how to find literature review articles

Literature reviews

• Introduction
• Conduct your search
• Store and organise the literature
• Evaluate and critique the literature
• Different subject areas

Find literature reviews on your topic

Find reviews

• Run your search in the database
• Limit the results to review or literature review -  often found under Document type

If there is no option to limit to reviews try adding the word "review" to your search.

• Go to the Advanced search of the database

• Type  review  into a search line and change the field option to Title

Note: The results may include book reviews using this method.

Useful databases to find review articles

• Annual reviews online Annual Reviews publishes analytic reviews in focused disciplines within the biomedical, physical, and social sciences. The reviews cover significant developments in the different fields.
• Web of Science Go to the Advanced Search to set the document type to "Review". Web of Science covers the sciences, social sciences, arts and humanities.
• Scopus Click on Limit to change the Document type to Review. Scopus is a multidisciplinary abstract and citation database of peer reviewed literature, book reviews and conference proceedings.
• Subject guides These guides list recommended databases useful for your particular subject area.
• << Previous: Different subject areas
• Last Updated: Aug 9, 2024 8:34 AM
• URL: https://guides.library.uq.edu.au/research-techniques/literature-reviews

How To Find A-Grade Literature For Review

Sourcing, evaluating and organising.

By: David Phair (PhD) and Peter Quella (PhD) | January 2022

As we’ve discussed previously on our blog and YouTube channel, the first step of the literature review process is to source high-quality , relevant resources for your review, and to catalogue these pieces of literature in a systematic way so that you can digest and synthesise all the content efficiently.

In this article, we’ll look discuss 6 important things to keep in mind for the initial stage of your literature review so that you can source high-quality, relevant resources, quickly and efficiently. Let’s get started!

Overview: Literature Review Sourcing

• Develop and follow a clear literature search strategy
• Understand and use different types of literature correctly
• Carefully evaluate the quality of your potential sources
• Use a reference manager and a literature catalogue
• Read as broadly and comprehensively as possible
• Keep your golden thread front of mind throughout the process

1. Have a clear literature search strategy

As with any task in the research process, you need to have a clear plan of action before you get started, or you’ll end up wasting a lot of time and energy. So, before you begin your literature review , it’s useful to develop a simple search strategy . Broadly speaking, a good literature search strategy should include the following steps:

Step one – Clearly identify your golden thread

Your golden thread consists of your research aims , research objectives and research questions . These three components should be tightly aligned to form the focus of your research. If you’re unclear what your research aims and research questions are, you’re not going to have a clear direction when trying to source literature. As a result, you’re going to waste a lot of time reviewing irrelevant resources.

So, make sure that you have clarity regarding your golden thread before you start searching for literature. Of course, your research aims, objectives and questions may evolve or shift as a result of the literature review process (in fact, this is quite common), but you still need to have a clear focus to get things started.

Step two – Develop a keyword/keyphrase list

Once you’ve clearly articulated your golden thread in terms of the research aims, objectives and questions, the next step is to develop a list of keywords or keyphrases, based on these three elements (the golden thread). You’ll also want to include synonyms and alternative spellings (for example, American vs British English) in your list.

For example, if your research aims and research questions involve investigating organisational trust , your keyword list might include:

• Organisational trust
• Organizational trust (US spelling)
• Consumer trust
• Brand trust
• Online trust

When it comes to brainstorming keywords, the more the better . Don’t hold back at this stage. You’ll quickly find out which ones are useful, and which aren’t when you start searching. So, it’s best to just go as broad as possible here to ensure you cast a wide net.

Step three – Identify the relevant databases

Now that you’ve got a comprehensive set of keywords, the next step is to identify which literature databases will be most useful and relevant for your particular study. There are hundreds, if not thousands of databases out there, and they are often subject or discipline-specific . For example, within the medicine space, Medline is a popular one.

To identify relevant databases, it’s best to speak to your research advisor/supervisor, Grad Coach or a librarian at your university library. Oftentimes, a quick chat with a skilled librarian can yield tremendous insight. Don’t be shy to ask – chances are, they’ll be thrilled that you asked!

At this stage, you might be asking, “why not just use Google Scholar?”. Of course, an academic search engine like Google Scholar will be useful in terms of getting started and finding a broad range of resources, but it won’t always present every possible resource  or the best quality resources. It also has limited filtering options compared to some of the specialist databases, so you shouldn’t rely purely on Google Scholar.

Step four – Use Boolean operators to refine your search

Once you’ve identified your keywords and databases, it’s time to start searching for literature – hooray! However, you’ll quickly find that there is a seemingly endless number of journal articles to sift through, and you have limited time to work through the literature. So, you’ll need to get smart about how you use these databases – enter Boolean operators.

Boolean operators are special characters that allow you to refine your search. Common operators include:

• AND – only show results that contain both X and Y
• OR – show results that contain X or Y
• NOT – show results that include X, but not Y

These operators are incredibly useful, especially when there are topics that are very similar to yours but are not relevant . For example, if you’re researching something about the growth of apples, you’ll want to exclude all literature related to Apple, the company. Boolean operators allow you to cut out the irrelevant content and improve the signal to noise ratio in your search.

Need a helping hand?

2. Use different types of literature correctly

Once you start searching for literature, you’ll quickly notice that there are different “types” of resources that come up. It’s important to understand the different types of literature available to you and how to use each of them appropriately.

Generally speaking, you’ll find three categories of literature:

Primary literature

Secondary literature

Tertiary literature

Primary literature refers to journal articles , typically peer reviewed, which document a study that was undertaken, where data were collected and analysed, and findings were discussed. For example, a journal article that involves the collection and analysis of survey data to identify differences in personality between two groups of people.

Primary literature should, ideally, form the foundation of your literature review – the bread and butter, so to speak. You’ll likely refer to many of the arguments made and findings identified in these types of articles to build your own arguments throughout your literature review. You’ll also rely on these types of articles for theoretical models and frameworks, which may form the foundation of your own proposed framework, depending on the nature of your research.

Lastly, primary literature can be a useful source of measurement scales for quantitative studies. For example, many journal articles will include a copy of the survey measures they used at the end of the article, which will typically be reliable and valid. You can either use these “as is” or as a foundation for your own survey measures .

So, long story short, you’ll need a good stockpile of these types of resources. They are, admittedly, more “dense” and challenging to digest than the other types of literature, but taking the time to work through them will pay off greatly.

Secondary literature refers to journal articles that summarise and integrate the findings from primary literature. For example, you’ll likely find “review of the literature” type journal articles which provide an overview of the current state of the research (at the time of publication, of course).

Secondary literature is very useful for orienting yourself with regards to the current state of knowledge and identifying key researchers , seminal works and so on. In other words, they’re a good tool to make sure you’ve got a broad, comprehensive view of what all is out there. They’re not going to give you the level of detail that primary literature will (and they’ll likely be a bit outdated), but they’ll point you in the right direction.

In practical terms, it’s a good idea to start by reviewing secondary literature-type articles to help you get a bird’s eye view of the landscape and then dive deeper into the primary literature to get a grasp of the specifics and to bring your knowledge up to date with the most current studies.

The final category of literature refers to sources that would be considered less academic and scientifically rigorous in nature, but up to date and highly relevant. For example, sources such as current industry and country reports published by management consulting groups, news articles, blog posts and so on.

While these sources are not as credible and trustworthy as journal articles (especially peer-reviewed ones), they can provide very up to date information , whereas academic research tends to roll out quite slowly. Therefore, they can be very useful for contextualising your research topic and/or demonstrating a current trend. Quite often, you’d cite these types of sources in your introduction chapter rather than your literature review chapter, but you may still have use for them in the latter.

In summary, it’s important to understand the three different types of literature – primary, secondary and tertiary, and use them appropriately in your dissertation, thesis or research project.

3. Carefully evaluate the quality of your sources

As we’ve alluded to, not all literature is created equally. Not only does literature vary in terms of type (i.e., primary vs secondary), it also varies in terms of overall quality .

Simply put, all sources exist on a quality spectrum . On the high end of the spectrum are peer-reviewed articles published in popular, credible journals. Next are journal articles that are not peer-reviewed, or that are published in lower quality or lesser-known journals. In the middle are sources like textbooks and reports by professional organisations (e.g., management consulting firms). On the low end are sources like newspapers, blog posts and social media posts.

As you can probably see, this loosely reflects the categories we mentioned previously (primary, secondary and tertiary literature), so there is once again a trade-off between quality and recency . Therefore, you need to carefully evaluate the quality of each potential source and let this inform how you use it in your literature review. Importantly, this doesn’t mean that you can’t include a newspaper article or blog post as a source – it just means that you shouldn’t rely too heavily on these types of courses as the core of your argument.

When evaluating journal articles, you can consider their citation count (i.e., the number of other articles that reference them) as a quality indicator. But keep in mind that citation count is a product of many factors , including the popularity of the article, the popularity of the research field and most importantly, time. In other words, it’s natural for newer articles to have lower citation counts. This is useful to keep in mind, as you ideally want to focus on more recent literature (published within the last 3-5 years) in your literature review.

In summary, aim to focus on higher-quality literature , especially when you’re building core arguments in your literature review. You don’t, for example, want to make an argument regarding the importance and novelty of your research (i.e., its justification) based on some blogger’s opinion.

4. Use a reference manager and literature catalogue

As you review the literature and build your collection of potential sources, you’ll need a way to stay on top of all the details. To this end, it’s essential that you make use of both a reference manager and a literature catalogue . Let’s take a look at each of these.

The reference manager

Reference management software helps you store the reference information for each of your articles and manages the citation and reference list building task as you write up your actual literature review chapter. In other words, a reference manager ensures that your citations and reference list are correctly formatted in the reference style required by your university – e.g., Harvard, APA , MLA, etc.

Using a reference manager saves you the hassle of trying to manually type out your in-text citations and reference list, which you’re bound to mess up in some way. A simple comma out of place, incorrect italicisation or boldfacing can result in you losing marks, and that’s highly likely when you’re dealing with a large number of references. So, it just makes sense to use a piece of software for this task.

The good news is that there are loads of options , many of which are free . For new researchers, we usually recommend Mendeley or Zotero . So, don’t waste your time trying to manage your references manually – get yourself a reference manager ASAP.

The literature catalogue

The second tool you’ll need is a literature catalogue. This is simply an Excel document that you can easily compile yourself (or download our free one here ), where you list and categorise all your literature. You might doubt whether it’s really necessary to have a separate catalogue when you’ve already logged your reference data in a reference manager, but trust us, you’re going to need it. It’s quite common that throughout the literature review process, you’ll review hundreds of articles , so it’s simply impossible that you’ll remember all the details.

What makes a literature catalogue extremely powerful is that you can store as much information as you want for each piece of literature that you include (whereas a reference manager only includes basic fields). Typically, you would include things like:

• Title of the article
• One-line summary of the research
• Key findings and takeaways
• Context (i.e. where did it take place)
• Useful quotes
• Methodology (e.g. qualitative, quantitative or mixed methods)
• Category (you can customise as many categories as makes sense for you)
• Quality of resource
• Type of literature (e.g. primary, secondary or tertiary)

These are just some examples – ultimately you need to customise your catalogue to suit your needs. But, as you can see, the more detailed you get, the more useful your catalogue will become when it’s time to synthesise the research and write up your literature. For example, you could quickly filter the catalogue to display all papers that support a certain hypothesis, that argue in a specific direction, or that were written at a certain time.

5. Read widely (and efficiently)

As we’ve discussed in other posts , the purpose of the literature review chapter is to present and synthesise the current state of knowledge in relation to your research aims, objectives and research questions. To do this, you’ll need to read as broadly and comprehensively as possible. You’ll need to demonstrate to your marker that you “know your stuff” and have a strong understanding of the relevant literature.

Ideally, your literature review should include an eclectic mix of research that features multiple perspectives . In other words, you need to avoid getting tunnel vision and running down one narrow stream of literature. Ideally, you want to highlight both the agreements and disagreements in the literature to show that you’ve got a well-balanced view of the situation.

If your topic is particularly novel and there isn’t a lot of literature available, you can focus your efforts on adjacent literature . For example, if you’re researching factors that cultivate organisational trust in Germany, but there’s very little literature on this, you can draw on US and UK-based studies to form your theoretical foundation. Similarly, if you’re investigating an occurrence in an under-researched industry, you can look at other industries for literature.

As you read each journal article, be sure to scan the reference list for further reading (this technique is called “snowballing”). By doing this, you will quickly identify key literature within a topic area and fast-track your literature review process. You can also check which articles have cited any given article using Google Scholar, which will give you a “forward view” in terms of the progress of the literature.

Given that you’ll need to work through a large amount of literature, it’s useful to adopt a “strategic skimming ” approach when you’re initially assessing articles, so that you don’t need to read the entire journal article . In practical terms, this means you can focus on just the title and abstract at first, and if the article seems relevant based on those, you can jump to the findings section and limitations section . These sections will give you a solid indicator as to whether the resource is relevant to your study, which you can then shortlist for full reading.

6. Keep your golden thread front of mind

Your golden thread (i.e., your research aims, objectives and research questions) needs to guide every decision you make throughout your dissertation, thesis, or research project. This is especially true in the literature review stage, as the golden thread should act as a litmus test for relevance whenever you’re reviewing potential articles or resources. In other words, if an article doesn’t relate to your golden thread, its probably not worth spending time on.

Keep in mind that your research aims, objectives and research questions may evolve as a result of the literature review process. For example, you may find that after reviewing the literature in more depth, your topic focus is not as novel as you originally thought, or that there’s an adjacent area that is more deserving of investigation. This is perfectly natural, so don’t be surprised if your focus shifts somewhat during the review process. Just remember to update your literature review in this case and be sure to update any previous chapters so that your document has a consistent focus throughout.

Wrapping up

In this article, we covered 6 pointers to help you find and evaluate high-quality resources for your literature review. To recap:

• Understand and use different types of literature for the right purpose

If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment . Alternatively, if you’d like hands-on help with your literature review, be sure to check out our 1-on-1 private coaching services here.

Psst… there’s more!

This post is an extract from our bestselling short course, Literature Review Bootcamp . If you want to work smart, you don't want to miss this .

this is very helpful to any researcher, I am learning this for the benefit of myself and overs as a library staff

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Conducting a literature review: how to find "the literature".

• Why Do A Literature Review?
• How To Find "The Literature"
• Found it -- Now What?

Finding The Literature

Research literature is vast. In the English language alone, over 2.5 million articles are published in peer reviewed journals each year . Sifting through the books and journals to find the most relevant research is challenging, but some of the resources on this page can help you.

To start, write down your research question and think about all the ways it could be described. (A thesaurus - online or in a database , can be helpful!) Think about the approach you are taking -- are you looking at it through the lens of Social Work? Is it also related to other fields, for example, Public Health, Education, Ethnic Studies? What research methods will you use -- how will you research the problem, or evaluate the intervention or policy to address it?

Subject Databases Can Help Find Articles

Powerful features vary by database, but many include the ability to:

• Combine search terms using AND and OR
• Search for exact phrases by using quotation marks " "
• Use controlled vocabulary (Thesaurus)
• Find material organized within a discipline -- law or policy, for example.
• Search by "fields" such as author, journal name, title
• Restrict by the age of  the subject (infants vs. very old)
• Limit by research method (including literature reviews!)

Snowballing aka Citation Slogging

If an article is relevant to your topic, you want to look at the research it cited ( backward citation ). But it can also be very helpful to see who has cited it ( forward citation ). There are several different ways to do this, and the results will overlap --  no single method is comprehensive.

Google Scholar  provides forward citations for some articles. It has a broader range of documents included (not just peer reviewed journals, but reports, pre-prints, etc.) and doesn't eliminate self citation or de-duplicate the results.

ISI Web of Science  contains the  Social Science Citation Index  which allows you to do a "Cited Reference" search. This shows other articles (from a prestigious list of peer reviewed journals) which have cited the target article, and it also shows the references for the the original article... both forward and backward citation.

Screenshot below on how to get to the Cited Reference Search from the  Social Science Citation Index .

Cited References From Within a Database

Using the Cited Reference Search

Oxford Bibliographies -- Great Starting Point for Social Welfare!

Oxford Bibliographies Online: Social Work  --  leading social work scholars identify the most important and significant sources in their areas, and UC-elinks gets you to the cited articles and books. 

Snowballing

http://hlwiki.slais.ubc.ca/index.php/Snowballing

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Searching for information is a process and you won't always get it right the first time. Improve your results by changing your search and trying again until you're happy with what you have found.

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Manage your references

There are free and subscription reference management programs available on the web or to download on your computer.

• EndNote - The University has a license for EndNote. It is available for all students and staff, although is recommended for postgraduates and academic staff.
• Zotero - Free software recommended for undergraduate students.
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A literature review is a review and synthesis of existing research on a topic or research question. A literature review is meant to analyze the scholarly literature, make connections across writings and identify strengths, weaknesses, trends, and missing conversations. A literature review should address different aspects of a topic as it relates to your research question. A literature review goes beyond a description or summary of the literature you have read. 

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How to write a superb literature review

Andy Tay is a freelance writer based in Singapore.

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Literature reviews are important resources for scientists. They provide historical context for a field while offering opinions on its future trajectory. Creating them can provide inspiration for one’s own research, as well as some practice in writing. But few scientists are trained in how to write a review — or in what constitutes an excellent one. Even picking the appropriate software to use can be an involved decision (see ‘Tools and techniques’). So Nature asked editors and working scientists with well-cited reviews for their tips.

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Correction 09 December 2020 : An earlier version of the tables in this article included some incorrect details about the programs Zotero, Endnote and Manubot. These have now been corrected.

Hsing, I.-M., Xu, Y. & Zhao, W. Electroanalysis 19 , 755–768 (2007).

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Ledesma, H. A. et al. Nature Nanotechnol. 14 , 645–657 (2019).

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• Literature Review: The What, Why and How-to Guide
• Introduction

Literature Review: The What, Why and How-to Guide — Introduction

• Getting Started
• How to Pick a Topic
• Strategies to Find Sources
• Evaluating Sources & Lit. Reviews
• Tips for Writing Literature Reviews
• Writing Literature Review: Useful Sites
• Citation Resources
• Other Academic Writings

What are Literature Reviews?

So, what is a literature review? "A literature review is an account of what has been published on a topic by accredited scholars and researchers. In writing the literature review, your purpose is to convey to your reader what knowledge and ideas have been established on a topic, and what their strengths and weaknesses are. As a piece of writing, the literature review must be defined by a guiding concept (e.g., your research objective, the problem or issue you are discussing, or your argumentative thesis). It is not just a descriptive list of the material available, or a set of summaries." Taylor, D.  The literature review: A few tips on conducting it . University of Toronto Health Sciences Writing Centre.

Goals of Literature Reviews

What are the goals of creating a Literature Review?  A literature could be written to accomplish different aims:

• To develop a theory or evaluate an existing theory
• To summarize the historical or existing state of a research topic
• Identify a problem in a field of research 

Baumeister, R. F., & Leary, M. R. (1997). Writing narrative literature reviews .  Review of General Psychology , 1 (3), 311-320.

What kinds of sources require a Literature Review?

• A research paper assigned in a course
• A thesis or dissertation
• A grant proposal
• An article intended for publication in a journal

All these instances require you to collect what has been written about your research topic so that you can demonstrate how your own research sheds new light on the topic.

Types of Literature Reviews

What kinds of literature reviews are written?

Narrative review: The purpose of this type of review is to describe the current state of the research on a specific topic/research and to offer a critical analysis of the literature reviewed. Studies are grouped by research/theoretical categories, and themes and trends, strengths and weakness, and gaps are identified. The review ends with a conclusion section which summarizes the findings regarding the state of the research of the specific study, the gaps identify and if applicable, explains how the author's research will address gaps identify in the review and expand the knowledge on the topic reviewed.

• Example : Predictors and Outcomes of U.S. Quality Maternity Leave: A Review and Conceptual Framework:  10.1177/08948453211037398  

Systematic review : "The authors of a systematic review use a specific procedure to search the research literature, select the studies to include in their review, and critically evaluate the studies they find." (p. 139). Nelson, L. K. (2013). Research in Communication Sciences and Disorders . Plural Publishing.

• Example : The effect of leave policies on increasing fertility: a systematic review:  10.1057/s41599-022-01270-w

Meta-analysis : "Meta-analysis is a method of reviewing research findings in a quantitative fashion by transforming the data from individual studies into what is called an effect size and then pooling and analyzing this information. The basic goal in meta-analysis is to explain why different outcomes have occurred in different studies." (p. 197). Roberts, M. C., & Ilardi, S. S. (2003). Handbook of Research Methods in Clinical Psychology . Blackwell Publishing.

• Example : Employment Instability and Fertility in Europe: A Meta-Analysis:  10.1215/00703370-9164737

Meta-synthesis : "Qualitative meta-synthesis is a type of qualitative study that uses as data the findings from other qualitative studies linked by the same or related topic." (p.312). Zimmer, L. (2006). Qualitative meta-synthesis: A question of dialoguing with texts .  Journal of Advanced Nursing , 53 (3), 311-318.

• Example : Women’s perspectives on career successes and barriers: A qualitative meta-synthesis:  10.1177/05390184221113735

Literature Reviews in the Health Sciences

• UConn Health subject guide on systematic reviews Explanation of the different review types used in health sciences literature as well as tools to help you find the right review type
• << Previous: Getting Started
• Next: How to Pick a Topic >>
• Last Updated: Sep 21, 2022 2:16 PM
• URL: https://guides.lib.uconn.edu/literaturereview

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Article contents

• LEARNING OBJECTIVES
• DECLARATION OF INTEREST

Defining the clinical question

Scoping search, search strategy, sources to search, developing a search strategy, searching electronic databases, supplementary search techniques, obtaining unpublished literature, conclusions, how to carry out a literature search for a systematic review: a practical guide.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 2018

Performing an effective literature search to obtain the best available evidence is the basis of any evidence-based discipline, in particular evidence-based medicine. However, with a vast and growing volume of published research available, searching the literature can be challenging. Even when journals are indexed in electronic databases, it can be difficult to identify all relevant studies without an effective search strategy. It is also important to search unpublished literature to reduce publication bias, which occurs from a tendency for authors and journals to preferentially publish statistically significant studies. This article is intended for clinicians and researchers who are approaching the field of evidence synthesis and would like to perform a literature search. It aims to provide advice on how to develop the search protocol and the strategy to identify the most relevant evidence for a given research or clinical question. It will also focus on how to search not only the published but also the unpublished literature using a number of online resources.

• Understand the purpose of conducting a literature search and its integral part of the literature review process

• Become aware of the range of sources that are available, including electronic databases of published data and trial registries to identify unpublished data

• Understand how to develop a search strategy and apply appropriate search terms to interrogate electronic databases or trial registries

A literature search is distinguished from, but integral to, a literature review. Literature reviews are conducted for the purpose of (a) locating information on a topic or identifying gaps in the literature for areas of future study, (b) synthesising conclusions in an area of ambiguity and (c) helping clinicians and researchers inform decision-making and practice guidelines. Literature reviews can be narrative or systematic, with narrative reviews aiming to provide a descriptive overview of selected literature, without undertaking a systematic literature search. By contrast, systematic reviews use explicit and replicable methods in order to retrieve all available literature pertaining to a specific topic to answer a defined question (Higgins Reference Higgins and Green 2011 ). Systematic reviews therefore require a priori strategies to search the literature, with predefined criteria for included and excluded studies that should be reported in full detail in a review protocol.

Performing an effective literature search to obtain the best available evidence is the basis of any evidence-based discipline, in particular evidence-based medicine (Sackett Reference Sackett 1997 ; McKeever Reference McKeever, Nguyen and Peterson 2015 ). However, with a vast and growing volume of published research available, searching the literature can be challenging. Even when journals are indexed in electronic databases, it can be difficult to identify all relevant studies without an effective search strategy (Hopewell Reference Hopewell, Clarke and Lefebvre 2007 ). In addition, unpublished data and ‘grey’ literature (informally published material such as conference abstracts) are now becoming more accessible to the public. It is important to search unpublished literature to reduce publication bias, which occurs because of a tendency for authors and journals to preferentially publish statistically significant studies (Dickersin Reference Dickersin and Min 1993 ). Efforts to locate unpublished and grey literature during the search process can help to reduce bias in the results of systematic reviews (Song Reference Song, Parekh and Hooper 2010 ). A paradigmatic example demonstrating the importance of capturing unpublished data is that of Turner et al ( Reference Turner, Matthews and Linardatos 2008 ), who showed that using only published data in their meta-analysis led to effect sizes for antidepressants that were one-third (32%) larger than effect sizes derived from combining both published and unpublished data. Such differences in findings from published and unpublished data can have real-life implications in clinical decision-making and treatment recommendation. In another relevant publication, Whittington et al ( Reference Whittington, Kendall and Fonagy 2004 ) compared the risks and benefits of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) in the treatment of depression in children. They found that published data suggested favourable risk–benefit profiles for SSRIs in this population, but the addition of unpublished data indicated that risk outweighed treatment benefits. The relative weight of drug efficacy to side-effects can be skewed if there has been a failure to search for, or include, unpublished data.

In this guide for clinicians and researchers on how to perform a literature search we use a working example about efficacy of an intervention for bipolar disorder to demonstrate the search techniques outlined. However, the overarching methods described are purposefully broad to make them accessible to all clinicians and researchers, regardless of their research or clinical question.

The review question will guide not only the search strategy, but also the conclusions that can be drawn from the review, as these will depend on which studies or other forms of evidence are included and excluded from the literature review. A narrow question will produce a narrow and precise search, perhaps resulting in too few studies on which to base a review, or be so focused that the results are not useful in wider clinical settings. Using an overly narrow search also increases the chances of missing important studies. A broad question may produce an imprecise search, with many false-positive search results. These search results may be too heterogeneous to evaluate in one review. Therefore from the outset, choices should be made about the remit of the review, which will in turn affect the search.

A number of frameworks can be used to break the review question into concepts. One such is the PICO (population, intervention, comparator and outcome) framework, developed to answer clinical questions such as the effectiveness of a clinical intervention (Richardson Reference Richardson, Wilson and Nishikawa 1995 ). It is noteworthy that ‘outcome’ concepts of the PICO framework are less often used in a search strategy as they are less well defined in the titles and abstracts of available literature (Higgins Reference Higgins and Green 2011 ). Although PICO is widely used, it is not a suitable framework for identifying key elements of all questions in the medical field, and minor adaptations are necessary to enable the structuring of different questions. Other frameworks exist that may be more appropriate for questions about health policy and management, such as ECLIPSE (expectation, client group, location, impact, professionals, service) (Wildridge Reference Wildridge and Bell 2002 ) or SPICE (setting, perspective, intervention, comparison, evaluation) for service evaluation (Booth Reference Booth 2006 ). A detailed overview of frameworks is provided in Davies ( Reference Davies 2011 ).

Before conducting a comprehensive literature search, a scoping search of the literature using just one or two databases (such as PubMed or MEDLINE) can provide valuable information as to how much literature for a given review question already exists. A scoping search may reveal whether systematic reviews have already been undertaken for a review question. Caution should be taken, however, as systematic reviews that may appear to ask the same question may have differing inclusion and exclusion criteria for studies included in the review. In addition, not all systematic reviews are of the same quality. If the original search strategy is of poor quality methodologically, original data are likely to have been missed and the search should not simply be updated (compare, for example, Naughton et al ( Reference Naughton, Clarke and O'Leary 2014 ) and Caddy et al ( Reference Caddy, Amit and McCloud 2015 ) on ketamine for treatment-resistant depression).

The first step in conducting a literature search should be to develop a search strategy. The search strategy should define how relevant literature will be identified. It should identify sources to be searched (list of databases and trial registries) and keywords used in the literature (list of keywords). The search strategy should be documented as an integral part of the systematic review protocol. Just as the rest of a well-conducted systematic review, the search strategy used needs to be explicit and detailed such that it could reproduced using the same methodology, with exactly the same results, or updated at a later time. This not only improves the reliability and accuracy of the review, but also means that if the review is replicated, the difference in reviewers should have little effect, as they will use an identical search strategy. The PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) statement was developed to standardise the reporting of systematic reviews (Moher Reference Moher, Liberati and Tetzlaff 2009 ). The PRISMA statement consists of a 27-item checklist to assess the quality of each element of a systematic review (items 6, 7 and 8 relate to the quality of literature searching) and also to guide authors when reporting their findings.

There are a number of databases that can be searched for literature, but the identification of relevant sources is dependent on the clinical or research question (different databases have different focuses, from more biology to more social science oriented) and the type of evidence that is sought (i.e. some databases report only randomised controlled trials).

• MEDLINE and Embase are the two main biomedical literature databases. MEDLINE contains more than 22 million references from more than 5600 journals worldwide. In addition, the MEDLINE In-Process & Other Non-Indexed Citations database holds references before they are published on MEDLINE. Embase has a strong coverage of drug and pharmaceutical research and provides over 30 million references from more than 8500 currently published journals, 2900 of which are not in MEDLINE. These two databases, however, are only available to either individual subscribers or through institutional access such as universities and hospitals. PubMed, developed by the National Center for Biotechnology Information of the US National Library of Medicine, provides access to a free version of MEDLINE and is accessible to researchers, clinicians and the public. PubMed comprises medical and biomedical literature indexed in MEDLINE, but provides additional access to life science journals and e-books.

In addition, there are a number of subject- and discipline-specific databases.

• PsycINFO covers a range of psychological, behavioural, social and health sciences research.

• The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) hosts the most comprehensive source of randomised and quasi-randomised controlled trials. Although some of the evidence on this register is also included in Embase and MEDLINE, there are over 150 000 reports indexed from other sources, such as conference proceedings and trial registers, that would otherwise be less accessible (Dickersin Reference Dickersin, Manheimer and Wieland 2002 ).

• The Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), British Nursing Index (BNI) and the British Nursing Database (formerly BNI with Full Text) are databases relevant to nursing, but they span literature across medical, allied health, community and health management journals.

• The Allied and Complementary Medicine Database (AMED) is a database specifically for alternative treatments in medicine.

The examples of specific databases given here are by no means exhaustive, but they are popular and likely to be used for literature searching in medicine, psychiatry and psychology. Website links for these databases are given in Box 1 , along with links to resources not mentioned above. Box 1 also provides a website link to a couple of video tutorials for searching electronic databases. Box 2 shows an example of the search sources chosen for a review of a pharmacological intervention of calcium channel antagonists in bipolar disorder, taken from a recent systematic review (Cipriani Reference Cipriani, Saunders and Attenburrow 2016a ).

BOX 1 Website links of search sources to obtain published and unpublished literature

Electronic databases

• MEDLINE/PubMed: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed

• Embase: www.embase.com

• PsycINFO: www.apa.org/psycinfo

• Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL): www.cochranelibrary.com

• Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL): www.cinahl.com

• British Nursing Index: www.bniplus.co.uk

• Allied and Complementary Medicine Database: https://www.ebsco.com/products/research-databases/amed-the-allied-and-complementary-medicine-database

Grey literature databases

• BIOSIS Previews (part of Thomson Reuters Web of Science): https://apps.webofknowledge.com

Trial registries

• ClinicalTrials.gov: www.clinicaltrials.gov

• Drugs@FDA: www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cder/daf

• European Medicines Agency (EMA): www.ema.europa.eu

• World Health Organization International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (WHO ICTRP): www.who.int/ictrp

• GlaxoSmithKline Study Register: www.gsk-clinicalstudyregister.com

• Eli-Lilly clinical trial results: https://www.lilly.com/clinical-study-report-csr-synopses

Guides to further resources

• King's College London Library Services: http://libguides.kcl.ac.uk/ld.php?content_id=17678464

• Georgetown University Medical Center Dahlgren Memorial Library: https://dml.georgetown.edu/core

• University of Minnesota Biomedical Library: https://hsl.lib.umn.edu/biomed/help/nursing

Tutorial videos

• Searches in electronic databases: http://library.buffalo.edu/hsl/services/instruction/tutorials.html

• Using the Yale MeSH Analyzer tool: http://library.medicine.yale.edu/tutorials/1559

BOX 2 Example of search sources chosen for a review of calcium channel antagonists in bipolar disorder (Cipriani Reference Cipriani, Saunders and Attenburrow 2016a )

Electronic databases searched:

• MEDLINE In-Process and Other Non-Indexed Citations

For a comprehensive search of the literature it has been suggested that two or more electronic databases should be used (Suarez-Almazor Reference Suarez-Almazor, Belseck and Homik 2000 ). Suarez-Almazor and colleagues demonstrated that, in a search for controlled clinical trials (CCTs) for rheumatoid arthritis, osteoporosis and lower back pain, only 67% of available citations were found by both Embase and MEDLINE. Searching MEDLINE alone would have resulted in 25% of available CCTs being missed and searching Embase alone would have resulted in 15% of CCTs being missed. However, a balance between the sensitivity of a search (an attempt to retrieve all relevant literature in an extensive search) and the specificity of a search (an attempt to retrieve a more manageable number of relevant citations) is optimal. In addition, supplementing electronic database searches with unpublished literature searches (see ‘Obtaining unpublished literature’ below) is likely to reduce publication bias. The capacity of the individuals or review team is likely largely to determine the number of sources searched. In all cases, a clear rationale should be outlined in the review protocol for the sources chosen (the expertise of an information scientist is valuable in this process).

Important methodological considerations (such as study design) may also be included in the search strategy. Dependent on the databases and supplementary sources chosen, filters can be used to search the literature by study design (see ‘Searching electronic databases’). For instance, if the search strategy is confined to one study design term only (e.g. randomised controlled trial, RCT), only the articles labelled in this way will be selected. However, it is possible that in the database some RCTs are not labelled as such, so they will not be picked up by the filtered search. Filters can help reduce the number of references retrieved by the search, but using just one term is not 100% sensitive, especially if only one database is used (i.e. MEDLINE). It is important for systematic reviewers to know how reliable such a strategy can be and treat the results with caution.

Identifying search terms

Standardised search terms are thesaurus and indexing terms that are used by electronic databases as a convenient way to categorise articles, allowing for efficient searching. Individual database records may be assigned several different standardised search terms that describe the same or similar concepts (e.g. bipolar disorder, bipolar depression, manic–depressive psychosis, mania). This has the advantage that even if the original article did not use the standardised term, when the article is catalogued in a database it is allocated that term (Guaiana Reference Guaiana, Barbui and Cipriani 2010 ). For example, an older paper might refer to ‘manic depression’, but would be categorised under the term ‘bipolar disorder’ when catalogued in MEDLINE. These standardised search terms are called MeSH (medical subject headings) in MEDLINE and PubMed, and Emtree in Embase, and are organised in a hierarchal structure ( Fig. 1 ). In both MEDLINE and Embase an ‘explode’ command enables the database to search for a requested term, as well as specific related terms. Both narrow and broader search terms can be viewed and selected to be included in the search if appropriate to a topic. The Yale MeSH Analyzer tool ( mesh.med.yale.edu ) can be used to help identify potential terms and phrases to include in a search. It is also useful to understand why relevant articles may be missing from an initial search, as it produces a comparison grid of MeSH terms used to index each article (see Box 1 for a tutorial video link).

FIG 1 Search terms and hierarchical structure of MeSH (medical subject heading) in MEDLINE and PubMed.

In addition, MEDLINE also distinguishes between MeSH headings (MH) and publication type (PT) terms. Publication terms are less about the content of an article than about its type, specifying for example a review article, meta-analysis or RCT.

Both MeSH and Emtree have their own peculiarities, with variations in thesaurus and indexing terms. In addition, not all concepts are assigned standardised search terms, and not all databases use this method of indexing the literature. It is advisable to check the guidelines of selected databases before undertaking a search. In the absence of a MeSH heading for a particular term, free-text terms could be used.

Free-text terms are used in natural language and are not part of a database’s controlled vocabulary. Free-text terms can be used in addition to standardised search terms in order to identify as many relevant records as possible (Higgins Reference Higgins and Green 2011 ). Using free-text terms allows the reviewer to search using variations in language or spelling (e.g. hypomani* or mania* or manic* – see truncation and wildcard functions below and Fig. 2 ). A disadvantage of free-text terms is that they are only searched for in the title and abstracts of database records, and not in the full texts, meaning that when a free-text word is used only in the body of an article, it will not be retrieved in the search. Additionally, a number of specific considerations should be taken into account when selecting and using free-text terms:

• synonyms, related terms and alternative phrases (e.g. mood instability, affective instability, mood lability or emotion dysregulation)

• abbreviations or acronyms in medical and scientific research (e.g. magnetic resonance imaging or MRI)

• lay and medical terminology (e.g. high blood pressure or hypertension)

• brand and generic drug names (e.g. Prozac or fluoxetine)

• variants in spelling (e.g. UK English and American English: behaviour or behavior; paediatric or pediatric).

FIG 2 Example of a search strategy about bipolar disorder using MEDLINE (Cipriani Reference Cipriani, Saunders and Attenburrow 2016a ). The strategy follows the PICO framework and includes MeSH terms, free-text keywords and a number of other techniques, such as truncation, that have been outlined in this article. Numbers in bold give the number of citations retrieved by each search.

Truncation and wildcard functions can be used in most databases to capture variations in language:

• truncation allows the stem of a word that may have variant endings to be searched: for example, a search for depress* uses truncation to retrieve articles that mention both depression and depressive; truncation symbols may vary by database, but common symbols include: *, ! and #

• wild cards substitute one letter within a word to retrieve alternative spellings: for example, ‘wom?n’ would retrieve the terms ‘woman’ and ‘women’.

Combining search terms

Search terms should be combined in the search strategy using Boolean operators. Boolean operators allow standardised search terms and free-text terms to be combined. There are three main Boolean operators – AND, OR and NOT ( Fig. 3 ).

• OR – this operator is used to broaden a search, finding articles that contain at least one of the search terms within a concept. Sets of terms can be created for each concept, for example the population of interest: (bipolar disorder OR bipolar depression). Parentheses are used to build up search terms, with words within parentheses treated as a unit.

• AND – this can be used to join sets of concepts together, narrowing the retrieved literature to articles that contain all concepts, for example the population or condition of interest and the intervention to be evaluated: (bipolar disorder OR bipolar depression) AND calcium channel blockers. However, if at least one term from each set of concepts is not identified from the title or abstract of an article, this article will not be identified by the search strategy. It is worth mentioning here that some databases can run the search also across the full texts. For example, ScienceDirect and most publishing houses allow this kind of search, which is much more comprehensive than abstract or title searches only.

• NOT – this operator, used less often, can focus a search strategy so that it does not retrieve specific literature, for example human studies NOT animal studies. However, in certain cases the NOT operator can be too restrictive, for example if excluding male gender from a population, using ‘NOT male’ would also mean that any articles about both males and females are not obtained by the search.

FIG 3 Example of Boolean operator concepts (the resulting search is the light red shaded area).

The conventions of each database should be checked before undertaking a literature search, as functions and operators may differ slightly between them (Cipriani Reference Cipriani, Saunders and Attenburrow 2016b ). This is particularly relevant when using limits and filters. Figure 2 shows an example search strategy incorporating many of the concepts described above. The search strategy is taken from Cipriani et al ( Reference Cipriani, Zhou and Del Giovane 2016a ), but simplified to include only one intervention.

Search filters

A number of filters exist to focus a search, including language, date and study design or study focus filters. Language filters can restrict retrieval of articles to the English language, although if language is not an inclusion criterion it should not be restricted, to avoid language bias. Date filters can be used to restrict the search to literature from a specified period, for example if an intervention was only made available after a certain date. In addition, if good systematic reviews exist that are likely to capture all relevant literature (as advised by an information specialist), date restrictions can be used to search additional literature published after the date of that included in the systematic review. In the same way, date filters can be used to update a literature search since the last time it was conducted. Reviewing the literature should be a timely process (new and potentially relevant evidence is produced constantly) and updating the search is an important step, especially if collecting evidence to inform clinical decision-making, as publications in the field of medicine are increasing at an impressive rate (Barber Reference Barber, Corsi and Furukawa 2016 ). The filters chosen will depend on the research question and nature of evidence that is sought through the literature search and the guidelines of the individual database that is used.

• Google Scholar

Google Scholar allows basic Boolean operators to be used in strings of search terms. However, the search engine does not use standardised search terms that have been tagged as in traditional databases and therefore variations of keywords should always be searched. There are advantages and disadvantages to using a web search engine such as Google Scholar. Google Scholar searches the full text of an article for keywords and also searches a wider range of sources, such as conference proceedings and books, that are not found in traditional databases, making it a good resource to search for grey literature (Haddaway Reference Haddaway, Collins and Coughlin 2015 ). In addition, Google Scholar finds articles cited by other relevant articles produced in the search. However, variable retrieval of content (due to regular updating of Google algorithms and the individual's search history and location) means that search results are not necessarily reproducible and are therefore not in keeping with replicable search methods required by systematic reviews. Google Scholar alone has not been shown to retrieve more literature than other traditional databases discussed in this article and therefore should be used in addition to other sources (Bramer Reference Bramer, Giustini and Kramer 2016 ).

Citation searching

Once the search strategy has identified relevant literature, the reference lists in these sources can be searched. This is called citation searching or backward searching, and it can be used to see where particular research topics led others. This method is particularly useful if the search identifies systematic reviews or meta-analyses of a similar topic.

Conference abstracts

Conference abstracts are considered ‘grey literature’, i.e. literature that is not formally published in journals or books (Alberani Reference Alberani, De Castro Pietrangeli and Mazza 1990 ). Scherer and colleagues found that only 52.6% of all conference abstracts go on to full publication of results, and factors associated with publication were studies that had RCT designs and the reporting of positive or significant results (Scherer Reference Scherer, Langenberg and von Elm 2007 ). Therefore, failure to search relevant grey literature might miss certain data and bias the results of a review. Although conference abstracts are not indexed in most major electronic databases, they are available in databases such as BIOSIS Previews ( Box 1 ). However, as with many unpublished studies, these data did not undergo the peer review process that is often a tool for assessing and possibly improving the quality of the publication.

Searching trial registers and pharmaceutical websites

For reviews of trial interventions, a number of trial registers exist. ClinicalTrials.gov ( clinicaltrials.gov ) provides access to information on public and privately conducted clinical trials in humans. Results for both published and unpublished studies can be found for many trials on the register, in addition to information about studies that are ongoing. Searching each trial register requires a slightly different search strategy, but many of the basic principles described above still apply. Basic searches on ClinicialTrials.gov include searching by condition, specific drugs or interventions and these can be linked using Boolean operators: for example, (bipolar disorder OR manic depressive disorder) AND lithium. As mentioned above, parentheses can be used to build up search terms. More advanced searches allow one to specify further search fields such as the status of studies, study type and age of participants. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) hosts a database providing information about FDA-approved drugs, therapeutic products and devices ( www.fda.gov ). The database (with open access to anyone, not only in the USA) can be searched by the drug name, its active ingredient or its approval application number and, for most drugs approved in the past 20 years or so, a review of clinical trial results (some of which remain unpublished) used as evidence in the approval process is available. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) hosts a similar register for medicines developed for use in the European Union ( www.ema.europa.eu ). An internet search will show that many other national and international trial registers exist that, depending on the review question, may be relevant search sources. The World Health Organization International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (WHO ICTRP; www.who.int/ictrp ) provides access to a central database bringing a number of these national and international trial registers together. It can be searched in much the same way as ClinicalTrials.gov.

A number of pharmaceutical companies now share data from company-sponsored clinical trials. GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is transparent in the sharing of its data from clinical studies and hosts its own clinical study register ( www.gsk-clinicalstudyregister.com ). Eli-Lilly provides clinical trial results both on its website ( www.lillytrialguide.com ) and in external registries. However, other pharmaceutical companies, such as Wyeth and Roche, divert users to clinical trial results in external registries. These registries include both published and previously unpublished studies. Searching techniques differ for each company and hand-searching through documents is often required to identify studies.

Communication with authors

Direct communication with authors of published papers could produce both additional data omitted from published studies and other unpublished studies. Contact details are usually available for the corresponding author of each paper. Although high-quality reviews do make efforts to obtain and include unpublished data, this does have potential disadvantages: the data may be incomplete and are likely not to have been peer-reviewed. It is also important to note that, although reviewers should make every effort to find unpublished data in an effort to minimise publication bias, there is still likely to remain a degree of this bias in the studies selected for a systematic review.

Developing a literature search strategy is a key part of the systematic review process, and the conclusions reached in a systematic review will depend on the quality of the evidence retrieved by the literature search. Sources should therefore be selected to minimise the possibility of bias, and supplementary search techniques should be used in addition to electronic database searching to ensure that an extensive review of the literature has been carried out. It is worth reminding that developing a search strategy should be an iterative and flexible process (Higgins Reference Higgins and Green 2011 ), and only by conducting a search oneself will one learn about the vast literature available and how best to capture it.

Acknowledgements

We thank Sarah Stockton for her help in drafting this article. Andrea Cipriani is supported by the NIHR Oxford cognitive health Clinical Research Facility.

Select the single best option for each question stem

a an explicit and replicable method used to retrieve all available literature pertaining to a specific topic to answer a defined question

b a descriptive overview of selected literature

c an initial impression of a topic which is understood more fully as a research study is conducted

d a method of gathering opinions of all clinicians or researchers in a given field

e a step-by-step process of identifying the earliest published literature through to the latest published literature.

a does not need to be specified in advance of a literature search

b does not need to be reported in a systematic literature review

c defines which sources of literature are to be searched, but not how a search is to be carried out

d defines how relevant literature will be identified and provides a basis for the search strategy

e provides a timeline for searching each electronic database or unpublished literature source.

a the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL)

d the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL)

e the British Nursing Index.

a bipolar disorder OR treatment

b bipolar* OR treatment

c bipolar disorder AND treatment

d bipolar disorder NOT treatment

e (bipolar disorder) OR (treatment).

a publication bias

b funding bias

c language bias

d outcome reporting bias

e selection bias.

MCQ answers

1 a 2 d 3 b 4 c 5 a

FIG 2 Example of a search strategy about bipolar disorder using MEDLINE (Cipriani 2016a). The strategy follows the PICO framework and includes MeSH terms, free-text keywords and a number of other techniques, such as truncation, that have been outlined in this article. Numbers in bold give the number of citations retrieved by each search.

This article has been cited by the following publications. This list is generated based on data provided by Crossref .

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• Volume 24, Issue 2
• Lauren Z. Atkinson and Andrea Cipriani
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1192/bja.2017.3

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How to Find Sources | Scholarly Articles, Books, Etc.

Published on June 13, 2022 by Eoghan Ryan . Revised on May 31, 2023.

It’s important to know how to find relevant sources when writing a  research paper , literature review , or systematic review .

The types of sources you need will depend on the stage you are at in the research process , but all sources that you use should be credible , up to date, and relevant to your research topic.

There are three main places to look for sources to use in your research:

Research databases

• Your institution’s library
• Other online resources

Table of contents

Library resources, other online sources, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about finding sources.

You can search for scholarly sources online using databases and search engines like Google Scholar . These provide a range of search functions that can help you to find the most relevant sources.

If you are searching for a specific article or book, include the title or the author’s name. Alternatively, if you’re just looking for sources related to your research problem , you can search using keywords. In this case, it’s important to have a clear understanding of the scope of your project and of the most relevant keywords.

Databases can be general (interdisciplinary) or subject-specific.

• You can use subject-specific databases to ensure that the results are relevant to your field.
• When using a general database or search engine, you can still filter results by selecting specific subjects or disciplines.

Example: JSTOR discipline search filter

Check the table below to find a database that’s relevant to your research.

Google Scholar

To get started, you might also try Google Scholar , an academic search engine that can help you find relevant books and articles. Its “Cited by” function lets you see the number of times a source has been cited. This can tell you something about a source’s credibility and importance to the field.

Example: Google Scholar “Cited by” function

Boolean operators

Boolean operators can also help to narrow or expand your search.

Boolean operators are words and symbols like AND , OR , and NOT that you can use to include or exclude keywords to refine your results. For example, a search for “Nietzsche NOT nihilism” will provide results that include the word “Nietzsche” but exclude results that contain the word “nihilism.”

Many databases and search engines have an advanced search function that allows you to refine results in a similar way without typing the Boolean operators manually.

Example: Project Muse advanced search

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You can find helpful print sources in your institution’s library. These include:

• Journal articles
• Encyclopedias
• Newspapers and magazines

Make sure that the sources you consult are appropriate to your research.

You can find these sources using your institution’s library database. This will allow you to explore the library’s catalog and to search relevant keywords. You can refine your results using Boolean operators .

Once you have found a relevant print source in the library:

• Consider what books are beside it. This can be a great way to find related sources, especially when you’ve found a secondary or tertiary source instead of a primary source .
• Consult the index and bibliography to find the bibliographic information of other relevant sources.

You can consult popular online sources to learn more about your topic. These include:

• Crowdsourced encyclopedias like Wikipedia

You can find these sources using search engines. To refine your search, use Boolean operators in combination with relevant keywords.

However, exercise caution when using online sources. Consider what kinds of sources are appropriate for your research and make sure the sites are credible .

Look for sites with trusted domain extensions:

• URLs that end with .edu are educational resources.
• URLs that end with .gov are government-related resources.
• DOIs often indicate that an article is published in a peer-reviewed , scientific article.

Other sites can still be used, but you should evaluate them carefully and consider alternatives.

If you want to know more about ChatGPT, AI tools , citation , and plagiarism , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

• ChatGPT vs human editor
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You can find sources online using databases and search engines like Google Scholar . Use Boolean operators or advanced search functions to narrow or expand your search.

For print sources, you can use your institution’s library database. This will allow you to explore the library’s catalog and to search relevant keywords.

It is important to find credible sources and use those that you can be sure are sufficiently scholarly .

• Consult your institute’s library to find out what books, journals, research databases, and other types of sources they provide access to.
• Look for books published by respected academic publishing houses and university presses, as these are typically considered trustworthy sources.
• Look for journals that use a peer review process. This means that experts in the field assess the quality and credibility of an article before it is published.

When searching for sources in databases, think of specific keywords that are relevant to your topic , and consider variations on them or synonyms that might be relevant.

Once you have a clear idea of your research parameters and key terms, choose a database that is relevant to your research (e.g., Medline, JSTOR, Project MUSE).

Find out if the database has a “subject search” option. This can help to refine your search. Use Boolean operators to combine your keywords, exclude specific search terms, and search exact phrases to find the most relevant sources.

There are many types of sources commonly used in research. These include:

You’ll likely use a variety of these sources throughout the research process , and the kinds of sources you use will depend on your research topic and goals.

Scholarly sources are written by experts in their field and are typically subjected to peer review . They are intended for a scholarly audience, include a full bibliography, and use scholarly or technical language. For these reasons, they are typically considered credible sources .

Popular sources like magazines and news articles are typically written by journalists. These types of sources usually don’t include a bibliography and are written for a popular, rather than academic, audience. They are not always reliable and may be written from a biased or uninformed perspective, but they can still be cited in some contexts.

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LITERATURE REVIEW SOFTWARE FOR BETTER RESEARCH

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Using Litmaps for my research papers has significantly improved my workflow. Typically, I start with a single paper related to my topic. Whenever I find an interesting work, I add it to my search. From there, I can quickly cover my entire Related Work section.

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Clarkson University, USA

As a person who is an early researcher and identifies as dyslexic, I can say that having research articles laid out in the date vs cite graph format is much more approachable than looking at a standard database interface. I feel that the maps Litmaps offers lower the barrier of entry for researchers by giving them the connections between articles spaced out visually. This helps me orientate where a paper is in the history of a field. Thus, new researchers can look at one of Litmap's "seed maps" and have the same information as hours of digging through a database.

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Postdoctoral Associate – University of Florida

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What is a literature review?

A literature review is an integrated analysis -- not just a summary-- of scholarly writings and other relevant evidence related directly to your research question.  That is, it represents a synthesis of the evidence that provides background information on your topic and shows a association between the evidence and your research question.

A literature review may be a stand alone work or the introduction to a larger research paper, depending on the assignment.  Rely heavily on the guidelines your instructor has given you.

Why is it important?

A literature review is important because it:

• Explains the background of research on a topic.
• Demonstrates why a topic is significant to a subject area.
• Discovers relationships between research studies/ideas.
• Identifies major themes, concepts, and researchers on a topic.
• Identifies critical gaps and points of disagreement.
• Discusses further research questions that logically come out of the previous studies.

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APA Style Blog - for those harder to find answers

1. Choose a topic. Define your research question.

Your literature review should be guided by your central research question.  The literature represents background and research developments related to a specific research question, interpreted and analyzed by you in a synthesized way.

• Make sure your research question is not too broad or too narrow.  Is it manageable?
• Begin writing down terms that are related to your question. These will be useful for searches later.
• If you have the opportunity, discuss your topic with your professor and your class mates.

2. Decide on the scope of your review

How many studies do you need to look at? How comprehensive should it be? How many years should it cover? 

• This may depend on your assignment.  How many sources does the assignment require?

3. Select the databases you will use to conduct your searches.

Make a list of the databases you will search. 

Where to find databases:

• use the tabs on this guide
• Find other databases in the Nursing Information Resources web page
• More on the Medical Library web page
• ... and more on the Yale University Library web page

4. Conduct your searches to find the evidence. Keep track of your searches.

• Use the key words in your question, as well as synonyms for those words, as terms in your search. Use the database tutorials for help.
• Save the searches in the databases. This saves time when you want to redo, or modify, the searches. It is also helpful to use as a guide is the searches are not finding any useful results.
• Review the abstracts of research studies carefully. This will save you time.
• Use the bibliographies and references of research studies you find to locate others.
• Check with your professor, or a subject expert in the field, if you are missing any key works in the field.
• Ask your librarian for help at any time.
• Use a citation manager, such as EndNote as the repository for your citations. See the EndNote tutorials for help.

Review the literature

Some questions to help you analyze the research:

• What was the research question of the study you are reviewing? What were the authors trying to discover?
• Was the research funded by a source that could influence the findings?
• What were the research methodologies? Analyze its literature review, the samples and variables used, the results, and the conclusions.
• Does the research seem to be complete? Could it have been conducted more soundly? What further questions does it raise?
• If there are conflicting studies, why do you think that is?
• How are the authors viewed in the field? Has this study been cited? If so, how has it been analyzed?

Tips: 

• Review the abstracts carefully.  
• Keep careful notes so that you may track your thought processes during the research process.
• Create a matrix of the studies for easy analysis, and synthesis, across all of the studies.
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Writing a Literature Review

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A literature review is a document or section of a document that collects key sources on a topic and discusses those sources in conversation with each other (also called synthesis ). The lit review is an important genre in many disciplines, not just literature (i.e., the study of works of literature such as novels and plays). When we say “literature review” or refer to “the literature,” we are talking about the research ( scholarship ) in a given field. You will often see the terms “the research,” “the scholarship,” and “the literature” used mostly interchangeably.

Where, when, and why would I write a lit review?

There are a number of different situations where you might write a literature review, each with slightly different expectations; different disciplines, too, have field-specific expectations for what a literature review is and does. For instance, in the humanities, authors might include more overt argumentation and interpretation of source material in their literature reviews, whereas in the sciences, authors are more likely to report study designs and results in their literature reviews; these differences reflect these disciplines’ purposes and conventions in scholarship. You should always look at examples from your own discipline and talk to professors or mentors in your field to be sure you understand your discipline’s conventions, for literature reviews as well as for any other genre.

A literature review can be a part of a research paper or scholarly article, usually falling after the introduction and before the research methods sections. In these cases, the lit review just needs to cover scholarship that is important to the issue you are writing about; sometimes it will also cover key sources that informed your research methodology.

Lit reviews can also be standalone pieces, either as assignments in a class or as publications. In a class, a lit review may be assigned to help students familiarize themselves with a topic and with scholarship in their field, get an idea of the other researchers working on the topic they’re interested in, find gaps in existing research in order to propose new projects, and/or develop a theoretical framework and methodology for later research. As a publication, a lit review usually is meant to help make other scholars’ lives easier by collecting and summarizing, synthesizing, and analyzing existing research on a topic. This can be especially helpful for students or scholars getting into a new research area, or for directing an entire community of scholars toward questions that have not yet been answered.

What are the parts of a lit review?

Most lit reviews use a basic introduction-body-conclusion structure; if your lit review is part of a larger paper, the introduction and conclusion pieces may be just a few sentences while you focus most of your attention on the body. If your lit review is a standalone piece, the introduction and conclusion take up more space and give you a place to discuss your goals, research methods, and conclusions separately from where you discuss the literature itself.

Introduction:

• An introductory paragraph that explains what your working topic and thesis is
• A forecast of key topics or texts that will appear in the review
• Potentially, a description of how you found sources and how you analyzed them for inclusion and discussion in the review (more often found in published, standalone literature reviews than in lit review sections in an article or research paper)
• Summarize and synthesize: Give an overview of the main points of each source and combine them into a coherent whole
• Analyze and interpret: Don’t just paraphrase other researchers – add your own interpretations where possible, discussing the significance of findings in relation to the literature as a whole
• Critically Evaluate: Mention the strengths and weaknesses of your sources
• Write in well-structured paragraphs: Use transition words and topic sentence to draw connections, comparisons, and contrasts.

Conclusion:

• Summarize the key findings you have taken from the literature and emphasize their significance
• Connect it back to your primary research question

How should I organize my lit review?

Lit reviews can take many different organizational patterns depending on what you are trying to accomplish with the review. Here are some examples:

• Chronological : The simplest approach is to trace the development of the topic over time, which helps familiarize the audience with the topic (for instance if you are introducing something that is not commonly known in your field). If you choose this strategy, be careful to avoid simply listing and summarizing sources in order. Try to analyze the patterns, turning points, and key debates that have shaped the direction of the field. Give your interpretation of how and why certain developments occurred (as mentioned previously, this may not be appropriate in your discipline — check with a teacher or mentor if you’re unsure).
• Thematic : If you have found some recurring central themes that you will continue working with throughout your piece, you can organize your literature review into subsections that address different aspects of the topic. For example, if you are reviewing literature about women and religion, key themes can include the role of women in churches and the religious attitude towards women.
• Qualitative versus quantitative research
• Empirical versus theoretical scholarship
• Divide the research by sociological, historical, or cultural sources
• Theoretical : In many humanities articles, the literature review is the foundation for the theoretical framework. You can use it to discuss various theories, models, and definitions of key concepts. You can argue for the relevance of a specific theoretical approach or combine various theorical concepts to create a framework for your research.

What are some strategies or tips I can use while writing my lit review?

Any lit review is only as good as the research it discusses; make sure your sources are well-chosen and your research is thorough. Don’t be afraid to do more research if you discover a new thread as you’re writing. More info on the research process is available in our "Conducting Research" resources .

As you’re doing your research, create an annotated bibliography ( see our page on the this type of document ). Much of the information used in an annotated bibliography can be used also in a literature review, so you’ll be not only partially drafting your lit review as you research, but also developing your sense of the larger conversation going on among scholars, professionals, and any other stakeholders in your topic.

Usually you will need to synthesize research rather than just summarizing it. This means drawing connections between sources to create a picture of the scholarly conversation on a topic over time. Many student writers struggle to synthesize because they feel they don’t have anything to add to the scholars they are citing; here are some strategies to help you:

• It often helps to remember that the point of these kinds of syntheses is to show your readers how you understand your research, to help them read the rest of your paper.
• Writing teachers often say synthesis is like hosting a dinner party: imagine all your sources are together in a room, discussing your topic. What are they saying to each other?
• Look at the in-text citations in each paragraph. Are you citing just one source for each paragraph? This usually indicates summary only. When you have multiple sources cited in a paragraph, you are more likely to be synthesizing them (not always, but often
• Read more about synthesis here.

The most interesting literature reviews are often written as arguments (again, as mentioned at the beginning of the page, this is discipline-specific and doesn’t work for all situations). Often, the literature review is where you can establish your research as filling a particular gap or as relevant in a particular way. You have some chance to do this in your introduction in an article, but the literature review section gives a more extended opportunity to establish the conversation in the way you would like your readers to see it. You can choose the intellectual lineage you would like to be part of and whose definitions matter most to your thinking (mostly humanities-specific, but this goes for sciences as well). In addressing these points, you argue for your place in the conversation, which tends to make the lit review more compelling than a simple reporting of other sources.

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Q. What is a scholarly literature review? How can I find one?

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What is a literature Review?  

A literature review is a  written summary of the existing published research  on a topic.    A literature review can be brief (a section in a larger article) or it can be an entire article unto itself.   The purpose of a literature review is to provide an overview of the current knowledge on a topic, and/or to provide a context for new research.

Click here to see a table that lists the various kinds of literature reviews  that you may encounter in your research. (From Grant, M. J. and Booth, A. (2009),  A typology of reviews: an analysis of 14 review types and associated methodologies .  Health Information & Libraries Journal , 26: 91–108. doi:10.1111/j.1471-1842.2009.00848.x)

To find the literature review section in a scholarly article:

• Scholarly publications (especially peer reviewed articles) will always include at least a brief literature review in their introduction and discussion sections.  Click here to learn how to find scholarly or peer reviewed articles.
• Introduction
• Literature Review
• Survey of the Literature
• Review of the Literature
• Use keywords to narrow your search to literature reviews.  For example:
• motor learning AND literature review
• motor learning AND systematic review
• A few databases will let you limit your search to literature reviews only . You'll typically find this "document type" or "publication type" option in the database's advanced search options.

Here are examples from two popular databases (EBSCO and ProQuest):

See also:  

• What's the difference between a research article (or research study) and a review article?
• How do I write a literature review?
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What is a Literature Review? How to Write It (with Examples)

A literature review is a critical analysis and synthesis of existing research on a particular topic. It provides an overview of the current state of knowledge, identifies gaps, and highlights key findings in the literature. 1 The purpose of a literature review is to situate your own research within the context of existing scholarship, demonstrating your understanding of the topic and showing how your work contributes to the ongoing conversation in the field. Learning how to write a literature review is a critical tool for successful research. Your ability to summarize and synthesize prior research pertaining to a certain topic demonstrates your grasp on the topic of study, and assists in the learning process. 

Table of Contents

What is the purpose of literature review , a. habitat loss and species extinction: , b. range shifts and phenological changes: , c. ocean acidification and coral reefs: , d. adaptive strategies and conservation efforts: .

• Choose a Topic and Define the Research Question: 
• Decide on the Scope of Your Review: 
• Select Databases for Searches: 
• Conduct Searches and Keep Track: 
• Review the Literature: 
• Organize and Write Your Literature Review: 
• How to write a literature review faster with Paperpal? 

Frequently asked questions 

What is a literature review .

A well-conducted literature review demonstrates the researcher’s familiarity with the existing literature, establishes the context for their own research, and contributes to scholarly conversations on the topic. One of the purposes of a literature review is also to help researchers avoid duplicating previous work and ensure that their research is informed by and builds upon the existing body of knowledge.

A literature review serves several important purposes within academic and research contexts. Here are some key objectives and functions of a literature review: 2  

1. Contextualizing the Research Problem: The literature review provides a background and context for the research problem under investigation. It helps to situate the study within the existing body of knowledge. 

2. Identifying Gaps in Knowledge: By identifying gaps, contradictions, or areas requiring further research, the researcher can shape the research question and justify the significance of the study. This is crucial for ensuring that the new research contributes something novel to the field.

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3. Understanding Theoretical and Conceptual Frameworks: Literature reviews help researchers gain an understanding of the theoretical and conceptual frameworks used in previous studies. This aids in the development of a theoretical framework for the current research. 

4. Providing Methodological Insights: Another purpose of literature reviews is that it allows researchers to learn about the methodologies employed in previous studies. This can help in choosing appropriate research methods for the current study and avoiding pitfalls that others may have encountered. 

5. Establishing Credibility: A well-conducted literature review demonstrates the researcher’s familiarity with existing scholarship, establishing their credibility and expertise in the field. It also helps in building a solid foundation for the new research. 

6. Informing Hypotheses or Research Questions: The literature review guides the formulation of hypotheses or research questions by highlighting relevant findings and areas of uncertainty in existing literature. 

Literature review example 

Let’s delve deeper with a literature review example: Let’s say your literature review is about the impact of climate change on biodiversity. You might format your literature review into sections such as the effects of climate change on habitat loss and species extinction, phenological changes, and marine biodiversity. Each section would then summarize and analyze relevant studies in those areas, highlighting key findings and identifying gaps in the research. The review would conclude by emphasizing the need for further research on specific aspects of the relationship between climate change and biodiversity. The following literature review template provides a glimpse into the recommended literature review structure and content, demonstrating how research findings are organized around specific themes within a broader topic. 

Literature Review on Climate Change Impacts on Biodiversity:  

Climate change is a global phenomenon with far-reaching consequences, including significant impacts on biodiversity. This literature review synthesizes key findings from various studies: 

Climate change-induced alterations in temperature and precipitation patterns contribute to habitat loss, affecting numerous species (Thomas et al., 2004). The review discusses how these changes increase the risk of extinction, particularly for species with specific habitat requirements. 

Observations of range shifts and changes in the timing of biological events (phenology) are documented in response to changing climatic conditions (Parmesan & Yohe, 2003). These shifts affect ecosystems and may lead to mismatches between species and their resources. 

The review explores the impact of climate change on marine biodiversity, emphasizing ocean acidification’s threat to coral reefs (Hoegh-Guldberg et al., 2007). Changes in pH levels negatively affect coral calcification, disrupting the delicate balance of marine ecosystems. 

Recognizing the urgency of the situation, the literature review discusses various adaptive strategies adopted by species and conservation efforts aimed at mitigating the impacts of climate change on biodiversity (Hannah et al., 2007). It emphasizes the importance of interdisciplinary approaches for effective conservation planning. 

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How to write a good literature review 

Writing a literature review involves summarizing and synthesizing existing research on a particular topic. A good literature review format should include the following elements. 

Introduction: The introduction sets the stage for your literature review, providing context and introducing the main focus of your review. 

• Opening Statement: Begin with a general statement about the broader topic and its significance in the field. 
• Scope and Purpose: Clearly define the scope of your literature review. Explain the specific research question or objective you aim to address. 
• Organizational Framework: Briefly outline the structure of your literature review, indicating how you will categorize and discuss the existing research. 
• Significance of the Study: Highlight why your literature review is important and how it contributes to the understanding of the chosen topic. 
• Thesis Statement: Conclude the introduction with a concise thesis statement that outlines the main argument or perspective you will develop in the body of the literature review. 

Body: The body of the literature review is where you provide a comprehensive analysis of existing literature, grouping studies based on themes, methodologies, or other relevant criteria. 

• Organize by Theme or Concept: Group studies that share common themes, concepts, or methodologies. Discuss each theme or concept in detail, summarizing key findings and identifying gaps or areas of disagreement. 
• Critical Analysis: Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of each study. Discuss the methodologies used, the quality of evidence, and the overall contribution of each work to the understanding of the topic. 
• Synthesis of Findings: Synthesize the information from different studies to highlight trends, patterns, or areas of consensus in the literature. 
• Identification of Gaps: Discuss any gaps or limitations in the existing research and explain how your review contributes to filling these gaps. 
• Transition between Sections: Provide smooth transitions between different themes or concepts to maintain the flow of your literature review. 

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Conclusion: The conclusion of your literature review should summarize the main findings, highlight the contributions of the review, and suggest avenues for future research. 

• Summary of Key Findings: Recap the main findings from the literature and restate how they contribute to your research question or objective. 
• Contributions to the Field: Discuss the overall contribution of your literature review to the existing knowledge in the field. 
• Implications and Applications: Explore the practical implications of the findings and suggest how they might impact future research or practice. 
• Recommendations for Future Research: Identify areas that require further investigation and propose potential directions for future research in the field. 
• Final Thoughts: Conclude with a final reflection on the importance of your literature review and its relevance to the broader academic community. 

Conducting a literature review 

Conducting a literature review is an essential step in research that involves reviewing and analyzing existing literature on a specific topic. It’s important to know how to do a literature review effectively, so here are the steps to follow: 1  

Choose a Topic and Define the Research Question:  

• Select a topic that is relevant to your field of study. 
• Clearly define your research question or objective. Determine what specific aspect of the topic do you want to explore? 

Decide on the Scope of Your Review:  

• Determine the timeframe for your literature review. Are you focusing on recent developments, or do you want a historical overview? 
• Consider the geographical scope. Is your review global, or are you focusing on a specific region? 
• Define the inclusion and exclusion criteria. What types of sources will you include? Are there specific types of studies or publications you will exclude? 

Select Databases for Searches:  

• Identify relevant databases for your field. Examples include PubMed, IEEE Xplore, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar. 
• Consider searching in library catalogs, institutional repositories, and specialized databases related to your topic. 

Conduct Searches and Keep Track:  

• Develop a systematic search strategy using keywords, Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT), and other search techniques. 
• Record and document your search strategy for transparency and replicability. 
• Keep track of the articles, including publication details, abstracts, and links. Use citation management tools like EndNote, Zotero, or Mendeley to organize your references. 

Review the Literature:  

• Evaluate the relevance and quality of each source. Consider the methodology, sample size, and results of studies. 
• Organize the literature by themes or key concepts. Identify patterns, trends, and gaps in the existing research. 
• Summarize key findings and arguments from each source. Compare and contrast different perspectives. 
• Identify areas where there is a consensus in the literature and where there are conflicting opinions. 
• Provide critical analysis and synthesis of the literature. What are the strengths and weaknesses of existing research? 

Organize and Write Your Literature Review:  

• Literature review outline should be based on themes, chronological order, or methodological approaches. 
• Write a clear and coherent narrative that synthesizes the information gathered. 
• Use proper citations for each source and ensure consistency in your citation style (APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.). 
• Conclude your literature review by summarizing key findings, identifying gaps, and suggesting areas for future research. 

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How to write a literature review faster with Paperpal?  

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• Ask a question: Get started with a new document on paperpal.com. Click on the “Research | Cite” feature and type your question in plain English. Paperpal will scour over 250 million research articles, including conference papers and preprints, to provide you with accurate insights and citations. 

• Review and Save: Paperpal summarizes the information, while citing sources and listing relevant reads. You can quickly scan the results to identify relevant references and save these directly to your built-in citations library for later access. 
• Cite with Confidence: Paperpal makes it easy to incorporate relevant citations and references in 10,000+ styles into your writing, ensuring your arguments are well-supported by credible sources. This translates to a polished, well-researched literature review. 

The literature review sample and detailed advice on writing and conducting a review will help you produce a well-structured report. But remember that a good literature review is an ongoing process, and it may be necessary to revisit and update it as your research progresses. By combining effortless research with an easy citation process, Paperpal Research streamlines the literature review process and empowers you to write faster and with more confidence. Try Paperpal Research now and see for yourself.  

A literature review is a critical and comprehensive analysis of existing literature (published and unpublished works) on a specific topic or research question and provides a synthesis of the current state of knowledge in a particular field. A well-conducted literature review is crucial for researchers to build upon existing knowledge, avoid duplication of efforts, and contribute to the advancement of their field. It also helps researchers situate their work within a broader context and facilitates the development of a sound theoretical and conceptual framework for their studies.

Literature review is a crucial component of research writing, providing a solid background for a research paper’s investigation. The aim is to keep professionals up to date by providing an understanding of ongoing developments within a specific field, including research methods, and experimental techniques used in that field, and present that knowledge in the form of a written report. Also, the depth and breadth of the literature review emphasizes the credibility of the scholar in his or her field.  

Before writing a literature review, it’s essential to undertake several preparatory steps to ensure that your review is well-researched, organized, and focused. This includes choosing a topic of general interest to you and doing exploratory research on that topic, writing an annotated bibliography, and noting major points, especially those that relate to the position you have taken on the topic. 

Literature reviews and academic research papers are essential components of scholarly work but serve different purposes within the academic realm. 3 A literature review aims to provide a foundation for understanding the current state of research on a particular topic, identify gaps or controversies, and lay the groundwork for future research. Therefore, it draws heavily from existing academic sources, including books, journal articles, and other scholarly publications. In contrast, an academic research paper aims to present new knowledge, contribute to the academic discourse, and advance the understanding of a specific research question. Therefore, it involves a mix of existing literature (in the introduction and literature review sections) and original data or findings obtained through research methods. 

Literature reviews are essential components of academic and research papers, and various strategies can be employed to conduct them effectively. If you want to know how to write a literature review for a research paper, here are four common approaches that are often used by researchers.  Chronological Review: This strategy involves organizing the literature based on the chronological order of publication. It helps to trace the development of a topic over time, showing how ideas, theories, and research have evolved.  Thematic Review: Thematic reviews focus on identifying and analyzing themes or topics that cut across different studies. Instead of organizing the literature chronologically, it is grouped by key themes or concepts, allowing for a comprehensive exploration of various aspects of the topic.  Methodological Review: This strategy involves organizing the literature based on the research methods employed in different studies. It helps to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of various methodologies and allows the reader to evaluate the reliability and validity of the research findings.  Theoretical Review: A theoretical review examines the literature based on the theoretical frameworks used in different studies. This approach helps to identify the key theories that have been applied to the topic and assess their contributions to the understanding of the subject.  It’s important to note that these strategies are not mutually exclusive, and a literature review may combine elements of more than one approach. The choice of strategy depends on the research question, the nature of the literature available, and the goals of the review. Additionally, other strategies, such as integrative reviews or systematic reviews, may be employed depending on the specific requirements of the research.

The literature review format can vary depending on the specific publication guidelines. However, there are some common elements and structures that are often followed. Here is a general guideline for the format of a literature review:  Introduction:   Provide an overview of the topic.  Define the scope and purpose of the literature review.  State the research question or objective.  Body:   Organize the literature by themes, concepts, or chronology.  Critically analyze and evaluate each source.  Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the studies.  Highlight any methodological limitations or biases.  Identify patterns, connections, or contradictions in the existing research.  Conclusion:   Summarize the key points discussed in the literature review.  Highlight the research gap.  Address the research question or objective stated in the introduction.  Highlight the contributions of the review and suggest directions for future research.

Both annotated bibliographies and literature reviews involve the examination of scholarly sources. While annotated bibliographies focus on individual sources with brief annotations, literature reviews provide a more in-depth, integrated, and comprehensive analysis of existing literature on a specific topic. The key differences are as follows: 

References 

• Denney, A. S., & Tewksbury, R. (2013). How to write a literature review.  Journal of criminal justice education ,  24 (2), 218-234. 
• Pan, M. L. (2016).  Preparing literature reviews: Qualitative and quantitative approaches . Taylor & Francis. 
• Cantero, C. (2019). How to write a literature review.  San José State University Writing Center . 

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3 ways to find review papers, systematic reviews, meta-analysis, and other rich sources of references to kick start your literature review

By Aaron Tay, Lead, Data Services

Getting into a new research topic and unsure where to start? Wouldn’t it be great if there was a good map of the literature done by someone already, waiting for you to refer to? Indeed, there are many rich sources that you can consider using to kick start your literature review.

These include

• Review & survey articles – e.g.,  Servant leadership: A review and synthesis
• Systematic reviews - e.g.,  A systematic literature review of servant leadership theory in organisational contexts
• Meta-analysis - e.g.,  Do ethical, authentic, and servant leadership explain variance above and beyond transformational leadership? A meta-analysis
• PhD and Masters Theses- e.g., Servant leadership: A literature review and reflection

But such items are not easily found; how do you find them? As dissertations and theses are relatively easily found these days, I will focus more on the first three article or document types.

#1 Search in a database with an appropriate filter

For some databases it is as simple as typing in a general keyword and choosing the appropriate filter. Alternatively in some databases you can go to advanced search to preselect the document type you want to see.

Some of these databases include

• Web of Science - use the “Review Article” filter
• Scopus - use the “Document type – Review“ filter
• Semantic Scholar - use the “Publication Type - Review or Meta Analysis”
• Pubmed - use the “Article type – Review, Systematic Review or Meta-analysis”
• Psycinfo - use the “Methodology - Literature review, systematic review, meta analysis, metasynthesis”
• ProQuest Research Library - use “Document Type: Literature review”
• [New as of Jan 2022] Google Scholar  - use “Review Articles” filter
• [New as of Jan 2024] Default SMU Library search (Primo) - Use “Review Articles” filter

For some databases like ERIC , the Educational Resources Information Center which is good for education literature, you can use the thesaurus which has subjects like Literature Reviews , combine that with your topic and you can do a search for literature reviews .

The first three in the list are good for cross-disciplinary searches, while the remaining are discipline specific. Please consult your research librarian if you need more specific advice.

#2 Keyword searching in Google Scholar

Unfortunately, not every academic database provides an easy way to filter to reviews or systematic reviews. A particularly important one is Google Scholar, which is generally recognised as the single biggest sources of academic content but does not seem to have a filter for this type of content.

[New as of Jan 2022] Google Scholar  now has a “Review Articles” filter! You can use the built-in filter or continue to use the search based method below which gives different results and may give trade-offs in terms of precision and recall of the results. 

How then does one search for reviews in Google Scholar? One can simulate a filter by crafting a suitable search strategy for this.

Assuming for example the topic of interest is creativity, you can do a search like this < creativity review OR meta-analysis OR "a survey" > in Google Scholar.

This generally works because most reviews, systematic reviews or meta-analysis would typically have those terms in the title and Google Scholar tends to prioritize matching keywords in the title, resulting in finding what you need in the top few results.

However, if you find that Google Scholar is generally giving you irrelevant results you can tighten up the search by restricting keywords to be matched in the title with the <intitle:> command.

Try < creativity intitle:review OR intitle:meta-analysis OR intitle:"a survey"> in Google Scholar

In China, and lacking access to Google Scholar?

Use Baidu Xueshu (百度学术) / Baidu Academic or Scholar which is their answer to Google Scholar to automatically find review papers with their analysis function .

#3 Use Citation mapping tools like Connected Papers and 2Dsearch search to find reviews

If the above tools are still not sufficient, you can try using Connected Papers , which we covered in an earlier Research Radar piece .

What was not mentioned in the piece was that Connected Papers can not only generate a map of related paper from one relevant “seed” paper, it can also attempt to find review papers with the “Derivative Works” function that attempts to “find surveys of the field or recent relevant works which were inspired by many papers in the graph”

While this doesn’t always work, it is worth a try.

Finally, if all else fails, you can try using the method I outlined in this medium post which use a saved search strategy in 2D search to query Lens.org . You do not need to fully understand the complex search strategy I have constructed, simply change the topic box that has the word “Creativity” with your topic and run the search.

Once you have located review papers, systematic reviews etc, the sky’s the limit. You can mine the literature review for useful references of course. But review papers are often a magnet for citations and as such you can also find newer relevant papers by doing citation searching .

By now you will no doubt have more than enough relevant literature to read, but if you need more you can use them as “seed papers” in the literature mapping tools we introduced in past Research Radar pieces like Connected Papers, Inciteful. Litmaps or ResearchRabbit to find even more relevant papers!

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Ten Simple Rules for Writing a Literature Review

Marco pautasso.

1 Centre for Functional and Evolutionary Ecology (CEFE), CNRS, Montpellier, France

2 Centre for Biodiversity Synthesis and Analysis (CESAB), FRB, Aix-en-Provence, France

Literature reviews are in great demand in most scientific fields. Their need stems from the ever-increasing output of scientific publications [1] . For example, compared to 1991, in 2008 three, eight, and forty times more papers were indexed in Web of Science on malaria, obesity, and biodiversity, respectively [2] . Given such mountains of papers, scientists cannot be expected to examine in detail every single new paper relevant to their interests [3] . Thus, it is both advantageous and necessary to rely on regular summaries of the recent literature. Although recognition for scientists mainly comes from primary research, timely literature reviews can lead to new synthetic insights and are often widely read [4] . For such summaries to be useful, however, they need to be compiled in a professional way [5] .

When starting from scratch, reviewing the literature can require a titanic amount of work. That is why researchers who have spent their career working on a certain research issue are in a perfect position to review that literature. Some graduate schools are now offering courses in reviewing the literature, given that most research students start their project by producing an overview of what has already been done on their research issue [6] . However, it is likely that most scientists have not thought in detail about how to approach and carry out a literature review.

Reviewing the literature requires the ability to juggle multiple tasks, from finding and evaluating relevant material to synthesising information from various sources, from critical thinking to paraphrasing, evaluating, and citation skills [7] . In this contribution, I share ten simple rules I learned working on about 25 literature reviews as a PhD and postdoctoral student. Ideas and insights also come from discussions with coauthors and colleagues, as well as feedback from reviewers and editors.

Rule 1: Define a Topic and Audience

How to choose which topic to review? There are so many issues in contemporary science that you could spend a lifetime of attending conferences and reading the literature just pondering what to review. On the one hand, if you take several years to choose, several other people may have had the same idea in the meantime. On the other hand, only a well-considered topic is likely to lead to a brilliant literature review [8] . The topic must at least be:

• interesting to you (ideally, you should have come across a series of recent papers related to your line of work that call for a critical summary),
• an important aspect of the field (so that many readers will be interested in the review and there will be enough material to write it), and
• a well-defined issue (otherwise you could potentially include thousands of publications, which would make the review unhelpful).

Ideas for potential reviews may come from papers providing lists of key research questions to be answered [9] , but also from serendipitous moments during desultory reading and discussions. In addition to choosing your topic, you should also select a target audience. In many cases, the topic (e.g., web services in computational biology) will automatically define an audience (e.g., computational biologists), but that same topic may also be of interest to neighbouring fields (e.g., computer science, biology, etc.).

Rule 2: Search and Re-search the Literature

After having chosen your topic and audience, start by checking the literature and downloading relevant papers. Five pieces of advice here:

• keep track of the search items you use (so that your search can be replicated [10] ),
• keep a list of papers whose pdfs you cannot access immediately (so as to retrieve them later with alternative strategies),
• use a paper management system (e.g., Mendeley, Papers, Qiqqa, Sente),
• define early in the process some criteria for exclusion of irrelevant papers (these criteria can then be described in the review to help define its scope), and
• do not just look for research papers in the area you wish to review, but also seek previous reviews.

The chances are high that someone will already have published a literature review ( Figure 1 ), if not exactly on the issue you are planning to tackle, at least on a related topic. If there are already a few or several reviews of the literature on your issue, my advice is not to give up, but to carry on with your own literature review,

The bottom-right situation (many literature reviews but few research papers) is not just a theoretical situation; it applies, for example, to the study of the impacts of climate change on plant diseases, where there appear to be more literature reviews than research studies [33] .

• discussing in your review the approaches, limitations, and conclusions of past reviews,
• trying to find a new angle that has not been covered adequately in the previous reviews, and
• incorporating new material that has inevitably accumulated since their appearance.

When searching the literature for pertinent papers and reviews, the usual rules apply:

• be thorough,
• use different keywords and database sources (e.g., DBLP, Google Scholar, ISI Proceedings, JSTOR Search, Medline, Scopus, Web of Science), and
• look at who has cited past relevant papers and book chapters.

Rule 3: Take Notes While Reading

If you read the papers first, and only afterwards start writing the review, you will need a very good memory to remember who wrote what, and what your impressions and associations were while reading each single paper. My advice is, while reading, to start writing down interesting pieces of information, insights about how to organize the review, and thoughts on what to write. This way, by the time you have read the literature you selected, you will already have a rough draft of the review.

Of course, this draft will still need much rewriting, restructuring, and rethinking to obtain a text with a coherent argument [11] , but you will have avoided the danger posed by staring at a blank document. Be careful when taking notes to use quotation marks if you are provisionally copying verbatim from the literature. It is advisable then to reformulate such quotes with your own words in the final draft. It is important to be careful in noting the references already at this stage, so as to avoid misattributions. Using referencing software from the very beginning of your endeavour will save you time.

Rule 4: Choose the Type of Review You Wish to Write

After having taken notes while reading the literature, you will have a rough idea of the amount of material available for the review. This is probably a good time to decide whether to go for a mini- or a full review. Some journals are now favouring the publication of rather short reviews focusing on the last few years, with a limit on the number of words and citations. A mini-review is not necessarily a minor review: it may well attract more attention from busy readers, although it will inevitably simplify some issues and leave out some relevant material due to space limitations. A full review will have the advantage of more freedom to cover in detail the complexities of a particular scientific development, but may then be left in the pile of the very important papers “to be read” by readers with little time to spare for major monographs.

There is probably a continuum between mini- and full reviews. The same point applies to the dichotomy of descriptive vs. integrative reviews. While descriptive reviews focus on the methodology, findings, and interpretation of each reviewed study, integrative reviews attempt to find common ideas and concepts from the reviewed material [12] . A similar distinction exists between narrative and systematic reviews: while narrative reviews are qualitative, systematic reviews attempt to test a hypothesis based on the published evidence, which is gathered using a predefined protocol to reduce bias [13] , [14] . When systematic reviews analyse quantitative results in a quantitative way, they become meta-analyses. The choice between different review types will have to be made on a case-by-case basis, depending not just on the nature of the material found and the preferences of the target journal(s), but also on the time available to write the review and the number of coauthors [15] .

Rule 5: Keep the Review Focused, but Make It of Broad Interest

Whether your plan is to write a mini- or a full review, it is good advice to keep it focused 16 , 17 . Including material just for the sake of it can easily lead to reviews that are trying to do too many things at once. The need to keep a review focused can be problematic for interdisciplinary reviews, where the aim is to bridge the gap between fields [18] . If you are writing a review on, for example, how epidemiological approaches are used in modelling the spread of ideas, you may be inclined to include material from both parent fields, epidemiology and the study of cultural diffusion. This may be necessary to some extent, but in this case a focused review would only deal in detail with those studies at the interface between epidemiology and the spread of ideas.

While focus is an important feature of a successful review, this requirement has to be balanced with the need to make the review relevant to a broad audience. This square may be circled by discussing the wider implications of the reviewed topic for other disciplines.

Rule 6: Be Critical and Consistent

Reviewing the literature is not stamp collecting. A good review does not just summarize the literature, but discusses it critically, identifies methodological problems, and points out research gaps [19] . After having read a review of the literature, a reader should have a rough idea of:

• the major achievements in the reviewed field,
• the main areas of debate, and
• the outstanding research questions.

It is challenging to achieve a successful review on all these fronts. A solution can be to involve a set of complementary coauthors: some people are excellent at mapping what has been achieved, some others are very good at identifying dark clouds on the horizon, and some have instead a knack at predicting where solutions are going to come from. If your journal club has exactly this sort of team, then you should definitely write a review of the literature! In addition to critical thinking, a literature review needs consistency, for example in the choice of passive vs. active voice and present vs. past tense.

Rule 7: Find a Logical Structure

Like a well-baked cake, a good review has a number of telling features: it is worth the reader's time, timely, systematic, well written, focused, and critical. It also needs a good structure. With reviews, the usual subdivision of research papers into introduction, methods, results, and discussion does not work or is rarely used. However, a general introduction of the context and, toward the end, a recapitulation of the main points covered and take-home messages make sense also in the case of reviews. For systematic reviews, there is a trend towards including information about how the literature was searched (database, keywords, time limits) [20] .

How can you organize the flow of the main body of the review so that the reader will be drawn into and guided through it? It is generally helpful to draw a conceptual scheme of the review, e.g., with mind-mapping techniques. Such diagrams can help recognize a logical way to order and link the various sections of a review [21] . This is the case not just at the writing stage, but also for readers if the diagram is included in the review as a figure. A careful selection of diagrams and figures relevant to the reviewed topic can be very helpful to structure the text too [22] .

Rule 8: Make Use of Feedback

Reviews of the literature are normally peer-reviewed in the same way as research papers, and rightly so [23] . As a rule, incorporating feedback from reviewers greatly helps improve a review draft. Having read the review with a fresh mind, reviewers may spot inaccuracies, inconsistencies, and ambiguities that had not been noticed by the writers due to rereading the typescript too many times. It is however advisable to reread the draft one more time before submission, as a last-minute correction of typos, leaps, and muddled sentences may enable the reviewers to focus on providing advice on the content rather than the form.

Feedback is vital to writing a good review, and should be sought from a variety of colleagues, so as to obtain a diversity of views on the draft. This may lead in some cases to conflicting views on the merits of the paper, and on how to improve it, but such a situation is better than the absence of feedback. A diversity of feedback perspectives on a literature review can help identify where the consensus view stands in the landscape of the current scientific understanding of an issue [24] .

Rule 9: Include Your Own Relevant Research, but Be Objective

In many cases, reviewers of the literature will have published studies relevant to the review they are writing. This could create a conflict of interest: how can reviewers report objectively on their own work [25] ? Some scientists may be overly enthusiastic about what they have published, and thus risk giving too much importance to their own findings in the review. However, bias could also occur in the other direction: some scientists may be unduly dismissive of their own achievements, so that they will tend to downplay their contribution (if any) to a field when reviewing it.

In general, a review of the literature should neither be a public relations brochure nor an exercise in competitive self-denial. If a reviewer is up to the job of producing a well-organized and methodical review, which flows well and provides a service to the readership, then it should be possible to be objective in reviewing one's own relevant findings. In reviews written by multiple authors, this may be achieved by assigning the review of the results of a coauthor to different coauthors.

Rule 10: Be Up-to-Date, but Do Not Forget Older Studies

Given the progressive acceleration in the publication of scientific papers, today's reviews of the literature need awareness not just of the overall direction and achievements of a field of inquiry, but also of the latest studies, so as not to become out-of-date before they have been published. Ideally, a literature review should not identify as a major research gap an issue that has just been addressed in a series of papers in press (the same applies, of course, to older, overlooked studies (“sleeping beauties” [26] )). This implies that literature reviewers would do well to keep an eye on electronic lists of papers in press, given that it can take months before these appear in scientific databases. Some reviews declare that they have scanned the literature up to a certain point in time, but given that peer review can be a rather lengthy process, a full search for newly appeared literature at the revision stage may be worthwhile. Assessing the contribution of papers that have just appeared is particularly challenging, because there is little perspective with which to gauge their significance and impact on further research and society.

Inevitably, new papers on the reviewed topic (including independently written literature reviews) will appear from all quarters after the review has been published, so that there may soon be the need for an updated review. But this is the nature of science [27] – [32] . I wish everybody good luck with writing a review of the literature.

Acknowledgments

Many thanks to M. Barbosa, K. Dehnen-Schmutz, T. Döring, D. Fontaneto, M. Garbelotto, O. Holdenrieder, M. Jeger, D. Lonsdale, A. MacLeod, P. Mills, M. Moslonka-Lefebvre, G. Stancanelli, P. Weisberg, and X. Xu for insights and discussions, and to P. Bourne, T. Matoni, and D. Smith for helpful comments on a previous draft.

Funding Statement

This work was funded by the French Foundation for Research on Biodiversity (FRB) through its Centre for Synthesis and Analysis of Biodiversity data (CESAB), as part of the NETSEED research project. The funders had no role in the preparation of the manuscript.

Conduct a literature review

What is a literature review.

A literature review is a summary of the published work in a field of study. This can be a section of a larger paper or article, or can be the focus of an entire paper. Literature reviews show that you have examined the breadth of knowledge and can justify your thesis or research questions. They are also valuable tools for other researchers who need to find a summary of that field of knowledge.

Unlike an annotated bibliography, which is a list of sources with short descriptions, a literature review synthesizes sources into a summary that has a thesis or statement of purpose—stated or implied—at its core.

How do I write a literature review?

Step 1: define your research scope.

• What is the specific research question that your literature review helps to define?
• Are there a maximum or minimum number of sources that your review should include?

Ask us if you have questions about refining your topic, search methods, writing tips, or citation management.

Step 2: Identify the literature

Start by searching broadly. Literature for your review will typically be acquired through scholarly books, journal articles, and/or dissertations. Develop an understanding of what is out there, what terms are accurate and helpful, etc., and keep track of all of it with citation management tools . If you need help figuring out key terms and where to search, ask us .

Use citation searching to track how scholars interact with, and build upon, previous research:

• Mine the references cited section of each relevant source for additional key sources
• Use Google Scholar or Scopus to find other sources that have cited a particular work

Step 3: Critically analyze the literature

Key to your literature review is a critical analysis of the literature collected around your topic. The analysis will explore relationships, major themes, and any critical gaps in the research expressed in the work. Read and summarize each source with an eye toward analyzing authority, currency, coverage, methodology, and relationship to other works. The University of Toronto's Writing Center provides a comprehensive list of questions you can use to analyze your sources.

Step 4: Categorize your resources

Divide the available resources that pertain to your research into categories reflecting their roles in addressing your research question. Possible ways to categorize resources include organization by:

• methodology
• theoretical/philosophical approach

Regardless of the division, each category should be accompanied by thorough discussions and explanations of strengths and weaknesses, value to the overall survey, and comparisons with similar sources. You may have enough resources when:

• You've used multiple databases and other resources (web portals, repositories, etc.) to get a variety of perspectives on the research topic.
• The same citations are showing up in a variety of databases.

Additional resources

Undergraduate student resources.

• Literature Review Handout (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
• Learn how to write a review of literature (University of Wisconsin-Madison)

Graduate student and faculty resources

• Information Research Strategies (University of Arizona)
• Literature Reviews: An Overview for Graduate Students (NC State University)
• Oliver, P. (2012). Succeeding with Your Literature Review: A Handbook for Students [ebook]
• Machi, L. A. & McEvoy, B. T. (2016). The Literature Review: Six Steps to Success [ebook]
• Graustein, J. S. (2012). How to Write an Exceptional Thesis or Dissertation: A Step-by-Step Guide from Proposal to Successful Defense [ebook]
• Thomas, R. M. & Brubaker, D. L. (2008). Theses and Dissertations: A Guide to Planning, Research, and Writing

Literature Review

• Creating a Research Question

What is "the literature"?

Onesearch library catalog.

• Analyzing the Literature
• Writing the Review

Depending on your assignment or project, the literature you review may include published books and journal articles as well as what librarians call gray literature (e.g., government reports, working papers produced by think tanks, and dissertations and theses).

Once you have a few appropriate sources, look at their bibliographies, references, notes, and footnotes to find additional important works in the field. If you find that particular authors or works are cited again and again in your reading, be sure to add them to your list.

Some general tools for finding resources appear below. Please consult our research guides for recommended databases and other resources tailored to your subject and for tips on using Zotero  to manage your research.

Use OneSearch to find books, E-books, articles, videos, and more. Use drop-down menus, facets, and the advanced search function to apply limits to your search.

Be sure to put phrases in quotes, and use the + sign when you have more than one keyword:

"civil rights movement"

+women +"Middle Ages"

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Over 50% of Ginkgo leaf extract samples may be adulterated: BAPP review

10-Sep-2024 - Last updated on 11-Sep-2024 at 12:22 GMT

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The new paper from the ABC-AHP-NCNPR Botanical Adulterants Prevention Program (BAPP) found that the second highest estimated adulteration rate was for powdered plant materials or extracts of black cohosh ( Actaea racemosa ​) root/rhizome with 42.2%, followed by echinacea ( Echinacea angustifolia, E. pallida ​, and E. purpurea ​) herb and/or root with 28.5%.

Concerning results were also observed for elder ( Sambucus nigra ​) and turmeric ( Curcuma longa ​) rhizome, with 17.1% and 16.5%, respectively, according to findings published in Natural Product Reports. ​

These five botanicals are among the top selling herbal supplements in the market. Data from the American Botanical Council (ABC) Herb Market Report for 2022 indicate that sales of supplements formulated with these botanicals accounted for over $526 million in the U.S. mainstream and natural channels ( HerbalGram ​ #139 ​).

The review included a total of 77 publications and 2,995 samples across the five botanicals in the United States and international markets. The paper is authored by natural products pharmacology expert Nilüfer Orhan, PhD, ABC Chief Science Officer and BAPP Director Stefan Gafner, PhD, and Founder and Executive Eirector of ABC and Founder of BAPP Mark Blumenthal.

“Adulteration and fraud are unfortunate facts of commerce,” Blumenthal said. “The question is to what extent does it affect the current market for herbal dietary supplements and related natural plant- and fungal-based ingredients?

Dr. Ikhlas Khan, director of the National Center for Natural Products Research (NCNPR) at the University of Mississippi, told NutraIngredients that the new review illustrates the complexity of discovering the adulteration in well-known herbs. "Just think about the herbs that are not well studied and not well known, and it provides a picture of the adulteration level of marketed products," he said. 

Challenges and limitations ​

The review highlights the many challenges and limitations in determining the accurate number of adulterated products in a specific market.

For example, Orhan, Gafner and Blumenthal noted that results from comprehensive testing/analysis of all products sold in a geographic region are not available, criteria of what exactly represents adulteration vary from author to author, and some of the laboratory analytical methods used to determine the presence of adulteration may not be fit for purpose.

“The numbers obtained for the extent of adulteration of the five botanicals investigated for this systematic review may not be representative for the overall adulteration rate in the global herbal dietary and food supplement industry, but it is clear that adulteration of botanical ingredients is a problem and impacts a substantial portion of products sold as dietary or food supplements,” Dr. Gafner said.

The data indicated that products sold as licensed or registered herbal medicines, as is the case in many European countries, were all found to be authentic (not adulterated), contrary to products sold as dietary or food supplements.

“This highlights the importance of regulatory frameworks that mandate quality control and proper identity analysis to ensure the effectiveness and safety of botanical products (although safety concerns have not been documented in most of the published literature with respect to these five botanicals),” wrote Orhan, Gafner and Blumenthal.

“Quality control methods used by suppliers, manufacturers, researchers and regulators need to be sufficiently specific to detect possible adulterants in botanical ingredients and produce high-quality authentic products.

“There are numerous examples where some analytical methods used in industry quality control or government regulatory laboratories have been shown to be inadequate to detect adulteration and properly authenticate the botanical material(s). For this reason, BAPP has published a series of extensively peer-reviewed Laboratory Guidance Documents that evaluate the fitness for purpose of various analytical methods employed for some botanicals that BAPP has determined are subject to adulteration.”

Moving the needle ​

Commenting independently on the review’s findings, Daniel Fabricant, PhD, president and CEO of the Natural Products Association (NPA), told us: "These are important issues, and it's great to have this initiative [BAPP], but to ultimately move the needle FDA needs to be getting to the right number of facilities and putting the force of law behind their inspections.  

"I appreciate ABC trying to put a number on this, but we then need to have engagement with FDA. Is FDA going to those companies and facilities where there are problems?" 

The new review is the 90th peer-reviewed publication published by the ABC (American Botanical Council)-AHP (American Herbal Pharmacopoeia)-NCNPR (National Center for Natural Products Research at the University of Mississippi) Botanical Adulterants Prevention Program (BAPP).

BAPP publications confirm that almost 30 (so far) of botanicals are subject to adulteration. More information is available HERE ​ ​.

Source: Natural Product Reports ​ 2024; doi: https://doi.org/10.1039/D4NP00014E ​ “Estimating the extent of adulteration of the popular herbs black cohosh, echinacea, elder berry, ginkgo, and turmeric – its challenges and limitations” Authors: N. Orhan, S. Gafner, M. Blumenthal

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