literature review matrix table template

Welcome to the new OASIS website! We have academic skills, library skills, math and statistics support, and writing resources all together in one new home.

• Walden University
• Faculty Portal

Common Assignments: Literature Review Matrix

Literature review matrix.

As you read and evaluate your literature there are several different ways to organize your research. Courtesy of Dr. Gary Burkholder in the School of Psychology, these sample matrices are one option to help organize your articles. These documents allow you to compile details about your sources, such as the foundational theories, methodologies, and conclusions; begin to note similarities among the authors; and retrieve citation information for easy insertion within a document.

You can review the sample matrixes to see a completed form or download the blank matrix for your own use.

• Literature Review Matrix 1 This PDF file provides a sample literature review matrix.
• Literature Review Matrix 2 This PDF file provides a sample literature review matrix.
• Literature Review Matrix Template (Word)
• Literature Review Matrix Template (Excel)

Related Resources

Didn't find what you need? Email us at [email protected] .

• Previous Page: Commentary Versus Opinion
• Next Page: Professional Development Plans (PDPs)
• Office of Student Disability Services

Walden Resources

Departments.

• Academic Residencies
• Academic Skills
• Career Planning and Development
• Customer Care Team
• Field Experience
• Military Services
• Student Success Advising
• Writing Skills

Centers and Offices

• Center for Social Change
• Office of Academic Support and Instructional Services
• Office of Degree Acceleration
• Office of Research and Doctoral Services
• Office of Student Affairs

Student Resources

• Doctoral Writing Assessment
• Form & Style Review
• Quick Answers
• ScholarWorks
• SKIL Courses and Workshops
• Walden Bookstore
• Walden Catalog & Student Handbook
• Student Safety/Title IX
• Legal & Consumer Information
• Website Terms and Conditions
• Cookie Policy
• Accessibility
• Accreditation
• State Authorization
• Net Price Calculator
• Cost of Attendance
• Contact Walden

Walden University is a member of Adtalem Global Education, Inc. www.adtalem.com Walden University is certified to operate by SCHEV © 2024 Walden University LLC. All rights reserved.

• Generating Ideas
• Drafting and Revision
• Sources and Evidence
• Style and Grammar
• Specific to Creative Arts
• Specific to Humanities
• Specific to Sciences
• Specific to Social Sciences
• CVs, Résumés and Cover Letters
• Graduate School Applications
• Other Resources
• Hiatt Career Center
• University Writing Center
• Classroom Materials
• Course and Assignment Design
• UWP Instructor Resources
• Writing Intensive Requirement
• Criteria and Learning Goals
• Course Application for Instructors
• What to Know about UWS
• Teaching Resources for WI
• FAQ for Instructors
• FAQ for Students
• Journals on Writing Research and Pedagogy
• University Writing Program
• Degree Programs
• Graduate Programs
• Brandeis Online
• Summer Programs
• Undergraduate Admissions
• Graduate Admissions
• Financial Aid
• Summer School
• Centers and Institutes
• Funding Resources
• Housing/Community Living
• Clubs and Organizations
• Community Service
• Brandeis Arts Engagement
• Rose Art Museum
• Our Jewish Roots
• Mission and Diversity Statements
• Administration
• Faculty & Staff
• Alumni & Friends
• Parents & Families
• Campus Calendar
• Directories
• New Students
• Shuttle Schedules
• Support at Brandeis

Writing Resources

The matrix method for literature reviews.

This handout is available for download in DOCX format and PDF format .

What is the Matrix Method, and why should I use it?

Using a review matrix enables you to quickly compare and contrast articles in order to determine the scope of research across time. A review matrix can help you more easily spot differences and similarities between journal articles about a research topic. While they may be helpful in any discipline, review matrices are especially helpful for health sciences literature reviews covering the complete scope of a research topic over time. This guide focuses on the review matrix step in the literature review process and offers tips on how to use it effectively.

Organize your sources

Once you complete your research, organize your source by date in order to make it easier to see changes in research over time.

Begin by creating the blank matrix. The matrices can be easily constructed using table-making software such as Microsoft Excel, Word or OneNote, Google Sheets, or Numbers. Every review matrix should have the same first three column headings: (1) authors, title, and journal, (2) publication year, and (3) purpose.

Be aware that it may be difficult to determine purpose from just a cursory review of the article. In some cases, it may be necessary to first read the paper fully to identify its purpose.

Choose your remaining column topics

Next, carefully read all your articles. Note any important issues you identify. The following broad categories provide some suggestions for determining your own subject headings:

Methodological

Methodology is often an important question. For example, if you are looking at tests of an Ebola vaccine beyond human subjects, it will be important to note what type of animal the test was carried out on, i.e. macaques or mice.

Content-specific

Consider noting what was actually studied. For example, when looking at the effectiveness of traditional Chinese medicine in the treatment of illnesses, it would be important to note what illness was being studied.

Geographical

It may be important to note where the research was completed. For example, if you want to compare the effects of the AIDS epidemic in different countries, you would use country as a column heading.

There are many ways to choose your column headings, and these are just a few suggestions. As you create your own matrix, choose column headings that support your research question and goals.

• Do not include column headings that are explicit in your research question. For example, if you are looking at drug use in adolescents, do not include a column heading for age of study participants. If the answer will be the same for every study, it's generally a bad choice for a column heading.
• Do not try to fully complete a review matrix before reading the articles. Reading the articles is an important way to discern the nuances between studies.

Credit: Adapted from David Nolfi, “Matrix Method for Literature Review: The Review Matrix,” Duquesne University, https://guides.library.duq.edu/matrix , 2020.

• Resources for Students
• Writing Intensive Instructor Resources
• Research and Pedagogy

• Architectural Engineering

Literature Review Matrix Template (Draft)

• Walden University

Discover the world's research

• 25+ million members
• 160+ million publication pages
• 2.3+ billion citations
• Recruit researchers
• Join for free
• Login Email Tip: Most researchers use their institutional email address as their ResearchGate login Password Forgot password? Keep me logged in Log in or Continue with Google Welcome back! Please log in. Email · Hint Tip: Most researchers use their institutional email address as their ResearchGate login Password Forgot password? Keep me logged in Log in or Continue with Google No account? Sign up

Free Download

Literature Review Template

The fastest (and smartest) way to craft a strong literature review that lays a solid theoretical foundation and earns marks.

Available in Google Doc, Word & PDF format 4.9 star rating, 5000 + downloads

Step-by-step instructions

Tried & tested academic format

Fill-in-the-blanks simplicity

Pro tips, tricks and resources

What It Covers

This literature review template is based on the tried and trusted best-practice format and structure  for formal academic research projects. It includes the following sections:

• Before you start – essential groundwork to ensure you’re ready
• The introduction section
• The core/body section
• The conclusion /summary
• Extra free resources

Each section is explained in plain, straightforward language , followed by an overview of the key elements.  We’ve also included practical examples and links to free videos to help you understand what’s required in each section.

The template can be copied to your Google Drive 0r downloaded as a fully editable MS Word Document (DOCX format), adaptable to LaTeX.

download your copy now

100% Free to use. Instant access.

I agree to receive the free template and other useful resources.

Download Now (Instant Access)

FAQs: Literature Review Template

What format is the template (doc, pdf, ppt, etc.).

The literature review chapter template is provided as a Google Doc. You can download it in MS Word format or make a copy to your Google Drive. You’re also welcome to convert it to whatever format works best for you, such as LaTeX or PDF.

What types of literature reviews can this template be used for?

The template follows the standard format for academic literature reviews, which means it will be suitable for the vast majority of academic research projects (especially those within the sciences), whether they are qualitative or quantitative in terms of design.

Keep in mind that the exact requirements for the literature review chapter will vary between universities and degree programs. These are typically minor, but it’s always a good idea to double-check your university’s requirements before you finalize your structure.

Is this template for an undergrad, Master or PhD-level thesis?

This template can be used for a literature review at any level of study. Doctoral-level projects typically require the literature review to be more extensive/comprehensive, but the structure will typically remain the same.

Can I modify the template to suit my topic/area?

Absolutely. While the template provides a general structure, you should adapt it to fit the specific requirements and focus of your literature review.

What structural style does this literature review template use?

The template assumes a thematic structure (as opposed to a chronological or methodological structure), as this is the most common approach. However, this is only one dimension of the template, so it will still be useful if you are adopting a different structure.

Does this template include the Excel literature catalog?

No, that is a separate template, which you can download for free here . This template is for the write-up of the actual literature review chapter, whereas the catalog is for use during the literature sourcing and sorting phase.

How long should the literature review chapter be?

This depends on your university’s specific requirements, so it’s best to check with them. As a general ballpark, literature reviews for Masters-level projects are usually 2,000 – 3,000 words in length, while Doctoral-level projects can reach multiples of this.

Can I include literature that contradicts my hypothesis?

Yes, it’s important to acknowledge and discuss literature that presents different viewpoints or contradicts your hypothesis. So, don’t shy away from existing research that takes an opposing view to yours.

How do I avoid plagiarism in my literature review?

Always cite your sources correctly and paraphrase ideas in your own words while maintaining the original meaning. You can always check our plagiarism score before submitting your work to help ease your mind. 

Do you have an example of a populated template?

We provide a walkthrough of the template and review an example of a high-quality literature research chapter here .

Can I share this literature review template with my friends/colleagues?

Yes, you’re welcome to share this template in its original format (no editing allowed). If you want to post about it on your blog or social media, all we ask is that you reference this page as your source.

Do you have templates for the other dissertation/thesis chapters?

Yes, we do. You can find our full collection of templates here .

Can Grad Coach help me with my literature review?

Yes, you’re welcome to get in touch with us to discuss our private coaching services , where we can help you work through the literature review chapter (and any other chapters).

Additional Resources

If you’re working on a literature review, you’ll also want to check these out…

Literature Review Bootcamp

1-On-1 Private Coaching

The Grad Coach YouTube Channel

The Grad Coach Podcast

• Reserve a study room
• Library Account
• Undergraduate Students
• Graduate Students
• Faculty & Staff

How to Conduct a Literature Review (Health Sciences and Beyond)

• What is a Literature Review?
• Developing a Research Question
• Selection Criteria
• Database Search
• Documenting Your Search

Review Matrix

• Reference Management

Using a spreadsheet or table to organize the key elements (e.g. subjects, methodologies, results) of articles/books you plan to use in your literature review can be helpful. This is called a review matrix.

When you create a review matrix, the first few columns should include (1) the authors, title, journal, (2) publication year, and (3) purpose of the paper. The remaining columns should identify important aspects of each study such as methodology and findings.

Click on the image below to view a sample review matrix.

You can also download this template as a Microsoft Excel file .

The information on this page is from the book below. The 5th edition is available online through VCU Libraries.

• << Previous: Documenting Your Search
• Next: Reference Management >>
• Last Updated: Mar 15, 2024 12:22 PM
• URL: https://guides.library.vcu.edu/health-sciences-lit-review

Matrix Method for Literature Review

• Introduction
• Organize Your Sources
• Choose Your Remaining Column Topics
• More Information
• Sample Matrix and Templates
• Related Library Guides
• Getting Help

The Review Matrix   

Using a review matrix enables you to quickly compare and contrast articles in order to determine the scope of research across time. A review matrix can help you more easily spot differences and similarities between journal articles about a given research topic. Review matrices are especially helpful for health sciences literature reviews covering the complete scope of a research topic over time.

This guide focuses on the review matrix step in the literature review process. For more information on searching databases, see the Health Sciences Literature Searching Guide.

• Next: Organize Your Sources >>
• Last Updated: Feb 20, 2024 10:26 AM
• URL: https://guides.library.duq.edu/matrix

Nursing and Allied Health: Building a Summary Table or Synthesis Matrix

• Nursing Library Services
• Library Support for Nursing Accreditation
• Academic Research Libraries (ACRL) Information Literacy Standards for Science
• ACRL Guidelines for Distance Learning
• AACN Resources: Information Literacy
• The Essentials: Core Competencies for Professional Nursing Education
• Accreditation Commision for Education
• ACEN Learning Resources | Definitions & Standards
• Tutoring & Paper Review: College of Nursing & Allied Health Students
• Technology and Collaboration
• Affordable Learning Louisiana
• NIH Virtual Reality Funding
• How to Create Links to Library Resources
• Nursing Resources
• Literature Searching: Overview
• Nursing Resources: Books, Journals and Articles
• Assistive Technology Resources
• Web Accessibility Initiative WC3
• Healthcare Links for Persons With Disabilities
• Accessibility
• Accessibility Tools: Videos
• Braile Institute: Blind and Low Vision Web Accessibility
• Braile Institute: Assistive Technology for the Visually Impaired This link opens in a new window
• Mental Health Resources for Students & Faculty
• Student Activities & Organizations
• Anatomage FAQ's
• APA Reference Worksheet With Examples This link opens in a new window
• APA Style and Grammar Guidelines, 7.0
• What's New in APA Guide, 7.0 This link opens in a new window
• APA Instructional Aids for Professors/Instructors
• APA Handouts & Guides This link opens in a new window
• Sample Papers for Students and Instructors
• Academic Writer Tutorial: Basics This link opens in a new window
• APA Styling Your Paper
• When to cite or not cite a database
• Video: A Step-By-Step Guide for APA Style Student Papers
• Video: Citing Works in Text Using APA 7.0 This link opens in a new window
• Video: Creating References Using APA Guide, 7.0 This link opens in a new window
• Journal Article Reporting Standards
• Digital Information Literacy
• Tips Sheet: Copyright Essentials for Higher Education This link opens in a new window
• Citing National Patient Safety Goals (Joint Commission)
• Citing Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) in APA format
• Best Nursing Apps
• Writing an Abstract for Your PILT or Special Project
• PILT Poster Presentation Archive
• Academic Success
• Healthcare Career Salaries
• Industry Statistics: Healthcare
• Nursing Organizations
• Radiology Organizations
• Controlled Medical Vocabularies
• COVID-19 Current Vaccines (Medscape)
• COVID-19 Current and Candidate Vaccine Landscape and Tracker (WHO)
• COVID-19: Clinician Care Guidance (CDC.gov) This link opens in a new window
• COVID -19 Contract Tracing & Patient Privacy (Cornell) This link opens in a new window
• COVID-19: Coronavirus Dashboard (Johns Hopkins Epidemiology)
• COVID-19: Coronavirus Guidelines (Up-To-Date) This link opens in a new window
• COVID-19: Critical Care Evidence (Cochrane) This link opens in a new window
• COVID-19: Diagnosis & Treatment (JAMA) This link opens in a new window
• COVID-19: Free Video Access (Jove) This link opens in a new window
• COVID-19: Healthcare Hub (Elsevier) This link opens in a new window
• COVID-19: Keeping Up With A Moving Target (Johns Hopkins Nursing Videos)
• COVID-19: LitCovid Daily Update (NLM)
• COVID 19 - Long Term Health Effects Stemming From COVID-19
• COVID-19: Louisiana Department of Health
• COVID-19: Novel Coronavirus Information Center (Elsevier) This link opens in a new window
• COVID-19 Nursing Resources (Medscape)
• COVID-19: Red Book - Recent Pediatric Updates (AAP)
• COVID-19: Washing Your Hands Thoroughly (NHS)
• COVID-19: Well-Being Initiative (ANF)
• Properly Putting On Your Facemask & Getting a Good Seal (Dr. Scheiner) This link opens in a new window
• Creating Personal Accounts
• Creating a CINAHL MyFolder Account
• Creating a PubMed | MyNCBI Personal Account
• Creating a ProQuest Nursing & Allied Health Premium | MyResearch Folder
• Creating an OVID MyWorkspace Personal Account
• Mobile APPS | CINAHL for Apple and Android Mobile Devices
• My Circulation Login
• Interlibrary Loan Personal Account
• Data Visualization Products
• International Classification of Diseases (ICD)
• Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders | DSM-5-TR
• [C1] Infections | Infectious Diseases
• [C04] Neoplasms
• [C05] Musculoskeletal Diseases
• [C06] Digestive System Diseases
• [C07] Stomatognathic Diseases
• [C08] Respiratory Tract Diseases
• [C09] Otorhinolaryngologic Diseases
• [C10] Nervous System Diseases
• [C11] Eye Diseases
• [C12] Urogenital Diseases
• [C14] Cardiovascular Diseases
• [C15] Hemic and Lymphatic Diseases
• [C16] Congenital, Hereditary, and Neonatal Diseases and Abnormalities
• [C17] Skin and Connective Tissue Diseases
• [C18] Nutritional and Metabolic Diseases
• [C19] Endocrine System Diseases
• [C20] Immune System Diseases
• [C21] Disorders of Environmental Origin
• [C22] Animal Diseases [Zoonotic diseases]
• [C23] Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms
• [C24] Occupational Diseases
• [C25] Chemically-Induced Disorders
• [C26] Wounds and Injuries
• WHO Drug Information [Relative to Diseases]
• NDDK Patient Education Tool Kit
• Clinical Tools & Patient Education
• NDDK Resources on Medline Plus
• NDDK Open Research
• Dietary Guidelines for Americans
• Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans
• Move Your Way Community Resources
• National Youth Sports Strategy
• President’s Council on Sports, Fitness & Nutrition
• White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health
• Equitable Long-Term Recovery and Resilience
• National Health Observances
• Finding Clinical Trials
• NIH News in Health
• Dosage Calculations & Pharmacology
• PICO - EBM Video This link opens in a new window
• PICO Slides
• Fillable CONSAH Pico Form
• Evidence Based Practice for Nursing
• Evidence-Based Nursing: -Step 2
• Evidence Appraisal - Step 3
• Evidence Application - Step 4
• Outcome Evaluation - Step 5
• Evidence Translation - Step 6
• Google Advanced Search for EBM
• Nursing Research Methods
• Faculty Book Request
• Proctor Request Form
• Peer Reviewed Literature: Assessment Goals
• Full Text Finder
• EBSCO e-Books Nursing 2021
• EBSCO eBooks Anesthesia
• EBSCO eBooks Radiology Science & Allied Health
• EBSCO eBooks: Writing About Nursing and Allied Health
• Alzheimers and Dementia
• Statistics on Aging
• CDC Bibliography: Alzheimers & Aging This link opens in a new window
• Health Conditions
• Health Behaviors
• Populations
• Settings and Systems
• Social Determinants of Health
• ILL Interlibrary Loan
• Gestational Diabetes and Fast Foods (MeSH)
• Mobile Resources
• Nursing Theory
• Psychiatric Nursing Journals
• Display, sort and; navigate
• Similar articles
• Cite, save and share
• Citations in PubMed
• All About PubMed Filters
• PubMed Quick Tours and Tutorials
• Evidence Based Practice Tutorial (PubMed) This link opens in a new window
• Developing a Clinical Question This link opens in a new window
• Using PubMed to Find Relevant Articles This link opens in a new window
• Next Steps This link opens in a new window
• Scenario (practice) This link opens in a new window
• Radiology Books and e-Books
• History of Radiology & Radiography
• Radiology: Anatomage This link opens in a new window
• Radiology Anatomy Atlas Viewer
• Advanced Radiographic Research
• Diagnostic Imaging Selected Articles
• Faculty and Administrative Resources
• Radiology Tech and MRI Salaries (Bureau of Labor Statistics)
• Radiology Technician Demand by State
• Review Tools for Graduate Students
• Training & Videos
• Register for an Online Meeting
• Joining an Online Meeting
• Training Videos & Search Examples
• Training Survey
• Sources for Health Statistics
• Ebola and Infectious Diseases
• Nursing Sites
• Writing Research Papers

Building a Summary Table or Synthesis Matrix

Quick Links | Nursing & Allied Health

• NSU Libraries Home
• Contact Your Librarian (Research Assistance)
• Nursing & Allied Health Databases
• Holidays & University Closures
• Review My Paper**
• Student Help Desk :  Phone: (318) 357-6696  [email protected]
• Nursing & Alled Health Databases  
• Shreveport Library Main Phone:   318.677.3007
• Shreveport Librarian Phone:  318.677.301 3
• Simplifying Synthesis | Download the Article PDF Copy
• Writing a Literature Review and Using a Synthesis Matrix

What a Summary Table or Synthesis Matrix looks like

Use the "Literature Review Matrix Template" as a guideline to help you sort through your thoughts, note important points and think through the similarities and differences: 

You are organizing the review by ideas and not by sources .  The literature review is not just a summary of the already published works.  Your synthesis should show how various articles are linked. 

A summary table is also called a synthesis matrix.  The table helps you organize and compare information for your systematic review, scholarly report, dissertation or thesis

Synthesis Matrix.

A summary table is also called a synthesis matrix . A summary table helps you record the main points of each source and document how sources relate to each other. After summarizing and evaluating your sources, arrange them in a matrix to help you see how they relate to each other, and apply to each of your themes or variables.

Faculty who typically guide students find it challenging to help students learn how to synthesize material (Blondy, Blakesless, Scheffer, Rubenfeld, Cronin, & Luster-Turner, 2016; Kearney, 2015) .  Writers  can easily summarize material but seem to struggle to adequately synthesize knowledge about their topic and express that in their writing. So, whether you are writing a student papers, dissertations, or scholarly report it is necessary to learn a few tips and tricks to organize your ideas.

Building a summary table and developing solid synthesis skills is important for nurses, nurse practitioners, and allied health researchers.  Quality evidence-based practice initiatives and nursing care and medicine are based on understanding and evaluating the resources and research available, identifying gaps, and building a strong foundation for future work.

Good synthesis is about putting the data gathered, references read, and literature analyzed together in a new way that shows connections and relationships. ( Shellenbarger, 2016 ). The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines synthesis as something that is made by combining different things or the composition or combination of parts or elements so as to form a whole (Synthesis, n.d.).  

In other words, building a summary table or synthesis matrix  involves taking information from a variety of sources, evaluating that information and forming new ideas or insights in an original way.  This can be a new and potentially challenging experience for students and researchers who are used to just repeating what is already in the literature.

Visit Our Libraries

   Interlibrary Loan    |    Shreveport Education Center Library   |    Eugene P. Watson Memorial Library    |     NSU Leesville Library 

Cammie G. Henry Research Center    |   Prince Music Media Library

• << Previous: Best Nursing Apps
• Next: Writing an Abstract for Your PILT or Special Project >>
• Last Updated: Sep 5, 2024 2:05 PM
• URL: https://libguides.nsula.edu/NursingandAlliedHealth

• Books, Articles, & More
• Curriculum Library
• Archives & Special Collections
• Scholars Crossing
• Research Guides
• Student Support
• Faculty Support
• Interlibrary Loan

AMA Writing Guide: Literature Matrix

• AMA Style Formatting
• In-text Citations
• Journal Articles
• Books and Ebooks
• WHO Reports
• Misc. Citations
• Structured Abstract- IMRAD
• Primary & Secondary Sources
• Literature Matrix

What is a literature matrix?

As defined by Judith Garrard in her handbook entitled  Health Sciences Literature Reviews Made Easy: The Matrix Method , a “Review of the literature consists of reading, analyzing, and writing a synthesis of scholarly materials about a specific topic. When reviewing scientific literature, the focus is on the hypotheses, the scientific methods, the strengths and weaknesses of the study, the results, and the authors’ interpretations and conclusions.” When reading materials for a literature review, you should critically evaluate the study’s major aims and results. 

The purpose of completing a literature matrix is to help you identify important aspects of the study. Literature matrixes contain a variety of headings, but frequent headings include: author surname and date, theoretical/ conceptual framework, research question(s)/ hypothesis, methodology, analysis & results, conclusions, implications for future research, and implications for practice. You can add additional columns as needed, and you might consider adding a “notes column” to proactively have important quotations and your thoughts already collected.  As you read journal articles, have your literature matrix ready. It is best to fill in the matrix directly after reading a work, rather than returning to the matrix later.  

Literature Matrix Files

You should use a literature matrix that best helps you to organize your reading and research. Excel workbooks can help to organize your research. Sample basic and complex literature matrixes are provided below: 

• Literature Matrix Basic BLANK
• Literature Matrix Basic SAMPLE
• Literature Matrix Complex BLANK

Synthesize vs. Summarize

When writing your literature review, you will not simply summarize the materials that you found related to your topic. A summary is a recap of the information provided in research articles. Summaries provide basic information about the study, but the details provided in a summary are not enumerative or systematic. 

Synthesizing goes beyond summarizing to explore specific aspects of the research study. When synthesizing the literature, rely on your completed literature matrix to inform your writing. Do you see any tends across publications? Was one type of methodology used repeatedly, why or why not? Did separate teams of researchers come to the same conclusion, differing conclusions, or is the literature inconclusive? Synthesizing requires that you look at the current state of the research overall. 

When preparing to write a synthesis, you will read the literature available, tease apart individual findings and supporting evidence across different articles, and then reorganize this information in a way that presents your understanding of the current state of research in this field.  

• << Previous: Primary & Secondary Sources
• Last Updated: Apr 3, 2024 9:18 AM
• URL: https://libguides.liberty.edu/ama

Literature Review: A Self-Guided Tutorial for NUR 288

• Literature Reviews: A Recap
• Peer-Review
• Reading the Literature
• Developing Research Questions
• 2. Review discipline styles
• Super Searching
• Finding the Full Text
• Citation Searching
• Evaluating online information
• When to stop searching
• How to cite your sources following APA
• In-Text Citations
• Keeping track of your references
• Annotating Articles Tip
• 5. Critically analyze and evaluate
• How to review the literature

Using a synthesis matrix

• 7. Write literature review

Synthesize : combine separate elements to form a whole.

Why use a synthesis matrix? 

• A synthesis matrix helps you record the main points of each source and document how sources relate to each other.
• After summarizing and evaluating your sources, arrange them in a matrix or use a citation manager to help you see how they relate to each other and apply to each of your themes or variables.  
• By arranging your sources by theme or variable, you can see how your sources relate to each other, and can start thinking about how you weave them together to create a narrative.

A synthesis matrix visually represents your research by organizing your sources by themes:

Add each article citation to the Source column and begin to identify the theme(s) from the article. 

Use the Excel template below to help you evaluate your sources, create article summaries for an annotated bibliography, and a synthesis matrix for your lit review outline. From John Hopkins Sheridan Libraries.  

NOTE : There are several tabs at the bottom of the Excel spreadsheet to help guide you with this method.

• Literature Review Prep - with Synthesis Matrix
• << Previous: How to review the literature
• Next: 7. Write literature review >>
• Last Updated: Aug 24, 2024 2:45 PM
• URL: https://libguides.wccnet.edu/literature_review

Communication Sciences & Disorders: Researching the Literature

• 1. Terms to Know: The Basics
• Practice: Identifying Information Sources (Opens Word Doc) This link opens in a new window
• 3: Browsing Key Journals
• 4: Author Searching
• 5: Reference Mining & Citation Searching
• 6. PICO: To Refine the Research Question
• 7: Database Searching
• 8. Finding Full Text Articles
• Sample Annotation
• Sample Annotation 2

Literature Review Matrices and Organizers

• 11. APA Style Citation

A literature review matrix is a tool used by researchers to analyze and synthesize information from various sources relevant to their research topic. It typically takes the form of a table or chart, where rows represent different studies or articles, and columns display key information such as research methodologies, findings, and key themes.

The primary purpose of a literature review matrix is to help you analyze and compare existing literature, to identify patterns, gaps, and contradictions in the body of knowledge related to your research question. 

• Literature Rewiew Matrix Template (example) You will be prompted to make a copy in your Google Drive. You are the sole owner, viewer and editor of the template until you choose to share it.
• << Previous: Sample Annotation 2
• Next: 11. APA Style Citation >>
• Last Updated: Aug 13, 2024 12:53 PM
• URL: https://libguides.uww.edu/comdis-lit-review

• Research Guides
• Vanderbilt University Libraries
• Peabody Library

Literature Reviews

Literature review table.

• Steps to Success: The Literature Review Process
• Literature Reviews Webinar Recording
• Writing Like an Academic
• Publishing in Academic Journals
• Managing Citations This link opens in a new window
• Literature Review Table Template Peabody Librarians have created a sample literature review table to use to organize your research. Feel free to download this file and use or adapt as needed.
• << Previous: Literature Reviews Webinar Recording
• Next: Writing Like an Academic >>
• Last Updated: Jul 12, 2024 12:55 PM
• URL: https://researchguides.library.vanderbilt.edu/peabody/litreviews

Doing a literature review using digital tools (with Notion template)

I’ve recently revamped my literature review workflow since discovering Notion . Notion is an organization application that allows you to make various pages and databases. It’s kind of like your own personal wiki- you can link your pages and embed databases into another page, adding filters and sorting them using user-set properties. The databases are what I use the most. I’ve essentially transferred all of my excel sheets into Notion databases and find it much easier to filter and sort things now. In this post, I’ll go through how I do my literature review and share a Notion template that you can use.

I like to organize my literature review using various literature review tools along with two relational Notion databases: a ‘literature tracker’ and a ‘literature notes’ matrix. You can see a flow chart of my literature review process below (it’s inspired by this post by Jenn’s Studious Life and the three pass method for reading papers which I wrote about last week in this post ):

As you can see, this process involves a couple of decision points which helps me focus on the most important papers. This is an iterative process that keeps me up to date on relevant research in my field as I am getting new paper alerts in my inbox most days. I used this method quite successfully to write the literature review for my confirmation report and regularly add to it for the expanded version that will become part of my PhD thesis. In this post, I’ll break down how this works for me and how I implement my Notion databases to synthesise the literature I read into a coherent argument.

You can click on the links below to navigate to a particular section of this article:

The literature search

The literature tracker, the literature synthesis matrix, writing your literature review, iterating your literature review, my literature review notion template, some useful resources.

This is always the first step in building your literature review. There are plenty of resources online all about how to start with your search- I find a mixture of database search tools works for me.

The first thing to do when starting your literature review is to identify some keywords to use in your initial searches. It might be worth chatting to your supervisor to make a list of these and then add or remove terms to it as you go down different research routes. You can use keyword searches relevant to your research questions as well tools that find ‘similar’ papers and look at citation links. I also find that just looking through the bibliographies of literature in your field and seeing which papers are regularly cited gives you a good idea of the core papers in your area (you’ll start recognising the key ones after a while). Another method for finding literature is the snowballing method which is particularly useful for conducting a systematic review.

Here are some digital tools I use to help me find literature relevant to my research questions:

Library building and suggestions

Mendeley was my research management tool of choice prior to when I started using Notion to organize all of my literature and create my synthesis matrix. I still use Mendeley as a library just in case anything happens to my Notion. It’s easy to add new papers to your library using the browser extension with just one click. I like that Mendeley allows you to share your folders with colleagues and that I can export bib.tex files straight from my library into overleaf documents where I’m writing up papers and my thesis. You do need to make sure that all of the details are correct before you export the bib.tex files though as this is taken straight from the information plane. I also like to use the tag function in Mendeley to add more specific identifiers than my folders.

Mendeley is also useful for finding literature related to those in your library- I’ve found quite a few interesting papers through the email updates they send out each week with ‘suggested papers’. You can also browse these suggestions from within Mendeley and use its interface to do initial keyword searches. The key is to just scan the titles and then decide whether it’s worth your time reading the abstract and then the rest of it. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the sheer amount of papers being published every day so being picky in what you read is important (and something I need to work on more!).

Some similar tools that allow you to build a library and get literature recommendations include Zotero , Researcher , Academia , and ResearchGate . It’s up to you which one you use for your own purposes. One big factor for me when choosing Mendeley was that my supervisor and colleagues use it so it makes it much easier to share libraries with them, so maybe ask your colleagues what they use before settling on one.

Literature databases and keyword alerts

There are a variety of databases out there for finding literature. My go-to is Web of Science as it shows you citation data and has a nice interface. I used this to begin my initial literature search using my keywords.

The other thing you can do with these kinds of tools is set up email alerts to get a list of recent work that has just been published with any keywords you set. These alerts are usually where I find papers to read during journal club with my supervisor. You can customize these emails to what suits you- mine are set to the top 10 most relevant new papers for each keyword weekly and I track around 5 words/phrases. This allows me to stay on top of the most recent literature in my field- I have alerts set up on a variety of services to ensure that I don’t miss anything crucial (and alerts from the ArXiv mean I see preprints too). Again, you need to be picky about what you read from these to ensure that they are very relevant to your research. At this stage, it’s important to spend as little time as possible scanning titles as this can easily become a time suck.

Some of the other tools I have keyword (and author) email alerts set up on are: Scopus , Google Scholar , Dimensions , and ArXiv alerts . I set 10 minutes maximum aside per day to scan through any new email alerts and save anything relevant to me into my literature tracker (which I’ll come to more later).

Literature mapping tools

There are loads of these kinds of tools out there. Literature mapping can be helpful for finding what the seminal papers are in your field and seeing how literature connects. It’s like a huge web and I find these visual interfaces make it much easier to get my head around the relationships between papers. I use two of these tools during the literature search phase of the flowchart: Citation Gecko and Connected Papers .

Citation Gecko builds you a citation tree using ‘seed papers’. You can import these from various reference management software (like Mendeley), bib.tex files or manually search for papers. This is particularly useful if your supervisor has provided you with some core papers to start off with, or you can use the key papers you identified through scanning the bibliographies of literature you read. My project is split into fairly clear ‘subprojects’ so these tools help me see connections between the various things I’m working on (or a lack of them which is good in some ways as it shows I’ve found a clear research gap!).

You can switch between different views and add connecting papers as new seed papers to expand your network. I use this tool from time to time with various different papers associated with my subprojects. It’s helped me make sure I haven’t missed any key papers when doing my literature review and I’ve found it to be fairly accurate, although sometimes more recent papers don’t have any citation data on it so that’s something to bear in mind.

Connected Papers uses a ‘similarity’ algorithm to show paper relationships. This isn’t a citation tree like Citation Gecko but it does also give you prior and derivative works if you want to look at them. All you do is put one of your key papers into the search box and ‘build a graph’. It will then show you related papers, including those which don’t have direct citation links to the key paper. I think this is great for ensuring that you’re not staying inside an insular bubble of the people who all cite each other. It also allows me to see some of the research which is perhaps a bit more tangential to my project and get an overview of where my work sits within the field more broadly.

I like Connected Paper’s key for the generated tree and that it shows where related papers connect between themselves. Again, it’s helpful for ensuring that you haven’t missed a really important work when compiling your literature review and doesn’t just rely on citation links between papers.

This is where I record the details of any paper I come across that I think might be relevant to my PhD. In some ways, it’s very similar to Mendeley but it’s a version that sits within Notion so I have some more customised filtering categories set up, like my ‘status’ field where I track which pass I am on.

Here’s what my literature tracker looks like:

The beauty of Notion is that you can decide which properties you want to record in your database and customize it to your needs. You can sort and filter using these properties including making nested filters and using multiple filters at once. This makes it really easy to find what you’re looking for. For example, say I’m doing my literature review for my ‘FIB etching’ subproject and want to see all of the papers that I marked as relevant to my PhD but haven’t started reading yet. All I need to do is add a couple of filters:

And it filters everything so that I’m just looking at the papers I want to check out. It’s this flexibility that I think really gives Notion the edge when it comes to my literature review process.

The other thing I really like about using Notion rather than excel is that I can add different database views. I especially like using the kanban board view to see where I’m at with my reading workflow:

When I add something to the literature tracker database, I scan the abstract for keywords to add and categorize it in terms of relevant topics. It’s essentially the first pass of the paper, so that involves reading the title, abstract, introduction, section headings, conclusions, and checking the references for anything you recognise. After this is done, I decide whether it’s relevant enough to my PhD to proceed to do a second pass of the paper, at which point I will progress to populating my literature notes database.

Once I’ve decided that I want to do a second pass on a paper, I then add it to the ‘literature notes’ database. This is part of the beauty of Notion: relational databases. I have ‘rollup’ properties set in the literature notes database which shows all of the things I added during my first pass and allows me to filter the matrix using them. You can watch the video below to see exactly how to add a new paper to the ‘notes’ database from the ‘tracker’ database:

During the second pass, I populate the new fields in the ‘notes’ database. These are:

Summary | Objective of study | Key Results | Theory | Materials | Methods | Conclusions | Future work suggested | Critiques | Key connected papers.

I also have various themes/questions/ideas as properties which I add a few notes on for each relevant paper. I then complete my ‘questions for critical engagement’ which are on the entry’s ‘Notes’ page and are stored in the ‘Article Template’. If you want to read more about this process, check out my ‘how to read a scientific paper’ post .

By, doing this I create a synthesis matrix where I can see a breakdown of the key aspects of each paper and can scan down a column to get an overview of all of the papers I have read. For example, if I wanted to see all of the papers about Quantum Point Contacts to get an idea of what previous work has been done so that I can identify my research gap, I can filter using the tag property and can then see the notes I wrote for each entry, broken down by section. I also have tags for my research questions or themes, materials used, experimental techniques, fabrication techniques, and anything else that comes to mind really! The more tags I have for a paper, the easier it is to filter when I want to find a specific thing.

The other property I have included in the literature notes database is ‘Key connected papers’. This is a relation but is within the database itself. So it means that I can link to the page of other papers in the literature matrix. I’ve found this to be useful for connecting to what I call ‘core’ papers. I can also filter using this property, allowing me to see my notes on all of the papers I’ve read that are related to a certain ‘core’ paper. This helps with synthesising all of the information and forming my argument.

For those papers most relevant to my research (the ‘core’ papers) I’ll also do a third pass which involves reimplementing the paper in my own words. This is quite a time-consuming task so not many papers reach this stage, but those which I have done a third pass on are the ones I know really well. My hope is that this will stand me in good stead for my viva. This process also helps me refine my research questions further as I gain a deeper understanding of the field.

I find that writing up a review is extremely intimidating, but having the literature matrix makes this process that bit easier. I won’t go into too many details as there are already loads of resources out there going into the details of writing up a review, but here’s a brief overview of my own process:

Identify your research themes

Using your literature matrix, review each research theme or question and decide which ones you are going to focus on. These will form the different sections of your literature review and help you write your thesis statement(s). You can also think about how your questions link to ensure that you’re telling a coherent story with your review.

Choose and summarize literature related to each theme

For each section, gather up the most important related literature and summarize the key points of each source. A good literature review doesn’t need to cover all the literature out there, just the most significant sources. I try to stick to around 10 or fewer key sources per section.

Critical evaluation of sources

This is where you utilize the ‘questions for critical engagement’. Make sure you evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the studies you’re writing about. By doing this, you can establish where our knowledge is lacking which will come in helpful later when establishing a research gap.

Analyse each source in relation to other literature

Try to make sure that you are telling a coherent story by linking between your sources. You can go back to the literature matrix here and use it to group similar studies to compare and contrast them. You should also discuss the relevance of the source’s findings in relation to the broader field and core papers.

Situate your research in a research gap

This is where you justify your own research. Using what you have laid out in the rest of the review, show that there is a research gap that you plan to fill and explain how you are going to do that. This should mean that your thesis flows nicely into the next section where you’ll cover the materials and methods you used in your research project.

In some ways, a literature review never really ends. As you can see in the flowchart at the beginning of this post, I regularly update and revise my literature review as well as refining my research questions. At this point in my PhD, I think that most of my research questions are quite well defined, so I’m mostly just adding any newly published work into my review. I don’t spend much time reading literature at the moment but I’m sure I’ll return to it more regularly when I’m in the write-up phase of my PhD. There is a balance to be had between reading and writing for your literature review and actually getting on with your own research!

Here’s the link to my Notion Literature Review Template . You can duplicate it and adapt it however you want, but this should save you some time setting up the initial databases if you’d like to use my method for organizing your own literature review.

Here are some resources on how to do a literature review that I’ve found useful during my PhD:

• The Literature Review: Step-by-Step Guide for Students
• 3 Steps to Save You From Drowning in Your Literature Review
• How to write a literature review
• How to become a literature searching ninja
• Mind the gap
• 7 Secrets to Write a PhD Literature Review The Right Way

If you like my work, I’d love your support!

Share this:

• Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)

11 thoughts on “Doing a literature review using digital tools (with Notion template)”

Thank you so much for your insight and structured process. This will help me a lot kicking off my Master Thesis.

The perfect method to organize the literature that I have read and will read in the future. I am so glad to have found your website, this will save me from thrashing around in the swamp of literature. I was already feeling the limits of my memory when I was doing my master thesis and this will be so helpful during my PhD.

Thank you so much for this detailed post! Lily 🙂

Thank you very much for this. I’m doing my undergrad atm and reading a lot of papers. This seems like an excellent way of tracking everything.

Thank you, you made my beginning less stressful. I like your system and i helped me a lot. I have one question (more might come later), What do you mean by " journal club with my supervisor."

This piece is really really helpful! I started from this one and went through the rest blog writings. I agree on many points with Daisy. I had an unhappy experience of PhD two years ago and now just started a new one in another country. I will take it as an adventure and enjoy it.

This is an AMAZING template. I've found this so helpful for my own workflow. Thank you so much!

I found this post really helpful. Thank you.

thank you very much!

Hi! Thank you very much for posting this guide and sharing your notion template! I do have a question—do you manually enter the references into Notion, or is there any way to speed up the process? Ta x

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Discover more from notes from the physics lab.

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Type your email…

Continue reading

Health Professions Education for Doctoral Students: Reviewing the Literature

• Articles on Your topic
• Reviewing the Literature
• Writing Your Thesis
• Writing & Citing
• Publishing Your Research

What is a Literature Review?

“A review of the literature consists of reading, analyzing, and writing a synthesis of scholarly materials about a specific topic. When the review is of scientific literature, the focus is on the hypotheses, the scientific methods, the strengths and weaknesses of the study, the results, and the authors’ interpretations and conclusions. A review of the scientific literature is fundamental to understanding the accumulated knowledge about the topic being reviewed."

Garrard, J. (2017). Health sciences literature review made easy: The matrix method . Burlington, MA: Jones and Bartlett Learning. p. 4.

Search Strategies

For a review of the literature, you want to conduct a comprehensive search to identify as many sources as possible on your topic. Be sure to take notes on your search process, otherwise it's easy to lose track of what you've already tried.

Database Searching

Search health sciences and other disciplinary databases (i.e. CINAHL, MEDLINE, ERIC) for keywords related to your topic.  (See the  Articles on Your Topic  page of this guide for tips and resources).

Having trouble?   Make an appointment with a librarian  to discuss databases, keywords, and search strategies.

Citation Searching

When you find a relevant article, use it to identify other potentially relevant articles:

Look at its references to identify other relevant articles that you haven't found.

Use Google Scholar or Scopus to identify more recent articles that have cited that one.

Structure of a Literature Review

When you're writing a literature review, you won't just summarize all of the articles that you've found on your topic. Instead, you'll synthesize the evidence. This means that you'll look at the state of the evidence as a whole, telling your reader what it means when you put it all together. Rather than reviewing your sources one at a time, you'll organize your lit review by concept, chronology, methodology, etc. -- whatever makes the most sense for your topic.

The Matrix Method

What is the Matrix Method?

The Matrix Method is an organizational system that guides you through the literature review process from start to finish, outlined in the book Health Sciences Literature Review Made Easy by Judith Garrard (see citation below). It is “intended to teach you how to read a paper, organize the review using the Matrix Method, analyze it, and create a narrative synthesis” (p. 31).

• Matrix Method Handout This handout provides a general introduction to the Matrix Method. Please refer to Garrard’s book for further instructions on using the Matrix Method.

How can I access Garrard’s book?

Garrard, J. (2017).  Health sciences literature review made easy: The matrix method . Burlington, MA: Jones and Bartlett Learning.

• << Previous: Articles on Your topic
• Next: Writing Your Thesis >>
• Last Updated: Jul 8, 2024 10:59 AM
• URL: https://simmons.libguides.com/hped

Log in using your username and password

• Search More Search for this keyword Advanced search
• Latest content
• Current issue
• Write for Us
• BMJ Journals

You are here

• Volume 24, Issue 2
• Five tips for developing useful literature summary tables for writing review articles
• Article Text
• Article info
• Citation Tools
• Rapid Responses
• Article metrics

• http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0157-5319 Ahtisham Younas 1 , 2 ,
• http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7839-8130 Parveen Ali 3 , 4
• 1 Memorial University of Newfoundland , St John's , Newfoundland , Canada
• 2 Swat College of Nursing , Pakistan
• 3 School of Nursing and Midwifery , University of Sheffield , Sheffield , South Yorkshire , UK
• 4 Sheffield University Interpersonal Violence Research Group , Sheffield University , Sheffield , UK
• Correspondence to Ahtisham Younas, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St John's, NL A1C 5C4, Canada; ay6133{at}mun.ca

https://doi.org/10.1136/ebnurs-2021-103417

Statistics from Altmetric.com

Request permissions.

If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

Introduction

Literature reviews offer a critical synthesis of empirical and theoretical literature to assess the strength of evidence, develop guidelines for practice and policymaking, and identify areas for future research. 1 It is often essential and usually the first task in any research endeavour, particularly in masters or doctoral level education. For effective data extraction and rigorous synthesis in reviews, the use of literature summary tables is of utmost importance. A literature summary table provides a synopsis of an included article. It succinctly presents its purpose, methods, findings and other relevant information pertinent to the review. The aim of developing these literature summary tables is to provide the reader with the information at one glance. Since there are multiple types of reviews (eg, systematic, integrative, scoping, critical and mixed methods) with distinct purposes and techniques, 2 there could be various approaches for developing literature summary tables making it a complex task specialty for the novice researchers or reviewers. Here, we offer five tips for authors of the review articles, relevant to all types of reviews, for creating useful and relevant literature summary tables. We also provide examples from our published reviews to illustrate how useful literature summary tables can be developed and what sort of information should be provided.

Tip 1: provide detailed information about frameworks and methods

• Download figure
• Open in new tab
• Download powerpoint

Tabular literature summaries from a scoping review. Source: Rasheed et al . 3

The provision of information about conceptual and theoretical frameworks and methods is useful for several reasons. First, in quantitative (reviews synthesising the results of quantitative studies) and mixed reviews (reviews synthesising the results of both qualitative and quantitative studies to address a mixed review question), it allows the readers to assess the congruence of the core findings and methods with the adapted framework and tested assumptions. In qualitative reviews (reviews synthesising results of qualitative studies), this information is beneficial for readers to recognise the underlying philosophical and paradigmatic stance of the authors of the included articles. For example, imagine the authors of an article, included in a review, used phenomenological inquiry for their research. In that case, the review authors and the readers of the review need to know what kind of (transcendental or hermeneutic) philosophical stance guided the inquiry. Review authors should, therefore, include the philosophical stance in their literature summary for the particular article. Second, information about frameworks and methods enables review authors and readers to judge the quality of the research, which allows for discerning the strengths and limitations of the article. For example, if authors of an included article intended to develop a new scale and test its psychometric properties. To achieve this aim, they used a convenience sample of 150 participants and performed exploratory (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) on the same sample. Such an approach would indicate a flawed methodology because EFA and CFA should not be conducted on the same sample. The review authors must include this information in their summary table. Omitting this information from a summary could lead to the inclusion of a flawed article in the review, thereby jeopardising the review’s rigour.

Tip 2: include strengths and limitations for each article

Critical appraisal of individual articles included in a review is crucial for increasing the rigour of the review. Despite using various templates for critical appraisal, authors often do not provide detailed information about each reviewed article’s strengths and limitations. Merely noting the quality score based on standardised critical appraisal templates is not adequate because the readers should be able to identify the reasons for assigning a weak or moderate rating. Many recent critical appraisal checklists (eg, Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool) discourage review authors from assigning a quality score and recommend noting the main strengths and limitations of included studies. It is also vital that methodological and conceptual limitations and strengths of the articles included in the review are provided because not all review articles include empirical research papers. Rather some review synthesises the theoretical aspects of articles. Providing information about conceptual limitations is also important for readers to judge the quality of foundations of the research. For example, if you included a mixed-methods study in the review, reporting the methodological and conceptual limitations about ‘integration’ is critical for evaluating the study’s strength. Suppose the authors only collected qualitative and quantitative data and did not state the intent and timing of integration. In that case, the strength of the study is weak. Integration only occurred at the levels of data collection. However, integration may not have occurred at the analysis, interpretation and reporting levels.

Tip 3: write conceptual contribution of each reviewed article

While reading and evaluating review papers, we have observed that many review authors only provide core results of the article included in a review and do not explain the conceptual contribution offered by the included article. We refer to conceptual contribution as a description of how the article’s key results contribute towards the development of potential codes, themes or subthemes, or emerging patterns that are reported as the review findings. For example, the authors of a review article noted that one of the research articles included in their review demonstrated the usefulness of case studies and reflective logs as strategies for fostering compassion in nursing students. The conceptual contribution of this research article could be that experiential learning is one way to teach compassion to nursing students, as supported by case studies and reflective logs. This conceptual contribution of the article should be mentioned in the literature summary table. Delineating each reviewed article’s conceptual contribution is particularly beneficial in qualitative reviews, mixed-methods reviews, and critical reviews that often focus on developing models and describing or explaining various phenomena. Figure 2 offers an example of a literature summary table. 4

Tabular literature summaries from a critical review. Source: Younas and Maddigan. 4

Tip 4: compose potential themes from each article during summary writing

While developing literature summary tables, many authors use themes or subthemes reported in the given articles as the key results of their own review. Such an approach prevents the review authors from understanding the article’s conceptual contribution, developing rigorous synthesis and drawing reasonable interpretations of results from an individual article. Ultimately, it affects the generation of novel review findings. For example, one of the articles about women’s healthcare-seeking behaviours in developing countries reported a theme ‘social-cultural determinants of health as precursors of delays’. Instead of using this theme as one of the review findings, the reviewers should read and interpret beyond the given description in an article, compare and contrast themes, findings from one article with findings and themes from another article to find similarities and differences and to understand and explain bigger picture for their readers. Therefore, while developing literature summary tables, think twice before using the predeveloped themes. Including your themes in the summary tables (see figure 1 ) demonstrates to the readers that a robust method of data extraction and synthesis has been followed.

Tip 5: create your personalised template for literature summaries

Often templates are available for data extraction and development of literature summary tables. The available templates may be in the form of a table, chart or a structured framework that extracts some essential information about every article. The commonly used information may include authors, purpose, methods, key results and quality scores. While extracting all relevant information is important, such templates should be tailored to meet the needs of the individuals’ review. For example, for a review about the effectiveness of healthcare interventions, a literature summary table must include information about the intervention, its type, content timing, duration, setting, effectiveness, negative consequences, and receivers and implementers’ experiences of its usage. Similarly, literature summary tables for articles included in a meta-synthesis must include information about the participants’ characteristics, research context and conceptual contribution of each reviewed article so as to help the reader make an informed decision about the usefulness or lack of usefulness of the individual article in the review and the whole review.

In conclusion, narrative or systematic reviews are almost always conducted as a part of any educational project (thesis or dissertation) or academic or clinical research. Literature reviews are the foundation of research on a given topic. Robust and high-quality reviews play an instrumental role in guiding research, practice and policymaking. However, the quality of reviews is also contingent on rigorous data extraction and synthesis, which require developing literature summaries. We have outlined five tips that could enhance the quality of the data extraction and synthesis process by developing useful literature summaries.

• Aromataris E ,
• Rasheed SP ,

Twitter @Ahtisham04, @parveenazamali

Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

Competing interests None declared.

Patient consent for publication Not required.

Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

Read the full text or download the PDF:

The Sheridan Libraries

• Write a Literature Review
• Sheridan Libraries
• Evaluate This link opens in a new window

What Will You Do Differently?

Please help your librarians by filling out this two-minute survey of today's class session..

Professor, this one's for you .

Introduction

Literature reviews take time. here is some general information to know before you start.  .

•  VIDEO -- This video is a great overview of the entire process.  (2020; North Carolina State University Libraries) --The transcript is included --This is for everyone; ignore the mention of "graduate students" --9.5 minutes, and every second is important  
• OVERVIEW -- Read this page from Purdue's OWL. It's not long, and gives some tips to fill in what you just learned from the video.  
• NOT A RESEARCH ARTICLE -- A literature review follows a different style, format, and structure from a research article.  

• Next: Evaluate >>
• Last Updated: Jul 30, 2024 1:42 PM
• URL: https://guides.library.jhu.edu/lit-review

INFO 200 – Information Communities

Literature review matrix.

Here you will find the requirements and guidelines for the assignment followed by an assignment helper to get you started!

View a video about the assignment:

• Download: Web (Captioned)
• Lecture Slides
• Video Podcast (mp4)
• Audio Podcast . (mp3)

Description:

The literature matrix assignment is an organizational tool to help you prepare for writing the literature review section of your research paper. This assignment is designed to introduce you to LIS databases and other information sources and get you started on your information community research (Course Learning Outcomes: #1, #2 and #3).

By completing the literature review matrix assignment you will:

• Focus your literature search
• Develop reading and summarizing skills
• Hone citation skills
• Build understanding about research on your selected information community
• Reflect, analyze and gain new perspectives on your information community’s information behavior and use

Use the provided template to organize your selected scholarly research and professional resources. Be sure to fill in each of the template components in order to capture all key elements of each article and organize your thoughts on how each fits in the research landscape.

Requirements:

Using LIS databases and other pertinent information sources, such as Google Scholar, locate 8 scholarly and/or peer-reviewed studies about the information needs and information-seeking behaviors of your chosen information community. These sources cannot be ones assigned throughout the course and should represent your independent research into your chosen information community. You can use sources that you have previously referenced throughout your blog posts and these sources can be utilized in your research paper. Make sure to download and use the provided template for this assignment. Your total score will be lowered if you do not use the provided template.

**Download the LitReviewMatrixTemplate_INFO200Rev3

Getting Started:

Begin by defining your selected information community and the value of studying the chosen community. Your research should focus on understanding the information seeking behaviors and needs of your chosen community.

Search LIS and related databases for scholarly and/or peer reviewed sources and identify scholarly sources that research the information behavior and needs of your information community. Collect the APA 7 style citations for each source and make sure each citation is correctly formatted. If you have trouble locating appropriate materials, check in with our King Library library liaison!

Use the Literature Review Matrix template while working with your sources. For each source, use one row to provide details about the article (e.g. authors, main ideas, methods, analysis, results, assumptions, conclusions) and your analysis of it (e.g. your conclusions distinct from the authors and the implications you see). Do this for all 8 scholarly, peer-reviewed studies, as noted above.  

Submission:

• Worth 15 points, which is 15% of your total grade. 
• Submit your Literature Review Matrix to Canvas (not your blog) using the naming convention: “ LastName_NameofAssignment” as a PDF or Word document .  
• All assignments are due on Sundays unless otherwise noted and must be turned in by 11:59 p.m. PT.   
• If life circumstances require students to request an extension, please do so several days before the assignment is due or as soon as possible. 

Assignment Helper – LRM

The Literature Review Matrix (LRM) is intended to be critical exploration and evaluation of scholarly writings on a topic (in this case, your information community). In this assignment helper, you will find a step-by-step guide on how to successfully complete your Literature Review Matrix. You will find information on how to find reliable and applicable sources, as well as past examples you can use as references while completing your own work and information on how to correctly fill out the provided template.

In your formal research paper, the literature review provides context and background for your own study and illustrates how your research will contribute to a particular area of study. This assignment meets the INFO 200’s learning goals #1-3, and will give you experience in synthesizing the articles you have located concerning your community’s information behaviors. You will use this organizational tool to help you prepare for writing the literature review section of your research paper.

Download the example Literature Review Matrix with three entries: 

LitReviewMatrix_INFO200EXAMPLE

• Set aside time for researching your information community. Keep track of your potential sources using your choice of citation manager. Keeping an ongoing APA 7 formatted bibliography is a tremendous time-saver and helps ensure you properly acknowledge research sources.
• Visit INFO 200 LibGuide for additional research tips.
• Review the assignment rubric and requirements .

Determining Appropriate Sources:

• The Literature Review Matrix assignment requires 8 secondary sources about the information needs and information-seeking behaviors of your chosen information community. The sources must be scholarly, peer reviewed articles or books. If you are unsure whether a publication is peer reviewed, visit ulrichsweb.com .
• What themes of information behavior did you find in your deep dive of the literature? 
• What type of information does your community seek? 
• Where do they look? 
• Where can they find it?
• While many sources might be useful in the research process to develop your understanding of the topic, the Literature Review Matrix is best managed through mindful selection of sources that best answer the aim of the assignment: what are the information behaviors and needs of your chosen community?

Completing the Matrix:

• Download the LitReviewMatrixTemplate_INFO200Rev3. In the first section, define/describe your chosen Information Community and explain the significance of studying the information behaviors of this group (e.g. why is this research important). This can be an updated and revised version of your Blog Report #2.
• For the Statement of Research box, craft a statement regarding your information community and what you want to learn about their information behaviors and needs and how libraries or information centers might provide services to them. For example: The paper based on these articles will demonstrate my understanding of the information behaviors and needs of your chosen community and how libraries and information centers might provide or update services to meet their needs. Customize the statement to reflect your information community.
• Look up one of the articles from the example provided above and give it a quick read. Compare what you took away from the reading to the entry provided in the Matrix.
• Use the Literature Review Matrix template. For each source, use one row to provide details about the article (e.g. authors, main ideas, methods, analysis, results, assumptions, conclusions) and your analysis of it (e.g. your conclusions distinct from the authors and the implications you see).
• Utilize the King Library’s How to Read a Scholarly Article as a guide for filling in the Matrix.
• Do this for all of your 8 scholarly, peer-reviewed studies, as noted above. Remember that these sources cannot be ones assigned throughout the course and should be representative of your independent research.
• In the final section, list all of your sources included in the Matrix and your description/definition in APA 7 format.

Before submitting your assignment:

• Spell and grammar check your document.   
• Make sure everything is correctly formatted based on the APA 7 guidelines.
• Take a break from your document and come back later to manually proofread your work.  
• Ask a peer to proofread your document – offer to do the same for them.
• If you submit your assignment on Canvas prior to the due date and discover you have corrections to make, you can re-submit your assignment prior to the deadline.
• Submit your Literature Review Matrix to Canvas (not your blog) using the naming convention: “LastName_NameofAssignment” as a PDF or Word document. 
• If life circumstances require students to request an extension, please do so several days before the assignment is due or as soon as possible.

Below are the three articles covered in the example of the Literature Review Matrix:

Cooke, N. A. (2017). Posttruth, truthiness, and alternative facts: Information  behavior and critical information consumption for a new age. Library  quarterly: Information, community, policy , 3, 211-221.

Pang, N., & Goh, D. P. C. (2016). Are we all here for the same purpose? social media  and individualized collective action. Online Information Review , 40(4), 544-559.  http://dx.doi.org.libaccess.sjlibrary.org/10.1108/OIR-10-2015-0337

Tufekci, Z. (2013). “Not this one”: Social movements, the attention economy, and  microcelebrity networked activism. American Behavioral Scientist, 57(7),  848-870. doi: 10.1177/0002764213479369

University of Tasmania, Australia

Literature reviews.

• What is a literature review?
• How to develop a researchable question
• How to find the literature
• Taking notes
• How to bring it all together: examples, templates, links, guides

Preview the text to check for relevance. 

• the abstract
• introduction
• look at any charts, tables, graphs, diagrams

Check the number of times the article has been cited by others. The more times cited, the more important it might be. 

Read more deeply and let this guide the development of your question.

You may find that the more you read, your question changes or you discover a bigger topic or subtopics. 

Do not waste your time using a highlighter. Annotate the page and take notes. 

There are no shortcuts in this part of the process. 

For more information on managing your reading, go to the Study Toolkit in MyLO and check out the Academic Reading  and Writing module. 

Taking Notes

Use a synthesis matrix for note taking. This table c an be as simple or as complicated as you need

Advantages of using a synthesis matrix:

• allows you to  sort the ideas and thoughts while analysing and synthesising the research.
• helps make planning the structure and paragraph order easier 
• allows for paraphrasing and summarising before actually writing
• provides a clearer view of the relationship between different sources
• aids in identifying themes and patterns in the findings and conclusions.
• gives a glance view of each area under scrutiny

  The organisation/headings will change depending on the focus of your review. 

Using a spreadsheet will also help organise your reading and matrix. 

You will find some examples of a synthesis matrix to download at the bottom of this page. 

Example 1. 

C. Hartigan University of Tasmania

Example 2: Organised by themes.

from:  The Thesis Whisperer:Using a matrix to organise your notes

Example 3: Literature Review preparation.

Watch this short clip for some more ideas.  ( APA referencing is used in this clip)

• Synthesis matrix
• Literature Review Prep: Synthesis matrix: Johns Hopkins University
• << Previous: How to find the literature
• Next: How to bring it all together: examples, templates, links, guides >>
• Last Updated: Jun 28, 2024 8:42 AM
• URL: https://utas.libguides.com/literaturereviews