What are literature reviews and how can I find them?
Answer
A literature review is a comprehensive summary and critical examination of existing research on a topic.
The review examines scholarly articles, books, and other sources to identify:
- Established theories and trends
- Patterns, arguments, unresolved issues
- Emergent developments in the field
Professional literature reviews can be found in most databases; however, databases generally do not provide a pre-set limiter for literature reviews so they require special search structures.
For more detail with examples on finding and writing literature reviews, see the library's Literature Reviews guide.
If you are unfamiliar with using library resources, or if you are new to researching a specialized field, you should set aside time to meet with a librarian to get your research started.