“A literature review is an assessment of a body of research that addresses a research question.”
Harvard Graduate School of Education. (2016). The literature review: A research journey: Overview. Retrieved from
http://guides.library.harvard.edu/c.php?g=310271&p=2071512
This video was created by North Carolina State University librarians and it is found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2d7y_r65HU
Writing a literature review (or any research paper, really) is an iterative process -- meaning a writer repeats steps again and again. They don't select a topic, then research, and then write the paper without giving themselves freedom to jump back to a previous step. Based on your research you may revisit your topic. Or as you are writing, you may realize you need to do more research in an area. It's not a strictly linear process!
It may be helpful for you to look at some literature reviews that have been written. Sometimes you can simply use "literature review" as a search term and some of the articles in the result list will be literature reviews. However, some databases make it easier.
Here are a few databases and ways to find literature reviews indexed within them. When you are simply looking for examples of literature reviews, use a search term that is broader for now, like "bullying."
Contains abstracts of documents and scholarly journal articles on education research and practice. The database covers descriptions and evaluations of programs, research reports and surveys, curriculum and teaching guides, instructional materials, position papers, and resource materials. Many sources available full text. This interface allows researchers to use more limiters than does the public access interface.
Note: Due to actions by the Department of Government Efficiency, as of April 24, 2025, ERIC will be decreasing the number of sources it actively catalogs by about 45%. All current records in the ERIC database will continue to be available.
In ERIC, type a keyword in the first search box. In the second search box, type literature reviews and select "SU Descriptors" from the "Select a Field (optional)" dropdown box. Then click "Search."
Abstracts and citations to scholarly literature in the psychological, social, behavioral, and health sciences. Includes scholarly journals, books/chapters, and dissertation abstracts -- much of it available full-text. Helpful source for researching interdisciplinary topics related to these fields. Coverage back to 17th century. Limiters offered include searching by age groups, population group, and methodology.
In PsycINFO, type a keyword in the search box. Then, if you look lower on the page, you'll see ways to limit the search. One option is "Methodology." In this list, select "Literature Review." Then click the orange "Search" box.
Provides free access to MEDLINE, the National Library of Medicine database of more than 11 million bibliographic citations and abstracts in the fields of medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, health care systems, and preclinical sciences. Includes access to additional selected life sciences journals not in MEDLINE. Links to the full-text of articles at participating publishers web sites.
In PubMed, type your search term and then click "Search." On the result page you'll see the heading "Article types" on the left of the page. One option is "Review." Click this. Now your results should be all literature reviews.
Multidisciplinary citation index with a collection of over 21,000 peer-reviewed scholarly journals. Allows citation searching. This includes discovery of how many times a particular author or article has been cited and by whom. Users can also find later works which cite a specific article, allowing tracing the development of a research path.
In Web of Science, type your search term in the search box and click "Search." On the left side of the page you'll see ways to Refine Results. One option is "Document Types." You'll probably see "Review" as one of these document types. Click that box and then the "Refine" button to the bottom right of the document type list. (You'll see Refine boxes up and down the left sidebar. Clicking any one of them should cause Web of Science to update the result list.)
