a literature review nedir

• Ücret Politikası

Literatür Taraması Nedir ve Nasıl Yapılır? [7 Adımda Örneklerle]

İçindekiler

• 1 Literatür Taraması Nedir?
• 2.1 Literatür taraması ne işe yarar?
• 3.1 Gelişme (Body) Paragrafları
• 3.2 Sonuç (Conclusion) Bölümü
• 4.1 Literatür Taraması APA Formatı
• 4.2 Literatür Taraması MLA Formatı
• 4.3 Literatür Taraması Chicago Formatı
• 5.1 Literature Review Outline Nasıl yazılır?
• 6.1 Konunun Belirlenmesi
• 6.2 Araştırma Yapmak
• 6.3 Kaynakları Değerlendirin ve Önceliklendirin
• 6.4 İlişkileri, Ana Fikirleri ve Boşlukları Belirleyin
• 6.5 Bir Taslak Belirleyin
• 6.6 Yazmaya Devam Edin 
• 6.7 Son Dokunuşları Ekleme
• 7.1 Literatür Taraması Örneği
• 7.2 Literatür Taraması Örneği
• 7.3 Literatür Taraması Örneği PDF

Literatür Taraması Nedir?

Literatür taraması, bazen belirli bir konuda, bazen ise belirli bir zaman çerçevesinde çeşitli yayınları (makale, gazete, kitap, rapor, önemli web siteleri, vb.) araştıran ve derleyen bir akademik çalışma türüdür. Literatür taraması, oluşturduğunuz tezin konusuyla ilgili önceki araştırmalarda yer alan ve doğruluğu kanıtlanmış kaynakların araştırılıp analiz edilmesine, bu analiz sonucunda da araştırma konunuzun bir taslağının çıkarılmasına yardımcı olur.

Literature review (İngilizce literatür taraması) mevcut araştırmalardaki ve literatürdeki teorileri, yöntemleri ve boşlukları belirlemenize yardım ederek mevcut bilgilere genel bir bakış açısı sağlar. Literatür taraması, genellikle bir yüksek lisans tezi veya bir doktora tezinin ayrı bir bölümü olarak okuyucuya sunulur.

Ancak bunun haricinde başlı başına bir ödev şeklinde de verilebilmektedir. Literatür taramasında kullanılan kaynaklar arasında bilimsel dergi makaleleri, kitaplar, hükümet raporları, web siteleri vb. yer alabilir.

Literatür taraması (literature review) yaygın olmayan bir akademik yazı türü olduğundan, öğrenciler tarafından genellikle “literatür taraması nedir ve nasıl yazılır?” şeklinde sorular sorulmaktadır. Bu makalemizde literatür taraması nedir ve literatür taraması nasıl yazılır sorularına cevap vereceğiz; ve aynı zamanda sizlerle literatür taraması örnekleri de paylaşacağız.

Bu konuda danışmanlık almak isterseniz bize sağ aşağıda bulunan mesaj butonundan, iletişim bölümünden ya da [email protected] adresinden ulaşabilirsiniz. Research paper nasıl yazılır öğrenmek istiyorsanız, proofreading veya editing ihtiyacınız varsa veya İngilizce makale örnekleri incelemek istiyorsanız tıklayabilirsiniz.

Literatür Taraması Amacı

Literatür taramasının asıl amacı, önceki literatürün araştırılan konu ile ilgili vardığı noktayı tespit edip, literatürdeki boşlukları ortaya koyarak kendi çalışmamızın önceki literatür içerisinde hangi noktada olacağını göstermektir.

Ancak, amaç sadece kaynakların özetlerini listelemek değildir; daha ziyade, tüm yayınlarda görülen ve araştırma konunuzu destekleyen noktaları vurgulamaktır. Nasıl bir araştırma makalesinde ona rehberlik eden bir tez varsa, İngilizce literatür taramasının da bir ana düzenleme ilkesi (ADİ) vardır.

Ana düzenleme ilkesi, bilginin önce genelden başlayıp sonra daralarak araştırma konunuza gelmesiyle yazının bir düzene girmesini sembolize eder.

Literatür taraması ne işe yarar?

• Yazarın araştırdığı konunun önemini vurgular.
• Yazarın araştırdığı konunun arka planını gösterir ve açıklar.
• Bir konu içinde var olan temel temaları, ilkeleri, kavramları ve araştırmacıları bulmaya yardımcı olur.
• Bir konudaki mevcut fikirler/çalışmalar arasındaki ilişkileri ortaya çıkarmaya yardımcı olur.
• Bir konudaki ana tartışma noktalarını ve boşlukları ortaya çıkarır.
• Önceki çalışmalara dayalı daha fazla araştırmayı yönlendirmek için sonraki araştırmalara araştırmaları için araştırma soruları (research questions) önerir.

Literatür taraması danışmanlığı – Essay Sepeti

Literatür Taraması (Literature Review) Yapısı ve Formatı

Diğer birçok akademik yazı türünde olduğu gibi, literatür taraması yöntemi de araştırmanın hacmine ve konunun uzunluğuna bağlı olarak birkaç paragraftan oluşur; ve böylece de giriş, gelişme ve sonuç (introduction bölünü, body paragrafları ve conclusion bölümü) şeklinde bir yapıya sahiptir. Konuyu daha iyi kavramak için, temel literatür taraması yapısının her bir bileşenine giriş, gelişme ve sonuç ayrıntılı olarak bakalım:

Giriş (Introduction) Bölümü

Literature review yazınızda, okuyucularınızı yazdığınız makalede ADİ’ye (Ana Düzenleme İlkesi) göre yönlendirmelisiniz. Bu yönlendirme, sunduğunuz bilgilerin geniş bir perspektiften başlayıp ve odak noktanız olan anlatmak istediğiniz konuya ulaşana kadar kademeli olarak daralması anlamına gelir. Daha genel başlayıp daha özele doğru bir bilgi akışı sağlayarak önce genel çerçeveyi vermeli daha sonra da asıl anlatacağınız konuya gelerek genelin özel ile nasıl bağlantılı olduğunu gözler önüne sermelisiniz.

Literature review yazmaya önce genel konseptinizi sunarak başlamalısınız (örneğin; Yolsuzluk). Devamında ise seçtiğiniz literatür kaynaklarını (Macbeth, All the King’s Men ve Animal Farm) seçmek için kullandığınız kriterlerden bahsederek girişinizin odağını genelden özele doğru daraltmalısınız.

Gelişme (Body) Paragrafları

  Genel olarak, her bir gövde paragrafı, literatür araştırmanızın girişinde ortaya konan belirli bir literatür kaynağına odaklanacaktır. Her kaynağın ana düzenleme ilkeleri (ADİ) için kendi referans çerçevesi olduğundan, incelemeyi mümkün olan en mantıklı ve tutarlı şekilde yapılandırmak çok önemlidir. Bu, yazının kronolojik, tematik veya metodolojik olarak yapılandırılması gerektiği anlamına gelir.

Bu noktada İngilizce literatür taramasındaki gelişme paragrafları kronolojik, tematik veya metodolojik olarak yapılandırılmalıdır. Bu şekliyle yapılan literatür incelemeleri daha tutarlı ve açık olacaktır.

• Kronolojik olarak: Kaynaklarınızı yayın tarihlerine göre ayırmak, doğru bir tarihsel zaman çizelgesi tutmanın iyi bir yoludur. Doğru uygulandığı takdirde belirli bir kavramın zaman içindeki gelişimini sunabilir ve literatür formunda açık ve tutarlı örnekler sağlayabilirsiniz. Ancak bazen literatür taramasının yapısını şekillendirmek için kullanabileceğimiz daha iyi alternatifler olduğu da açıktır.
• Tematik olarak: “Zaman Çizelgesi Yaklaşımını” benimsemek yerine, başka bir seçenek de ADİ’niz ve kaynaklarınız arasındaki bağlantıya bakmak olabilir. Bazen, ana fikir sadece bir edebi eserden dahi açık bir şekilde gözükmektedir. Bazen de, yazarın amacını kanıtlamak için örnekler aramanız gerekebilir. Deneyimli bir araştırmacı genellikle kaynaklarını güç sırasına göre sunar. Örneğin, “To Kill a Mockingbird” eserinde, romanın tamamı ırkçılık etrafında toplanırken; “The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn” eserinde ırkçılık diğer birçok temadan sadece biri olarak görülmektedir.
• Metodolojik olarak: Terminolojiden de anlaşılacağı gibi, bu tür bir yapılanma, merkezi bir kavramı sunmak için kullanılan yöntemlere odaklanır. Örneğin, “1984” romanında, George Orwell kanun ve düzen yaklaşımını kullanır ve toplum için distopyanın tehlikelerini gösterir. “Frankenstein” eserinde ise yazar Mary Shelley, karakterin fiziksel özelliklerini tiksindirici ve ürkütücü olarak ortaya koyarak onu izole bir ortamda acı çekmeye zorlamaktadır. Yazar, ADİ’yi tasvir etmek için kullanılan çeşitli yöntemler ile bunları şiddet, etik ve genel etki gibi bileşenlere göre karşılaştırabilir.

Sonuç (Conclusion) Bölümü

Bulgularınızı gelişme paragraflarında sunduktan sonra, literatür araştırması özelinde tamamlamanız gereken 3 nihai hedef vardır. Yazar öncelikle yaptığı veya bulduğu bulguları özetlemeli ve kısaca “bu kaynakların incelenmesi ile ne öğrendik?” sorusuna cevap vermelidir.

Bu bilgiyi sunduktan bir sonraki adım, bugünkü dünyamızla ilgili olarak bu verilen bilgilerin önemini anlatmaktır. Başka bir deyişle, okuyucu bu literature review yazısında verilen bilgileri nasıl günümüz toplumuna uygulayabilir? Bu sorunun cevaplanması önemlidir.

Bir yazar olarak, makalenizi okuyan okuyucularda merak duygusunu uyandırmalı ve bu şekilde onlara araştırma arzusu vermelisiniz. Okuyucu, tartışmanın bir sonraki aşamasının nereye gideceğini tahmin ederek literatürün de günden günde gelişmesine katkı sağlayabilir.

Literatür Taraması APA, MLA ve Chicago Formatı

Uymanız gereken literatür taraması formatı, okulunuz veya profesörünüz tarafından belirtilecektir. Eğer bu format size verilmemişse bunu okulunuza veya danışmanınıza sormalısınız, çünkü bu hayati bir konudur. Aşağıda sırasıyla literatür taramasının içerik formatı hakkında bazı sorular verdik. Bir literatür araştırması yazmadan önce bu soruların cevabını bulduğunuzdan emin olun:

• Kaç kaynak gözden geçirilmeli ve bu kaynaklar ne tür kaynaklar olmalıdır (yayınlanmış materyaller, dergi makaleleri veya web siteleri)?
• Kaynakları alıntılamak için hangi format (APA, MLA, Chicago) kullanılmalıdır?
• İnceleme ne kadar sürmelidir?
• İncelemeniz bir özet, sentez veya kişisel bir eleştiriden mi oluşmalıdır?
• İncelemeniz, kaynaklarınız için başlıklar veya arka plan bilgileri içermeli midir?

Literatür Taraması APA Formatı

APA formatında literatür taraması yazacaksanız izleyeceğiniz format şu şekildedir:

• 1 inçlik sayfa kenar boşlukları bırakın.
• Başka bir talimat verilmedikçe, tüm metin boyunca çift satır aralığı bırakın.
• Okunabilir bir yazı tipi seçtiğinizden emin olun. APA formatında yazılan akademik makaleler (research paper, dissertation, term paper) için tercih edilen yazı tipi Times New Roman’dır ve 12 punto boyutundadır.
• Her sayfanın üstüne bir başlık ekleyin (büyük harflerle). Sayfa başlığı, makale (essay, research paper, dissertation, term paper) başlığınızın kısaltılmış bir versiyonu olmalı ve boşluk ve noktalama dahil 50 karakterle sınırlı olmalıdır.
• Sayfa numaralarını her sayfanın sağ üst köşesine koyun.
• APA formatında literatür taraması taslağınızı şekillendirirken, başlık sayfası eklemeyi de unutmayın. Bu sayfada makalenin adı, yazarın adı ve kurumsal bağlantısı da yer almalıdır. Başlığınız büyük ve küçük harflerle yazılmalı ve sayfanın üst kısmına ortalanmalıdır; 12’den fazla kelime, kısaltmalar ve gereksiz kelimeler kullanmamaya özen gösterin.

Literatür Taraması MLA Formatı

MLA formatında literature review yazacaksanız izleyeceğiniz format şu şekildedir:  

• Tüm metin boyunca çift satır aralığı kullanın.
• Her yeni paragraf için ½ inç girintiler kullanın.
• MLA stili için tercih edilen yazı tipi Times New Roman’dır ve 12 punto boyutundadır.
• Makalenizin (essay, research paper, dissertation, term paper) ilk sayfasının en üst kısmına veya başlık sayfasına bir başlık ekleyin (MLA stilinin bir başlık sayfasına sahip olmanızı gerektirmediğini, ancak bir tane eklemeye karar vermenize izin verildiğini unutmayın). Bu biçimdeki bir başlık tam adınızı; eğitmeninizin adı; sınıfın adı, kurs veya bölüm numarası; ve ödevizin bitiş tarihini içermelidir.
• Kağıdınızdaki her sayfanın sağ üst köşesine “running head” Sayfanın sağ kenar boşluğundan bir inç ve üst kenar boşluğundan yarım inç uzağa yerleştirin. Running head kısmında yalnızca soyadınızı ve sayfa numarasını bir boşlukla bırakarak ekleyin. Sayfa numaralarından önce sayfa (s.) şeklinde kısaltma koymayın.

Literatür Taraması Chicago Formatı

Chicago formatında literature review yazacaksanız izleyeceğiniz format şu şekildedir:  

• Sayfa kenar boşluklarını 1 inçten az olmayacak şekilde ayarlayın.
• Tablo başlıkları, şekil başlıkları, notlar, kısa alıntılar ve kaynakça veya referanslar içindeki girişlerin haricinde tüm metin boyunca çift satır aralığı kullanın.
• Paragraflar arasında boşluk bırakmayın.
• Net ve kolay okunabilir bir yazı tipi seçtiğinizden emin olun. Chicago stili için tercih edilen yazı tipleri Times New Roman ve Courier’dir. En az 10 punto, tercihen ise 12 punto yazı boyutu ayarlanmalıdır.
• Bir kapak (başlık) sayfası tam adınızı, sınıf bilgilerinizi ve tarihi içermelidir. Bu bilgileri, kapak sayfasını ortalayarak ve sayfanın üst kısmının üçte bir altına yerleştirin.
• Kapak sayfası da dahil olmak üzere her sayfanın sağ üst köşesine sayfa numaralarını yerleştirin.

Literature Review Outline

Akademik makalelerin anahatlarının belirlenerek outline oluşturulmasının önemi ne yazıkki öğrenciler tarafından tam anlamıyla bilinmemektedir. Örneğin; APA stilinde bir literatür taraması taslağı oluşturmak sadece doğru formatı ve yapıyı takip etmenize yardımcı olmakla kalmayıp, aynı zamanda yazma sürecinizi daha basit hale getirecektir.

Literature review outline ile adım adım yapılacaklar listeniz elinizin altında olacak ve kolaylıkla bu taslak üzerinden ilerleyebileceksiniz. Böylelikle tüm önemli bilgileri literatür araştırmanıza dahil ettiğinizden emin olmanız kolaylaşacaktır. Literature review outline size yazım sürecinizde bir yol haritası oluşturacaktır.

Literature Review Outline Nasıl yazılır?

İngilizce L-literatür taramasının yapısının nasıl olması gerektiği ile ilgili bölümde anlattığımız gibi, literatür incelemesinin her bölümünün kendine ait bir rolü vardır. Sırasıyla, Giriş-Gelişme-Sonuç yapısını göz önünde bulundurarak ve her bölümün kendi hedeflerine ulaşmasını sağlayacak ana hatları oluşturmalısınız.

Bununla birlikte, bir literatür taraması taslağının, yeni bilgi sağlamadığı için diğer türdeki makalelerin taslaklarından biraz farklı olduğunu hatırlamak önemlidir. Asıl şekliyle literatür taraması ana konuyla ilgili mevcut önceki çalışmalara odaklanır ve analiz yapar.

Literatür Taraması Nasıl Yapılır?

Her öğrencinin bildiği gibi akademik makaleler ve araştırma makaleleri yazmak eğitim programlarının ayrılmaz bir parçasıdır. Literatür taraması yapmak için, önce tez oluşturup, belirlenen araştırma konusu doğrultusunda daha önceki güvenilir akademik kaynakların değerlendirilerek araştırma konusunun haritası çıkartılır. Bulunan bu kaynaklar araştırmanızın savunmasına sağlam bir dayanak oluşturmanızı sağlar.

Bu nedenle İngilizce literatür taramasının doğru ve etkili yazımı akademik araştırmalarınızın başarısında büyük bir rol oynamaktadır. Ancak bu süreçte, literatür taramasının yaygın olmayan bir akademik yazı türü olması sebebiyle, birçok üniversite öğrencisi tarafından hala daha nasıl yazılacağı konusunda büyük soru işaretleri vardır. Bu sebeple bu yazımızda bu soru işaretlerini ortadan kaldırarak adım adım literatür taraması nasıl yapılır sizlere anlatacağız.

İster büyük bir araştırma projesi (örneğin; research paper, term paper, dissertation, yüksek lisans tezi veya doktora tezi) için bir literatür taraması yapıyor olun, ister tek başına bir ödev olarak yapıyor olun, belirli kurallar doğrultusunda yazmanız gereklidir.

Şimdi, iyi bir literatür taraması yazmak için atılacak başlıca 7 adımı birlikte inceleyelim:

Konunun Belirlenmesi

Konunun belirlenmesi iyi bir literatür taraması yazmanın ilk adımıdır. Akademik bir çalışma için bir literatür taraması yapıyorsanız, araştırmanın sorusu ve problemiyle ilgili literatür taraması yapmanız gerekir. Eğer bunu bağımsız bir ödev olarak yazıyorsanız da ilgili konu hakkında literatürde yer alan önceki çalışmalar ve bu konu ile alakalı bir soru seçmeniz gerekecektir. Bu kılavuzun başlarında, aramanıza rehberlik edecek bazı ilgi çekici konular önermiştik. Yapı ve Taslak bölümlerini detaylı inceleyebilirsiniz.

Araştırma Yapmak

Açıkça tanımlanmış bir konu belirlediğinizde, incelemeniz için literatür toplamaya başlamak kolaylaşır. Tüm araştırma sürecini çok daha basit hale getirmek ve ilgili yayınları daha hızlı bulmanıza yardımcı olmak için, temel sorunuzla ilgili anahtar kelimelerin bir listesini derleyerek başlamanızı öneririz. Konunun belirlenmesi sonrası bu konuyla alakalı araştırma yürütmek iyi bir literatür taraması yazmanın ikinci adımıdır.

Bir anahtar kelime listeniz olduğunda, bunları konu ile alakalı kaynakları aramak için kullanabilirsiniz. Bu noktada, üniversite kütüphaneleri, çevrimiçi bilimsel veri tabanları vb. güvenilir kaynakları kullandığınızdan emin olmalısınız.

Kaynakları bulduktan sonra, bunların konunuz ve araştırma sorunuzla gerçekten alakalı olup olmadıklarını kontrol ettiğinizden emin olun. Makalelerin ne hakkında olduğu hakkında genel fikirler almak için özetleri okuyarak zaman kazanabilirsiniz.

✓✓ Profesyonel İpucu : Araştırma sonucunda iyi kaynaklar bulduğunuzda, diğer ilgili kaynakları da görmek için bulduğunuz bu kaynakların bibliyografyalarına bakın. Bu şekilde kaynaklarınızı genişletebilir ve araştırmanızı daha da derinleştirebilirsiniz.

Kaynakları Değerlendirin ve Önceliklendirin

İyi bir literatür taraması yazmanın üçüncü adımını kaynakların değerlendirilmesi ve önceliklendirilmesi oluşturmaktadır. Araştırmanız boyunca, literatür incelemenize dahil etmek için bol miktarda ilgili kaynaklar bulacaksınız. Bu noktada birçok öğrenci, topladıkları tüm kaynakları incelemelerine sığdırmaya çalışmak gibi bir hataya düşmektedir.

Topladıklarınıza bir kez daha bakmanızı, mevcut kaynakları değerlendirmenizi ve en alakalı olanları seçmenizi öneririz. Büyük olasılıkla, belirli bir konuda bulduğunuz her şeyi okuyamayacaksınız ve ardından tüm kaynakları tek bir literatür taramasında sentezleyemeyeceksiniz. Bu yüzden en alakalı olanlara öncelik vermeniz çok önemlidir.

Hangi kaynakların önceliklendirilmeye değer olduğunu kavrayabilmek için aşağıdaki kriterleri aklınızda bulundurun:

• Güvenilirlik
• Anahtar Kavram

Ayrıca, kaynakları okurken, daha sonra incelemeye dahil edebileceğiniz her şeyi not almaya çalışın. İlk aşamada seçtiğiniz kaynakları önceliklendirerek seçerseniz, kaynakçanızı oluşturmanız daha kolay olacaktır.

İlişkileri, Ana Fikirleri ve Boşlukları Belirleyin

Literatür incelemenizi özetlemeye ve yazmaya geçmeden önce, son adım, hali hazırda var olan çalışmalar arasındaki ilişkileri belirlemektir. İlişkileri belirlemek, mevcut bilgileri düzenlemenize, sağlam bir literatür taslağı oluşturmanıza, konu hakkındaki boşlukları doldurarak literatüre katkı sağlamanıza yardımcı olur.

Bu hususta dikkat edilmesi gereken önemli noktalardan bazıları şunlardır:

• Ana temalar
• Çelişkiler ve tartışmalar
• Etkili çalışmalar veya teoriler
• Trendler ve kalıplar

Ortak eğilimler ve trendler nedeniyle farklı çalışmalarda belirli insan gruplarına odaklanılmış olabilir. Ayrıca, ana temalar açısından konunun belirli yönlerine çoğu araştırmacı arasında artan bir ilgi olabilir.

Başka bir açıdan ise bir çalışmanın teorileri ve sonuçlarıyla ilgili bazı anlaşmazlıklar ve çelişkiler olabilir. Ve son olarak, çoğunlukla bir konunun belirli yönleriyle ilgili araştırma eksikliğine atıfta bulunabilir. İyi bir literatür taraması yazmak için bu ilişkiler ve boşluklar belirlenmeli ve belirtilmelidir.

Bir Taslak Belirleyin

Öğrenciler bu aşamayı ihmal etme eğiliminde olsalar da, ana hatları belirlemek akademik makale yazarken en önemli adımlardan biridir. Bu, metninizin gövdesini düzenlemenin ve önemli hiçbir şeyi kaçırmadığınızdan emin olmanın en kolay yoludur. Ayrıca, kağıda ne hakkında yazacağınız hakkında bir fikre sahip olmak, onu daha hızlı ve daha kolay yapmanıza yardımcı olacaktır.

Yazmaya Devam Edin  

Tüm kaynaklarınızı, notlarınızı, alıntılarınızı belirleyip ayrıntılı bir taslak (outline) oluşturduktan sonra, sürecin yazma kısmına geçebilirsiniz. Bu aşamada yapmanız gereken tek şey, oluşturduğunuz planı takip etmek ve profesörünüzün veya üniversitenizin talimatlarında tanımlanan genel yapı ve formatı izlemektir.

Son Dokunuşları Ekleme

Çoğu öğrencinin yaptığı yaygın bir hata vardır. Yazıyı yeniden okuma, proofreading ve editing içeren son aşamayı atlar. Çalışmanızın en yüksek puanı almasını sağlamak için, bu son aşamaya yeterli zamanı ayırmalısınız. Proofreading ve editing önemini hafife almadan yeterli zamanınızı bu aşama için mutlaka ayırın. Proofreading ve editing konusunda danışmanlık almak isterseniz bize iletişim bölümünden veya sağ alttaki mesaj kısmından ulaşabilirsiniz.

✓✓ Profesyonel İpucu : Proofreading ve editing kısmına geçmeden önce, literatür incelemenizi bir veya iki gün önceden bitirip bir kenara koyun. Bu size aklınızı ondan uzaklaştırma şansı tanıyacak ve daha sonra yeni bir bakış açısıyla düzeltmeye geri dönebileceksiniz. Bu ipucu, metninizde bulunabilecek boşlukları veya hataları kaçırmamanızı sağlayacaktır.

Bu adımlar, kolaylıkla birinci sınıf bir literatür taraması oluşturmanıza yardımcı olacaktır! Bu işin nasıl ele alınacağı konusunda daha fazla tavsiye almak isterseniz literatür taraması yaparken aklınızda bulundurmanız gereken bu önemli 3 ipucuna bakmalısınız:

• İyi Kaynaklar

Bir literatür taraması üzerinde çalışırken, bir yazarın akılda tutması gereken en önemli şey,  mümkün olan en iyi kaynakları bulmaktır. Bu, ilk araştırmayı yaparken yaklaşık 5-10 farklı seçenek arasından kaynakları seçip filtrelemeniz gerektiği anlamına gelir. Bir literatür taraması araştırmanızın konusunu ne kadar güçlü gösterirse, yaptığınız tüm incelemenin kalitesi o kadar iyi olacaktır.

• Literatürü Sentezleyin

İncelemeyi kronolojik, tematik veya metodolojik olarak mümkün olan en etkili şekilde yapılandırdığınızdan emin olun. Tam olarak ne söylemek istediğinizi anlayın ve kaynak karşılaştırmasını buna göre yapılandırın.

• Genellemelerden Kaçının

Her bir literatür parçasının konuya farklı bir açıdan yaklaşacağını unutmayın. Yazar olarak, yaklaşımlardaki karşıtlıkları net bir şekilde sunduğunuzdan ve hiçbir değer sunmayan genel ifadelere yer vermediğinizden emin olun.

Literatür taraması nedir, literatür taraması nasıl yapılır?

Literatür Taraması Örneği

Literatür taraması örneği olabilecek bazı örnek konular aşağıda sırasıyla verilmiştir:

• “To Kill a Mockingbird”, “The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn” ve “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” deki Irkçılık
• “The Catcher in the Rye”, “Frankenstein” ve “1984” teki İzolasyonizm,
• “Crime and Punishment”, “The Scarlet Letter” ve “The Lifeboat” daki Ahlak İkilemleri
• “Macbeth”, “All the King’s Men” ve “Animal Farm” daki Güç Yozlaşması,
• “Lord of the Flies”, “Hatchet” ve “Congo” daki Duygusal ve Fiziksel Hayatta Kalma.

Ebola virüsü hakkında yazılabilecek literatür taraması örneği şu şekildedir:

• Genel konuyu tanıtın.  Ebola virüsü hakkında arka plan bilgisi sağlayın: genom, patogenez, bulaşma, epidemiyoloji, tedavi vb.
• Ana araştırma sorusunu şekillendirin . Ebola virüsünün dağılımında eklembacaklıların (mekanik veya biyolojik vektörler) potansiyel rolü nedir?
• Metodolojinizi ekleyin. Örneğin, Ebola virüsü ve eklembacaklıların yayılmasındaki rolü hakkında ilgili araştırma makalelerini bulmak için bilgiler X veritabanlarında arandı. Veriler standartlaştırılmış bir form kullanılarak çıkarıldı.
• Beklenen sonuçları listeleyin.
• Bu konuyla ilgili literatürdeki genel eğilimleri ekleyin.  Virüsün doğal rezervuarı hala kesin olarak bilinmemekle birlikte, birçok araştırmacı eklembacaklıların (ve özellikle meyve yarasalarının) virüsün dağılımında önemli bir rol oynadığına inanmaktadır.
• Konu 1: Genel terimler kullanarak belirli bir literatür parçasına kısa bir genel bakış; çalışmanın temel yönlerinin bir analizi; araştırma sorularının, yöntemlerinin, prosedürlerinin ve sonuçlarının gözden geçirilmesi; ve güçlü ve zayıf noktalara, boşluklara ve çelişkilere genel bir bakış içermelidir.
• Konu 2: Belirli bir literatür parçasının genel terimlerle kısa bir özeti; çalışmanın temel yönlerinin bir analizi; araştırma sorularının, yöntemlerinin, prosedürlerinin ve sonuçlarının gözden geçirilmesi; ve güçlü ve zayıf noktalara, boşluklara ve çelişkilere genel bir bakış içermelidir.
• Konu 3: Belirli bir literatür parçasının genel terimlerle kısa bir özeti; çalışmanın temel yönlerinin bir analizi; araştırma sorularının, yöntemlerinin, prosedürlerinin ve sonuçlarının gözden geçirilmesi; ve güçlü ve zayıf noktalara, boşluklara ve çelişkilere genel bir bakış içermelidir.
• Tartışılan literatür parçaları arasındaki ilişkileri belirtin. Ana temaları, ortak kalıpları ve eğilimleri vurgulayın. Yazarlar/araştırmacılar tarafından alınan farklı yaklaşımların artıları ve eksileri hakkında konuşun.
• Hangi çalışmaların en etkili çalışmalar olduğunu belirtin.
• Başlıca çelişkili gördüğünüz noktalarını vurgulayın. Eğer konu ile ilgili boşluklar varsa tamamlayın.
• Kendi çalışmanızın konunun daha fazla açıklanmasına nasıl katkıda bulunacağını tanımlayın.

Umarım belirttiğimiz bu literatür taraması örneği kendi makalenizi yapılandırmanıza yardımcı olur. Ancak, incelemenizi nasıl düzenleyeceğiniz konusunda daha fazla tavsiyeye ihtiyacınız olduğunu düşünüyorsanız, daha fazla literatür taraması örneği ve literatür taraması örnekleri tarayın veya bu konuda danışmanlık almak için bizimle iletişime geçin. Essay Sepeti helps 🙂

Aşağıda verdiğimiz literatür taraması örneği bir, literatür araştırmasındaki paragraflardan biridir. Böylece literatür araştırması paragrafı örneği vererek literatür taraması paragrafı nasıl yazılır öğretmiş oluyoruz.

Literatür taraması örnek

Örnekte gördüğümüz mor ile yazılmış ilk cümle topic sentence olarak adlandırılır ve paragrafı özetler. Yeşil olarak yazılmış ikinci cümle konu ile ilgili önemli bir araştırmadır ve konuya örnek olma özelliği taşır, topic sentence açıklar.

Üçüncü kırmızı ile yazılmış cümleler bir eleştiri cümleleridir. Dördüncü turuncu ile yazılmış cümle konuyu bir teori ile açıklar. Beşinci mavi ile yazılmış cümle birkaç tane araştırmayı sentezleyen ve konuya ışık tutan cümleler grubudur. Son cümle ise literatürdeki açığı işaret etmektedir.

Literatür Taraması Örneği PDF

Bu bölümde size “Fertility, Divorce and Labor Force Participation” hakkında bir literatür taraması örneği (PDF) vereceğiz. Siz de bu yazıda öğrendiğiniz yapıları ve formatları kullanarak bu literatür taraması örneği (PDF) inceleyebilirsiniz.

Literatür Taraması Nedir ve Nasıl Yapılır ?

Literatür taraması nedir.

Bir araştırmanın en önemli aşamalarından biri literatür taramasıdır. Literatür taraması araştırma konusunun haritasının çıkarılması sürecidir. Benim araştırdığım konu daha önce çalışılmış mı? Kimler çalışmış? Konu hangi açıdan ve nasıl bir yöntem ile incelenmiş? Araştırmacının zihninde tüm bu sorulara cevap veren literatür taraması gereği gibi yapılmış demektir. Bu nedenle literatür taraması kaynakların künyeleri ile birlikte listelenmesinden öte bir çaba gerektirmektedir. 

Araştırma yaptığınız disipline göre literatür taramasında başvurulacak kaynaklar çeşitlenmekte ve farklılaşmaktadır. Bu nedenle araştırmaya başlamadan önce ilgili olduğunuz alana ilişkin literatürün taranmasında kullanacağınız araçları tespit ediniz. Araçların tespitinin ardından bu taramanın ne kadar bir sürede tamamlanacağını planlayınız. Bu plan dahilinde taramayı alt başlıkları bölerek, araştırma sorunuzu çeşitli açılardan sınıflandırınız. Çünkü sınıflandırma, literatür taramasının sonucunda ulaşılan verilerin değerlendirilmesini kolaylaştıracaktır. Araştırma sorusu kapsamında çıkarılacak anahtar kelimeler ise taramanızın geliştirilmesini sağlayacaktır.

*Literatür taramasına başlamadan önce araştırma sorunuzun net olarak belirli olması gerekmektedir.*

Literatür taraması ile birlikte kendi çalışmanızın yolunu açma imkanınız olacak, daha önceki yolların hangi noktalarda yoğunlaştığını tespit etme yetkinliğine ulaşacaksınız. Literatür taramasının en önemli katkısı bu yollar arasında eksikliği tespit edip, sizin bu eksiliğini nasıl gidereceğiniz sorusuna cevap bulmanızdır.

*Literatür taraması sonucunda araştırma sorunuza ilişkin daha önce yapılan çalışmaların yöntemsel ve teorik olarak hangi eksikliklerinin bulunduğunu tespit etmelisiniz. *

Literatürde erişilen kaynaklar arasında ilişkiler kurulmalı, ekoller, isimler vb. araştırma sorusu ile ilgili tüm bilgiler toplanmalıdır. Literatür taraması sonucunda araştırma sorusuna ilişkin çalışmaların eksiklikleri tespit edilmeli, çalışmaya ilişkin sınırlılıklar belirlenmeli ve bu çalışma ile sizin bilimsel alana  hangi katkıyı yapacağınız açıklanmalıdır.

*Literatür taraması betimleyici bir içerikten ziyade analitik ve eleştirel bir özelliğe sahip olmalıdır. *

Literatür Taramasının Araştırma Sürecine Katkısı Nedir?

1- Literatür taraması yaparken araştırma sorunuza ilişkin yöntemsel ve teorik çerçeveye hakim olabilirsiniz. Böylece yapacağınız çalışma ile literatürdeki hangi yöntemsel veya teorik eksikliğin giderileceği sorusuna cevap vermeniz mümkün olacaktır. 

2- Tarama sonucunda araştırma sorunuza ilişkin araştırma kurgunuzda öngöremediğiniz yöntemsel ve teorik noktaları tespit ederek, çalışmanızın bu eksikliğini giderebilirsiniz. Literatürde karşılaştığınız yeni bilgiler ile çalışmanızın içeriğini zenginleştirebilirsiniz. 

3- Araştırmanızı sunarken literatüre hakim olduğunuz izlenimi vermek, çalışmanızın bilimsel değerini artıracaktır. Çalışmanın temelinin oluşturan literatür taraması, çalışmanıza dair eleştirilerin yoğunlaşacağı alanlardan biridir. Bu nedenle literatür taramasının gereği gibi yapılmamış olması çalışmanın tümünün bilimsel anlamda yetersiz görülmesi ile sonuçlanmasına yol açabilecektir. 

Literatür Taraması Hangi Aşamalardan Oluşmaktadır?

1-Araştırma sorusunun ve anahtar kelimelerin belirlenmesi:  Literatür taramasına başlarken araştırmacı bir başlık belirler ve bu başlık kapsamında konunun hangi kapsamda inceleneceğine  karar verir.

2- Taramanın araçlarının tespit edilmesi ve taramanın planlanması: Belirlenen konu kapsamında hangi kaynakların kullanılacağı tespit edilmeli, bu kaynaklara erişme durumu belirlenmelidir. Tüm bu süreç bir plan dahilinde yürütülmelidir. Taramanın ne kadar bir sürede tamamlanacağı zamansal olarak planlanmalıdır. 

3-Taramanın alt parçalara bölünmesi ve sınıflandırılması 

Araştırma sorusuna ilişkin çeşitli alt başlıklar oluşturularak sınıflandırma yapılmalıdır. Böylece ulaşılan kaynakların karşılaştırılması ve birbiri ile ilişkisinin kurulması mümkün olacaktır.  Bu noktada tarama yaparken karşınıza çıkan kaynakların güvenirliği oldukça önemlidir. Bu nedenle erişilen kaynakların yazarı, eserin yayım yeri kontrol edilmelidir. Genel kamuya yönelik popüler yayınlardan ziyade profesyonel alıcı kitlesi için yazılmış akademik yayınlar öncelikle ele alınmalıdır. Ulaşılan kaynağın niteliksel olarak iyi olduğunu ayırt etme süreci o alandaki kaynakları tüketme oranı ile doğru orantılıdır. 

4- Literatür taramasının s onuçlandırılması   Tamamlanan taramaya bir sonuç bölümü yazılmalıdır. Bu sonuçta araştırma sorusuna ilişkin kaynakların bilgileri yer almalı bu kaynaklar eleştirel ve analitik bir yaklaşımla değerlendirilmelidir. Sonucun önemi, araştırma sorunuza ilişkin literatürün eksikliklerinin tespit edilmesi ve  sizin bu eksikliği hangi açıdan gidereceğinize yanıt vermesidir. 

Literatür Taraması Yapılırken Nelere Dikkat Edilmelidir?

*İyi bir literatür tarama süreci kapsamlı, eleştirel ve güncel olmalıdır. Literatür taraması yapılırken öncelikle yeni çalışmalardan başlayıp geriye doğru gidilir.

*Araştırma sorusu ile ilgili tüm çalışmalara ulaşmaktan ziyade araştırma sorusu ile  bağlantılı ve bilimsel bir içeriğe sahip kaynaklara ulaşılmalıdır. Bu seçim araştırmacının bilimsel araştırma yöntemini özümsemesi ile gelişen bir süreç sonucunda olgunlaşmaktadır. Taramada özellikle birincil kaynaklara ulaşılmaya çalışılmalıdır.

ÖRNEK: Ulaşılan kaynaklarda özet kısmı okunarak, incelenen kaynağın araştırma konusu ile ilgili olup olmadığı tespit edilebilir. Bir başka yöntem ise anahtar kavramlar aracılığıyla erişilen kaynağın konusu hakkında bilgi sahibi olmaktır.

*Literatür taramasının en önemli noktalarından biri de not almaktır. Bu aşamada erişilen kaynakların karışık bir şekilde not alınması ileride birçok sorunun oluşmasına neden olacaktır. İyi bir literatür taraması planlı, anlaşılır bir not tutmayı gerektirmektedir. Notları birleştirme süreci de bir diğer önemli konudur. Bu nedenle literatür taraması yapılırken sistemli ve düzenli bir çalışma tarzı benimsenmelidir.  Yapacağınız tarama sadece bulunan kaynakların listelenmesi ve özetlemesinden oluşmamalıdır. Erişilen kaynakların güçlü ve zayıf yönleri tespit edilmelidir. 

*Çalışmanın tamamlanmasına kadar literatür belirli zaman aralıkları ile yeniden gözden geçirilmeli, araştırma konusuna ilişkin güncel çalışmalar takip edilmelidir.

Literatür Taraması Yaparken Hangi Kaynaklar Kullanılır?

Literatür taraması gerçekleştirilirken birçok farklı veri tabanı kullanılmaktadır. Günümüz teknolojisinin sunduğu imkanlar ile birçok kaynak internet ortamına aktarılmaktadır. Literatür tarama sürecinde iyi belirlenmiş bir araştırma sorusu ve anahtar kavramlar bu aşamanın hem hızlı hem de nitelikli bir şekilde tamamlanmasını sağlayacaktır. Aşağıda birkaç tarama kaynağına ilişkin örnekler verilmiştir. Bu listeye birçok veri tabanı dahil edilebilir. Türkçe alanyazının dışında uluslararası yayınlar da literatür taramasının önemli bir parçasıdır. Literatür taraması araştırmanın bir eki değil, doğru bir şekilde ilerleyebilmesi için temelidir. Bu temelde ulaşılan tespitler araştırma boyunca sizlerin yolunu açacaktır. Taramanın ardından gerçekleşecek değerlendirme süreci ise çalışma alanıza hakim olmanızı sağlayacaktır.

1- Bilimsel Yayınlar

Kitap, makale, bildiri metni, ansiklopedi maddesi, sözlükler, tezler

Kitap taramaları için: 

http://www.toplukatalog.gov.tr/

Tez taramaları için:

https://tez.yok.gov.tr/UlusalTezMerkezi/giris.jsp

Makale taramaları için:

https://makaleler.mkutup.gov.tr/

https://asosindex.com.tr/

Ansiklopedi taramaları için:

https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/

https://www.britannica.com/

2- Kurumsal Yayınlar ve Politika Belgeleri

Kamu kurumları ve özel sektör yayınları                                       

3- Konuya ilişkin görsel ve işitsel çalışmalar                            

Not: Bu yazı hazırlanırken W.Lawrence Neuman’ın Toplumsal Araştırma Yöntemleri Nitel ve Nicel Yaklaşımlar Kitabından yararlanılmıştır. ( Çev. Sedef Özge, Siyasal Kitabevi, Ankara.)

Literatür taraması araştırma konusunun haritasının çıkarılması sürecidir. Literatür taraması ile benim araştırdığım konu daha önce çalışılmış mı? Kimler çalışmış? Konu hangi açıdan ve nasıl bir yöntem ile incelenmiş? Konuyun incelenmesinde hangi eksiklikler bulunmaktadır? sorularına cevap bulacaksınız.

Literatür taraması, araştırma konusu ve sorusunu belirleme, taramanın planlanması, taramanın alt başlıklar altında sınıflandırılması ve taramanın sonuca bağlaması olmak üzere temelde dört aşamadan oluşmaktadır.

Doktor Adayı, Ankara Üniversitesi Yönetim Bilimleri Anabilim Dalı

Çalışma Alanları: Kamu Yönetimi Disiplini, Yönetim Tarihi ve Düşünü, Siyasal Partiler ve Seçimler, Göç Yönetim Politikaları

• YAYIN KURULU
• AKADEMİSYENLER
• ARAŞTIRMACILAR
• BİZE KATILIN

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• Knowledge Base

Methodology

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

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

Published on January 2, 2023 by Shona McCombes . Revised on September 11, 2023.

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

There are five key steps to writing a literature review:

• Search for relevant literature
• Evaluate sources
• Identify themes, debates, and gaps
• Outline the structure
• Write your literature review

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

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Table of contents

What is the purpose of a literature review, examples of literature reviews, step 1 – search for relevant literature, step 2 – evaluate and select sources, step 3 – identify themes, debates, and gaps, step 4 – outline your literature review’s structure, step 5 – write your literature review, free lecture slides, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions, introduction.

• Quick Run-through
• Step 1 & 2

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

• Demonstrate your familiarity with the topic and its scholarly context
• Develop a theoretical framework and methodology for your research
• Position your work in relation to other researchers and theorists
• Show how your research addresses a gap or contributes to a debate
• Evaluate the current state of research and demonstrate your knowledge of the scholarly debates around your topic.

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

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Writing literature reviews can be quite challenging! A good starting point could be to look at some examples, depending on what kind of literature review you’d like to write.

• Example literature review #1: “Why Do People Migrate? A Review of the Theoretical Literature” ( Theoretical literature review about the development of economic migration theory from the 1950s to today.)
• Example literature review #2: “Literature review as a research methodology: An overview and guidelines” ( Methodological literature review about interdisciplinary knowledge acquisition and production.)
• Example literature review #3: “The Use of Technology in English Language Learning: A Literature Review” ( Thematic literature review about the effects of technology on language acquisition.)
• Example literature review #4: “Learners’ Listening Comprehension Difficulties in English Language Learning: A Literature Review” ( Chronological literature review about how the concept of listening skills has changed over time.)

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

Download Word doc Download Google doc

Before you begin searching for literature, you need a clearly defined topic .

If you are writing the literature review section of a dissertation or research paper, you will search for literature related to your research problem and questions .

Make a list of keywords

Start by creating a list of keywords related to your research question. Include each of the key concepts or variables you’re interested in, and list any synonyms and related terms. You can add to this list as you discover new keywords in the process of your literature search.

• Social media, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, TikTok
• Body image, self-perception, self-esteem, mental health
• Generation Z, teenagers, adolescents, youth

Search for relevant sources

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

• Your university’s library catalogue
• Google Scholar
• Project Muse (humanities and social sciences)
• Medline (life sciences and biomedicine)
• EconLit (economics)
• Inspec (physics, engineering and computer science)

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

Make sure to read the abstract to find out whether an article is relevant to your question. When you find a useful book or article, you can check the bibliography to find other relevant sources.

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

For each publication, ask yourself:

• What question or problem is the author addressing?
• What are the key concepts and how are they defined?
• What are the key theories, models, and methods?
• Does the research use established frameworks or take an innovative approach?
• What are the results and conclusions of the study?
• How does the publication relate to other literature in the field? Does it confirm, add to, or challenge established knowledge?
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of the research?

Make sure the sources you use are credible , and make sure you read any landmark studies and major theories in your field of research.

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

Take notes and cite your sources

As you read, you should also begin the writing process. Take notes that you can later incorporate into the text of your literature review.

It is important to keep track of your sources with citations to avoid plagiarism . It can be helpful to make an annotated bibliography , where you compile full citation information and write a paragraph of summary and analysis for each source. This helps you remember what you read and saves time later in the process.

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

• Trends and patterns (in theory, method or results): do certain approaches become more or less popular over time?
• Themes: what questions or concepts recur across the literature?
• Debates, conflicts and contradictions: where do sources disagree?
• Pivotal publications: are there any influential theories or studies that changed the direction of the field?
• Gaps: what is missing from the literature? Are there weaknesses that need to be addressed?

This step will help you work out the structure of your literature review and (if applicable) show how your own research will contribute to existing knowledge.

• Most research has focused on young women.
• There is an increasing interest in the visual aspects of social media.
• But there is still a lack of robust research on highly visual platforms like Instagram and Snapchat—this is a gap that you could address in your own research.

There are various approaches to organizing the body of a literature review. Depending on the length of your literature review, you can combine several of these strategies (for example, your overall structure might be thematic, but each theme is discussed chronologically).

Chronological

The simplest approach is to trace the development of the topic over time. However, if you choose this strategy, be careful to avoid simply listing and summarizing sources in order.

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

If you have found some recurring central themes, you can organize your literature review into subsections that address different aspects of the topic.

For example, if you are reviewing literature about inequalities in migrant health outcomes, key themes might include healthcare policy, language barriers, cultural attitudes, legal status, and economic access.

Methodological

If you draw your sources from different disciplines or fields that use a variety of research methods , you might want to compare the results and conclusions that emerge from different approaches. For example:

• Look at what results have emerged in qualitative versus quantitative research
• Discuss how the topic has been approached by empirical versus theoretical scholarship
• Divide the literature into sociological, historical, and cultural sources

Theoretical

A literature review is often the foundation for a theoretical framework . You can use it to discuss various theories, models, and definitions of key concepts.

You might argue for the relevance of a specific theoretical approach, or combine various theoretical concepts to create a framework for your research.

Like any other academic text , your literature review should have an introduction , a main body, and a conclusion . What you include in each depends on the objective of your literature review.

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

Depending on the length of your literature review, you might want to divide the body into subsections. You can use a subheading for each theme, time period, or methodological approach.

As you write, you can follow these tips:

• Summarize and synthesize: give an overview of the main points of each source and combine them into a coherent whole
• Analyze and interpret: don’t just paraphrase other researchers — add your own interpretations where possible, discussing the significance of findings in relation to the literature as a whole
• Critically evaluate: mention the strengths and weaknesses of your sources
• Write in well-structured paragraphs: use transition words and topic sentences to draw connections, comparisons and contrasts

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

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

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

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If you want to know more about the research process , methodology , research bias , or statistics , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

• Sampling methods
• Simple random sampling
• Stratified sampling
• Cluster sampling
• Likert scales
• Reproducibility

 Statistics

• Null hypothesis
• Statistical power
• Probability distribution
• Effect size
• Poisson distribution

Research bias

• Optimism bias
• Cognitive bias
• Implicit bias
• Hawthorne effect
• Anchoring bias
• Explicit bias

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

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

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

• To familiarize yourself with the current state of knowledge on your topic
• To ensure that you’re not just repeating what others have already done
• To identify gaps in knowledge and unresolved problems that your research can address
• To develop your theoretical framework and methodology
• To provide an overview of the key findings and debates on the topic

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

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

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

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

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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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Writing a Literature Review

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A literature review is a document or section of a document that collects key sources on a topic and discusses those sources in conversation with each other (also called synthesis ). The lit review is an important genre in many disciplines, not just literature (i.e., the study of works of literature such as novels and plays). When we say “literature review” or refer to “the literature,” we are talking about the research ( scholarship ) in a given field. You will often see the terms “the research,” “the scholarship,” and “the literature” used mostly interchangeably.

Where, when, and why would I write a lit review?

There are a number of different situations where you might write a literature review, each with slightly different expectations; different disciplines, too, have field-specific expectations for what a literature review is and does. For instance, in the humanities, authors might include more overt argumentation and interpretation of source material in their literature reviews, whereas in the sciences, authors are more likely to report study designs and results in their literature reviews; these differences reflect these disciplines’ purposes and conventions in scholarship. You should always look at examples from your own discipline and talk to professors or mentors in your field to be sure you understand your discipline’s conventions, for literature reviews as well as for any other genre.

A literature review can be a part of a research paper or scholarly article, usually falling after the introduction and before the research methods sections. In these cases, the lit review just needs to cover scholarship that is important to the issue you are writing about; sometimes it will also cover key sources that informed your research methodology.

Lit reviews can also be standalone pieces, either as assignments in a class or as publications. In a class, a lit review may be assigned to help students familiarize themselves with a topic and with scholarship in their field, get an idea of the other researchers working on the topic they’re interested in, find gaps in existing research in order to propose new projects, and/or develop a theoretical framework and methodology for later research. As a publication, a lit review usually is meant to help make other scholars’ lives easier by collecting and summarizing, synthesizing, and analyzing existing research on a topic. This can be especially helpful for students or scholars getting into a new research area, or for directing an entire community of scholars toward questions that have not yet been answered.

What are the parts of a lit review?

Most lit reviews use a basic introduction-body-conclusion structure; if your lit review is part of a larger paper, the introduction and conclusion pieces may be just a few sentences while you focus most of your attention on the body. If your lit review is a standalone piece, the introduction and conclusion take up more space and give you a place to discuss your goals, research methods, and conclusions separately from where you discuss the literature itself.

Introduction:

• An introductory paragraph that explains what your working topic and thesis is
• A forecast of key topics or texts that will appear in the review
• Potentially, a description of how you found sources and how you analyzed them for inclusion and discussion in the review (more often found in published, standalone literature reviews than in lit review sections in an article or research paper)
• Summarize and synthesize: Give an overview of the main points of each source and combine them into a coherent whole
• Analyze and interpret: Don’t just paraphrase other researchers – add your own interpretations where possible, discussing the significance of findings in relation to the literature as a whole
• Critically Evaluate: Mention the strengths and weaknesses of your sources
• Write in well-structured paragraphs: Use transition words and topic sentence to draw connections, comparisons, and contrasts.

Conclusion:

• Summarize the key findings you have taken from the literature and emphasize their significance
• Connect it back to your primary research question

How should I organize my lit review?

Lit reviews can take many different organizational patterns depending on what you are trying to accomplish with the review. Here are some examples:

• Chronological : The simplest approach is to trace the development of the topic over time, which helps familiarize the audience with the topic (for instance if you are introducing something that is not commonly known in your field). If you choose this strategy, be careful to avoid simply listing and summarizing sources in order. Try to analyze the patterns, turning points, and key debates that have shaped the direction of the field. Give your interpretation of how and why certain developments occurred (as mentioned previously, this may not be appropriate in your discipline — check with a teacher or mentor if you’re unsure).
• Thematic : If you have found some recurring central themes that you will continue working with throughout your piece, you can organize your literature review into subsections that address different aspects of the topic. For example, if you are reviewing literature about women and religion, key themes can include the role of women in churches and the religious attitude towards women.
• Qualitative versus quantitative research
• Empirical versus theoretical scholarship
• Divide the research by sociological, historical, or cultural sources
• Theoretical : In many humanities articles, the literature review is the foundation for the theoretical framework. You can use it to discuss various theories, models, and definitions of key concepts. You can argue for the relevance of a specific theoretical approach or combine various theorical concepts to create a framework for your research.

What are some strategies or tips I can use while writing my lit review?

Any lit review is only as good as the research it discusses; make sure your sources are well-chosen and your research is thorough. Don’t be afraid to do more research if you discover a new thread as you’re writing. More info on the research process is available in our "Conducting Research" resources .

As you’re doing your research, create an annotated bibliography ( see our page on the this type of document ). Much of the information used in an annotated bibliography can be used also in a literature review, so you’ll be not only partially drafting your lit review as you research, but also developing your sense of the larger conversation going on among scholars, professionals, and any other stakeholders in your topic.

Usually you will need to synthesize research rather than just summarizing it. This means drawing connections between sources to create a picture of the scholarly conversation on a topic over time. Many student writers struggle to synthesize because they feel they don’t have anything to add to the scholars they are citing; here are some strategies to help you:

• It often helps to remember that the point of these kinds of syntheses is to show your readers how you understand your research, to help them read the rest of your paper.
• Writing teachers often say synthesis is like hosting a dinner party: imagine all your sources are together in a room, discussing your topic. What are they saying to each other?
• Look at the in-text citations in each paragraph. Are you citing just one source for each paragraph? This usually indicates summary only. When you have multiple sources cited in a paragraph, you are more likely to be synthesizing them (not always, but often
• Read more about synthesis here.

The most interesting literature reviews are often written as arguments (again, as mentioned at the beginning of the page, this is discipline-specific and doesn’t work for all situations). Often, the literature review is where you can establish your research as filling a particular gap or as relevant in a particular way. You have some chance to do this in your introduction in an article, but the literature review section gives a more extended opportunity to establish the conversation in the way you would like your readers to see it. You can choose the intellectual lineage you would like to be part of and whose definitions matter most to your thinking (mostly humanities-specific, but this goes for sciences as well). In addressing these points, you argue for your place in the conversation, which tends to make the lit review more compelling than a simple reporting of other sources.

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What is a literature review?

A literature review is a critical analysis of the literature related to your research topic. It evaluates and critiques the literature to establish a theoretical framework for your research topic and/or identify a gap in the existing research that your research will address.

A literature review is not a summary of the literature. You need to engage deeply and critically with the literature. Your literature review should show your understanding of the literature related to your research topic and lead to presenting a rationale for your research.

A literature review focuses on:

• the context of the topic
• key concepts, ideas, theories and methodologies
• key researchers, texts and seminal works
• major issues and debates
• identifying conflicting evidence
• the main questions that have been asked around the topic
• the organisation of knowledge on the topic
• definitions, particularly those that are contested
• showing how your research will advance scholarly knowledge (generally referred to as identifying the ‘gap’).

This module will guide you through the functions of a literature review; the typical process of conducting a literature review (including searching for literature and taking notes); structuring your literature review within your thesis and organising its internal ideas; and styling the language of your literature review.

The purposes of a literature review

A literature review serves two main purposes:

1) To show awareness of the present state of knowledge in a particular field, including:

• seminal authors
• the main empirical research
• theoretical positions
• controversies
• breakthroughs as well as links to other related areas of knowledge.

2) To provide a foundation for the author’s research. To do that, the literature review needs to:

• help the researcher define a hypothesis or a research question, and how answering the question will contribute to the body of knowledge;
• provide a rationale for investigating the problem and the selected methodology;
• provide a particular theoretical lens, support the argument, or identify gaps.

Before you engage further with this module, try the quiz below to see how much you already know about literature reviews.

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• What is a Literature Review? | Guide, Template, & Examples

What is a Literature Review? | Guide, Template, & Examples

Published on 22 February 2022 by Shona McCombes . Revised on 7 June 2022.

What is a literature review? A literature review is a survey of scholarly sources on a specific topic. It provides an overview of current knowledge, allowing you to identify relevant theories, methods, and gaps in the existing research.

There are five key steps to writing a literature review:

• Search for relevant literature
• Evaluate sources
• Identify themes, debates and gaps
• Outline the structure
• Write your literature review

A good literature review doesn’t just summarise sources – it analyses, synthesises, and critically evaluates to give a clear picture of the state of knowledge on the subject.

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Table of contents

Why write a literature review, examples of literature reviews, step 1: search for relevant literature, step 2: evaluate and select sources, step 3: identify themes, debates and gaps, step 4: outline your literature review’s structure, step 5: write your literature review, frequently asked questions about literature reviews, introduction.

• Quick Run-through
• Step 1 & 2

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

• Demonstrate your familiarity with the topic and scholarly context
• Develop a theoretical framework and methodology for your research
• Position yourself in relation to other researchers and theorists
• Show how your dissertation addresses a gap or contributes to a debate

You might also have to write a literature review as a stand-alone assignment. In this case, the purpose is to evaluate the current state of research and demonstrate your knowledge of scholarly debates around a topic.

The content will look slightly different in each case, but the process of conducting a literature review follows the same steps. We’ve written a step-by-step guide that you can follow below.

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Writing literature reviews can be quite challenging! A good starting point could be to look at some examples, depending on what kind of literature review you’d like to write.

• Example literature review #1: “Why Do People Migrate? A Review of the Theoretical Literature” ( Theoretical literature review about the development of economic migration theory from the 1950s to today.)
• Example literature review #2: “Literature review as a research methodology: An overview and guidelines” ( Methodological literature review about interdisciplinary knowledge acquisition and production.)
• Example literature review #3: “The Use of Technology in English Language Learning: A Literature Review” ( Thematic literature review about the effects of technology on language acquisition.)
• Example literature review #4: “Learners’ Listening Comprehension Difficulties in English Language Learning: A Literature Review” ( Chronological literature review about how the concept of listening skills has changed over time.)

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

Download Word doc Download Google doc

Before you begin searching for literature, you need a clearly defined topic .

If you are writing the literature review section of a dissertation or research paper, you will search for literature related to your research objectives and questions .

If you are writing a literature review as a stand-alone assignment, you will have to choose a focus and develop a central question to direct your search. Unlike a dissertation research question, this question has to be answerable without collecting original data. You should be able to answer it based only on a review of existing publications.

Make a list of keywords

Start by creating a list of keywords related to your research topic. Include each of the key concepts or variables you’re interested in, and list any synonyms and related terms. You can add to this list if you discover new keywords in the process of your literature search.

• Social media, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, TikTok
• Body image, self-perception, self-esteem, mental health
• Generation Z, teenagers, adolescents, youth

Search for relevant sources

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

• Your university’s library catalogue
• Google Scholar
• Project Muse (humanities and social sciences)
• Medline (life sciences and biomedicine)
• EconLit (economics)
• Inspec (physics, engineering and computer science)

You can use boolean operators to help narrow down your search:

Read the abstract to find out whether an article is relevant to your question. When you find a useful book or article, you can check the bibliography to find other relevant sources.

To identify the most important publications on your topic, take note of recurring citations. If the same authors, books or articles keep appearing in your reading, make sure to seek them out.

You probably won’t be able to read absolutely everything that has been written on the topic – you’ll have to evaluate which sources are most relevant to your questions.

For each publication, ask yourself:

• What question or problem is the author addressing?
• What are the key concepts and how are they defined?
• What are the key theories, models and methods? Does the research use established frameworks or take an innovative approach?
• What are the results and conclusions of the study?
• How does the publication relate to other literature in the field? Does it confirm, add to, or challenge established knowledge?
• How does the publication contribute to your understanding of the topic? What are its key insights and arguments?
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of the research?

Make sure the sources you use are credible, and make sure you read any landmark studies and major theories in your field of research.

You can find out how many times an article has been cited on Google Scholar – a high citation count means the article has been influential in the field, and should certainly be included in your literature review.

The scope of your review will depend on your topic and discipline: in the sciences you usually only review recent literature, but in the humanities you might take a long historical perspective (for example, to trace how a concept has changed in meaning over time).

Remember that you can use our template to summarise and evaluate sources you’re thinking about using!

Take notes and cite your sources

As you read, you should also begin the writing process. Take notes that you can later incorporate into the text of your literature review.

It’s important to keep track of your sources with references to avoid plagiarism . It can be helpful to make an annotated bibliography, where you compile full reference information and write a paragraph of summary and analysis for each source. This helps you remember what you read and saves time later in the process.

You can use our free APA Reference Generator for quick, correct, consistent citations.

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

• Trends and patterns (in theory, method or results): do certain approaches become more or less popular over time?
• Themes: what questions or concepts recur across the literature?
• Debates, conflicts and contradictions: where do sources disagree?
• Pivotal publications: are there any influential theories or studies that changed the direction of the field?
• Gaps: what is missing from the literature? Are there weaknesses that need to be addressed?

This step will help you work out the structure of your literature review and (if applicable) show how your own research will contribute to existing knowledge.

• Most research has focused on young women.
• There is an increasing interest in the visual aspects of social media.
• But there is still a lack of robust research on highly-visual platforms like Instagram and Snapchat – this is a gap that you could address in your own research.

There are various approaches to organising the body of a literature review. You should have a rough idea of your strategy before you start writing.

Depending on the length of your literature review, you can combine several of these strategies (for example, your overall structure might be thematic, but each theme is discussed chronologically).

Chronological

The simplest approach is to trace the development of the topic over time. However, if you choose this strategy, be careful to avoid simply listing and summarising sources in order.

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

If you have found some recurring central themes, you can organise your literature review into subsections that address different aspects of the topic.

For example, if you are reviewing literature about inequalities in migrant health outcomes, key themes might include healthcare policy, language barriers, cultural attitudes, legal status, and economic access.

Methodological

If you draw your sources from different disciplines or fields that use a variety of research methods , you might want to compare the results and conclusions that emerge from different approaches. For example:

• Look at what results have emerged in qualitative versus quantitative research
• Discuss how the topic has been approached by empirical versus theoretical scholarship
• Divide the literature into sociological, historical, and cultural sources

Theoretical

A literature review is often the foundation for a theoretical framework . You can use it to discuss various theories, models, and definitions of key concepts.

You might argue for the relevance of a specific theoretical approach, or combine various theoretical concepts to create a framework for your research.

Like any other academic text, your literature review should have an introduction , a main body, and a conclusion . What you include in each depends on the objective of your literature review.

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

If you are writing the literature review as part of your dissertation or thesis, reiterate your central problem or research question and give a brief summary of the scholarly context. You can emphasise the timeliness of the topic (“many recent studies have focused on the problem of x”) or highlight a gap in the literature (“while there has been much research on x, few researchers have taken y into consideration”).

Depending on the length of your literature review, you might want to divide the body into subsections. You can use a subheading for each theme, time period, or methodological approach.

As you write, make sure to follow these tips:

• Summarise and synthesise: give an overview of the main points of each source and combine them into a coherent whole.
• Analyse and interpret: don’t just paraphrase other researchers – add your own interpretations, discussing the significance of findings in relation to the literature as a whole.
• Critically evaluate: mention the strengths and weaknesses of your sources.
• Write in well-structured paragraphs: use transitions and topic sentences to draw connections, comparisons and contrasts.

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

If the literature review is part of your dissertation or thesis, reiterate how your research addresses gaps and contributes new knowledge, or discuss how you have drawn on existing theories and methods to build a framework for your research. This can lead directly into your methodology section.

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

It is often written as part of a dissertation , thesis, research paper , or proposal .

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

• To familiarise yourself with the current state of knowledge on your topic
• To ensure that you’re not just repeating what others have already done
• To identify gaps in knowledge and unresolved problems that your research can address
• To develop your theoretical framework and methodology
• To provide an overview of the key findings and debates on the topic

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

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

Cite this Scribbr article

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McCombes, S. (2022, June 07). What is a Literature Review? | Guide, Template, & Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved 9 April 2024, from https://www.scribbr.co.uk/thesis-dissertation/literature-review/

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How To Write A Literature Review - A Complete Guide

Table of Contents

A literature review is much more than just another section in your research paper. It forms the very foundation of your research. It is a formal piece of writing where you analyze the existing theoretical framework, principles, and assumptions and use that as a base to shape your approach to the research question.

Curating and drafting a solid literature review section not only lends more credibility to your research paper but also makes your research tighter and better focused. But, writing literature reviews is a difficult task. It requires extensive reading, plus you have to consider market trends and technological and political changes, which tend to change in the blink of an eye.

Now streamline your literature review process with the help of SciSpace Copilot. With this AI research assistant, you can efficiently synthesize and analyze a vast amount of information, identify key themes and trends, and uncover gaps in the existing research. Get real-time explanations, summaries, and answers to your questions for the paper you're reviewing, making navigating and understanding the complex literature landscape easier.

In this comprehensive guide, we will explore everything from the definition of a literature review, its appropriate length, various types of literature reviews, and how to write one.

What is a literature review?

A literature review is a collation of survey, research, critical evaluation, and assessment of the existing literature in a preferred domain.

Eminent researcher and academic Arlene Fink, in her book Conducting Research Literature Reviews , defines it as the following:

“A literature review surveys 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 explored while researching a particular topic, and to demonstrate to your readers how your research fits within a larger field of study.”

Simply put, a literature review can be defined as a critical discussion of relevant pre-existing research around your research question and carving out a definitive place for your study in the existing body of knowledge. Literature reviews can be presented in multiple ways: a section of an article, the whole research paper itself, or a chapter of your thesis.

A literature review does function as a summary of sources, but it also allows you to analyze further, interpret, and examine the stated theories, methods, viewpoints, and, of course, the gaps in the existing content.

As an author, you can discuss and interpret the research question and its various aspects and debate your adopted methods to support the claim.

What is the purpose of a literature review?

A literature review is meant to help your readers understand the relevance of your research question and where it fits within the existing body of knowledge. As a researcher, you should use it to set the context, build your argument, and establish the need for your study.

What is the importance of a literature review?

The literature review is a critical part of research papers because it helps you:

• Gain an in-depth understanding of your research question and the surrounding area
• Convey that you have a thorough understanding of your research area and are up-to-date with the latest changes and advancements
• Establish how your research is connected or builds on the existing body of knowledge and how it could contribute to further research
• Elaborate on the validity and suitability of your theoretical framework and research methodology
• Identify and highlight gaps and shortcomings in the existing body of knowledge and how things need to change
• Convey to readers how your study is different or how it contributes to the research area

How long should a literature review be?

Ideally, the literature review should take up 15%-40% of the total length of your manuscript. So, if you have a 10,000-word research paper, the minimum word count could be 1500.

Your literature review format depends heavily on the kind of manuscript you are writing — an entire chapter in case of doctoral theses, a part of the introductory section in a research article, to a full-fledged review article that examines the previously published research on a topic.

Another determining factor is the type of research you are doing. The literature review section tends to be longer for secondary research projects than primary research projects.

What are the different types of literature reviews?

All literature reviews are not the same. There are a variety of possible approaches that you can take. It all depends on the type of research you are pursuing.

Here are the different types of literature reviews:

Argumentative review

It is called an argumentative review when you carefully present literature that only supports or counters a specific argument or premise to establish a viewpoint.

Integrative review

It is a type of literature review focused on building a comprehensive understanding of a topic by combining available theoretical frameworks and empirical evidence.

Methodological review

This approach delves into the ''how'' and the ''what" of the research question —  you cannot look at the outcome in isolation; you should also review the methodology used.

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 collect, report, and analyze data from the studies included in the review.

Meta-analysis review

Meta-analysis uses statistical methods to summarize the results of independent studies. By combining information from all relevant studies, meta-analysis can provide more precise estimates of the effects than those derived from the individual studies included within a review.

Historical review

Historical literature reviews focus on examining research throughout a period, often starting with the first time an issue, concept, theory, or phenomenon 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 identify future research's likely directions.

Theoretical Review

This form aims to examine the corpus of theory accumulated regarding an issue, concept, theory, and phenomenon. The theoretical literature review helps to establish what theories exist, the relationships between them, the degree the existing approaches have been investigated, and to develop new hypotheses to be tested.

Scoping Review

The Scoping Review is often used at the beginning of an article, dissertation, or research proposal. It is conducted before the research to highlight gaps in the existing body of knowledge and explains why the project should be greenlit.

State-of-the-Art Review

The State-of-the-Art review is conducted periodically, focusing on the most recent research. It describes what is currently known, understood, or agreed upon regarding the research topic and highlights where there are still disagreements.

Can you use the first person in a literature review?

When writing literature reviews, you should avoid the usage of first-person pronouns. It means that instead of "I argue that" or "we argue that," the appropriate expression would be "this research paper argues that."

Do you need an abstract for a literature review?

Ideally, yes. It is always good to have a condensed summary that is self-contained and independent of the rest of your review. As for how to draft one, you can follow the same fundamental idea when preparing an abstract for a literature review. It should also include:

• The research topic and your motivation behind selecting it
• A one-sentence thesis statement
• An explanation of the kinds of literature featured in the review
• Summary of what you've learned
• Conclusions you drew from the literature you reviewed
• Potential implications and future scope for research

Here's an example of the abstract of a literature review

Is a literature review written in the past tense?

Yes, the literature review should ideally be written in the past tense. You should not use the present or future tense when writing one. The exceptions are when you have statements describing events that happened earlier than the literature you are reviewing or events that are currently occurring; then, you can use the past perfect or present perfect tenses.

How many sources for a literature review?

There are multiple approaches to deciding how many sources to include in a literature review section. The first approach would be to look level you are at as a researcher. For instance, a doctoral thesis might need 60+ sources. In contrast, you might only need to refer to 5-15 sources at the undergraduate level.

The second approach is based on the kind of literature review you are doing — whether it is merely a chapter of your paper or if it is a self-contained paper in itself. When it is just a chapter, sources should equal the total number of pages in your article's body. In the second scenario, you need at least three times as many sources as there are pages in your work.

Quick tips on how to write a literature review

To know how to write a literature review, you must clearly understand its impact and role in establishing your work as substantive research material.

You need to follow the below-mentioned steps, to write a literature review:

• Outline the purpose behind the literature review
• Search relevant literature
• Examine and assess the relevant resources
• Discover connections by drawing deep insights from the resources
• Structure planning to write a good literature review

1. Outline and identify the purpose of  a literature review

As a first step on how to write a literature review, you must know what the research question or topic is and what shape you want your literature review to take. Ensure you understand the research topic inside out, or else seek clarifications. You must be able to the answer below questions before you start:

• How many sources do I need to include?
• What kind of sources should I analyze?
• How much should I critically evaluate each source?
• Should I summarize, synthesize or offer a critique of the sources?
• Do I need to include any background information or definitions?

Additionally, you should know that the narrower your research topic is, the swifter it will be for you to restrict the number of sources to be analyzed.

2. Search relevant literature

Dig deeper into search engines to discover what has already been published around your chosen topic. Make sure you thoroughly go through appropriate reference sources like books, reports, journal articles, government docs, and web-based resources.

You must prepare a list of keywords and their different variations. You can start your search from any library’s catalog, provided you are an active member of that institution. The exact keywords can be extended to widen your research over other databases and academic search engines like:

• Google Scholar
• Microsoft Academic
• Science.gov

Besides, it is not advisable to go through every resource word by word. Alternatively, what you can do is you can start by reading the abstract and then decide whether that source is relevant to your research or not.

Additionally, you must spend surplus time assessing the quality and relevance of resources. It would help if you tried preparing a list of citations to ensure that there lies no repetition of authors, publications, or articles in the literature review.

3. Examine and assess the sources

It is nearly impossible for you to go through every detail in the research article. So rather than trying to fetch every detail, you have to analyze and decide which research sources resemble closest and appear relevant to your chosen domain.

While analyzing the sources, you should look to find out answers to questions like:

• What question or problem has the author been describing and debating?
• What is the definition of critical aspects?
• How well the theories, approach, and methodology have been explained?
• Whether the research theory used some conventional or new innovative approach?
• How relevant are the key findings of the work?
• In what ways does it relate to other sources on the same topic?
• What challenges does this research paper pose to the existing theory
• What are the possible contributions or benefits it adds to the subject domain?

Be always mindful that you refer only to credible and authentic resources. It would be best if you always take references from different publications to validate your theory.

Always keep track of important information or data you can present in your literature review right from the beginning. It will help steer your path from any threats of plagiarism and also make it easier to curate an annotated bibliography or reference section.

4. Discover connections

At this stage, you must start deciding on the argument and structure of your literature review. To accomplish this, you must discover and identify the relations and connections between various resources while drafting your abstract.

A few aspects that you should be aware of while writing a literature review include:

• Rise to prominence: Theories and methods that have gained reputation and supporters over time.
• Constant scrutiny: Concepts or theories that repeatedly went under examination.
• Contradictions and conflicts: Theories, both the supporting and the contradictory ones, for the research topic.
• Knowledge gaps: What exactly does it fail to address, and how to bridge them with further research?
• Influential resources: Significant research projects available that have been upheld as milestones or perhaps, something that can modify the current trends

Once you join the dots between various past research works, it will be easier for you to draw a conclusion and identify your contribution to the existing knowledge base.

5. Structure planning to write a good literature review

There exist different ways towards planning and executing the structure of a literature review. The format of a literature review varies and depends upon the length of the research.

Like any other research paper, the literature review format must contain three sections: introduction, body, and conclusion. The goals and objectives of the research question determine what goes inside these three sections.

Nevertheless, a good literature review can be structured according to the chronological, thematic, methodological, or theoretical framework approach.

Literature review samples

1. Standalone

2. As a section of a research paper

How SciSpace Discover makes literature review a breeze?

SciSpace Discover is a one-stop solution to do an effective literature search and get barrier-free access to scientific knowledge. It is an excellent repository where you can find millions of only peer-reviewed articles and full-text PDF files. Here’s more on how you can use it:

Find the right information

Find what you want quickly and easily with comprehensive search filters that let you narrow down papers according to PDF availability, year of publishing, document type, and affiliated institution. Moreover, you can sort the results based on the publishing date, citation count, and relevance.

Assess credibility of papers quickly

When doing the literature review, it is critical to establish the quality of your sources. They form the foundation of your research. SciSpace Discover helps you assess the quality of a source by providing an overview of its references, citations, and performance metrics.

Get the complete picture in no time

SciSpace Discover’s personalized suggestion engine helps you stay on course and get the complete picture of the topic from one place. Every time you visit an article page, it provides you links to related papers. Besides that, it helps you understand what’s trending, who are the top authors, and who are the leading publishers on a topic.

Make referring sources super easy

To ensure you don't lose track of your sources, you must start noting down your references when doing the literature review. SciSpace Discover makes this step effortless. Click the 'cite' button on an article page, and you will receive preloaded citation text in multiple styles — all you've to do is copy-paste it into your manuscript.

Final tips on how to write a literature review

A massive chunk of time and effort is required to write a good literature review. But, if you go about it systematically, you'll be able to save a ton of time and build a solid foundation for your research.

We hope this guide has helped you answer several key questions you have about writing literature reviews.

Would you like to explore SciSpace Discover and kick off your literature search right away? You can get started here .

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. how to start a literature review.

• What questions do you want to answer?

• What sources do you need to answer these questions?

• What information do these sources contain?

• How can you use this information to answer your questions?

2. What to include in a literature review?

• A brief background of the problem or issue

• What has previously been done to address the problem or issue

• A description of what you will do in your project

• How this study will contribute to research on the subject

3. Why literature review is important?

The literature review is an important part of any research project because it allows the writer to look at previous studies on a topic and determine existing gaps in the literature, as well as what has already been done. It will also help them to choose the most appropriate method for their own study.

4. How to cite a literature review in APA format?

To cite a literature review in APA style, you need to provide the author's name, the title of the article, and the year of publication. For example: Patel, A. B., & Stokes, G. S. (2012). The relationship between personality and intelligence: A meta-analysis of longitudinal research. Personality and Individual Differences, 53(1), 16-21

5. What are the components of a literature review?

• A brief introduction to the topic, including its background and context. The introduction should also include a rationale for why the study is being conducted and what it will accomplish.

• A description of the methodologies used in the study. This can include information about data collection methods, sample size, and statistical analyses.

• A presentation of the findings in an organized format that helps readers follow along with the author's conclusions.

6. What are common errors in writing literature review?

• Not spending enough time to critically evaluate the relevance of resources, observations and conclusions.

• Totally relying on secondary data while ignoring primary data.

• Letting your personal bias seep into your interpretation of existing literature.

• No detailed explanation of the procedure to discover and identify an appropriate literature review.

7. What are the 5 C's of writing literature review?

• Cite - the sources you utilized and referenced in your research.

• Compare - existing arguments, hypotheses, methodologies, and conclusions found in the knowledge base.

• Contrast - the arguments, topics, methodologies, approaches, and disputes that may be found in the literature.

• Critique - the literature and describe the ideas and opinions you find more convincing and why.

• Connect - the various studies you reviewed in your research.

8. How many sources should a literature review have?

When it is just a chapter, sources should equal the total number of pages in your article's body. if it is a self-contained paper in itself, you need at least three times as many sources as there are pages in your work.

9. Can literature review have diagrams?

• To represent an abstract idea or concept

• To explain the steps of a process or procedure

• To help readers understand the relationships between different concepts

10. How old should sources be in a literature review?

Sources for a literature review should be as current as possible or not older than ten years. The only exception to this rule is if you are reviewing a historical topic and need to use older sources.

11. What are the types of literature review?

• Argumentative review

• Integrative review

• Methodological review

• Systematic review

• Meta-analysis review

• Historical review

• Theoretical review

• Scoping review

• State-of-the-Art review

12. Is a literature review mandatory?

Yes. Literature review is a mandatory part of any research project. It is a critical step in the process that allows you to establish the scope of your research, and provide a background for the rest of your work.

But before you go,

• Six Online Tools for Easy Literature Review
• Evaluating literature review: systematic vs. scoping reviews
• Systematic Approaches to a Successful Literature Review
• Writing Integrative Literature Reviews: Guidelines and Examples

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What is a Literature Review?

A literature or narrative review is a comprehensive review and analysis of the published literature on a specific topic or research question. The literature that is reviewed contains: books, articles, academic articles, conference proceedings, association papers, and dissertations. It contains the most pertinent studies and points to important past and current research and practices. It provides background and context, and shows how your research will contribute to the field. 

A literature review should: 

• Provide a comprehensive and updated review of the literature;
• Explain why this review has taken place;
• Articulate a position or hypothesis;
• Acknowledge and account for conflicting and corroborating points of view

From  S age Research Methods

Purpose of a Literature Review

A literature review can be written as an introduction to a study to:

• Demonstrate how a study fills a gap in research
• Compare a study with other research that's been done

Or it can be a separate work (a research article on its own) which:

• Organizes or describes a topic
• Describes variables within a particular issue/problem

Limitations of a Literature Review

Some of the limitations of a literature review are:

• It's a snapshot in time. Unlike other reviews, this one has beginning, a middle and an end. There may be future developments that could make your work less relevant.
• It may be too focused. Some niche studies may miss the bigger picture.
• It can be difficult to be comprehensive. There is no way to make sure all the literature on a topic was considered.
• It is easy to be biased if you stick to top tier journals. There may be other places where people are publishing exemplary research. Look to open access publications and conferences to reflect a more inclusive collection. Also, make sure to include opposing views (and not just supporting evidence).

Source: Grant, Maria J., and Andrew Booth. “A Typology of Reviews: An Analysis of 14 Review Types and Associated Methodologies.” Health Information & Libraries Journal, vol. 26, no. 2, June 2009, pp. 91–108. Wiley Online Library, doi:10.1111/j.1471-1842.2009.00848.x.

Meryl Brodsky : Communication and Information Studies

Hannah Chapman Tripp : Biology, Neuroscience

Carolyn Cunningham : Human Development & Family Sciences, Psychology, Sociology

Larayne Dallas : Engineering

Janelle Hedstrom : Special Education, Curriculum & Instruction, Ed Leadership & Policy ​

Susan Macicak : Linguistics

Imelda Vetter : Dell Medical School

For help in other subject areas, please see the guide to library specialists by subject .

Periodically, UT Libraries runs a workshop covering the basics and library support for literature reviews. While we try to offer these once per academic year, we find providing the recording to be helpful to community members who have missed the session. Following is the most recent recording of the workshop, Conducting a Literature Review. To view the recording, a UT login is required.

• October 26, 2022 recording
• Last Updated: Oct 26, 2022 2:49 PM
• URL: https://guides.lib.utexas.edu/literaturereviews

Libraries | Research Guides

Literature reviews, what is a literature review, learning more about how to do a literature review.

• Planning the Review
• The Research Question
• Choosing Where to Search
• Organizing the Review
• Writing the Review

A literature review is a review and synthesis of existing research on a topic or research question. A literature review is meant to analyze the scholarly literature, make connections across writings and identify strengths, weaknesses, trends, and missing conversations. A literature review should address different aspects of a topic as it relates to your research question. A literature review goes beyond a description or summary of the literature you have read. 

• Sage Research Methods Core Collection This link opens in a new window SAGE Research Methods supports research at all levels by providing material to guide users through every step of the research process. SAGE Research Methods is the ultimate methods library with more than 1000 books, reference works, journal articles, and instructional videos by world-leading academics from across the social sciences, including the largest collection of qualitative methods books available online from any scholarly publisher. – Publisher

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What Is A Literature Review?

A plain-language explainer (with examples).

By:  Derek Jansen (MBA) & Kerryn Warren (PhD) | June 2020 (Updated May 2023)

If you’re faced with writing a dissertation or thesis, chances are you’ve encountered the term “literature review” . If you’re on this page, you’re probably not 100% what the literature review is all about. The good news is that you’ve come to the right place.

Literature Review 101

• What (exactly) is a literature review
• What’s the purpose of the literature review chapter
• How to find high-quality resources
• How to structure your literature review chapter
• Example of an actual literature review

What is a literature review?

The word “literature review” can refer to two related things that are part of the broader literature review process. The first is the task of  reviewing the literature  – i.e. sourcing and reading through the existing research relating to your research topic. The second is the  actual chapter  that you write up in your dissertation, thesis or research project. Let’s look at each of them:

Reviewing the literature

The first step of any literature review is to hunt down and  read through the existing research  that’s relevant to your research topic. To do this, you’ll use a combination of tools (we’ll discuss some of these later) to find journal articles, books, ebooks, research reports, dissertations, theses and any other credible sources of information that relate to your topic. You’ll then  summarise and catalogue these  for easy reference when you write up your literature review chapter. 

The literature review chapter

The second step of the literature review is to write the actual literature review chapter (this is usually the second chapter in a typical dissertation or thesis structure ). At the simplest level, the literature review chapter is an  overview of the key literature  that’s relevant to your research topic. This chapter should provide a smooth-flowing discussion of what research has already been done, what is known, what is unknown and what is contested in relation to your research topic. So, you can think of it as an  integrated review of the state of knowledge  around your research topic. 

What’s the purpose of a literature review?

The literature review chapter has a few important functions within your dissertation, thesis or research project. Let’s take a look at these:

Purpose #1 – Demonstrate your topic knowledge

The first function of the literature review chapter is, quite simply, to show the reader (or marker) that you  know what you’re talking about . In other words, a good literature review chapter demonstrates that you’ve read the relevant existing research and understand what’s going on – who’s said what, what’s agreed upon, disagreed upon and so on. This needs to be  more than just a summary  of who said what – it needs to integrate the existing research to  show how it all fits together  and what’s missing (which leads us to purpose #2, next). 

Purpose #2 – Reveal the research gap that you’ll fill

The second function of the literature review chapter is to  show what’s currently missing  from the existing research, to lay the foundation for your own research topic. In other words, your literature review chapter needs to show that there are currently “missing pieces” in terms of the bigger puzzle, and that  your study will fill one of those research gaps . By doing this, you are showing that your research topic is original and will help contribute to the body of knowledge. In other words, the literature review helps justify your research topic.  

Purpose #3 – Lay the foundation for your conceptual framework

The third function of the literature review is to form the  basis for a conceptual framework . Not every research topic will necessarily have a conceptual framework, but if your topic does require one, it needs to be rooted in your literature review. 

For example, let’s say your research aims to identify the drivers of a certain outcome – the factors which contribute to burnout in office workers. In this case, you’d likely develop a conceptual framework which details the potential factors (e.g. long hours, excessive stress, etc), as well as the outcome (burnout). Those factors would need to emerge from the literature review chapter – they can’t just come from your gut! 

So, in this case, the literature review chapter would uncover each of the potential factors (based on previous studies about burnout), which would then be modelled into a framework. 

Purpose #4 – To inform your methodology

The fourth function of the literature review is to  inform the choice of methodology  for your own research. As we’ve  discussed on the Grad Coach blog , your choice of methodology will be heavily influenced by your research aims, objectives and questions . Given that you’ll be reviewing studies covering a topic close to yours, it makes sense that you could learn a lot from their (well-considered) methodologies.

So, when you’re reviewing the literature, you’ll need to  pay close attention to the research design , methodology and methods used in similar studies, and use these to inform your methodology. Quite often, you’ll be able to  “borrow” from previous studies . This is especially true for quantitative studies , as you can use previously tried and tested measures and scales. 

How do I find articles for my literature review?

Finding quality journal articles is essential to crafting a rock-solid literature review. As you probably already know, not all research is created equally, and so you need to make sure that your literature review is  built on credible research . 

We could write an entire post on how to find quality literature (actually, we have ), but a good starting point is Google Scholar . Google Scholar is essentially the academic equivalent of Google, using Google’s powerful search capabilities to find relevant journal articles and reports. It certainly doesn’t cover every possible resource, but it’s a very useful way to get started on your literature review journey, as it will very quickly give you a good indication of what the  most popular pieces of research  are in your field.

One downside of Google Scholar is that it’s merely a search engine – that is, it lists the articles, but oftentimes  it doesn’t host the articles . So you’ll often hit a paywall when clicking through to journal websites. 

Thankfully, your university should provide you with access to their library, so you can find the article titles using Google Scholar and then search for them by name in your university’s online library. Your university may also provide you with access to  ResearchGate , which is another great source for existing research. 

Remember, the correct search keywords will be super important to get the right information from the start. So, pay close attention to the keywords used in the journal articles you read and use those keywords to search for more articles. If you can’t find a spoon in the kitchen, you haven’t looked in the right drawer. 

Need a helping hand?

How should I structure my literature review?

Unfortunately, there’s no generic universal answer for this one. The structure of your literature review will depend largely on your topic area and your research aims and objectives.

You could potentially structure your literature review chapter according to theme, group, variables , chronologically or per concepts in your field of research. We explain the main approaches to structuring your literature review here . You can also download a copy of our free literature review template to help you establish an initial structure.

In general, it’s also a good idea to start wide (i.e. the big-picture-level) and then narrow down, ending your literature review close to your research questions . However, there’s no universal one “right way” to structure your literature review. The most important thing is not to discuss your sources one after the other like a list – as we touched on earlier, your literature review needs to synthesise the research , not summarise it .

Ultimately, you need to craft your literature review so that it conveys the most important information effectively – it needs to tell a logical story in a digestible way. It’s no use starting off with highly technical terms and then only explaining what these terms mean later. Always assume your reader is not a subject matter expert and hold their hand through a journe y of the literature while keeping the functions of the literature review chapter (which we discussed earlier) front of mind.

Example of a literature review

In the video below, we walk you through a high-quality literature review from a dissertation that earned full distinction. This will give you a clearer view of what a strong literature review looks like in practice and hopefully provide some inspiration for your own. 

Wrapping Up

In this post, we’ve (hopefully) answered the question, “ what is a literature review? “. We’ve also considered the purpose and functions of the literature review, as well as how to find literature and how to structure the literature review chapter. If you’re keen to learn more, check out the literature review section of the Grad Coach blog , as well as our detailed video post covering how to write a literature review . 

Psst… there’s more!

This post is an extract from our bestselling Udemy Course, Literature Review Bootcamp . If you want to work smart, you don't want to miss this .

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16 Comments

Thanks for this review. It narrates what’s not been taught as tutors are always in a early to finish their classes.

Thanks for the kind words, Becky. Good luck with your literature review 🙂

This website is amazing, it really helps break everything down. Thank you, I would have been lost without it.

This is review is amazing. I benefited from it a lot and hope others visiting this website will benefit too.

Timothy T. Chol [email protected]

Thank you very much for the guiding in literature review I learn and benefited a lot this make my journey smooth I’ll recommend this site to my friends

This was so useful. Thank you so much.

Hi, Concept was explained nicely by both of you. Thanks a lot for sharing it. It will surely help research scholars to start their Research Journey.

The review is really helpful to me especially during this period of covid-19 pandemic when most universities in my country only offer online classes. Great stuff

Great Brief Explanation, thanks

So helpful to me as a student

GradCoach is a fantastic site with brilliant and modern minds behind it.. I spent weeks decoding the substantial academic Jargon and grounding my initial steps on the research process, which could be shortened to a couple of days through the Gradcoach. Thanks again!

This is an amazing talk. I paved way for myself as a researcher. Thank you GradCoach!

Well-presented overview of the literature!

This was brilliant. So clear. Thank you

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How to Write a Literature Review

What is a literature review.

• What Is the Literature
• Writing the Review

A literature review is much more than an annotated bibliography or a list of separate reviews of articles and books. It is a critical, analytical summary and synthesis of the current knowledge of a topic. Thus it should compare and relate different theories, findings, etc, rather than just summarize them individually. In addition, it should have a particular focus or theme to organize the review. It does not have to be an exhaustive account of everything published on the topic, but it should discuss all the significant academic literature and other relevant sources important for that focus.

This is meant to be a general guide to writing a literature review: ways to structure one, what to include, how it supplements other research. For more specific help on writing a review, and especially for help on finding the literature to review, sign up for a Personal Research Session .

The specific organization of a literature review depends on the type and purpose of the review, as well as on the specific field or topic being reviewed. But in general, it is a relatively brief but thorough exploration of past and current work on a topic. Rather than a chronological listing of previous work, though, literature reviews are usually organized thematically, such as different theoretical approaches, methodologies, or specific issues or concepts involved in the topic. A thematic organization makes it much easier to examine contrasting perspectives, theoretical approaches, methodologies, findings, etc, and to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of, and point out any gaps in, previous research. And this is the heart of what a literature review is about. A literature review may offer new interpretations, theoretical approaches, or other ideas; if it is part of a research proposal or report it should demonstrate the relationship of the proposed or reported research to others' work; but whatever else it does, it must provide a critical overview of the current state of research efforts. 

Literature reviews are common and very important in the sciences and social sciences. They are less common and have a less important role in the humanities, but they do have a place, especially stand-alone reviews.

Types of Literature Reviews

There are different types of literature reviews, and different purposes for writing a review, but the most common are:

• Stand-alone literature review articles . These provide an overview and analysis of the current state of research on a topic or question. The goal is to evaluate and compare previous research on a topic to provide an analysis of what is currently known, and also to reveal controversies, weaknesses, and gaps in current work, thus pointing to directions for future research. You can find examples published in any number of academic journals, but there is a series of Annual Reviews of *Subject* which are specifically devoted to literature review articles. Writing a stand-alone review is often an effective way to get a good handle on a topic and to develop ideas for your own research program. For example, contrasting theoretical approaches or conflicting interpretations of findings can be the basis of your research project: can you find evidence supporting one interpretation against another, or can you propose an alternative interpretation that overcomes their limitations?
• Part of a research proposal . This could be a proposal for a PhD dissertation, a senior thesis, or a class project. It could also be a submission for a grant. The literature review, by pointing out the current issues and questions concerning a topic, is a crucial part of demonstrating how your proposed research will contribute to the field, and thus of convincing your thesis committee to allow you to pursue the topic of your interest or a funding agency to pay for your research efforts.
• Part of a research report . When you finish your research and write your thesis or paper to present your findings, it should include a literature review to provide the context to which your work is a contribution. Your report, in addition to detailing the methods, results, etc. of your research, should show how your work relates to others' work.

A literature review for a research report is often a revision of the review for a research proposal, which can be a revision of a stand-alone review. Each revision should be a fairly extensive revision. With the increased knowledge of and experience in the topic as you proceed, your understanding of the topic will increase. Thus, you will be in a better position to analyze and critique the literature. In addition, your focus will change as you proceed in your research. Some areas of the literature you initially reviewed will be marginal or irrelevant for your eventual research, and you will need to explore other areas more thoroughly. 

Examples of Literature Reviews

See the series of Annual Reviews of *Subject* which are specifically devoted to literature review articles to find many examples of stand-alone literature reviews in the biomedical, physical, and social sciences. 

Research report articles vary in how they are organized, but a common general structure is to have sections such as:

• Abstract - Brief summary of the contents of the article
• Introduction - A explanation of the purpose of the study, a statement of the research question(s) the study intends to address
• Literature review - A critical assessment of the work done so far on this topic, to show how the current study relates to what has already been done
• Methods - How the study was carried out (e.g. instruments or equipment, procedures, methods to gather and analyze data)
• Results - What was found in the course of the study
• Discussion - What do the results mean
• Conclusion - State the conclusions and implications of the results, and discuss how it relates to the work reviewed in the literature review; also, point to directions for further work in the area

Here are some articles that illustrate variations on this theme. There is no need to read the entire articles (unless the contents interest you); just quickly browse through to see the sections, and see how each section is introduced and what is contained in them.

The Determinants of Undergraduate Grade Point Average: The Relative Importance of Family Background, High School Resources, and Peer Group Effects , in The Journal of Human Resources , v. 34 no. 2 (Spring 1999), p. 268-293.

This article has a standard breakdown of sections:

• Introduction
• Literature Review
• Some discussion sections

First Encounters of the Bureaucratic Kind: Early Freshman Experiences with a Campus Bureaucracy , in The Journal of Higher Education , v. 67 no. 6 (Nov-Dec 1996), p. 660-691.

This one does not have a section specifically labeled as a "literature review" or "review of the literature," but the first few sections cite a long list of other sources discussing previous research in the area before the authors present their own study they are reporting.

• Next: What Is the Literature >>
• Last Updated: Jan 11, 2024 9:48 AM
• URL: https://libguides.wesleyan.edu/litreview

University Libraries

Literature review.

• What is a Literature Review?
• What is Its Purpose?
• 1. Select a Topic
• 2. Set the Topic in Context
• 3. Types of Information Sources
• 4. Use Information Sources
• 5. Get the Information
• 6. Organize / Manage the Information
• 7. Position the Literature Review
• 8. Write the Literature Review

A literature review is a comprehensive summary of previous research on a topic. The literature review surveys scholarly articles, books, and other sources relevant to a particular area of research.  The review should enumerate, describe, summarize, objectively evaluate and clarify this previous research.  It should give a theoretical base for the research and help you (the author) determine the nature of your research.  The literature review acknowledges the work of previous researchers, and in so doing, assures the reader that your work has been well conceived.  It is assumed that by mentioning a previous work in the field of study, that the author has read, evaluated, and assimiliated that work into the work at hand.

A literature review creates a "landscape" for the reader, giving her or him a full understanding of the developments in the field.  This landscape informs the reader that the author has indeed assimilated all (or the vast majority of) previous, significant works in the field into her or his research. 

 "In writing the literature review, the purpose is to convey to the reader what knowledge and ideas have been established on a topic, and what their strengths and weaknesses are. The literature review must be defined by a guiding concept (eg. your research objective, the problem or issue you are discussing, or your argumentative thesis). It is not just a descriptive list of the material available, or a set of summaries.( http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/advice/specific-types-of-writing/literature-review )

Recommended Reading

• Next: What is Its Purpose? >>
• Last Updated: Oct 2, 2023 12:34 PM

• University of Oregon Libraries
• Research Guides

How to Write a Literature Review

What's a literature review.

• Literature Reviews: A Recap
• Reading Journal Articles
• Does it Describe a Literature Review?
• 1. Identify the Question
• 2. Review Discipline Styles
• Searching Article Databases
• Finding Full-Text of an Article
• Citation Chaining
• When to Stop Searching
• 4. Manage Your References
• 5. Critically Analyze and Evaluate
• 6. Synthesize
• 7. Write a Literature Review

What's a Literature Review? 

A literature review (or "lit review," for short) is an in-depth critical analysis of published scholarly research related to a specific topic. Published scholarly research (aka, "the literature") may include journal articles, books, book chapters, dissertations and thesis, or conference proceedings. 

A solid lit review must:

• be organized around and related directly to the thesis or research question you're developing
• synthesize results into a summary of what is and is not known
• identify areas of controversy in the literature
• formulate questions that need further research

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• 1. Let's Get Writing
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• 3.2. Crafts and Puzzles
• 3.3. The Papers Trail
• 3.4. The Fine Art of Sentencing
• 3.5. Hurdles
• 3.6. Small Stressors
• 4. Literature Reviews
• 4.1. Introduction to Literature Reviews
• 4.2. What is a Literature Review?
• 4.3. How to Get Started
• 4.4. Where to Find the Literature
• 4.5. Evaluating Sources
• 4.6. Documenting Sources
• 4.7. Synthesizing Sources
• 4.8. Writing the Literature Review
• 4.9. Concluding Thoughts on Literature Reviews
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What is a Literature Review?

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Learning Objectives

At the conclusion of this chapter, you will be able to:

• Recognize how information is created and how it evolves over time;
• Identify how the information cycle impacts the reliability of the information;
• Select information sources appropriate to information need.

Overview of information

Because a literature review is a summary and analysis of the relevant publications on a topic, we first have to understand what is meant by ‘the literature’.  In this case, ‘the literature’ is a collection of all of the relevant written sources on a topic.  It will include both theoretical and empirical works.  Both types provide scope and depth to a literature review.

Disciplines of knowledge

When drawing boundaries around an idea, topic, or subject area, it helps to think about how and where the information for the field is produced. For this, you need to identify the disciplines of knowledge production in a subject area.

Information does not exist in the environment like some kind of raw material. It is produced by individuals working within a particular field of knowledge who use specific methods for generating new information. Disciplines are knowledge-producing and -disseminating systems which consume, produce, and disseminate knowledge. Looking through a  course catalog of a post-secondary educational institution gives clues to the structure of a discipline structure. Fields such as political science, biology, history and mathematics are unique disciplines, as are education and nursing, with their own logic for how and where new knowledge is introduced and made accessible.

You will need to become comfortable with identifying the disciplines that might contribute information to any search strategy. When you do this, you will also learn how to decode the way how people talk about a topic within a discipline. This will be useful to you when you begin a  review of the literature in your area of study.

For example, think about the disciplines that might contribute information a the topic such as  the role of sports in society. Try to anticipate the type of perspective each discipline might have on the topic. Consider the following types of questions as you examine what different disciplines might contribute:

• What is important about the topic to the people in that discipline?
• What is most likely to be the focus of their study about the topic?
• What perspective would they be likely to have on the topic?

What would be some key questions or issues related to the topic in education?

• how schools privilege or punish student athletes
• how young people are socialized into the ideal of team cooperation
• differences between boys’ and girls’ participation in organized sports

We see that a single topic can be approached from many different perspectives depending on how the disciplinary boundaries are drawn and how the topic is framed. This step of the research process requires you to make some decisions early on to focus the topic on a manageable and appropriate scope for the rest of the strategy ( Hansen & Paul, 2015 [https://edtechbooks.org/-MUq] ).

‘The literature’ consists of the published works that document a scholarly conversation in a field of study. You will find, in ‘the literature,’ documents that explain the background of your topic so the reader knows where you found loose ends in the established research of the field and what led you to your own project.  Although your own literature review will focus on primary, peer-reviewed resources, it will begin by first grounding yourself in background subject information generally found in secondary and tertiary sources such as books and encyclopedias.  Once you have that essential overview, you delve into the seminal literature of the field. As a result, while your literature review may consist of research articles tightly focused on your topic with secondary and tertiary sources used more sparingly, all three types of information (primary, secondary, tertiary) are critical to your research.

Definitions

• Theoretical – discusses a theory, conceptual model or framework for understanding a problem.
• Empirical – applies theory to a behavior or event and reports derived data to findings.
• Seminal – “A classic work of research literature that is more than 5 years old and is marked by its uniqueness and contribution to professional knowledge” ( Houser, 4th ed., 2018, p. 112 [https://edtechbooks.org/-MUq] ).
• Practical – “…accounts of how things are done” ( Wallace & Wray, 3rd ed., 2016, p. 20 [https://edtechbooks.org/-MUq] ). Action research, in Education, refers to a wide variety of methods used to develop practical solutions. ( Great Schools Partnership, 2017 [https://edtechbooks.org/-MUq] ).
• Policy – generally produced by policy-makers, such as government agencies.
• Primary – published results of original research studies .
• Secondary – interpret, discuss, summarize original sources
• Tertiary – synthesize or distill primary and secondary sources.  Examples include: encyclopedias, directories, dictionaries, handbooks, guides, classification, chronology, and other fact books.
• Grey literature – research and information released by non-commercial publishers, such as government agencies, policy organizations, and think-tanks.

‘The literature’ is published in books, journal articles, conference proceedings, theses and dissertations.  It can also be found in newspapers, encyclopedias, textbooks, as well as websites and reports written by government agencies and professional organizations. While these formats may contain what we define as ‘the literature’, not all of it will be appropriate for inclusion in your own literature review.

These sources are found through different tools that we will discuss later in this section. Although a discovery tool, such as a database or catalog, may link you to the ‘the literature’ not every tool is appropriate to every literature review.  No single source will have all of the information resources you should consult.  A comprehensive literature review should include searches in the following:

• Multiple subject and article databases
• Library and other book catalogs
• Grey literature sources [https://edtechbooks.org/-Po]

Information Cycle

To get a better idea of how the literature in a discipline develops, it’s useful to see how the information publication lifecycle works.  These distinct stages show how information is created, reviewed, and distributed over time.

The following chart can be used to guide you in searching literature existing at various stages of the scholarly communication process (freely accessible sources are linked, subscription or subscribed sources are listed but not linked):

Information Types

To continue our discussion of information sources, there are two ways published information in the field can be categorized:

• Articles by the type of periodical in which an article it is published, for example, magazine, trade, or scholarly publications .
• Where the material is located in the information cycle, as in primary, secondary, or tertiary information sources .

Popular, Trade, or Scholarly publications

Types of periodicals.

Journals, trade publications, and magazines are all periodicals, and articles from these publications they can all look similar article by article when you are searching in the databases. It is good to review the differences and think about when to use information from each type of periodical.

A magazine is a collection of articles and images about diverse topics of popular interest and current events.

Features of magazines:

• articles are usually written by journalists
• articles are written for the average adult
• articles tend to be short
• articles rarely provides a list of reference sources at the end of the article
• lots of color images and advertisements
• the decision about what goes into the magazine is made by an editor or publisher
• magazines can have broad appeal, like Time and Newsweek , or a narrow focus, like Sports Illustrated and Mother Earth News .

Popular magazines like Psychology Today , Sports Illustrated , and Rolling Stone can be good sources for articles on recent events or pop-culture topics, while Harpers , Scientific American , and The New Republic will offer more in-depth articles on a wider range of subjects. These articles are geared towards readers who, although not experts, are knowledgeable about the issues presented.

Trade Publications

Trade publications or trade journals are periodicals directed to members of a specific profession. They often have information about industry trends and practical information for people working in the field.

Features of trade publications:

• Authors are specialists in their fields
• Focused on members of a specific industry or profession
• No peer review process
• Include photographs, illustrations, charts, and graphs, often in color
• Technical vocabulary

Trade publications are geared towards professionals in a discipline. They report news and trends in a field, but not original research. They may provide product or service reviews, job listings, and advertisements.

Scholarly, Academic, and Scientific Publications

Scholarly, academic, and scientific publications are a collections of articles written by scholars in an academic or professional field. Most journals are peer-reviewed or refereed, which means a panel of scholars reviews articles to decide if they should be accepted into a specific publication. Journal articles are the main source of information for researchers and for literature reviews.

Features of journals:

• written by scholars and subject experts
• author’ credentials and institution will be identified
• written for other scholars
• dedicated to a specific discipline that it covers in depth
• often report on original or innovative research
• long articles, often 5-15 pages or more
• articles almost always include a list of sources at the end (Works Cited, References, Sources, or Bibliography) that point back to where the information was derived
• no or very few advertisements
• published by organizations or associations to advance their specialized body of knowledge

Scholarly journals provider articles of interest to experts or researchers in a discipline. An editorial board of respected scholars (peers) reviews all articles submitted to a journal. They decide if the article provides a noteworthy contribution to the field and should be published. There are typically few  little or no advertisements. Articles published in scholarly journals will include a list of references.

A word about open access journals

Increasingly, scholars are publishing findings and original research in open access journals .   Open access journals are scholarly and peer-reviewed and open access publishers provide unrestricted access and unrestricted use.  Open access is a means of disseminating scholarly research that breaks from the traditional subscription model of academic publishing. It is free of charge to readers and because it is online, it is available at anytime, anywhere in the world, to anyone with access to the internet.  The Directory of Open Access Journals ( DOAJ [https://doaj.org/] ) indexes and provides access to high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarly articles.

In summary, newspapers and other popular press publications are useful for getting general topic ideas. Trade publications are useful for practical application in a profession and may also be a good source of keywords for future searching. Scholarly journals are the conversation of the scholars who are doing research in a specific discipline and publishing their research findings.

Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Sources

Primary sources of information are those types of information that come first. Some examples of primary sources are:

• original research, like data from an experiment with plankton.
• diaries, journals, photographs
• data from the census bureau or a survey you have done
• original documents, like the constitution or a birth certificate
• newspapers are primary sources when they report current events or current opinion
• speeches, interviews, email, letters
• religious books
• personal memoirs and autobiographies
• pottery or weavings

There are different types of primary sources for different disciplines.  In the discipline of history, for example, a diary or transcript of a speech is a primary source.  In education and nursing, primary sources will generally be original research, including data sets.

Secondary sources are written about primary sources to interpret or analyze them. They are a step or more removed from the primary event or item. Some examples of secondary sources are:

• commentaries on speeches
• critiques of plays, journalism, or books
• a journal article that talks about a primary source such as an interpretation of Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, or the flower symbolism of Monet’s water garden paintings
• textbooks (can also be considered tertiary)
• biographies
• encyclopedias

Tertiary sources are further removed from the original material and are a distillation and collection of primary and secondary sources. Some examples are:

• bibliography of critical works about an author
• textbooks (also considered secondary)

A comparison of information sources across disciplines:

Information Sources

In this section, we discuss how to find not only information, but the sources of information in your discipline or topic area.  As we see in the graphic and chart above, the information you need for your literature review will be located in multiple places.  How and where research and publication occurs drives how and where the information is located, which in turn determines how you will discover and retrieve it.  When we talk about information sources for a literature review in education or nursing, we generally mean these five areas: the internet, reference material and other books, empirical or evidence-based articles in scholarly, peer-reviewed journals, conference proceedings and papers, dissertations and theses, and grey literature.

The internet can be an excellent place to satisfy some initial research needs.

• It is a good resource for background information and for finding keywords for searching in the library catalog and databases.
• It is a good tool for locating professional organizations and searching for information and the names of experts in a given discipline.
• Google Scholar [https://scholar.google.com/] is a useful discovery tool for citations, especially if you are trying to get the lay of the land surrounding your topic or if you are having a problem with keywords in the databases. You can find some information to refine your search terms. It is NOT acceptable to depend on Google Scholar for finding articles because of the spotty coverage and lack of adequate search features.

Books and Reference Sources

Reference materials and books are available in both print and electronic formats. They provide gateway knowledge to a subject area and are useful at the beginning of the research process to:

• Get an overview of the topic, learn the scope, key definitions, significant figures who are involved, and important timelines;
• Discover the foundations of a topic;
• Learn essential definitions, vocabulary terms, and keywords you can use in your literature searching strategy.

Scholarly Articles in Journals

Another major category of information sources is scholarly information produced by subject experts working in academic institutions, research centers, and scholarly organizations. Scholars and researchers generate information that advances our knowledge and understanding of the world. The research they do creates new opportunities for inventions, practical applications, and new approaches to solving problems or understanding issues.

Academics, researchers and students at universities make their contributions to scholarly knowledge available in many forms:

• masters’ theses
• doctoral dissertations
• conference papers
• journal articles and books
• individual scholars’ web pages
• web pages developed by the researcher’s home institution (Hansen & Paul, 2015).

Scholars and researchers introduce their discoveries to the world in a formal system of information dissemination that has developed over centuries. Because scholarly research undergoes a process of “peer review” before being published (meaning that other experts review the work and pass judgment about whether it is worthy of publication), the information you find from scholarly sources meets preset standards for accuracy, credibility and validity in that field.

Likewise, scholarly journal articles are generally considered to be among the most reliable sources of information because they have gone through a peer-review process.

Conference Papers & Proceedings

Conferences are a major source of  emerging research where researchers present papers on their current research and obtain feedback from the audience.  The papers presented in the conference are then usually published in a volume called a conference proceeding.  Conference proceedings highlight current discussion in a discipline and can lead you to scholars who are interested in specific research areas.

A word about conference papers: several factors contribute to making these documents difficult to find.  It may be months before a paper is published as a journal article, or it may never be published.  Publishers and professional associations are inconsistent in how they publish proceedings.  For example, the papers from an annual conference may be published as individual, stand-alone titles, which may be indexed in a library catalog, or the conference proceedings may be treated more like a periodical or serial and, therefore, indexed in a journal database.

It is not unusual that papers delivered at professional conferences are not published in print or electronic form, although an abstract may be available.  In these cases, the full paper may only be available from the author or authors.

The most important thing to remember is that if you have any difficulty finding a conference proceeding or paper, ask a librarian for assistance.

Dissertations and Theses

Dissertations and theses can be rich sources of information and have extensive reference lists to scan for resources. They are considered gray literature, so are not “peer reviewed”. The accuracy and validity of the paper itself may depend on the school that awarded the doctoral or master’s  degree to the author.

In thinking about ‘the literature’ of your discipline, you are beginning the first step in writing your own literature review.  By understanding what the literature in your field is, as well as how and when it is generated, you begin to know what is available and where to look for it.

We briefly discussed seven types of (sometimes overlapping) information:

• information found on the web
• information found in reference books and monographs
• information found in scholarly journals
• information found in conference proceedings and papers
• information found in dissertations and theses
• information found in magazines and trade journals
• information that is primary, secondary, or tertiary.

By conceptualizing or scoping how and where the literature of your discipline or topic area is generated, you have started on your way to writing your own literature review.

Finally, remember:

“All information sources are not created equal. Sources can vary greatly in terms of how carefully they are researched, written, edited, and reviewed for accuracy. Common sense will help you identify obviously questionable sources, such as tabloids that feature tales of alien abductions, or personal websites with glaring typos. Sometimes, however, a source’s reliability—or lack of it—is not so obvious…You will consider criteria such as the type of source, its intended purpose and audience, the author’s (or authors’) qualifications, the publication’s reputation, any indications of bias or hidden agendas, how current the source is, and the overall quality of the writing, thinking, and design.”  ( Writing for Success, 2015, p. 448 [https://edtechbooks.org/-MUq] ).

We will cover how to evaluate sources in more detail in a later chapter.

For each of these information needs, indicate what resources would be the best fit to answer your question. There may be more than one source so don’t feel like you have to limit yourself to only one. See Answer Key for the correct response.

• You are to write a brief paper on a theory that you only vaguely understand. You need some basic information. Where would you look?
• If you heard something on the radio about a recent research involving an herbal intervention for weight loss where could you find the actual study?
• You are going to be doing an internship in a group home for young men. You have heard that one issue that comes up for them is anger. Where would you look for practical interventions to help you manage this problem if it came up?
• You have the opportunity to work on a research project through a grant proposal. You need to justify the research question and show that there is an interest and a need for this research. What resources would you cite in your application?
• You have been assigned a project to find primary sources about classroom discipline used in early 20th-century schools. What primary sources could you use and where would you find them?
• You have an idea for a great thesis but you are afraid that it has been done before. Since you would like to do something original, where could you find out if someone else has done the project?
• There was a post on Facebook that welfare recipients in Arizona were recently tested for drug use with only three in 140,000 having positive results. Where can I find out if this number is accurate?

Test Yourself

Match the type of periodical to its content

Trade publication

• Contains articles about a variety of topics of popular interest; also contains advertising.
• Has information about industry trends and practical information for professionals in a field.
• Contains articles written by scholars in an academic field and reviewed by experts in that field.

Scholarly journal

Given what you know about information types and sources, which of the following is the most accurate and reliable.

• Books and encyclopedias.
• News broadcasts and social media directly following an event.
• Analysis of an event in the news media or popular magazine weeks after an event.
• Articles written by scholars and published in a journal.

Given what you know about information types and sources, which of the following is the least accurate and reliable.

What is information called that is either a diary, a speech, original research, data, artwork, or a religious book.

To find the best information in the databases you need to use keywords that are used by the scholars. Where do you find out what keywords to try?

• From websites
• In journal articles

Which of the following is NOT true about scholarly journals?

• They contain the conversation of the scholars on a particular subject.
• They are of interest to the general public.
• The articles are followed by an extensive reference list.
• They contain reports of original research.

Linda Frederiksen is the Head of Access Services at Washington State University Vancouver.  She has a Master of Library Science degree from Emporia State University in Kansas. Linda is active in local, regional and national organizations, projects and initiatives advancing open educational resources and equitable access to information.

Sue F. Phelps is the Health Sciences and Outreach Services Librarian at Washington State University Vancouver. Her research interests include information literacy, accessibility of learning materials for students who use adaptive technology, diversity and equity in higher education, and evidence based practice in the health sciences

Brigham Young University

This content is provided to you freely by BYU Open Learning Network.

Access it online or download it at https://open.byu.edu/rapidwriting/what_is_lit_review .

Write a literature review: What is a literature review?

• What is a literature review?
• Write a successful literature review
• Literature review vs. systematic review
• Systematic Reviews: an overview

Literature reviews

The literature review cycle -  Image created by University of Sheffield

  What are literature reviews?

Literature reviews are literally reviews of the literature ( the academic writing e.g. academic books, journal articles etc. ) that have been published on a particular research topic.  They aim to identify what is already known on the topic at that time.  The steps involved in this research journey are

• Selecting a research question 
• Searching the literature that has been published in the area
• Managing the literature search results
• Synthesizing the research literature
• Writing an assessment review
• Rethinking, refining and reworking your review in an iterative process until you are satisfied

Why are you asked to do a literature review?

They are necessary for several reasons. They are an essential part of the research process.  They give an overview of a topic's theoretical background. Researchers use literature reviews to identify gaps in existing knowledge and to set the context for their research studies. Students can be asked to complete a literature review as part of their course to help them understand a topic more deeply. Writing a literature review can enable a student to demonstrate what they have learned about a topic and develop their own connecting ideas within that topic further.

A literature review shows that:

•  You have an in-depth grasp of your topic
• You understand where your own research fits into and adds to an existing body of knowledge

Demonstrates:

► Your literature searching abilities

► You can critical appraise information to judge its trustworthiness, value and relevance

► You have learnt from others

► Your research is a starting point for new ideas

Types of literature reviews

• Integrative

Integrated means that the literature review is not standalone but is embedded in another assignment, the most obvious being a thesis or a research project. It is similar to the standalone in most ways but the main difference is, rather than stating possible avenues for future research, you link the review to your original project and showcase how your work improves the knowledge base and where it fills the gaps. 

A systematic review is a literature review undertaken in a systematic, scientific way. This usually involves creating a research methodology of how searching is to be done in a systematic and repeatable way. The main idea behind it is to find as many relevant research articles as possible within the chosen selection criteria. The articles are then critically analysed and the results as a whole are analysed showcasing the effect of a variable overall, this is for quantitative reviews. In qualitative reviews, themes and results around a topic are showcased. This thorough analysis is then used to state in what ways the field can be improved and what are the next steps. Systematic reviews usually take a long time to conduct and are generally a project in themselves so unlikely to be part of a bigger project. Systematic reviews can be used both for qualitative and quantitative subjects  For a more in depth guide see the links below.

• Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions
• Example This links to a study that showcases the use of the Cochrane Systematic Review process.
• Systematic review in the social sciences A guide to the social sciences reviews.
• UCD guide to systematic reviews

Integrative literature reviews are  much  like systematic reviews, the main difference being that while systematic reviews make conclusions about the literature itself, integrative reviews take conclusions from the reviewed literature in order to create new knowledge such as a new training program.  

To learn more see the links below. 

• Integrative review process
• Example of an integrative review

Writing the literature review Part 1

Useful videos

Some useful books

Writing the literature review Part 2

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• Last Updated: Mar 3, 2023 11:06 AM
• URL: https://dkit.ie.libguides.com/literaturereview

• UConn Library
• Literature Review: The What, Why and How-to Guide
• Introduction

Literature Review: The What, Why and How-to Guide — Introduction

• Getting Started
• How to Pick a Topic
• Strategies to Find Sources
• Evaluating Sources & Lit. Reviews
• Tips for Writing Literature Reviews
• Writing Literature Review: Useful Sites
• Citation Resources
• Other Academic Writings

What are Literature Reviews?

So, what is a literature review? "A literature review is an account of what has been published on a topic by accredited scholars and researchers. In writing the literature review, your purpose is to convey to your reader what knowledge and ideas have been established on a topic, and what their strengths and weaknesses are. As a piece of writing, the literature review must be defined by a guiding concept (e.g., your research objective, the problem or issue you are discussing, or your argumentative thesis). It is not just a descriptive list of the material available, or a set of summaries." Taylor, D.  The literature review: A few tips on conducting it . University of Toronto Health Sciences Writing Centre.

Goals of Literature Reviews

What are the goals of creating a Literature Review?  A literature could be written to accomplish different aims:

• To develop a theory or evaluate an existing theory
• To summarize the historical or existing state of a research topic
• Identify a problem in a field of research 

Baumeister, R. F., & Leary, M. R. (1997). Writing narrative literature reviews .  Review of General Psychology , 1 (3), 311-320.

What kinds of sources require a Literature Review?

• A research paper assigned in a course
• A thesis or dissertation
• A grant proposal
• An article intended for publication in a journal

All these instances require you to collect what has been written about your research topic so that you can demonstrate how your own research sheds new light on the topic.

Types of Literature Reviews

What kinds of literature reviews are written?

Narrative review: The purpose of this type of review is to describe the current state of the research on a specific topic/research and to offer a critical analysis of the literature reviewed. Studies are grouped by research/theoretical categories, and themes and trends, strengths and weakness, and gaps are identified. The review ends with a conclusion section which summarizes the findings regarding the state of the research of the specific study, the gaps identify and if applicable, explains how the author's research will address gaps identify in the review and expand the knowledge on the topic reviewed.

• Example : Predictors and Outcomes of U.S. Quality Maternity Leave: A Review and Conceptual Framework:  10.1177/08948453211037398  

Systematic review : "The authors of a systematic review use a specific procedure to search the research literature, select the studies to include in their review, and critically evaluate the studies they find." (p. 139). Nelson, L. K. (2013). Research in Communication Sciences and Disorders . Plural Publishing.

• Example : The effect of leave policies on increasing fertility: a systematic review:  10.1057/s41599-022-01270-w

Meta-analysis : "Meta-analysis is a method of reviewing research findings in a quantitative fashion by transforming the data from individual studies into what is called an effect size and then pooling and analyzing this information. The basic goal in meta-analysis is to explain why different outcomes have occurred in different studies." (p. 197). Roberts, M. C., & Ilardi, S. S. (2003). Handbook of Research Methods in Clinical Psychology . Blackwell Publishing.

• Example : Employment Instability and Fertility in Europe: A Meta-Analysis:  10.1215/00703370-9164737

Meta-synthesis : "Qualitative meta-synthesis is a type of qualitative study that uses as data the findings from other qualitative studies linked by the same or related topic." (p.312). Zimmer, L. (2006). Qualitative meta-synthesis: A question of dialoguing with texts .  Journal of Advanced Nursing , 53 (3), 311-318.

• Example : Women’s perspectives on career successes and barriers: A qualitative meta-synthesis:  10.1177/05390184221113735

Literature Reviews in the Health Sciences

• UConn Health subject guide on systematic reviews Explanation of the different review types used in health sciences literature as well as tools to help you find the right review type
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Lau F, Kuziemsky C, editors. Handbook of eHealth Evaluation: An Evidence-based Approach [Internet]. Victoria (BC): University of Victoria; 2017 Feb 27.

Handbook of eHealth Evaluation: An Evidence-based Approach [Internet].

Chapter 9 methods for literature reviews.

Guy Paré and Spyros Kitsiou .

9.1. Introduction

Literature reviews play a critical role in scholarship because science remains, first and foremost, a cumulative endeavour ( vom Brocke et al., 2009 ). As in any academic discipline, rigorous knowledge syntheses are becoming indispensable in keeping up with an exponentially growing eHealth literature, assisting practitioners, academics, and graduate students in finding, evaluating, and synthesizing the contents of many empirical and conceptual papers. Among other methods, literature reviews are essential for: (a) identifying what has been written on a subject or topic; (b) determining the extent to which a specific research area reveals any interpretable trends or patterns; (c) aggregating empirical findings related to a narrow research question to support evidence-based practice; (d) generating new frameworks and theories; and (e) identifying topics or questions requiring more investigation ( Paré, Trudel, Jaana, & Kitsiou, 2015 ).

Literature reviews can take two major forms. The most prevalent one is the “literature review” or “background” section within a journal paper or a chapter in a graduate thesis. This section synthesizes the extant literature and usually identifies the gaps in knowledge that the empirical study addresses ( Sylvester, Tate, & Johnstone, 2013 ). It may also provide a theoretical foundation for the proposed study, substantiate the presence of the research problem, justify the research as one that contributes something new to the cumulated knowledge, or validate the methods and approaches for the proposed study ( Hart, 1998 ; Levy & Ellis, 2006 ).

The second form of literature review, which is the focus of this chapter, constitutes an original and valuable work of research in and of itself ( Paré et al., 2015 ). Rather than providing a base for a researcher’s own work, it creates a solid starting point for all members of the community interested in a particular area or topic ( Mulrow, 1987 ). The so-called “review article” is a journal-length paper which has an overarching purpose to synthesize the literature in a field, without collecting or analyzing any primary data ( Green, Johnson, & Adams, 2006 ).

When appropriately conducted, review articles represent powerful information sources for practitioners looking for state-of-the art evidence to guide their decision-making and work practices ( Paré et al., 2015 ). Further, high-quality reviews become frequently cited pieces of work which researchers seek out as a first clear outline of the literature when undertaking empirical studies ( Cooper, 1988 ; Rowe, 2014 ). Scholars who track and gauge the impact of articles have found that review papers are cited and downloaded more often than any other type of published article ( Cronin, Ryan, & Coughlan, 2008 ; Montori, Wilczynski, Morgan, Haynes, & Hedges, 2003 ; Patsopoulos, Analatos, & Ioannidis, 2005 ). The reason for their popularity may be the fact that reading the review enables one to have an overview, if not a detailed knowledge of the area in question, as well as references to the most useful primary sources ( Cronin et al., 2008 ). Although they are not easy to conduct, the commitment to complete a review article provides a tremendous service to one’s academic community ( Paré et al., 2015 ; Petticrew & Roberts, 2006 ). Most, if not all, peer-reviewed journals in the fields of medical informatics publish review articles of some type.

The main objectives of this chapter are fourfold: (a) to provide an overview of the major steps and activities involved in conducting a stand-alone literature review; (b) to describe and contrast the different types of review articles that can contribute to the eHealth knowledge base; (c) to illustrate each review type with one or two examples from the eHealth literature; and (d) to provide a series of recommendations for prospective authors of review articles in this domain.

9.2. Overview of the Literature Review Process and Steps

As explained in Templier and Paré (2015) , there are six generic steps involved in conducting a review article:

• formulating the research question(s) and objective(s),
• searching the extant literature,
• screening for inclusion,
• assessing the quality of primary studies,
• extracting data, and
• analyzing data.

Although these steps are presented here in sequential order, one must keep in mind that the review process can be iterative and that many activities can be initiated during the planning stage and later refined during subsequent phases ( Finfgeld-Connett & Johnson, 2013 ; Kitchenham & Charters, 2007 ).

Formulating the research question(s) and objective(s): As a first step, members of the review team must appropriately justify the need for the review itself ( Petticrew & Roberts, 2006 ), identify the review’s main objective(s) ( Okoli & Schabram, 2010 ), and define the concepts or variables at the heart of their synthesis ( Cooper & Hedges, 2009 ; Webster & Watson, 2002 ). Importantly, they also need to articulate the research question(s) they propose to investigate ( Kitchenham & Charters, 2007 ). In this regard, we concur with Jesson, Matheson, and Lacey (2011) that clearly articulated research questions are key ingredients that guide the entire review methodology; they underscore the type of information that is needed, inform the search for and selection of relevant literature, and guide or orient the subsequent analysis. Searching the extant literature: The next step consists of searching the literature and making decisions about the suitability of material to be considered in the review ( Cooper, 1988 ). There exist three main coverage strategies. First, exhaustive coverage means an effort is made to be as comprehensive as possible in order to ensure that all relevant studies, published and unpublished, are included in the review and, thus, conclusions are based on this all-inclusive knowledge base. The second type of coverage consists of presenting materials that are representative of most other works in a given field or area. Often authors who adopt this strategy will search for relevant articles in a small number of top-tier journals in a field ( Paré et al., 2015 ). In the third strategy, the review team concentrates on prior works that have been central or pivotal to a particular topic. This may include empirical studies or conceptual papers that initiated a line of investigation, changed how problems or questions were framed, introduced new methods or concepts, or engendered important debate ( Cooper, 1988 ). Screening for inclusion: The following step consists of evaluating the applicability of the material identified in the preceding step ( Levy & Ellis, 2006 ; vom Brocke et al., 2009 ). Once a group of potential studies has been identified, members of the review team must screen them to determine their relevance ( Petticrew & Roberts, 2006 ). A set of predetermined rules provides a basis for including or excluding certain studies. This exercise requires a significant investment on the part of researchers, who must ensure enhanced objectivity and avoid biases or mistakes. As discussed later in this chapter, for certain types of reviews there must be at least two independent reviewers involved in the screening process and a procedure to resolve disagreements must also be in place ( Liberati et al., 2009 ; Shea et al., 2009 ). Assessing the quality of primary studies: In addition to screening material for inclusion, members of the review team may need to assess the scientific quality of the selected studies, that is, appraise the rigour of the research design and methods. Such formal assessment, which is usually conducted independently by at least two coders, helps members of the review team refine which studies to include in the final sample, determine whether or not the differences in quality may affect their conclusions, or guide how they analyze the data and interpret the findings ( Petticrew & Roberts, 2006 ). Ascribing quality scores to each primary study or considering through domain-based evaluations which study components have or have not been designed and executed appropriately makes it possible to reflect on the extent to which the selected study addresses possible biases and maximizes validity ( Shea et al., 2009 ). Extracting data: The following step involves gathering or extracting applicable information from each primary study included in the sample and deciding what is relevant to the problem of interest ( Cooper & Hedges, 2009 ). Indeed, the type of data that should be recorded mainly depends on the initial research questions ( Okoli & Schabram, 2010 ). However, important information may also be gathered about how, when, where and by whom the primary study was conducted, the research design and methods, or qualitative/quantitative results ( Cooper & Hedges, 2009 ). Analyzing and synthesizing data : As a final step, members of the review team must collate, summarize, aggregate, organize, and compare the evidence extracted from the included studies. The extracted data must be presented in a meaningful way that suggests a new contribution to the extant literature ( Jesson et al., 2011 ). Webster and Watson (2002) warn researchers that literature reviews should be much more than lists of papers and should provide a coherent lens to make sense of extant knowledge on a given topic. There exist several methods and techniques for synthesizing quantitative (e.g., frequency analysis, meta-analysis) and qualitative (e.g., grounded theory, narrative analysis, meta-ethnography) evidence ( Dixon-Woods, Agarwal, Jones, Young, & Sutton, 2005 ; Thomas & Harden, 2008 ).

9.3. Types of Review Articles and Brief Illustrations

EHealth researchers have at their disposal a number of approaches and methods for making sense out of existing literature, all with the purpose of casting current research findings into historical contexts or explaining contradictions that might exist among a set of primary research studies conducted on a particular topic. Our classification scheme is largely inspired from Paré and colleagues’ (2015) typology. Below we present and illustrate those review types that we feel are central to the growth and development of the eHealth domain.

9.3.1. Narrative Reviews

The narrative review is the “traditional” way of reviewing the extant literature and is skewed towards a qualitative interpretation of prior knowledge ( Sylvester et al., 2013 ). Put simply, a narrative review attempts to summarize or synthesize what has been written on a particular topic but does not seek generalization or cumulative knowledge from what is reviewed ( Davies, 2000 ; Green et al., 2006 ). Instead, the review team often undertakes the task of accumulating and synthesizing the literature to demonstrate the value of a particular point of view ( Baumeister & Leary, 1997 ). As such, reviewers may selectively ignore or limit the attention paid to certain studies in order to make a point. In this rather unsystematic approach, the selection of information from primary articles is subjective, lacks explicit criteria for inclusion and can lead to biased interpretations or inferences ( Green et al., 2006 ). There are several narrative reviews in the particular eHealth domain, as in all fields, which follow such an unstructured approach ( Silva et al., 2015 ; Paul et al., 2015 ).

Despite these criticisms, this type of review can be very useful in gathering together a volume of literature in a specific subject area and synthesizing it. As mentioned above, its primary purpose is to provide the reader with a comprehensive background for understanding current knowledge and highlighting the significance of new research ( Cronin et al., 2008 ). Faculty like to use narrative reviews in the classroom because they are often more up to date than textbooks, provide a single source for students to reference, and expose students to peer-reviewed literature ( Green et al., 2006 ). For researchers, narrative reviews can inspire research ideas by identifying gaps or inconsistencies in a body of knowledge, thus helping researchers to determine research questions or formulate hypotheses. Importantly, narrative reviews can also be used as educational articles to bring practitioners up to date with certain topics of issues ( Green et al., 2006 ).

Recently, there have been several efforts to introduce more rigour in narrative reviews that will elucidate common pitfalls and bring changes into their publication standards. Information systems researchers, among others, have contributed to advancing knowledge on how to structure a “traditional” review. For instance, Levy and Ellis (2006) proposed a generic framework for conducting such reviews. Their model follows the systematic data processing approach comprised of three steps, namely: (a) literature search and screening; (b) data extraction and analysis; and (c) writing the literature review. They provide detailed and very helpful instructions on how to conduct each step of the review process. As another methodological contribution, vom Brocke et al. (2009) offered a series of guidelines for conducting literature reviews, with a particular focus on how to search and extract the relevant body of knowledge. Last, Bandara, Miskon, and Fielt (2011) proposed a structured, predefined and tool-supported method to identify primary studies within a feasible scope, extract relevant content from identified articles, synthesize and analyze the findings, and effectively write and present the results of the literature review. We highly recommend that prospective authors of narrative reviews consult these useful sources before embarking on their work.

Darlow and Wen (2015) provide a good example of a highly structured narrative review in the eHealth field. These authors synthesized published articles that describe the development process of mobile health ( m-health ) interventions for patients’ cancer care self-management. As in most narrative reviews, the scope of the research questions being investigated is broad: (a) how development of these systems are carried out; (b) which methods are used to investigate these systems; and (c) what conclusions can be drawn as a result of the development of these systems. To provide clear answers to these questions, a literature search was conducted on six electronic databases and Google Scholar . The search was performed using several terms and free text words, combining them in an appropriate manner. Four inclusion and three exclusion criteria were utilized during the screening process. Both authors independently reviewed each of the identified articles to determine eligibility and extract study information. A flow diagram shows the number of studies identified, screened, and included or excluded at each stage of study selection. In terms of contributions, this review provides a series of practical recommendations for m-health intervention development.

9.3.2. Descriptive or Mapping Reviews

The primary goal of a descriptive review is to determine the extent to which a body of knowledge in a particular research topic reveals any interpretable pattern or trend with respect to pre-existing propositions, theories, methodologies or findings ( King & He, 2005 ; Paré et al., 2015 ). In contrast with narrative reviews, descriptive reviews follow a systematic and transparent procedure, including searching, screening and classifying studies ( Petersen, Vakkalanka, & Kuzniarz, 2015 ). Indeed, structured search methods are used to form a representative sample of a larger group of published works ( Paré et al., 2015 ). Further, authors of descriptive reviews extract from each study certain characteristics of interest, such as publication year, research methods, data collection techniques, and direction or strength of research outcomes (e.g., positive, negative, or non-significant) in the form of frequency analysis to produce quantitative results ( Sylvester et al., 2013 ). In essence, each study included in a descriptive review is treated as the unit of analysis and the published literature as a whole provides a database from which the authors attempt to identify any interpretable trends or draw overall conclusions about the merits of existing conceptualizations, propositions, methods or findings ( Paré et al., 2015 ). In doing so, a descriptive review may claim that its findings represent the state of the art in a particular domain ( King & He, 2005 ).

In the fields of health sciences and medical informatics, reviews that focus on examining the range, nature and evolution of a topic area are described by Anderson, Allen, Peckham, and Goodwin (2008) as mapping reviews . Like descriptive reviews, the research questions are generic and usually relate to publication patterns and trends. There is no preconceived plan to systematically review all of the literature although this can be done. Instead, researchers often present studies that are representative of most works published in a particular area and they consider a specific time frame to be mapped.

An example of this approach in the eHealth domain is offered by DeShazo, Lavallie, and Wolf (2009). The purpose of this descriptive or mapping review was to characterize publication trends in the medical informatics literature over a 20-year period (1987 to 2006). To achieve this ambitious objective, the authors performed a bibliometric analysis of medical informatics citations indexed in medline using publication trends, journal frequencies, impact factors, Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) term frequencies, and characteristics of citations. Findings revealed that there were over 77,000 medical informatics articles published during the covered period in numerous journals and that the average annual growth rate was 12%. The MeSH term analysis also suggested a strong interdisciplinary trend. Finally, average impact scores increased over time with two notable growth periods. Overall, patterns in research outputs that seem to characterize the historic trends and current components of the field of medical informatics suggest it may be a maturing discipline (DeShazo et al., 2009).

9.3.3. Scoping Reviews

Scoping reviews attempt to provide an initial indication of the potential size and nature of the extant literature on an emergent topic (Arksey & O’Malley, 2005; Daudt, van Mossel, & Scott, 2013 ; Levac, Colquhoun, & O’Brien, 2010). A scoping review may be conducted to examine the extent, range and nature of research activities in a particular area, determine the value of undertaking a full systematic review (discussed next), or identify research gaps in the extant literature ( Paré et al., 2015 ). In line with their main objective, scoping reviews usually conclude with the presentation of a detailed research agenda for future works along with potential implications for both practice and research.

Unlike narrative and descriptive reviews, the whole point of scoping the field is to be as comprehensive as possible, including grey literature (Arksey & O’Malley, 2005). Inclusion and exclusion criteria must be established to help researchers eliminate studies that are not aligned with the research questions. It is also recommended that at least two independent coders review abstracts yielded from the search strategy and then the full articles for study selection ( Daudt et al., 2013 ). The synthesized evidence from content or thematic analysis is relatively easy to present in tabular form (Arksey & O’Malley, 2005; Thomas & Harden, 2008 ).

One of the most highly cited scoping reviews in the eHealth domain was published by Archer, Fevrier-Thomas, Lokker, McKibbon, and Straus (2011) . These authors reviewed the existing literature on personal health record ( phr ) systems including design, functionality, implementation, applications, outcomes, and benefits. Seven databases were searched from 1985 to March 2010. Several search terms relating to phr s were used during this process. Two authors independently screened titles and abstracts to determine inclusion status. A second screen of full-text articles, again by two independent members of the research team, ensured that the studies described phr s. All in all, 130 articles met the criteria and their data were extracted manually into a database. The authors concluded that although there is a large amount of survey, observational, cohort/panel, and anecdotal evidence of phr benefits and satisfaction for patients, more research is needed to evaluate the results of phr implementations. Their in-depth analysis of the literature signalled that there is little solid evidence from randomized controlled trials or other studies through the use of phr s. Hence, they suggested that more research is needed that addresses the current lack of understanding of optimal functionality and usability of these systems, and how they can play a beneficial role in supporting patient self-management ( Archer et al., 2011 ).

9.3.4. Forms of Aggregative Reviews

Healthcare providers, practitioners, and policy-makers are nowadays overwhelmed with large volumes of information, including research-based evidence from numerous clinical trials and evaluation studies, assessing the effectiveness of health information technologies and interventions ( Ammenwerth & de Keizer, 2004 ; Deshazo et al., 2009 ). It is unrealistic to expect that all these disparate actors will have the time, skills, and necessary resources to identify the available evidence in the area of their expertise and consider it when making decisions. Systematic reviews that involve the rigorous application of scientific strategies aimed at limiting subjectivity and bias (i.e., systematic and random errors) can respond to this challenge.

Systematic reviews attempt to aggregate, appraise, and synthesize in a single source all empirical evidence that meet a set of previously specified eligibility criteria in order to answer a clearly formulated and often narrow research question on a particular topic of interest to support evidence-based practice ( Liberati et al., 2009 ). They adhere closely to explicit scientific principles ( Liberati et al., 2009 ) and rigorous methodological guidelines (Higgins & Green, 2008) aimed at reducing random and systematic errors that can lead to deviations from the truth in results or inferences. The use of explicit methods allows systematic reviews to aggregate a large body of research evidence, assess whether effects or relationships are in the same direction and of the same general magnitude, explain possible inconsistencies between study results, and determine the strength of the overall evidence for every outcome of interest based on the quality of included studies and the general consistency among them ( Cook, Mulrow, & Haynes, 1997 ). The main procedures of a systematic review involve:

• Formulating a review question and developing a search strategy based on explicit inclusion criteria for the identification of eligible studies (usually described in the context of a detailed review protocol).
• Searching for eligible studies using multiple databases and information sources, including grey literature sources, without any language restrictions.
• Selecting studies, extracting data, and assessing risk of bias in a duplicate manner using two independent reviewers to avoid random or systematic errors in the process.
• Analyzing data using quantitative or qualitative methods.
• Presenting results in summary of findings tables.
• Interpreting results and drawing conclusions.

Many systematic reviews, but not all, use statistical methods to combine the results of independent studies into a single quantitative estimate or summary effect size. Known as meta-analyses , these reviews use specific data extraction and statistical techniques (e.g., network, frequentist, or Bayesian meta-analyses) to calculate from each study by outcome of interest an effect size along with a confidence interval that reflects the degree of uncertainty behind the point estimate of effect ( Borenstein, Hedges, Higgins, & Rothstein, 2009 ; Deeks, Higgins, & Altman, 2008 ). Subsequently, they use fixed or random-effects analysis models to combine the results of the included studies, assess statistical heterogeneity, and calculate a weighted average of the effect estimates from the different studies, taking into account their sample sizes. The summary effect size is a value that reflects the average magnitude of the intervention effect for a particular outcome of interest or, more generally, the strength of a relationship between two variables across all studies included in the systematic review. By statistically combining data from multiple studies, meta-analyses can create more precise and reliable estimates of intervention effects than those derived from individual studies alone, when these are examined independently as discrete sources of information.

The review by Gurol-Urganci, de Jongh, Vodopivec-Jamsek, Atun, and Car (2013) on the effects of mobile phone messaging reminders for attendance at healthcare appointments is an illustrative example of a high-quality systematic review with meta-analysis. Missed appointments are a major cause of inefficiency in healthcare delivery with substantial monetary costs to health systems. These authors sought to assess whether mobile phone-based appointment reminders delivered through Short Message Service ( sms ) or Multimedia Messaging Service ( mms ) are effective in improving rates of patient attendance and reducing overall costs. To this end, they conducted a comprehensive search on multiple databases using highly sensitive search strategies without language or publication-type restrictions to identify all rct s that are eligible for inclusion. In order to minimize the risk of omitting eligible studies not captured by the original search, they supplemented all electronic searches with manual screening of trial registers and references contained in the included studies. Study selection, data extraction, and risk of bias assessments were performed inde­­pen­dently by two coders using standardized methods to ensure consistency and to eliminate potential errors. Findings from eight rct s involving 6,615 participants were pooled into meta-analyses to calculate the magnitude of effects that mobile text message reminders have on the rate of attendance at healthcare appointments compared to no reminders and phone call reminders.

Meta-analyses are regarded as powerful tools for deriving meaningful conclusions. However, there are situations in which it is neither reasonable nor appropriate to pool studies together using meta-analytic methods simply because there is extensive clinical heterogeneity between the included studies or variation in measurement tools, comparisons, or outcomes of interest. In these cases, systematic reviews can use qualitative synthesis methods such as vote counting, content analysis, classification schemes and tabulations, as an alternative approach to narratively synthesize the results of the independent studies included in the review. This form of review is known as qualitative systematic review.

A rigorous example of one such review in the eHealth domain is presented by Mickan, Atherton, Roberts, Heneghan, and Tilson (2014) on the use of handheld computers by healthcare professionals and their impact on access to information and clinical decision-making. In line with the methodological guide­lines for systematic reviews, these authors: (a) developed and registered with prospero ( www.crd.york.ac.uk/ prospero / ) an a priori review protocol; (b) conducted comprehensive searches for eligible studies using multiple databases and other supplementary strategies (e.g., forward searches); and (c) subsequently carried out study selection, data extraction, and risk of bias assessments in a duplicate manner to eliminate potential errors in the review process. Heterogeneity between the included studies in terms of reported outcomes and measures precluded the use of meta-analytic methods. To this end, the authors resorted to using narrative analysis and synthesis to describe the effectiveness of handheld computers on accessing information for clinical knowledge, adherence to safety and clinical quality guidelines, and diagnostic decision-making.

In recent years, the number of systematic reviews in the field of health informatics has increased considerably. Systematic reviews with discordant findings can cause great confusion and make it difficult for decision-makers to interpret the review-level evidence ( Moher, 2013 ). Therefore, there is a growing need for appraisal and synthesis of prior systematic reviews to ensure that decision-making is constantly informed by the best available accumulated evidence. Umbrella reviews , also known as overviews of systematic reviews, are tertiary types of evidence synthesis that aim to accomplish this; that is, they aim to compare and contrast findings from multiple systematic reviews and meta-analyses ( Becker & Oxman, 2008 ). Umbrella reviews generally adhere to the same principles and rigorous methodological guidelines used in systematic reviews. However, the unit of analysis in umbrella reviews is the systematic review rather than the primary study ( Becker & Oxman, 2008 ). Unlike systematic reviews that have a narrow focus of inquiry, umbrella reviews focus on broader research topics for which there are several potential interventions ( Smith, Devane, Begley, & Clarke, 2011 ). A recent umbrella review on the effects of home telemonitoring interventions for patients with heart failure critically appraised, compared, and synthesized evidence from 15 systematic reviews to investigate which types of home telemonitoring technologies and forms of interventions are more effective in reducing mortality and hospital admissions ( Kitsiou, Paré, & Jaana, 2015 ).

9.3.5. Realist Reviews

Realist reviews are theory-driven interpretative reviews developed to inform, enhance, or supplement conventional systematic reviews by making sense of heterogeneous evidence about complex interventions applied in diverse contexts in a way that informs policy decision-making ( Greenhalgh, Wong, Westhorp, & Pawson, 2011 ). They originated from criticisms of positivist systematic reviews which centre on their “simplistic” underlying assumptions ( Oates, 2011 ). As explained above, systematic reviews seek to identify causation. Such logic is appropriate for fields like medicine and education where findings of randomized controlled trials can be aggregated to see whether a new treatment or intervention does improve outcomes. However, many argue that it is not possible to establish such direct causal links between interventions and outcomes in fields such as social policy, management, and information systems where for any intervention there is unlikely to be a regular or consistent outcome ( Oates, 2011 ; Pawson, 2006 ; Rousseau, Manning, & Denyer, 2008 ).

To circumvent these limitations, Pawson, Greenhalgh, Harvey, and Walshe (2005) have proposed a new approach for synthesizing knowledge that seeks to unpack the mechanism of how “complex interventions” work in particular contexts. The basic research question — what works? — which is usually associated with systematic reviews changes to: what is it about this intervention that works, for whom, in what circumstances, in what respects and why? Realist reviews have no particular preference for either quantitative or qualitative evidence. As a theory-building approach, a realist review usually starts by articulating likely underlying mechanisms and then scrutinizes available evidence to find out whether and where these mechanisms are applicable ( Shepperd et al., 2009 ). Primary studies found in the extant literature are viewed as case studies which can test and modify the initial theories ( Rousseau et al., 2008 ).

The main objective pursued in the realist review conducted by Otte-Trojel, de Bont, Rundall, and van de Klundert (2014) was to examine how patient portals contribute to health service delivery and patient outcomes. The specific goals were to investigate how outcomes are produced and, most importantly, how variations in outcomes can be explained. The research team started with an exploratory review of background documents and research studies to identify ways in which patient portals may contribute to health service delivery and patient outcomes. The authors identified six main ways which represent “educated guesses” to be tested against the data in the evaluation studies. These studies were identified through a formal and systematic search in four databases between 2003 and 2013. Two members of the research team selected the articles using a pre-established list of inclusion and exclusion criteria and following a two-step procedure. The authors then extracted data from the selected articles and created several tables, one for each outcome category. They organized information to bring forward those mechanisms where patient portals contribute to outcomes and the variation in outcomes across different contexts.

9.3.6. Critical Reviews

Lastly, critical reviews aim to provide a critical evaluation and interpretive analysis of existing literature on a particular topic of interest to reveal strengths, weaknesses, contradictions, controversies, inconsistencies, and/or other important issues with respect to theories, hypotheses, research methods or results ( Baumeister & Leary, 1997 ; Kirkevold, 1997 ). Unlike other review types, critical reviews attempt to take a reflective account of the research that has been done in a particular area of interest, and assess its credibility by using appraisal instruments or critical interpretive methods. In this way, critical reviews attempt to constructively inform other scholars about the weaknesses of prior research and strengthen knowledge development by giving focus and direction to studies for further improvement ( Kirkevold, 1997 ).

Kitsiou, Paré, and Jaana (2013) provide an example of a critical review that assessed the methodological quality of prior systematic reviews of home telemonitoring studies for chronic patients. The authors conducted a comprehensive search on multiple databases to identify eligible reviews and subsequently used a validated instrument to conduct an in-depth quality appraisal. Results indicate that the majority of systematic reviews in this particular area suffer from important methodological flaws and biases that impair their internal validity and limit their usefulness for clinical and decision-making purposes. To this end, they provide a number of recommendations to strengthen knowledge development towards improving the design and execution of future reviews on home telemonitoring.

9.4. Summary

Table 9.1 outlines the main types of literature reviews that were described in the previous sub-sections and summarizes the main characteristics that distinguish one review type from another. It also includes key references to methodological guidelines and useful sources that can be used by eHealth scholars and researchers for planning and developing reviews.

Typology of Literature Reviews (adapted from Paré et al., 2015).

As shown in Table 9.1 , each review type addresses different kinds of research questions or objectives, which subsequently define and dictate the methods and approaches that need to be used to achieve the overarching goal(s) of the review. For example, in the case of narrative reviews, there is greater flexibility in searching and synthesizing articles ( Green et al., 2006 ). Researchers are often relatively free to use a diversity of approaches to search, identify, and select relevant scientific articles, describe their operational characteristics, present how the individual studies fit together, and formulate conclusions. On the other hand, systematic reviews are characterized by their high level of systematicity, rigour, and use of explicit methods, based on an “a priori” review plan that aims to minimize bias in the analysis and synthesis process (Higgins & Green, 2008). Some reviews are exploratory in nature (e.g., scoping/mapping reviews), whereas others may be conducted to discover patterns (e.g., descriptive reviews) or involve a synthesis approach that may include the critical analysis of prior research ( Paré et al., 2015 ). Hence, in order to select the most appropriate type of review, it is critical to know before embarking on a review project, why the research synthesis is conducted and what type of methods are best aligned with the pursued goals.

9.5. Concluding Remarks

In light of the increased use of evidence-based practice and research generating stronger evidence ( Grady et al., 2011 ; Lyden et al., 2013 ), review articles have become essential tools for summarizing, synthesizing, integrating or critically appraising prior knowledge in the eHealth field. As mentioned earlier, when rigorously conducted review articles represent powerful information sources for eHealth scholars and practitioners looking for state-of-the-art evidence. The typology of literature reviews we used herein will allow eHealth researchers, graduate students and practitioners to gain a better understanding of the similarities and differences between review types.

We must stress that this classification scheme does not privilege any specific type of review as being of higher quality than another ( Paré et al., 2015 ). As explained above, each type of review has its own strengths and limitations. Having said that, we realize that the methodological rigour of any review — be it qualitative, quantitative or mixed — is a critical aspect that should be considered seriously by prospective authors. In the present context, the notion of rigour refers to the reliability and validity of the review process described in section 9.2. For one thing, reliability is related to the reproducibility of the review process and steps, which is facilitated by a comprehensive documentation of the literature search process, extraction, coding and analysis performed in the review. Whether the search is comprehensive or not, whether it involves a methodical approach for data extraction and synthesis or not, it is important that the review documents in an explicit and transparent manner the steps and approach that were used in the process of its development. Next, validity characterizes the degree to which the review process was conducted appropriately. It goes beyond documentation and reflects decisions related to the selection of the sources, the search terms used, the period of time covered, the articles selected in the search, and the application of backward and forward searches ( vom Brocke et al., 2009 ). In short, the rigour of any review article is reflected by the explicitness of its methods (i.e., transparency) and the soundness of the approach used. We refer those interested in the concepts of rigour and quality to the work of Templier and Paré (2015) which offers a detailed set of methodological guidelines for conducting and evaluating various types of review articles.

To conclude, our main objective in this chapter was to demystify the various types of literature reviews that are central to the continuous development of the eHealth field. It is our hope that our descriptive account will serve as a valuable source for those conducting, evaluating or using reviews in this important and growing domain.

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Publics’ views on ethical challenges of artificial intelligence: a scoping review

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• Helena Machado   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-8554-7619 1 ,
• Susana Silva   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-1335-8648 2 &
• Laura Neiva   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-1954-7597 3  

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This scoping review examines the research landscape about publics’ views on the ethical challenges of AI. To elucidate how the concerns voiced by the publics are translated within the research domain, this study scrutinizes 64 publications sourced from PubMed ® and Web of Science™. The central inquiry revolves around discerning the motivations, stakeholders, and ethical quandaries that emerge in research on this topic. The analysis reveals that innovation and legitimation stand out as the primary impetuses for engaging the public in deliberations concerning the ethical dilemmas associated with AI technologies. Supplementary motives are rooted in educational endeavors, democratization initiatives, and inspirational pursuits, whereas politicization emerges as a comparatively infrequent incentive. The study participants predominantly comprise the general public and professional groups, followed by AI system developers, industry and business managers, students, scholars, consumers, and policymakers. The ethical dimensions most commonly explored in the literature encompass human agency and oversight, followed by issues centered on privacy and data governance. Conversely, topics related to diversity, nondiscrimination, fairness, societal and environmental well-being, technical robustness, safety, transparency, and accountability receive comparatively less attention. This paper delineates the concrete operationalization of calls for public involvement in AI governance within the research sphere. It underscores the intricate interplay between ethical concerns, public involvement, and societal structures, including political and economic agendas, which serve to bolster technical proficiency and affirm the legitimacy of AI development in accordance with the institutional norms that underlie responsible research practices.

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1 Introduction

Current advances in the research, development, and application of artificial intelligence (AI) systems have yielded a far-reaching discourse on AI ethics that is accompanied by calls for AI technology to be democratically accountable and trustworthy from the publics’ Footnote 1 perspective [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ]. Consequently, several ethics guidelines for AI have been released in recent years. As of early 2020, there were 167 AI ethics guidelines documents around the world [ 6 ]. Organizations such as the European Commission (EC), the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) recognize that public participation is crucial for ensuring the responsible development and deployment of AI technologies, Footnote 2 emphasizing the importance of inclusivity, transparency, and democratic processes to effectively address the societal implications of AI [ 11 , 12 ]. These efforts were publicly announced as aiming to create a common understanding of ethical AI development and foster responsible practices that address societal concerns while maximizing AI’s potential benefits [ 13 , 14 ]. The concept of human-centric AI has emerged as a key principle in many of these regulatory initiatives, with the purposes of ensuring that human values are incorporated into the design of algorithms, that humans do not lose control over automated systems, and that AI is used in the service of humanity and the common good to improve human welfare and human rights [ 15 ]. Using the same rationale, the opacity and rapid diffusion of AI have prompted debate about how such technologies ought to be governed and which actors and values should be involved in shaping governance regimes [ 1 , 2 ].

While industry and business have traditionally tended to be seen as having no or little incentive to engage with ethics or in dialogue, AI leaders currently sponsor AI ethics [ 6 , 16 , 17 ]. However, some concerns call for ethics, public participation, and human-centric approaches in areas such as AI with high economic and political importance to be used within an instrumental rationale by the AI industry. A growing corpus of critical literature has conceived the development of AI ethics as efforts to reduce ethics to another form of industrial capital or to coopt and capture researchers as part of efforts to control public narratives [ 12 , 18 ]. According to some authors, one of the reasons why ethics is so appealing to many AI companies is to calm critical voices from the publics; therefore, AI ethics is seen as a way of gaining or restoring trust, credibility and support, as well as legitimation, while criticized practices are calmed down to maintain the agenda of industry and science [ 12 , 17 , 19 , 20 ].

Critical approaches also point out that despite regulatory initiatives explicitly invoking the need to incorporate human values into AI systems, they have the main objective of setting rules and standards to enable AI-based products and services to circulate in markets [ 20 , 21 , 22 ] and might serve to avoid or delay binding regulation [ 12 , 23 ]. Other critical studies argue that AI ethics fails to mitigate the racial, social, and environmental damage of AI technologies in any meaningful sense [ 24 ] and excludes alternative ethical practices [ 25 , 26 ]. As explained by Su [ 13 ], in a paper that considers the promise and perils of international human rights in AI governance, while human rights can serve as an authoritative source for holding AI developers accountable, its application to AI governance in practice shows a lack of effectiveness, an inability to effect structural change, and the problem of cooptation.

In a value analysis of AI national strategies, Wilson [ 5 ] concludes that the publics are primarily cast as recipients of AI’s abstract benefits, users of AI-driven services and products, a workforce in need of training and upskilling, or an important element for thriving democratic society that unlocks AI's potential. According to the author, when AI strategies articulate a governance role for the publics, it is more like an afterthought or rhetorical gesture than a clear commitment to putting “society-in-the-loop” into AI design and implementation [ 5 , pp. 7–8]. Another study of how public participation is framed in AI policy documents [ 4 ] shows that high expectations are assigned to public participation as a solution to address concerns about the concentration of power, increases in inequality, lack of diversity, and bias. However, in practice, this framing thus far gives little consideration to some of the challenges well known for researchers and practitioners of public participation with science and technology, such as the difficulty of achieving consensus among diverse societal views, the high resource requirements for public participation exercises, and the risks of capture by vested interests [ 4 , pp. 170–171]. These studies consistently reveal a noteworthy pattern: while references to public participation in AI governance are prevalent in the majority of AI national strategies, they tend to remain abstract and are often overshadowed by other roles, values, and policy concerns.

Some authors thus contended that the increasing demand to involve multiple stakeholders in AI governance, including the publics, signifies a discernible transformation within the sphere of science and technology policy. This transformation frequently embraces the framework of “responsible innovation”, Footnote 3 which emphasizes alignment with societal imperatives, responsiveness to evolving ethical, social, and environmental considerations, and the participation of the publics as well as traditionally defined stakeholders [ 3 , 28 ]. When investigating how the conception and promotion of public participation in European science and technology policies have evolved, Macq, Tancoine, and Strasser [ 29 ] distinguish between “participation in decision-making” (pertaining to science policy decisions or decisions on research topics) and “participation in knowledge and innovation-making”. They find that “while public participation had initially been conceived and promoted as a way to build legitimacy of research policy decisions by involving publics into decision-making processes, it is now also promoted as a way to produce better or more knowledge and innovation by involving publics into knowledge and innovation-making processes, and thus building legitimacy for science and technology as a whole” [ 29 , p. 508]. Although this shift in science and technology research policies has been noted, there exists a noticeable void in the literature in regard to understanding how concrete research practices incorporate public perspectives and embrace multistakeholder approaches, inclusion, and dialogue.

While several studies have delved into the framing of the publics’ role within AI governance in several instances (from Big Tech initiatives to hiring ethics teams and guidelines issued from multiple institutions to governments’ national policies related to AI development), discussing the underlying motivations driving the publics’ participation and the ethical considerations resulting from such involvement, there remains a notable scarcity of knowledge concerning how publicly voiced concerns are concretely translated into research efforts [ 30 , pp. 3–4, 31 , p. 8, 6]. To address this crucial gap, our scoping review endeavors to analyse the research landscape about the publics’ views on the ethical challenges of AI. Our primary objective is to uncover the motivations behind involving the publics in research initiatives, identify the segments of the publics that are considered in these studies, and illuminate the ethical concerns that warrant specific attention. Through this scoping review, we aim to enhance the understanding of the political and social backdrop within which debates and prior commitments regarding values and conditions for publics’ participation in matters related to science and technology are formulated and expressed [ 29 , 32 , 33 ] and which specific normative social commitments are projected and performed by institutional science [ 34 , p. 108, [ 35 , p. 856].

We followed the guidance for descriptive systematic scoping reviews by Levac et al. [ 36 ], based on the methodological framework developed by Arksey and O’Malley [ 37 ]. The steps of the review are listed below:

2.1 Stage 1: identifying the research question

The central question guiding this scoping review is the following: What motivations, publics and ethical issues emerge in research addressing the publics’ views on the ethical challenges of AI? We ask:

What motivations for engaging the publics with AI technologies are articulated?

Who are the publics invited?

Which ethical issues concerning AI technologies are perceived as needing the participation of the publics?

2.2 Stage 2: identifying relevant studies

A search of the publications on PubMed® and Web of Science™ was conducted on 19 May 2023, with no restriction set for language or time of publication, using the following search expression: (“AI” OR “artificial intelligence”) AND (“public” OR “citizen”) AND “ethics”. The search was followed by backwards reference tracking, examining the references of the selected publications based on full-text assessment.

2.3 Stage 3: study selection

The inclusion criteria allowed only empirical, peer-reviewed, original full-length studies written in English to explore publics’ views on the ethical challenges of AI as their main outcome. The exclusion criteria disallowed studies focusing on media discourses and texts. The titles of 1612 records were retrieved. After the removal of duplicates, 1485 records were examined. Two authors (HM and SS) independently screened all the papers retrieved initially, based on the title and abstract, and afterward, based on the full text. This was crosschecked and discussed in both phases, and perfect agreement was achieved.

The screening process is summarized in Fig.  1 . Based on title and abstract assessments, 1265 records were excluded because they were neither original full-length peer-reviewed empirical studies nor focused on the publics’ views on the ethical challenges of AI. Of the 220 fully read papers, 54 met the inclusion criteria. After backwards reference tracking, 10 papers were included, and the final review was composed of 64 papers.

Flowchart showing the search results and screening process for the scoping review of publics’ views on ethical challenges of AI

2.4 Stage 4: charting the data

A standardized data extraction sheet was initially developed by two authors (HM and SS) and completed by two coders (SS and LN), including both quantitative and qualitative data (Supplemental Table “Data Extraction”). We used MS Excel to chart the data from the studies.

The two coders independently charted the first 10 records, with any disagreements or uncertainties in abstractions being discussed and resolved by consensus. The forms were further refined and finalized upon consensus before completing the data charting process. Each of the remaining records was charted by one coder. Two meetings were held to ensure consistency in data charting and to verify accuracy. The first author (HM) reviewed the results.

Descriptive data for the characterization of studies included information about the authors and publication year, the country where the study was developed, study aims, type of research (quantitative, qualitative, or other), assessment of the publics’ views, and sample. The types of research participants recruited as publics were coded into 11 categories: developers of AI systems; managers from industry and business; representatives of governance bodies; policymakers; academics and researchers; students; professional groups; general public; local communities; patients/consumers; and other (specify).

Data on the main motivations for researching the publics’ views on the ethical challenges of AI were also gathered. Authors’ accounts of their motivations were synthesized into eight categories according to the coding framework proposed by Weingart and colleagues [ 33 ] concerning public engagement with science and technology-related issues: education (to inform and educate the public about AI, improving public access to scientific knowledge); innovation (to promote innovation, the publics are considered to be a valuable source of knowledge and are called upon to contribute to knowledge production, bridge building and including knowledge outside ‘formal’ ethics); legitimation (to promote public trust in and acceptance of AI, as well as of policies supporting AI); inspiration (to inspire and raise interest in AI, to secure a STEM-educated labor force); politicization (to address past political injustices and historical exclusion); democratization (to empower citizens to participate competently in society and/or to participate in AI); other (specify); and not clearly evident.

Based on the content analysis technique [ 38 ], ethical issues perceived as needing the participation of the publics were identified through quotations stated in the studies. These were then summarized in seven key ethical principles, according to the proposal outlined by the EC's Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy AI [ 39 ]: human agency and oversight; technical robustness and safety; privacy and data governance; transparency; diversity, nondiscrimination and fairness; societal and environmental well-being; and accountability.

2.5 Stage 5: collating, summarizing, and reporting the results

The main characteristics of the 64 studies included can be found in Table  1 . Studies were grouped by type of research and ordered by the year of publication. The findings regarding the publics invited to participate are presented in Fig.  2 . The main motivations for engaging the publics with AI technologies and the ethical issues perceived as needing the participation of the publics are summarized in Tables  2 and 3 , respectively. The results are presented below in a narrative format, with complimentary tables and figures to provide a visual representation of key findings.

Publics invited to engage with issues framed as ethical challenges of AI

There are some methodological limitations in this scoping review that should be taken into account when interpreting the results. The use of only two search engines may preclude the inclusion of relevant studies, although supplemented by scanning the reference list of eligible studies. An in-depth analysis of the topics explored within each of the seven key ethical principles outlined by the EC's Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy AI was not conducted. This assessment would lead to a detailed understanding of the publics’ views on ethical challenges of AI.

3.1 Study characteristics

Most of the studies were in recent years, with 35 of the 64 studies being published in 2022 and 2023. Journals were listed either on the databases related to Science Citation Index Expanded (n = 25) or the Social Science Citation Index (n = 23), with fewer journals indexed in the Emerging Sources Citation Index (n = 7) and the Arts and Humanities Citation Index (n = 2). Works covered a wide range of fields, including health and medicine (services, policy, medical informatics, medical ethics, public and environmental health); education; business, management and public administration; computer science; information sciences; engineering; robotics; communication; psychology; political science; and transportation. Beyond the general assessment of publics’ attitudes toward, preferences for, and expectations and concerns about AI, the publics’ views on ethical challenges of AI technologies have been studied mainly concerning healthcare and public services and less frequently regarding autonomous vehicles (AV), education, robotic technologies, and smart homes. Most of the studies (n = 47) were funded by research agencies, with 7 papers reporting conflicts of interest.

Quantitative research approaches have assessed the publics’ views on the ethical challenges of AI mainly through online or web-based surveys and experimental platforms, relying on Delphi studies, moral judgment studies, hypothetical vignettes, and choice-based/comparative conjoint surveys. The 25 qualitative studies collected data mainly by semistructured or in-depth interviews. Analysis of publicly available material reporting on AI-use cases, focus groups, a post hoc self-assessment, World Café, participatory research, and practice-based design research were used once or twice. Multi or mixed-methods studies relied on surveys with open-ended and closed questions, frequently combined with focus groups, in-depth interviews, literature reviews, expert opinions, examinations of relevant curriculum examples, tests, and reflexive writings.

The studies were performed (where stated) in a wide variety of countries, including the USA and Australia. More than half of the studies (n = 38) were conducted in a single country. Almost all studies used nonprobability sampling techniques. In quantitative studies, sample sizes varied from 2.3 M internet users in an online experimental platform study [ 40 ] to 20 participants in a Delphi study [ 41 ]. In qualitative studies, the samples varied from 123 participants in 21 focus groups [ 42 ] to six expert interviews [ 43 ]. In multi or mixed-methods studies, samples varied from 2036 participants [ 44 ] to 21 participants [ 45 ].

3.2 Motivations for engaging the publics

The qualitative synthesis of the motivations for researching the publics’ views on the ethical challenges of AI is presented in Table  2 and ordered by the number of studies referencing them in the scoping review. More than half of the studies (n = 37) addressed a single motivation. Innovation (n = 33) and legitimation (n = 29) proved to have the highest relevance as motivations for engaging the publics in the ethical challenges of AI technologies, as articulated in 15 studies. Additional motivations are rooted in education (n = 13), democratization (n = 11), and inspiration (n = 9). Politicization was mentioned in five studies. Although they were not authors’ motivations, few studies were found to have educational [ 46 , 47 ], democratization [ 48 , 49 ], and legitimation or inspirations effects [ 50 ].

To consider the publics as a valuable source of knowledge that can add real value to innovation processes in both the private and public sectors was the most frequent motivation mentioned in the literature. The call for public participation is rooted in the aspiration to add knowledge outside “formal” ethics at three interrelated levels. First, at a societal level, by asking what kind of AI we want as a society based on novel experiments on public policy preferences [ 51 ] and on the study of public perceptions, values, and concerns regarding AI design, development, and implementation in domains such as health care [ 46 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 ], public and social services [ 49 , 56 , 57 , 58 ], AV [ 59 , 60 ] and journalism [ 61 ]. Second, at a practical level, the literature provides insights into the perceived usefulness of AI applications [ 62 , 63 ] and choices between boosting developers’ voluntary adoption of ethical standards or imposing ethical standards via regulation and oversight [ 64 ], as well as suggesting specific guidance for the development and use of AI systems [ 65 , 66 , 67 ]. Finally, at a theoretical level, literature expands the social-technical perspective [ 68 ] and motivated-reasoning theory [ 69 ].

Legitimation was also a frequent motivation for engaging the publics. It was underpinned by the need for public trust in and social licences for implementing AI technologies. To ensure the long-term social acceptability of AI as a trustworthy technology [ 70 , 71 ] was perceived as essential to support its use and to justify its implementation. In one study [ 72 ], the authors developed an AI ethics scale to quantify how AI research is accepted in society and which area of ethical, legal, and social issues (ELSI) people are most concerned with. Public trust in and acceptance of AI is claimed by social institutions such as governments, private sectors, industry bodies, and the science community, behaving in a trustworthy manner, respecting public concerns, aligning with societal values, and involving members of the publics in decision-making and public policy [ 46 , 48 , 73 , 74 , 75 ], as well as in the responsible design and integration of AI technologies [ 52 , 76 , 77 ].

Education, democratization, and inspiration had a more modest presence as motivations to explore the publics’ views on the ethical challenges of AI. Considering the emergence of new roles and tasks related to AI, the literature has pointed to the public need to ensure the safe use of AI technologies by incorporating ethics and career futures into the education, preparation, and training of both middle school and university students and the current and future health workforce. Improvements in education and guidance for developers and older adults were also noticed. The views of the publics on what needs to be learned or how this learning may be supported or assessed were perceived as crucial. In one study [ 78 ], the authors developed strategies that promote learning related to AI through collaborative media production, connecting computational thinking to civic issues and creative expression. In another study [ 79 ], real-world scenarios were successfully used as a novel approach to teaching AI ethics. Rhim et al. [ 76 ] provided AV moral behavior design guidelines for policymakers, developers, and the publics by reducing the abstractness of AV morality.

Studies motivated by democratization promoted broader public participation in AI, aiming to empower citizens both to express their understandings, apprehensions, and concerns about AI [ 43 , 78 , 80 , 81 ] and to address ethical issues in AI as critical consumers, (potential future) developers of AI technologies or would-be participants in codesign processes [ 40 , 43 , 45 , 78 , 82 , 83 ]. Understanding the publics’ views on the ethical challenges of AI is expected to influence companies and policymakers [ 40 ]. In one study [ 45 ], the authors explored how a digital app might support citizens’ engagement in AI governance by informing them, raising public awareness, measuring publics’ attitudes and supporting collective decision-making.

Inspiration revolved around three main motivations: to raise public interest in AI [ 46 , 48 ]; to guide future empirical and design studies [ 79 ]; and to promote developers’ moral awareness through close collaboration between all those involved in the implementation, use, and design of AI technologies [ 46 , 61 , 78 , 84 , 85 ].

Politicization was the less frequent motivation reported in the literature for engaging the publics. Recognizing the need for mitigation of social biases [ 86 ], public participation to address historically marginalized populations [ 78 , 87 ], and promoting social equity [ 79 ] were the highlighted motives.

3.3 The invited publics

Study participants were mostly the general public and professional groups, followed by developers of AI systems, managers from industry and business, students, academics and researchers, patients/consumers, and policymakers (Fig.  2 ). The views of local communities and representatives of governance bodies were rarely assessed.

Representative samples of the general public were used in five papers related to studies conducted in the USA [ 88 ], Denmark [ 73 ], Germany [ 48 ], and Austria [ 49 , 63 ]. The remaining random or purposive samples from the general public comprised mainly adults and current and potential users of AI products and services, with few studies involving informal caregivers or family members of patients (n = 3), older people (n = 2), and university staff (n = 2).

Samples of professional groups included mainly healthcare professionals (19 out of 24 studies). Educators, law enforcement, media practitioners, and GLAM professionals (galleries, libraries, archives, and museums) were invited once.

3.4 Ethical issues

The ethical issues concerning AI technologies perceived as needing the participation of the publics are depicted in Table  3 . They were mapped by measuring the number of studies referencing them in the scoping review. Human agency and oversight (n = 55) was the most frequent ethical aspect that was studied in the literature, followed by those centered on privacy and data governance (n = 43). Diversity, nondiscrimination and fairness (n = 39), societal and environmental well-being (n = 39), technical robustness and safety (n = 38), transparency (n = 35), and accountability (n = 31) were less frequently discussed.

The concerns regarding human agency and oversight were the replacement of human beings by AI technologies and deskilling [ 47 , 55 , 67 , 74 , 75 , 89 , 90 ]; the loss of autonomy, critical thinking, and innovative capacities [ 50 , 58 , 61 , 77 , 78 , 83 , 85 , 90 ]; the erosion of human judgment and oversight [ 41 , 70 , 91 ]; and the potential for (over)dependence on technology and “oversimplified” decisions [ 90 ] due to the lack of publics’ expertise in judging and controlling AI technologies [ 68 ]. Beyond these ethical challenges, the following contributions of AI systems to empower human beings were noted: more fruitful and empathetic social relationships [ 47 , 68 , 90 ]; enhancing human capabilities and quality of life [ 68 , 70 , 74 , 83 , 92 ]; improving efficiency and productivity at work [ 50 , 53 , 62 , 65 , 83 ] by reducing errors [ 77 ], relieving the burden of professionals and/or increasing accuracy in decisions [ 47 , 55 , 90 ]; and facilitating and expanding access to safe and fair healthcare [ 42 , 53 , 54 ] through earlier diagnosis, increased screening and monitoring, and personalized prescriptions [ 47 , 90 ]. To foster human rights, allowing people to make informed decisions, the last say was up to the person themselves [ 42 , 43 , 46 , 55 , 64 , 67 , 73 , 76 ]. People should determine where and when to use automated functions and which functions to use [ 44 , 54 ], developing “job sharing” arrangements with machines and humans complementing and enriching each other [ 56 , 65 , 90 ]. The literature highlights the need to build AI systems that are under human control [ 48 , 70 ] whether to confirm or to correct the AI system’s outputs and recommendations [ 66 , 90 ]. Proper oversight mechanisms were seen as crucial to ensure accuracy and completeness, with divergent views about who should be involved in public participation approaches [ 86 , 87 ].

Data sharing and/or data misuse were considered the major roadblocks regarding privacy and data governance, with some studies pointing out distrust of participants related to commercial interests in health data [ 55 , 90 , 93 , 94 , 95 ] and concerns regarding risks of information getting into the hands of hackers, banks, employers, insurance companies, or governments [ 66 ]. As data are the backbone of AI, secure methods of data storage and protection are understood as needing to be provided from the input to the output data. Recognizing that in contemporary societies, people are aware of the consequences of smartphone use resulting in the minimization of privacy concerns [ 93 ], some studies have focused on the impacts of data breaches and loss of privacy and confidentiality [ 43 , 45 , 46 , 60 , 62 , 80 ] in relation to health-sensitive personal data [ 46 , 93 ], potentially affecting more vulnerable populations, such as senior citizens and mentally ill patients [ 82 , 90 ] as well as those at young ages [ 50 ], and when journalistic organizations collect user data to provide personalized news suggestions [ 61 ]. The need to find a balance between widening access to data and ensuring confidentiality and respect for privacy [ 53 ] was often expressed in three interrelated terms: first, the ability of data subjects to be fully informed about how data will be used and given the option of providing informed consent [ 46 , 58 , 78 ] and controlling personal information about oneself [ 57 ]; second, the need for regulation [ 52 , 65 , 87 ], with one study reporting that AI developers complain about the complexity, slowness, and obstacles created by regulation [ 64 ]; and last, the testing and certification of AI-enabled products and services [ 71 ]. The study by De Graaf et al. [ 91 ] discussed the robots’ right to store and process the data they collect, while Jenkins and Draper [ 42 ] explored less intrusive ways in which the robot could use information to report back to carers about the patient’s adherence to healthcare.

Studies discussing diversity, nondiscrimination, and fairness have pointed to the development of AI systems that reflect and reify social inequalities [ 45 , 78 ] through nonrepresentative datasets [ 55 , 58 , 96 , 97 ] and algorithmic bias [ 41 , 45 , 85 , 98 ] that might benefit some more than others. This could have multiple negative consequences for different groups based on ethnicity, disease, physical disability, age, gender, culture, or socioeconomic status [ 43 , 55 , 58 , 78 , 82 , 87 ], from the dissemination of hate speech [ 79 ] to the exacerbation of discrimination, which negatively impacts peace and harmony within society [ 58 ]. As there were cross-country differences and issue variations in the publics’ views of discriminatory bias [ 51 , 72 , 73 ], fostering diversity, inclusiveness, and cultural plurality [ 61 ] was perceived as crucial to ensure the transferability/effectiveness of AI systems in all social groups [ 60 , 94 ]. Diversity, nondiscrimination, and fairness were also discussed as a means to help reduce health inequalities [ 41 , 67 , 90 ], to compensate for human preconceptions about certain individuals [ 66 ], and to promote equitable distribution of benefits and burdens [ 57 , 71 , 80 , 93 ], namely, supporting access by all to the same updated and high-quality AI systems [ 50 ]. In one study [ 83 ], students provided constructive solutions to build an unbiased AI system, such as using a dataset that includes a diverse dataset engaging people of different ages, genders, ethnicities, and cultures. In another study [ 86 ], participants recommended diverse approaches to mitigate algorithmic bias, from open disclosure of limitations to consumer and patient engagement, representation of marginalized groups, incorporation of equity considerations into sampling methods and legal recourse, and identification of a wide range of stakeholders who may be responsible for addressing AI bias: developers, healthcare workers, manufacturers and vendors, policymakers and regulators, AI researchers and consumers.

Impacts on employment and social relationships were considered two major ethical challenges regarding societal and environmental well-being. The literature has discussed tensions between job creation [ 51 ] and job displacement [ 42 , 90 ], efficiency [ 90 ], and deskilling [ 57 ]. The concerns regarding future social relationships were the loss of empathy, humanity, and/or sensitivity [ 52 , 66 , 90 , 99 ]; isolation and fewer social connections [ 42 , 47 , 90 ]; laziness [ 50 , 83 ]; anxious counterreactions [ 83 , 99 ]; communication problems [ 90 ]; technology dependence [ 60 ]; plagiarism and cheating in education [ 50 ]; and becoming too emotionally attached to a robot [ 65 ]. To overcome social unawareness [ 56 ] and lack of acceptance [ 65 ] due to financial costs [ 56 , 90 ], ecological burden [ 45 ], fear of the unknown [ 65 , 83 ] and/or moral issues [ 44 , 59 , 100 ], AI systems need to provide public benefit sharing [ 55 ], consider discrepancies between public discourse about AI and the utility of the tools in real-world settings and practices [ 53 ], conform to the best standards of sustainability and address climate change and environmental justice [ 60 , 71 ]. Successful strategies in promoting the acceptability of robots across contexts included an approachable and friendly looking as possible, but not too human-like [ 49 , 65 ], and working with, rather than in competition, with humans [ 42 ].

The publics were invited to participate in the following ethical issues related to technical robustness and safety: usability, reliability, liability, and quality assurance checks of AI tools [ 44 , 45 , 55 , 62 , 99 ]; validity of big data analytic tools [ 87 ]; the degree to which an AI system can perform tasks without errors or mistakes [ 50 , 57 , 66 , 84 , 90 , 93 ]; and needed resources to perform appropriate (cyber)security [ 62 , 101 ]. Other studies approached the need to consider both material and normative concerns of AI applications [ 51 ], namely, assuring that AI systems are developed responsibly with proper consideration of risks [ 71 ] and sufficient proof of benefits [ 96 ]. One study [ 64 ] highlighted that AI developers tend to be reluctant to recognize safety issues, bias, errors, and failures, and when they do so, they do so in a selective manner and in their terms by adopting positive-sounding professional jargon as AI robustness.

Some studies recognized the need for greater transparency that reduces the mystery and opaqueness of AI systems [ 71 , 82 , 101 ] and opens its “black box” [ 64 , 71 , 98 ]. Clear insights about “what AI is/is not” and “how AI technology works” (definition, applications, implications, consequences, risks, limitations, weaknesses, threats, rewards, strengths, opportunities) were considered as needed to debunk the myth about AI as an independent entity [ 53 ] and for providing sufficient information and understandable explanations of “what’s happening” to society and individuals [ 43 , 48 , 72 , 73 , 78 , 102 ]. Other studies considered that people, when using AI tools, should be made fully aware that these AI devices are capturing and using their data [ 46 ] and how data are collected [ 58 ] and used [ 41 , 46 , 93 ]. Other transparency issues reported in the literature included the need for more information about the composition of data training sets [ 55 ], how algorithms work [ 51 , 55 , 84 , 94 , 97 ], how AI makes a decision [ 57 ] and the motivations for that decision [ 98 ]. Transparency requirements were also addressed as needing the involvement of multiple stakeholders: one study reported that transparency requirements should be seen as a mediator of debate between experts, citizens, communities, and stakeholders [ 87 ] and cannot be reduced to a product feature, avoiding experiences where people feel overwhelmed by explanations [ 98 ] or “too much information” [ 66 ].

Accountability was perceived by the publics as an important ethical issue [ 48 ], while developers expressed mixed attitudes, from moral disengagement to a sense of responsibility and moral conflict and uncertainty [ 85 ]. The literature has revealed public skepticism regarding accountability mechanisms [ 93 ] and criticism about the shift of responsibility away from tech industries that develop and own AI technologies [ 53 , 68 ], as it opens space for users to assume their own individual responsibility [ 78 ]. This was the case in studies that explored accountability concerns regarding the assignment of fault and responsibility for car accidents using self-driving technology [ 60 , 76 , 77 , 88 ]. Other studies considered that more attention is needed to scrutinize each application across the AI life cycle [ 41 , 71 , 94 ], to explainability of AI algorithms that provide to the publics the cause of AI outcomes [ 58 ], and to regulations that assign clear responsibility concerning litigation and liability [ 52 , 89 , 101 , 103 ].

4 Discussion

Within the realm of research studies encompassed in the scoping review, the contemporary impetus for engaging the publics in ethical considerations related to AI predominantly revolves around two key motivations: innovation and legitimation. This might be explained by the current emphasis on responsible innovation, which values the publics’ participation in knowledge and innovation-making [ 29 ] within a prioritization of the instrumental role of science for innovation and economic return [ 33 ]. Considering the publics as a valuable source of knowledge that should be called upon to contribute to knowledge innovation production is underpinned by the desire for legitimacy, specifically centered around securing the publics’ endorsement of scientific and technological advancements [ 33 , 104 ]. Approaching the publics’ views on the ethical challenges of AI can also be used as a form of risk prevention to reduce conflict and close vital debates in contention areas [ 5 , 34 , 105 ].

A second aspect that stood out in this finding is a shift in the motivations frequently reported as central for engaging the publics with AI technologies. Previous studies analysing AI national policies and international guidelines addressing AI governance [ 3 , 4 , 5 ] and a study analysing science communication journals [ 33 ] highlighted education, inspiration and democratization as the most prominent motivations. Our scoping review did not yield similar findings, which might signal a departure, in science policy related to public participation, from the past emphasis on education associated with the deficit model of public understanding of science and democratization of the model of public engagement with science [ 106 , 107 ].

The underlying motives for the publics’ engagement raise the question of the kinds of publics it addresses, i.e., who are the publics that are supposed to be recruited as research participants [ 32 ]. Our findings show a prevalence of the general public followed by professional groups and developers of AI systems. The wider presence of the general public indicates not only what Hagendijk and Irwin [ 32 , p. 167] describe as a fashionable tendency in policy circles since the late 1990s, and especially in Europe, focused on engaging 'the public' in scientific and technological change but also the avoidance of the issues of democratic representation [ 12 , 18 ]. Additionally, the unspecificity of the “public” does not stipulate any particular action [ 24 ] that allows for securing legitimacy for and protecting the interests of a wide range of stakeholders [ 19 , 108 ] while bringing the risk of silencing the voices of the very publics with whom engagement is sought [ 33 ]. The focus on approaching the publics’ views on the ethical challenges of AI through the general public also demonstrates how seeking to “lay” people’s opinions may be driven by a desire to promote public trust and acceptance of AI developments, showing how science negotiates challenges and reinstates its authority [ 109 ].

While this strategy is based on nonscientific audiences or individuals who are not associated with any scientific discipline or area of inquiry as part of their professional activities, the converse strategy—i.e., involving professional groups and AI developers—is also noticeable in our findings. This suggests that technocratic expert-dominated approaches coexist with a call for more inclusive multistakeholder approaches [ 3 ]. This coexistence is reinforced by the normative principles of the “responsible innovation” framework, in particular the prescription that innovation should include the publics as well as traditionally defined stakeholders [ 3 , 110 ], whose input has become so commonplace that seeking the input of laypeople on emerging technologies is sometimes described as a “standard procedure” [ 111 , p. 153].

In the body of literature included in the scoping review, human agency and oversight emerged as the predominant ethical dimension under investigation. This finding underscores the pervasive significance attributed to human centricity, which is progressively integrated into public discourses concerning AI, innovation initiatives, and market-driven endeavours [ 15 , 112 ]. In our perspective, the importance given to human-centric AI is emblematic of the “techno-regulatory imaginary” suggested by Rommetveit and van Dijk [ 35 ] in their study about privacy engineering applied in the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation. This term encapsulates the evolving collective vision and conceptualization of the role of technology in regulatory and oversight contexts. At least two aspects stand out in the techno-regulatory imaginary, as they are meant to embed technoscience in societally acceptable ways. First, it reinstates pivotal demarcations between humans and nonhumans while concurrently producing intensified blurring between these two realms. Second, the potential resolutions offered relate to embedding fundamental rights within the structural underpinnings of technological architectures [ 35 ].

Following human agency and oversight, the most frequent ethical issue discussed in the studies contained in our scoping review was privacy and data governance. Our findings evidence additional central aspects of the “techno-regulatory imaginary” in the sense that instead of the traditional regulatory sites, modes of protecting privacy and data are increasingly located within more privatized and business-oriented institutions [ 6 , 35 ] and crafted according to a human-centric view of rights. The focus on secure ways of data storage and protection as in need to be provided from the input to the output data, the testing and certification of AI-enabled products and services, the risks of data breaches, and calls for finding a balance between widening access to data and ensuring confidentiality and respect for privacy, exhibited by many studies in this scoping review, portray an increasing framing of privacy and data protection within technological and standardization sites. This tendency shows how forms of expertise for privacy and data protection are shifting away from traditional regulatory and legal professionals towards privacy engineers and risk assessors in information security and software development. Another salient element to highlight pertains to the distribution of responsibility for privacy and data governance [ 6 , 113 ] within the realm of AI development through engagement with external stakeholders, including users, governmental bodies, and regulatory authorities. It extends from an emphasis on issues derived from data sharing and data misuse to facilitating individuals to exercise control over their data and privacy preferences and to advocating for regulatory frameworks that do not impede the pace of innovation. This distribution of responsibility shared among the contributions and expectations of different actors is usually convoked when the operationalization of ethics principles conflicts with AI deployment [ 6 ]. In this sense, privacy and data governance are reconstituted as a “normative transversal” [ 113 , p. 20], both of which work to stabilize or close controversies, while their operationalization does not modify any underlying operations in AI development.

Diversity, nondiscrimination and fairness, societal and environmental well-being, technical robustness and safety, transparency, and accountability were the ethical issues less frequently discussed in the studies included in this scoping review. In contrast, ethical issues of technical robustness and safety, transparency, and accountability “are those for which technical fixes can be or have already been developed” and “implemented in terms of technical solutions” [ 12 , p. 103]. The recognition of issues related to technical robustness and safety expresses explicit admissions of expert ignorance, error, or lack of control, which opens space for politics of “optimization of algorithms” [ 114 , p. 17] while reinforcing “strategic ignorance” [ 114 , p. 89]. In the words of the sociologist Linsey McGoey, strategic ignorance refers to “any actions which mobilize, manufacture or exploit unknowns in a wider environment to avoid liability for earlier actions” [ 115 , p. 3].

According to the analysis of Jobin et al. [ 11 ] of the global landscape of existing ethics guidelines for AI, transparency comprising efforts to increase explainability, interpretability, or other acts of communication and disclosure is the most prevalent principle in the current literature. Transparency gains high relevance in ethics guidelines because this principle has become a pro-ethical condition “enabling or impairing other ethical practices or principles” [Turilli and Floridi 2009, [ 11 ], p. 14]. Our findings highlight transparency as a crucial ethical concern for explainability and disclosure. However, as emphasized by Ananny and Crawford [ 116 , p. 973], there are serious limitations to the transparency ideal in making black boxes visible (i.e., disclosing and explaining algorithms), since “being able to see a system is sometimes equated with being able to know how it works and governs it—a pattern that recurs in recent work about transparency and computational systems”. The emphasis on transparency mirrors Aradau and Blanke’s [ 114 ] observation that Big Tech firms are creating their version of transparency. They are prompting discussions about their data usage, whether it is for “explaining algorithms” or addressing bias and discrimination openly.

The framing of ethical issues related to accountability, as elucidated by the studies within this scoping review, manifests as a commitment to ethical conduct and the transparent allocation of responsibility and legal obligations in instances where the publics encounters algorithmic deficiencies, glitches, or other imperfections. Within this framework, accountability becomes intricately intertwined with the notion of distributed responsibility, as expounded upon in our examination of how the literature addresses challenges in privacy and data governance. Simultaneously, it converges with our discussion on optimizing algorithms concerning ethical concerns on technical robustness and safety by which AI systems are portrayed as fallible yet eternally evolving towards optimization. As astutely observed by Aradau and Blanke [ 114 , p. 171], “forms of accountability through error enact algorithmic systems as fallible but ultimately correctable and therefore always desirable. Errors become temporary malfunctions, while the future of algorithms is that of indefinite optimization”.

5 Conclusion

This scoping review of how publics' views on ethical challenges of AI are framed, articulated, and concretely operationalized in the research sector shows that ethical issues and publics formation are closely entangled with symbolic and social orders, including political and economic agendas and visions. While Steinhoff [ 6 ] highlights the subordinated nature of AI ethics within an innovation network, drawing on insights from diverse sources beyond Big Tech, we assert that this network is dynamically evolving towards greater hybridity and boundary fusion. In this regard, we extend Steinhoff's argument by emphasizing the imperative for a more nuanced understanding of how this network operates within diverse contexts. Specifically, within the research sector, it operates through a convergence of boundaries, engaging human and nonhuman entities and various disciplines and stakeholders. Concurrently, the advocacy for diversity and inclusivity, along with the acknowledgement of errors and flaws, serves to bolster technical expertise and reaffirm the establishment of order and legitimacy in alignment with the institutional norms underpinning responsible research practices.

Our analysis underscores the growing importance of involving the publics in AI knowledge creation and innovation, both to secure public endorsement and as a tool for risk prevention and conflict mitigation. We observe two distinct approaches: one engaging nonscientific audiences and the other involving professional groups and AI developers, emphasizing the need for inclusivity while safeguarding expert knowledge. Human-centred approaches are gaining prominence, emphasizing the distinction and blending of human and nonhuman entities and embedding fundamental rights in technological systems. Privacy and data governance emerge as the second most prevalent ethical concern, shifting expertise away from traditional regulatory experts to privacy engineers and risk assessors. The distribution of responsibility for privacy and data governance is a recurring theme, especially in cases of ethical conflicts with AI deployment. However, there is a notable imbalance in attention, with less focus on diversity, nondiscrimination, fairness, societal, and environmental well-being, compared to human-centric AI, privacy, and data governance being managed through technical fixes. Last, acknowledging technical robustness and safety, transparency, and accountability as foundational ethics principles reveals an openness to expert limitations, allowing room for the politics of algorithm optimization, framing AI systems as correctable and perpetually evolving.

Data availability

This manuscript has data included as electronic supplementary material. The dataset constructed by the authors, resulting from a search of publications on PubMed ® and Web of Science™, analysed in the current study, is not publicly available. But it can be available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

In this article, we will employ the term "publics" rather than the singular "public" to delineate our viewpoint concerning public participation in AI. Our option is meant to acknowledge that there are no uniform, monolithic viewpoints or interests. From our perspective, the term "publics" allows for a more nuanced understanding of the various groups, communities, and individuals who may have different attitudes, beliefs, and concerns regarding AI. This choice may differ from the terminology employed in the referenced literature.

The following examples are particularly illustrative of the multiplicity of organizations emphasizing the need for public participation in AI. The OECD Recommendations of the Council on AI specifically emphasizes the importance of empowering stakeholders considering essential their engagement to adoption of trustworthy [ 7 , p. 6]. The UNESCO Recommendation on the Ethics of AI emphasizes that public awareness and understanding of AI technologies should be promoted (recommendation 44) and it encourages governments and other stakeholders to involve the publics in AI decision-making processes (recommendation 47) [ 8 , p. 23]. The European Union (EU) White Paper on AI [ 9 , p. 259] outlines the EU’s approach to AI, including the need for public consultation and engagement. The Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy AI [ 10 , pp. 19, 239], developed by the High-Level Expert Group on AI (HLEG) appointed by the EC, emphasize the importance of public participation and consultation in the design, development, and deployment of AI systems.

“Responsible Innovation” (RI) and “Responsible Research and Innovation” (RRI) have emerged in parallel and are often used interchangeably, but they are not the same thing [ 27 , 28 ]. RRI is a policy-driven discourse that emerged from the EC in the early 2010s, while RI emerged largely from academic roots. For this paper, we will not consider the distinctive features of each discourse, but instead focus on the common features they share.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to express their gratitude to Rafaela Granja (CECS, University of Minho) for her insightful support in an early stage of preparation of this manuscript, and to the AIDA research netwrok for the inspiring debates.

Open access funding provided by FCT|FCCN (b-on). Helena Machado and Susana Silva did not receive funding to assist in the preparation of this work. Laura Neiva received funding from FCT—Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., under a PhD Research Studentships (ref.2020.04764.BD), and under the project UIDB/00736/2020 (base funding) and UIDP/00736/2020 (programmatic funding).

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Machado, H., Silva, S. & Neiva, L. Publics’ views on ethical challenges of artificial intelligence: a scoping review. AI Ethics (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43681-023-00387-1

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