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50 Useful Academic Words & Phrases for Research

Like all good writing, writing an academic paper takes a certain level of skill to express your ideas and arguments in a way that is natural and that meets a level of academic sophistication. The terms, expressions, and phrases you use in your research paper must be of an appropriate level to be submitted to academic journals.

Therefore, authors need to know which verbs , nouns , and phrases to apply to create a paper that is not only easy to understand, but which conveys an understanding of academic conventions. Using the correct terminology and usage shows journal editors and fellow researchers that you are a competent writer and thinker, while using non-academic language might make them question your writing ability, as well as your critical reasoning skills.

What are academic words and phrases?

One way to understand what constitutes good academic writing is to read a lot of published research to find patterns of usage in different contexts. However, it may take an author countless hours of reading and might not be the most helpful advice when faced with an upcoming deadline on a manuscript draft.

Briefly, “academic” language includes terms, phrases, expressions, transitions, and sometimes symbols and abbreviations that help the pieces of an academic text fit together. When writing an academic text–whether it is a book report, annotated bibliography, research paper, research poster, lab report, research proposal, thesis, or manuscript for publication–authors must follow academic writing conventions. You can often find handy academic writing tips and guidelines by consulting the style manual of the text you are writing (i.e., APA Style , MLA Style , or Chicago Style ).

However, sometimes it can be helpful to have a list of academic words and expressions like the ones in this article to use as a “cheat sheet” for substituting the better term in a given context.

How to Choose the Best Academic Terms

You can think of writing “academically” as writing in a way that conveys one’s meaning effectively but concisely. For instance, while the term “take a look at” is a perfectly fine way to express an action in everyday English, a term like “analyze” would certainly be more suitable in most academic contexts. It takes up fewer words on the page and is used much more often in published academic papers.

You can use one handy guideline when choosing the most academic term: When faced with a choice between two different terms, use the Latinate version of the term. Here is a brief list of common verbs versus their academic counterparts:

Although this can be a useful tip to help academic authors, it can be difficult to memorize dozens of Latinate verbs. Using an AI paraphrasing tool or proofreading tool can help you instantly find more appropriate academic terms, so consider using such revision tools while you draft to improve your writing.

Top 50 Words and Phrases for Different Sections in a Research Paper

The “Latinate verb rule” is just one tool in your arsenal of academic writing, and there are many more out there. But to make the process of finding academic language a bit easier for you, we have compiled a list of 50 vital academic words and phrases, divided into specific categories and use cases, each with an explanation and contextual example.

Best Words and Phrases to use in an Introduction section

1. historically.

An adverb used to indicate a time perspective, especially when describing the background of a given topic.

2. In recent years

A temporal marker emphasizing recent developments, often used at the very beginning of your Introduction section.

3. It is widely acknowledged that

A “form phrase” indicating a broad consensus among researchers and/or the general public. Often used in the literature review section to build upon a foundation of established scientific knowledge.

4. There has been growing interest in

Highlights increasing attention to a topic and tells the reader why your study might be important to this field of research.

5. Preliminary observations indicate

Shares early insights or findings while hedging on making any definitive conclusions. Modal verbs like may , might , and could are often used with this expression.

6. This study aims to

Describes the goal of the research and is a form phrase very often used in the research objective or even the hypothesis of a research paper .

7. Despite its significance

Highlights the importance of a matter that might be overlooked. It is also frequently used in the rationale of the study section to show how your study’s aim and scope build on previous studies.

8. While numerous studies have focused on

Indicates the existing body of work on a topic while pointing to the shortcomings of certain aspects of that research. Helps focus the reader on the question, “What is missing from our knowledge of this topic?” This is often used alongside the statement of the problem in research papers.

9. The purpose of this research is

A form phrase that directly states the aim of the study.

10. The question arises (about/whether)

Poses a query or research problem statement for the reader to acknowledge.

Best Words and Phrases for Clarifying Information

11. in other words.

Introduces a synopsis or the rephrasing of a statement for clarity. This is often used in the Discussion section statement to explain the implications of the study .

12. That is to say

Provides clarification, similar to “in other words.”

13. To put it simply

Simplifies a complex idea, often for a more general readership.

14. To clarify

Specifically indicates to the reader a direct elaboration of a previous point.

15. More specifically

Narrows down a general statement from a broader one. Often used in the Discussion section to clarify the meaning of a specific result.

16. To elaborate

Expands on a point made previously.

17. In detail

Indicates a deeper dive into information.

Points out specifics. Similar meaning to “specifically” or “especially.”

19. This means that

Explains implications and/or interprets the meaning of the Results section .

20. Moreover

Expands a prior point to a broader one that shows the greater context or wider argument.

Best Words and Phrases for Giving Examples

21. for instance.

Provides a specific case that fits into the point being made.

22. As an illustration

Demonstrates a point in full or in part.

23. To illustrate

Shows a clear picture of the point being made.

24. For example

Presents a particular instance. Same meaning as “for instance.”

25. Such as

Lists specifics that comprise a broader category or assertion being made.

26. Including

Offers examples as part of a larger list.

27. Notably

Adverb highlighting an important example. Similar meaning to “especially.”

28. Especially

Adverb that emphasizes a significant instance.

29. In particular

Draws attention to a specific point.

30. To name a few

Indicates examples than previously mentioned are about to be named.

Best Words and Phrases for Comparing and Contrasting

31. however.

Introduces a contrasting idea.

32. On the other hand

Highlights an alternative view or fact.

33. Conversely

Indicates an opposing or reversed idea to the one just mentioned.

34. Similarly

Shows likeness or parallels between two ideas, objects, or situations.

35. Likewise

Indicates agreement with a previous point.

36. In contrast

Draws a distinction between two points.

37. Nevertheless

Introduces a contrasting point, despite what has been said.

38. Whereas

Compares two distinct entities or ideas.

Indicates a contrast between two points.

Signals an unexpected contrast.

Best Words and Phrases to use in a Conclusion section

41. in conclusion.

Signifies the beginning of the closing argument.

42. To sum up

Offers a brief summary.

43. In summary

Signals a concise recap.

44. Ultimately

Reflects the final or main point.

45. Overall

Gives a general concluding statement.

Indicates a resulting conclusion.

Demonstrates a logical conclusion.

48. Therefore

Connects a cause and its effect.

49. It can be concluded that

Clearly states a conclusion derived from the data.

50. Taking everything into consideration

Reflects on all the discussed points before concluding.

Edit Your Research Terms and Phrases Before Submission

Using these phrases in the proper places in your research papers can enhance the clarity, flow, and persuasiveness of your writing, especially in the Introduction section and Discussion section, which together make up the majority of your paper’s text in most academic domains.

However, it's vital to ensure each phrase is contextually appropriate to avoid redundancy or misinterpretation. As mentioned at the top of this article, the best way to do this is to 1) use an AI text editor , free AI paraphrasing tool or AI proofreading tool while you draft to enhance your writing, and 2) consult a professional proofreading service like Wordvice, which has human editors well versed in the terminology and conventions of the specific subject area of your academic documents.

For more detailed information on using AI tools to write a research paper and the best AI tools for research , check out the Wordvice AI Blog .

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noun as in written matter, both fictional and nonfictional

Strongest matches

• composition
• information

Strong matches

• belles-lettres
• disquisition
• dissertation
• observation

Weak matches

• literary works
• written work

Discover More

Example sentences.

If you want to understand the flamboyant family of objects that make up our solar system—from puny, sputtering comets to tremendous, ringed planets—you could start by immersing yourself in the technical terms that fill the scientific literature.

Poway Unified anticipates bringing forward two new courses – ethnic studies and ethnic literature – to the school board for review, said Christine Paik, a spokeswoman for the district.

The book she completed after that trip, Coming of Age in Samoa, published in 1928, would be hailed as a classic in the literature on sexuality and adolescence.

He also told Chemistry World he envisages the robots eventually being able to analyze the scientific literature to better guide their experiments.

Research also suggests that reading literature may help increase empathy and understanding of others’ experiences, potentially spurring better real-world behavior.

The research literature, too, asks these questions, and not without reason.

She wanted to know what happened over five years, or even 10, but the scientific literature had little to offer.

The religion shaped all facets of life: art, medicine, literature, and even dynastic politics.

Speaking of the literature you love, the Bloomsbury writers crop up in your collection repeatedly.

Literature in the 14th century, Strohm points out, was an intimate, interactive affair.

All along the highways and by-paths of our literature we encounter much that pertains to this "queen of plants."

There cannot be many persons in the world who keep up with the whole range of musical literature as he does.

In early English literature there was at one time a tendency to ascribe to Solomon various proverbs not in the Bible.

He was deeply versed in Saxon literature and published a work on the antiquity of the English church.

Such unromantic literature as Acts of Parliament had not, it may be supposed, up to this, formed part of my mental pabulum.

Related Words

Words related to literature are not direct synonyms, but are associated with the word literature . Browse related words to learn more about word associations.

noun as in public notice of sale

• announcement
• classified ad
• communication
• declaration
• endorsement
• notification
• proclamation
• promulgation
• publication

noun as in handbill

• advertisement

noun as in education, knowledge

• acquirements
• attainments
• scholarship

noun as in general knowledge studies

• general education
• liberal studies
• mathematics
• trivium and quadrivium

Viewing 5 / 7 related words

On this page you'll find 55 synonyms, antonyms, and words related to literature, such as: article, biography, brochure, composition, drama, and essay.

From Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition Copyright © 2013 by the Philip Lief Group.

Related Words and Phrases

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17 strong academic phrases to write your literature review (+ real examples)

A well-written academic literature review not only builds upon existing knowledge and publications but also involves critical reflection, comparison, contrast, and identifying research gaps. The following 17 strong academic key phrases can assist you in writing a critical and reflective literature review.

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission if you make a purchase using the links below at no additional cost to you . I only recommend products or services that I truly believe can benefit my audience. As always, my opinions are my own.

Academic key phrases to present existing knowledge in a literature review

Academic key phrases to contrast and compare findings in a literature review, academic key phrases to highlight research gaps in a literature review, the topic has received significant interest within the wider literature..

Example: “ The topic of big data and its integration with AI has received significant interest within the wider literature .” ( Dwivedi et al. 2021, p. 4 )

The topic gained considerable attention in the academic literature in…

Example:  “ The relationship between BITs and FDI gained considerable attention in the academic literature in the last two decades .” ( Amendolagine and Prota, 2021, p. 173 )

Studies have identified…

Example: “ Studies have identified the complexities of implementing AI based systems within government and the public sector .” ( Dwivedi et al. 2021, p. 6 )

Researchers have discussed…

Example: “ Researchers have discussed the ethical dimensions of AI and implications for greater use of the technology. ” ( Dwivedi et al. 2021, p. 6)

Recent work demonstrated that…

Example: “Recent work demonstrated that dune grasses with similar morphological traits can build contrasting landscapes due to differences in their spatial shoot organization.” ( Van de Ven, 2022 et al., p. 1339 )

Existing research frequently attributes…

Example:  “Existing research frequently attributes these challenges to AI’s technical complexity, demand for data, and unpredictable interactions.” ( Yang et al., 2020, p. 174 )

Prior research has hypothesized that…

Example:  “Prior research has hypothesized that racial and ethnic disparities may be mitigated if the patient and provider share the same race due to improved communication and increased trust” ( Otte, 2022, p. 1 )

Prior studies have found that…

Example:  “ Prior studies have found that court-referred individuals are more likely to complete relationship violence intervention programs (RVIP) than self-referred individuals. ” ( Evans et al. 2022, p. 1 )

You may also like: 26 powerful academic phrases to write your introduction (+ real examples)

While some scholars…, others…

Example: “On the sustainable development of microcredit, some scholars emphasize the effect of its poverty alleviation, while some scholars emphasize the factors such as institutional innovation and government support.” ( Huang et al., 2021, p. 2117 )

The findings of Scholar A showcase that… . Scholar B , on the other hand, found…

Example: “ The findings of Arinto (2016) call for administrators concerning the design of faculty development programs, provision of faculty support, and strategic planning for online distance learning implementation across the institution. Francisco and Nuqui (2020) on the other hand found that the new normal leadership is an adaptive one while staying strong on their commitment. ” ( Asio and Bayucca, 2021, p. 20 )

Interestingly, all the arguments refer to…

Example:  “Interestingly, all the arguments above refer to daily role transitions—more specifically: role transitions on teleworking days—as an important explanatory mechanism for both the possible conflict-reducing effect and the potential conflict enhancing effects of telework.”  ( Delanoeije et al., 2019, p. 1845 )

This argument is similar to…

Example: “The third argument against physician involvement in lethal injection is that physicians are prohibited from deliberately harming patients or the argument from nonmaleficence. This argument is similar to the argument from healing but has different implications and must therefore be considered independently.” ( Sawicki, 2022, p. 22 )

If you are looking to elevate your writing and editing skills, I highly recommend enrolling in the course “ Good with Words: Writing and Editing Specialization “, which is a 4 course series offered by the University of Michigan. This comprehensive program is conveniently available as an online course on Coursera, allowing you to learn at your own pace. Plus, upon successful completion, you’ll have the opportunity to earn a valuable certificate to showcase your newfound expertise!

Yet, it remains unknown how…

Example: “Yet, it remains unknown how findings from aeolian landscapes translate to aquatic systems and how young clonally expanding plants in hydrodynamically exposed conditions overcome these establishment thresholds by optimizing shoot placement.” ( Van de Ven, 2022 et al., p. 1339 )

There is, however, still little research on…

Example:  “There is, however, still little research on what integrated STEM approaches require from schools and teachers, and on the potential obstacles that may prevent teachers from running this kind of teaching.”  ( Bungum and Mogstad, 2022, p. 2 )

Existing studies have failed to address…

Example: “ University–industry relations (UIR) are usually analysed by the knowledge transfer channels, but existing studies have failed to address what knowledge content is being transferred – impacting the technology output aimed by the partnership.”  (Dalmarco et al. 2019, p. 1314 )

Several scholars have recommended to move away…

Example: “Several scholars have recommended to move away from such a stable-level approach (i.e. using a global judgment of work-home conflict) to a dynamic episodes approach ” ( Delanoeije et al., 2019, p. 1847 )

New approaches are needed to address…

Example:  “ Accurate computational approaches are needed to address this gap and to enable large-scale structural bioinformatics. ” ( Jumper et al. 2021,p. 583 )

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Literature Reviews

• Introduction: What, Who & Why
• Define a topic
• Identify keywords

Identifying keywords

Comprehesive vs precise, using text mining to identify keywords.

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• Systematic Style Reviews Guide

It is important to find all the relevant keywords for the topic to ensure the search is comprehensive by identifying:

• different spellings, tenses and word variants of keywords
• related concepts
• names of people or authors associated with these ideas

There are many  ways to locate these terms, including

• recommended readings, textbooks and other review articles that provide an overview of the field of  research
• dictionaries, thesauri, handbooks and encyclopedias that provide definitions and general information about topics.
• database thesauri or subject headings that tell you which terms are used in the databases and professional literature.
• text mining tools that allow you to analyse large amounts of text or information and identify commonly used terms in the field.

The process of searching will also help identify more terms that you should be adding to your list.

There needs to be a balance in searching between making the search comprehensive enough to encompass everything on the topic and precise enough to only capture those results that are specifically relevant.

Both approaches have advantages and disadvantages

Increasing the comprehensiveness (or sensitivity) of a search will reduce its precision and will retrieve more non-relevant articles.

Text mining will help identify how often terms come up in the literature and help identify other related terms and subject headings that have not been considered or thought of as being useful.

Text mining is a process used to look at large amounts of text and find relationships in the results by using computer programs designed to extract and analyse this data. 

It is used to categorise information and identify trends and patterns which can be done across large documents or multiple sources (or both).

1. Mining for terms Use these tools to find alternate search terms that are related by identifying how often keywords appear and which other terms appear with them by number of occurrences.

2. Mine within the text Locate terms within blocks of text (e.g. an article) to find word patterns and frequency. More frequent words are more likely to be relevant to the topic.

3. Use visualising tools These tools create word clouds related to search terms

These are just some of the tools available for mining text that are available on the web. There is also both commercial and free software that can be downloaded and installed. The web pages linked below have lists of yet more tools.

Further reading:

• EPC Methods: An Exploration of the Use of Text-Mining Software in Systematic Reviews Paynter R., Bañez L. L., Berliner E., Erinoff, E., Lege-Matsuura, J., Potter, S., & Uhl, S. (2016). EPC methods: An exploration of the use of text-mining software in systematic reviews. Retrieved from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK362044/
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What is a literature review?

A literature review is an integrated analysis -- not just a summary-- of scholarly writings and other relevant evidence related directly to your research question.  That is, it represents a synthesis of the evidence that provides background information on your topic and shows a association between the evidence and your research question.

A literature review may be a stand alone work or the introduction to a larger research paper, depending on the assignment.  Rely heavily on the guidelines your instructor has given you.

Why is it important?

A literature review is important because it:

• Explains the background of research on a topic.
• Demonstrates why a topic is significant to a subject area.
• Discovers relationships between research studies/ideas.
• Identifies major themes, concepts, and researchers on a topic.
• Identifies critical gaps and points of disagreement.
• Discusses further research questions that logically come out of the previous studies.

APA7 Style resources

APA Style Blog - for those harder to find answers

1. Choose a topic. Define your research question.

Your literature review should be guided by your central research question.  The literature represents background and research developments related to a specific research question, interpreted and analyzed by you in a synthesized way.

• Make sure your research question is not too broad or too narrow.  Is it manageable?
• Begin writing down terms that are related to your question. These will be useful for searches later.
• If you have the opportunity, discuss your topic with your professor and your class mates.

2. Decide on the scope of your review

How many studies do you need to look at? How comprehensive should it be? How many years should it cover? 

• This may depend on your assignment.  How many sources does the assignment require?

3. Select the databases you will use to conduct your searches.

Make a list of the databases you will search. 

Where to find databases:

• use the tabs on this guide
• Find other databases in the Nursing Information Resources web page
• More on the Medical Library web page
• ... and more on the Yale University Library web page

4. Conduct your searches to find the evidence. Keep track of your searches.

• Use the key words in your question, as well as synonyms for those words, as terms in your search. Use the database tutorials for help.
• Save the searches in the databases. This saves time when you want to redo, or modify, the searches. It is also helpful to use as a guide is the searches are not finding any useful results.
• Review the abstracts of research studies carefully. This will save you time.
• Use the bibliographies and references of research studies you find to locate others.
• Check with your professor, or a subject expert in the field, if you are missing any key works in the field.
• Ask your librarian for help at any time.
• Use a citation manager, such as EndNote as the repository for your citations. See the EndNote tutorials for help.

Review the literature

Some questions to help you analyze the research:

• What was the research question of the study you are reviewing? What were the authors trying to discover?
• Was the research funded by a source that could influence the findings?
• What were the research methodologies? Analyze its literature review, the samples and variables used, the results, and the conclusions.
• Does the research seem to be complete? Could it have been conducted more soundly? What further questions does it raise?
• If there are conflicting studies, why do you think that is?
• How are the authors viewed in the field? Has this study been cited? If so, how has it been analyzed?

Tips: 

• Review the abstracts carefully.  
• Keep careful notes so that you may track your thought processes during the research process.
• Create a matrix of the studies for easy analysis, and synthesis, across all of the studies.
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Literature: A Research Guide for Graduate Students

Research dos & don'ts.

• Get Started
• Find a Database

DON'T reinvent the wheel

Many scholars have spent their entire careers in your field, watching its developments in print and in person. Learn from them! The library is full of specialized guides, companions, encyclopedias, dictionaries, bibliographies, histories and other "reference" sources that will help orient you to a new area of research. Similarly, every works cited list can be a gold mine of useful readings.

• Techniques for finding where a particular publication is cited (reverse footnote-mining) [Harvard Library FAQ]
• Top resources and search tips for locating scholarly companions and guides [general topic guide for literary research]
• The literature section of the Loker Reading Room reference collection [HOLLIS browse]
• James Harner's Literary Research Guide: an Annotated Listing of Reference Sources in English Literary Studies [HOLLIS record with ONLINE ACCESS]

DO get to know your field

Know Your Field , a module from Unabridged On Demand, offers tips, thought prompts, and links to resources for quickly learning about and staying current with an area of scholarly study.

DON'T treat every search box like Google or ChatGPT

Break free of the search habits that Google and generative AI have taught you! Learn to pay attention to how a search system operates and what is in it, and to adjust your search inputs accordingly.

Google and generative AI interfaces train you to type in your question as you would say it to another person. They give you the illusion of a search box that can read your thoughts and that access the entire internet. That's not what's actually happening, of course! Google is giving you the results others have clicked on most while generative AI is giving you the output that is most probable based on your input. Other search systems, like the library catalog, might be matching your search inputs to highly structured, human-curated data. They give the best results when you select specific keywords and make use of the database's specialized search tools. 

Learn more about searching:

• Database Search Tips from MIT: a great, concise introduction to Booleans, keywords v. subjects, and search fields
• Improve Your Search , a module from our library research intensive, Unabridged On Demand

Search technique handouts

• "Search Smarter" Bookmark Simple steps to improve your searching, plus a quick guide to the search commands HOLLIS uses
• Decoding a database A two-page guide to the most effective ways to quickly familiarize yourself with a new system.
• Optimize Your Search A 3-column review of the basic search-strategy differences between Google and systems like JSTOR or HOLLIS.

DO adjust your language

Searching often means thinking in someone else's language, whether it's the librarians who created HOLLIS's subject vocabularies, or the scholars whose works you want to find in JSTOR, or the people of another era whose ideas you're trying to find in historical newspapers. The Search Vocabulary page on the general topic guide for literary studies is a great place to start for subject vocabularies.

DON'T search in just one place

Judicious triangulation is the key to success. No search has everything. There's always one more site you could  search. Strike a balance by always searching at least 3-4 ways.

DO SEARCH A VARIETY OF RESOURCES:

• Your library catalog ,  HOLLIS
• A subject-specific scholarly index , such as the MLA International Bibliography , LION (Literature Online) , or the IMB (International Medieval Bibliography)
• A full-text collection of scholarship,  such as JSTOR or ProjectMuse
• One of Google's full-text searches,   Google Scholar or Google Books

DO look beyond the library's collections

The library purchases and licenses materials for your use. There's plenty of other material that's freely available or that you would need to travel to see---please let me help you find it!

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Except where otherwise noted, this work is subject to a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , which allows anyone to share and adapt our material as long as proper attribution is given. For details and exceptions, see the Harvard Library Copyright Policy ©2021 Presidents and Fellows of Harvard College.

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• Bibliography

A literature review surveys prior research published in books, scholarly articles, and any other sources relevant to a particular issue, area of research, or theory, and by so doing, provides a description, summary, and critical evaluation of these works in relation to the research problem being investigated. Literature reviews are designed to provide an overview of sources you have used in researching a particular topic and to demonstrate to your readers how your research fits within existing scholarship about the topic.

Fink, Arlene. Conducting Research Literature Reviews: From the Internet to Paper . Fourth edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, 2014.

Importance of a Good Literature Review

A literature review may consist of simply a summary of key sources, but in the social sciences, a literature review usually has an organizational pattern and combines both summary and synthesis, often within specific conceptual categories . A summary is a recap of the important information of the source, but a synthesis is a re-organization, or a reshuffling, of that information in a way that informs how you are planning to investigate a research problem. The analytical features of a literature review might:

• Give a new interpretation of old material or combine new with old interpretations,
• Trace the intellectual progression of the field, including major debates,
• Depending on the situation, evaluate the sources and advise the reader on the most pertinent or relevant research, or
• Usually in the conclusion of a literature review, identify where gaps exist in how a problem has been researched to date.

Given this, the purpose of a literature review is to:

• Place each work in the context of its contribution to understanding the research problem being studied.
• Describe the relationship of each work to the others under consideration.
• Identify new ways to interpret prior research.
• Reveal any gaps that exist in the literature.
• Resolve conflicts amongst seemingly contradictory previous studies.
• Identify areas of prior scholarship to prevent duplication of effort.
• Point the way in fulfilling a need for additional research.
• Locate your own research within the context of existing literature [very important].

Fink, Arlene. Conducting Research Literature Reviews: From the Internet to Paper. 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2005; Hart, Chris. Doing a Literature Review: Releasing the Social Science Research Imagination . Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1998; Jesson, Jill. Doing Your Literature Review: Traditional and Systematic Techniques . Los Angeles, CA: SAGE, 2011; Knopf, Jeffrey W. "Doing a Literature Review." PS: Political Science and Politics 39 (January 2006): 127-132; Ridley, Diana. The Literature Review: A Step-by-Step Guide for Students . 2nd ed. Los Angeles, CA: SAGE, 2012.

Types of Literature Reviews

It is important to think of knowledge in a given field as consisting of three layers. First, there are the primary studies that researchers conduct and publish. Second are the reviews of those studies that summarize and offer new interpretations built from and often extending beyond the primary studies. Third, there are the perceptions, conclusions, opinion, and interpretations that are shared informally among scholars that become part of the body of epistemological traditions within the field.

In composing a literature review, it is important to note that it is often this third layer of knowledge that is cited as "true" even though it often has only a loose relationship to the primary studies and secondary literature reviews. Given this, while literature reviews are designed to provide an overview and synthesis of pertinent sources you have explored, there are a number of approaches you could adopt depending upon the type of analysis underpinning your study.

Argumentative Review This form examines literature selectively in order to support or refute an argument, deeply embedded assumption, or philosophical problem already established in the literature. The purpose is to develop a body of literature that establishes a contrarian viewpoint. Given the value-laden nature of some social science research [e.g., educational reform; immigration control], argumentative approaches to analyzing the literature can be a legitimate and important form of discourse. However, note that they can also introduce problems of bias when they are used to make summary claims of the sort found in systematic reviews [see below].

Integrative Review Considered a form of research that reviews, critiques, and synthesizes representative literature on a topic in an integrated way such that new frameworks and perspectives on the topic are generated. The body of literature includes all studies that address related or identical hypotheses or research problems. A well-done integrative review meets the same standards as primary research in regard to clarity, rigor, and replication. This is the most common form of review in the social sciences.

Historical Review Few things rest in isolation from historical precedent. Historical literature reviews focus on examining research throughout a period of time, often starting with the first time an issue, concept, theory, phenomena emerged in the literature, then tracing its evolution within the scholarship of a discipline. The purpose is to place research in a historical context to show familiarity with state-of-the-art developments and to identify the likely directions for future research.

Methodological Review A review does not always focus on what someone said [findings], but how they came about saying what they say [method of analysis]. Reviewing methods of analysis provides a framework of understanding at different levels [i.e. those of theory, substantive fields, research approaches, and data collection and analysis techniques], how researchers draw upon a wide variety of knowledge ranging from the conceptual level to practical documents for use in fieldwork in the areas of ontological and epistemological consideration, quantitative and qualitative integration, sampling, interviewing, data collection, and data analysis. This approach helps highlight ethical issues which you should be aware of and consider as you go through your own study.

Systematic Review This form consists of an overview of existing evidence pertinent to a clearly formulated research question, which uses pre-specified and standardized methods to identify and critically appraise relevant research, and to collect, report, and analyze data from the studies that are included in the review. The goal is to deliberately document, critically evaluate, and summarize scientifically all of the research about a clearly defined research problem . Typically it focuses on a very specific empirical question, often posed in a cause-and-effect form, such as "To what extent does A contribute to B?" This type of literature review is primarily applied to examining prior research studies in clinical medicine and allied health fields, but it is increasingly being used in the social sciences.

Theoretical Review The purpose of this form is to examine the corpus of theory that has accumulated in regard to an issue, concept, theory, phenomena. The theoretical literature review helps to establish what theories already exist, the relationships between them, to what degree the existing theories have been investigated, and to develop new hypotheses to be tested. Often this form is used to help establish a lack of appropriate theories or reveal that current theories are inadequate for explaining new or emerging research problems. The unit of analysis can focus on a theoretical concept or a whole theory or framework.

NOTE : Most often the literature review will incorporate some combination of types. For example, a review that examines literature supporting or refuting an argument, assumption, or philosophical problem related to the research problem will also need to include writing supported by sources that establish the history of these arguments in the literature.

Baumeister, Roy F. and Mark R. Leary. "Writing Narrative Literature Reviews."  Review of General Psychology 1 (September 1997): 311-320; Mark R. Fink, Arlene. Conducting Research Literature Reviews: From the Internet to Paper . 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2005; Hart, Chris. Doing a Literature Review: Releasing the Social Science Research Imagination . Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1998; Kennedy, Mary M. "Defining a Literature." Educational Researcher 36 (April 2007): 139-147; Petticrew, Mark and Helen Roberts. Systematic Reviews in the Social Sciences: A Practical Guide . Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 2006; Torracro, Richard. "Writing Integrative Literature Reviews: Guidelines and Examples." Human Resource Development Review 4 (September 2005): 356-367; Rocco, Tonette S. and Maria S. Plakhotnik. "Literature Reviews, Conceptual Frameworks, and Theoretical Frameworks: Terms, Functions, and Distinctions." Human Ressource Development Review 8 (March 2008): 120-130; Sutton, Anthea. Systematic Approaches to a Successful Literature Review . Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publications, 2016.

Structure and Writing Style

I.  Thinking About Your Literature Review

The structure of a literature review should include the following in support of understanding the research problem :

• An overview of the subject, issue, or theory under consideration, along with the objectives of the literature review,
• Division of works under review into themes or categories [e.g. works that support a particular position, those against, and those offering alternative approaches entirely],
• An explanation of how each work is similar to and how it varies from the others,
• Conclusions as to which pieces are best considered in their argument, are most convincing of their opinions, and make the greatest contribution to the understanding and development of their area of research.

The critical evaluation of each work should consider :

• Provenance -- what are the author's credentials? Are the author's arguments supported by evidence [e.g. primary historical material, case studies, narratives, statistics, recent scientific findings]?
• Methodology -- were the techniques used to identify, gather, and analyze the data appropriate to addressing the research problem? Was the sample size appropriate? Were the results effectively interpreted and reported?
• Objectivity -- is the author's perspective even-handed or prejudicial? Is contrary data considered or is certain pertinent information ignored to prove the author's point?
• Persuasiveness -- which of the author's theses are most convincing or least convincing?
• Validity -- are the author's arguments and conclusions convincing? Does the work ultimately contribute in any significant way to an understanding of the subject?

II.  Development of the Literature Review

Four Basic Stages of Writing 1.  Problem formulation -- which topic or field is being examined and what are its component issues? 2.  Literature search -- finding materials relevant to the subject being explored. 3.  Data evaluation -- determining which literature makes a significant contribution to the understanding of the topic. 4.  Analysis and interpretation -- discussing the findings and conclusions of pertinent literature.

Consider the following issues before writing the literature review: Clarify If your assignment is not specific about what form your literature review should take, seek clarification from your professor by asking these questions: 1.  Roughly how many sources would be appropriate to include? 2.  What types of sources should I review (books, journal articles, websites; scholarly versus popular sources)? 3.  Should I summarize, synthesize, or critique sources by discussing a common theme or issue? 4.  Should I evaluate the sources in any way beyond evaluating how they relate to understanding the research problem? 5.  Should I provide subheadings and other background information, such as definitions and/or a history? Find Models Use the exercise of reviewing the literature to examine how authors in your discipline or area of interest have composed their literature review sections. Read them to get a sense of the types of themes you might want to look for in your own research or to identify ways to organize your final review. The bibliography or reference section of sources you've already read, such as required readings in the course syllabus, are also excellent entry points into your own research. Narrow the Topic The narrower your topic, the easier it will be to limit the number of sources you need to read in order to obtain a good survey of relevant resources. Your professor will probably not expect you to read everything that's available about the topic, but you'll make the act of reviewing easier if you first limit scope of the research problem. A good strategy is to begin by searching the USC Libraries Catalog for recent books about the topic and review the table of contents for chapters that focuses on specific issues. You can also review the indexes of books to find references to specific issues that can serve as the focus of your research. For example, a book surveying the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict may include a chapter on the role Egypt has played in mediating the conflict, or look in the index for the pages where Egypt is mentioned in the text. Consider Whether Your Sources are Current Some disciplines require that you use information that is as current as possible. This is particularly true in disciplines in medicine and the sciences where research conducted becomes obsolete very quickly as new discoveries are made. However, when writing a review in the social sciences, a survey of the history of the literature may be required. In other words, a complete understanding the research problem requires you to deliberately examine how knowledge and perspectives have changed over time. Sort through other current bibliographies or literature reviews in the field to get a sense of what your discipline expects. You can also use this method to explore what is considered by scholars to be a "hot topic" and what is not.

III.  Ways to Organize Your Literature Review

Chronology of Events If your review follows the chronological method, you could write about the materials according to when they were published. This approach should only be followed if a clear path of research building on previous research can be identified and that these trends follow a clear chronological order of development. For example, a literature review that focuses on continuing research about the emergence of German economic power after the fall of the Soviet Union. By Publication Order your sources by publication chronology, then, only if the order demonstrates a more important trend. For instance, you could order a review of literature on environmental studies of brown fields if the progression revealed, for example, a change in the soil collection practices of the researchers who wrote and/or conducted the studies. Thematic [“conceptual categories”] A thematic literature review is the most common approach to summarizing prior research in the social and behavioral sciences. Thematic reviews are organized around a topic or issue, rather than the progression of time, although the progression of time may still be incorporated into a thematic review. For example, a review of the Internet’s impact on American presidential politics could focus on the development of online political satire. While the study focuses on one topic, the Internet’s impact on American presidential politics, it would still be organized chronologically reflecting technological developments in media. The difference in this example between a "chronological" and a "thematic" approach is what is emphasized the most: themes related to the role of the Internet in presidential politics. Note that more authentic thematic reviews tend to break away from chronological order. A review organized in this manner would shift between time periods within each section according to the point being made. Methodological A methodological approach focuses on the methods utilized by the researcher. For the Internet in American presidential politics project, one methodological approach would be to look at cultural differences between the portrayal of American presidents on American, British, and French websites. Or the review might focus on the fundraising impact of the Internet on a particular political party. A methodological scope will influence either the types of documents in the review or the way in which these documents are discussed.

Other Sections of Your Literature Review Once you've decided on the organizational method for your literature review, the sections you need to include in the paper should be easy to figure out because they arise from your organizational strategy. In other words, a chronological review would have subsections for each vital time period; a thematic review would have subtopics based upon factors that relate to the theme or issue. However, sometimes you may need to add additional sections that are necessary for your study, but do not fit in the organizational strategy of the body. What other sections you include in the body is up to you. However, only include what is necessary for the reader to locate your study within the larger scholarship about the research problem.

Here are examples of other sections, usually in the form of a single paragraph, you may need to include depending on the type of review you write:

• Current Situation : Information necessary to understand the current topic or focus of the literature review.
• Sources Used : Describes the methods and resources [e.g., databases] you used to identify the literature you reviewed.
• History : The chronological progression of the field, the research literature, or an idea that is necessary to understand the literature review, if the body of the literature review is not already a chronology.
• Selection Methods : Criteria you used to select (and perhaps exclude) sources in your literature review. For instance, you might explain that your review includes only peer-reviewed [i.e., scholarly] sources.
• Standards : Description of the way in which you present your information.
• Questions for Further Research : What questions about the field has the review sparked? How will you further your research as a result of the review?

IV.  Writing Your Literature Review

Once you've settled on how to organize your literature review, you're ready to write each section. When writing your review, keep in mind these issues.

Use Evidence A literature review section is, in this sense, just like any other academic research paper. Your interpretation of the available sources must be backed up with evidence [citations] that demonstrates that what you are saying is valid. Be Selective Select only the most important points in each source to highlight in the review. The type of information you choose to mention should relate directly to the research problem, whether it is thematic, methodological, or chronological. Related items that provide additional information, but that are not key to understanding the research problem, can be included in a list of further readings . Use Quotes Sparingly Some short quotes are appropriate if you want to emphasize a point, or if what an author stated cannot be easily paraphrased. Sometimes you may need to quote certain terminology that was coined by the author, is not common knowledge, or taken directly from the study. Do not use extensive quotes as a substitute for using your own words in reviewing the literature. Summarize and Synthesize Remember to summarize and synthesize your sources within each thematic paragraph as well as throughout the review. Recapitulate important features of a research study, but then synthesize it by rephrasing the study's significance and relating it to your own work and the work of others. Keep Your Own Voice While the literature review presents others' ideas, your voice [the writer's] should remain front and center. For example, weave references to other sources into what you are writing but maintain your own voice by starting and ending the paragraph with your own ideas and wording. Use Caution When Paraphrasing When paraphrasing a source that is not your own, be sure to represent the author's information or opinions accurately and in your own words. Even when paraphrasing an author’s work, you still must provide a citation to that work.

V.  Common Mistakes to Avoid

These are the most common mistakes made in reviewing social science research literature.

• Sources in your literature review do not clearly relate to the research problem;
• You do not take sufficient time to define and identify the most relevant sources to use in the literature review related to the research problem;
• Relies exclusively on secondary analytical sources rather than including relevant primary research studies or data;
• Uncritically accepts another researcher's findings and interpretations as valid, rather than examining critically all aspects of the research design and analysis;
• Does not describe the search procedures that were used in identifying the literature to review;
• Reports isolated statistical results rather than synthesizing them in chi-squared or meta-analytic methods; and,
• Only includes research that validates assumptions and does not consider contrary findings and alternative interpretations found in the literature.

Cook, Kathleen E. and Elise Murowchick. “Do Literature Review Skills Transfer from One Course to Another?” Psychology Learning and Teaching 13 (March 2014): 3-11; Fink, Arlene. Conducting Research Literature Reviews: From the Internet to Paper . 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2005; Hart, Chris. Doing a Literature Review: Releasing the Social Science Research Imagination . Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1998; Jesson, Jill. Doing Your Literature Review: Traditional and Systematic Techniques . London: SAGE, 2011; Literature Review Handout. Online Writing Center. Liberty University; Literature Reviews. The Writing Center. University of North Carolina; Onwuegbuzie, Anthony J. and Rebecca Frels. Seven Steps to a Comprehensive Literature Review: A Multimodal and Cultural Approach . Los Angeles, CA: SAGE, 2016; Ridley, Diana. The Literature Review: A Step-by-Step Guide for Students . 2nd ed. Los Angeles, CA: SAGE, 2012; Randolph, Justus J. “A Guide to Writing the Dissertation Literature Review." Practical Assessment, Research, and Evaluation. vol. 14, June 2009; Sutton, Anthea. Systematic Approaches to a Successful Literature Review . Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publications, 2016; Taylor, Dena. The Literature Review: A Few Tips On Conducting It. University College Writing Centre. University of Toronto; Writing a Literature Review. Academic Skills Centre. University of Canberra.

Writing Tip

Break Out of Your Disciplinary Box!

Thinking interdisciplinarily about a research problem can be a rewarding exercise in applying new ideas, theories, or concepts to an old problem. For example, what might cultural anthropologists say about the continuing conflict in the Middle East? In what ways might geographers view the need for better distribution of social service agencies in large cities than how social workers might study the issue? You don’t want to substitute a thorough review of core research literature in your discipline for studies conducted in other fields of study. However, particularly in the social sciences, thinking about research problems from multiple vectors is a key strategy for finding new solutions to a problem or gaining a new perspective. Consult with a librarian about identifying research databases in other disciplines; almost every field of study has at least one comprehensive database devoted to indexing its research literature.

Frodeman, Robert. The Oxford Handbook of Interdisciplinarity . New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.

Another Writing Tip

Don't Just Review for Content!

While conducting a review of the literature, maximize the time you devote to writing this part of your paper by thinking broadly about what you should be looking for and evaluating. Review not just what scholars are saying, but how are they saying it. Some questions to ask:

• How are they organizing their ideas?
• What methods have they used to study the problem?
• What theories have been used to explain, predict, or understand their research problem?
• What sources have they cited to support their conclusions?
• How have they used non-textual elements [e.g., charts, graphs, figures, etc.] to illustrate key points?

When you begin to write your literature review section, you'll be glad you dug deeper into how the research was designed and constructed because it establishes a means for developing more substantial analysis and interpretation of the research problem.

Hart, Chris. Doing a Literature Review: Releasing the Social Science Research Imagination . Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1 998.

Yet Another Writing Tip

When Do I Know I Can Stop Looking and Move On?

Here are several strategies you can utilize to assess whether you've thoroughly reviewed the literature:

• Look for repeating patterns in the research findings . If the same thing is being said, just by different people, then this likely demonstrates that the research problem has hit a conceptual dead end. At this point consider: Does your study extend current research?  Does it forge a new path? Or, does is merely add more of the same thing being said?
• Look at sources the authors cite to in their work . If you begin to see the same researchers cited again and again, then this is often an indication that no new ideas have been generated to address the research problem.
• Search Google Scholar to identify who has subsequently cited leading scholars already identified in your literature review [see next sub-tab]. This is called citation tracking and there are a number of sources that can help you identify who has cited whom, particularly scholars from outside of your discipline. Here again, if the same authors are being cited again and again, this may indicate no new literature has been written on the topic.

Onwuegbuzie, Anthony J. and Rebecca Frels. Seven Steps to a Comprehensive Literature Review: A Multimodal and Cultural Approach . Los Angeles, CA: Sage, 2016; Sutton, Anthea. Systematic Approaches to a Successful Literature Review . Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publications, 2016.

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Academic Phrases for Writing Literature Review Section of a Research Paper

Overview |   Abstract   | Introduction | Literature Review | Materials & Methods | Results & Discussion | Conclusion & Future Work | Acknowledgements & Appendix

The literature review should clearly demonstrate that the author has a good knowledge of the research area. Literature review typically occupies one or two passages in the introduction section. A well-written literature review should provide a critical appraisal of previous studies related to the current research area rather than a simple summary of prior works. The author shouldn’t shy away from pointing out the shortcomings of previous works. However, criticising other’s work without any basis can weaken your paper. This is a perfect place to coin your research question and justify the need for such a study. It is also worth pointing out towards the end of the review that your study is unique and there is no direct literature addressing this issue. Add a few sentences about the significance of your research and how this will add value to the body of knowledge.

The literature review section of your research paper should include the following:

• Previous literature
• Limitations of previous research
• Research questions
• Research to be explored

1. Previous literature

The literature review shows that __ Previous research showed __ Seminal contributions have been made by __ A series of recent studies has indicated that __ Several theories have been proposed to __, some focusing on __, others on __ There has been numerous studies to investigate __ This has been used in several studies to assess __ Previous studies have shown __ Several studies suggest that __ This has also been explored in prior studies by __ Prior research suggests that __ Previous studies have emphasized __ The majority of prior research has applied __ Most early studies as well as current work focus on __ For instance, the following studies were conducted on __ Studies of __are well documented, it is also well acknowledged that __ A number of authors have recognized __ Some authors have also suggested that  __ Some authors have driven the further development of __ This has been discussed by a great number of authors in literature. For example, research has provided evidence for __ The authors bring some information about the background of the problem, __ As has been previously reported in the literature, __ A large number of existing studies in the broader literature have examined __ The literature review shows that __ There exists a considerable body of literature on  __ In short, the literature pertaining to __ strongly suggests that __ Over time, an extensive literature has developed on __ This section presents a review of recent literature on __ This paper begins with a short review of the literature regarding the __ Several methods are reported in the literature to address this issue. There is a wide choice of __ available in the literature. This section reviews the literature related to __ It was reported in literature that __ A recent study by __ concluded that __ In the light of reported __ it is conceivable that __ The method introduced by __ has the advantage that __ One method employed by __ is __ A more comprehensive description can be found in __ For example, recent research suggests that __ This was successfully established as described by __ The author employed a __ methodology which prescribes the use of __

2. Limitations of previous research

A number of questions regarding __ remain to be addressed. A closer look to the literature on __, however, reveals a number of gaps and shortcomings. This question has previously never been addressed because__ Most studies have relied on __ Previous studies by __ cannot be considered as conclusive because __ Previous studies have almost exclusively focused on __ This has been previously assessed only to a very limited extent because __ In the present studies __ were constrained to __ In previous studies were limited to __ Although results appear consistent with prior research, they appear inconsistent with __ These are previously unstudied because __ As far as we know, no previous research has investigated __ Moreover, although research has illuminated __ no study to date has examined __ Despite decades of research, this continues to be debated among __ This section points out some of the problems encountered in the extant research. Although there are many studies, the research in __ remains limited. However, the existing research has many problems in representing __ The literature on __ is less consistent Historically, there has been a great deal of confusion in the literature regarding __ This approach remains briefly addressed in the literature. These are rarely analyzed in the literature as __ There are key questions and notions that are still not discussed in the literature __ This is not clearly presented in the literature because __ This paper addresses the need for __, so far lacking in the scientific literature. To fill this literature gap, this paper identifies __ Only a few works in literature demonstrate __ Although studies have been conducted by many authors, this problem is still insufficiently explored. To our knowledge, no prior studies have examined __ However, the existing research has many problems in __ Therefore, important issue in the literature is __ However, we argue that previous literature suffers from certain weaknesses: __ Previous research can only be considered a first step towards a more profound understanding of __ The previous studies reveal that __ are usually the most problematic to __

3. Research questions

More specific research questions will be introduced and investigated in __ A further question is whether __ Finally, another promising line of research would be __ The study addresses several further questions on __ Some of the interesting questions in this context are __ In order to address the questions outlined above, we report here __ These questions are of central interest as much recent research in __ Furthermore, __ is arguably an important question to be addressed. The question now is how __ can be used to explain __ Study addresses the research question __ In order to properly address this question, we __ An important question associated with __ is __ A critical open question is whether __ A still unsolved question is whether __ This remains an open question as __ This question has previously never been addressed because __ This study offers a test of __ research question Study addresses the research question __ Even in general __ research strategies is needed to explain __ The researcher should be interested here in __ Many questions remain unanswered __ There are some potentially open questions about the validity of __ The question that then naturally arises is __ The question then becomes how best to define__ This was an important question to study as __

4. Research to be explored

A more systematic and theoretical analysis is required for __ As the authors note earlier, more work is necessary to__ Additional studies to understand more completely the key tenets of __ are required. The unexpected findings signal the need for additional studies to understand more about __ This paper addresses __, so far lacking in the scientific literature. A new approach is therefore needed for __ One of the tough challenges for all researchers in this domain is __

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What is a Literature Review? How to Write It (with Examples)

A literature review is a critical analysis and synthesis of existing research on a particular topic. It provides an overview of the current state of knowledge, identifies gaps, and highlights key findings in the literature. 1 The purpose of a literature review is to situate your own research within the context of existing scholarship, demonstrating your understanding of the topic and showing how your work contributes to the ongoing conversation in the field. Learning how to write a literature review is a critical tool for successful research. Your ability to summarize and synthesize prior research pertaining to a certain topic demonstrates your grasp on the topic of study, and assists in the learning process. 

Table of Contents

• What is the purpose of literature review? 
• a. Habitat Loss and Species Extinction: 
• b. Range Shifts and Phenological Changes: 
• c. Ocean Acidification and Coral Reefs: 
• d. Adaptive Strategies and Conservation Efforts: 
• How to write a good literature review 
• Choose a Topic and Define the Research Question: 
• Decide on the Scope of Your Review: 
• Select Databases for Searches: 
• Conduct Searches and Keep Track: 
• Review the Literature: 
• Organize and Write Your Literature Review: 
• Frequently asked questions 

What is a literature review?

A well-conducted literature review demonstrates the researcher’s familiarity with the existing literature, establishes the context for their own research, and contributes to scholarly conversations on the topic. One of the purposes of a literature review is also to help researchers avoid duplicating previous work and ensure that their research is informed by and builds upon the existing body of knowledge.

What is the purpose of literature review?

A literature review serves several important purposes within academic and research contexts. Here are some key objectives and functions of a literature review: 2  

• Contextualizing the Research Problem: The literature review provides a background and context for the research problem under investigation. It helps to situate the study within the existing body of knowledge. 
• Identifying Gaps in Knowledge: By identifying gaps, contradictions, or areas requiring further research, the researcher can shape the research question and justify the significance of the study. This is crucial for ensuring that the new research contributes something novel to the field. 
• Understanding Theoretical and Conceptual Frameworks: Literature reviews help researchers gain an understanding of the theoretical and conceptual frameworks used in previous studies. This aids in the development of a theoretical framework for the current research. 
• Providing Methodological Insights: Another purpose of literature reviews is that it allows researchers to learn about the methodologies employed in previous studies. This can help in choosing appropriate research methods for the current study and avoiding pitfalls that others may have encountered. 
• Establishing Credibility: A well-conducted literature review demonstrates the researcher’s familiarity with existing scholarship, establishing their credibility and expertise in the field. It also helps in building a solid foundation for the new research. 
• Informing Hypotheses or Research Questions: The literature review guides the formulation of hypotheses or research questions by highlighting relevant findings and areas of uncertainty in existing literature. 

Literature review example

Let’s delve deeper with a literature review example: Let’s say your literature review is about the impact of climate change on biodiversity. You might format your literature review into sections such as the effects of climate change on habitat loss and species extinction, phenological changes, and marine biodiversity. Each section would then summarize and analyze relevant studies in those areas, highlighting key findings and identifying gaps in the research. The review would conclude by emphasizing the need for further research on specific aspects of the relationship between climate change and biodiversity. The following literature review template provides a glimpse into the recommended literature review structure and content, demonstrating how research findings are organized around specific themes within a broader topic. 

Literature Review on Climate Change Impacts on Biodiversity:

Climate change is a global phenomenon with far-reaching consequences, including significant impacts on biodiversity. This literature review synthesizes key findings from various studies: 

a. Habitat Loss and Species Extinction:

Climate change-induced alterations in temperature and precipitation patterns contribute to habitat loss, affecting numerous species (Thomas et al., 2004). The review discusses how these changes increase the risk of extinction, particularly for species with specific habitat requirements. 

b. Range Shifts and Phenological Changes:

Observations of range shifts and changes in the timing of biological events (phenology) are documented in response to changing climatic conditions (Parmesan & Yohe, 2003). These shifts affect ecosystems and may lead to mismatches between species and their resources. 

c. Ocean Acidification and Coral Reefs:

The review explores the impact of climate change on marine biodiversity, emphasizing ocean acidification’s threat to coral reefs (Hoegh-Guldberg et al., 2007). Changes in pH levels negatively affect coral calcification, disrupting the delicate balance of marine ecosystems. 

d. Adaptive Strategies and Conservation Efforts:

Recognizing the urgency of the situation, the literature review discusses various adaptive strategies adopted by species and conservation efforts aimed at mitigating the impacts of climate change on biodiversity (Hannah et al., 2007). It emphasizes the importance of interdisciplinary approaches for effective conservation planning. 

How to write a good literature review

Writing a literature review involves summarizing and synthesizing existing research on a particular topic. A good literature review format should include the following elements. 

Introduction: The introduction sets the stage for your literature review, providing context and introducing the main focus of your review. 

• Opening Statement: Begin with a general statement about the broader topic and its significance in the field. 
• Scope and Purpose: Clearly define the scope of your literature review. Explain the specific research question or objective you aim to address. 
• Organizational Framework: Briefly outline the structure of your literature review, indicating how you will categorize and discuss the existing research. 
• Significance of the Study: Highlight why your literature review is important and how it contributes to the understanding of the chosen topic. 
• Thesis Statement: Conclude the introduction with a concise thesis statement that outlines the main argument or perspective you will develop in the body of the literature review. 

Body: The body of the literature review is where you provide a comprehensive analysis of existing literature, grouping studies based on themes, methodologies, or other relevant criteria. 

• Organize by Theme or Concept: Group studies that share common themes, concepts, or methodologies. Discuss each theme or concept in detail, summarizing key findings and identifying gaps or areas of disagreement. 
• Critical Analysis: Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of each study. Discuss the methodologies used, the quality of evidence, and the overall contribution of each work to the understanding of the topic. 
• Synthesis of Findings: Synthesize the information from different studies to highlight trends, patterns, or areas of consensus in the literature. 
• Identification of Gaps: Discuss any gaps or limitations in the existing research and explain how your review contributes to filling these gaps. 
• Transition between Sections: Provide smooth transitions between different themes or concepts to maintain the flow of your literature review. 

Conclusion: The conclusion of your literature review should summarize the main findings, highlight the contributions of the review, and suggest avenues for future research. 

• Summary of Key Findings: Recap the main findings from the literature and restate how they contribute to your research question or objective. 
• Contributions to the Field: Discuss the overall contribution of your literature review to the existing knowledge in the field. 
• Implications and Applications: Explore the practical implications of the findings and suggest how they might impact future research or practice. 
• Recommendations for Future Research: Identify areas that require further investigation and propose potential directions for future research in the field. 
• Final Thoughts: Conclude with a final reflection on the importance of your literature review and its relevance to the broader academic community. 

Conducting a literature review

Conducting a literature review is an essential step in research that involves reviewing and analyzing existing literature on a specific topic. It’s important to know how to do a literature review effectively, so here are the steps to follow: 1  

Choose a Topic and Define the Research Question:

• Select a topic that is relevant to your field of study. 
• Clearly define your research question or objective. Determine what specific aspect of the topic do you want to explore? 

Decide on the Scope of Your Review:

• Determine the timeframe for your literature review. Are you focusing on recent developments, or do you want a historical overview? 
• Consider the geographical scope. Is your review global, or are you focusing on a specific region? 
• Define the inclusion and exclusion criteria. What types of sources will you include? Are there specific types of studies or publications you will exclude? 

Select Databases for Searches:

• Identify relevant databases for your field. Examples include PubMed, IEEE Xplore, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar. 
• Consider searching in library catalogs, institutional repositories, and specialized databases related to your topic. 

Conduct Searches and Keep Track:

• Develop a systematic search strategy using keywords, Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT), and other search techniques. 
• Record and document your search strategy for transparency and replicability. 
• Keep track of the articles, including publication details, abstracts, and links. Use citation management tools like EndNote, Zotero, or Mendeley to organize your references. 

Review the Literature:

• Evaluate the relevance and quality of each source. Consider the methodology, sample size, and results of studies. 
• Organize the literature by themes or key concepts. Identify patterns, trends, and gaps in the existing research. 
• Summarize key findings and arguments from each source. Compare and contrast different perspectives. 
• Identify areas where there is a consensus in the literature and where there are conflicting opinions. 
• Provide critical analysis and synthesis of the literature. What are the strengths and weaknesses of existing research? 

Organize and Write Your Literature Review:

• Literature review outline should be based on themes, chronological order, or methodological approaches. 
• Write a clear and coherent narrative that synthesizes the information gathered. 
• Use proper citations for each source and ensure consistency in your citation style (APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.). 
• Conclude your literature review by summarizing key findings, identifying gaps, and suggesting areas for future research. 

The literature review sample and detailed advice on writing and conducting a review will help you produce a well-structured report. But remember that a literature review is an ongoing process, and it may be necessary to revisit and update it as your research progresses. 

Frequently asked questions

A literature review is a critical and comprehensive analysis of existing literature (published and unpublished works) on a specific topic or research question and provides a synthesis of the current state of knowledge in a particular field. A well-conducted literature review is crucial for researchers to build upon existing knowledge, avoid duplication of efforts, and contribute to the advancement of their field. It also helps researchers situate their work within a broader context and facilitates the development of a sound theoretical and conceptual framework for their studies.

Literature review is a crucial component of research writing, providing a solid background for a research paper’s investigation. The aim is to keep professionals up to date by providing an understanding of ongoing developments within a specific field, including research methods, and experimental techniques used in that field, and present that knowledge in the form of a written report. Also, the depth and breadth of the literature review emphasizes the credibility of the scholar in his or her field.  

Before writing a literature review, it’s essential to undertake several preparatory steps to ensure that your review is well-researched, organized, and focused. This includes choosing a topic of general interest to you and doing exploratory research on that topic, writing an annotated bibliography, and noting major points, especially those that relate to the position you have taken on the topic. 

Literature reviews and academic research papers are essential components of scholarly work but serve different purposes within the academic realm. 3 A literature review aims to provide a foundation for understanding the current state of research on a particular topic, identify gaps or controversies, and lay the groundwork for future research. Therefore, it draws heavily from existing academic sources, including books, journal articles, and other scholarly publications. In contrast, an academic research paper aims to present new knowledge, contribute to the academic discourse, and advance the understanding of a specific research question. Therefore, it involves a mix of existing literature (in the introduction and literature review sections) and original data or findings obtained through research methods. 

Literature reviews are essential components of academic and research papers, and various strategies can be employed to conduct them effectively. If you want to know how to write a literature review for a research paper, here are four common approaches that are often used by researchers.  Chronological Review: This strategy involves organizing the literature based on the chronological order of publication. It helps to trace the development of a topic over time, showing how ideas, theories, and research have evolved.  Thematic Review: Thematic reviews focus on identifying and analyzing themes or topics that cut across different studies. Instead of organizing the literature chronologically, it is grouped by key themes or concepts, allowing for a comprehensive exploration of various aspects of the topic.  Methodological Review: This strategy involves organizing the literature based on the research methods employed in different studies. It helps to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of various methodologies and allows the reader to evaluate the reliability and validity of the research findings.  Theoretical Review: A theoretical review examines the literature based on the theoretical frameworks used in different studies. This approach helps to identify the key theories that have been applied to the topic and assess their contributions to the understanding of the subject.  It’s important to note that these strategies are not mutually exclusive, and a literature review may combine elements of more than one approach. The choice of strategy depends on the research question, the nature of the literature available, and the goals of the review. Additionally, other strategies, such as integrative reviews or systematic reviews, may be employed depending on the specific requirements of the research.

The literature review format can vary depending on the specific publication guidelines. However, there are some common elements and structures that are often followed. Here is a general guideline for the format of a literature review:  Introduction:   Provide an overview of the topic.  Define the scope and purpose of the literature review.  State the research question or objective.  Body:   Organize the literature by themes, concepts, or chronology.  Critically analyze and evaluate each source.  Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the studies.  Highlight any methodological limitations or biases.  Identify patterns, connections, or contradictions in the existing research.  Conclusion:   Summarize the key points discussed in the literature review.  Highlight the research gap.  Address the research question or objective stated in the introduction.  Highlight the contributions of the review and suggest directions for future research.

Both annotated bibliographies and literature reviews involve the examination of scholarly sources. While annotated bibliographies focus on individual sources with brief annotations, literature reviews provide a more in-depth, integrated, and comprehensive analysis of existing literature on a specific topic. The key differences are as follows: 

References 

• Denney, A. S., & Tewksbury, R. (2013). How to write a literature review.  Journal of criminal justice education ,  24 (2), 218-234. 
• Pan, M. L. (2016).  Preparing literature reviews: Qualitative and quantitative approaches . Taylor & Francis. 
• Cantero, C. (2019). How to write a literature review.  San José State University Writing Center . 

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How to undertake a literature search: a step-by-step guide

Affiliation.

• 1 Literature Search Specialist, Library and Archive Service, Royal College of Nursing, London.
• PMID: 32279549
• DOI: 10.12968/bjon.2020.29.7.431

Undertaking a literature search can be a daunting prospect. Breaking the exercise down into smaller steps will make the process more manageable. This article suggests 10 steps that will help readers complete this task, from identifying key concepts to choosing databases for the search and saving the results and search strategy. It discusses each of the steps in a little more detail, with examples and suggestions on where to get help. This structured approach will help readers obtain a more focused set of results and, ultimately, save time and effort.

Keywords: Databases; Literature review; Literature search; Reference management software; Research questions; Search strategy.

• Databases, Bibliographic*
• Information Storage and Retrieval / methods*
• Nursing Research
• Review Literature as Topic*

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What is a related work? A typology of relationships in research literature

Shayan doroudi.

School of Education, University of California, Irvine, 401 E. Peltason Drive, Suite 3200, Irvine, CA 92617 USA

Associated Data

An important part of research is situating one’s work in a body of existing literature, thereby connecting to existing ideas. Despite this, the various kinds of relationships that might exist among academic literature do not appear to have been formally studied. Here I present a graphical representation of academic work in terms of entities and relations, drawing on structure-mapping theory (used in the study of analogies). I then use this representation to present a typology of operations that could relate two pieces of academic work. I illustrate the various types of relationships with examples from medicine, physics, psychology, history and philosophy of science, machine learning, education, and neuroscience. The resulting typology not only gives insights into the relationships that might exist between static publications, but also the rich process whereby an ongoing research project evolves through interactions with the research literature.

Introduction

An important part of the research process is literature search: identifying prior work that is of relevance to the present idea being investigated. In many cases, this is an activity that a researcher may defer until writing up the results of the project, in which case, it is primarily an activity one does because one “has to” rather than an activity that can substantially change the course of the research. In some cases, whether due to negligence or the difficulty of finding related works, a researcher may never come across the fact that someone had previously tackled the same problem or made a similar discovery, and perhaps only years later (if ever) it may be realized (Merton, 1963 ; Ke et al., 2015 ; Sacks, 2002 ). But at its best, this is an activity that leads to new insights into the research problem, generates new ideas, and alters the course of the research. In fact, in some cases, searching for related work can become the research process itself; through connecting various pieces of research literature alone, one can discover previously undiscovered public knowledge (Swanson, 1986 ).

Despite the importance of prior literature in the research process, there has been little effort, if any, dedicated to developing a typology of related works, that is, a typology of relationships that might exist among different pieces of research literature. (Of course, it is entirely possible that such a typology has been constructed, but I have missed it due to an inadequate search of the literature!) In this paper, I propose such a typology to help us better understand the kinds of prior work that might have bearing on a research project. I first present a form of knowledge representation that can theoretically be used to represent any piece of research literature or research project. I then present a typology of relationships that can connect two pieces of research in terms of operations that can apply to the two representations, thereby resulting in a representation of the relationship. I will demonstrate the various operations and how they might be employed with a variety of examples from different fields, including medicine, physics, psychology, history and philosophy of science, machine learning, education, and neuroscience. The same form of representation applies to both published research literature and research projects or topics, whether nascent or fully-fledged. In fact, some of the relationships discussed below make more sense in the context of research projects (or broader research agendas) that can dynamically evolve as relevant literature is encountered, rather than research papers whose underlying representations are static. As such, I will use the terms publication, literature, project, and topic somewhat interchangeably.

The specific representation I use is borrowed from structure-mapping theory (Gentner, 1983 ; Falkenhainer et al., 1989 ), which was originally developed as a way to structurally represent analogies. Structure-mapping theory is particularly useful here, both because we can use it when discussing abstractions and analogies, and because the underlying representation can also handle other types of relationships among literature. I could have instead used other forms of knowledge representation, such as conceptual graphs (Sowa, 1976 ), entailment meshes (Pask et al., 1975 ; Pask, 1988 ), or category theoretic representations like ologs (Spivak & Kent, 2012 ). There may be relative advantages to each of these, but the representation used here is both simple and powerful enough to clearly demonstrate the typology. The exact choice of representation may need further consideration if one wants to perform inference on the representations or utilize them in information retrieval tools. For now, we are not concerned with how one might construct these representations or even the fidelity with which it is possible (though we revisit these questions in Sect. 6 ). The possibility that research projects could in theory be represented in the way described below is sufficient to formulate the typology.

While the form of representation and typology presented below may not be directly used in information retrieval tools, I contend that they may be useful in guiding the overall direction that research on such tools might take (e.g., what kinds of papers should a tool search for?). Moreover, the typology may provide some clarity to researchers going through the literature search process for a project. Constructing a graphical representation of one’s paper may be a useful exercise, and can possibly illuminate different searches that are needed to find related work. Seeing how the representation of one’s paper changes over time can also be a useful documentation of the research and literature search process. Beyond such potential practical uses of the typology, I believe it can simply be beneficial to understand the various ways in which one product of research may relate to another. If alongside the physical and social worlds, the world of research literature “also qualifies as an endless frontier” (Swanson, 1986 , p. 115), then our efforts to make sense of the former should be accompanied by efforts to make sense of the latter.

Related work on related work

Related work on related work exists in a number of different disciplines. Literature search is central to all research after all! Fittingly, the typology we develop combines research that exists in different, largely isolated, strands.

In the information sciences and medicine, work on “literature-based discovery” (LBD), dating back to Swanson ( 1986 ), is concerned with making new scientific discoveries by establishing novel connections between different pieces of literature. Swanson ( 1986 ) describes literature-based discovery as a form of scientific discovery that takes place in Karl Popper’s world 3—the “world of the products of the human mind” (Popper, 1978 , p. 144)—whereby search functions are likened to scientific theories and the “logic of undiscovered public knowledge” (p. 116) is analogous to the logic of scientific discovery. In doing so, Swanson ( 1986 ) made a contribution to the philosophy of science, though it seems to have not been recognized in the philosophy of science community. A number of different information-retrieval techniques have been proposed to aid in LBD (Smalheiser, 2017 ; Sebastian et al., 2017 ). Some authors have presented categorizations of different types of “undiscovered public knowledge” or different forms of LBD (Davies, 1989 ; Smalheiser, 2017 ). While these categorizations can be useful in aiding researchers who want to perform literature-based discovery, our typology has a somewhat broader scope in that not all related work necessarily results in LBD. LBD is one potential use case of literature search, and its various methods span across the relationships in the typology presented here, as discussed below.

More broadly, in information retrieval, the notion of “relevance” is central, and some researchers have tried to develop theories around what relevance is—typically conceived of as the relationship between an information need and a document (Saracevic, 1975 , 2016 ; Huang & Soergel, 2013 ). Green ( 1995 ) and Huang and Soergel ( 2013 ) pointed out that most discussions of relevance are around “topic matching,” but that this is only one form of relevance. Green and Bean ( 1995 ) then constructed a typology of different notions of relevance, and Huang ( 2009 ) expanded this to a typology consisting of over 200 notions of relevance. Huang ( 2009 ) considers three broad categories of relationships: (1) “What functional role a piece of information plays in the overall structure of a topic,” (2) “How information contributes to users’ reasoning about a topic,” and (3) “How information connects to a topic semantically” (p. 411). As examples of functional roles, an information source might present a solution to a problem, the cause of an effect, etc. As examples of contributing to reasoning, an information source might provide an analogy to the topic or might be used to deduce something about the topic. While this work is very relevant to the present paper, there are two key differences. First, their work is about the broader concept of relevance between information and needs, while this paper focuses on relevance in academic literature. One would expect that many of the kinds of broader relevance typologies would also hold for research publications, but given the particularities of literature search and the role it plays in the broader process of scientific research, it seems worth studying in its own right. Second, these prior typologies largely focus on the variety of semantic relationships between two topics, while the approach we present here views relevance in terms of operations that operate on knowledge representations of topics. In this sense, the typology I present here can express how to relate different research topics in terms of a small number of mathematically precise operations (that are hopefully easy to remember), rather than a plethora of different possible semantic relationships. The two approaches are complementary, but I contend that the approach taken here is more useful for conceptualizing the evolution of a research project over time.

In computer science and artificial intelligence, there has been a recent thread of work on citation recommendation, concerned with identifying relevant citations given a piece of text and possibly other meta-data (e.g., authors, etc.) (Strohman et al., 2007 ; Liang et al., 2011 ; Ren et al., 2014 ; Bhagavatula et al., 2018 ). Interestingly, this work has not really considered automated techniques for LBD, and it does not cite the vast literature on LBD or on relevance. Indeed, most of the work in this area is concerned with topic matching (finding citations that topically overlap). One notable exception is work by Chan et al. ( 2018 ) and Kang et al. ( 2022 ). Chan et al. ( 2018 ) presented a technique that combines crowdsourcing and machine learning to find analogies between different papers. They utilize a “soft” relational schema, a very coarse-grained representation of a research paper; they explicitly avoid using representations like the one described below, because they can be very difficult to construct for many publications. Kang et al. ( 2022 ) built on this work by training deep learning algorithms on the crowdsourced representations of abstracts to be able to automatically detect the “purpose” and “mechanism” of a paper. An analogy in this context is two papers that have a similar underlying purpose but achieve that purpose through a different mechanism. Kang et al. ( 2022 ) used this to prototype an analogical search engine for scientific literature. While their representation may be useful for LBD, I contend that it can only capture certain kinds of relationships between papers, and, as I discuss further below, some of their methods do not appear to actually look for analogies as per the typology we develop below. As such, our typology can potentially be useful in classifying the different kinds of relationships that various existing LBD and citation recommendation methods can uncover, and the kinds of relationships that they cannot.

A representation of a research project

In our representation, a research project or publication P ∈ Π is represented as a set of entities and relations, P = ( E , R ) . An entity conceptually represents any specific topic of relevance to the project, usually expressed as a noun or a noun phrase (e.g., DNA, the civil rights movement, high blood pressure, theorems). Notice that entities can come in different degrees of specificity (e.g., theorems vs. Gödel’s first incompleteness theorem); the important thing is that entities across all topics and publications are represented at the same level of granularity. We allow entities to be hierarchically defined as functions of other entities (e.g., the entity “volume of a cup” can be thought of as the “volume of” function applied to “cup”).

Relations define a relationship between some number of entities, such that the predicate R ( e 1 , e 2 , ⋯ , e n ) indicates that e 1 , e 2 , ..., e n are related as specified by the relation R . Binary relations are perhaps the most common. For example, in the sentence “stress causes high blood pressure”, “causes” is a relation that takes relates two entities (in this case, “stress” and “high blood pressure”). We might represent this as causes (stress, high blood pressure). As an example of a tertiary relation, consider the sentences “ribosomes translate mRNA into sequences of amino acids” and “Arab translators translated Greek texts into Arabic translations”; they could both be said to use the relation x-translates-y-into-z (though if we think the word “translates” has a very different semantic meaning in these two cases, we could suggest there are two different relations at play here). We also allow for unary relations; for example, “blood pressure is high” can be represented as is-high (blood pressure). Unary relations are called attributes in structure-mapping theory and they effectively allow assigning adjectives to entities; for example, high (blood pressure) would mean “high blood pressure.” With slight abuse of notation, I will use unary relations both as relations (e.g., is-high (blood pressure)) and as attributes (e.g., high (blood pressure)). Finally, we allow for higher-order relations, which take relations as input instead of, or in addition to, entities. causes is a higher-order relation because we can say, for example, causes ( provided ( treatment (subjects), New Curriculum), learn-more-than ( treatment (subjects), control (subjects))).

As with Gentner’s ( 1983 ) structure-mapping theory, the classification of relationships between research has more to do with the structure of the representation (i.e., the presence of certain entities and relations) rather than the semantic meaning of the nodes. However, semantics still play an important role in informing whether a particular relationship is sensible or important in a particular situation. That is, someone without a semantic understanding of a given domain can still apply the operators described below in the sense that one can execute 4 + 7 and 4 × 7 , without regard to which operation makes more sense in the given situation. Furthermore, one aspect of semantics is necessary in the application of some of the operators. Namely, there is a general relation, “is a” (or “is an instance of”), which can capture any situation where a particular entity can be categorized as a special case or instance of another entity. Consistent with earlier work on knowledge representation, we will refer to this relation as is-a (Brachman, 1983 ). For example, is-a (Gödel’s first incompleteness theorem, theorem) and is-a (the civil rights movement, historical occurrence). A single entity can be an instance of many entities (e.g., a cat can be considered an animal, a pet, and an Internet phenomenon). The is-a operator is also reflexive (e.g., is-a (cat, cat)). Finally, with slight abuse of notation, we will also have is-a be a higher-order relation that can designate when one relation is an instance of another. For example, is-a ( holds (person, ball), possesses (person, object)), because holding something is a special case of possessing it and a ball is an object. Some of the operators below can only be applied with an understanding of what things are instances of other things; however, when the relationship is more abstract, sometimes even a domain expert will not readily see these connections.

The set of entities and relations that are used in the representation of a research publication will likely not include all entities and relations included in that publication (e.g., all nouns and verbs), but rather they should include the concepts that are focal to that publication. Of course, that is somewhat subjective, but a useful heuristic is to include all entities and relations that are involved in a system of relationships that might be worth providing citations in reference to, as well as any new entities and relations that are being introduced in the paper. For example, in a paper that runs an experiment with seven conditions, the number of seven is probably not an entity that should be included, but in Miller’s ( 1956 ) paper on working memory capacity or a paper on the religious symbolism of the number seven, it likely should be included.

As suggested above, there is no single correct way to represent a research project. In fact, there can be multiple different views of a research project, which induce different representations. Each of these views can be more or less useful depending on how they are to be used. Moreover, even simple relations can be expressed in different ways. For our purposes, there is a relationship between two research projects if there is at least some view of each that permits the relationship. Since we are not concerned with the practical side of how to best represent projects here, we do not worry about how one would go about discovering the “right” views. In practice though, seeing two related papers from the “wrong” viewpoint is one reason why researchers and information retrieval tools might not notice an important relationship.

We can represent these representations graphically using a graph-like structure as shown in Fig.  1 a. Boxes indicate entities, and the text outside of boxes indicate relations. The arrows coming out of a relation point to its arguments in order from left to right. Nested boxes (e.g., “some part of a new thing”) show hierarchically defined entities. For simplicity, we show binary relations as labeled directed edges for asymmetric relations and labeled undirected edges for symmetric relations, as shown in Fig.  1 b.

Examples of how to graphically represent research projects/publications. a An example of a tertiary relation with three entities that would be read as “An old thing can become some part of a new thing through some process.” There are also two unary relations: is-old and is-new . b Two examples of binary relations. The causes relation is asymmetric while the correlated relation is symmetric

This representation could be couched in the language of model-theoretic philosophy of science (Suppes, 1957 , 1960 ), in particular using the partial structures formalism (French, 2000 ; Da Costa & French, 1990 ), which is also often expressed in terms of entities and (partial) relations. Doing so may be appealing since it would connect literature search to an existing framework for discussing scientific theories. The partial structures formalism has also been used in describing analogies and abstractions in science and provides a way to formalize research undergoing change. However, the ideas presented here not only apply to formal scientific theories, but also to non-scientific literature and more nascent representations of scientific topics, and I do not want to associate the typology presented here with a particular interpretation of scientific theories.

A typology of related works

We can now describe the different kinds of relationships that can exist between a research project and prior work. Suppose we have a research project P = ( E P , R P ) and a piece of literature L = ( E L , R L ) . We assume that P is an ongoing project that can potentially change, while L is already published literature and hence static. Below we describe a set of operations that can be used to describe the relationship between P and L . These operations are functions that take the representations of P and L as inputs and output a representation ρ of the relationship between P and L (as defined by the operation). Since we allow for composing these operations in sequence, some of the operations will actually take as input P , L , and our current representation of the relationship between the two ( ρ i ), and will output a modified representation of the relationship ( ρ i + 1 ). Moreover, when applying multiple operations in sequence, we may want to keep track of the ongoing relationship, which we can do by merging multiple relationships (i.e., taking the union of entities and the union of relations in the sequence of relationships). After each operation is applied, we can also potentially modify P 1 , thereby modifying the relationship between P and L as well. The series of operations and modifications reflects the iterative and influential nature of literature search in the research process. The operations, described below, are called intersection, interpretation, expansion, abstraction, reification, analogy, and substitution. Table  1 lists some basic information about the operations, which may be useful when reading the sections below. I do not make any claims that the typology presented here is complete. There might be other operations, or perhaps more useful categorizations of the operations presented here, which can be elucidated upon in future work. In what follows, I will describe each of the operators in words as well as mathematical formalism when needed; readers can safely skip the mathematical formalism and still grasp the key ideas.

A list of the operations in the typology along with their inputs and outputs

For the meaning of the terms used in the Output column, see the appropriate section

Intersection

The first and probably most prevalent operation is intersection , which outputs a subset of entities that are shared by P and L and a subset of relations shared by the two. Specifically, intersection outputs a representation ρ = ( E PL , R PL ) , where E PL ⊆ E P ∩ E L and R PL ⊆ R P ∩ R L . The exact subset depends on what is determined to be relevant between the two representations. A simple special case of this would be when P and L share just a single entity. For example, suppose P and L both have to do with DNA, but one is about DNA to solve computational problems (Adleman, 1994 ) and the other is about DNA vaccines for coronavirus (Callaway, 2020 ). It is unlikely that these publications have other entities in common. In many such cases, publications are not worth citing, and such an intersection would actually not be relevant. A relationship is worth noting when the degree of overlap is large enough; this can be measured by associating some degree of importance to each entity in P and taking the sum (or some non-linear function) of importances across all the entities in ρ .

In some cases, overlap in a single entity may be enough to warrant citation or even to alter the course of a research project. For example, one of the examples that Swanson ( 1986 ) gives for undiscovered public knowledge has to do with a potential research publication on the “all swans are white hypothesis,” a hypothesis that states that all swans are white. This hypothesis could be supported inductively if there was a lack of any documented evidence of black swans. As Swanson ( 1986 ) says:

Suppose for the sake of argument that scientists living in a remote part of the world were to publish, in a local wildlife journal, some observations about a family of black swans living on a nearby lake. We suppose further that the report comes from a half-dozen people who are reliable observers, and that they are unaware that other people in the world think that all swans are white. (p. 109)

As shown in Fig.  2 , the potential all-swans-are-white hypothesis publication ( P ) is represented using three entities and two relations, although it can be interpreted as two entities and the relationship between them (“the all-swans-are-white hypothesis is proved by the fact that there is no evidence of black swans”); on the other hand, the article in the wildlife journal ( L ) only concerns itself with black swans and possibly other topics of local interest. As such, the two articles overlap in only one entity: black swans. It just so happens that the existence of black swans is a critical refutation of the theory (i.e., “evidence of black swans” is a very important entity in P ), and so this single article can change the course of the research project (e.g., the authors publish a refutation of the all-swans-are-white hypothesis rather than a proclamation of it).

Swanson’s ( 1986 ) black swans example as an example of intersection

Notice that the intersection of the two articles was “black swans” not “evidence of black swans.” (The wildlife journal is not trying to present evidence of black swans; it is discussing a piece of wildlife whose existence they never called into question.) The intersection of “black swans” by itself is not necessarily meaningful. Another paper that discusses black swans but provides no evidence for them is of less value to P . How then can we capture the obvious fact that L presents evidence of black swans, even though it is not captured in its representation? The answer lies in the interpretation operation.

Interpretation

An interpretation takes an existing relationship between P and L and adds additional entities and/or relations from P (not included in L ) that can help interpret the current relationship. Namely, if ρ i = ( E ρ i , R ρ i ) is the output of a previous operation, then ρ i + 1 = ( E ρ i ∪ E PS , R ρ i ∪ R PS ) , where E PS ⊆ E P \ E L and R PS ⊆ R P \ R L . (I use PS and LS as subscripts to denote subsets of P and L .) A natural use of interpretation is to apply it after an intersection. For example, in the black swans example above, we can interpret the intersection of P and L as being “evidence of black swans.” Clearly, L does present evidence of black swans, but it was not interpreted that way until it was interpreted in light of P . Notice that if a researcher conducting project P were to construct the representation of L , they might do so according to their interpretation, whereby “evidence of black swans” would appear in L . Therefore, interpretation steps may often be implicit or hidden in the particular view of L that a researcher adopts. In this paper, I try to represent prior work in a way that is faithful to the original authors’ meaning, though we must recognize that views of prior work will always be informed by our worldview.

An expansion takes an existing relationship between P and L and adds additional entities and/or relations from L (not included in P ) to potentially expand the content of P or to bring new insights into the picture. Notice that structurally, the expansion operation is equivalent to the interpretation operation with P and L swapped; however, semantically, the two are often quite different. An expansion will often result in a change in P . As a result, it makes the most sense when P is an ongoing research topic (or a follow-up investigation to published work), rather than a final publication. Once P has changed to P ′ to incorporate the new entities and relations, what was once an expansion between P and L may be viewed as an intersection between P ′ and L . Therefore expansions play developmental roles in the research process, which are often not captured in publications. That is, many research projects may have changed course as a result of particular publications, but the final publication may only refer to the relationship to prior work at the time of publication, rather than the developmental influence of that prior work.

For example, in the related works section above, I acknowledged connections to Chan et al. ( 2018 ); these connections would be viewed as intersections (e.g., both papers have to do with academic literature, analogies, knowledge representation, etc.). However, what I did not state was that reading Chan et al. ( 2018 ) led me to read about structure-mapping theory (Gentner, 1983 ), and the two publications combined (and considered in relation to Swanson ( 1986 )) resulted in the beginnings of this paper. That is, before this paper was even conceived of, the aforementioned prior works resulted in a series of expansions, which turned into the present piece only after many iterations, which involved a series of other operations applied to various publications (some of which are cited, and some of which may not be). This reflects the role of literature search in the messy process that is research. I suspect that researchers rarely document the series of expansions (and other steps) that lead to the final state of a publication.

In fact, at times, some prior work may only play the role of a stepping stone to discovering other, more relevant, prior works. That is, an expansion of P by L 1 may result in an exploration of the new entities in the expansion, which results in discovering L 2 , which intersects with P . At that point, L 1 may no longer really be relevant; that is, the extent of L 1 ’s relevance may be better captured by L 2 .

One broad category of expansions falls under Swanson’s ( 1986 ) second example—“A Missing Link in the Logic of Discovery” or what is often referred to as the ABC model. As Swanson ( 1986 ) originally expressed it:

Suppose the following two reports are published separately and independently, the authors of each report being unaware of the other report: (i) a report that process A causes the result B, and (ii) a separate report that B causes the result C. It follows of course that A leads to, causes, or implies C. That is, the proposition that A causes C objectively exists, at least as a hypothesis. (p. 110)

Swanson gave a specific example of a discovery he made (the first of his several literature-based discoveries in medicine): connecting (a) literature on how fish oil causes a reduction of blood viscosity with (b) literature on how reducing blood viscosity leads to an improvement in symptoms of Raynaud’s syndrome. The intersection of these two literatures is the entity “reduction of blood viscosity.” An expansion adds the causal link to “relief from Raynaud’s syndrome” and that link is then interpreted in light of the connection to “dietary fish oil.” Connecting these two literatures via these steps can result in a change in P as shown in Fig.  3 . Notice that the addition of a new causal relation between dietary fish oil and relief from Raynaud’s syndrome was inferred from this expansion, but had never been experimentally shown or even published about. Two years later, a clinical trial independently confirmed this hypothesis (Swanson & Smalheiser, 1996 ).

Swanson’s ( 1986 ) example of the ABC model as an example of expansion

Literature-based discovery often involves this kind of linking between two “non-interactive literatures,” literatures that are rarely, if ever, cited in the same publications (Swanson & Smalheiser, 1996 ). However, expansion need not always be between two non-interactive literatures. Indeed, researchers may often be unaware of highly relevant work within their own research community (or other interactive literatures) that build upon the concepts they are investigating. Such cases can often be caught by the researchers themselves when conducting a more expansive literature review, or by reviewers during the peer review process, but likely often go undetected.

Abstraction

An abstraction applies if P contains a subset of entities and relations that are instances of entities and relations in L . In other words, we have an abstraction when L contains a more abstract or generalized representation of part of P . An abstraction can still consist of concrete entities and relations as long as they are more general or more abstract than the entities and relations in P (e.g., as suggested above is-a (cat, animal), is-a (cat, Internet phenomenon), and is-a (the civil rights movement, historical occurrence) can all be single entity abstractions).

Describing an abstraction mathematically requires a bit more care than for previous operations since abstractions must be semantically “consistent” across the entities and relations involved. Formally, an abstraction applies if there is a subset of entities and relations in P —say E PS ⊆ E P and R PS ⊆ R P —and a subset of entities and relations in L —say E LS ⊆ E L and R LS ⊆ R L —such that the following four conditions hold:

• For all e ∈ E PS , there exists a e ~ ∈ E LS such that e is an instance of e ~ .
• For all R ∈ R PS , there exists a R ~ ∈ R LS such that R is an instance of R ~ .
• For all R ∈ R PS , if R ( e 1 , e 2 , ⋯ , e n ) , then R ~ ( e ~ 1 , e ~ 2 , ⋯ , e ~ n ) , where R , e 1 , ⋯ , e n are instances of R ~ , e ~ , 1 ⋯ , e ~ n respectively.
• At least some e ≠ e ~ or some R ≠ R ~ .

The last condition is required to make sure the abstraction is not simply mapping identical representations (in which case it would just be an intersection). The resulting representation is ρ = ( E PS ∪ E LS , R PS ∪ R LS ∪ I S - A ) , where I S - A ( e , e ~ ) and I S - A ( R ( e 1 , e 2 , ⋯ , e n ) , R ~ ( e ~ 1 , e ~ 2 , ⋯ , e ~ n ) ) , for all e , e ~ , R , and R ~ as defined in the conditions above.

Abstractions need not be profound. Consider the black swans example again. The way I presented it above was actually a bit disingenuous: black swans are not the only evidence that disproves the all-swans-are-white hypothesis; any non-white swans would. Thus it might be more accurate to replace the “black swans” entity with “non-white swans” in Fig.  2 a. The relationship between P and L then first involves an abstraction (instead of an intersection)—namely is-a (black swans, non-white swans)—followed by an interpretation, as shown in Fig.  4 . This is a rather trivial kind of abstraction, which likely happens all the time when interpreting prior work in the context of current work.

The black swans example revisited. The relationship between P and L is now an interpretation of an abstraction of L . Notice that we used “are” instead of “is a” simply because the entities are expressed in plural

A more substantial form of abstraction is whenever P reports on empirical findings that can be subsumed into an existing theory described by L . For example, if researchers find that students in a collaborative problem-solving activity learned more than students who were working on the activity on their own, then they might see the ICAP hypothesis (Chi & Wylie, 2014 ), which posits that interactive learning is better than constructive learning, as an abstraction.

Finally, perhaps the most interesting (but also rarest) form of abstraction is when a body of research is interpreted or a problem is solved using some abstract formalism or framework that exists in the literature (often in a different field). For example, a notable example in the history of science is the introduction of group theory to quantum mechanics to solve certain problems related to symmetry (French, 2000 ; Scholz, 2006 ). According to French ( 2000 ):

the relationship between mathematics and physics is represented in terms of an embedding of a scientific theory into a mathematical structure. This effectively gives the theory access to ‘surplus’ mathematical structure which can play an essential role in the further development of theory. (p. 104)

This “surplus structure”—a term originally from Redhead ( 1975 )—is represented in our typology by expansion steps that can follow the abstraction. Namely, once a connection is made between L (say group theory) and P (a particular problem in physics), an expansion can be applied to bring new mathematical machinery from L to bear on P . Furthermore, an interpretation of the abstraction of L in light of P might result in new insights that could lead to further developments in L (if we do not consider L to be static literature). As French ( 2000 ) states, “it is important to acknowledge that both group theory and quantum mechanics were in a state of flux at the time they were brought into contact and both subsequently underwent further development” (p. 110).

Reification

A reification is the inverse of an abstraction. That is, a reification has the same definition of an abstraction, except that P and L are exchanged. We can say P is reified by L if L is abstracted by P . A reification can occur when prior work might contain a concrete example of a phenomenon, which one’s present work presents in more abstract or general terms. Reifications will often be used when interpreting prior empirical findings in light of a new theoretical framework. For example, when articulating his theory of the structure of scientific revolutions, Kuhn ( 2012 ) drew on myriad concrete historical examples from the history of physics, astronomy, chemistry, and other fields. These findings are reifications of particular components of Kuhn’s theory (e.g., paradigms, anomalies, paradigm shifts, etc.).

A reification can also make sense when one is in a formative stage of a project where some of the specifics have not yet been determined. For example, consider Tu Youyou’s work on finding a cure for malaria in the 1970s for which she won the Nobel Prize in 2015. The problem that Tu and her team were working on is represented in Fig.  5 a. According to Tu ( 2015 ):

After thoroughly reviewing the traditional Chinese medical literature and folk recipes and interviewing experienced Chinese medical practitioners, I collected over two thousand herbal, animal and mineral prescriptions within three months after initiation of the project.

One of the substances that showed some initial promise was sweet wormwood ( qinghao ), which was shown in the literature to cure intermittent fevers, as shown in Fig.  5 b. Therefore sweet wormwood is a reification of a potential cure for malaria, as shown in Fig.  5 c, and this can be interpreted in the broader research of finding a cure for malaria, as shown in Fig.  5 d. Yu went on to identify artemisinin as an actual cure for malaria, but there was an additional step of literature-based discovery needed first, which we will return to later.

The discovery of sweet wormwood as a cure for malaria as an example of reification

An analogy applies when P and L both have a subset of entities and relations that have a shared abstraction. More formally, using the same notation as above, an analogy applies if there exists some other representation A = ( E A , R A ) (representing an abstraction) and the following four conditions hold 2 :

• For all e ~ ∈ E A , there exists an e ∈ E PS and an e ′ ∈ E LS such that e and e ′ are both instances of e ~ .
• For all R ~ ∈ R A , there exists an R ∈ R PS and an R ′ ∈ R LS such that R and R ′ are both instances of R ~ .
• For all R ~ ∈ R A and for every pair R ∈ R PS and R ′ ∈ R LS such that R and R ′ are both instances of R ~ , if R ~ ( e ~ 1 , e ~ 2 , ⋯ , e ~ n ) then R ( e 1 , e 2 , ⋯ , e n ) and R ′ ( e 1 ′ , e 2 ′ , ⋯ , e n ′ ) , where e i and e i ′ are instances of e ~ i for all i and R and R ′ are instances of R ~ .
• At least some e ≠ e ′ or some R ≠ R ′ .

We say that A N A L O G O U S ( e , e ′ ) if and only if condition 1 holds for e and e ′ and similarly we say that A N A L O G O U S ( R ( e 1 , e 2 , ⋯ , e n ) , R ′ ( e 1 ′ , e 2 ′ , ⋯ , e n ′ ) ) if and only if the conditions 2 and 3 above hold for those entities and relations. The representation that results from an analogy operation is ρ = ( E PS ∪ E LS , R PS ∪ R LS ∪ A N A L O G O U S ) .

Analogies can span from shallow analogies between two instances of a similar phenomenon in the same field to deep analogies across scientific fields that share little apparent relation to one another on the surface. The further removed that P and L are from the abstraction A , the deeper the analogy becomes (and typically, the harder to notice). Concretely identifying the abstraction implicit in an analogy is not necessary, and in some cases, it can actually be difficult to do, but I suggest that doing so may be a useful exercise (and could lead to refining the analogy).

Like expansions, analogies can sometimes result in modifying P by looking at the research project in a whole new light. Like expansions, this also means the way in which an analogy might have helped develop P over time may not always be apparent from the final product. Even if a publication discusses an analogy, it may not always be clear if that analogy was instrumental in developing the idea in the first place or if it was an afterthought that the two ideas were related.

An example of an analogy where the impact of prior work on a research project is actually made explicit is the analogy between Thomas Kuhn’s historical philosophy of science and Jean Piaget’s psychological and epistemological theory of how a child develops knowledge. In The Structure of Scientific Revolutions , Kuhn ( 2012 ) gives us a brief sense of his indebtedness to Piaget:

A footnote encountered by chance led me to the experiments by which Jean Piaget has illuminated both the various worlds of the growing child and the process of transition from one to the next. (p. xi)

The extent of this has recently been clarified by historians examining Kuhn’s other works and archival materials (Galison, 2016 ; Burman, 2020 ). For example, Kuhn ( 1977 , as cited in Burman, 2020) states:

Almost twenty years ago I first discovered, very nearly at the same time, both the intellectual interest of the history of science and the psychological studies of Jean Piaget. Ever since that time the two have interacted closely in my mind and in my work. (p. 21)

So what was the nature of this close interaction? One can draw a clear analogy between the two. At risk of oversimplification, a representation of the analogy between Kuhn’s theory and Piaget’s is shown in Fig.  6 , adapted from a mapping given by MacIsaac ( 1991 ). This is not at all to say that this is the precise analogy that Kuhn drew which led to a refinement of his theory as presented in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions . However, he probably made similar mappings that changed over time as he developed his theory. Similar analogies can also be drawn from Kuhn’s theory to gestalt theory and Bruner and Postman’s ( 1949 ) psychological theory of how people perceive incongruities, both of which Kuhn ( 2012 ) explicitly builds off of. Interestingly enough, the Piagetian analogy, while very influential on the development of Kuhn’s theory, was not retained in the final representation of his book, while the analogies to gestalt theory and Bruner and Postman ( 1949 ) were explicitly an important part of his narrative. Note that the relations in P and L are identical in this case, but this need not be the case in general; in fact, they may only be identical because I constructed them that way, but perhaps if the representations were to be derived independently, the relations would be non-identical, but share a common abstraction.

The representation of the analogy between Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions and Piagetian theory. The analogous relations are shown as dotted lines without labels for ease of reading

To provide a more recent example of analogy, we can consider the relationship between the recent machine learning literature on fairness ( P ) in relation to older literature from the 1960s-1970s on fairness in educational and employment testing ( L ). As Hutchinson and Mitchell ( 2019 ) point out, the two literatures share much in common including many mathematical definitions of fairness. To formalize this, Hutchinson and Mitchell ( 2019 ) explicitly construct an analogy between the two literatures:

Test items (questions) are analogous to model features, and item responses analogous to specific activations of those features. Scoring a test is typically a simple linear model which produces a (possibly weighted) sum of the item scores....Because of this correspondence, much of the math is directly comparable; and many of the underlying ideas in earlier fairness work trivially map on to modern day ML fairness. “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes”; and by hearing this rhyme, we hope to gain insight into the future of ML fairness. (p. 49)

Their last sentence suggests that the goal of pointing out the relationship between these two literatures are further steps of expansion and interpretation, or in other words, exploiting the “surplus of structure.” Indeed, the authors surface several definitions from test fairness that had not been proposed in machine learning (i.e., an expansion). Notice that in this case, the underlying abstraction may not be immediately obvious (e.g., what is the abstraction underlying both a test item and a feature?); in fact, in some cases, there may not be a simple word or phrase to describe the abstraction, but the fact that a clear analogy can be drawn indicates that there must be some more abstract underlying representation.

Finally, in my own research, I have found that there is an analogy between debates in education research and the bias-variance tradeoff in machine learning (Doroudi, 2020 ). Here an analogy was determined by directly formulating the abstraction (a generalized version of the bias-variance decomposition theorem). This abstraction has four components that any instance must specify: a target, an approximator, a random mechanism, and a source of randomness; once these components are specified, one can derive other phenomena (e.g., the meaning of bias, variance, etc.). This naturally sounds very abstract, but it is more concrete once instantiated in specific contexts. Table  2 gives an example of the analogy between these concepts in machine learning and debates around pedagogy. Once this analogy is drawn, it may be possible to expand techniques that are developed in machine learning to bear on educational debates (Doroudi, 2020 ). One benefit of making the abstraction concrete is that the same abstraction can be used to draw analogies to other fields as well.

A mapping of the bias-variance decomposition from machine learning ( L ) to its analog in the study of pedagogy ( P ), along with the abstraction that connects the two ( A )

Note that the last two rows are only examples of mechanisms that are often viewed as having high bias and low variance or high variance and low bias. See Doroudi ( 2020 ) for more details

Substitution

The analogy operator as described above can be applied in cases that do not semantically appear to be analogies. For example, consider two papers that use different methods to achieve the same outcome; many of the entities and relations may be the same across the two representations, but the entity (or entities) representing the methods would be different. Colloquially we would probably not say there is an analogy between the two approaches. For this reason, we make a distinction between substitutions and analogies. A substitution operates exactly in the same way as an analogy, but it should be applied when it is more sensible. The analogous relation can be replaced with the substitutes relation for semantic clarity. Therefore, unlike the other operators, the distinction between the analogy and substitution operators is semantic. However, there are typically clear structural differences between the two. In a substitution, typically only one or a few entities and relations will change, and the rest will be identical across P and L . Moreover, a substitution is similar to what Gentner ( 1983 ) terms a literal similarity. Namely, Gentner ( 1983 ) suggests that the difference between a literal similarity and an analogy is typically that a literal similarity will involve a greater number of identical attributes (or unary relations).

Consider the following four scenarios that loosely describe different papers:

• Convolutional neural networks are trained to classify histopathological images of breast tissue as benign or malignant (Spanhol et al., 2016 ).
• Support vector machines are trained to classify histopathological images of breast tissue as benign or malignant (Aswathy & Jagannath, 2021 ).
• Human crowdworkers are trained to classify histopathological images of breast tissue as benign or malignant (Eickhoff, 2014 ).
• Pigeons are trained to classify histopathological images of breast tissue as benign or malignant (Levenson et al., 2015 ).

In cases 1 and 2, it would be a stretch to say that there is an analogy between “convolutional neural networks” and “support vector machines,” which are both machine learning algorithms that can be applied to the same classification tasks. Thus, here is a clear case of substitution. However, with case 4, even though one could argue a pigeon is being substituted for a machine learning algorithm, the idea of training pigeons and the idea of training machine learning algorithms both have long histories and are often used for different purposes. Thus, it seems more natural to say pigeons are analogical to neural networks or support vector machines in these scenarios (with the underlying abstraction being a learning agent). Pigeons and support vector machines have a lot fewer attributes in common than convolutional neural networks and support vector machines. Unlike pigeons, the latter two are both algorithms implemented in computer code that were designed specifically for classification tasks. Pigeons, on the other hand, are animals, fly, eat, and make sounds. Some attributes of pigeons are actually important for the training process but not shared by any standard machine learning algorithms, such as their hunger. While we might say getting hungry is analogous to the “reward seeking” or “loss minimizing” property of machine learning algorithms, there is no literal hunger in those algorithms.

Case 3 is less clear-cut. While human crowdworkers are also significantly different from machine learning algorithms, crowdsourcing is often used for tasks where state-of-the-art machine learning is not good enough or a machine learning engineer might want to compare the performance of their algorithm against crowdworkers. On the other hand, human crowdworkers and pigeons share a lot of similar attributes that are lacking in machine learning algorithms. These ambiguities point out that ultimately the decision of whether an analogy or a substitution applies is in the eyes of the beholder. In other words, the degree of overlap in attributes depends on what attributes are most salient to the researcher. If a crowdworker is seen as an alternative to artificial intelligence and its humanity is not at the forefront, then perhaps a substitution would apply. On the other hand, researchers interested in using pigeons’ visual properties as a substitute for human labelers (Levenson et al., 2015 ) could also see a substitution between crowdworkers and pigeons.

As mentioned earlier, Kang et al.’s ( 2022 ) analogical search engine looks for papers that overlap in terms of purpose with a researchers’ study (as represented in the form of a search query). However, if the purpose is virtually identical, then replacing one mechanism for another may often be a substitution, not an analogy, as seen in cases 1 and 2 above. In some cases, such as using pigeons vs. neural networks to classify images, swapping mechanisms may result in an analogy. On the other hand, when the purpose is only similar (but not identical), there is no guarantee that the purpose-mechanism relationship will be analogical across different papers. 3 Thus, while Kang et al. ( 2022 ) find that their search engine is more likely to identify papers that trigger creative adaptations of the original idea (when compared to a standard keyword-based search engine), it is important to distinguish related work that might result in generating novel ideas and related work that actually has an analogical relationship with the present work.

Returning to Tu’s work on discovering a cure for malaria, she found that wormwood “showed some effects in inhibiting malaria parasites during initial screening, but the result was inconsistent and not reproducible.” Scouring over the relevant literature, she then identified a relevant sentence in Ge Hong’s fifth century A Handbook of Prescriptions for Emergencies : “A handful of Qinghao immersed in two liters of water, wring out the juice and drink it all” (Tu, 2015 ). Tu realized that while herbs are typically boiled, Ge’s recipe did not advocate for boiling it so perhaps the heat killed the active components in the wormwood. This led to a new method for extracting artemisinin from wormwood. To model this we would have to add entities to Fig.  5 that account for the method by which the drug is extracted. In that case, Ge’s method can be seen as a substitution for Tu’s original method. This substitution led to a drastic change in the research direction, eventually resulting in a cure for malaria.

Putting the pieces together

Now that we have seen the various operations that can relate two pieces of research to one another, it is worth discussing how these operations might be used in sequence over the scope of a research project. To do so, I provide a hypothetical example. As a disclaimer, the example is not from an area I have any expertise in; in fact, I encountered the relationships described below in the process of writing this paper (although not in the exact sequence described below). On the one hand, this suggests that the example may be oversimplified; on the other hand, perhaps it gives a somewhat authentic account of a non-expert navigating a new research field.

Suppose we are interested in conducting a literature review related to the question “how are memories stored in synapses?” This research question can be represented as “memories are stored in synapses through some mechanism” as shown at the top of Fig.  7 . Some of the steps described below are also represented in Fig.  7 ; in those cases, I will mention the number of the step in parentheses. Operator names are italicized below. If the reader wants to assess their understanding of the operators (or perhaps assess the degree to which there could be subjectivity in which operators apply), the reader can guess which operator applies for each step of the figure before reading the rest of this section.

Example of literature search as a sequence of operators applied to a research question on how memory is stored in synapses

When embarking on this literature search process, we are likely already aware of some answers to the question. For example, “some mechanism” could be reified by “synaptic plasticity” (Step 1). But synaptic plasticity is quite broad and could be reified further by several more specific forms of plasticity, such as “long-term potentiation” (Step 2) and “long-term depression.” Further literature search might reveal a plethora of other mechanisms such as “protein synthesis,” “epigenetic mechanisms,” or “the standard model of synaptic consolidation.” However, these mechanisms are not necessarily mutually exclusive, perhaps leading to a revision of the question formulation to “memories are stored in synapses through a combination of X, Y, ...” (or some more hierarchical representation). On the other hand, some proposed mechanisms may be competing, like “the standard model of synaptic consolidation” and “multiple trace theory” (i.e., one can be substituted for the other). Moreover, we might realize that the “memory” entity can also be reified into particular kinds of memory, like “episodic memory” or “semantic memory.”

Searching the literature further may reveal that there are recent suggestions that memory is not (only) stored in synapses, but could be stored in sub-cellular materials. This might result in a substitution of certain molecules (e.g., “RNA”) for synapse (Step 3 ′ ). Alternatively, to keep our options open we may apply an abstraction of “synapse,” such as “parts of the brain” (Step 3). “Parts of the brain” can then be reified with many different entities, like “RNA” (Step 4). But it can also be substituted for regions of the brain where memories are stored, like the hippocampus. This may subsequently lead to the realization that rather than just asking how memories are stored, we should also be asking where memories are stored, leading to an expansion of the initial representation.

So far we have primarily considered literature that directly bears on the initial question. But sometimes surprising related works can also be discovered through intersections . For example, once we have established that RNA may be involved in memory, a colleague who is a molecular biologist might point out that there is an intersection with the literature on RNA interference (Step 5). Indeed, Smalheiser et al. ( 2001 ) noticed connections between a series of controversial 1960s studies on RNA-mediated memory transfer and RNAi; Smalheiser was a pioneer of literature-based discovery. We might then posit a relation that was neither present in our initial representation nor in related work: RNAi is potentially involved in the memory storage mechanism (i.e., “some mechanism” in our representation). Although it took over a decade, Smalheiser eventually found evidence to suggest that RNAi could indeed be involved in memory transfer (Smalheiser, 2017 ).

Finally, upon contemplating the initial representation further, the researcher may recognize an analogy to “how is memory stored in computer hardware?” (Step 6) or “how is memory stored in artificial neural networks?” Studying the literature in either of these areas may lead to the addition of new hypothesized mechanisms through an interpretation in light of the analogies. Notice that while in some cases a researcher notices an analogy when examining related literature, in other cases a researcher might think of an analogy, and then search for related literature. The related literature could either be about the analog (e.g., how memory is encoded in artificial neural networks) or about the analogy itself (Langille & Gallistel, 2020 ,e.g., how do theories of memory storage in the human brain relate to theories of memory storage in computer science). In the latter case, we have an intersection applied to the entire analogy .

The typology in practice

In this section, we discuss some important considerations for how the representation and typology could be used in practice. In theory, an understanding of the various ways in which one piece of literature may relate to a research topic can inform directions in information retrieval and citation recommendation. Such systems could potentially represent papers in terms of entities and relations by using named entity recognition (Nadeau & Sekine, 2007 ) and relation extraction (Bach & Badaskar, 2007 ); they can also leverage a growing body of work on using knowledge graphs for information retrieval (Reinanda et al., 2020 ). The typology can then inform the kinds of relationships that such systems can explore and possibly recommend to users. However, we reiterate that there is no single way to represent a paper or single way of applying the operators to identify relationships to prior work. As noted above, the choice of what operators apply and hence which relationships to related works will be noticed depends on the view one takes of one’s work and related work. One way to potentially mitigate this challenge is by having users specify their current view of their work in terms of its representation, or perhaps by allowing them to simultaneously represent their work in multiple ways. Furthermore, recognizing that different researchers and papers will use slightly different terms to refer to identical or very similar entities and relations, search engines could try to treat semantically similar phrases as being identical or provide a pre-selected set of entities and relations that they recommend users use.

However, even if the representations of papers are completely aligned, the task of retrieving good analogies and abstractions may be computationally intractable in the worst case (Wareham et al., 2011 ). Indeed, in automated analogical search, simplifications are made to make finding potential analogies more tractable. For example, the MAC/FAC algorithm—which is rooted in structure-mapping theory—first finds several examples that have the most surface-level overlap in terms of relations and then identifies the analogy 4 that is structurally strongest (Forbus et al., 1995 ). In Kang et al.’s ( 2022 ) analogical search engine, they look for papers that have a similar purpose, where similarity is measured by neural network embeddings rather than looking for a formally analogical structure. Although such algorithms may not be perfect, they could still potentially surface candidate analogies that would be given to a researcher who would ultimately identify when an analogy operator is applicable and useful.

Given the ongoing challenges in automated search, perhaps the typology would be more useful as a conceptual tool for researchers. Huang and Soergel ( 2013 ) found that “teaching users about the different kinds of topical relevance relationships may open their minds and make them better searchers and users of information.” Similarly, perhaps the typology presented here could be used as a tool to familiarize researchers with the different ways in which their research may relate to prior work, and how to use search tools to find such works. As mentioned before, simply representing one’s paper as a network of entities and relations may be a useful exercise to help researchers realize new insights about their research; future experimental studies could confirm whether this is true. Moreover, in discussing the potential value of their analogical search engine, Kang et al. ( 2022 ) mention the importance of “how deeply the human users can reflect on the retrieved analogs...and recognize how different notions of relevance may exist for their own problem context, despite potential dissimilarity on the surface” (p. 125). They suggest that “one approach to explaining relevance might be to surface a small number of core common features between an analog and a problem query” (p. 126). The representation presented here provides a natural way of showing users the potential relevance of related work. For example, when one searches for literature (even using a traditional search engine), representations could be generated on demand for the resulting papers such that they maximally align with the user’s query (at least in terms of number of entities and relations, if not in terms of higher-order relationships). Moreover, if the user specifies multiple research projects, a search engine could potentially represent each paper in terms of the representation that best aligns with each project.

I have tried to make the case that literature search is a complex process that can influence and be influenced by research in a variety of ways. By describing research papers and projects in terms of concrete representations, we can formally articulate how different pieces of research might relate to one another. As discussed in the last section, this could have practical ramifications in terms of how search engines could better support the literature search process or how to design training for researchers to improve the way they approach literature search.

Beyond practical applications, the typology presented here could give us insight into the ways in which literature search might iteratively change the course of a research project as a sequence of operations. Although it goes beyond the scope of this paper, it might be worth briefly considering some of the ways in which a research project might be modified as a result of these operations. One form of modification is simply adding new entities and relations to P as a result of an expansion; we can view this as a natural extension of the expansion operator. Several other forms of modifications can fall under the category of logical inference (i.e., deduction , induction , and abduction ). For example, in the black swans example, evidence of black swans triggers a modus ponens argument that proves the “all-swans-are-white” hypothesis is false, thereby changing P . Similarly, in Swanson’s ABC model, we can discern the presence of a new relation through the transitivity of the causal relation. If the representations are well-specified, one can imagine creating an inference engine that can automatically detect such changes in P after coming into contact with related work.

However, literature search cannot be considered in isolation from the other aspects of scientific discovery. Another form of modification to P might be the result of an experimentation operation, whereby a deduced relation is tested. We saw this both in the case of medical research that confirmed the causal link deduced by Swanson, and Tu’s experimental confirmation that wormwood can cure malaria. Finally, there is the construction operation, whereby a new entity or relation is created. Construction can result from either literature search (e.g., where an interpretation of some finding results in the discovery of a new finding, or where the expansion of an analogy results in an analogous entity that was not previously conceived of) or from research itself (e.g., the discovery of a new molecule or a new experimental finding). A thorough understanding of the processes of inference, experimentation, and construction is beyond the scope of this paper, but they begin to give us a hint as to how literature search is an iterative process that interacts with other aspects of the research process.

As pointed out by Swanson ( 1986 ), world 3 is also a world where scientific discovery takes place, by interacting with world 1 (the physical world) and world 2 (the subjective world of mental states). Philosophy of science should try to understand how these worlds interact in the process of scientific discovery; this paper is a step in that direction.

Acknowledgements

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. (2033868). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Author Contributions

Sole authored publication

Provided by National Science Foundation, Award Number: 2033868

Availability of data and material:

Declarations.

1 This can be formalized using the partial structures formalism mentioned above (Da Costa & French, 1990 ).

2 Gentner ( 1983 ) did not explicitly define an analogy in terms of an abstraction, but I believe it is useful to recognize that there is always implicitly an abstraction present, and in many cases, it might be useful to reason about what that abstraction is. Gentner ( 1983 ) further differentiates between abstractions, analogies, and literal similarities. These are differentiated by how many attributes and relations are shared between the two and the degree of abstractness of the entities (i.e., in an abstraction, entities are more abstract). While this is sensible, we allow for abstractions that are more concrete, so long as the entities in one representation are still instances of the entities in the other.

3 For example, one participant’s research question was how to “Grow plants better by optimizing entry of nanoparticle fertilizers into the plant” (p. 14). One paper identified by analogical search was about identifying plants by applying image analysis techniques to their leaves. It is not clear what the similar purpose is in this case, but regardless, the paper does not obviously share an analogical relationship with the research question. While this paper inspired a novel idea that the researcher thought would be relevant to her project, the relationship is captured by an intersection (through the “plant” entity) and possibly the application of interpretation and expansion operators.

4 Technically it looks for matches in terms of literal similarity to mimic people’s tendencies to find literally similar matches, but the algorithm could be easily modified to search for analogies.

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• Open access
• Published: 25 April 2024

A scoping review of academic and grey literature on migrant health research conducted in Scotland

• G. Petrie 1 ,
• K. Angus 2 &
• R. O’Donnell 2  

BMC Public Health volume  24 , Article number:  1156 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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Migration to Scotland has increased since 2002 with an increase in European residents and participation in the Asylum dispersal scheme. Scotland has become more ethnically diverse, and 10% of the current population were born abroad. Migration and ethnicity are determinants of health, and information on the health status of migrants to Scotland and their access to and barriers to care facilitates the planning and delivery of equitable health services. This study aimed to scope existing peer-reviewed research and grey literature to identify gaps in evidence regarding the health of migrants in Scotland.

A scoping review on the health of migrants in Scotland was carried out for dates January 2002 to March 2023, inclusive of peer-reviewed journals and grey literature. CINAHL/ Web of Science/SocIndex and Medline databases were systematically searched along with government and third-sector websites. The searches identified 2166 journal articles and 170 grey literature documents for screening. Included articles were categorised according to the World Health Organisation’s 2016 Strategy and Action Plan for Refugee and Migrant Health in the European region. This approach builds on a previously published literature review on Migrant Health in the Republic of Ireland.

Seventy-one peer reviewed journal articles and 29 grey literature documents were included in the review. 66% were carried out from 2013 onwards and the majority focused on asylum seekers or unspecified migrant groups. Most research identified was on the World Health Organisation’s strategic areas of right to health of refugees, social determinants of health and public health planning and strengthening health systems. There were fewer studies on the strategic areas of frameworks for collaborative action, preventing communicable disease, preventing non-communicable disease, health screening and assessment and improving health information and communication.

While research on migrant health in Scotland has increased in recent years significant gaps remain. Future priorities should include studies of undocumented migrants, migrant workers, and additional research is required on the issue of improving health information and communication.

Peer Review reports

The term migrant is defined by the International Organisation for Migration as “ a person who moves away from his or her place of usual residence, whether within a country or across an international border, temporarily or permanently, and for a variety of reasons. The term includes several well-defined legal categories of people, including migrant workers; persons whose particular types of movements are legally-defined, such as smuggled migrants; as well as those whose status are not specifically defined under international law, such as international students.” [ 1 ] Internationally there are an estimated 281 million migrants – 3.6% of the world population, including 26.4 million refugees and 4.1 million asylum seekers – the highest number ever recorded [ 2 ]. The UN Refugee Society defines the term refugee as “ someone who has been forced to flee his or her country because of persecution, war or violence…most likely, they cannot return home or are afraid to do so .” The term asylum-seeker is defined as “someone whose request for sanctuary has yet to be processed.” [ 3 ].

Net-migration to Europe was negative in the 19th century due to higher levels of emigration, however in the mid-20th century immigration began to rise, because of an increase in migrant workers and following conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa [ 4 ]. Current migration drivers include conflicts alongside world-wide economic instability, exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic [ 5 ]. Environmental damage due to climate change is expected to inflate the number of asylum seekers entering Europe in future [ 6 ]. The increase in migration to Europe is not a short-term influx but a long-term phenomenon, and European nations must adapt and find solutions to resulting financial, safeguarding and health challenges [ 7 ].

Data on healthcare use by migrants in Europe is variable, which means cross-country comparisons are inadequate [ 8 ]. Many countries do not record migration information within health records and all use disparate criteria to classify migrant status. The lack of comparative data hinders public health surveillance and effective interventions [ 9 ]. Even where information is available, results can be contradictory due to the multifarious migrant population. Migrants have a wide range of origin countries, socio-economic position, age and journeys undertaken which can affect health status [ 10 ].

Migrants initially may have better health than the general population, known as the ‘Healthy Migrant effect’ [ 11 ]. However, health declines with increasing length of residence [ 12 ] and over time to levels comparable with the general population [ 13 ]. Second generation immigrants may have higher mortality than average [ 14 ]. The process of acculturation to the host country, with adoption of unhealthy lifestyle and behaviours, increases the risk for chronic disease [ 15 ]. In addition, inequalities in health of migrants compared to host populations has been confirmed by wide-ranging research [ 16 ].

Host countries may limit healthcare access, with undocumented migrants sometimes only entitled to emergency care [ 17 ]. Even when access is granted, inequitable services can affect quality of care due to language barriers and cultural factors [ 18 ]. Poor working/living conditions and discrimination can exacerbate health inequalities [ 12 ]. Processing facilities for asylum seekers are frequently overpopulated, stressful environments [ 19 ] and threat of deportation, lack of citizenship rights and integration can negatively affect health and access to care [ 20 ]. Undocumented workers are unprotected by health and safety legislation leading to dangerous working conditions and injuries [ 15 ].

A systematic review of migrant health in the European Union (EU) found migrants have worse self-perceived health than the general population [ 21 ]. Research evidence indicates increased prevalence of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, mental health disorders and adverse pregnancy outcomes. Exposure to conflict, harsh travel conditions and suboptimal vaccine programmes can mean higher risk of communicable disease [ 22 ]. Scoping reviews have also been conducted to describe trends within migration health research in the United Kingdom (UK) [ 23 ] and identify gaps for future research agendas in the UK [ 23 ] and in the Republic of Ireland [ 24 ].

Almost three-quarters (73%) of published migration health research in the UK has been conducted in England, focusing primarily on infectious diseases and mental health. There is limited evidence on the social determinants of health, access to and use of healthcare and structural and behavioural factors behaviours that influence migrant health in the UK [ 23 ]. By contrast, a large amount of the migration research conducted in the Republic of Ireland has focused on the social determinants of health, and on health system adaptations, with a paucity of research focusing on improving health information systems [ 24 ].

Migration and Health in Scotland

Immigration to Scotland began to rise in 2003 with the expansion of the EU [ 25 ]. The population in Scotland increased from 5.11 million to 5.47 million between 2005 and 2020 and is predicted to continue rising until 2028 [ 26 ] despite low birth rates, with the increased population resulting from inward migration [ 27 ]. Scotland’s population is becoming more ethnically diverse [ 28 ] and susceptibility to different health conditions varies by ethnic group, which has implications for the planning and provision of health services [ 29 ]. 7% of the current Scottish population are non-UK nationals and 10% were born outside Britain. The commonest countries of origin were Poland, Ireland, Italy, Nigeria and India [ 30 ].

Within Scotland, linking health data to ethnicity is standard in order to monitor and improve health of minority groups [ 31 ]. Ethnic background can differ from country of birth which means migration status cannot be assumed [ 32 ], although health inequalities experienced by migrants often extend to affect all ethnic minority groups [ 33 ]. The Scottish Health and Ethnicity Linkage Study (SHELS) linked census data to health records of 91% of the population which has provided information on mortality and morbidity by ethnic group and country of birth [ 34 ]. SHELS research indicates that the white-Scottish population have a higher mortality rate than other ethnic groups. This may be consequent to the comparatively poor health of the Scottish population relative to other European nations: high mortality rates in the general population may cause a perception that the health of minorities is more advantageous than in reality [ 35 ].

Cezard et al’s [ 13 ] analysis of self-perceived health among people in Scotland found that being born abroad had a positive impact on health status. Health declined with increased length of residence, which may be explained by cultural convergence with the majority population. Allik et al. [ 36 ] compared health inequalities by ethnic background and found that with increasing age, health differences reduced thus people aged over 75 of all ethnicities had similar or worse health status than White-Scottish people. While working-age migrants appear to be healthier than the White Scottish population, it cannot be assumed that in future this would extend to older age groups.

Research has shown deprivation as a cause of heath inequalities among ethnic minority and migrant groups [ 37 ]. The socio-economic status of minority ethnic groups in Scotland is unusual, as most are of similar or higher status than the white-Scottish population [ 38 ]. Therefore, public health interventions targeting deprivation may not address risk-factors for ethnic minorities and migrants [ 36 ]. Further research on determinants of health in migrants can help with planning and design of inclusive policies.

The 2011 census indicated that 50% of immigrants lived in the cities of Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Aberdeen. Glasgow had a greater percentage of non-European immigrants due to participation in the Asylum dispersal programme [ 39 ]. 10% of UK asylum seekers are placed in Glasgow, but records are not kept following approval of asylum claims, therefore the size of the refugee population is unknown [ 40 ]. While immigration is controlled by the British government, in policy areas devolved to the Scottish government, refugees and asylum seekers have more rights than elsewhere in UK, including access to primary healthcare for undocumented migrants [ 40 ]. Despite the mitigating effect of Scottish policies, asylum seekers’ health is worsened by the asylum process and associated poverty, marginalisation, and discrimination [ 40 ]. Health deteriorates with increasing length of time in the asylum system [ 40 ] and asylum seekers and refugees have additional health needs and require enhanced support [ 41 ]. Research on the health needs of asylum seekers in Scotland is required to ensure adequate healthcare.

Aim and objectives

While scoping reviews on migrant health have been carried out in Europe [ 12 ], Ireland [ 24 ] and the UK [ 23 ] none are currently specific to the Scottish context. Given the devolved government of Scotland and demographics described above, a targeted review would help to clarify research priorities, with the aim of improving health and health care within the migrant community in Scotland. This work therefore builds on the published scoping review of migrant health in the Republic of Ireland [ 24 ]. The authors recommend replication of the study in other countries to facilitate cross-country comparison. Our aim was to scope peer-reviewed research and grey literature on migrant health conducted in Scotland and identify any gaps in the evidence. Our objectives were to: [1] understand the extent of the available research by topic area [2] summarise the types of research already conducted, populations studied, topics covered and approaches taken [3], map the existing research conducted in Scotland and [4] identify areas for future research based on any gaps in the evidence identified.

A scoping review was conducted as they can aid detection of evidence gaps [ 42 ] and allow incorporation of grey literature in topics with insufficient published research [ 43 ]. Arksey and O’Malley’s [ 44 ] five stage scoping review framework was used.

Stage 1: identifying the research question

Arskey and O’Malley [ 44 ] suggest maintaining a broad approach to identifying the research question, in order to generate breadth of coverage. On this basis, and in line with the research question identified in the Villarroel et al. [ 24 ] scoping review, our research question was framed as follows: What is the scope, main topics and gaps in evidence in the existing literature on health of international migrants living in Scotland? Arksey and O’Malley [ 44 ] highlight the importance of defining terminology at the outset of scoping reviews. For consistency, we used the broad definition of ‘migrant’ as per Villaroel et al. [ 24 ], from the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) [ 1 ]. References to refugees or asylum seekers followed the United Nations Refugee Agency definitions [ 3 ].

Stage 2: identifying relevant studies

Electronic database searches identified reports alongside a grey literature search, in line with Arskey and O’Malley’s [ 44 ] guidance to search for evidence via different sources. CINAHL, Web of Science, SocIndex and Medline academic databases were selected with input from co-authors. Search terms for the review were based upon those used by Villaroel et al. [ 24 ] with additional relevant terms from Hannigan et al. [ 9 ] The strategy combined three sets of terms for: Migrants (e.g., refugee, migrant, immigrant or newcomer), Scotland and Health. Both free text terms and index terms were used and adapted to the 4 academic databases and searches were run on 10th March 2023 (see Additional File 1 for database search strategies). Thirteen Government, University, and third-sector websites in Scotland were scoped for selection then hand-searched for grey literature (listed in Additional File 1 ).

Stage 3: study selection

Net-migration to Scotland increased in the 2000s [ 27 ] hence a date range of January 2002-March 2023 was used to identify evidence. The search was limited to English only. Inclusion/exclusion criteria for the studies were based on those used by Villaroel et al. [ 24 ] and expanded upon following discussion with co-authors (see Table  1 ). Reports were included if based on primary or secondary research on the health of international migrants in Scotland and used qualitative, quantitative or mixed methods research design. International or UK based reports were only included if Scottish results were documented separately. Reports on the health of ethnic minority groups in Scotland was included if place of birth was recorded. Research on internal (non-international) migrants within Scotland, either moving from one Scottish area to another or from another part of the United Kingdom to Scotland, were excluded.

Stage 4: data charting

All records were saved to RefWorks for screening. Records were first screened at title/abstract stage with 10% independently checked by the co-authors. The remaining reports were single screened using full text by the first author. Data from the included records was extracted and organised in tabular form under the following headings, which were agreed by team members: article type (peer-reviewed article or grey literature), publication date, geographical setting, study/intervention’s target population, funding, primary research focus on migrant health (y/n), study objective, data collection method, study design (qualitative/quantitative/mixed) and main finding. Reports were not critically appraised in this scoping review.

Stage 5: collating, summarising and reporting results

A report (either a peer-reviewed journal article or grey literature report) is used as our unit of analysis. In order to present the range of research identified, reports were grouped by the different headings in our data charting table and the outcomes considered for relevance to our scoping review’s aim. Our Results summarise the recency, focus, study designs and funding sources of the identified research, followed by the geographical settings and whether Scotland was included in international research reports. Reports were grouped by their study population and further sub-divided by publication type and geographical area for summarising. Finally, the WHO’s European strategy and action plan (SAAP) for refugee and migrant health [ 7 ] is a policy framework designed to help governments and other stakeholders monitor and improve migrant health in Europe. There are nine strategic areas in the WHO’s SAAP, which prioritise the most salient issues. In line with Villaroel et al’s [ 24 ] approach and in order to compare scoping review outcomes, these areas were used to categorise the findings of this review. Each report was matched to the most appropriate SAAP:

Establishing a Framework for Collaborative Action.

Advocating for the right to health of refugees.

Addressing the social determinants of health.

Achieving public health preparedness and ensuring an effective response.

Strengthening health systems and their resilience.

Preventing communicable disease.

Preventing and reducing the risks caused by non-communicable disease.

Ensuring ethical and effective health screening and assessment.

Improving health information and communication.

The primary focus (aims and objectives) of each report was used to identify the relevant SAAP area/areas. To improve reliability, results were compared using coding criteria used in Villaroel et al’s study (MacFarlane 2023, personal communication, 31st May). 10% of the reports were checked by one co-author to ensure consistent coding to SAAP categories. Any instances of uncertainty in mapping reports to the relevant SAAP area/areas were discussed and resolved by team members.

This scoping review of the literature on migrant health in Scotland identified 2166 records from academic literature databases, following duplicate removal, and 170 records from website searches (see Fig.  1 ). Following screening, a total of 71 peer-reviewed journal articles and 29 grey literature studies (totalling 100 reports) were included for analysis (Results table and reference list are presented in Additional File 2 ).

Flow chart illustrating the identification of sources of evidence included in the scoping review

Overall findings

The majority of reports were published between 2013 and 2022. Fifty-eight reports (58%) focused exclusively on migrant health [ 18 , 39 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 , 60 , 61 , 62 , 63 , 64 , 65 , 66 , 67 , 68 , 69 , 70 , 71 , 72 , 73 , 74 , 75 , 76 , 77 , 78 , 79 , 80 , 81 , 82 , 83 , 84 , 85 , 86 , 87 , 88 , 89 , 90 , 91 , 92 , 93 , 94 , 95 , 96 , 97 , 98 , 99 , 100 , 101 , 102 ]. 23 centred on health but included other populations in addition to migrants – for example research on ethnic minorities or other vulnerable groups [ 13 , 31 , 35 , 103 , 104 , 105 , 106 , 107 , 108 , 109 , 110 , 111 , 112 , 113 , 114 , 115 , 116 , 117 , 118 , 119 , 120 , 121 , 122 ]. Seventeen reports were included where the sample population were migrants, but the primary topic was not health – for example destitution, integration, and service needs [ 27 , 73 , 74 , 123 , 124 , 125 , 126 , 127 , 128 , 129 , 130 , 131 , 132 , 133 , 134 , 135 ]. Health data was reported as part of the wider subject matter. One report [ 136 ] looked at the social determinants of breastfeeding including migrant status and one [ 137 ] compared attitudes to aging and family support between countries.

Funding sources were not declared for 35 (35%) of reports. The Scottish Government funded 20 reports (20%) [ 13 , 27 , 32 , 39 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 66 , 77 , 88 , 99 , 100 , 101 , 102 , 113 , 116 , 119 , 121 , 129 , 134 ]. Other common sources of funding included Government funded public bodies ( n  = 13) [ 45 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 104 , 107 , 113 , 116 , 131 , 136 ], the Scottish Health Service ( n  = 18) (either the National Health Service (NHS) [ 13 , 54 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 , 102 , 113 , 116 ], local NHS trusts [ 45 , 60 , 61 , 77 , 102 , 103 , 112 ] or by Public Health Scotland [ 13 , 113 ]) Eleven reports (11%) were funded by Universities. The charity sector financed 15 (15%) reports [ 53 , 63 , 66 , 69 , 70 , 71 , 72 , 73 , 74 , 103 , 111 , 123 , 125 , 132 , 138 ] and the EU and Scottish local authorities funded four reports each [ 45 , 62 , 75 , 76 , 77 , 102 , 125 , 135 ]. Professional bodies financed one report [ 126 ] as did the Japanese government [ 64 ]. No reports received funding from the business sector. The biggest sources of funding for grey literature were Refugee charities (40%) and the Scottish government (30%) (see Fig. 2 ).

Sources of funding for migrant health research in Scotland

Research methods and data collection

52% of reports used qualitative research methods. Forty-five reports (86%) collected data using 1–1 interviews and 24 (46%) used focus groups. Other methods of data collection included questionnaires (six studies (11%)), workshops (two studies (3.85%)) and observation (two studies (3.85%)). Oral/written evidence, guided play sessions, family case studies and participatory activity sessions were used in one report each.

28% of reports used quantitative research methods, most commonly cross section design (ten studies (36%)) and cohort design (18 studies (64%)). Information was obtained from databases including medical records, Census data and national records in 21 reports (75%). Questionnaires were used in six reports (21%). Other methods including body measurements, food diaries, blood samples, interviews and case reviews were used in 1 report each.

20% of reports used mixed methods. The most common method of data collection was questionnaires in 14 reports (70%), interviews in ten reports (50%), focus groups in seven reports (35%), workshops in three reports (13.6%), and databases in three reports (13.6%). Other methods included literature review in two reports (10%), case note reviews in two reports (10%) and one reports each used mapping and school records.

Geographical areas of study

Ninety-one reports were situated in Scotland, of which 35 (38.5%) covered the whole country and 56 (61.5%) specified a city or area where research was undertaken. Some UK and international reports also specified the area of Scotland. The largest share of research within Scotland overall was in Glasgow with 36 reports, followed by Edinburgh with 16 reports, Lothian with six reports, Aberdeen with five reports and Grampian with three reports. The Northeast, Stirling, Highlands, Inverness, Lanarkshire, Motherwell and Selkirk had one report in each area.

There were seven international reports, three on mortality by country of birth [ 75 , 76 , 78 ], one on cross cultural communication [ 79 ], one on maternity care in Poland and Scotland [ 99 ], one comparing attitudes to aging in China and Scotland [ 137 ] and one on the link between birthweights and integration of migrants [ 64 ]. The remaining two reports were UK based, one on immunisation of Roma and traveller communities [ 117 ] and one on the link between ethnic diversity and mortality [ 104 ]. All the included international and UK reports documented the Scottish data separately within results.

Migrant population

Thirty-one reports included all migrants in the study population. The remaining reports included 30 studies on asylum seekers/refugees, 11 on Polish migrants, ten on Africans, six each on South Asians/Chinese/European, three on Arabs, and two on Roma populations (see Fig.  3 ). Most reports did not specify the country of origin for Asylum seekers and refugees - where country of birth was specified, reports were also included in the appropriate category.

Migrant populations studied in health research in Scotland

Grey literature and peer-reviewed reports differed in population focus. The most common populations of interest in grey literature were asylum seekers/refugees consisting of 18 reports (62%) [ 27 , 47 , 54 , 55 , 59 , 63 , 70 , 71 , 72 , 73 , 74 , 123 , 125 , 127 , 128 , 132 , 134 , 138 ] while for peer-reviewed journals 24 reports (34%) focused on all migrants [ 13 , 35 , 45 , 48 , 64 , 76 , 78 , 79 , 80 , 81 , 104 , 105 , 108 , 109 , 113 , 114 , 115 , 116 , 118 , 120 , 121 , 122 , 136 ].

Migrant study population also differed by local area; Glasgow city, where the majority of research occurred, had 18 reports of 36 (50%) on Asylum seekers/refugees [ 47 , 48 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 58 , 63 , 70 , 71 , 72 , 82 , 83 , 127 , 128 , 130 , 138 , 139 ] eight reports (22%) on Africans [ 52 , 53 , 84 , 85 , 86 , 87 , 106 , 107 ], seven reports (19%) on all migrants [ 45 , 48 , 80 , 102 , 104 , 105 , 121 ] and two reports (5.5%) on Roma migrants [ 103 , 117 ]. Other populations had one reports each. In Edinburgh five reports of 16 (31%) were on the Polish population [ 56 , 67 , 68 , 89 , 90 ], and two reports (12.5%) on Asylum seekers/refugees [ 60 , 133 ], Chinese [ 62 , 137 ], South Asian [ 46 , 119 ], all migrants [ 105 , 121 ] and Africans [ 87 , 107 ]. The remaining migrant groups had one report each. Other areas of Scotland show no clear pattern with studies in disparate migrant population groups.

Number of reports per Strategic and Action Plan (SAAP) Area

SAAP Area mapping

1. establishing a framework for collaborative action.

Nine reports had a primary focus on collaborative action and were categorised under SAAP area 1 (see Fig.  4 ) [ 66 , 70 , 72 , 73 , 103 , 125 , 129 , 132 , 134 ]. Four reports (33%) used a mixed methods study design, the remaining five reports (67%) used a qualitative design. One report [ 66 ] focused on the epidemiology of female genital mutilation and a proposed intervention strategy. One report [ 66 ] focused on the epidemiology of female genital mutilation and a proposed intervention strategy. One report [ 103 ] evaluated service provision to the Roma community in Glasgow. The remaining reports focused on refugees and asylum seekers: four [ 73 , 125 , 132 , 134 ] evaluations of refugee integration projects, one [ 70 ] on services available to pregnant women, and one [ 72 ] an assessment of a peer-education service. One report [ 129 ] was a review of service provisions for migrants during the Covid-19 pandemic. All reports in SAAP area 1 were grey literature and three (37.5%) had a primary focus on migrant health while four (50%) focused on integration, one (11%) included data on ethnic minorities and one (11%) on services during the covid-19 pandemic. The majority (seven reports (78%)) were also categorised to another SAAP area most commonly area 2 (five studies (55%)) or area 5 (four studies (44%)).

2. Advocating for the right to health of refugees

Nineteen reports focused on SAAP area 2, advocating for the right to health of refugees (see Fig.  4 ) [ 47 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 63 , 70 , 71 , 83 , 103 , 123 , 124 , 125 , 127 , 128 , 129 , 134 , 138 , 140 ]. Sixteen reports (84%) had a qualitative study design and the remaining three (16%) reports used mixed methods. Nine reports (47%) focused on the health impact of the asylum system [ 52 , 55 , 71 , 74 , 123 , 127 , 128 , 129 , 138 ], five (26%) on health and access to care [ 47 , 54 , 83 , 103 , 124 ], two (10.5%) on maternity care [ 63 , 70 ], two (10.5%) on integration services [ 125 , 134 ] and one report on mental health in HIV positive migrants [ 53 ]. Nine reports (47%) had a primary focus on migrant health while the remaining 10 (53%) also involved wider social issues. The majority (15 (79%)) of reports were grey literature. All the articles in this group overlapped with another SAAP area. Area 3 is the most common joint category with ten reports (53%) followed by area 5 with seven reports (37%), area 1 shares five reports (26%), while areas 4 and 8 share one report each (5%).

3. Addressing the social determinants of health

Twenty-nine reports were categorised to SAAP area 3 – addressing the social determinants of health (see Fig.  4 ) [ 13 , 27 , 45 , 50 , 52 , 55 , 60 , 62 , 63 , 65 , 68 , 71 , 74 , 80 , 81 , 82 , 91 , 92 , 93 , 102 , 112 , 123 , 124 , 127 , 128 , 136 , 137 , 138 ]. The majority (14 (48%)) used a qualitative study method, eight (28%) used quantitative methodology and the remaining seven reports (24%) used mixed methods. Nineteen reports (65.5%) were peer-reviewed journals [ 13 , 45 , 50 , 52 , 60 , 62 , 63 , 65 , 68 , 80 , 81 , 82 , 91 , 92 , 93 , 104 , 112 , 124 , 136 , 137 ] and ten (34.5%) were grey literature [ 27 , 55 , 63 , 71 , 74 , 102 , 123 , 127 , 128 , 138 ]. Ten reports (34.5%) discussed the effects of the asylum system on health [ 27 , 52 , 63 , 71 , 74 , 123 , 124 , 127 , 128 , 137 ] and one (3.5%) migration and health [ 50 ]. Six reports (21%) focused on culture and ethnicity [ 82 , 92 , 102 , 104 , 112 , 137 ], five reports (17%) discussed economic and environmental determinants of health [ 13 , 45 , 67 , 81 , 93 ] and five reports (17%) the health impact of social activities [ 55 , 60 , 62 , 80 , 91 ]. Of the remaining reports, one [ 65 ] discussed Brexit and mental health of European migrants and one discussed the effect of coping strategies on wellbeing in Polish migrants [ 68 ]. Most reports, 18 (62%) had a primary focus on migrant health [ 45 , 50 , 52 , 55 , 60 , 62 , 63 , 65 , 67 , 68 , 71 , 80 , 81 , 82 , 91 , 92 , 93 , 102 ], six reports (21%) discussed wider social factors in addition to health [ 74 , 123 , 124 , 127 , 128 , 138 ]. Of the remaining reports three (10%) looked at ethnic background and country of birth [ 13 , 112 , 136 ], one [ 27 ] included other vulnerable groups and one [ 137 ] included people living in China and Chinese migrants to Scotland. Thirteen reports were also categorised to one or more additional SAAP area - ten (34%) were also applicable to area 2 [ 52 , 55 , 63 , 71 , 74 , 123 , 124 , 127 , 128 , 138 ], three (10%) to area 5 [ 63 , 82 , 92 ] and one (7%) to area 4 [ 27 ].

4. Achieving public health preparedness and ensuring an effective response

Twenty-one reports were assigned to SAAP area 4 (see Fig.  4 ) [ 27 , 31 , 35 , 39 , 47 , 57 , 64 , 75 , 76 , 77 , 78 , 94 , 104 , 108 , 109 , 111 , 113 , 114 , 116 , 120 , 135 ] of which fourteen (67%) used quantitative research methods, four (19%) mixed methods and three (14%) qualitative methods. Thirteen (62%) reports were peer-reviewed journals [ 35 , 59 , 64 , 75 , 78 , 104 , 108 , 109 , 111 , 113 , 114 , 116 , 120 ] and eight (38%) grey literature [ 27 , 31 , 39 , 47 , 57 , 77 , 94 , 135 ]. Most reports (12 (57%)) focused on morbidity and mortality in migrant populations [ 31 , 35 , 64 , 75 , 76 , 78 , 104 , 108 , 109 , 113 , 114 , 116 ]. Six (29%) investigated health status and healthcare needs in migrant groups in Scotland [ 39 , 47 , 57 , 77 , 94 , 135 ]. Two reports (9.5%) analysed the epidemiology of HIV infections [ 111 , 120 ] and the remaining report focused on the health needs of young people during the covid-19 pandemic [ 27 ]. Nine reports (43%) had a primary focus on migrant health [ 39 , 47 , 55 , 64 , 75 , 76 , 77 , 78 , 94 ] while eight (38%) also analysed data by ethnicity [ 31 , 35 , 104 , 108 , 109 , 113 , 114 , 116 ]. Of the remaining reports, three (14%) included other populations within Scotland [ 27 , 111 , 120 ] and one (5%) included other characteristics in addition to health information [ 135 ]. Ten reports (48%) were also categorised to another SAAP area; one to area 2 [ 47 ], one to area 3 [ 27 ], four to area 5 [ 47 , 57 , 77 , 135 ], two to area 6 [ 111 , 120 ] and two to area 9 [ 31 , 108 ].

5. Strengthening health systems and their resilience

Twenty-nine reports were assigned to SAAP area 5 (see Fig.  4 ) [ 18 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 54 , 57 , 63 , 69 , 70 , 72 , 77 , 79 , 82 , 83 , 92 , 95 , 96 , 97 , 99 , 101 , 103 , 118 , 119 , 126 , 129 , 131 , 133 , 135 , 141 ] of which 23 (79%) used qualitative research methods. Three reports used quantitative methods (10.3%) and the remaining three used mixed methods (10.3%). Twelve reports (41%) examined migrants needs and experiences of health care [ 47 , 49 , 54 , 57 , 58 , 77 , 83 , 95 , 103 , 119 , 129 , 135 ], eight (24%) focused on pregnancy and childcare [ 63 , 70 , 92 , 96 , 97 , 99 , 101 , 118 ] and two (7%) on barriers to healthcare access [ 48 , 131 ]. Two reports (7%) evaluated healthcare programmes [ 72 , 133 ] and two focused on communication in primary care [ 79 ] and maternity services [ 69 ]. The remaining three reports (10%) covered sexual health [ 82 ], health information needs of Syrian refugees [ 126 ] and general practitioner training [ 18 ]. Nineteen (65.5%) were peer reviewed journals [ 18 , 48 , 49 , 58 , 69 , 79 , 82 , 83 , 92 , 95 , 96 , 97 , 99 , 101 , 118 , 119 , 125 , 131 , 133 ] and ten (34.5%) were grey literature [ 47 , 54 , 57 , 63 , 70 , 72 , 77 , 103 , 129 , 135 ]. Twenty-one (72%) had a primary focus on migrant health [ 18 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 54 , 57 , 58 , 63 , 69 , 70 , 72 , 77 , 79 , 82 , 83 , 92 , 95 , 96 , 97 , 99 , 101 ]. Six reports (21%) included research on other characteristics or services [ 103 , 126 , 129 , 131 , 133 , 135 ]. The remaining two reports (7%) included ethnic groups as well as migrants in the data [ 118 , 119 ]. Nineteen reports (65.5%) were also assigned to one or more other category areas: five reports (17%) to area 1 [ 47 , 70 , 72 , 103 , 129 ], five reports (17%) to area 2 [ 54 , 63 , 83 , 103 , 129 ], three reports (10%) to area 3 [ 63 , 82 , 92 ], four reports (14%) to area 4 [ 47 , 57 , 77 , 135 ], one (3.5%) to area 7 [ 119 ] and one (3.5%) to area 9 [ 48 ].

6. Preventing communicable diseases

Fourteen reports were assigned to SAAP area 6 (see Fig.  4 ) [ 56 , 61 , 87 , 88 , 89 , 90 , 105 , 106 , 107 , 111 , 115 , 117 , 120 , 122 ] of which four (31%) used quantitative methods, five (38%) used qualitative methods and five (38%) used mixed methods. Five reports (38.5%) examined immunisation behaviour [ 56 , 61 , 89 , 90 , 117 ], five (38%) on epidemiology and treatment of HIV [ 106 , 107 , 111 , 120 , 122 ]. The remaining four reports (31%) focused on tuberculosis in healthcare workers [ 115 ], malaria [ 105 ] and sexual health services [ 87 , 88 ]. Only one reports was grey literature [ 88 ], the remainder were peer-reviewed journals. Six reports (46%) had a primary focus on migrant health [ 56 , 61 , 87 , 88 , 89 , 90 ] while seven reports (54%) also included other at-risk groups in the analysis. Four reports (31%) were also assigned to another SAAP category, two (15%) to area 4 [ 111 , 120 ] and two (15%) to area 8 [ 88 , 115 ].

7. Preventing and reducing the risks posed by non-communicable diseases

Eight reports were categorised to SAAP area 7 (see Fig.  4 ) [ 46 , 51 , 59 , 84 , 85 , 86 , 98 , 119 ] of which six (75%) used qualitative research methods, one (12.5%) used quantitative methods and one (12.5%) used mixed methods. Only one report (12.5%) was grey literature [ 59 ] the remaining seven reports (87.5%) were peer-reviewed journals [ 48 , 87 , 92 , 126 , 127 , 128 , 140 ]. Three reports (37.5%) focused on health behaviours [ 51 , 85 , 98 ], two (25%) on mental health, two (25%) on diabetes and one (12.5%) on chronic disease. Seven reports(87.5%) had a primary focus on migrant health [ 46 , 51 , 59 , 84 , 85 , 86 , 98 ], with the remaining report (12.5%) including ethnic minority groups [ 119 ]. One report (12.5%) was also assigned to SAAP area number 5 [ 119 ].

8. Ensuring ethical and effective health screening and assessment

There were six reports assigned to category 8 (see Fig.  4 ) [ 53 , 88 , 100 , 110 , 115 , 121 ] of which two (33%) used a quantitative research method, three (50%) used a qualitative method and one used mixed methods. One report (14%) was grey literature [ 88 ] the remaining five reports (83%) were peer reviewed journals [ 53 , 100 , 110 , 115 , 121 ]. Three reports (50%) focused on cancer screening in migrant women [ 21 , 100 , 110 ], one (17%) analysed access to HIV testing among African migrants [ 53 ], one (17%) on T.B in healthcare workers [ 72 ] and one (17%) on sexual health [ 36 ]. Three reports (50%) had a primary focus on migrant health [ 53 , 88 , 100 ] while the remaining three reports (50%) included other at-risk groups in the analysis [ 110 , 115 , 121 ]. There were three reports which overlapped with other SAAP areas: one [ 53 ] (17%) was categorised to area 2 while two [ 88 , 115 ] (33%) were categorised to area 6.

9. Improving health information and communication

Three reports were assigned to SAAP area 9 (see Fig.  4 ) [ 31 , 108 , 130 ]. One of these (33%) used a qualitative approach, one (33%) used a quantitative approach and one (33%) used mixed methods. Two [ 108 , 130 ] (66%) were peer-reviewed journal articles and one [ 31 ] (33%) was grey literature. Two reports (66%) focused on improving migrant demographics and health information using databases [ 31 , 108 ] while one (33%) described an information-needs matrix for refugees and asylum seekers [ 130 ]. Two [ 31 , 108 ] included ethnicities in the data while one [ 130 ] had a primary focus on migrant health. Two reports [ 31 , 108 ] (66%) also applied to SAAP area 4 while one report [ 130 ] (33%) was in SAAP area 9 only.

To our knowledge this is the first scoping review conducted on migrant health in Scotland. A previous rapid literature review [ 94 ] found most research focused on health behaviours, mental health, communicable disease and use of and access to healthcare; however, the review limited migrant definition to those who had immigrated within five years and asylum seekers were not included.

In our review, the majority of reports were published from 2013 onwards, aligning with the expansion in migrant research internationally [ 142 ]. 52% used qualitative research methods, 28% used quantitative methods and 20% used mixed methods. 58% focused on migrant health: the remaining papers included other populations or health as part of a wider remit. Research funding was mostly provided by the Scottish Government, NHS, refugee charities and Universities. No studies received funding from the private sector, although this sector has the potential resource and capacity to play a key role in funding future research to improve migrant health in Scotland. Geographically, most studies took place in Glasgow (36%), nationwide (38.5%) or Edinburgh (16%) – other areas were under-represented including Aberdeen (5%), despite being the city with the largest migrant population [ 30 ]. There was a lack of studies in rural localities. These findings concur with a UK migrant health review by Burns et al. [ 23 ] where research was concentrated in larger cities and data was sparse in rural areas relative to the migrant population.

Half of the research identified that was conducted in Glasgow focused on asylum seekers/refugees. Glasgow was previously the only Scottish city to host asylum seekers [ 143 ] and currently supports the most asylum seekers of any local authority in the UK [ 29 ]. In April 2022, the UK government widened the Asylum dispersal scheme to all local authorities [ 144 ]. Around 70% of Scotland’s refugee support services are based in Glasgow and the South-west [ 145 ]. As reduced access to services may impact the health of asylum seekers, research in Glasgow may not be generalizable to other regions of Scotland.

Almost one-third (30%) of all reports focused on asylum seekers and refugees – an overrepresentation given that only 18% of migrants to the UK are asylum seekers [ 146 ] and as low as 2% of all migrants in Scotland [ 147 ]. Asylum seekers and refugees are at risk of poor health due to trauma, difficult journeys, overcrowded camps, poor nutrition and lack of access to healthcare [ 148 ]. They have worse maternity outcomes and increased rates of mental illness [ 149 ]. Increased research on health of asylum seekers and refugees is necessary due to their additional vulnerabilities [ 142 ]. However, asylum seeker’s country of origin was generally not specified. Asylum seekers have heterogenic backgrounds [ 150 ] and nationality and trauma experience affect health status [ 151 ]. Further research focused on specific nationalities of asylum seekers would enhance understanding of the health needs in this population.

Almost one-third (31%) of studies did not specify a migrant group. This concurs with a Norwegian migrant health study by Laue et al. [ 152 ] where 36% of research did not identify country of birth. Where nationality was identified, Polish, African and South Asian were most prevalent. Poles are the largest migrant group in Scotland, however for the other most common immigrant groups of Irish, Italian and Nigerian [ 30 ] there was an absence of research. No studies took place on Nigerian migrants – nine studies indicated African populations, but country of birth was not specified. Since March 2022, 23,000 Ukrainians have migrated to Scotland [ 153 ], however no studies on Ukrainians were identified currently. Research may be underway which is yet to be published.

Only one study explored the impact of Brexit on European migrants’ health despite 56% of migrants to Scotland being EU nationals [ 30 ]. Again, research may be taking place currently, which is yet to be published. No studies involved undocumented migrants despite this populations’ high rates of poor physical/mental health exacerbated by poor housing and working conditions [ 154 ]. An estimated 7.2–9.5% of the workforce in the UK are migrant workers who have higher risks of poor working conditions and injury [ 155 ]. Scotland depends on a migrant workforce for some industries such as agriculture [ 156 ] but only two research papers specified migrant workers.

Most research papers related to the right to health of refugees (SAAP 2), social determinants of health (SAAP 3), public health planning (SAAP 4) and strengthening health systems (SAAP 5). Areas with less research were frameworks for collaborative action (SAAP 1), preventing communicable disease (SAAP 6), preventing non-communicable disease (SAAP 7) and health screening and assessment (SAAP 8). Only three studies related to improving health information and communication (SAAP 9). Lebano et al. [ 12 ] conducted a literature review of migrant health in Europe and found data collection unreliable and disorganised. There is a lack of data on the numbers and types of migrants entering Scotland and research tends not to differentiate between ethnic minorities and migrants [ 94 ]. As poor-quality information hinders surveillance and planning of services SAAP area 9 is an important consideration for increased research.

Villarroel et al. [ 24 ] also found more research in SAAP areas 3 to 5 and less in areas 6 to 9. However, their study returned no results in category 1, collaborative action, or 2, the right to health of refugees, while this study assigned 9% of articles to category 1 and 19% to category 2. Most articles in our study relating to categories 1 and 2 were grey literature, which was excluded from the original Irish scoping review. This highlights a potential difference in the focus of peer-reviewed articles compared to government/refugee charity commissioned reports. Collaborative action and the right to health of refugees and asylum seekers are entwined in Scotland due to the complex policy environment; the social determinants of health such as housing, education, welfare rights and social integration are influenced by a variety of UK and Scottish statutory bodies as well as third sector organisations [ 157 ]. Despite this complexity, organisations work well together [ 158 ]. Further academic research in this area would enhance joint working practices and networks.

A scoping review in the UK [ 23 ] found similar quantities of research corresponding to SAAP areas 3, 2 and 9. However in Scotland areas 1, 5 and 8 were a combined 44% of included papers compared with 27.8% of results on health systems and structures in Burns et al’s [ 23 ] study. Almost half of the articles in SAAP areas 1,5 and 8 were grey literature, which was not included in Burns et al’s [ 23 ] review. Conversely, Burns et al. [ 23 ] found 81.9% of research in the UK related to epidemiology, equivalent to SAAP categories 4,6 and 7. In a Norwegian scoping review of migrant health [ 152 ] 65% of research was related to epidemiological data on health and disease. Only 42% of the research in this current study related to epidemiological data; the quantity of evidence was reduced by excluding combined research from the UK. As Scotland has higher mortality and morbidity than elsewhere in the UK [ 29 ] it is important to undertake further epidemiological research limited to Scotland.

Strengths and weaknesses

Strengths of this review include the use of the WHO’s SAAP categories [ 7 ] to classify data, in accordance with the Villarroel et al’s [ 24 ] study: this means results are linked to policy on migrant health and facilitates comparability to the Irish study results. Additionally results include data on migrant groups, locality, and funding of included papers; these highlight potential omissions for future research consideration. Results include diverse research methods and published and grey literature giving a wide overview of available evidence, reported using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) checklist (see Additional File 3 ) [ 159 ].

Limitations included the lack of an open-access protocol and search limitations of English language and selected databases. This means some relevant reports may be omitted. Due to time and resource limitations no quality appraisal was planned for included reports. Whilst we did not synthesise the findings for each topic area and migrant group, future systematic reviews could be undertaken to address this limitation and build on this work.

Conclusions

Immigration and ethnic diversity in Scotland have increased since 2002 which is reflected in the expansion of migrant health research. This review highlights evidence gaps including a lack of research in rural areas, undocumented migrants and migrant workers. There is a tendency to cluster asylum seekers together rather than differentiate between national groups. Within the SAAP areas there is less evidence relating to collaborative action, preventing communicable disease, preventing non-communicable disease and health screening and assessment. Further research is required on improving health information and communication for migrant populations in Scotland – a significant omission given the importance of accurate information for health service planning.

Availability of data and materials

All data analysed during this review comes from the papers listed in Additional file 2 .

Abbreviations

European Union

Human Immunodeficiency Virus

National Health Service

Strategy and Action Plan

The Scottish Health and Ethnicity Linkage Study

United Kingdom

World Health Organisation

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Acknowledgements

Thank-you to Professor Anne MacFarlane and PHD student Anne Cronin, of the University of Limerick, Ireland for sharing the coding guidelines currently used in an update to Villarroel et. al’s 2019 study on Migrant Health in the Republic of Ireland.

No funding was received for this work, which was undertaken as G. Petrie’s Master of Public Health dissertation module at the University of Stirling.

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KA, RO and GP finalised the study design collectively. GP conducted the searches, analysis and write up, with support from KA and RO. All three authors read and approved the manuscript prior to submission.

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Petrie, G., Angus, K. & O’Donnell, R. A scoping review of academic and grey literature on migrant health research conducted in Scotland. BMC Public Health 24 , 1156 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-024-18628-1

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Foreign states targeting sensitive research at UK universities, MI5 warns

Ministers considering more funding to protect important research sites, with China seen as a particular concern

MI5 has warned universities that hostile foreign states are targeting sensitive research, as ministers consider measures to bolster protections.

Vice-chancellors from 24 leading institutions, including Oxford, Cambridge and Imperial College London , were briefed on the threat by the domestic security service’s director general, Ken McCallum, and National Cybersecurity Centre (NCSC) chief, Felicity Oswald.

In addition, the UK government is looking at increased funding to improve security at sensitive sites. Oliver Dowden, the deputy prime minister, announced plans for a consultation on a package of measures that could include looking at key university personnel being given security clearance and a strengthened process to improve the transparency of funding, particularly with foreign institutions.

The measures will be focused on a small proportion of academic work, with a particular focus on research with potential dual uses in civilian and military life.

McCallum told the vice-chancellors that hostile states are targeting universities to steal technology that can “deliver their authoritarian, military and commercial priorities”, the Times reported.

The government ordered a review of protections for higher education in its refreshed foreign and security policy last year amid concerns that hostile states – and particularly China – were gaining undue influence over the sector.

Dowden has previously warned that some universities’ reliance on overseas funding could leave them open to being “influenced, exploited, or even coerced” by a foreign power.

After the security briefing, Dowden said: “For a millennium, our universities have thrived on being open – open to ideas, open to innovation, open to being independent of government.

“This is not about erecting fences, this is about balancing evolving threats and protecting the integrity and security of our great institutions.”

The consultation will explore proposals to protect cutting-edge technology under development in sensitive sectors that are being targeted by states intent on stealing intellectual property to enhance their own economic and military capabilities.

The NCSC and the National Protective Security Authority have also launched a tool to help universities assess their research security.

Michelle Donelan, the science and technology secretary, said: “I believe that universities are on the frontlines of a battle for information.

“Maintaining the UK’s world-leading reputation as an academic superpower relies on having strong safeguards to protect research from those who wish to do us harm.”

Tim Bradshaw, chief executive of the Russell Group of leading research universities, said: “Russell Group universities take their national security responsibilities incredibly seriously and already work closely with government and the intelligence community to help protect UK breakthroughs in fields like AI, which are important to our national interest.

“But we also recognise security is a dynamic and evolving challenge which means we need the right expertise and intelligence to keep pace with this.”

Universities UK chief executive Vivienne Stern said: “For several years, Universities UK has worked with government to ensure that universities are supported and equipped to recognise and mitigate risks to national security.

“This is important and necessary, and we welcome the government’s approach to working hand in hand with us to get the mechanisms right.”

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