A Quick Guide On How To Write A Literature Review.

By Chidiebere Sullivan Nwuguru

Introduction

What is a Literature Review?

A literature review refers to the writing process of summarising, synthesising and/or critiquing the information found as a result of a search conducted on a particular topic or project; it may be employed as a background or context for a primary research project. This implies that carrying out a literature review on a particular project or research involves, searching for information related to the topic under consideration, in order to familiarise oneself with the relevant research and to identify issues and gaps in the research.

A literature review discusses published information in a particular subject area, and sometimes this information are within a certain time period. It can also be seen as a simple summary of the sources of the information employed for the research, which is done in an organised pattern. A literature review can also integrate both summary and synthesis. A summary is a recap of the important information of the source, while a synthesis is a re-organisation, or reshuffling of that information.

How is a Literature Review Different from an Academic Research Paper?

A Research paper focuses mainly on the development of a new argument, and is likely to contain a literature review as one of its sections. Hence, while writing a research paper, you employ the literature review as a foundation and a support for the new insight you are uncovering. However, the focus of a literature review is to summarise and synthesise the arguments and ideas of others concerning the topic you are researching, without necessarily adding new contributions.

Step By Step Guide On How To Write A Literature Review Using AI:

With the introduction of Artificial Intelligence(AI), one can now carry out a literature review which used to be a time-consuming and daunting task, under a very small fraction of hours. Below is the step by step guide on how to leverage the power of AI to write a literature review in a shortest period of time:

Step 1: Collect papers using Research Rabbit App (free)

Research Rabbit, a free application, lets one discover studies and visualise the connection between them. To use this application, search the topic you need articles for in the app and create a collection. It will automatically make connections between the articles and suggest papers based on your selections.

Step 2: Export papers

Now, export your selected papers to Zotero, which is our next tool in this list. Research Rabbit, which is our first tool, lets you sync and export your collection to a folder in Zotero.

Step 3: Skim, annotate and extract information using Zotero (free)

With Zotero which is also a free app, one is able to collect the exported literature from Research Rabbit, after which you quickly read the abstract and decide which ones are important.

Step 4: Find full-text PDFs

Obtain the full-text of your articles using your university’s journal access, unpaywall, or scihub. Zotero’s Scihub plugin lets you find all free articles automatically.

Step 5: Now skim through the full text of your chosen papers and use Zotero’s annotate tool to highlight the most essential details you find.

You can also categorise the articles and assign a color to each paper in Zetero. Also, one can use Zetero’s annotate and send-to-note feature to create themes. To do this, first create a title for a note and then highlight the text you find interesting in each article’s PDF, right-click, and select “add to note.”

Alternatively, you can summarise each paper’s findings using this format:

Study 1 (Research question, methods, participants, relevant findings)

Study 2 (Research question, methods, participants, relevant findings)

Study 3 (Research question, methods, participants, relevant findings)

Step 6: Rewrite and paraphrase manually, or using Paperpal (freemium)

Once you have identified your themes, connect the dots by grouping and summarising ideas. You can paraphrase manually by using synonyms, alternate sentence patterns, and simplifying ideas.

Alternatively, use Paperpal ( a recommended tool) or any other alternate tool you like. Paperpal also has a plagiarism checker in partnership with Turnitin.

Step 7: Cite articles using Zotero (this is an important step)

Every idea, concept, or detail you used from an article must be cited! If employing exact text, use quotation marks and cite!  Zotero lets you choose the appropriate style, such as APA,  Vancouver, and others.

Summarisingly, writing a literature review can be overwhelming, especially for the first time, but like every other skill, with constant practice, one can get better at it. Also, with the above steps, one can be sure to do a literature review that is both thorough and plagiarism-free.

Sources:

- Asad Naveed

- The Writing Center, University of North Carolina

- Libguides, Knox College Library