As you find sources of information related to your research question, you'll also need to evaluate whether each source fits into the scope of your literature review. Furthermore, a literature review is not just a summary of important past and current literature related to your topic or research question, a well-written literature review synthesizes the sources you are using.
Although the process of evaluating and synthesizing literature is presented here as separate concepts, sometimes they are performed simultaneously. You may either evaluate multiple sources first and then synthesize them together, while other times you may synthesize multiple sources and then evaluate them as a group.
Evaluating the literature
When evaluating sources for your literature review, there are three aspects to consider:
Furthermore, while you are evaluating sources, it's important to remain objective. This means:
Evaluating the source:
When evaluating a source, consider the following questions:
Is this useful/ relevant to your topic or project?
Deciding which sources to include in your literature review includes deciding which are the most relevant to your overall argument and/or to position your study within the rest of the literature (for research papers, independent projects, dissertations or theses).
Literature reviews synthesize large amounts of information and present it in a coherent, organized fashion. In a literature review you will be combining material from several texts to create a new text – your literature review.
Synthesizing sources for your literature review involves:
A synthesis matrix is a table that can be used to organize research. When completed, it provides a visual representation of main ideas found in the literature and also shows where there is overlap in ideas between authors. A completed matrix will help to integrate all of the different resources together, which will facilitate the synthesis of information on a specific topic.
A synthesis matrix can take many different forms. In the example table below, the sources are listed in the left column of the table, and the main ideas or themes about the topic are listed along the top of the table.
Resources:
Example of a Partially Completed Synthesis Matrix (University of Arizona)
Using a literature matrix can help you keep track of various aspects of your sources, so you can start to see themes emerge.
Here are some potential aspects you may want to track:
Year of Publication | Abstract | Methodology |
Author Names | Geographic location | Sample/Population characteristics |
Source Title | Keywords | Main findings |
Publication Name | Purpose/Objectives | Limitations |
Citation | Research questions/Hypothesis | Future research directions |
Source type (book, journal article) | Theoretical framework | Notes |
Download Literature Review Spreadsheets:
Below are a couple of different examples of lit review spreadsheets. Customize the columns to your needs.