributions, whereas academic research papers present and develop new arguments that build upon the previously available body of literature. How do I write a literature review?There are many resources that offer step-by-step guidance for writing a literature review, and you can find some of them under Other Resources in the menu to the left. Writing the Literature Review: A Practical Guide suggests these steps:
What is the purpose of writing a literature review?Literature reviews serve as a guide to a particular topic: professionals can use literature reviews to keep current on their field; scholars can determine credibility of the writer in his or her field by analyzing the literature review. As a writer, you will use the literature review to:
University of Tasmania, AustraliaLiterature reviews.
Advice, other sites and examples
Organising your literature reviewhttps://www.helpforassessment.com/blog/how-to-outline-a-literature-review/ Using your notes from the matrix, it is now time to plan before writing. The usual structure of Introduction, Body and Conclusion apply here but after that, you need to make decisions about how the information will be organised:
This will sometimes depend on your discipline. For example, in Science disciplines it might be better to organise by the methods of research used if you are going to find gaps in those methods, while in Education or the Social Sciences, it might be better to organise by synthesising theory. Some literature reviews will require a description of the search strategy. For more information, you may want to look at the advice on this page: Steps of Building Search Strategies This video from Western Sydney University explains further and has examples for geographical and thematic organisation. Language and structureOnce you have written a draft, think carefully about the language you have used to signpost the structure of your review in order to build a convincing and logical synthesis. Carefully choosing transition/linking words and reporting verbs will strengthen your writing.
Advice and examples for nursing students (may be useful for other Health Sciences)
Purdue Online Writing Lab Purdue OWL® College of Liberal Arts Writing a Literature ReviewWelcome to the Purdue OWLThis page is brought to you by the OWL at Purdue University. When printing this page, you must include the entire legal notice. Copyright ©1995-2018 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use. A literature review is a document or section of a document that collects key sources on a topic and discusses those sources in conversation with each other (also called synthesis ). The lit review is an important genre in many disciplines, not just literature (i.e., the study of works of literature such as novels and plays). When we say “literature review” or refer to “the literature,” we are talking about the research ( scholarship ) in a given field. You will often see the terms “the research,” “the scholarship,” and “the literature” used mostly interchangeably. Where, when, and why would I write a lit review?There are a number of different situations where you might write a literature review, each with slightly different expectations; different disciplines, too, have field-specific expectations for what a literature review is and does. For instance, in the humanities, authors might include more overt argumentation and interpretation of source material in their literature reviews, whereas in the sciences, authors are more likely to report study designs and results in their literature reviews; these differences reflect these disciplines’ purposes and conventions in scholarship. You should always look at examples from your own discipline and talk to professors or mentors in your field to be sure you understand your discipline’s conventions, for literature reviews as well as for any other genre. A literature review can be a part of a research paper or scholarly article, usually falling after the introduction and before the research methods sections. In these cases, the lit review just needs to cover scholarship that is important to the issue you are writing about; sometimes it will also cover key sources that informed your research methodology. Lit reviews can also be standalone pieces, either as assignments in a class or as publications. In a class, a lit review may be assigned to help students familiarize themselves with a topic and with scholarship in their field, get an idea of the other researchers working on the topic they’re interested in, find gaps in existing research in order to propose new projects, and/or develop a theoretical framework and methodology for later research. As a publication, a lit review usually is meant to help make other scholars’ lives easier by collecting and summarizing, synthesizing, and analyzing existing research on a topic. This can be especially helpful for students or scholars getting into a new research area, or for directing an entire community of scholars toward questions that have not yet been answered. What are the parts of a lit review?Most lit reviews use a basic introduction-body-conclusion structure; if your lit review is part of a larger paper, the introduction and conclusion pieces may be just a few sentences while you focus most of your attention on the body. If your lit review is a standalone piece, the introduction and conclusion take up more space and give you a place to discuss your goals, research methods, and conclusions separately from where you discuss the literature itself. Introduction:
Conclusion:
How should I organize my lit review?Lit reviews can take many different organizational patterns depending on what you are trying to accomplish with the review. Here are some examples:
What are some strategies or tips I can use while writing my lit review?Any lit review is only as good as the research it discusses; make sure your sources are well-chosen and your research is thorough. Don’t be afraid to do more research if you discover a new thread as you’re writing. More info on the research process is available in our "Conducting Research" resources . As you’re doing your research, create an annotated bibliography ( see our page on the this type of document ). Much of the information used in an annotated bibliography can be used also in a literature review, so you’ll be not only partially drafting your lit review as you research, but also developing your sense of the larger conversation going on among scholars, professionals, and any other stakeholders in your topic. Usually you will need to synthesize research rather than just summarizing it. This means drawing connections between sources to create a picture of the scholarly conversation on a topic over time. Many student writers struggle to synthesize because they feel they don’t have anything to add to the scholars they are citing; here are some strategies to help you:
The most interesting literature reviews are often written as arguments (again, as mentioned at the beginning of the page, this is discipline-specific and doesn’t work for all situations). Often, the literature review is where you can establish your research as filling a particular gap or as relevant in a particular way. You have some chance to do this in your introduction in an article, but the literature review section gives a more extended opportunity to establish the conversation in the way you would like your readers to see it. You can choose the intellectual lineage you would like to be part of and whose definitions matter most to your thinking (mostly humanities-specific, but this goes for sciences as well). In addressing these points, you argue for your place in the conversation, which tends to make the lit review more compelling than a simple reporting of other sources. literature reviewLiterature review vs. essay.. It is easy to get confused about the difference between literature reviews and essays because these two writing structures can be based on the same research. However, the main difference is on where the emphasis is placed. The purpose of an essay is to use what is known… Literature ReviewsWhat is a Literature Review?
A literature review is an academic text that surveys, synthesizes, and critically evaluates the existing literature on a specific topic. It is typically required for theses, dissertations, or long reports and serves several key purposes:
Types of Literature Reviews Literature reviews can take various forms, including:
Importance of Literature Reviews
Identifying Gaps : Literature reviews highlight areas where knowledge is lacking, guiding future research efforts.
In summary, a literature review is a critical component of academic research that helps to frame the current state of knowledge, identify gaps, and provide a basis for new research. The research, the body of current literature, and the particular objectives should all influence the structure of a literature review. It is also critical to remember that creating a literature review is an ongoing process - as one reads and analyzes the literature, one's understanding may change, which could require rearranging the literature review. Paré, G. and Kitsiou, S. (2017) 'Methods for Literature Reviews' , in: Lau, F. and Kuziemsky, C. (eds.) Handbook of eHealth evaluation: an evidence-based approach . Victoria (BC): University of Victoria. Perplexity AI (2024) Perplexity AI response to Kathy Neville, 31 July. Royal Literary Fund (2024) The structure of a literature review. Available at: https://www.rlf.org.uk/resources/the-structure-of-a-literature-review/ (Accessed: 23 July 2024). Library Services for Undergraduate Research (2024) Literature review: a definition . Available at: https://libguides.wustl.edu/our?p=302677 (Accessed: 31 July 2024). Further Reading: Methods for Literature Reviews Literature Review (The University of Edinburgh) Literature Reviews (University of Sheffield)
How to write a literature review
A literature review critically analyses existing literature to develop an argument. Writing a literature review can be challenging because:
This is just a general guide to help you write a literature review. The specific requirements for your course may be different. Make sure you read through any assignment requirements carefully and ask your lecturer or tutor if you're unsure how to meet them. Purpose of a literature reviewA literature review should demonstrate your overall understanding of the literature and develop an argument, often by answering specific questions. It shouldn't just list and summarise what you've read. Unlike other assignment types, you're often expected to determine the purpose of a literature review yourself. Commonly, a literature review is written to help develop and justify a novel research question. But they have many other uses. For example, you may use a literature review to develop an argument that:
Selecting relevant materialsYour literature review should only include relevant materials, and it should be clear how each work is relevant to your main argument. When selecting materials you should:
Analysing the literatureYour literature review should provide a detailed justification for your main argument. You need to critically review the literature and synthesise your analysis into a logical argument. This general process may help:
Organising your argumentYour literature review should be a logical, well-structured argument organised into an introduction, body and conclusion. To help organise your argument:
Learning AdvisersOur advisers can help undergraduate and postgraduate students in all programs clarify ideas from workshops, help you develop skills and give feedback on assignments. How a Learning Adviser can help Further supportUQ Library guide to literature reviews Guide for research students (PDF, 1.7 MB) Example literature review analysis
In conjunction with Prof Jan Kietzmann, University of Victoria, Canada, the BEST Centre is pleased to host this professional development seminar. Presented by Andrew Park, a Phd student at Simon Fraser University, Canada. Workshop presentation – Andrew Park on VosViewer:Workshop description:Date: 9th September, 2020 Time: 8:00am – 9:30am (AEST) Zoom Link: https://uvic.zoom.us/j/93905990891?pwd=SXJId0tyeVc4amVnTDZPZlhPMEE0Zz09 Vosviewer is a new software tool that can be used to generate, visualize and analyze bibliometric networks. These networks include research authors, journals, institutions and individual publications. Through Vosviewer, these networks can be visualized at speeds and scales that are infeasible using manual methods or legacy software tools. Vosviewer also has text mining capabilities that can construct network maps of co-occurring keywords sourced from abstracts and bodies of research articles. In this workshop, we walk you through how to conduct a complete bibliometric analysis using Vosviewer. We then provide an example of how to use this analysis to write a bibliometric research article for journal submission. Workshop outline below – please follow the instructions to download and install the software, and watch the quick YouTube video prior to the workshop.
Bio – Andrew Park:Andrew Park founded and sold a successful software startup that grew to over 100 employees, with offices in British Columbia and Washington State. He then returned to academia at SFU Beedie where is a PhD candidate conducting research in innovation and entrepreneurship with a focus on healthcare and digital technology. He is currently investigating how Open Innovation mechanisms impact value creation of firms emerging in the intersection of software and biotechnology. He has been published in interdisciplinary journals such as Research-Technology Management, Business Horizons and the Journal of Medicine & Philosophy spanning the diverse fields of medicine, biotechnology, digital innovation and management. Andrew is also part of a national network of innovation scholars (4POINT0) evaluating innovation ecosystem models that accelerate the trajectory of Science & Technology innovations to foster strong economic development in Canada. Finally, he recently co-founded another software startup that aims to decentralize and improve access to personal health data. He holds a BSc. in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry and a Management of Technology MBA from Simon Fraser University.
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Write the review. Start by writing your thesis statement. This is an important introductory sentence that will tell your reader what the topic is and the overall perspective or argument you will be presenting. Like essays, a literature review must have an introduction, a body and a conclusion.
A literature review is a critical analysis of published sources, or literature, on a particular topic. It is an assessment of the literature and provides a summary, classification, comparison and evaluation. At postgraduate level literature reviews can be incorporated into an article, a research report or thesis. ... QUT acknowledges the ...
Generic Mind Map of Focus Questions for a Literature Review How to Read Critically In: Postgraduate Research in Business The aim of this chapter is to show you how to become a critical reader of typical academic literature in business and management, and to emphasize that this is a key requirement of postgraduate education.
Literature review is approached as a process of engaging with the discourse of scholarly communities that will help graduate researchers refine, define, and express their own scholarly vision and voice. This orientation on research as an exploratory practice, rather than merely a series of predetermined steps in a systematic method, allows the ...
The body of a report can include the following: A description of the issue or situation which is being reported on. This may include a literature review of the research on that issue. The method of data collection, if applicable - this should include what you did and why, such as a survey or interview, and the size and selection criteria of the ...
A systematic review is an appraisal and synthesis of primary research papers using a rigorous and clearly documented methodology in both the search strategy and the selection of studies. This minimises bias in the results. The clear documentation of the process and the decisions made allow the review to be reproduced and updated.
How to write a critique. Before you start writing, it is important to have a thorough understanding of the work that will be critiqued. Study the work under discussion. Make notes on key parts of the work. Develop an understanding of the main argument or purpose being expressed in the work. Consider how the work relates to a broader issue or ...
All the research in the literature review must be cited in the text of the article and referenced in a list at the end. A literature review can be arranged in a thematic structure, where different aspects of the topic or different theories related to the topic are addressed one at a time. In some cases, a chronological order, with each piece or ...
Activity - Coding your literature. Identify the categories of literature you need to cover in your literature review from your research question. Add these to your resource log. Determine a code that delineates each of these categories. AIRS Topic 7.3 Organising the literature. Coding the literature.
QUT write. Becoming a good writer takes time, practice, and perseverance. Few people find writing easy, no matter how often or how much they write. This is because when you write, you are undertaking a complex process. This QUT write resource will guide you through the process and give you the skills and knowledge to develop into a confident ...
By Library Web Team 26/09/2012. It is easy to get confused about the difference between literature reviews and essays because these two writing structures can be based on the same research. However, the main difference is on where the emphasis is placed. The purpose of an essay is to use what is known about a subject to prove an argument or ...
Examples of literature reviews. Step 1 - Search for relevant literature. Step 2 - Evaluate and select sources. Step 3 - Identify themes, debates, and gaps. Step 4 - Outline your literature review's structure. Step 5 - Write your literature review.
Systematic Quantitative Literature Review. A smart and effective method for undertaking literature reviews particularly for research students and others new to a discipline. "Narrative methods that are commonly used in many research theses, rely on the expertise and experience of the author, making them challenging for novices.
In this paper, we describe what a 'literature review protocol' is, discuss its major components, and provide essential design guidelines. In particular, we provide a comprehensive toolkit with step-by-step instructions, templates, and illustrative examples that users may adapt to their own projects. This information is appropriate for ...
A literature review discusses published information in a particular subject area. Often part of the introduction to an essay, research report or thesis, the literature review is literally a "re" view or "look again" at what has already been written about the topic, wherein the author analyzes a segment of a published body of knowledge through summary, classification, and comparison of prior ...
Some literature reviews will require a description of the search strategy. For more information, ... Cite/Write: Writing a literature Review, QUT. RMIT Learning Lab: Literature Review overview. Advice and examples for nursing students (may be useful for other Health Sciences)
Brisbane, Australia, [email protected] Erwin Fielt, Faculty of Science and Technology, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia, [email protected] ... literature review and what are ways to effectively write and present the results of a literature review. The remainder of this paper flows as follows. First, an ...
Writing a Literature Review. A literature review is a document or section of a document that collects key sources on a topic and discusses those sources in conversation with each other (also called synthesis). The lit review is an important genre in many disciplines, not just literature (i.e., the study of works of literature such as novels and ...
literature review Browsing. Uncategorized 26/09/2012. Literature Review vs. Essay. It is easy to get confused about the difference between literature reviews and essays because these two writing structures can be based on the same research. However, the main difference is on where the emphasis is placed. The purpose of an essay is to use what ...
Writing a Literature Review Qut - Free download as PDF File (.pdf), Text File (.txt) or read online for free. Writing a literature review is a challenging endeavor that requires meticulous research, critical analysis, and concise writing skills. It involves defining the scope, identifying relevant sources from various databases and publications, and then analyzing and synthesizing the ...
The research, the body of current literature, and the particular objectives should all influence the structure of a literature review. It is also critical to remember that creating a literature review is an ongoing process - as one reads and analyzes the literature, one's understanding may change, which could require rearranging the literature ...
Organising your argument. Your literature review should be a logical, well-structured argument organised into an introduction, body and conclusion. To help organise your argument: plan before you start writing - creating a mind map or outline can help to clarify your thinking before you start drafting.
Using VOSVIEWER: A tool for literature review analysis and bibliometrics; In conjunction with Prof Jan Kietzmann, University of Victoria, Canada, the BEST Centre is pleased to host this professional development seminar. ... [email protected]: This information has been contributed by Centre for Behavioural Economics, Society and Technology. ...
Literature Review Example Qut - Free download as PDF File (.pdf), Text File (.txt) or read online for free. literature review example qut