A critical analysis of a segment of a published body of knowledge through summary, classification, and comparison of prior research studies, reviews of literature, and theoretical articles.
UNC Chapel Hill general description of a literature review and description of the steps for completing one
Learn how to write a review of the literature from University of Wisconsin Madison
Literature Reviews: An Overview for Graduate Students
Scoping search
Try a search by keyword in a few subject specialized databases
Keep in mind the difference between keyword and subject searching.
By trial and error and reading titles and abstracts, identify the vocabulary of your topic in your discipline
Identify key search terms (by subject and keyword)
Take notes on your searches already completed and how effective they were
Thorough, full search
Methodically check all book catalogs and article databases using keyword and subject terms (subject terms may change for each database used)
By reading books and articles, identify major authors
Do an author search for this author
Repeat your search in various book catalogs and article databases
Search for unpublished or grey literature using Google Scholar, think tank websites, and government sources (government reports often do not show up in Google results—search relevant agency sites for reports)
Take notes on any modification of the search as more information is gathered
Reference chaining:
Consider contacting experts to determine if all relevant writing has been reviewed.
Your literature review should be an ongoing process as you’re writing. Check in on the literature at certain points as you write. You can also subscribe to alerts from databases and use RSS feeds to keep abreast of your topic.
You will start to see the same arguments, theories, and authors pop up again and again.
You’ll find that you're discovering no new citations.
You’ve already read articles cited in newly discovered literature.
If this happens, you're done!