Scientific Literature Review: Your Guide to Writing a Good One

When you get down to writing serious academic papers, such as thesis or dissertation, you inevitably face the necessity of writing a scientific literature review.

In fact, a scientific literature review provides the theoretical scope and the general background for your research. Therefore it is important to get your scientific literature review right from the very beginning. Read on and discover our helpful advice on writing a scientific literature review!

Scientific Literature Review: General Information

To get a proper image of what a scientific literature review is, consider following:

• a scientific literature review is a discussion of the available literature on a certain research topic published within a given time period;
• unlike annotated bibliography, a scientific literature review is organized around a certain model, has a summary and synthesis.

Scientific Literature Review: Preliminary Procedures

In order to get your scientific literature review right, make sure you observe the following:

• decide on the number and type of sources you want to review;
• see that your sources are current enough for your research purposes;
• choose the way you approach your sources: do you summarize, synthesize, evaluate, or critique them?
• find an appropriate model for your scientific literature review.

Scientific Literature Review: Organization Matters

When you get down to writing your scientific literature review, complete the following:

• pick a theme to organize your sources around;
• create a working thesis that expresses the perspective on the material;
• consider the organization of your review: together with the obligatory introduction-body-construction scheme, you may choose to apply chronological, thematic, or methodological approach to writing your review.

Scientific Literature Review: Writing Tips

In writing your scientific literature review, it is necessary to employ the following:

• use evidence;
• be selective;
• use quotes sparingly;
• summarize and synthesize within each paragraph and throughout the whole review;
• keep your own voice;
• paraphrase with caution.