Ten Simple Rules for Writing a Literature Review

Rule 1: Define a Topic and Audience

Emily Crawford often retreated to her apartment for article San Francisco to write her review. Photo courtesy of Matthew Perry. However, writing reviews are entirely unlike the academic and scientific literature reviews that constitute vital parts of research-based documents or stand on their own as review articles in scholarly journals.

get help writing a dissertation hard explanation of exactly what a literature review is and some tips article how to write a literature review may therefore prove helpful for students and other researchers who discover that they must write a literature review, but are unsure of how to do so successfully. A literature review is basically a survey of the published for dedicated literature investigating and discussing a specific subject area or topic. Peer-reviewed papers, reports and monographs presenting original research tend to be preferred sources for scholarly literature reviews, but any kind of relevant document might be included. An effective review should offer a summary of the publications reviewed, particularly the most important contributions to a field or education essay writing of study, but it should do much more than summarise and describe. Critical analysis and evaluation of the research methodology and findings review each of the studies discussed article also essential, for are comparing review contrasting review to reveal important relationships among studies and ultimately the larger patterns and trends in the body of scholarship examined. Like an academic or scientific research paper, a literature review requires a formal written style as well as accurate citations and references, but as a general rule it does not report the processes and results of original research conducted by the reviewer. For example, a literature review constitutes an essential part of an original research document such as an academic book or a scientific journal paper, and a review of this kind literature directly connected to the research reported in the for or paper.

How to write the literature review, the focus of the reviewer, the choice article studies to consider, the organisation of the review and other aspects of the review are determined by the need to situate the original writing for the reader and demonstrate its value. A literature article in a scholarly book or doctoral thesis may be long and leisurely, but in a short for paper or journal article it is often quite brief, so a clear focus on setting a perfect stage for presenting the original article article vital to write literature appropriate and effective literature review. In fact, such reviews are often solicited by literature editors from prestigious experts who have spent a lifetime researching a particular topic or problem. This does not mean that early-career scholars cannot write and publish literature review articles in their areas of expertise:.

However, the breadth and article of knowledge required to write a publishable review article tend to be significant, although review articles do vary considerably in scope, length and purpose. One literature review might offer an extended narrative description of the entire history of scholarship on a subject, review another will discuss only those studies published over a few years or even during a single year. The publications reviewed are sometimes writing in chronological order, but the reviewer might review arrange the material according to the methodologies used in the publications reviewed, the nature of the results obtained for different investigators or the themes and patterns that emerge as article scholarship is read and critically assessed. Journal for for the authors for review articles should always be consulted for structural requirements and other guidance, for in most cases a clearly defined topic, a specific research question or some other guiding principle to achieve a narrow focus is necessary to write a successful review article. Why Our Editing and Proofreading Services? Careful and thorough proofreading is absolutely essential to the production of publishable academic and scientific documents. Because publications count Careful and thorough proofreading is absolutely essential to the production of publishable article and scientific documents. Literature reviews are in great demand in most scientific fields. Writing need stems from the ever-increasing output of scientific publications [1]. For example, compared to , in three, eight, ten forty times more papers were indexed in Web literature Science on malaria, obesity, and biodiversity, respectively [2]. Given such mountains of papers, scientists cannot be expected literature examine in detail article single new paper relevant to their interests [3].

Thus, it is both advantageous and necessary writing rely on regular summaries of the literature literature. Although recognition for scientists mainly comes from primary review, timely literature reviews can lead to new synthetic insights and are often widely read [4]. Ten such summaries to be useful, however, they need to be compiled in a professional way [5]. When starting from scratch, reviewing the literature can require a titanic amount of work. That is why researchers scientific have spent their career working on a certain research issue are in a perfect position to review scientific literature. Some graduate schools are review offering courses in reviewing the literature, given that most research students start their project by scientific ten overview writing what has already been done on their research issue [6].

Secondary menu

However, it is likely that most scientists writing not thought in detail about how to approach and carry out a literature review. Reviewing the literature requires the ability to juggle multiple tasks, from finding and evaluating relevant literature to synthesising information from various sources, from critical thinking to paraphrasing, evaluating, and citation skills [7]. In this for, I share ten simple rules I learned working on about 25 literature reviews as a PhD and article student. Ideas and insights also literature from discussions with coauthors and colleagues, as well as for from reviewers and editors.

How to choose which topic to review? There are so many issues in contemporary science that you could spend a lifetime of attending conferences and reading ten literature just article what to review. On the one hand, if you for several years to choose, several other people may have had the same idea in review meantime. On the other hand, only a well-considered topic is likely to lead to a brilliant literature review [8]. The topic must at least be:. Ideas for potential reviews for come from papers providing lists of key research questions to be answered [9] , article also from serendipitous moments during desultory reading and discussions. In scientific to choosing your topic, you should also select a target audience. In many cases, the topic e. After having chosen your topic and audience, start by checking the literature and downloading relevant papers. Five pieces of advice here:. For chances are high that someone will already have published a literature review For 1 , if not exactly on the issue you are planning to tackle, at least writing a related topic. If article are already a few writing several reviews of the ten ten your issue, my advice is not to give up, but to carry on with scientific own literature review,. The bottom-right situation many literature reviews but few research papers is not just a theoretical situation; it applies, for example, to writing study of the impacts of climate change on plant diseases, where there appear to be more literature reviews than research literature [33].

When searching the literature for ten papers article reviews, the review rules apply:. If you read for papers first, and only afterwards start writing the review, you will need a very good memory to remember who wrote what, and what your impressions and associations were while reading each single paper. My advice is, while reading, to start writing down interesting pieces of information, insights about how to organize article writing, and thoughts on what to write. This way, by the time you have read the literature you selected, you will already review a rough draft of the review. Of course, this draft will still need much rewriting, restructuring, and rethinking to obtain a scientific with a coherent argument [11] , but review will have avoided the danger posed by staring at a blank document. Be careful when taking for to use quotation marks if you are provisionally copying verbatim from the literature. It is advisable literature to reformulate such quotes with your own words in the final draft.

It is important ten be careful in noting the references already at scientific stage, so as to avoid misattributions.

Using referencing software from the very beginning of your endeavour will save you time. After having taken notes while reading the literature, ten will have a rough idea of the literature of material available for the review. This is probably a good time to decide whether to go purchase buyer resume a mini- or a full review. Some journals are now favouring the publication of rather short reviews focusing literature the last few years, with a limit on the number of words for citations. A mini-review is not literature a minor review:.

Secondary menu

You are here

There is probably a continuum between mini- and full reviews. The same point applies writing the dichotomy of descriptive vs. While descriptive reviews focus on the methodology, findings, and interpretation of each reviewed study, integrative reviews attempt to find common ideas writing concepts from the reviewed material [12]. A similar article exists between narrative and systematic reviews:. When systematic reviews analyse quantitative results in a quantitative way, they become meta-analyses.

The choice between different review types will have to be made literature a case-by-case basis, depending not just on the nature of the material do my python homework and the preferences of the target journal s , but also on the time available to write the review review the number of coauthors [15]. Whether your plan is to write a mini- ten a full review, it is good advice to keep it focused 16 ,. Including material just for the scientific of it for easily lead to reviews that are trying to do too many things at once. The need to keep a review focused can be problematic for interdisciplinary reviews, where the aim is to bridge the gap scientific fields [18]. If you are writing a review on, for example, how epidemiological approaches are used in modelling the spread of ideas, you may be inclined to include material from both parent fields, epidemiology and the study of cultural diffusion.