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Guide, Template, & Examples
Thesis & dissertation Published on 22 February 2022 by Shona McCombes. Revised on 7 June 2022.

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What is a literature review? A literature review is a survey of scholarly
sources on a specific topic. It provides an overview of current
Getting started
knowledge, allowing you to identify relevant theories, methods, and
+ Choosing a topic
gaps in the existing research.
Dissertation proposal
There are five key steps to writing a literature review:
Title page

Abstract  Search for relevant literature

+ Front matter  Evaluate sources

 Identify themes, debates and gaps
+ Introduction
 Outline the structure
Literature review
 Write your literature review
+ Theoretical framework
A good literature review doesn’t just summarise sources – it analyses,
Methodology
synthesises, and critically evaluates to give a clear picture of the state
Results
of knowledge on the subject.
Discussion

Conclusion
Tip
Recommendations
We’ve also compiled a few examples, templates, and sample outlines
Appendix
for you below.
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 Why write a literature review?

Referencing
Generator  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
 Frequently asked questions about literature reviews

Introduction Quick Run-through Step 1 & 2 Step 3

Step 4 Step 5
Why write a literature review?
When you write a dissertation or thesis, you will 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 scholarly context

% Develop a theoretical framework and methodology for your
research
% Position yourself in relation to other researchers and theorists
% Show how your dissertation addresses a gap or contributes to a
debate

You might also have to write a literature review as a stand-alone

assignment. In this case, the purpose is to evaluate the current state of
research and demonstrate your knowledge of scholarly debates around
a topic.

The content will look slightly different in each case, but the process of
conducting a literature review follows the same steps. We’ve written a
step-by-step guide that you can follow below.
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Examples of literature reviews

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

Step 1: Search for relevant literature

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
objectives and questions.

If you are writing a literature review as a stand-alone assignment, you

will have to choose a focus and develop a central question to direct
your search. Unlike a dissertation research question, this question has
to be answerable without collecting original data. You should be able to
answer it based only on a review of existing publications.

Research question example

What is the impact of social media on body image among Generation

Z?

Make a list of keywords

Start by creating a list of keywords related to your research topic.
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 if you
discover new keywords in the process of your literature search.
Keywords example

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 databases to
search for journals and articles include:

Your university’s library catalogue

Google Scholar
JSTOR
EBSCO
Project Muse (humanities and social sciences)
Medline (life sciences and biomedicine)
EconLit (economics)
Inspec (physics, engineering and computer science)

You can use boolean operators to help narrow down your search:

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.

To identify the most important publications on your topic, take note of

recurring citations. If the same authors, books or articles keep
appearing in your reading, make sure to seek them out.

Step 2: Evaluate and select sources

You probably won’t be able to read absolutely everything that has been
written on the topic – you’ll have to evaluate which sources are most
relevant to your questions.

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?
% How does the publication contribute to your understanding of the
topic? What are its key insights and arguments?
% 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 find out how many times an article has been cited on Google
Scholar – a high citation count means the article has been influential in
the field, and should certainly be included in your literature review.

The scope of your review will depend on your topic and discipline: in the
sciences you usually only review recent literature, but in the humanities
you might take a long historical perspective (for example, to trace how a
concept has changed in meaning over time).

Remember that you can use our template to summarise and evaluate
sources you’re thinking about using!

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’s important to keep track of your sources with references to avoid

plagiarism. It can be helpful to make an annotated bibliography, where
you compile full reference 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.

You can use our free APA Reference Generator for quick, correct,
consistent citations.

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Step 3: Identify themes, debates and gaps

To begin organising your literature review’s argument and structure, you
need to 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.

Example of trends and gaps

In reviewing the literature on social media and body image, you note
that:

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.

Step 4: Outline your literature review’s

structure
There are various approaches to organising the body of a literature
review. You should have a rough idea of your strategy before you start
writing.

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 summarising sources in order.

Try to analyse patterns, turning points and key debates that have
shaped the direction of the field. Give your interpretation of how and
why certain developments occurred.

Thematic
If you have found some recurring central themes, you can organise 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.

Step 5: Write your literature review

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.

Introduction
The introduction should clearly establish the focus and purpose of the
literature review.

If you are writing the literature review as part of your dissertation or

thesis, reiterate your central problem or research question and give a
brief summary of the scholarly context. You can emphasise the
timeliness of the topic (“many recent studies have focused on the
problem of x”) or highlight a gap in the literature (“while there has been
much research on x, few researchers have taken y into consideration”).

Body
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, make sure to follow these tips:

% Summarise and synthesise: give an overview of the main points

of each source and combine them into a coherent whole.
% Analyse and interpret: don’t just paraphrase other researchers –
 add your own interpretations, 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 transitions and topic
sentences to draw connections, comparisons and contrasts.

Conclusion
In the conclusion, you should summarise the key findings you have
taken from the literature and emphasise their significance.

If the literature review is part of your dissertation or thesis, reiterate

how your research addresses gaps and contributes new knowledge, or
discuss how you have drawn on existing theories and methods to build
a framework for your research. This can lead directly into your
methodology section.

Frequently asked questions about

literature reviews

What is a literature review? !

What is the purpose of a literature review? !

Where does the literature review go in a dissertation? !

Cite this Scribbr article

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citation to our free Reference Generator.
 McCombes, S. (2022, June 07). What is a Literature
Review? | Guide, Template, & Examples. Scribbr.
Cite this
Retrieved 29 April 2024, from
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https://www.scribbr.co.uk/thesis-
dissertation/literature-review/

Is this article helpful? 1981 93

Shona McCombes
Shona has a bachelor's and two master's degrees, so she's
an expert at writing a great thesis. She has also worked as
an editor and teacher, working with students at all different
levels to improve their academic writing.

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