Literature Review Guide

Tips for Keeping Your Research Organized:

Tip #1

Use a citation management tool like RefWorks to keep your citations organized in digital folders. RefWorks is a web-based personal citation manager that allows you to organize your citations and automatically generate an APA-formatted bibliography. 

Tip #2

Use a Synthesis Matrix to track keywords leading to sources and summaries of important points in articles

What is a Synthesis Matrix?

A chart/spreadsheet that allows you to sort and categorize different aspects of a topic that have been studied. It is useful for visualizing/identifying patterns in the major research findings related to a topic.

Synthesis requires organizing the sources into subtopics by tracing how sources relate to / contrast with one another:

• How sources relate = Connections and similarities between studies: methodologies, populations, etc.
• How sources contrast = Comparisons of arguments / conclusions made and how they differ

Look for questions about the topic that have NOT yet been researched.

How to Create a Synthesis Matrix:

• You can use Excel or Google Sheets, so you can sort by column to make it easier to write your literature review
• Each source is a row in the spreadsheet
• The themes become columns in a spreadsheet - Use the themes you created in the first column of the ANTIC model or adapt the column headings that are most useful to you (ex: APA citation, keywords, location, purpose, research design, main findings, notes)
• Many columns can have just a check box or simple yes/no to make sorting easier. Remember, most of the notes are already in your ANTICs, so you don't have to re-write all that here
• Based on: Garrard, J. (2017). Health sciences literature review made easy: The matrix method. Burlington: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
• See an example below:

Structure Your Literature Review

There are many different ways to structure your literature review. Here are some common ones:

• Chronological - organize by dates of published literature; Ex: Structure your review in stages of how the topic has changed: the first definitions of it, then major time periods of change as researchers talked about it, then how it is thought about today.
• Topical order - organize by main topics or issues. Ex: Start with a section on the general type of issue you're reviewing, then narrow down to increasingly specific issues in the literature until you reach the articles that are most specifically similar to your research question
• Major Models or Major Theories or Prominent Authors - outline the theories or models that are applied the most in your articles on a topic. Ex: Group the famous author/researchers and what each is known to have said about the topic.