Lit Review for Academic Article resources

[adel9216]

Hello,
What's your best resources (books) on how to conduct a lit review for an academic article ?

[Sun_Worshiper]

I don't' have any book to recommend, maybe others will. But my advice is to read articles in good journals to see what authors in your field do.

[jerseyjay]

It sounds like a bit much for an entire book. I have chapters of books (like Germano) on turning dissertations into books on how to deal with the lit review in book manuscripts.

I have also seen articles on how do this in various fields. But I think this is really field specific. Some fields do not really have a "lit review" section--although of course you need to reference previous writings--and others have a very specific form to do so. As a historian, I can probably tell you how to approach this for a history article, but even for a political science or sociology article--much less physics, maths, or psychology--I have no idea.

My advice is to look at some articles published in the type of journal you want to publish in, and figure out how they do the lit review.

If you are a grad student, I would ask your advisor for suggestions. If you are the advisor and you are looking for something to show your grad students, I would assign them to read some articles in your field.

[ab_grp]

I think it depends on what type of lit review you want to do, which is largely dependent on the purpose.  I have a couple books on systematic reviews, but that's just one type (and I haven't read them yet, to be honest).  I came across some software that seems useful, and the creator has a bunch of YouTube videos that include some background on how to approach lit reviews.   You could check that site out (which has links to the videos and other resources): https://harzing.com/resources/publish-or-perish  But I also agree that it makes sense to take a look at the lit reviews in the journals you wish to submit to and in general for your field. 

[mamselle]

I do a lit review when I have a strong disagreement with the prevailing opinion and want to point out the errors on which that opinion seems to me to be based, how I see the conversation has developed over time, and where I see the problems within that development... which I, of course, will fix....(ahem).

Since several of my lines of research inquiry have been generated out of such disagreements, many of my pieces have lit reviews.

But not if they don't need them.

M.