Literature Review
For further assistance with locating, managing and referencing information for a literature review, please contact the Liaison Librarian for your discipline area.
What is a literature review?
A literature review is an evaluative report of published, scholarly research in a chosen area of study, defined by a research objective. It may stand on its own, or be part of another document e.g. a research report or thesis.
A literature review differs from an annotated bibliography as it also compares former research studies and relates this to the proposed area of research, providing some rationale for further research.
What is the purpose of a literature review?
- To find, read, evaluate, critically analyse and summarise relevant information
- To outline and convey to readers what research has been done on a topic
- To identify gaps, strengths and areas of controversy in past research
- To raise questions which could be addressed in future research
- To justify the proposed research, and relate it to existing research
- To provide a theoretical basis for the researcher to build on
- To help refine/modify the topic, to ensure its uniqueness and avoid duplication
Starting your literature review
Identify keywords and locate background information- Break down the topic into keywords and maintain a record of the keywords associated with each concept, to assist in searching.
- Use discipline-specific dictionaries and other reference resources to define and clarify terminology, and to find related/alternate keywords. Many reference resources are available electronically via UWS Library website e-resources by subject.
- If available, use controlled vocabulary/subject headings in addition to keywords. Subject headings clearly identify key concepts in a database and help to identify relevant records.
Apply relevant search strategies
Many databases, library catalogues and search engines offer strategies to refine searches.
- Boolean Logic: used when a search topic contains more than one concept.
| Operator | Result |
|---|---|
| OR e.g. water OR liquid | Increases the number of records retrieved. |
| AND e.g. water AND salt | Reduces the number of records retrieved. |
- Truncation symbols: used after the root of a word to search for plurals and to pick up different word endings. This expands the search. The truncation symbol for UWS library catalogue is “?” E.g salt? Will retrieve salt, salts, salty, saltiness.
- Spelling: generally use American spelling for American databases e.g. 'organization' not 'organisation', and use British spelling for Australian databases.
Finding relevant books
Use the library catalogue to find books and other items in a particular library.
- Title/Author/Subject search: used when exact details of items are known.
- Journal Title search(first words): used to search for journal titles.
- Guided Keyword search: used to construct searches within a subject area.
For more information on using the UWS Library catalogue: Successful Searching online tutorial
Libraries Australia allows you to search for and locate material in other Australian libraries, or search other library catalogues other library catalogues.Finding relevant journal articles/conference proceedings
Journal articles are sources of current and specific information
Databases provide access to citations, full text journal articles, and often include book chapters, conference proceedings and dissertations. To find references to journal articles and other scholarly material e.g. conference papers, you can search databases from the UWS Library e-resource page. Look at e-resources by subject for guidance on databases relevant to specific disciplines.
Most databases enable you to limit your search to scholarly journals (ie peer-reviewed or refereed).
Many databases support citation searching. Citation searching enables a researcher to track articles, books or other materials that have been cited in a particular work. It is possible to travel forward in time from a published work and view citations that reference back to an original source (article, book, conference presentation, patent) and identify core researchers in a specific field.
More information on citation searching.
Obtaining the fulltext of the article
If the article is available as a fulltext document this is usually indicated by a link to a PDF file or other options to obtain fulltext. If the fulltext of the article is not provided, select LinkFinderPlus / UWS Link next to the article, if this is available, as this will automatically check whether the Library has electronic holdings of the journal title in which the article is published. UWS Library catalogue provides direct links to the print and electronic journal holdings of the Library.
Finding relevant theses
Theses abstracts and fulltext can be searched electronically via the Australian Digital Theses site and Proquest Digital Dissertations.
Locating materials from other libraries
All currently enrolled UWS higher degree students are eligible to register for the free Document Delivery service, to obtain items from other institutions.
Another option is to become a member of another library as a reciprocal borrower.
Locating useful websites
Although the internet provides some useful resources, these should not be relied on exclusively, but may be useful to complement searching scholarly sources. It is important to evaluate any website to assess its authority. Two useful filtered sites are:
Keeping up to date with new relevant information
Many databases provided by UWS Library and journal publishers provide a free service designed to keep researchers up to date with current academic literature published in their fields. These services cover:
- Notification of table of contents for nominated journals
- Notification when a new issue of a journal is published
- Notification when new articles are published in nominated areas of interest or saved search
More information on Alerting services
Managing references
- Cite your references correctly in your School's preferred style (http://library.uws.edu.au/citing.php) to enable them to be followed up if desired. If you are unsure which style to use, consult your supervisor.
- Arrange references in a bibliography either manually or automatically, using EndNote or RefWorks.
EndNote is software for storing and managing bibliographic references. It allows you to import references from library catalogues or other electronic databases into EndNote reference libraries using filters. You may also connect directly to some databases and catalogues and search them using EndNote, saving retrieved references directly to an EndNote library. References in EndNote libraries can be sorted and searched, and incorporated automatically into papers. Using EndNote can make writing papers a lot simpler and easier and as a result save you time and ensure accuracy of citations.
RefWorks is an alternative web-based bibliographic management program.
For more information
Contact the Liaison Librarian for your discipline area.Successful Searching online tutorial
Library training and support
