review of related literature generator free

With Scholarcy Library, you can import all your papers and search results, and quickly screen them with the automatically generated ‘key takeaway’ headline.

Take the stress out of your literature review

While there are lots of tools that help you discover articles for your research, how do you analyse and synthesise the information from all of those papers?

3 easy ways to import articles

Scholarcy lets you quickly import your articles for screening and analysing.

Import papers in PDF, Word, HTML and LaTeX format

Import search results from PubMed or any service that provides results in RIS or BibTeX format

Import publisher RSS feeds

Build your literature matrix in minutes

Our Excel export feature generates a literature synthesis matrix for you, so you can

Compare papers side by side for their study sizes, key contributions, limitations, and more.

Export literature-review ready data in Excel, Word, RIS or Markdown format

Integrates with your reference manager and ‘second brain’ tools such as Roam, Notion and Obsidian

Carrying out a systematic review?

Scholarcy breaks papers down into our unique summary flashcard format.

The Study subjects and analysis tab shows you study population, intervention, outcome, and statistical analyses from the paper.

And the Excel synthesis matrix generated shows the key methods and quantitative findings of each paper, side by side.

Build a knowledge graph from your papers

If you’re a fan of the latest generation of knowledge management tools such as Roam or Obsidian , you’ll love our Markdown export.

This creates a knowledge graph of all the papers in your library by connecting them via key terms, methods, and shared citations.

What People Are Saying

“Quick processing time, successfully summarized important points.”

“It’s really good for case study analysis, thank you for this too.”

“I love this website so much it has made my research a lot easier thanks!”

“The instant feedback I get from this tool is amazing.”

“Thank you for making my life easier.”

Privacy Overview

Free Online Summary Generator Tool

Do you want to be productive and stay away from information overload? We introduce to you a highly useful tool: an online summary generator. You might already know that summarizers help you quickly grasp the meaning of a text. This article will help you discover new ways of using text compactors. You will also be introduced to:

✅ How the Summarizer Works

Today’s machine learning mechanisms can process texts of any complexity. This technology allows our summarizer:

The summarizer can be used for many purposes. Let’s take a look at some of them.

🖥️ Other Uses of the Summarizing Tool

Nowadays, the ability to provide maximum information in a few words is highly valued. Summaries are used for college assignments, in resumes, scientific articles, and many other areas. Keep reading to learn how to use the online summarizer for these purposes.

📄 As a Resume Text Generator

A resume contains information about one’s background, skills, and achievements. Resumes play a massive role in the hiring process. With the text compactor, you can:

✏️ As a Word Condenser

Are you guilty of writing wordy essays? Shortening a text without distorting its meaning is a challenging task. Here's what you can do:

📔 As an Abstract Maker

An abstract is a summary of a paper's key points. In MLA and APA styles, it goes right after the title page. To develop an abstract, you need to:

📖 As a Conclusion Generator

The conclusion is an essential part of any written assignment. It needs to reflect the main aspects of the text. It means that the summary generator can work as a conclusion tool. The summarizer will extract key ideas from each paragraph and use topic sentences to compose your paper's well-structured ending.

📝 Types of Essay Summaries

There are two main types of essay summaries: true and interpretive. Here is how to tell them apart:

As you can see, these summary types present information in different ways. Choose which one is more suitable for your assignment.

👌 How to Summarize without Plagiarism

Plagiarism, whether intentional or accidental, is not allowed in academic writing. Here are several techniques that can help you write any summary without plagiarism.

Try to sum up the text in different words. Use synonyms or a summarizing tool such as ours.

It is good to mention one or two quotes in your summary. Don't forget to use quotation marks and name the source of your findings.

Every piece of information that didn't come from you should be credited. To avoid plagiarism, make sure always to check format requirements and follow them thoroughly.

Now let's take a look at summarizing hacks for different types of assignments.

🔬 How to Summarize a Research Paper

When writing a research paper summary, make sure to:

Like any other format, APA has citation guidelines. It means there are specific requirements for every type of source, whether it’s a website, an article, or a book. Here are the basics:

📰 How to Write a Good Summary of an Article

Usually, articles contain lots of information. It includes research data and factual evidence. Here is how you can summarize an article without plagiarizing:

It is also helpful to use an outline. This template is suitable for outlining a news article summary or a literature review:

Write a summary in a way that would let a person who had never read the article understand what it is about. This will ensure your success.

📚 How to Summarize a Story

This section covers summaries of everything that has a plot. Like any other summary, it has to be concise and straight to the point.

Describe the "what" of the story and leave out the "why." Including a personal view will sabotage the purpose of the summary.

One of the main objectives of summarizing is to tell the reader what the story is about. It can include the plot and the author's intentions.

This will help your summary to be accurate and organized.

Such information will help the reader to connect with the story better.

Now you know everything about different kinds of summaries. Go ahead and craft yourself a high-quality summary using our generator and helpful tips!

📌 What is an Objective Summary of a Passage?

📌 what is the purpose of summarizing an essay, 📌 how can you convert a paragraph into précis, 🔗 references.

For full functionality of this site it is necessary to enable JavaScript.

Free Literature Review Essays and Papers

Literature Review

Evaluation of a Mental Health Treatment Court with Assertive Community Treatment 1. This article studied the effect of Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) versus Treatment as Usual (TAU) on the life satisfaction ratings, psychological distress, level of functioning, substance use issues, and criminal activity of mentally ill residents of the Santa Barbara County Jail. The study administered four instruments to measure these variables. They used the Behavioral and Symptom Identification scale

Literature Review #2

1 Works Cited

is another brilliant piece of literature by Bert Cardullo. The article itself talks a little more about the differentiation between reviewers and critics, but focuses deeply on one particular critic: Richard Gilman. This time, the main theme for this article is Theatrical Critics. “Richard Gilman, American Theater Critic: An Appreciation” was published in 2011 and is one of the most current researches done on this topic. As previously discussed in an earlier review, the author, Bert Cardullo, does

LITERATURE REVIEW: Theories on Student Attrition

5 Works Cited

LITERATURE REVIEW: Theories on Student Attrition Since the early 70s theorists have pondered the causes of college dropout. Generally referred to as “student attrition,” this problem has spurred numerous causal theories and theoretical models. Vincent Tinto led the research with his revolutionary 1973 study, which he later revised (1987) amid criticism from other luminaries in the field, most notably Bean, Astin, Terenzini, and Pascarella. It is on the work of these scholars (including also

Nslbp Literature Review

The literature search was completed by 2 authors separately for peer-reviewed, published randomized controlled trials dating to January 2013 in 9 databases using a detailed search strategy. They also screened titles and abstracts separately and logged excluded

Literature Review of Social Skills Intervention

10 Works Cited

The first of the ten articles to be discussed examined a training program that consisted of an individualized, classroom-based social skills intervention. In the study, there were 45 children with learning disabilities 9-12 years old. These children were in self-contained special education classrooms. Thirteen children received intervention for 6 weeks and 7 children received intervention for 12 weeks. The remaining 25 children were in the control group, which received no intervention. The intervention

This Literature review will be focusing on the key issues regarding

This Literature review will be focusing on the key issues regarding the living expectations of UK transport 171CBS Business Organisation Task: Marketing! What is the role of Marketing? Assignment two Discuss the role of marketing and the marketing department using an organisation of your choice to illustrate the points you make Mariom Jafar Business and Accounting 2nd March 2005 DUE DATE: 28th February 2005 R.Rogers Discuss the role of marketing and the marketing department

Review of Literature on Abortion in the Family

Review of Literature on Abortion in the Family Abortion is a very controversial subject that has been continuously argued over for the past few years and probably for many more years to come. Women who are making the decision are effected emotionally, mentally, and physically since their bodies are going through many changes which it is not accustomed to. The main controversy is, who's right is it to abort? Many will argue and say it is the woman's right to chose what she does with her own body

Evidence Based Practice Literature Review

exist. When that is not the case, however, the clinician needs to seek out scientific evidence to help inform the treatment decision. Two major types of evidence may be useful: systematic reviews and individual studies” ("Steps in the Process of Evidence-Based Practice: Finding the Evidence", 2017) “Systematic reviews… are formal assessments of the body of scientific evidence related to a clinical question, and describe the extent to which various diagnostic or treatment approaches are supported by the

Literature Review: The Definition Of Pun Translation

Literature Review The Definition of Pun Pun translation poses as one of the most challenging problem for a literary translator, due to the need of transferring the double meaning of the sentence or word. The double meaning could be a play on words, sometimes on different senses of the same word and sometimes on the similar senses or sound of different words. Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms defines pun as "an expression that achieves emphasis or humor by contriving an ambiguity, two distinct

The Step-by-Step Approach: Guidelines to writing a Literature Review

Approach: Guidelines to writing a Literature Review Globally, students and researchers alike are presented with the task of developing a literature review. This process may seem daunting to the inexperienced writer, however, there is no need for trial and error as there are known procedures and guidelines created to simplify such an assignment. A basic literature review may be defined as “A written document that develops a case to establish a thesis. This review synthesizes current knowledge pertaining

Literature Review: Open Visitations in ICU Oksana Bjorlie Walden University Essentials of Evidence-Based Practice

8 Works Cited

Literature Review: Open Visitations in ICU Studies have shown that open ICU visitation is an asset rather than a hindrance with respect to a patient’s wellbeing. Since the 1950s, visiting has changed from a strict nurse-controlled regime to a more flexible patient-centered approach (Taylor, 2008, p. 30). Family inclusion in patient care is evolving into a collaborative model between patient, family and healthcare providers. In response to this collaboration of patient and family-centered care (PFCC)

Literature Review: Review Of Literature On Suicide

Review of Literature: Suicide Suicide is a very real problem in our society today. According to the CDC, suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in Americans. (CDC) There is an increasing number of people committing suicide and people attempting suicide each year. Unfortunately, there is a stigma around suicide that makes people afraid to ask for the help that they need. This review of literature discusses suicide by addressing the following questions to three main ideas: 1. What age groups

43 Works Cited

Brief Review of the Literature A review of the literature reveals a common theme among experts in this field of study. The recurring themes present is the current literature include the financial crisis of 2008 and foreclosure impacts. Foreclosure impacts include the effects of crime, housing sales, property valuation, property abandonment, neighborhood destabilization, and shifts in tax revenue. The sources of the literature reviewed were scholarly journals, peer-reviewed journals and governmental

literature review

Literature Review Section This section discusses the research related to reduce the wastage of blood products including blood bank inventory management, various policies and methodologies used for blood bank centers of United States as well as in other parts of the world. The concepts and tools applied to these studies are directly relevant and correlate with my research project. Therefore, I have decided to discuss on these articles for my Literature Review section. I. Overview of a Redistribution

middle of paper ... ...interrelated process of second language learning as presented in Gardner’s socio-educational model. Both of these variables affect an individual’s language learning in terms of attitude, perception and beliefs. A synthesis of review by Wesely (2012) concluded that some studies on learners’ attitudes, perceptions, and beliefs remained at descriptive level with no link made to outcomes but this small body of research is an interesting area of inquiry. Furthermore the description

an efficient portfolio? Are real estate investment trusts (REITs) is a good implement to diversify mixed-asset portfolios? These questions have stimulated my great interest. The main purpose of this study is to review the relevant literature and to answer these questions. LITERRETURE REVIEW Every researcher has different points of emphasis when analysing and managing property portfolios. Several researchers are concerned about economic aspects tha... ... middle of paper ... ...imal portfolio

71 Works Cited

3.0 ENZYMES The capable of filamentous fungi to grow on wide range of substrate and efficiently degrade polysaccharides and protein into monomers make them an attractive resource for new enzymes (Seiboth, et al., 2011). These particular enzymes are of considerable great commercial importance. The industrial enzyme market hit $2.3 million annually with 34% applications in detergents, 27% in foods, 16% in agriculture and feeds, 10% in textiles and 10% in leather, chemicals, and pulp (Demain, 2007)

Literature Review Images within today’s mass media have had a tremendous effect on the influences of the female body image. In order to understand the details of body image it must be define. Body image will be defined in two different definitions, one from the Webster Dictionary and the other from The Online Dictionary. Within the Webster Dictionary, body image is defined as “a subjective picture of one's own physical appearance established both by self-observation and by noting the reactions of

the most addictive drugs in the world and even though it might sound harmful it can also provide benefits to the human body. Throughout this review it hypothetically shows the correlation between the consumption of caffeinated coffee and how it can reduce the symptoms or even prevent the risk of having Parkinson’s disease. These next six literature reviews will provide its hypothesis and studies based on this research. The first article written and reviewed by multiple authors explains the connection

Review of Literature

11 Works Cited

Independent Study Unit – Phase 2 Review of Literature Introduction 21 of the first 23 astronauts into space were first-born; there is a reason to this (Hartshorne, 2010). They say that the order in which a person is born, and the gap years between siblings determines the personality of a person (Hartshorne, 2010). For those born first, they are seen as dominant and having the pressure put on them, while the youngest child is the most beloved (Hartshorne, 2010). The middle child at times feels neglected

Subscribe to our newsletter.

Privacy Statement

7 open source tools to make literature reviews easy

Open source, library schools, libraries, and digital dissemination

Opensource.com

A good literature review is critical for academic research in any field, whether it is for a research article, a critical review for coursework, or a dissertation. In a recent article, I presented detailed steps for doing a literature review using open source software .

The following is a brief summary of seven free and open source software tools described in that article that will make your next literature review much easier.

1. GNU Linux

Most literature reviews are accomplished by graduate students working in research labs in universities. For absurd reasons, graduate students often have the worst computers on campus. They are often old, slow, and clunky Windows machines that have been discarded and recycled from the undergraduate computer labs. Installing a flavor of GNU Linux will breathe new life into these outdated PCs. There are more than 100 distributions , all of which can be downloaded and installed for free on computers. Most popular Linux distributions come with a "try-before-you-buy" feature. For example, with Ubuntu you can make a bootable USB stick that allows you to test-run the Ubuntu desktop experience without interfering in any way with your PC configuration. If you like the experience, you can use the stick to install Ubuntu on your machine permanently.

Linux distributions generally come with a free web browser, and the most popular is Firefox . Two Firefox plugins that are particularly useful for literature reviews are Unpaywall and Zotero. Keep reading to learn why.

3. Unpaywall

Often one of the hardest parts of a literature review is gaining access to the papers you want to read for your review. The unintended consequence of copyright restrictions and paywalls is it has narrowed access to the peer-reviewed literature to the point that even Harvard University is challenged to pay for it. Fortunately, there are a lot of open access articles—about a third of the literature is free (and the percentage is growing). Unpaywall is a Firefox plugin that enables researchers to click a green tab on the side of the browser and skip the paywall on millions of peer-reviewed journal articles. This makes finding accessible copies of articles much faster that searching each database individually. Unpaywall is fast, free, and legal, as it accesses many of the open access sites that I covered in my paper on using open source in lit reviews .

Formatting references is the most tedious of academic tasks. Zotero can save you from ever doing it again. It operates as an Android app, desktop program, and a Firefox plugin (which I recommend). It is a free, easy-to-use tool to help you collect, organize, cite, and share research. It replaces the functionality of proprietary packages such as RefWorks, Endnote, and Papers for zero cost. Zotero can auto-add bibliographic information directly from websites. In addition, it can scrape bibliographic data from PDF files. Notes can be easily added on each reference. Finally, and most importantly, it can import and export the bibliography databases in all publishers' various formats. With this feature, you can export bibliographic information to paste into a document editor for a paper or thesis—or even to a wiki for dynamic collaborative literature reviews (see tool #7 for more on the value of wikis in lit reviews).

5. LibreOffice

Your thesis or academic article can be written conventionally with the free office suite LibreOffice , which operates similarly to Microsoft's Office products but respects your freedom. Zotero has a word processor plugin to integrate directly with LibreOffice. LibreOffice is more than adequate for the vast majority of academic paper writing.

If LibreOffice is not enough for your layout needs, you can take your paper writing one step further with LaTeX , a high-quality typesetting system specifically designed for producing technical and scientific documentation. LaTeX is particularly useful if your writing has a lot of equations in it. Also, Zotero libraries can be directly exported to BibTeX files for use with LaTeX.

7. MediaWiki

If you want to leverage the open source way to get help with your literature review, you can facilitate a dynamic collaborative literature review . A wiki is a website that allows anyone to add, delete, or revise content directly using a web browser. MediaWiki is free software that enables you to set up your own wikis.

Researchers can (in decreasing order of complexity): 1) set up their own research group wiki with MediaWiki, 2) utilize wikis already established at their universities (e.g., Aalto University ), or 3) use wikis dedicated to areas that they research. For example, several university research groups that focus on sustainability (including mine ) use Appropedia , which is set up for collaborative solutions on sustainability, appropriate technology, poverty reduction, and permaculture.

Using a wiki makes it easy for anyone in the group to keep track of the status of and update literature reviews (both current and older or from other researchers). It also enables multiple members of the group to easily collaborate on a literature review asynchronously. Most importantly, it enables people outside the research group to help make a literature review more complete, accurate, and up-to-date.

Wrapping up

Free and open source software can cover the entire lit review toolchain, meaning there's no need for anyone to use proprietary solutions. Do you use other libre tools for making literature reviews or other academic work easier? Please let us know your favorites in the comments.

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter

All-in-one Literature Review Software

Start your free trial

Free MAXQDA trial for Windows and Mac

MAXQDA The All-in-one Literature Review Software

MAXQDA is the best choice for a comprehensive literature review. It works with a wide range of data types and offers powerful tools for literature review , such as reference management, qualitative, vocabulary, text analysis tools, and more.

Document viewer

Your analysis.

As your all-in-one literature review software, MAXQDA can be used to manage your entire research project. Easily import data from texts, interviews, focus groups, PDFs, web pages, spreadsheets, articles, e-books, and even social media data. Connect the reference management system of your choice with MAXQDA to easily import bibliographic data. Organize your data in groups, link relevant quotes to each other, keep track of your literature summaries, and share and compare work with your team members. Your project file stays flexible and you can expand and refine your category system as you go to suit your research.

Developed by and for researchers – since 1989

Having used several qualitative data analysis software programs, there is no doubt in my mind that MAXQDA has advantages over all the others. In addition to its remarkable analytical features for harnessing data, MAXQDA’s stellar customer service, online tutorials, and global learning community make it a user friendly and top-notch product.

Sally S. Cohen – NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing

Advanced literature review software for Windows and Mac

Manage your data with the All-in-one Literature Review Software MAXQDA

Easily import your literature review data

With a literature review software like MAXQDA, you can easily import bibliographic data from reference management programs for your literature review. MAXQDA can work with all reference management programs that can export their databases in RIS-format which is a standard format for bibliographic information. Like MAXQDA, these reference managers use project files, containing all collected bibliographic information, such as author, title, links to websites, keywords, abstracts, and other information. In addition, you can easily import the corresponding full texts. Upon import, all documents will be automatically pre-coded to facilitate your literature review at a later stage.

Capture your ideas while analyzing your literature

Great ideas will often occur to you while you’re doing your literature review. Using MAXQDA as your literature review software, you can create memos to store your ideas, such as research questions and objectives, or you can use memos for paraphrasing passages into your own words. By attaching memos like post-it notes to text passages, texts, document groups, images, audio/video clips, and of course codes, you can easily retrieve them at a later stage. Particularly useful for literature reviews are free memos written during the course of work from which passages can be copied and inserted into the final text.

Find concepts important to your literature review

When conducting a literature review you might need to analyze a large amount of text. Luckily MAXQDA as the #1 literature review software offers Text Search tools that allow you to explore your documents without reading or coding them first. Automatically search for keywords (or dictionaries of keywords), such as important concepts for your literature review, and automatically code them with just a few clicks. Document variables that were automatically created during the import of your bibliographic information can be used for searching and retrieving certain text segments. MAXQDA’s powerful Coding Query allows you to analyze the combination of activated codes in different ways.

Aggregate your literature review

When conducting a literature review you can easily get lost. But with MAXQDA as your literature review software, you will never lose track of the bigger picture. Among other tools, MAXQDA’s overview and summary tables are especially useful for aggregating your literature review results. MAXQDA offers overview tables for almost everything, codes, memos, coded segments, links, and so on. With MAXQDA literature review tools you can create compressed summaries of sources that can be effectively compared and represented, and with just one click you can easily export your overview and summary tables and integrate them into your literature review report.

Powerful and easy-to-use literature review tools

Quantitative aspects can also be relevant when conducting a literature review analysis. Using MAXQDA as your literature review software enables you to employ a vast range of procedures for the quantitative evaluation of your material. You can sort sources according to document variables, compare amounts with frequency tables and charts, and much more. Make sure you don’t miss the word frequency tools of MAXQDA’s add-on module for quantitative content analysis. Included are tools for visual text exploration, content analysis, vocabulary analysis, dictionary-based analysis, and more that facilitate the quantitative analysis of terms and their semantic contexts.

Visualize your literature review

As an all-in-one literature review software, MAXQDA offers a variety of visual tools that are tailor-made for qualitative research and literature reviews. Create stunning visualizations to analyze your material. Of course, you can export your visualizations in various formats to enrich your literature review analysis report. Work with word clouds to explore the central themes of a text and key terms that are used, create charts to easily compare the occurrences of concepts and important keywords, or make use of the graphical representation possibilities of MAXMaps, which in particular permit the creation of concept maps. Thanks to the interactive connection between your visualizations with your MAXQDA data, you’ll never lose sight of the big picture.

Collect relevant insights and develop new theories

MAXQDA 2022 introduces a brand new and innovative workspace to gather important visualization, notes, segments, and other analytics results! The perfect tool to organize your thoughts and data. Create a separate worksheet for your topics and research questions, fill it with associated analysis elements from MAXQDA, and add your conclusions, theories, and insights as you go. The new Questions-Themes-Theories tool will support you during the analysis phase after coding and is perfectly suited to help you finalize your literature review reports. That’s why MAXQDA is the kind of Literature Review Software that enables you to focus on your research, not on the software.

Share your literature review

Your literature review is just waiting to be shared with the world! Export parts of your project, single documents, search results, visualizations, charts, or the whole project into easily readable file formats, like Excel, or Word. You can also export complete projects into a clear and understandable folder structure to archive your analysis or reuse your project in the future. Because MAXQDA is a literature review software developed by and for researchers, it supports researchers working on collaborative research projects. By following the REFI-QDA standard, MAXQDA allows you to export and import data from other QDA software packages.

Work with any Language in MAXQDA

MAXQDA offers a variety of possibilities to work with different languages. Not only is the User Interface available in numerous languages, but you can also conduct your literature review in every single language of the world. The fact that MAXQDA supports Unicode makes it possible to import and analyze documents in any script and language. If you are new to MAXQDA you can learn how to use MAXQDA in your preferred language with our Getting Started Guides and video tutorials. Additionally, our international Professional Trainer Network provides the opportunity to participate in multilingual MAXQDA Workshops.

Free MAXQDA Trial for Windows and Mac

Get your maxqda license, compare the features of maxqda standard, plus, and analytics pro.

Speed up your literature review

Expand knowledge on the fly!

Assists you at every stage of your research

Share and collaborate with your team.

Privacy and security of your research data are integral to our mission.

Everything you add or create on RAx is private by default. It is visible only if and when you share it with other users.

You can put Creative Commons license on original drafts to protect your IP. For shared files, RAx always maintains a copy in case of deletion by collaborators or revoked access.

We use state-of-the-art security protocols and algorithms including MD5 Encryption, SSL, and HTTPS to secure your data.

Writing in the Health and Social Sciences: Literature Reviews and Synthesis Tools

Systematic Literature Reviews: Steps & Resources

These steps for conducting a systematic literature review are listed below .

Also see subpages for more information about:

Literature Review & Systematic Review Steps

1. Develop a Focused Question

Consider the PICO Format: Population/Problem, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome

Focus on defining the Population or Problem and Intervention (don't narrow by Comparison or Outcome just yet!)

"What are the effects of the Pilates method for patients with low back pain?"

Tools & Additional Resources:

2. Scope the Literature

A "scoping search" investigates the breadth and/or depth of the initial question or may identify a gap in the literature.

Eligible studies may be located by searching in:

When searching, if possible, translate terms to controlled vocabulary of the database. Use text word searching when necessary.

Use Boolean operators to connect search terms:

Search: pilates AND ("low back pain" OR backache )

Download a Boolean worksheet (PDF)

3. Refine & Expand Your Search

Expand your search strategy with synonymous search terms harvested from:

Example:

(pilates OR exercise movement techniques) AND ("low back pain" OR backache* OR sciatica OR lumbago OR spondylosis)

As you develop a final, reproducible strategy for each database, save your strategies in a:

4. Limit Your Results

Use database filters to limit your results based on your defined inclusion/exclusion criteria. In addition to relying on the databases' categorical filters, you may also need to manually screen results.

NOTE: Many databases allow you to filter to "Full Text Only". This filter is not recommended . It excludes articles if their full text is not available in that particular database (CINAHL, PubMed, etc), but if the article is relevant, it is important that you are able to read its title and abstract, regardless of 'full text' status. The full text is likely to be accessible through another source (a different database, or Interlibrary Loan).

5. Download Citations

Selected citations and/or entire sets of search results can be downloaded from the database into a citation management tool. If you are conducting a systematic review that will require reporting according to PRISMA standards, a citation manager can help you keep track of the number of articles that came from each database, as well as the number of duplicate records.

In Zotero, you can create a Collection for the combined results set, and sub-collections for the results from each database you search. You can then use Zotero's 'Duplicate Items" function to find and merge duplicate records.

File structure of a Zotero library, showing a combined pooled set, and sub folders representing results from individual databases.

Citation Managers - General Guide

6. Abstract and Analyze

Covidence is a web-based tool that enables you to work with a team to screen titles/abstracts and full text for inclusion in your review, as well as extract data from the included studies.

Screenshot of the Covidence interface, showing Title and abstract screening phase.

7. Create Flow Diagram

The PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses) flow diagram is a visual representation of the flow of records through different phases of a systematic review. It depicts the number of records identified, included and excluded. It is best used in conjunction with the PRISMA checklist .

Example PRISMA diagram showing number of records identified, duplicates removed, and records excluded.

Example from: Stotz, S. A., McNealy, K., Begay, R. L., DeSanto, K., Manson, S. M., & Moore, K. R. (2021). Multi-level diabetes prevention and treatment interventions for Native people in the USA and Canada: A scoping review. Current Diabetes Reports, 2 (11), 46. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11892-021-01414-3

8. Synthesize & Report Results

There are a number of reporting guideline available to guide the synthesis and reporting of results in systematic literature reviews.

It is common to organize findings in a matrix, also known as a Table of Evidence (ToE).

Example of a review matrix, using Microsoft Excel, showing the results of a systematic literature review.

Steps modified from:

Cook, D. A., & West, C. P. (2012). Conducting systematic reviews in medical education: a stepwise approach. Medical Education , 46 (10), 943–952.

Have a language expert improve your writing

Run a free plagiarism check in 10 minutes, generate accurate citations for free.

How to Write a Literature Review | Guide, Examples, & Templates

Published on January 2, 2023 by Shona McCombes .

What is a literature review? A literature review is a survey of scholarly sources on a specific topic. It provides an overview of current knowledge, allowing you to identify relevant theories, methods, and gaps in the existing research that you can later apply to your paper, thesis, or dissertation topic .

There are five key steps to writing a literature review:

A good literature review doesn’t just summarize sources—it analyzes, synthesizes , and critically evaluates to give a clear picture of the state of knowledge on the subject.

What is the purpose of a literature review, 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, free lecture slides, frequently asked questions, introduction.

When you write a thesis , dissertation , or research paper , you will likely have to conduct a literature review to situate your research within existing knowledge. The literature review gives you a chance to:

Writing literature reviews is a particularly important skill if you want to apply for graduate school or pursue a career in research. We’ve written a step-by-step guide that you can follow below.

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.

You can also check out our templates with literature review examples and sample outlines at the links below.

Download Word doc Download Google doc

What can proofreading do for your paper?

Scribbr editors not only correct grammar and spelling mistakes, but also strengthen your writing by making sure your paper is free of vague language, redundant words, and awkward phrasing.

See editing example

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 problem and questions .

Make a list of keywords

Start by creating a list of keywords related to your research question. 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 as you discover new keywords in the process of your literature search.

Search for relevant sources

Use your keywords to begin searching for sources. Some useful databases to search for journals and articles include:

You can also use boolean operators to help narrow down your search.

Make sure to 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.

You likely won’t be able to read absolutely everything that has been written on your topic, so it will be necessary to evaluate which sources are most relevant to your research question.

For each publication, ask yourself:

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 use our template to summarize and evaluate sources you’re thinking about using. Click on either button below to download.

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 is important to keep track of your sources with citations to avoid plagiarism . It can be helpful to make an annotated bibliography , where you compile full citation 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.

To begin organizing your literature review’s argument and structure, be sure you understand the connections and relationships between the sources you’ve read. Based on your reading and notes, you can look for:

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.

There are various approaches to organizing the body of a literature review. 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 summarizing sources in order.

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

If you have found some recurring central themes, you can organize 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:

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.

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.

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

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, you can follow these tips:

In the conclusion, you should summarize the key findings you have taken from the literature and emphasize their significance.

When you’ve finished writing and revising your literature review, don’t forget to proofread thoroughly before submitting. Not a language expert? Check out Scribbr’s professional proofreading services !

This article has been adapted into lecture slides that you can use to teach your students about writing a literature review.

Scribbr slides are free to use, customize, and distribute for educational purposes.

Open Google Slides Download PowerPoint

A literature review is a survey of scholarly sources (such as books, journal articles, and theses) related to a specific topic or research question .

It is often written as part of a thesis, dissertation , or research paper , in order to situate your work in relation to existing knowledge.

There are several reasons to conduct a literature review at the beginning of a research project:

Writing the literature review shows your reader how your work relates to existing research and what new insights it will contribute.

The literature review usually comes near the beginning of your thesis or dissertation . After the introduction , it grounds your research in a scholarly field and leads directly to your theoretical framework or methodology .

A literature review is a survey of credible sources on a topic, often used in dissertations , theses, and research papers . Literature reviews give an overview of knowledge on a subject, helping you identify relevant theories and methods, as well as gaps in existing research. Literature reviews are set up similarly to other academic texts , with an introduction , a main body, and a conclusion .

An annotated bibliography is a list of source references that has a short description (called an annotation ) for each of the sources. It is often assigned as part of the research process for a paper .

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.

McCombes, S. (2023, January 02). How to Write a Literature Review | Guide, Examples, & Templates. Scribbr. Retrieved March 6, 2023, from https://www.scribbr.com/dissertation/literature-review/

Is this article helpful?

Shona McCombes

Other students also liked, what is a theoretical framework | guide to organizing, what is a research methodology | steps & tips, how to write a research proposal | examples & templates, what is your plagiarism score.

IMAGES

template for literature review
Review Related Literature And Studies
Literature Review
Review Related Literature And Studies
🎉 Review related literature. What is a Literature Review?. 2019-01-30
Review Of Related Literature About Cell Phone

VIDEO

What is Literature Review?
Literature Review Made Easy
Getting Started with Into Literature
Using ChatGPT to Spark Ideas and Kick Start Your Brain!
What is literature? (part-1)
Can someone explain what is going on?? 😰

COMMENTS

5 Tools for Easy Literature Review (With 2 Bonus Tools)
SciSpace is a one-stop solution for an effective literature search and barrier-free access to scientific knowledge.
Best Literature Review Tool
Screen, analyse and summarise articles faster with Scholarcy. Try it for free. Subscribe today! Scholarcy is used by students around the
Free Online Summary Generator Tool
This template is suitable for outlining a news article summary or a literature review: Introduction. Include the overall gist of the text and brief
Free Literature Review Essays and Papers
Free Essays from 123 Help Me | Evaluation of a Mental Health Treatment Court with Assertive Community Treatment 1. This article studied the effect of...
7 open source tools to make literature reviews easy
1. GNU Linux · 2. Firefox · 3. Unpaywall · 4. Zotero · 5. LibreOffice · 6. LaTeX · 7. MediaWiki · Wrapping up. Free and open source software can cover
Literature Review Software MAXQDA
Connect the reference management system of your choice with MAXQDA to easily import bibliographic data. Organize your data in groups, link relevant quotes to
Literature Review and Critical Analysis tool for Researchers
RAx - AI-based research assistant helps with discovery, literature review, critical analysis, paper summary and organize research papers. Free Sign-up!
Literature Reviews and Synthesis Tools
Systematic Literature Reviews: Steps & Resources ... but if the article is relevant, it is important that you are able to read its title and
How to Write a Literature Review
A literature review is a survey of scholarly knowledge on a topic. ... Tip You can use Scribbr's free APA citation generator or MLA citation
How to write a literature review in 30 minutes & without plagiarism
This video shows you how to write a literature review in 30 minutes yet without plagiarism. A literature review example in research paper