A literature review is an important part of any research project, as it sets your research in context and identifies how it fits with the research that has been done before. You may be asked to write a literature review as part of a dissertation, thesis, or longer project. A key feature of any literature review is how you choose to group the literature into sub-sections or themes to enable comparison.
For further guidance, check this guide on beginning a literature review, created by Study Advice:
If you have been asked to do a systematic review, take a look at our guide:
You might be writing your literature search as part of your dissertation or major project.
Read Study Advice's guide on dissertations and major projects on using your research skills to find a question, planning, conducting, and communicating your research, and completing your project successfully.
A literature search can vary from a quick search for a few resources to use in an essay to a comprehensive search for all the resources relevant to a PhD dissertation. It involves finding out what other work has already been done in your field.
For a dissertation or project it will help to shape your research by:
Explore the pages in menu on the left for tips on planning and doing your literature search and guidance on what to do with the references you find.
If you have been asked specifically to do a literature review, see the guidance on the left side of the page under the menu.
Watch this short playlist of two videos for an introduction to literature searching and the techniques to use.
If you are unable to view these videos on YouTube they are also available on YuJa or Stream (University username and password required):
Your Academic Liaison Librarian is an expert on finding and using information sources. They will know about the sources for finding information on your topic. This includes databases and webpages relevant to your subject, and other external resources.
Ask your librarian for support with:
...and any other research based queries - if they can't help, they will know who can!