Writing a Literature Review

I’ve Found a Paper, Now What???

Writing your first literature review can be a daunting task so here are some tips and tricks for getting started once you’ve found a research paper. Obviously everyone works differently so if you find this isn’t helping you at all try it your own way but if you are stuck give some of these a try.

What Do We Mean?

First of all let’s clear up some of the terminology used when referring to academic works so that you know what to be looking for.

Research Paper or Case Study – this refers to a paper which presents the original findings of a group of researchers and their discussion on these findings. They are usually published in peer review journals.

Peer Reviewed or Peer Reviewed Journals – For an article to be published in a peer reviewed journal or for an article to be deemed as “peer reviewed” means that it has gone through a long process where other scientists within the field read through it and analyse the findings. Most of the time a paper won’t be accepted the first time around but will be sent back with suggestions for improvements. This is a way of making sure that works which get published are credible and that the results are reliable and not just made up.

Review Article or Review Paper – Not to be confused with peer reviewed but a review article is one that does not present any new findings or results but rather has a summary of multiple current research papers and compares them. This is a good way to find out what has currently been happening in the field of interest and summaries current knowledge and other peoples findings.

So How Am I Meant to Understand this?

As weird as it sounds we really don’t expect you to understand your chosen paper the first time you read it through. You aren’t a researcher or a PhD student like the authors of the papers are so of course the first time you read though the paper you are going to have some difficulties understanding the concepts. There are however some ways to make it easier for yourself.

1. Read through your article with a highlighter in hand a highlight any words that you don’t understand. The paper is going to have a fair bit of technical terminology that you will need to look up. First time through focus on the abstract, introduction and discussion. Afterwards do a quick google search of anything you didn’t understand and make a table of definitions for yourself so that you can refer back to it later.
2. Now that you’ve looked up some things you didn’t understand have a read through of the entire article again (including results and skim through the methodology) and make a note of anything you still don’t quite understand.
3. Have a read of some review articles to do with the topic/field of your chosen paper and take down some notes on the explanation of the underlying science. Review articles will usually cover a bit of the basics but if you still are having difficulty understanding the underlying concepts do a bit of an internet search to find a source which explains it in language you can understand. In order to avoid accidental plagiarism you need to make sure that you are putting this research into YOUR OWN WORDS. Don’t copy and paste lines from sources and make sure you take note of what information you are getting from which source so that you can reference it in your literature/critical review. Setting up a table like the following is the easiest way to do this….

1. Have a final read through of your paper focusing on the results, methods and discussion. While you are reading think about and take notes on your opinion of the paper based on the research you have done so far. Be asking yourself questions like “what are the aims of this research?”, ”why are they looking into this/what benefit will this research have to society”,  “how did they carry out their experiments/what did they look at”, “what biological principals are at work here/do I understand whats happening?”, “do these results line up with what ive been reading about/what I know about the topic?”, “what were their key findings and what do they mean for society?”

IMPORTANT NOTE: As you can tell this is a lot of work so make sure you give yourself enough time for this. Don’t leave it for too late as it is much easier to spread this over 2-3 days than have to do it the night before.

So How Do You Structure a Literature Review and What Do I Put in Each Section?

Like all writing styles a literature review has a set structure that you are best off following to ensure you include everything that is required of you. The order and contents of each section is highlighted below for you.