SLP 696 Research Methods Applied & Basic: 📌Literature Review Esentials

Essential guides and expert tips to help you effectively plan, research, and write a comprehensive literature review.

Offers practical advice and strategies to structure and conduct literature reviews effectively.

Provides guidelines and tips from the University of North Carolina Writing Center for crafting thorough literature reviews.

A guide from UC Santa Cruz that outlines the process of writing a literature review, from conceptualization to completion.

Arizona State University’s explanation of what a literature review is, its purpose, and how to approach writing one.

Detailed instructions and examples on literature review structure, common mistakes, and formatting from Purdue's Online Writing Lab.

A literature review critically examines research methods and data on your topic. Use the following search techniques to guide your process.

1. Topic Exploration and Refinement:

• Sign-up for Alerts: Stay updated on new content in your field by registering for updates and alerts in databases and journals.
• Identify Research Gaps: Review literature reviews, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses related to your topic to find gap statements. These are specific unanswered questions often located in the discussion or conclusion sections of articles, crucial for formulating your research question and hypotheses. Explore Annual Reviews for concise overviews of research topics, including support, controversies, history, and key unanswered questions. Also, watch the video Research Gap 101: What Is A Research Gap & How To Find One to learn more

2. Identify Keywords for Your Topic

• Compile a list of relevant keywords and synonyms for your literature search.
• Test these keywords in appropriate databases. Check if they appear in article titles.
• If keywords are absent in titles, consult MeSH for alternative terms.
• Note the author-supplied keywords in pertinent articles.
• Review your initial search results to assess the effectiveness of your search strategy.
• Refine your keywords and search parameters based on preliminary findings.

3. Citation Linking:

• Use citation linking tools and cited reference searches to track influential works and discover additional relevant sources (see how on this page).
• Review the bibliography or references lists of key materials to identify further readings

6. Material Collection and Organization:

• Organize collected materials based on research methodology, study design, relevance, and other appropriate criteria.
• Use tools like Mendeley, or Zotero to manage and organize your references efficiently into folder/sub-folders.

7. Analysis and Interpretation:

• Discuss and analyze the findings and conclusions of the relevant literature you've gathered.
• Organize literature according to key elements of the research studies such as methodology.
• Address the evolution of research on your topic, highlighting the progression and changes in understanding over time.
• Explore relationships within the literature, such as common methods, procedures, analysis techniques, and recurring themes.

8. Developing Your Own Ideas:

• Synthesize your own insights and interpretations based on the findings of the reviewed literature.
• Identify gaps, controversies, or areas where your thesis could contribute new perspectives or ideas.
• Consider how your own research could build upon or challenge existing research in the field.
• Ensure that each stage is well-documented, and maintain a structured approach to your literature review process. 

Organize your sources using a Table of Evidence to track key study details. Use Mendeley or Zotero to manage citations and create folders by topic or methodology.

Table of Evidence – Key Elements:

Find dissertations and theses from CSULB and beyond.

ScholarWorks - CSU Institutional Repository

ACM Digital Library (ACM DL)

Preprints.org – Open Access Preprint Repository

Track research trends and find more resources by exploring cited references.

Web of Science

• Use citation tools and 'Times Cited' to trace influential works and expand your research.

Google Scholar Citation Linking

• Find articles that cite your source using Google Scholar.

Lit review and research methods resources