Literature reviews

Literature reviews generally provide a critical narrative of the background to a concept or area of study. Their aim is to position a research proposal or to introduce the reason for taking a particular approach in a dissertation project, or research paper. Systematic scoping or literature reviews are standalone reviews that take a methodical approach to reviewing an area of interest. There are standardised approaches that can be used for this type of review; these will be introduced later in the guide.

Beginning a review

1. Identify the aim of your review. Is it to:

Enhance your understanding about an area of interest?
Introduce a research proposal?
Introduce a dissertation?
Introduce a paper you’re publishing?
Conduct a systematic scoping or literature review? (That is a rigorous approach taken to identify knowledge or methodological gaps or limitations, and to position the need for further research and reviews)

2. Identify or create a means of managing your academic sources by either:

Sourcing a management tool, such as Mendeley or Zotero . There is a range available, you would only need a free account, rather than a paid version.
Or, creating a table to manage your sources. It is usually easiest to manage them if you create a table in Excel, rather than Word. A template is available that you may edit to suit your approach