A “literature review” refers to one of three things:

  1. Process: The active and ongoing process of discovering, analyzing, and organizing existing literature on a research topic.
  2. Paper section: All or part of the introduction to a publication-length empirical study, contextualizing the research questions, methods, and results that follow.
  3. Publication: A stand-alone publication that thoroughly summarizes historical and current research on a topic as a "call to action" in the subfield by defending an original argument, pointing out conflicting bodies of evidence or "camps," identifying methodological limitations, connecting theory and practice, etc.

To write either kind of literature review “product,” paper section or stand-alone publication, you first need to conduct a literature review. Conducting a literature review is the process of discovering, analyzing, and synthesizing published research on your topic.

Discover

Remember that no matter what your question is, someone (and likely hundreds of others) have already tackled it. Think of this as a good thing. It means that you have a ready-made audience of persons interested in your topic, and an existing scholarship from which to build your argument. Unless you have already spent many months researching your topic or are omniscient, you should never claim that you are the first to tackle that question. Not only is this almost certain to be false, but it sends a very clear signal to your primary reader (who likely has read the relevant literatures) that your argument should not be taken seriously.

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Questions for the Discovery Stage

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What is the current state of the field?

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What is the historical narrative of the field?

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Where does my project fit?

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Your first task is to identify 1-3 of the most influential works (usually peer-reviewed journal articles) on or directly related to your question. Don’t select a piece of scholarship just because it mentions your question. The works you select must make an argument about your question. Figuring out what is influential will require a Google Scholar search to see how many citations a particular piece of scholarship has received and talking to experts in your field. For the former, a simple Google Scholar search provides “cited by” below the title’s name. For the latter, you should meet with some faculty members during office hours to get recommendations.

Discovery process diagram. Box with text “1-3 critical works” has arrows pointing to two other boxes. One says “were influenced by” and another says “later influenced.” The last two have arrows going back and forth between them.

Use the influential works you have already identified as a springboard to discover other relevant literature. The best way to get started is to dedicate a weekend to the discovery process with Google Scholar.

This process works in two directions:

  1. Review an article’s bibliography to find the work the authors built their argument on.
  2. Explore the work that has cited the article since it was published.

Google Scholar’s “cited by” feature makes #2 easier than it sounds. Clicking “cited by” for any reference will allow you to browse or search all subsequent work that has cited that paper. You can also easily filter by publication date to stay focused on current research.

If you are signed on to UChicago’s wi-fi (or VPN) or using the Library’s Proxy Services you will be able to access the full text of most references directly through Google Scholar. If a PDF or full-text webpage is not available, there will usually be a “Find It @ UChicago” link. This will take you to the University of Chicago Library website’s listings for that reference. If available through the library you can access the work directly; if not, you can request a PDF via the “Scan & Deliver” service. You can also use the library’s website to browse journals and subject guides. Ask your preceptor for the best search engines and databases specific to your discipline. You should also contact one of our amazing subject librarians at the Regenstein to gain further insight.

If you don’t already use on, find a citation manager to stay organized. I recommend Zotero, which is free, open-source, well-maintained, has a built in pdf-editor, and integrates well with Word and BibTeX. Other commonly used citation managers include Mendeley (free with paid option) and EndNote (paid). ****

Learn more about how to literally find sources here:

Discover and Organize Sources

Analyze