Library how-to videos
What is a literature review and how do you do one?
Literature review and research process
The aim of a literature review is to gather resources, identify trends, topics and problems in your field and to assist you in developing your own research question.
By writing a literature review you are synthesising the content from key research articles so that the reader has a coherent picture of your research.
Key priorities:
- Identify the seminal work in your area of study. This means you will want to focus on finding scholarly articles that contain primary research.
- Identify the gap, also considered the missing piece in the research literature or the area that is under-explored.
- That your research will have valuable, practical and/or theoretical implications to the field of study.
What should be included in your literature review
- Peer-reviewed articles
- Conference proceedings
- Dissertations/theses
- Books
- Peer-reviewed documentaries
- Market research
- Case studies
Seminal work
Seminal work can also be referred to as pivotal, landmark studies that present an idea of great importance or influence within a discipline. A research paper is seminial if it is referred to time and time again in research, so you will see it cited in other journal articles, books and dissertations. Identification of seminal research will occur as you progress in your research, the more reading you do the more correlation of the same citations you will see. It is important to note that seminal work may be published some time ago, so limiting your search to the last 5 years in a database may be excluding the seminal studies.
The number of citations can reflect whether a paper is seminal or not.
These databases and Google Scholar display the citation count for articles.
- Scopus This link opens in a new windowScopus is the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature: scientific journals, books and conference proceedings. Scopus provides a suite of smart tools to track, analyse, report and visualise research outputs.
- ACM Digital Library This link opens in a new windowThe ACM Digital Library is a computing, information technology and systems resource created by the Association for Computing Machinery. You can use the platform to search the Full-Text Collection of all ACM publications, including journals, eBooks, conference proceedings, theses, reports, technical briefs and more.
- IEEE Xplore This link opens in a new windowProvides scientific and technical content published by the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) and its publishing partners, focusing on technology, computer science, cybersecurity, and electronics. Please note that full-text is only available for “Subscribed Content”.
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Start by identifying the key concepts in your research question
Example question:
Select the keywords and create a Logic grid for keywords and synomyns
| Herbal Medicine | Treatment | Mental health conditions |
| Alternative medicine | Intervention | Mental illness |
| Phytotherapy | Therapy | Psychiatric illness |
| Natural remedies | Medication | Mental disorder |
When you are reviewing your results ask yourself these questions
- Where are the sources of the ideas?
- Who are the main instigators?
- How have these ideas evolved?
- How does the literature relate to my topic?
- How do ideas differ?
- Where are the gaps in the literature?
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Put your search terms in the Advanced search
Use the refining tools in the database to get better results
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Save your searches in the databases
Mendeley
Mendeley is referencing management stoftware. You can download Mendeley and watch our workshops on how to use Mendeley here.