Streamline the literature review process with these tips

A literature review discusses the existing research on your area of interest and examines how it relates to your work. It is also where you first detail current gaps in your subject’s research before identifying how yours exploits these to create new knowledge.

I usually include both similar and opposing pieces of current research in my literature reviews to present a balanced picture of what has (or hasn’t) already been done in my general field, as well as in my specific research area. Here are three steps I’ve found useful when writing my literature reviews.

Searching for relevant papers

Look for papers relevant to your research on subject-specific websites (use sites such as PubMed, Scopus or ScienceDirect for the sciences, for example). If the book or journal you need isn’t covered in your institution’s repository, there may be other options available to you. For example, the University of the West Indies has an inter-campus library loan system, where librarians can request access to specific journals or books that are held at a different campus. Check with your institution to see if it has similar arrangements with other colleges or universities.

If you have colleagues at other institutions with whom you’ve worked on similar research questions in the past, think about including their research in your literature review. Relevant and reciprocal citing helps strengthen cross-institutional collaboration. Similarly, if you have a particular journal in mind to submit your paper to, see if its editors have done any related research in your area and cite their work as well.

For a bibliometric analysis of your research topics, it’s worth using online tools such as VOSviewer or Connected Papers to discover related papers in a visual format, such as a graph or map. You can search by keyword or by another identifier (such as author, DOI or paper title) and complete a bibliometric network analysis by citations, journals or authorship filters. These tools also offer text-mining features that can be used to build and depict networks where important terms co-occur throughout a collection of scientific literature, as well as illustrate research gaps.

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Reading and summarising papers

Use abstracts to quickly determine the relevance of the papers you’ve found to your work. A paper’s abstract summarises every part of a study (the research question, rationale, methods and results) in one or two sentences each. Critically analyse the abstract section of each paper and determine its relevance. Remember, the paper doesn’t have to align perfectly with your findings; factors such as participant demographics, methods and analytical techniques can all come in to play to present a well-rounded view of existing research. 

Having read the abstract and determined that the paper might be relevant, now you can read the rest. This doesn’t have to be daunting, nor do you have to read the paper word-for-word because this can cause anxiety around “wasted” time. Use speed-reading techniques or a modified version of the SQ3R© Method (survey, question, read, recite and review). This involves scanning the paper, noting sub-headings, prioritising reading important sections such as the results and discussion and taking notes in your own words before reviewing what you’ve written for accuracy and clarity. Always acknowledge which paper something was cited in if you didn’t actually read it yourself.

Additionally, if you’re trying to find important information that you’ve read “somewhere”, but can’t remember exactly where, the Paperpal artificial intelligence tool can help you. Ask it a question, get answers based on the article’s content and be pointed directly to that section in the paper. Paperpal can also generate literature synthesis from your notes or summaries and turn it into an outline for your review.

Making literature libraries 

Gone are the days of tedious manual referencing! Instead, you can use digital referencing tools to create databases for your cited papers and even those you’re unsure about. You can use reference management software such as EndNote or Zotero with their cite-as-you-write feature that integrates into your Word document and generates a reference in your preferred citation format. 

Whatever system you choose, you should include the basics of the papers you intend to reference, namely: 

• Author/s
• Year of publication
• Title
• Journal, including volume and issue number
• Page numbers, including supplementals where appropriate
• DOI (if available).

The literature review is a critical section of your paper where you set the scene for your study’s findings within the context of past and or current research. By following the steps above, you can be sure that yours is well researched and accurate, whatever your subject area.

Natalie K. D. Seedan is sports sciences laboratory technician and part-time lecturer at the University of the West Indies Cave Hill Campus.

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