Subject Guides: Literature Review: Home

What is a Literature Review?

What is a Literature Review?

Literature = books, case studies, journal articles, reports, or any other scholarly resources relevant to your area of research
Review = critical assessment or formal appraisal
Literature Review = "thematic synthesis of sources used to provide readers with an up-to-date summary of theoretical and empirical findings on a particular topic" (Cisco, 2014, p. 42).

A Literature Review does NOT provide a separate summary for each author

Correct

Incorrect

Two educational institutions were found to have used funny animated characters in their online library programs (Brown, 2020; Redman, 2019). Although these institutions reported their efforts at using animation as successful, their measure of success was not based on any formal assessment.

Although much of the literature on the use of humor referred to its use in face to face programs, the reasons given for using humor could apply to any method of instruction. Addison (2019) and Levey (2017) recommended using humor in non-library programs, while other researchers gave examples of its use in library programs (Fawlty, 2015; Gardener & Swift, 2021; Rickman, 2020; Zephyr, 2016).

The librarians at the University College found that using a sassy cartoon character in their online classes helped the students learn (Brown, 2020). Concentrating more on the entertainment angle, the main aim was to keep the content of these videos “best suited to audience preferences” (Brown, 2020, p. 115). Each of the videos, for example, featured the Star Wars signature opening crawl.

The Polygon Polytechnic, on the other hand, conducted a study with focus groups that were formed to discuss the animated character in the new library instruction program (Redman, 2019). Although most of the members of the focus groups enjoyed the animation, the author warns that this may not be enough to encourage learning. Interestingly, those students who found the humor not to be funny and the animation to be “corny” (Redman, 2019, p. 14)

Cisco, J. (2014). Teaching the literature review: A practical approach for college instructors. Teaching & Learning Inquiry, 2(2), 41-47. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1148690.pdf

What a Literature Review Does

What a Literature Review DOES

A literature review provides an overview of research from all over the world on a specific topic, highlighting:

the key authors or writers
what researchers are saying
what questions are being asked
the most popular theories and hypotheses
what methods and methodologies are useful and being used.

Scan the Literature

SCAN the Literature

Once you have a topic in mind, you need to conduct a quick search in order to:
- see what is happening in the field
- identify any research gaps
- Google Scholar can help give you a very basic overview of what to expect, e.g.
  - telemedicine AND "mental health" = 60,900 results
  - telemedicine AND "music therapy" = 36,400 results
  - telemedicine AND vietnam = 6,900 results
    - the implication here is that you may expect some difficulty finding published research on your topic if a Google Scholar search does not result in huge numbers.

You may find you need to select another topic!
Once you have established that enough research has been published for you to proceed, you can start searching for the literature for your review.

Find literature at http://libguides.singaporetech.edu.sg/az.php

Choose your Topic

Choose your TOPIC

Consult your Prof or Supervisor to make sure you are on the right path.
Be flexible. You may need to change your topic if you find there is not enough research by others for you to review.
Using the Evidence Based Practice framework? Use PEO or PICO to help you choose synonyms and alternate keywords for your search strings.

In-text Citations

IN-Text Citations

We know that we need to cite ALL our references in the Reference list or Bibliography at the end of our papers, right?
But do we always remember to cite the work of others in-text when quoting or paraphrasing? An example of a in-text citation for a direct quote is (Choy, 2019, p. 17).

You may read more about this here.

When Do I Stop Searching?

Creative Commons Attribution license (reuse allowed)

If you are asking yourself when can you stop searching the literature, here is some excellent advice from Prof Liesbet van Zoonen from Erasmus University in Rotterdam.

The Prof outlines 3 elements you should consider:

1.) Practical

when in doubt, ask your supervisor
aim to spend ONE THIRD of your time on your searching and reading

2.) Substantial

always refer back to your research question when refining your search strategy
if you cannot find enough information on your topic, you may need to change your scope

3.) Risks

do not start reading again! If you find that your searches are finding nothing new, start writing

Literature Review vs Systematic Review

	Literature Review	Systematic Review
definition	Qualitatively summarizes evidence on a topic using informal or subjective methods to collect and interpret studies	High-level overview of primary research on a focused question that identifies, selects, synthesizes, and appraises all high quality research evidence relevant to that question
goals	Provide summary or overview of topic	Answers a focused clinical question Eliminate bias
question	Can be a general topic or a specific question	Clearly defined and answerable clinical question Recommend using PICO as a guide
components	Introduction Methods Discussion Conclusion Reference list	Pre-specified eligibility criteria Systematic search strategy Assessment of the validity of findings Interpretation and presentation of results Reference list
no. of authors	One or more	Three or more
timeline	Weeks to months	Months to years Average eighteen months
requirement	Understanding of topic Perform searches of one or more databases	Thorough knowledge of topic Perform searches of all relevant databases Statistical analysis resources (for meta-analysis)
value	Provides summary of literature on the topic	Connects practicing clinicians to high quality evidence Supports evidence-based practice

Taken from Penn State University Libraries, Nursing guide - CC BY 4.0