how many literature review should be in a research paper

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How many sources are enough? Six questions on breadth and depth of literature reviews

The first question I posed in the title of my blog post is one that all of my students (undergraduate and graduate) and most of my research assistants ask me: how do I know when I’ve read enough for a literature review? The answer is never clear cut, unfortunately. I am someone who loves reading, and who needs to read broadly because his own work is interdisciplinary . I’m also quite systematic in how I read , and I prefer to err on the side of having TOO MANY sources rather than be accused of not knowing the field.

I also realize not everyone has the time to be on top of the literature , particularly with teaching, service, family and caring and research obligations. I am going to answer the top six questions I get asked on breadth and depth of literature reviews, and in doing so, I am going to suggest a few shortcuts that may help narrowing a literature review search and finding the “sweet spot” where you’ve read enough that you feel confident enough to start writing your paper, chapter or thesis.

1. How many sources should I read for my literature review? This is an absurd question that is prompted by arbitrarily setting a random number of sources as “enough”. If you read the right five sources, you’ve probably covered a full field. But if you read 40 sources that all tend to pull in different directions, you’ll still be unable to cover all the sources.

Here’s my totally non-scientific take for coursework-related materials: a final research paper should at least use 13 additional sources to those in the syllabus (one additional paper per week) for an undergraduate class, and an in-depth literature review for a graduate course should be in the realm of 26 (2 additional papers per week) to 39 (3 additional papers per week for PhD students) . If somebody writes a final paper for my courses that only use the readings we did during the semester, it shows they didn’t go any further and I’ll probably penalize them.

2. Where do I get sources for my literature review if I am starting up a new topic? Well, here are a couple of strategies:

There are 2 clear sources of citations for literature reviews: (1) papers that are systematic reviews or meta-reviews pic.twitter.com/sYCUGv3kg0 — Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega (@raulpacheco) June 18, 2017

• Read literature summaries and reviews published in journals. There’s plenty of journals now that provide reviews of the literature. Three I’m well aware of are WIRES (Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews) and Geography Compass, as well as Progress in Human Geography. When reading Progress in Human Geography, you probably want to look for the “Progress Reports”.
• Search for “a review of the literature” or “a meta-review” type of article s (either Google Scholar or other online databases). These articles will usually provide a pretty extensive range of sources. Given their goal and scope, they’re also probably comprehensive enough. Meta-reviews tend to be more synthetic and provide a research agenda and specific research questions that need to be looked at in future research.
• Ask specialists (or look for their work) for key citations from where you can do citation tracing . For example, if I were to do a search on water ethics, I would ask Christiana Peppard, Jeremy Schmidt, Lucy Rodina for suggestions. Or I would look for articles citing them. If I were to do something on climate politics, I’d look for Kathryn Harrison, Sarah Burch, Max Boykoff, Mat Patterson.

(2) papers that are "a literature review of" (this should be obvious, but a lot of people don't seem to know this!) pic.twitter.com/T1xaK2yvv9 — Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega (@raulpacheco) June 18, 2017

Also the scoping review, a derivative of systematic reviews that is meant to be broader and more exploratory: https://t.co/WQjEpnuZR3 — AJ Wray (@WrayAJ) June 18, 2017

3. “When should I stop reading and start writing?”

My answer to that question is: you should be reading AND writing . Apparently, a lot of people feel like they need to Read All The Things before they can write a literature review. That’s why I always suggest that when you process a reading (a PDF or a printed source), you should generate at the very minimum a row entry in your Excel conceptual synthesis , and a synthetic note (or a rhetorical precis ). Obviously, you gain a lot more if you write a full-fledged memo , but you may want to wait to write the memo up until you’ve read a few sources. But you should ALWAYS be writing as you read. You may not assemble the full literature review , but at least you can start with an annotated bibliography .

4. How do I know when to stop reading/researching/seeking more sources? This is again a very tough question. Having mapped a very broad survey of the literature on informal waste picking, I can assure you that I felt I could not stop even after reading 50 articles. There is just simply too much published. But one of the reasons why I encourage my students to stop when they reach conceptual saturation (e.g. when they start seeing the same themes repeated over and over again) is because I don’t think you gain too much, marginally, from reading yet another paper on the same topic but using a different case study.

For example, I recently wrote a series of memorandums on the urban commons. I had basically mapped the entire body of works on urban commons using the first 10 citations I found on Google Scholar. However, I wanted to see how much more I could go in depth on the topic. What I found was that there were many case studies, but all using the same conceptual framework. So that’s when I stopped. When I saw that basically every other paper was a variation of the same central 10 ones, but using different case studies. I added those sources to my bibliography, but I didn’t need to incorporate them to my literature review.

Another way to respond to this question is: read enough to answer your questions properly.

The two biggest questions that probably would encompass the previous ones are related to breadth and depth.

5. How far reaching should your literature review be? Scoping a literature review, as Dr. Pat Thomson shows here , is not an easy task. It requires us to search through many months or even years of published literature. I always do Google Scholar searches at least 7 years into the past (e.g. 2010 articles would totally be welcome, as would be books published in 2010) because of the very long lag-time that exists between submission, acceptance and publication. My citation tracing process also looks at the last 7 years of scholarship of key authors.

Then you have the other associated question – what about the “seminal” (I prefer the word fundamental) articles or books?

For me, this is the most challenging component. When I know a field very well (for example, agenda-setting theory in public policy), I can easily decide which authors I will be seeking (Stuart Soroka, Michael Howlett, Baumgartner and Jones, Kingdon). If I am doing policy design, I’ll go with Helen Ingram, Ann Schneider, etc. And then based on doing a citation tracing exercise , I will go to those younger scholars who are citing these key authors. But again, this requires you to know the field already.

This is where a supervisor, a coauthor, a colleague or a trusted scholar on Twitter may be helpful with narrowing the search scope. You can ask “ who are the key authors I should be reading on Topic A ” or “ which are the key citations I should be looking at to get a grasp of Field B “. And then use those authors to create a map of the literature .

And the last question, which just about everyone asks me:

6. Do I need to do an in-depth reading of All The Things? This is completely a question that has arbitrary answers and a broad range of parameters to work around. It also depends on what type of literature review you are writing. If you are, for example, preparing your doctoral comprehensive examinations, you DO want to read EVERYTHING and do so IN DEPTH . You need to demonstrate that you know your field of study, broadly and deeply.

However, if you are writing a literature review, for example, of agenda-setting theory and its applications to health policy, you may want to read in depth 5-10 articles on health policy, 5-7 articles on agenda-setting theory, and then start writing from there. Again, in-depth reading is correlated with the extent and degree to which you need to demonstrate that you know a field.

My method, as most people may have noticed, is usually as follows:

• I read 5-10 citations that I find key. This reading is usually in-depth.
• I create the set of questions I want to answer. I choose 3-5 citations around each question. All the reading associated with these questions I do using the AIC method , or skimming and scribbling unless I find key ones that need to be read in depth.
• I write a memorandum for each one of the questions I’m trying to answer. In this memorandum, I assemble a mini-literature review that answers the question.
• I fuse all the memorandums into a larger document where I have mapped out how each question (and answer) relates to the overall topic.
• I read my entire literature review and restart with citation tracing until I reach concept saturation .

Hopefully this post will help those who are struggling with literature reviews, as the summer approaches! You may also want to revisit my Literature Review posts .

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Posted in academia , research .

Tagged with literature review .

By Raul Pacheco-Vega – June 17, 2017

5 Responses

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Thank you so much for helping me to demistify the concept of approaching/ attempting to write a LitReview. This has helped me so much

So glad this is helpful!

This is exactly what I needed today, thank you!!

This was a great article! Thank you so much for sharing the knowledge.

I am currently on a year out from studying at undergrad level due to ill health but when I was studying, I was frequently demoralised by how hard I found it to capture my understanding of the material in my written work. I was assured that it would come with practice, and given writing guide books like Strunk’s “Elements of Style” but I didn’t feel like I was making progress. Given it’s only undergrad, the bar for written work is quite low, but I was anxious that my writing skills would hold me back, especially if I chose to go into post-grad research; it never felt like I was getting enough writing practice while actually studying. This really hit me last year’s exams when due to distance learning, instead of producing one uncited essay in 3 hours, I was expected to spend around 5-6 hours in a 48 hour window writing a fully sourced essay. I realised how ill-equipped I was to do focussed reading and note-taking, having previously been able to consume entire topics of content in my own time.

I’m so glad to have stumbled across your blog. I’m not due to resume studying for another year, but the techniques and strategies you describe here provide an effective starting point for practicing the research skills I feel lacking in. Having a clear starting point for skills based work makes me feel actively motivated to start working on it during this year off from formal studying. Thank you for producing this content.

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How To Write A Literature Review For A Research Paper | A Comprehensive Guide

Published by Ellie Cross at October 28th, 2024 , Revised On October 29, 2024

A literature review for a research paper or project is a vital part of undergraduate and graduate school. It sets a foundation for your research and showcases your expertise by identifying gaps in the already existing literature and provides an excellent opportunity for researchers and philosophers to examine your evaluations of the studies.

Many confusions exist between literature reviews and other forms of academic papers such as essays, research papers, bibliographies and reports often due to misunderstandings about their meaning and purpose. A literature review is a part of a research paper that examines pieces of information that have already been written about your topic but does not answer any questions, prove points or develop theories. In this blog, we shall develop an understanding of what the purpose of a literature review is, how many parts are of a literature review and some tips on how to write a literature review for a research paper.

What Is A Literature Review?

When writing literature review for research paper, it is necessary to define any previous research conducted on the topic or subject chosen by you. This establishes your credibility and validity as a researcher and author. For instance, if you are crafting a research paper on the effect of creatine intake as a performance enhancer for sports athletes, then you will need to mention prior research studies or papers on the topic and compare how your work adds to the ongoing conversation. This is known as a literature review.

Purpose Of A Literature Review For A Research Paper

It is not only crucial to know how to write a literature review for a research paper but also the purpose behind it. Writing a literature for a research paper requires extensive research of existing literature or sources that align with your topic, defining similar themes, and identifying gaps within the existing work. However, the primary purpose of the literature review is:

• To justify the significance of your study by addressing any contradictions or untouched areas in the previous research that have the potential to break new ground and offer fresh perspectives. This helps shape your research question, which is answered within the research paper.
• To ensure that researchers avoid duplicating previous work, and provide a solid foundation as to how their research builds on already existing scholarly discourse.

How Long Is A Literature Review For A Research Paper

If you are writing a research paper or dissertation, then you must be aware of the length of your section that covers your literature review. There are several factors that determine the length of your literature review for a research paper, some of which are:

• The overall length of your research paper
• The complexity of your topic or subject.
• The specified guidelines or instructions provided by your instructor or journal studies.

Additionally, your literature review should comprise 20 to 30% of your research paper, enough to provide a comprehensive analysis of the existing research on your topic but not overshadow your original research paper and work.

How To Write A Good Literature Review

Before you write, it is necessary to understand how to write a literature review for a research paper and the steps needed to conduct a literature search. It is important to follow these steps to write a good literature review for a research paper:

Step 1: Conduct A Literature Search

The most imperative part of a literature review is defining the topic and subject for your research project and paper. This also involves stating your research question so that relevant studies that address the research questions can be sought for analysis and comparison. Moreover, it is also important to mention the timeframe of your research paper so that readers and researchers can understand if your focus is on historical research work or recent developments.

After defining your research question and scope of work, start finding sources and knowledge that support your work by using online databases, and primary and secondary sources of information. This means conducting a research literature review from internet to paper and going through reliable sources such as library catalogues, articles, published research papers, journals, Google Scholar, JSTOR and EBSCO by using keywords that align with your work.

Step 2: Select Sources

Then comes the second most important part of your literature review. Analysing the relevance and quality of your academic sources is necessary so that irrelevant pieces of information can be discarded. To select the best sources, start by organising similar papers, articles and research projects with themes and keywords that are related to your research question and topic.

Then proceed to compare every source to establish its relevance and credibility. Here are some questions to consider while evaluating each source:

• What are the key findings of this research?
• What are the primary concepts being discussed?
• What are the theories and methods of data collection ?
• What arguments arise from conflicting perspectives?
• How has the researcher addressed the limitations of his research?
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of this research work?
• How does this work relate and differ from other literature in this field?

After selecting credible sources that best align with your research question, take notes for your writing process and do not forget to add citations to avoid plagiarism.

Step 3: Identify Themes & Gaps

A literature review for a research paper must have a clearly defined outline that discusses recurring themes, patterns, core concepts, the methodological approaches used in research and any disagreements and areas lacking research.

By discussing these, you can establish the need for new research that is being addressed by your work, and any influential theories that can change the direction of the research in the field.

Step 4: Write Your Literature Review

Then comes the main part of your literature review and that is the format of literature review for research paper. Like any other academic writing, it comprises three major parts that synthesise and analyse the collected information accordingly. Let’s discuss how a literature review is written:

Introduction

The introduction sets the stage for your literature review and critically highlights the main topic or research question to be addressed. An opening statement briefs the readers about the purpose, objective and scope of your literature review.

An organisational framework of how you found the sources, how they will be included in your work and why your work is important to the field of research is also a vital part of your introductory paragraph. Last, conclude your paragraph with a thesis statement that outlines the main argument to be addressed in the research paper.

The body provides a thorough understanding and analysis of existing literature, the relevant themes, concepts and the methodologies used for research. Start by discussing the recurring trends and patterns in the literature, the common themes that are addressed, and the areas of research that have been left untouched.

Instead of paraphrasing other researchers, try to add your own opinions and interpretations. Additionally, evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the prior research and how to overcome the challenges for future researchers. You can also discuss how your review contributes to filling the gaps. Moreover, use transition sentences and phrases to create a smooth transition and flow between paragraphs.

The final part of writing a literature review concludes your evaluation by mentioning the key findings and results from the literature and its relevance to the broader academic field. Also, a good conclusion in a literature review explores the implications or discrepancies of the findings to future research and discusses potential directions and tips for research in the field.

Step 5: Editing and Proofreading

After you have written your first draft, proofread and edit your content to ensure that it is error-free, factually correct, grammatically coherent and well-cited. You may revise it as needed and make any changes. It many be helpful to get feedback from peers, instructors and researchers from your field for a more critical analysis.

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Difference Between A Literature Review And A Research Paper

A literature review sets the foundation for new research by evaluating and analysing already existing knowledge, but on the other hand, a research paper provides new knowledge by conducting original research. Moreover, they differ from each other in various aspects, which are as follows:

Example Of Literature Review Research Paper

Here is a literature review sample in the research paper that serves as an excellent example for your understanding:

The impact of AI-based tools on student creativity.

Literature Review

Artificial Intelligence has emerged as a marvellous tool in the educational and academic landscape. Through its innovative nature, it has helped students and researchers with learning, getting tasks done effectively and extracting better academic content. However, its integration into education has raised concerns all over the world as the creativity skills of students have been put at risk.

According to Brown et al. (2020), AI-driven tools have stifled the originality of students and eroded their critical thinking skills by offering automated essays and content generation.

Similarly, Johnson (2020) observed an over-reliance on AI tools for repetitive tasks such as user-generated content. Moreover, with the increase in their usage, students plagiarise most of the content in their academic essay writings, which blurs the lines between human-written and AI-produced content. This has raised ethical concerns over academic integrity as it creates a false sense of achievement in the minds of students.

Despite these findings, there are significant gaps in their research. These studies primarily focused on AI’s impact on student creativity in isolation without considering broader themes of educational curriculum and teacher guidance. Moreover, little to no research has been explored as to how different AI tools effect the innovative capabilities of students. By evaluating prior research, we aim to provide a comprehensive understanding of the implications and benefits of the role of AI within the context of proper teacher guidance and well-defined educational curriculums.

Frequently Asked Questions 

How many literature reviews in research papers exist.

There are three types of literature reviews for a research paper or dissertation: 

• Chronological Literature Review 
• Thematic Literature Review 
• Methodological Literature Review 
• Theoretical Literature Review 
• Systematic Literature Review Research Paper 

Is the information in a literature review synthesised or summarised?

In a literature review, information from previous research is synthesised which means that it is re-organised, re-shuffled and re-interpreted for the purpose of creating new knowledge or addressing research gaps. Remember, summarising is just mentioning the important or key ideas of information which is not part of a literature review. 

What is the express method of writing a literature review for a research paper?

An express method of writing a literature review is used when the scope of the research is narrow or a researcher has limited time. It involves synthesising and organising key points and concepts of existing research. It is important to know that it does not provide an in-depth analysis as compared to the traditional manner of writing a literature review. 

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How to write a literature review in 6 steps

What is a literature review?

How to write a literature review, 1. determine the purpose of your literature review, 2. do an extensive search, 3. evaluate and select literature, 4. analyze the literature, 5. plan the structure of your literature review, 6. write your literature review, other resources to help you write a successful literature review, frequently asked questions about writing a literature review, related articles.

A literature review is an assessment of the sources in a chosen topic of research.

A good literature review does not just summarize sources. It analyzes the state of the field on a given topic and creates a scholarly foundation for you to make your own intervention. It demonstrates to your readers how your research fits within a larger field of study.

In a thesis, a literature review is part of the introduction, but it can also be a separate section. In research papers, a literature review may have its own section or it may be integrated into the introduction, depending on the field.

➡️ Our guide on what is a literature review covers additional basics about literature reviews.

• Identify the main purpose of the literature review.
• Do extensive research.
• Evaluate and select relevant sources.
• Analyze the sources.
• Plan a structure.
• Write the review.

In this section, we review each step of the process of creating a literature review.

In the first step, make sure you know specifically what the assignment is and what form your literature review should take. Read your assignment carefully and seek clarification from your professor or instructor if needed. You should be able to answer the following questions:

• How many sources do I need to include?
• What types of sources should I review?
• Should I evaluate the sources?
• Should I summarize, synthesize or critique sources?
• Do I need to provide any definitions or background information?

In addition to that, be aware that the narrower your topic, the easier it will be to limit the number of sources you need to read in order to get a good overview of the topic.

Now you need to find out what has been written on the topic and search for literature related to your research topic. Make sure to select appropriate source material, which means using academic or scholarly sources , including books, reports, journal articles , government documents and web resources.

➡️ If you’re unsure about how to tell if a source is scholarly, take a look at our guide on how to identify a scholarly source .

Come up with a list of relevant keywords and then start your search with your institution's library catalog, and extend it to other useful databases and academic search engines like:

• Google Scholar
• Science.gov

➡️ Our guide on how to collect data for your thesis might be helpful at this stage of your research as well as the top list of academic search engines .

Once you find a useful article, check out the reference list. It should provide you with even more relevant sources. Also, keep a note of the:

• authors' names
• page numbers

Keeping track of the bibliographic information for each source will save you time when you’re ready to create citations. You could also use a reference manager like Paperpile to automatically save, manage, and cite your references.

Read the literature. You will most likely not be able to read absolutely everything that is out there on the topic. Therefore, read the abstract first to determine whether the rest of the source is worth your time. If the source is relevant for your topic:

• Read it critically.
• Look for the main arguments.
• Take notes as you read.
• Organize your notes using a table, mind map, or other technique.

Now you are ready to analyze the literature you have gathered. While your are working on your analysis, you should ask the following questions:

• What are the key terms, concepts and problems addressed by the author?
• How is this source relevant for my specific topic?
• How is the article structured? What are the major trends and findings?
• What are the conclusions of the study?
• How are the results presented? Is the source credible?
• When comparing different sources, how do they relate to each other? What are the similarities, what are the differences?
• Does the study help me understand the topic better?
• Are there any gaps in the research that need to be filled? How can I further my research as a result of the review?

Tip: Decide on the structure of your literature review before you start writing.

There are various ways to organize your literature review:

• Chronological method : Writing in the chronological method means you are presenting the materials according to when they were published. Follow this approach only if a clear path of research can be identified.
• Thematic review : A thematic review of literature is organized around a topic or issue, rather than the progression of time.
• Publication-based : You can order your sources by publication, if the way you present the order of your sources demonstrates a more important trend. This is the case when a progression revealed from study to study and the practices of researchers have changed and adapted due to the new revelations.
• Methodological approach : A methodological approach focuses on the methods used by the researcher. If you have used sources from different disciplines that use a variety of research methods, you might want to compare the results in light of the different methods and discuss how the topic has been approached from different sides.

Regardless of the structure you chose, a review should always include the following three sections:

• An introduction, which should give the reader an outline of why you are writing the review and explain the relevance of the topic.
• A body, which divides your literature review into different sections. Write in well-structured paragraphs, use transitions and topic sentences and critically analyze each source for how it contributes to the themes you are researching.
• A conclusion , which summarizes the key findings, the main agreements and disagreements in the literature, your overall perspective, and any gaps or areas for further research.

➡️ If your literature review is part of a longer paper, visit our guide on what is a research paper for additional tips.

➡️ UNC writing center: Literature reviews

➡️ How to write a literature review in 3 steps

➡️ How to write a literature review in 30 minutes or less

The goal of a literature review is to asses the state of the field on a given topic in preparation for making an intervention.

A literature review should have its own independent section. You should indicate clearly in the table of contents where it can be found, and address this section as “Literature Review.”

There is no set amount of words for a literature review; the length depends on the research. If you are working with a large amount of sources, then it will be long. If your paper does not depend entirely on references, then it will be short.

Most research papers include a literature review. By assessing the available sources in your field of research, you will be able to make a more confident argument about the topic.

Literature reviews are most commonly found in theses and dissertations. However, you find them in research papers as well.

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How Long Should a Literature Review Be?

4-minute read

• 7th October 2023

If you’re writing a research paper or dissertation , then you know how important it is to include a thorough, comprehensive literature review. But exactly how long should your literature review be in relation to the rest of your work? While there’s no one-size-fits-all answer to that question, there are some factors that will help determine the length of your review. In this post, we’ll discuss what information to include in your literature review and how long it should be.

Keep reading to learn more.

What Is a Literature Review?

A literature review is a critical summary and evaluation of the current resources (e.g., books and journal articles) on a specific topic or research question. It is a crucial part of academic writing, such as dissertations, in all categories and fields. Essentially, literature reviews help contextualize your investigations and show how your work is building on existing research.

No matter how long your literature review is, it should generally:

●  Establish context for your research (i.e., provide relevant background information so your reader understands the historical significance of your study ).

●  Identify gaps in the existing literature (such as unaddressed questions or aspects of your topic).

●  Highlight significant concepts related to your topic.

●  Cite relevant studies.

●  Support your argument.

It’s also essential that a literature review critically analyze the sources cited in your study, considering factors such as sample size, research design, and potential biases. Be sure to structure your literature review using the same referencing style as the rest of your research paper (e.g., APA , Chicago , MLA ).

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The length of your literature review depends on several factors, including the scope and purpose of your research. In general, the length of the review should be proportionate to your overall paper. For example, if you’re writing a fifty-thousand-word dissertation, then your literature review will likely be an entire chapter comprising about 20 pages. If it’s for a 15-page research paper, your literature review may only be a few pages.

Here are several factors that could affect the length of your literature review:

●  Institutional guidelines : Always check the guidelines provided by your institution or journal (such as an APA journal ). There may be a specific length or word count required for publication.

●  Scope : If your research topic is narrow and focused, your literature review may be shorter. Conversely, if your topic is broad and encompasses a large body of literature, your review may need to be longer.

●  Field of study : Different academic fields may have different expectations regarding the length of literature reviews. For example, literature reviews in the humanities might be longer than those in the natural sciences.

Also, consider your audience. If your literature review is for a general audience or a class assignment, it can probably be shorter and less specialized. However, if it’s for an academic audience in your field of study, you may need to be more thorough and provide an extensive review of the existing literature.

Most literature reviews follow the same basic structure of an introduction, body, and conclusion. Most of the time, they are part of a larger work, so the introduction and conclusion paragraphs will be relatively brief.

However, if the review is a standalone piece, then your introduction and conclusion will be longer since you will need to discuss your research objectives, methods, and findings as well as analyze the literature used in your study.

To ensure your literature review makes an impression, have it professionally proofread by our expert literature review editing services . Submit your free sample of 500 words or less to get started today!

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