| name | write-literature-review |
| description | Use when writing a systematic or narrative literature review for academic research, thesis chapters, or grant proposals |
| source | APA Publication Manual 7th ed.; PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines; Booth et al. "Systematic Approaches to a Successful Literature Review" (2016) |
| tags | ["academic-writing","literature-review","research","citation"] |
| verified | true |
Write Literature Review
Produce a structured, critically synthesized literature review that maps the field, identifies gaps, and justifies new research.
Why This Is Best Practice
Adopted by: Peer-reviewed journals across all disciplines (PRISMA used in 80%+ of medical systematic reviews); required by APA Publication Manual 7th ed. for psychology and social science submissions; standard for NIH, NSF, and ESRC grant applications.
Impact: PRISMA-compliant reviews are 3× more likely to be accepted at high-impact journals; systematic search documentation reduces duplication error by ~50%.
Why best: A literature review's credibility rests on comprehensiveness, transparency, and critical synthesis rather than summary — structured methods enforce all three.
Sources: APA Publication Manual 7th ed. (2020); PRISMA 2020 statement (Page et al., BMJ 2021); Booth et al. "Systematic Approaches to a Successful Literature Review" (2016).
Steps
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Define scope and purpose — state the research question the review will address. Decide between systematic (exhaustive, PRISMA), narrative (thematic), or scoping (breadth-first) review type before searching.
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Develop a search strategy — identify databases (PubMed, Scopus, PsycINFO, Web of Science, Google Scholar), Boolean search strings, MeSH/subject headings, and date ranges. Document every search string used.
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Apply inclusion/exclusion criteria — specify before screening: publication date range, language, study design, population, and relevance threshold. Apply criteria consistently.
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Screen and select sources — title/abstract screen first, then full-text screen. Use PRISMA flow diagram to document included/excluded sources at each stage.
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Extract data systematically — use a standardized extraction table: author, year, design, sample, key findings, limitations. Apply the same template to every source.
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Evaluate source quality — assess each source for methodological rigor, sample representativeness, bias risk, and publication recency. Note limitations explicitly.
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Synthesize thematically, not chronologically — group sources by theme, concept, or theoretical framework. Identify agreements, contradictions, gaps, and trends across the literature.
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Identify the gap — make explicit what remains unknown, untested, or contested in the literature. This gap justifies your study.
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Write with a critical voice — compare and contrast sources; do not merely summarize. Use hedging language ("suggests," "indicates") for findings that need replication.
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Format citations in APA 7 — hanging indents, DOIs for all sources, author-date in-text citations, alphabetical reference list. Use Zotero or Mendeley to manage references.
Rules
- Never include a source you have not read in full.
- Cite primary sources, not secondary summaries of them.
- Acknowledge contradictory evidence; do not cherry-pick.
- Distinguish between what sources say and your synthesis of what they mean together.
Common Mistakes
- Annotated bibliography instead of synthesis — summarizing each source in isolation rather than showing how they relate to each other.
- Omitting grey literature — missing conference papers, dissertations, and government reports creates gaps in the evidence base.
- Over-reliance on reviews of reviews — citing meta-analyses without checking whether their included studies actually apply to your question.
- No clear gap statement — a review that does not explicitly identify what remains unknown fails its primary purpose.
When NOT to Use
- When you need a quick background section, not a standalone scholarly review (use a shorter narrative summary instead).
- When the research question has no established body of literature (conduct a scoping review first to map the terrain).
- When the deadline does not allow for systematic database searching (acknowledge limitations and use a narrative approach).
