Graduate Nursing and DNP Students' Guide to McKillop Library: Understand Literature Reviews

An important component of research and writing in nursing involves a review of the existing literature that is relevant to your research. Literature reviews critically examine a selection of a published body of knowledge through summary, classification, and comparison of prior research studies, theoretical articles and sometimes additional reviews of literature (University of Wisconsin Writing Center). This analysis serves to situate your research ideas in the context of established research. Information below will help you in preparing a review of literature.

• Are you focusing on methodological approaches; on theoretical issues; on qualitative or quantitative research?
• How detailed? Will it be a review of ALL relevant material or will the scope be limited to more recent material, e.g., the last five years.
• What is known about the subject?
• How are sources similar in terms of methodologies, philosophies, claims, choice and interpretation of evidence, reliability, etc.? 
• How do they differ?
• Are there any gaps in the knowledge of the subject?
• Have areas of further study been identified by other researchers that you may want to consider?
• Is there consensus about the topic?
• What aspects have generated significant debate on the topic?
• Do particular issues or problems stand out?
• Who are the significant research personalities in this area?
• What methods or problems were identified by others studying in the field and how might they impact your research?
• What is the most productive methodology for your research based on the literature you have reviewed?
• What sources of information or data were identified that might be useful to you?

• The introduction should explain why you are writing the review (“so what/who cares?”) and make some central claims about the current state of the literature (e.g. trends, debates, gaps, etc.).
• Organize the body of the paper by common denominators among sources, such as methodologies, conclusions, philosophical approaches, or possibly chronology (assuming topical subsections).
• The conclusion should summarize significant contributions to the field, situate the reviewed literature in the larger context of the discipline, point out flaws or gaps in the research, and/or suggest future areas of study.

Information on this page comes from the following sources: 

Literature Reviews, from the Thompson Writing Program at Duke University: https://twp.duke.edu/sites/twp.duke.edu/files/file-attachments/lit-review-1.original.pdf

Planning Your Review, from the University Library System at the University of Pittsburgh: https://pitt.libguides.com/literaturereview