1.Define your research question

• You may need to some exploratory searching of the literature to get a sense of scope, to determine whether you need to narrow or broaden your focus
• Identify databases that provide the most relevant sources, and identify relevant terms to add to your search strategy
• Finalize your research question

2. Determine what you will include/exclude from your review

• How far back in time will your search go? 
• What types of sources will you include in your literature review? Are you interested in journal articles, books, dissertations/theses, and reports from non-profits or government agencies? This will largely depend on your discipline. 
• Are you focused on finding a particular type of research study (e.g. you only are interested in finding randomized controlled trials)?
• You may find the following worksheet helpful in defining the scope of your review. 

3. Choose databases and conduct the search

• Conduct searches in the published literature via the identified databases. Depending on your topic, you may also want to search databases listed on other subject guides e.g. if your topic is exam stress and midwifery students, you might look at the databases listed on both the Midwifery and Education guides.
• Examine the citations of on-point articles for keywords, authors, and previous research (via references). You can also use tools like Google Scholar or Scopus to see who has cited articles since their publication. This process, called citation chaining, is explained in more detail in the following videos (Part 1, Part 2).
• Save your search results in a citation management tool such as Zotero or Mendeley

4. Synthesize the information gathered

• Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of individual sources using the appropriate appraisal tool
  • CASP Checklists
  • Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) Critical Appraisal Tools
• Group your results in to an organizational structure that will support why your research needs to be done, or that provides the answer to your research question  
• Develop your conclusions

5. Analyze the information gathered

• Are there gaps in the literature - aspects of the topic where little or no research has been conducted or questions remain? One place to find references to gaps in the literature are in the discussion/conclusions sections of research articles, as authors are expected to identify areas for future research. 
• Who has done significant research on the topic?
• Is there consensus or debate on this topic?
• Which methodological approaches work best for answering the research question?

6. Write the literature review

• Pick an organizational structure, i.e., themes, approaches, concepts, methodologies.
• Organize your citations and focus on your research question and pertinent studies
• Compile your reference or works cited page

Content adapted from Steps in the Literature Review Process by University of Texas Libraries, CC-BY-NC-2.0

It is important to find a way to organize your ideas as you are reading articles. Some people find it helpful to create a synthesis matrix or concept map while they are reading to help them identify major themes and how different authors contribute to the theme.

Synthesis Matrix

The matrix method is one way of working on your literature review. to do their literature review more efficiently. 

Use a table in Word with a row for each of your sources. Develop columns based on key themes in your paper with room for more columns that emerge from your readings. When a source relates to one of the columns, note the key point in the box, and add a page number so you can find the point again quickly.

Topic: Pet ownership during COVID-19 and impact on owners and pets

Additional Resources

• Synthesis Matrix - Florida International University

Concept Mapping

Concept mapping is another way to visualize connections between sources during your literature review. 

• Literature Reviews (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) 

  This excellent handout walks you through the process of writing your first literature review.

• The Literature Review: A Few Tips On Conducting It (University of Toronto)

• Conducting a Mini Literature Review Tip Sheet
• Literature Reviews for Education and Nursing Graduate Students
• Guidebook for Social Work Literature Reviews and Research Questions

How can I make my search more specific? A lot of the results are not relevant

1. Make sure you use the Boolean operator AND between all of the concepts the articles must talk about. The layout of the advanced search in Medline and CINAHL does this automatically between rows, and TRIP adds AND between the different rows in its PICO search behind the scenes. PubMed allows you to build a search with Boolean in the advanced search screen.

Example from PubMed

2. Limit your search to only those articles that have been specifically labeled with a subject heading. There are a few ways to do this in CINAHL and Medline.

Option 1 - Type the CINAHL heading or MeSH term in the advanced search box, and choose MW Word in Subject Heading or MH Exact Subject Heading from the drop down menu. If you do not select a field (e.g. with formula in the search below), it looks for the terms anywhere in the article record (e.g. the title, author, journal title, subject headings and abstract).

Option 2 - Locate the link to CINAHL headings or MeSH in Medline in the database. Search for your term, determine if there is an appropriate subject heading, check off the box next to the heading, and click search database using the green box on the right hand side of your screen. Remember, there isn’t a subject heading for every idea in the database, especially if it is very new. It is also an American tool, so that impacts the terminology it uses.

You can then add other terms to your search using the advanced search (see the example below).

Or you can search each idea separately, and then combine individual searches in the search history – not necessary, but an option.