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University
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Psychology Literature Reviews

Overview of narrative literature steps and resources to assist students

What is a literature review?

A literature review is a document or section of a document that collects key sources on a topic and discusses those sources in conversation with each other (also called synthesis).
Lit reviews map existing research on a given question and can reveal patterns.
Lit reviews describe what is known about the area of study, and they lay foundation for the author’s subsequent research.
Lit reviews are not research articles!

The Literature Review: Six Steps to Success by Lawrence A. Machi & Brenda T. McEvoy
From daunting to doable in six steps Graduate students who turn in exceptional literature reviews are recognized as excellent critical thinkers, as well as masters of academic argumentation, research writing and writing academic papers. But literature searches and composing the review itself can be intimidating and frustrating.

Writing a Literature Review in Psychology
Instructional documentation for doing a literature review in psychology

The Purpose of a Literature Review

There are different types of reviews:

A typology of reviews: an analysis of 14 review types and associated methodologies
A seminal article which discusses the primary types of review families

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