A literature review is one of the most important — and most daunting — parts of academic writing. This guide breaks it down into manageable steps.
What is a literature review?
A literature review is a systematic survey of existing research on your topic. It shows your reader that you understand the field, identifies gaps your research addresses, and provides evidence for your claims.
Unlike a summary or annotated bibliography, a good literature review synthesises sources — it groups them by theme, identifies consensus and conflict, and highlights what remains unknown.
Step 1: Define your research question
Before searching for sources, write down your research question in one sentence. The more specific, the better.
Example: "What is the effect of social media use on depression in adolescents aged 13-18?"
A focused question helps you search efficiently. You will not waste time reading papers that are tangentially related but ultimately irrelevant.
Step 2: Search for peer-reviewed sources
Use academic databases to find real, citable papers. Search for key terms from your research question. Filter by:
- Publication year (last 5-10 years for most topics)
- Peer-reviewed only
- Open access (if you need full text)
Scholise searches 200M+ peer-reviewed papers across major academic databases. Every result is a real paper with a verified link.
Step 3: Save and organise your sources
As you find relevant papers, save them to a project. Aim for 10-20 sources for a standard undergraduate review, or 30-50 for postgraduate work.
Read each abstract carefully. Save papers that directly address your research question or provide important context.
Step 4: Build an evidence table
For each paper, note:
- Research aim
- Methodology (qualitative, quantitative, mixed)
- Sample size and population
- Key findings
- Limitations
This is the foundation of your literature review. Scholise's Evidence Table feature does this automatically from your saved sources — extracting aims, methods, findings, and limitations into a structured table.
Step 5: Identify themes and patterns
Group your sources by theme. Look for:
- Where sources agree (consensus)
- Where sources disagree (contested areas)
- What hasn't been studied (gaps)
- Methodological trends (are most studies qualitative? Small sample?)
These patterns become the structure of your review.
Step 6: Write your review
Structure your review around themes, not individual papers. Each paragraph should synthesise multiple sources rather than summarising one paper at a time.
Bad: "Smith (2022) found X. Jones (2023) found Y. Lee (2024) found Z."
Good: "Recent research consistently demonstrates X (Smith, 2022; Jones, 2023; Lee, 2024), although the effect size varies significantly across populations."
Step 7: Check your citations
Before submitting, verify every claim has a citation and every citation in your reference list appears in the text. Scholise's Draft Check feature flags unsupported claims and suggests sources from your project.
Ready to start your literature review? Try Scholise free →