Thelen Memorial Library Find A-Z eResource List Databases Get Help Chat "How Do I..." Library Tutorials LibGuides Library Handbook Services How to Reserve a Study Room My Account/Interlibrary Loan Requests Writing Center About the Writing Center About APA Academic Writer Access APA Academic Writer About Tutor.com About Turnitin Originality About Biography of George and Sue Thelen Vision & Mission Contact Us Directions Collections and Resources Hours Library Log-In Divine Mercy UniversityLibGuidesOther GuidesConducting Literature ReviewsDoing the Review Search this GuideSearch Conducting Literature Reviews: Doing the Review HomeLiterature Review BasicsTypes of Literature ReviewsSteps to Conducting a Literature ReviewToggle DropdownClarifying the Goal Choosing Databases and Literature Sources Developing Search Strategies Choosing What Literature to Use Applying Screening Techniques Doing the Review Documenting and Writing Up the Review ResourcesQuiz Doing the Literature Review The review includes several important tasks, including abstracting, assessing, and synthesizing. Abstracting When abstracting, you are collecting information from each of your sources that you want to include in your literature review. It helps to collect the same information points; therefore, a form is helpful to ensure that you collect the same points consistently. This can be done online or in a database or spreadsheet. Care needs to be given to decide which items you want to include in your form. Typically, for the form, an ID, the population, method, results, and conclusion are included. Assessing After you collect data, you want to assess it to see what type of source it is, where to put it in your literature review, to examine its validity and reliability as appropriate, and also to evaluate the source to see if it is of good quality. Frameworks such as the RADAR framework can be used to determine if the article or source is sound. Potential bias should also be considered. It is helpful to be systematic in predetermining the assessment or evaluation criteria in advance, and then systematically applying it to all the studies you would like to include in your literature review. Synthesizing When synthesizing your literature, you want to avoid just making a list of all your research sources and their findings. It is helpful to think of your literature review in three parts, which include a summary of the search results, a summary overview of all the sources you want to include in your paper, and a summary of the results across all the sources you want to include. It would be helpful to think of your research question and to see whether your sources you want to include or the literature answers your research question. To help with the results across the sources you want to include, a findings table might be useful so you can organize your research by elements of each part. This would help organize your literature review and help you group studies with similar components together. << Previous: Applying Screening TechniquesNext: Documenting and Writing Up the Review >>
The review includes several important tasks, including abstracting, assessing, and synthesizing.
When abstracting, you are collecting information from each of your sources that you want to include in your literature review. It helps to collect the same information points; therefore, a form is helpful to ensure that you collect the same points consistently. This can be done online or in a database or spreadsheet. Care needs to be given to decide which items you want to include in your form. Typically, for the form, an ID, the population, method, results, and conclusion are included.
After you collect data, you want to assess it to see what type of source it is, where to put it in your literature review, to examine its validity and reliability as appropriate, and also to evaluate the source to see if it is of good quality. Frameworks such as the RADAR framework can be used to determine if the article or source is sound. Potential bias should also be considered. It is helpful to be systematic in predetermining the assessment or evaluation criteria in advance, and then systematically applying it to all the studies you would like to include in your literature review.
When synthesizing your literature, you want to avoid just making a list of all your research sources and their findings. It is helpful to think of your literature review in three parts, which include a summary of the search results, a summary overview of all the sources you want to include in your paper, and a summary of the results across all the sources you want to include. It would be helpful to think of your research question and to see whether your sources you want to include or the literature answers your research question. To help with the results across the sources you want to include, a findings table might be useful so you can organize your research by elements of each part. This would help organize your literature review and help you group studies with similar components together.
