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Literature Review Guide

Overview of the iterative steps involved in using library databases to search & review the scholarly literature

how do i make sense of what i'm reading

How to Read a Scholarly Article

Reading a scholarly article isn't like reading a book or a magazine.

Scanning and skimming are essential when you have a lot of scholarly articles to read.

Good News! Scholarly articles are commonly organized in sections to help you scan and skim their contents. 
These are the first sections that you should scan:

  • Abstract - This paragraph will summarize what the article is about.
  • Introduction - This section will tell you the topic of the article and discuss how the author intends to contribute to the existing research on that topic.

Additional sections can be found in the attached document, How to Read an Academic Journal Article.

Synthesizing the Research You Have Found

Synthesis is not just summarizing each source. You need to record what about each resource matters to your topic

  1. Skim several resources before you take notes on any of them. This gives you an idea of what some themes across sources might be. Remember, you can skim by just reading a few key sections of a scientific article
  2. Go back & read the resources, writing quick notes in the margins or in a separate document
  3. Create a separate ANTIC (Article Note-Taking Index Card) for each resource (see ANTIC template below)

Efron, S.E. and Ravid, R. (2019). Writing the literature review: A practical guide. New York: Guilford Press. 

Evaluate Your Sources

Lateral Reading

Lateral reading is "the act of verifying what you're reading as you're reading it" (Heich, 2020). As you read, you should know the context of what you are reading; who wrote it, and what position they wrote it from. The idea of lateral reading comes from a web-based perspective, where you should be opening tabs (lateral to the one you are reading), to verify information as you go. We can rely on the resource we are reading solely to verify the information within, we have to check it against other sources.

Consider the prompts and questions from the ADLER Test when considering whether or not to use an article in your research.

ADLER Test

Authority

  • Who is the author?
  • What is their authority to speak on this subject?
  • What are their credentials?
  • What else have they written?

DEIA (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, & Accessibility)

  • Are diverse perspective and population included?
  • Who is or is not included in the methodology?
  • Is it being written from an insider or outsider perspective on the population or problem?
  • Is the content accessible?
  • Who has access to this information?
  • What biases exist in this source?
  • Are the authors explicit about their biases and positionalities?

Logic

  • Does the evidence support the argument?
  • Are there logical fallacies?
  • Can the claims be supported by alternate sources?

Evidence

  • Is the evidence current?
  • Is the evidence reputable?
  • Does this source cite other reputable sources?

Relevance

  • Is this source relevant to your research?
  • Is it suitable for your audience?
  • Is this source outdated?

Adapted from Microsoft Co-Pilot GPT 4.0.