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Stand-alone literature review

Introduction

Literature reviews can be stand-alone documents, or they can form part of a research proposal or project. A stand-alone literature review aims to summarise and evaluate the current knowledge of a specific topic, whereas a literature review that forms part of a research proposal or project also describes the gaps in the current knowledge that the project aims to address.

This module is intended as an introductory guide to writing stand-alone literature reviews. A graduate literature review module is also available in the graduate research and writing section of the Research and Learning Online site. The graduate literature review module is particularly useful if you are writing a literature review that forms part of a research project, including an Honours, Master by Research or PhD project.

This tutorial will cover:

The purpose of a literature review
Choosing your topic
Structure of a literature review
Tips for writing the literature review

The purpose of a literature review

The purpose of a stand-alone literature review is to provide a summary, synthesis and critical evaluation of the literature relevant to your specific research question or aim. Within the review, you need to identify patterns, consensus, inconsistencies, discrepancies, problems or gaps based on the body of literature. Ultimately, the literature review will contribute something new to the topic, so it will not be a discussion that has been repeated or previously established in the past.

Choosing your topic

Depending on the unit, there are a number of ways that you might be asked to choose a topic for your literature review. For example:

You may be asked to choose from a list of specific research questions.
You may be asked to create a research question from a list of broad topics, or from any topic that interests you.
You might be asked to include only a research question, or to include a research question and an aim.

What is the difference between a research question and an aim?

The research question

A research question is an answerable, focused question that helps to limit the scope of your research and writing within a broader topic. Your research question needs to be answerable within your word limit. The video below contains tips for writing a good research question.

In some assignments, you may be asked to create both a research question and an aim from a broad topic. For example, your topic may be the effects of climate change on crop production. There are multiple components of climate change (e.g. rising temperatures, rising sea levels, and rising CO₂ levels) and multiple crop types (wheat, corn, rice, etc.). You could refine this topic by focusing on specific aspects of climate change and specific crop types. An answerable research question based on this topic might be:

Research question: How will rising levels of atmospheric CO₂ impact the global agriculture of wheat growth and quality?

The aim

The aim is a detailed statement of what your review is intending to achieve. For example, an aim based on our example research question is:

Aim: This review aims to directly assess how global wheat crops will react to a rise in environmental CO₂ and guide research of mitigation of any challenges wheat may face.

The aim of your literature review is often stated at the end of the introduction section.

Once you have selected your research question or aim, you can identify keywords to assist you in finding the relevant literature. The Researching for your literature review library guide is a comprehensive guide to finding relevant information sources for your topic.

Structure of a literature review

In general, literature reviews are structured in a similar way to a standard essay, with an introduction, a body and a conclusion. Within the body, sub-headings are often used.

The structure of the different sections of a literature review is discussed below. Excerpts from a number of Monash student assignments are used to demonstrate the structure of each section.

The abstract

You may be asked to write an abstract for your review. The purpose of an abstract is to provide potential readers with an overview of the review content, so that they can determine if it is relevant to their research. The abstract should include brief background information, including any knowledge gaps or discrepancies that the review aims to address, as well as a statement regarding the purpose and scope of the review. A good abstract also includes a brief statement of the main findings and how they relate to the broader context. The example abstract below includes these elements.

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Example abstract

Munchausen Syndrome (MS) is a chronic psychological disorder where sufferers intentionally fabricate illness or injury with the purpose of assuming the sick role. There are many serious consequences of the actions by MS sufferers and therefore early diagnosis is crucial. MS however is an inherently complex disorder and there are no established means of diagnosis.These sentences provide brief background information, including the gaps in the literature that the review aims to address. This review examines the use of a multidisciplinary approach for the diagnosis of MS which requires the cooperation of the primary physician, the laboratory and a psychiatrist.This sentence describes the purpose and scope of the review. Providing specific information as to what your review covers helps your readers determine whether your review is useful for their research. Findings of this review indicate that each of these parties have an essential and unique role to play in overcoming the diagnostic challenges of MS and this supports the use of a multidisciplinary approach. Additionally this is only achieved through open communication and information sharing between these different health care professionals.These sentences summarise the main findings and how they relate to the broader context.

The introduction

Not all introductions follow exactly the same order, however there are some key points to include to provide your reader with the context and purpose of your review. The general guidelines for the structure of a literature review introduction are:

Start with a broad introduction to the topic. Include relevant background information and definitions or explanations of the relevant terms and concepts.
Provide information that is relevant for your specific topic, and explain the importance of your topic (e.g. why it’s worth reading your literature review).
Tell the reader what the scope of your review is, e.g. what key points you will include in the body of your review.
Tell your reader what the aim or purpose of your review is. This is often included at the end of the introduction.

The example introduction below includes these elements. Click on the icons next to the paragraph to see the comments. Click again to hide the comments.

Example introduction

The concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) has been increasing throughout recent history. It was steady at 280ppm until the industrial revolution (Wrobelwitz et al. 2013), after which it began rising, reaching just over 400ppm currently (Block et al. 2017). This change in concentration of CO₂ is predicted to significantly impact the global environment (Fang et al. 2017). Both precipitation levels and mean temperatures are expected to change as a result of such increases (Fang et al. 2017) which, coupled with the expectation of a growing population (Challinor et al. 2014), could heavily burden the ability of the global agricultural infrastructure to provide. These sentences introduce the topic broadly, include relevant background information and explain key concepts. Show/hide comment 2 These abiotic challenges are expected to impact growth speed, quality and yield of staple crops like wheat (Wroblewitz et al. 2013). Wheat is a source of food for over 90% of the global population (Cai et al. 2016) and provides 4.5 billion people with their necessary daily protein (Dubey et al. 2014). The importance this crop holds for the global population establishes the necessity for it to be able to thrive in a future climate. These sentences provide key information that is relevant to the specific topic and explain the importance of the topic. Show/hide comment 3 Therefore, this review aims to directly assess how global wheat crops will react to a rise in environmental CO₂ and guide research of mitigation of any challenges wheat may face.This sentence states the aim (or purpose) of the literature review. Notice that the specific aim is provided after general background and relevance to topic, close to the end of the introduction. Show/hide comment 4Firstly crop growth will be explored, then crop yield and finally yield quality within an environment of elevated CO₂.The sentence outlines the scope - the key points that will be discussed in the body of the review.

The body

The body of the review contains your review of the literature relevant to your research question or aim. Aim to structure the body of your literature review in a logical and coherent way. Consider what your sub-topics or sections will be in order to answer your research question thoroughly and coherently. Then consider the most logical order to discuss your sections. Creating sub-headings for the sections of your review will assist you in creating a logical structure and keep you focused on sub-topics relevant to your research aim.

In the body of your literature review, it is important to analyse the literature rather than to merely describe the findings of a number of different literature sources. Some description of the key findings is important to give the reader context, however your review should also include an analysis of the key themes, gaps in understanding, and points of disagreement between the different literature sources.

There are numerous ways to organise your body paragraphs, depending on your topic. You may want to organise some of your paragraphs in chronological order, e.g. historical findings, more recent findings, current research. You may want to group your literature sources into paragraphs based on similar arguments or findings. You may want to group your sources into similar sub-topics and compare different findings within a single paragraph.

One method of organising your reviewed literature is to group similar findings together. The assignment excerpt below is an example of how this can be done.

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Multiple studies have found evidence supporting an increase in crop growth in an environment of elevated CO₂. In their research, Cai et al. (2016) attributed this to enhanced leaf photosynthesis in C3 species like wheat when exposed to such an increase in the concentration of CO₂ in the ambient air. In addition, Hӧgy and Frangmeier (2008) observed an acceleration of wheat growth ‘productivity’ under CO₂ enrichment, the amplification of these processes ultimately leading to enhanced crop growth. Wang et al. (2016) supported these studies, completing a research project of wheat growth under elevated atmospheres of CO₂ concentrations up to 500ppm.This paragraph describes similar findings from multiple literature sources. Note the language used to highlight the fact that these are all similar findings, including “multiple studies”, “in addition” and “supported these studies”. Comparing wheat crop growth under elevated CO₂ conditions with those in ambient conditions, Wang et al. (2016) were able to significantly demonstrate that increases in atmospheric carbon could improve grain growth up to 8%.

However, with CO₂ elevation comes a myriad of other abiotic factors, including a rise in average temperature (Dahal et al., 2014).The use of the word “however” indicates to the reader that this paragraph presents contrasting findings to the previous paragraph. In this case, the first paragraph discussed findings of increased wheat growth in the presence of increased CO₂. The second paragraph discusses multiple findings that show negative effects on wheat quality at higher temperatures, which are associated with increased CO₂. During an experiment of wheat growth in CO₂ rich atmospheres by Hӧgy et al. (2009) the plants experienced a growing season with a mean temperature 1.8℃ higher than in previous years. Concurrently the crop experiences a shorter growth period, finishing their growth cycle earlier than normal. The rise in temperature, while hastening growth time, had a negative effect on crop yield and quality, suggesting that while elevated CO₂ may increase growth processes, accompanying abiotic influences such as temperature increases may be detrimental to crop growth. Asseng et al. (2013) supported this, contending that their predictive models indicate negative overall impacts on wheat crops at higher levels of warming as a result of CO₂ increases. Fang et al. (2017) recently completed innovative research into the management of crop sensitivity to temperature change through genetic selection but more inquiry into such mitigation of temperature damage to crop growth is important to agricultural success in future climates.

Another method of organising your body paragraphs is to group papers together that have found different or contradictory results related to the same topic. This helps you to demonstrate your understanding of the literature and highlights the inconsistencies between findings. The example assignment body paragraph below is an example of how this can be done

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In order to carry out self-regulation, patients must be able and encouraged to exert their autonomy, and be supported in such a way that they develop internalised motivations to do so, as suggested by SDT. Gourlan et al. (2014) supports this, demonstrating that amongst obese adolescents, incidence of physical activity was increased when individuals experienced a supervised exercise session that supported their autonomous needs. Patients were assumed to have performed such self-regulation due to the intrinsic origin of motivation to complete such tasks (Gourlan et al., 2014). However not all literature supports this conclusion. Sripada et al. (2016) presents contrary evidence, demonstrating that no aspects of SDT needs (i.e. autonomy, competence, relatedness and intrinsic motivation) are related to treatment adherence, which requires an element of self-regulation.This paragraph describes some discrepancy between different findings related to Self-Determination Theory needs (including motivation and autonomy) and the maintenance of healthy behaviours such as exercise and treatment adherence.

The conclusion

Start by demonstrating how you have answered your research question and/or how you have achieved your research aim. This tells the audience you have achieved what you set out to achieve. Then highlight the key points you discussed. Now you can refer to implications of this knowledge in a broader sense, as well as recommendations for future studies/research (if applicable). The conclusion starts specific and finishes broad - the opposite structure to your introduction.

There are several conventions to note when you are writing your conclusion:

It is important that you do not include new information in your conclusion. Instead, you need to highlight the key points raised in the earlier sections of your literature review.
In-text citations are not usually included in your conclusion. This relates to the point above in regards to not including new information - all of the information in your discussion should have also been included, with correct citing and referencing, in the earlier sections of your literature review.

The example below demonstrates the structural elements of a conclusion. Click on the icons next to the paragraph to see the comments. Click again to hide the comments.

This review aimed to examine the emotional perception of self and others, and assessed the neurobiological underpinnings of Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) in an attempt to improve understanding of the characteristics and development of the disorder. While findings are relatively inconsistent in regards to self-esteem in NPD, there is a definite influence of narcissistic traits (grandiosity, self-worth etc.) on the overall perception of self. Linking to impaired self-perception, NPD individuals also showed decreased ability to perceive and process the emotions of others. The presence of physical neural deficiencies provides a model which offers explanation for the previous two characteristics of NPD, as deficits in the prefrontal cortex have been linked to the impairment of emotional processing.These sentences restate the research aim and demonstrate how the review has achieved the aim, as well as the key points that were discussed in the body. Show/hide comment 2 It is proposed that future studies could further examine the role of the brain in reaction to various narcissistic traits, allowing for more specific identification of impaired neural structures as well as the development of intervention and treatment techniques. As positive emotion was found to be counter-transferrable and also beneficial to both therapists and NPD patients, developing therapies based around emotionally nourishing environments may decrease NPD traits and provide a stepping stone towards permanent treatment options.These sentences provide recommendations for future studies and research based on the findings of this review.

Activity

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Tips for writing the literature review

Click the icons on the graphic below for tips on the different stages of the writing process.

Citing and referencing in a literature review

Paraphrasing and summarising are key skills required in a literature review. For more information on how to paraphrase and summarise effectively, please see the citing and referencing tutorial on the Research and Learning Online website.

In literature reviews, you may want to summarise similar findings by including several sources within a single citation. Citing several published works at once can demonstrate your understanding of the patterns and consensus in the literature. You can find instructions for how to do this for each of the different referencing styles in the Library citing and referencing guide, but as a general rule, this can be done as follows:

If you want to refer to a small number of literature sources at once, you can list each of them within the citation at the end of the relevant information, separated by semicolons. For example:

Only a few epidemiologic investigations have assessed the intake of chocolate products as part of a food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) (Arts et al., 2002; di Giuseppe et al., 2008), whereas other studies have simply asked about chocolate intake as part of a lifestyle questionnaire (Lee & Paffenbarger, 1998; Paganini-Hill, Kawas, & Corrada, 2007).

If there are many studies that have reported a similar finding and you only want to include some of them, you can use the letters e.g. (from the Latin exempli gratia, meaning 'for example') at the beginning of your citation. This tells the reader that these are a selection of sources of this information, rather than the full list. For example:

Many epidemiologic studies have explored the beneficial effects of green tea, soy beans, and other foods containing polyphenols (e.g. Dreosti, 2000; Adlercreutz & Mazur, 1997; Arts & Hollman, 2005).

For more help on writing literature reviews

Monash students can access Research and Learning drop-in sessions at the Library.

You may also find helpful the literature review resources in the Graduate Research and Writing section of Research and Learning Online.

Study skills for university

Research & writing for assignments

Assignment structures & samples

Graduate research & writing