Skip to Main Content
Mount Royal University

Library

Literature reviews

What is a literature review?

It describes and evaluates the research that has been done in a particular area of research. 

  • In general, a literature review should be a concise and comprehensive discussion of a narrow, well-defined research question.
  • The goal is usually to identify relationships, contradictions, controversies, gaps and potential next steps in the research.

Why do it?

  • Reviewing the literature on your topic gives your ideas for your research question
  • It helps you understand the big picture and background to your topic so that you can identify where your proposed research fits in the existing body of knowledge.

What is it for?

  • Providing a literature review as part of your research paper lets the reader know what literature you examined and what research is being drawn upon, and demonstrates your knowledge of the topic.
  • A literature review demonstrates how and why your research question is important and worth asking.

Literature reviews should synthesize and compare studies that discuss different aspects of your topic, depending on your purpose (for example, you might compare experimental method, population studied, theoretical framework, etc.).

Some questions to consider as you read articles:

  • How widely applicable are the findings? Can the findings be explored in a different setting or with a different population?
  • What are the implications of these findings?
  • Could the research design/methodology/test instrument be applied or tested in a new context?
  • Is there another way to measure the variables of interest?

These questions can help you keep track of comparable aspects of the articles you find. They can also guide your search for more articles related to the one(s) you've already found.

Additional resources for literature reviews

For more information about conducting literature reviews, please see the Conducting Literature Reviews guide on the Undergraduate Research page.