Developing a Literature Review

A literature review is a strategy or plan of action designed to identify, retrieve, and evaluate a body of primary research material extensive in breadth and depth conducted by scholars focusing on a specific area of inquiry within an academic discipline.

Why conduct a literature review?

A literature review is useful to acquire a knowledge base in a particular area of scholarly inquiry within an academic discipline and to ascertain the characteristics and current level of research activity in that scholarly area of study. A literature review is a survey and critical analysis of the state of research in a particular area of inquiry and serves as the basis for the formulation of the research question that justifies a thesis/dissertation proposal.

The following outline is used in the "Developing a Literature Review" workshop.  The Survival Skills for Graduate Students Workshops are offered each fall and spring semester.  For a listing of available workshops and to register for a workshop, please see the Mississippi State University Libraries' complete listing of available workshops.  

Level One Strategy:  Identify relevant information sources.

Journal Articles

Indexing and Abstracting Services

Select relevant indexing and abstracting (I & A) services from the subject list of online databases at the Mississippi State University Libraries.  (http://library.msstate.edu/resources/databases/subject.asp) Consult tutorials available to become familiar with the search features of relevant indexing and abstracting services.  (http://library.msstate.edu/resources/databases/help.asp) Formulate an efficient database search procedure for each indexing and abstracting service. Select keywords relevant to your topic. Link keywords with appropriate Boolean operators (and, or, not). Use truncation to do a comprehensive search if appropriate.  For example:  comput* for compute, computer, computing, computation, etc.... Take advantage of the database specific "limiter" options to customize the search, i.e., limit by:  publication title, date of publication, publication type, language, relevancy ranking, etc.... Identify one relevant article.  Use the subject headings or thesaurus terms assigned to that article to do the following searches within that database. Evaluate the results of your I & A database search.  See, for example, "How to Identify a Scholarly Article in a Peer Reviewed or Referred Journal." (http://library.msstate.edu/reference/handouts/schjou.pdf) Document digital formats in the literature review list of references.   Online Tutorial:  Good Citations:  Citing Electronic Resources (/content/templates/?a=355&z=74)       Electronic Journals Browse the MSU Libraries' collection of electronic journals organized by content providers. (http://library.msstate.edu/resources/journals/search.asp)       Books and Serials Online Catalog for holdings at the MSU Libraries. Dissertation Abstracts International (Digital Dissertations):  for dissertations (PhD) at other institutions. (Available to current MSU faculty members, staff members, and students at the Library's list of indexes and databases.) World Cat:  for dissertations and especially theses (MA) at other institutions.. (Available to current MSU faculty members, staff members, and students at the Library's list of indexes and databases.)

Level Two Strategy:  Verify holdings at the MSU Libraries.

Online Catalog

Level Three Strategy:  Retrieve materials not held at MSU.

ILLiad (Interlibrary Loan)

Level Four Strategy: Identify data sources or review research methodologies.

Corporate and Statistical Research Center

Level Five Strategy:  Access and evaluate information available on the World Wide Web.

Becoming a Super Searcher (Online Tutorial)

Other Tutorials

Level Six Strategy:  Employ TOC (Table of Contents) services to keep informed on the current level of research in a core list of scholarly publications.

Electronic Journals List

Level Seven Strategy:  Utilize citation indexing databases to track a seminal research article as a cited reference.

Citation Databases (For current MSU faculty members, staff members, and students, available online:  /content/templates/?a=547&z=99) Arts and Humanities Citation Index Science Citation Index (CD-Rom version) Science Citation Index Expanded (Web version) Social Sciences Citation Index (CD-Rom version) Social Sciences Citation Index (Web Version) Web of Science (ISI)

Level Eight Strategy:  Take advantage of the research support services available at the Mississippi State University Libraries

Survival Skills for Graduate Students Reference Department Ready Reference Desk:  (662) 325-7667 Email Reference: Email a Librarian Research Consultations (online form)

Created by Dr. David Nowak, Associate Professor/Reference Services Librarian.  Created October 2003.