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How to Write a Literature Review | Guide, Examples, & Templates

Published on January 2, 2023 by Shona McCombes . Revised on September 11, 2023.

What is a literature review? A literature review is a survey of scholarly sources on a specific topic. It provides an overview of current knowledge, allowing you to identify relevant theories, methods, and gaps in the existing research that you can later apply to your paper, thesis, or dissertation topic .

There are five key steps to writing a literature review:

• Search for relevant literature
• Evaluate sources
• Identify themes, debates, and gaps
• Outline the structure
• Write your literature review

A good literature review doesn’t just summarize sources—it analyzes, synthesizes , and critically evaluates to give a clear picture of the state of knowledge on the subject.

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Table of contents

What is the purpose of a literature review, examples of literature reviews, step 1 – search for relevant literature, step 2 – evaluate and select sources, step 3 – identify themes, debates, and gaps, step 4 – outline your literature review’s structure, step 5 – write your literature review, free lecture slides, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions, introduction.

• Quick Run-through
• Step 1 & 2

When you write a thesis , dissertation , or research paper , you will likely have to conduct a literature review to situate your research within existing knowledge. The literature review gives you a chance to:

• Demonstrate your familiarity with the topic and its scholarly context
• Develop a theoretical framework and methodology for your research
• Position your work in relation to other researchers and theorists
• Show how your research addresses a gap or contributes to a debate
• Evaluate the current state of research and demonstrate your knowledge of the scholarly debates around your topic.

Writing literature reviews is a particularly important skill if you want to apply for graduate school or pursue a career in research. We’ve written a step-by-step guide that you can follow below.

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Writing literature reviews can be quite challenging! A good starting point could be to look at some examples, depending on what kind of literature review you’d like to write.

• Example literature review #1: “Why Do People Migrate? A Review of the Theoretical Literature” ( Theoretical literature review about the development of economic migration theory from the 1950s to today.)
• Example literature review #2: “Literature review as a research methodology: An overview and guidelines” ( Methodological literature review about interdisciplinary knowledge acquisition and production.)
• Example literature review #3: “The Use of Technology in English Language Learning: A Literature Review” ( Thematic literature review about the effects of technology on language acquisition.)
• Example literature review #4: “Learners’ Listening Comprehension Difficulties in English Language Learning: A Literature Review” ( Chronological literature review about how the concept of listening skills has changed over time.)

You can also check out our templates with literature review examples and sample outlines at the links below.

Download Word doc Download Google doc

Before you begin searching for literature, you need a clearly defined topic .

If you are writing the literature review section of a dissertation or research paper, you will search for literature related to your research problem and questions .

Make a list of keywords

Start by creating a list of keywords related to your research question. Include each of the key concepts or variables you’re interested in, and list any synonyms and related terms. You can add to this list as you discover new keywords in the process of your literature search.

• Social media, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, TikTok
• Body image, self-perception, self-esteem, mental health
• Generation Z, teenagers, adolescents, youth

Search for relevant sources

Use your keywords to begin searching for sources. Some useful databases to search for journals and articles include:

• Your university’s library catalogue
• Google Scholar
• Project Muse (humanities and social sciences)
• Medline (life sciences and biomedicine)
• EconLit (economics)
• Inspec (physics, engineering and computer science)

You can also use boolean operators to help narrow down your search.

Make sure to read the abstract to find out whether an article is relevant to your question. When you find a useful book or article, you can check the bibliography to find other relevant sources.

You likely won’t be able to read absolutely everything that has been written on your topic, so it will be necessary to evaluate which sources are most relevant to your research question.

For each publication, ask yourself:

• What question or problem is the author addressing?
• What are the key concepts and how are they defined?
• What are the key theories, models, and methods?
• Does the research use established frameworks or take an innovative approach?
• What are the results and conclusions of the study?
• How does the publication relate to other literature in the field? Does it confirm, add to, or challenge established knowledge?
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of the research?

Make sure the sources you use are credible , and make sure you read any landmark studies and major theories in your field of research.

You can use our template to summarize and evaluate sources you’re thinking about using. Click on either button below to download.

Take notes and cite your sources

As you read, you should also begin the writing process. Take notes that you can later incorporate into the text of your literature review.

It is important to keep track of your sources with citations to avoid plagiarism . It can be helpful to make an annotated bibliography , where you compile full citation information and write a paragraph of summary and analysis for each source. This helps you remember what you read and saves time later in the process.

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To begin organizing your literature review’s argument and structure, be sure you understand the connections and relationships between the sources you’ve read. Based on your reading and notes, you can look for:

• Trends and patterns (in theory, method or results): do certain approaches become more or less popular over time?
• Themes: what questions or concepts recur across the literature?
• Debates, conflicts and contradictions: where do sources disagree?
• Pivotal publications: are there any influential theories or studies that changed the direction of the field?
• Gaps: what is missing from the literature? Are there weaknesses that need to be addressed?

This step will help you work out the structure of your literature review and (if applicable) show how your own research will contribute to existing knowledge.

• Most research has focused on young women.
• There is an increasing interest in the visual aspects of social media.
• But there is still a lack of robust research on highly visual platforms like Instagram and Snapchat—this is a gap that you could address in your own research.

There are various approaches to organizing the body of a literature review. Depending on the length of your literature review, you can combine several of these strategies (for example, your overall structure might be thematic, but each theme is discussed chronologically).

Chronological

The simplest approach is to trace the development of the topic over time. However, if you choose this strategy, be careful to avoid simply listing and summarizing sources in order.

Try to analyze patterns, turning points and key debates that have shaped the direction of the field. Give your interpretation of how and why certain developments occurred.

If you have found some recurring central themes, you can organize your literature review into subsections that address different aspects of the topic.

For example, if you are reviewing literature about inequalities in migrant health outcomes, key themes might include healthcare policy, language barriers, cultural attitudes, legal status, and economic access.

Methodological

If you draw your sources from different disciplines or fields that use a variety of research methods , you might want to compare the results and conclusions that emerge from different approaches. For example:

• Look at what results have emerged in qualitative versus quantitative research
• Discuss how the topic has been approached by empirical versus theoretical scholarship
• Divide the literature into sociological, historical, and cultural sources

Theoretical

A literature review is often the foundation for a theoretical framework . You can use it to discuss various theories, models, and definitions of key concepts.

You might argue for the relevance of a specific theoretical approach, or combine various theoretical concepts to create a framework for your research.

Like any other academic text , your literature review should have an introduction , a main body, and a conclusion . What you include in each depends on the objective of your literature review.

The introduction should clearly establish the focus and purpose of the literature review.

Depending on the length of your literature review, you might want to divide the body into subsections. You can use a subheading for each theme, time period, or methodological approach.

As you write, you can follow these tips:

• Summarize and synthesize: give an overview of the main points of each source and combine them into a coherent whole
• Analyze and interpret: don’t just paraphrase other researchers — add your own interpretations where possible, discussing the significance of findings in relation to the literature as a whole
• Critically evaluate: mention the strengths and weaknesses of your sources
• Write in well-structured paragraphs: use transition words and topic sentences to draw connections, comparisons and contrasts

In the conclusion, you should summarize the key findings you have taken from the literature and emphasize their significance.

When you’ve finished writing and revising your literature review, don’t forget to proofread thoroughly before submitting. Not a language expert? Check out Scribbr’s professional proofreading services !

This article has been adapted into lecture slides that you can use to teach your students about writing a literature review.

Scribbr slides are free to use, customize, and distribute for educational purposes.

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If you want to know more about the research process , methodology , research bias , or statistics , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

• Sampling methods
• Simple random sampling
• Stratified sampling
• Cluster sampling
• Likert scales
• Reproducibility

 Statistics

• Null hypothesis
• Statistical power
• Probability distribution
• Effect size
• Poisson distribution

Research bias

• Optimism bias
• Cognitive bias
• Implicit bias
• Hawthorne effect
• Anchoring bias
• Explicit bias

A literature review is a survey of scholarly sources (such as books, journal articles, and theses) related to a specific topic or research question .

It is often written as part of a thesis, dissertation , or research paper , in order to situate your work in relation to existing knowledge.

There are several reasons to conduct a literature review at the beginning of a research project:

• To familiarize yourself with the current state of knowledge on your topic
• To ensure that you’re not just repeating what others have already done
• To identify gaps in knowledge and unresolved problems that your research can address
• To develop your theoretical framework and methodology
• To provide an overview of the key findings and debates on the topic

Writing the literature review shows your reader how your work relates to existing research and what new insights it will contribute.

The literature review usually comes near the beginning of your thesis or dissertation . After the introduction , it grounds your research in a scholarly field and leads directly to your theoretical framework or methodology .

A literature review is a survey of credible sources on a topic, often used in dissertations , theses, and research papers . Literature reviews give an overview of knowledge on a subject, helping you identify relevant theories and methods, as well as gaps in existing research. Literature reviews are set up similarly to other  academic texts , with an introduction , a main body, and a conclusion .

An  annotated bibliography is a list of  source references that has a short description (called an annotation ) for each of the sources. It is often assigned as part of the research process for a  paper .  

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Writing a Literature Review

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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 ). The lit review is an important genre in many disciplines, not just literature (i.e., the study of works of literature such as novels and plays). When we say “literature review” or refer to “the literature,” we are talking about the research ( scholarship ) in a given field. You will often see the terms “the research,” “the scholarship,” and “the literature” used mostly interchangeably.

Where, when, and why would I write a lit review?

There are a number of different situations where you might write a literature review, each with slightly different expectations; different disciplines, too, have field-specific expectations for what a literature review is and does. For instance, in the humanities, authors might include more overt argumentation and interpretation of source material in their literature reviews, whereas in the sciences, authors are more likely to report study designs and results in their literature reviews; these differences reflect these disciplines’ purposes and conventions in scholarship. You should always look at examples from your own discipline and talk to professors or mentors in your field to be sure you understand your discipline’s conventions, for literature reviews as well as for any other genre.

A literature review can be a part of a research paper or scholarly article, usually falling after the introduction and before the research methods sections. In these cases, the lit review just needs to cover scholarship that is important to the issue you are writing about; sometimes it will also cover key sources that informed your research methodology.

Lit reviews can also be standalone pieces, either as assignments in a class or as publications. In a class, a lit review may be assigned to help students familiarize themselves with a topic and with scholarship in their field, get an idea of the other researchers working on the topic they’re interested in, find gaps in existing research in order to propose new projects, and/or develop a theoretical framework and methodology for later research. As a publication, a lit review usually is meant to help make other scholars’ lives easier by collecting and summarizing, synthesizing, and analyzing existing research on a topic. This can be especially helpful for students or scholars getting into a new research area, or for directing an entire community of scholars toward questions that have not yet been answered.

What are the parts of a lit review?

Most lit reviews use a basic introduction-body-conclusion structure; if your lit review is part of a larger paper, the introduction and conclusion pieces may be just a few sentences while you focus most of your attention on the body. If your lit review is a standalone piece, the introduction and conclusion take up more space and give you a place to discuss your goals, research methods, and conclusions separately from where you discuss the literature itself.

Introduction:

• An introductory paragraph that explains what your working topic and thesis is
• A forecast of key topics or texts that will appear in the review
• Potentially, a description of how you found sources and how you analyzed them for inclusion and discussion in the review (more often found in published, standalone literature reviews than in lit review sections in an article or research paper)
• Summarize and synthesize: Give an overview of the main points of each source and combine them into a coherent whole
• Analyze and interpret: Don’t just paraphrase other researchers – add your own interpretations where possible, discussing the significance of findings in relation to the literature as a whole
• Critically Evaluate: Mention the strengths and weaknesses of your sources
• Write in well-structured paragraphs: Use transition words and topic sentence to draw connections, comparisons, and contrasts.

Conclusion:

• Summarize the key findings you have taken from the literature and emphasize their significance
• Connect it back to your primary research question

How should I organize my lit review?

Lit reviews can take many different organizational patterns depending on what you are trying to accomplish with the review. Here are some examples:

• Chronological : The simplest approach is to trace the development of the topic over time, which helps familiarize the audience with the topic (for instance if you are introducing something that is not commonly known in your field). If you choose this strategy, be careful to avoid simply listing and summarizing sources in order. Try to analyze the patterns, turning points, and key debates that have shaped the direction of the field. Give your interpretation of how and why certain developments occurred (as mentioned previously, this may not be appropriate in your discipline — check with a teacher or mentor if you’re unsure).
• Thematic : If you have found some recurring central themes that you will continue working with throughout your piece, you can organize your literature review into subsections that address different aspects of the topic. For example, if you are reviewing literature about women and religion, key themes can include the role of women in churches and the religious attitude towards women.
• Qualitative versus quantitative research
• Empirical versus theoretical scholarship
• Divide the research by sociological, historical, or cultural sources
• Theoretical : In many humanities articles, the literature review is the foundation for the theoretical framework. You can use it to discuss various theories, models, and definitions of key concepts. You can argue for the relevance of a specific theoretical approach or combine various theorical concepts to create a framework for your research.

What are some strategies or tips I can use while writing my lit review?

Any lit review is only as good as the research it discusses; make sure your sources are well-chosen and your research is thorough. Don’t be afraid to do more research if you discover a new thread as you’re writing. More info on the research process is available in our "Conducting Research" resources .

As you’re doing your research, create an annotated bibliography ( see our page on the this type of document ). Much of the information used in an annotated bibliography can be used also in a literature review, so you’ll be not only partially drafting your lit review as you research, but also developing your sense of the larger conversation going on among scholars, professionals, and any other stakeholders in your topic.

Usually you will need to synthesize research rather than just summarizing it. This means drawing connections between sources to create a picture of the scholarly conversation on a topic over time. Many student writers struggle to synthesize because they feel they don’t have anything to add to the scholars they are citing; here are some strategies to help you:

• It often helps to remember that the point of these kinds of syntheses is to show your readers how you understand your research, to help them read the rest of your paper.
• Writing teachers often say synthesis is like hosting a dinner party: imagine all your sources are together in a room, discussing your topic. What are they saying to each other?
• Look at the in-text citations in each paragraph. Are you citing just one source for each paragraph? This usually indicates summary only. When you have multiple sources cited in a paragraph, you are more likely to be synthesizing them (not always, but often
• Read more about synthesis here.

The most interesting literature reviews are often written as arguments (again, as mentioned at the beginning of the page, this is discipline-specific and doesn’t work for all situations). Often, the literature review is where you can establish your research as filling a particular gap or as relevant in a particular way. You have some chance to do this in your introduction in an article, but the literature review section gives a more extended opportunity to establish the conversation in the way you would like your readers to see it. You can choose the intellectual lineage you would like to be part of and whose definitions matter most to your thinking (mostly humanities-specific, but this goes for sciences as well). In addressing these points, you argue for your place in the conversation, which tends to make the lit review more compelling than a simple reporting of other sources.

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What is a Literature Review? How to Write It (with Examples)

A literature review is a critical analysis and synthesis of existing research on a particular topic. It provides an overview of the current state of knowledge, identifies gaps, and highlights key findings in the literature. 1 The purpose of a literature review is to situate your own research within the context of existing scholarship, demonstrating your understanding of the topic and showing how your work contributes to the ongoing conversation in the field. Learning how to write a literature review is a critical tool for successful research. Your ability to summarize and synthesize prior research pertaining to a certain topic demonstrates your grasp on the topic of study, and assists in the learning process. 

Table of Contents

• What is the purpose of literature review? 
• a. Habitat Loss and Species Extinction: 
• b. Range Shifts and Phenological Changes: 
• c. Ocean Acidification and Coral Reefs: 
• d. Adaptive Strategies and Conservation Efforts: 

How to write a good literature review 

• Choose a Topic and Define the Research Question: 
• Decide on the Scope of Your Review: 
• Select Databases for Searches: 
• Conduct Searches and Keep Track: 
• Review the Literature: 
• Organize and Write Your Literature Review: 
• How to write a literature review faster with Paperpal? 
• Frequently asked questions 

What is a literature review?

A well-conducted literature review demonstrates the researcher’s familiarity with the existing literature, establishes the context for their own research, and contributes to scholarly conversations on the topic. One of the purposes of a literature review is also to help researchers avoid duplicating previous work and ensure that their research is informed by and builds upon the existing body of knowledge.

What is the purpose of literature review?

A literature review serves several important purposes within academic and research contexts. Here are some key objectives and functions of a literature review: 2  

1. Contextualizing the Research Problem: The literature review provides a background and context for the research problem under investigation. It helps to situate the study within the existing body of knowledge. 

2. Identifying Gaps in Knowledge: By identifying gaps, contradictions, or areas requiring further research, the researcher can shape the research question and justify the significance of the study. This is crucial for ensuring that the new research contributes something novel to the field. 

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3. Understanding Theoretical and Conceptual Frameworks: Literature reviews help researchers gain an understanding of the theoretical and conceptual frameworks used in previous studies. This aids in the development of a theoretical framework for the current research. 

4. Providing Methodological Insights: Another purpose of literature reviews is that it allows researchers to learn about the methodologies employed in previous studies. This can help in choosing appropriate research methods for the current study and avoiding pitfalls that others may have encountered. 

5. Establishing Credibility: A well-conducted literature review demonstrates the researcher’s familiarity with existing scholarship, establishing their credibility and expertise in the field. It also helps in building a solid foundation for the new research. 

6. Informing Hypotheses or Research Questions: The literature review guides the formulation of hypotheses or research questions by highlighting relevant findings and areas of uncertainty in existing literature. 

Literature review example

Let’s delve deeper with a literature review example: Let’s say your literature review is about the impact of climate change on biodiversity. You might format your literature review into sections such as the effects of climate change on habitat loss and species extinction, phenological changes, and marine biodiversity. Each section would then summarize and analyze relevant studies in those areas, highlighting key findings and identifying gaps in the research. The review would conclude by emphasizing the need for further research on specific aspects of the relationship between climate change and biodiversity. The following literature review template provides a glimpse into the recommended literature review structure and content, demonstrating how research findings are organized around specific themes within a broader topic. 

Literature Review on Climate Change Impacts on Biodiversity:

Climate change is a global phenomenon with far-reaching consequences, including significant impacts on biodiversity. This literature review synthesizes key findings from various studies: 

a. Habitat Loss and Species Extinction:

Climate change-induced alterations in temperature and precipitation patterns contribute to habitat loss, affecting numerous species (Thomas et al., 2004). The review discusses how these changes increase the risk of extinction, particularly for species with specific habitat requirements. 

b. Range Shifts and Phenological Changes:

Observations of range shifts and changes in the timing of biological events (phenology) are documented in response to changing climatic conditions (Parmesan & Yohe, 2003). These shifts affect ecosystems and may lead to mismatches between species and their resources. 

c. Ocean Acidification and Coral Reefs:

The review explores the impact of climate change on marine biodiversity, emphasizing ocean acidification’s threat to coral reefs (Hoegh-Guldberg et al., 2007). Changes in pH levels negatively affect coral calcification, disrupting the delicate balance of marine ecosystems. 

d. Adaptive Strategies and Conservation Efforts:

Recognizing the urgency of the situation, the literature review discusses various adaptive strategies adopted by species and conservation efforts aimed at mitigating the impacts of climate change on biodiversity (Hannah et al., 2007). It emphasizes the importance of interdisciplinary approaches for effective conservation planning. 

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Writing a literature review involves summarizing and synthesizing existing research on a particular topic. A good literature review format should include the following elements. 

Introduction: The introduction sets the stage for your literature review, providing context and introducing the main focus of your review. 

• Opening Statement: Begin with a general statement about the broader topic and its significance in the field. 
• Scope and Purpose: Clearly define the scope of your literature review. Explain the specific research question or objective you aim to address. 
• Organizational Framework: Briefly outline the structure of your literature review, indicating how you will categorize and discuss the existing research. 
• Significance of the Study: Highlight why your literature review is important and how it contributes to the understanding of the chosen topic. 
• Thesis Statement: Conclude the introduction with a concise thesis statement that outlines the main argument or perspective you will develop in the body of the literature review. 

Body: The body of the literature review is where you provide a comprehensive analysis of existing literature, grouping studies based on themes, methodologies, or other relevant criteria. 

• Organize by Theme or Concept: Group studies that share common themes, concepts, or methodologies. Discuss each theme or concept in detail, summarizing key findings and identifying gaps or areas of disagreement. 
• Critical Analysis: Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of each study. Discuss the methodologies used, the quality of evidence, and the overall contribution of each work to the understanding of the topic. 
• Synthesis of Findings: Synthesize the information from different studies to highlight trends, patterns, or areas of consensus in the literature. 
• Identification of Gaps: Discuss any gaps or limitations in the existing research and explain how your review contributes to filling these gaps. 
• Transition between Sections: Provide smooth transitions between different themes or concepts to maintain the flow of your literature review. 

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Conclusion: The conclusion of your literature review should summarize the main findings, highlight the contributions of the review, and suggest avenues for future research. 

• Summary of Key Findings: Recap the main findings from the literature and restate how they contribute to your research question or objective. 
• Contributions to the Field: Discuss the overall contribution of your literature review to the existing knowledge in the field. 
• Implications and Applications: Explore the practical implications of the findings and suggest how they might impact future research or practice. 
• Recommendations for Future Research: Identify areas that require further investigation and propose potential directions for future research in the field. 
• Final Thoughts: Conclude with a final reflection on the importance of your literature review and its relevance to the broader academic community. 

Conducting a literature review

Conducting a literature review is an essential step in research that involves reviewing and analyzing existing literature on a specific topic. It’s important to know how to do a literature review effectively, so here are the steps to follow: 1  

Choose a Topic and Define the Research Question:

• Select a topic that is relevant to your field of study. 
• Clearly define your research question or objective. Determine what specific aspect of the topic do you want to explore? 

Decide on the Scope of Your Review:

• Determine the timeframe for your literature review. Are you focusing on recent developments, or do you want a historical overview? 
• Consider the geographical scope. Is your review global, or are you focusing on a specific region? 
• Define the inclusion and exclusion criteria. What types of sources will you include? Are there specific types of studies or publications you will exclude? 

Select Databases for Searches:

• Identify relevant databases for your field. Examples include PubMed, IEEE Xplore, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar. 
• Consider searching in library catalogs, institutional repositories, and specialized databases related to your topic. 

Conduct Searches and Keep Track:

• Develop a systematic search strategy using keywords, Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT), and other search techniques. 
• Record and document your search strategy for transparency and replicability. 
• Keep track of the articles, including publication details, abstracts, and links. Use citation management tools like EndNote, Zotero, or Mendeley to organize your references. 

Review the Literature:

• Evaluate the relevance and quality of each source. Consider the methodology, sample size, and results of studies. 
• Organize the literature by themes or key concepts. Identify patterns, trends, and gaps in the existing research. 
• Summarize key findings and arguments from each source. Compare and contrast different perspectives. 
• Identify areas where there is a consensus in the literature and where there are conflicting opinions. 
• Provide critical analysis and synthesis of the literature. What are the strengths and weaknesses of existing research? 

Organize and Write Your Literature Review:

• Literature review outline should be based on themes, chronological order, or methodological approaches. 
• Write a clear and coherent narrative that synthesizes the information gathered. 
• Use proper citations for each source and ensure consistency in your citation style (APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.). 
• Conclude your literature review by summarizing key findings, identifying gaps, and suggesting areas for future research. 

Whether you’re exploring a new research field or finding new angles to develop an existing topic, sifting through hundreds of papers can take more time than you have to spare. But what if you could find science-backed insights with verified citations in seconds? That’s the power of Paperpal’s new Research feature!  

How to write a literature review faster with Paperpal?

Paperpal, an AI writing assistant, integrates powerful academic search capabilities within its writing platform. With the Research feature, you get 100% factual insights, with citations backed by 250M+ verified research articles, directly within your writing interface with the option to save relevant references in your Citation Library. By eliminating the need to switch tabs to find answers to all your research questions, Paperpal saves time and helps you stay focused on your writing.   

Here’s how to use the Research feature:  

• Ask a question: Get started with a new document on paperpal.com. Click on the “Research” feature and type your question in plain English. Paperpal will scour over 250 million research articles, including conference papers and preprints, to provide you with accurate insights and citations. 
• Review and Save: Paperpal summarizes the information, while citing sources and listing relevant reads. You can quickly scan the results to identify relevant references and save these directly to your built-in citations library for later access. 
• Cite with Confidence: Paperpal makes it easy to incorporate relevant citations and references into your writing, ensuring your arguments are well-supported by credible sources. This translates to a polished, well-researched literature review. 

The literature review sample and detailed advice on writing and conducting a review will help you produce a well-structured report. But remember that a good literature review is an ongoing process, and it may be necessary to revisit and update it as your research progresses. By combining effortless research with an easy citation process, Paperpal Research streamlines the literature review process and empowers you to write faster and with more confidence. Try Paperpal Research now and see for yourself.  

Frequently asked questions

A literature review is a critical and comprehensive analysis of existing literature (published and unpublished works) on a specific topic or research question and provides a synthesis of the current state of knowledge in a particular field. A well-conducted literature review is crucial for researchers to build upon existing knowledge, avoid duplication of efforts, and contribute to the advancement of their field. It also helps researchers situate their work within a broader context and facilitates the development of a sound theoretical and conceptual framework for their studies.

Literature review is a crucial component of research writing, providing a solid background for a research paper’s investigation. The aim is to keep professionals up to date by providing an understanding of ongoing developments within a specific field, including research methods, and experimental techniques used in that field, and present that knowledge in the form of a written report. Also, the depth and breadth of the literature review emphasizes the credibility of the scholar in his or her field.  

Before writing a literature review, it’s essential to undertake several preparatory steps to ensure that your review is well-researched, organized, and focused. This includes choosing a topic of general interest to you and doing exploratory research on that topic, writing an annotated bibliography, and noting major points, especially those that relate to the position you have taken on the topic. 

Literature reviews and academic research papers are essential components of scholarly work but serve different purposes within the academic realm. 3 A literature review aims to provide a foundation for understanding the current state of research on a particular topic, identify gaps or controversies, and lay the groundwork for future research. Therefore, it draws heavily from existing academic sources, including books, journal articles, and other scholarly publications. In contrast, an academic research paper aims to present new knowledge, contribute to the academic discourse, and advance the understanding of a specific research question. Therefore, it involves a mix of existing literature (in the introduction and literature review sections) and original data or findings obtained through research methods. 

Literature reviews are essential components of academic and research papers, and various strategies can be employed to conduct them effectively. If you want to know how to write a literature review for a research paper, here are four common approaches that are often used by researchers.  Chronological Review: This strategy involves organizing the literature based on the chronological order of publication. It helps to trace the development of a topic over time, showing how ideas, theories, and research have evolved.  Thematic Review: Thematic reviews focus on identifying and analyzing themes or topics that cut across different studies. Instead of organizing the literature chronologically, it is grouped by key themes or concepts, allowing for a comprehensive exploration of various aspects of the topic.  Methodological Review: This strategy involves organizing the literature based on the research methods employed in different studies. It helps to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of various methodologies and allows the reader to evaluate the reliability and validity of the research findings.  Theoretical Review: A theoretical review examines the literature based on the theoretical frameworks used in different studies. This approach helps to identify the key theories that have been applied to the topic and assess their contributions to the understanding of the subject.  It’s important to note that these strategies are not mutually exclusive, and a literature review may combine elements of more than one approach. The choice of strategy depends on the research question, the nature of the literature available, and the goals of the review. Additionally, other strategies, such as integrative reviews or systematic reviews, may be employed depending on the specific requirements of the research.

The literature review format can vary depending on the specific publication guidelines. However, there are some common elements and structures that are often followed. Here is a general guideline for the format of a literature review:  Introduction:   Provide an overview of the topic.  Define the scope and purpose of the literature review.  State the research question or objective.  Body:   Organize the literature by themes, concepts, or chronology.  Critically analyze and evaluate each source.  Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the studies.  Highlight any methodological limitations or biases.  Identify patterns, connections, or contradictions in the existing research.  Conclusion:   Summarize the key points discussed in the literature review.  Highlight the research gap.  Address the research question or objective stated in the introduction.  Highlight the contributions of the review and suggest directions for future research.

Both annotated bibliographies and literature reviews involve the examination of scholarly sources. While annotated bibliographies focus on individual sources with brief annotations, literature reviews provide a more in-depth, integrated, and comprehensive analysis of existing literature on a specific topic. The key differences are as follows: 

References 

• Denney, A. S., & Tewksbury, R. (2013). How to write a literature review.  Journal of criminal justice education ,  24 (2), 218-234. 
• Pan, M. L. (2016).  Preparing literature reviews: Qualitative and quantitative approaches . Taylor & Francis. 
• Cantero, C. (2019). How to write a literature review.  San José State University Writing Center . 

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How To Write A Literature Review - A Complete Guide

Table of Contents

A literature review is much more than just another section in your research paper. It forms the very foundation of your research. It is a formal piece of writing where you analyze the existing theoretical framework, principles, and assumptions and use that as a base to shape your approach to the research question.

Curating and drafting a solid literature review section not only lends more credibility to your research paper but also makes your research tighter and better focused. But, writing literature reviews is a difficult task. It requires extensive reading, plus you have to consider market trends and technological and political changes, which tend to change in the blink of an eye.

Now streamline your literature review process with the help of SciSpace Copilot. With this AI research assistant, you can efficiently synthesize and analyze a vast amount of information, identify key themes and trends, and uncover gaps in the existing research. Get real-time explanations, summaries, and answers to your questions for the paper you're reviewing, making navigating and understanding the complex literature landscape easier.

In this comprehensive guide, we will explore everything from the definition of a literature review, its appropriate length, various types of literature reviews, and how to write one.

What is a literature review?

A literature review is a collation of survey, research, critical evaluation, and assessment of the existing literature in a preferred domain.

Eminent researcher and academic Arlene Fink, in her book Conducting Research Literature Reviews , defines it as the following:

“A literature review surveys books, scholarly articles, and any other sources relevant to a particular issue, area of research, or theory, and by so doing, provides a description, summary, and critical evaluation of these works in relation to the research problem being investigated.

Literature reviews are designed to provide an overview of sources you have explored while researching a particular topic, and to demonstrate to your readers how your research fits within a larger field of study.”

Simply put, a literature review can be defined as a critical discussion of relevant pre-existing research around your research question and carving out a definitive place for your study in the existing body of knowledge. Literature reviews can be presented in multiple ways: a section of an article, the whole research paper itself, or a chapter of your thesis.

A literature review does function as a summary of sources, but it also allows you to analyze further, interpret, and examine the stated theories, methods, viewpoints, and, of course, the gaps in the existing content.

As an author, you can discuss and interpret the research question and its various aspects and debate your adopted methods to support the claim.

What is the purpose of a literature review?

A literature review is meant to help your readers understand the relevance of your research question and where it fits within the existing body of knowledge. As a researcher, you should use it to set the context, build your argument, and establish the need for your study.

What is the importance of a literature review?

The literature review is a critical part of research papers because it helps you:

• Gain an in-depth understanding of your research question and the surrounding area
• Convey that you have a thorough understanding of your research area and are up-to-date with the latest changes and advancements
• Establish how your research is connected or builds on the existing body of knowledge and how it could contribute to further research
• Elaborate on the validity and suitability of your theoretical framework and research methodology
• Identify and highlight gaps and shortcomings in the existing body of knowledge and how things need to change
• Convey to readers how your study is different or how it contributes to the research area

How long should a literature review be?

Ideally, the literature review should take up 15%-40% of the total length of your manuscript. So, if you have a 10,000-word research paper, the minimum word count could be 1500.

Your literature review format depends heavily on the kind of manuscript you are writing — an entire chapter in case of doctoral theses, a part of the introductory section in a research article, to a full-fledged review article that examines the previously published research on a topic.

Another determining factor is the type of research you are doing. The literature review section tends to be longer for secondary research projects than primary research projects.

What are the different types of literature reviews?

All literature reviews are not the same. There are a variety of possible approaches that you can take. It all depends on the type of research you are pursuing.

Here are the different types of literature reviews:

Argumentative review

It is called an argumentative review when you carefully present literature that only supports or counters a specific argument or premise to establish a viewpoint.

Integrative review

It is a type of literature review focused on building a comprehensive understanding of a topic by combining available theoretical frameworks and empirical evidence.

Methodological review

This approach delves into the ''how'' and the ''what" of the research question —  you cannot look at the outcome in isolation; you should also review the methodology used.

Systematic review

This form consists of an overview of existing evidence pertinent to a clearly formulated research question, which uses pre-specified and standardized methods to identify and critically appraise relevant research and collect, report, and analyze data from the studies included in the review.

Meta-analysis review

Meta-analysis uses statistical methods to summarize the results of independent studies. By combining information from all relevant studies, meta-analysis can provide more precise estimates of the effects than those derived from the individual studies included within a review.

Historical review

Historical literature reviews focus on examining research throughout a period, often starting with the first time an issue, concept, theory, or phenomenon emerged in the literature, then tracing its evolution within the scholarship of a discipline. The purpose is to place research in a historical context to show familiarity with state-of-the-art developments and identify future research's likely directions.

Theoretical Review

This form aims to examine the corpus of theory accumulated regarding an issue, concept, theory, and phenomenon. The theoretical literature review helps to establish what theories exist, the relationships between them, the degree the existing approaches have been investigated, and to develop new hypotheses to be tested.

Scoping Review

The Scoping Review is often used at the beginning of an article, dissertation, or research proposal. It is conducted before the research to highlight gaps in the existing body of knowledge and explains why the project should be greenlit.

State-of-the-Art Review

The State-of-the-Art review is conducted periodically, focusing on the most recent research. It describes what is currently known, understood, or agreed upon regarding the research topic and highlights where there are still disagreements.

Can you use the first person in a literature review?

When writing literature reviews, you should avoid the usage of first-person pronouns. It means that instead of "I argue that" or "we argue that," the appropriate expression would be "this research paper argues that."

Do you need an abstract for a literature review?

Ideally, yes. It is always good to have a condensed summary that is self-contained and independent of the rest of your review. As for how to draft one, you can follow the same fundamental idea when preparing an abstract for a literature review. It should also include:

• The research topic and your motivation behind selecting it
• A one-sentence thesis statement
• An explanation of the kinds of literature featured in the review
• Summary of what you've learned
• Conclusions you drew from the literature you reviewed
• Potential implications and future scope for research

Here's an example of the abstract of a literature review

Is a literature review written in the past tense?

Yes, the literature review should ideally be written in the past tense. You should not use the present or future tense when writing one. The exceptions are when you have statements describing events that happened earlier than the literature you are reviewing or events that are currently occurring; then, you can use the past perfect or present perfect tenses.

How many sources for a literature review?

There are multiple approaches to deciding how many sources to include in a literature review section. The first approach would be to look level you are at as a researcher. For instance, a doctoral thesis might need 60+ sources. In contrast, you might only need to refer to 5-15 sources at the undergraduate level.

The second approach is based on the kind of literature review you are doing — whether it is merely a chapter of your paper or if it is a self-contained paper in itself. When it is just a chapter, sources should equal the total number of pages in your article's body. In the second scenario, you need at least three times as many sources as there are pages in your work.

Quick tips on how to write a literature review

To know how to write a literature review, you must clearly understand its impact and role in establishing your work as substantive research material.

You need to follow the below-mentioned steps, to write a literature review:

• Outline the purpose behind the literature review
• Search relevant literature
• Examine and assess the relevant resources
• Discover connections by drawing deep insights from the resources
• Structure planning to write a good literature review

1. Outline and identify the purpose of  a literature review

As a first step on how to write a literature review, you must know what the research question or topic is and what shape you want your literature review to take. Ensure you understand the research topic inside out, or else seek clarifications. You must be able to the answer below questions before you start:

• How many sources do I need to include?
• What kind of sources should I analyze?
• How much should I critically evaluate each source?
• Should I summarize, synthesize or offer a critique of the sources?
• Do I need to include any background information or definitions?

Additionally, you should know that the narrower your research topic is, the swifter it will be for you to restrict the number of sources to be analyzed.

2. Search relevant literature

Dig deeper into search engines to discover what has already been published around your chosen topic. Make sure you thoroughly go through appropriate reference sources like books, reports, journal articles, government docs, and web-based resources.

You must prepare a list of keywords and their different variations. You can start your search from any library’s catalog, provided you are an active member of that institution. The exact keywords can be extended to widen your research over other databases and academic search engines like:

• Google Scholar
• Microsoft Academic
• Science.gov

Besides, it is not advisable to go through every resource word by word. Alternatively, what you can do is you can start by reading the abstract and then decide whether that source is relevant to your research or not.

Additionally, you must spend surplus time assessing the quality and relevance of resources. It would help if you tried preparing a list of citations to ensure that there lies no repetition of authors, publications, or articles in the literature review.

3. Examine and assess the sources

It is nearly impossible for you to go through every detail in the research article. So rather than trying to fetch every detail, you have to analyze and decide which research sources resemble closest and appear relevant to your chosen domain.

While analyzing the sources, you should look to find out answers to questions like:

• What question or problem has the author been describing and debating?
• What is the definition of critical aspects?
• How well the theories, approach, and methodology have been explained?
• Whether the research theory used some conventional or new innovative approach?
• How relevant are the key findings of the work?
• In what ways does it relate to other sources on the same topic?
• What challenges does this research paper pose to the existing theory
• What are the possible contributions or benefits it adds to the subject domain?

Be always mindful that you refer only to credible and authentic resources. It would be best if you always take references from different publications to validate your theory.

Always keep track of important information or data you can present in your literature review right from the beginning. It will help steer your path from any threats of plagiarism and also make it easier to curate an annotated bibliography or reference section.

4. Discover connections

At this stage, you must start deciding on the argument and structure of your literature review. To accomplish this, you must discover and identify the relations and connections between various resources while drafting your abstract.

A few aspects that you should be aware of while writing a literature review include:

• Rise to prominence: Theories and methods that have gained reputation and supporters over time.
• Constant scrutiny: Concepts or theories that repeatedly went under examination.
• Contradictions and conflicts: Theories, both the supporting and the contradictory ones, for the research topic.
• Knowledge gaps: What exactly does it fail to address, and how to bridge them with further research?
• Influential resources: Significant research projects available that have been upheld as milestones or perhaps, something that can modify the current trends

Once you join the dots between various past research works, it will be easier for you to draw a conclusion and identify your contribution to the existing knowledge base.

5. Structure planning to write a good literature review

There exist different ways towards planning and executing the structure of a literature review. The format of a literature review varies and depends upon the length of the research.

Like any other research paper, the literature review format must contain three sections: introduction, body, and conclusion. The goals and objectives of the research question determine what goes inside these three sections.

Nevertheless, a good literature review can be structured according to the chronological, thematic, methodological, or theoretical framework approach.

Literature review samples

1. Standalone

2. As a section of a research paper

How SciSpace Discover makes literature review a breeze?

SciSpace Discover is a one-stop solution to do an effective literature search and get barrier-free access to scientific knowledge. It is an excellent repository where you can find millions of only peer-reviewed articles and full-text PDF files. Here’s more on how you can use it:

Find the right information

Find what you want quickly and easily with comprehensive search filters that let you narrow down papers according to PDF availability, year of publishing, document type, and affiliated institution. Moreover, you can sort the results based on the publishing date, citation count, and relevance.

Assess credibility of papers quickly

When doing the literature review, it is critical to establish the quality of your sources. They form the foundation of your research. SciSpace Discover helps you assess the quality of a source by providing an overview of its references, citations, and performance metrics.

Get the complete picture in no time

SciSpace Discover’s personalized suggestion engine helps you stay on course and get the complete picture of the topic from one place. Every time you visit an article page, it provides you links to related papers. Besides that, it helps you understand what’s trending, who are the top authors, and who are the leading publishers on a topic.

Make referring sources super easy

To ensure you don't lose track of your sources, you must start noting down your references when doing the literature review. SciSpace Discover makes this step effortless. Click the 'cite' button on an article page, and you will receive preloaded citation text in multiple styles — all you've to do is copy-paste it into your manuscript.

Final tips on how to write a literature review

A massive chunk of time and effort is required to write a good literature review. But, if you go about it systematically, you'll be able to save a ton of time and build a solid foundation for your research.

We hope this guide has helped you answer several key questions you have about writing literature reviews.

Would you like to explore SciSpace Discover and kick off your literature search right away? You can get started here .

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. how to start a literature review.

• What questions do you want to answer?

• What sources do you need to answer these questions?

• What information do these sources contain?

• How can you use this information to answer your questions?

2. What to include in a literature review?

• A brief background of the problem or issue

• What has previously been done to address the problem or issue

• A description of what you will do in your project

• How this study will contribute to research on the subject

3. Why literature review is important?

The literature review is an important part of any research project because it allows the writer to look at previous studies on a topic and determine existing gaps in the literature, as well as what has already been done. It will also help them to choose the most appropriate method for their own study.

4. How to cite a literature review in APA format?

To cite a literature review in APA style, you need to provide the author's name, the title of the article, and the year of publication. For example: Patel, A. B., & Stokes, G. S. (2012). The relationship between personality and intelligence: A meta-analysis of longitudinal research. Personality and Individual Differences, 53(1), 16-21

5. What are the components of a literature review?

• A brief introduction to the topic, including its background and context. The introduction should also include a rationale for why the study is being conducted and what it will accomplish.

• A description of the methodologies used in the study. This can include information about data collection methods, sample size, and statistical analyses.

• A presentation of the findings in an organized format that helps readers follow along with the author's conclusions.

6. What are common errors in writing literature review?

• Not spending enough time to critically evaluate the relevance of resources, observations and conclusions.

• Totally relying on secondary data while ignoring primary data.

• Letting your personal bias seep into your interpretation of existing literature.

• No detailed explanation of the procedure to discover and identify an appropriate literature review.

7. What are the 5 C's of writing literature review?

• Cite - the sources you utilized and referenced in your research.

• Compare - existing arguments, hypotheses, methodologies, and conclusions found in the knowledge base.

• Contrast - the arguments, topics, methodologies, approaches, and disputes that may be found in the literature.

• Critique - the literature and describe the ideas and opinions you find more convincing and why.

• Connect - the various studies you reviewed in your research.

8. How many sources should a literature review have?

When it is just a chapter, sources should equal the total number of pages in your article's body. if it is a self-contained paper in itself, you need at least three times as many sources as there are pages in your work.

9. Can literature review have diagrams?

• To represent an abstract idea or concept

• To explain the steps of a process or procedure

• To help readers understand the relationships between different concepts

10. How old should sources be in a literature review?

Sources for a literature review should be as current as possible or not older than ten years. The only exception to this rule is if you are reviewing a historical topic and need to use older sources.

11. What are the types of literature review?

• Argumentative review

• Integrative review

• Methodological review

• Systematic review

• Meta-analysis review

• Historical review

• Theoretical review

• Scoping review

• State-of-the-Art review

12. Is a literature review mandatory?

Yes. Literature review is a mandatory part of any research project. It is a critical step in the process that allows you to establish the scope of your research, and provide a background for the rest of your work.

But before you go,

• Six Online Tools for Easy Literature Review
• Evaluating literature review: systematic vs. scoping reviews
• Systematic Approaches to a Successful Literature Review
• Writing Integrative Literature Reviews: Guidelines and Examples

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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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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.  

Steps to Completing a Literature Review

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Literature Review Example/Sample

Detailed Walkthrough + Free Literature Review Template

If you’re working on a dissertation or thesis and are looking for an example of a strong literature review chapter , you’ve come to the right place.

In this video, we walk you through an A-grade literature review from a dissertation that earned full distinction . We start off by discussing the five core sections of a literature review chapter by unpacking our free literature review template . This includes:

• The literature review opening/ introduction section
• The theoretical framework (or foundation of theory)
• The empirical research
• The research gap
• The closing section

We then progress to the sample literature review (from an A-grade Master’s-level dissertation) to show how these concepts are applied in the literature review chapter. You can access the free resources mentioned in this video below.

PS – If you’re working on a dissertation, be sure to also check out our collection of dissertation and thesis examples here .

FAQ: Literature Review Example

Literature review example: frequently asked questions, is the sample literature review real.

Yes. The literature review example is an extract from a Master’s-level dissertation for an MBA program. It has not been edited in any way.

Can I replicate this literature review for my dissertation?

As we discuss in the video, every literature review will be slightly different, depending on the university’s unique requirements, as well as the nature of the research itself. Therefore, you’ll need to tailor your literature review to suit your specific context.

You can learn more about the basics of writing a literature review here .

Where can I find more examples of literature reviews?

The best place to find more examples of literature review chapters would be within dissertation/thesis databases. These databases include dissertations, theses and research projects that have successfully passed the assessment criteria for the respective university, meaning that you have at least some sort of quality assurance. 

The Open Access Thesis Database (OATD) is a good starting point. 

How do I get the literature review template?

You can access our free literature review chapter template here .

Is the template really free?

Yes. There is no cost for the template and you are free to use it as you wish. 

Psst… there’s more!

This post is an extract from our bestselling short course, Literature Review Bootcamp . If you want to work smart, you don't want to miss this .

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Ten Simple Rules for Writing a Literature Review

Marco pautasso.

1 Centre for Functional and Evolutionary Ecology (CEFE), CNRS, Montpellier, France

2 Centre for Biodiversity Synthesis and Analysis (CESAB), FRB, Aix-en-Provence, France

Literature reviews are in great demand in most scientific fields. Their need stems from the ever-increasing output of scientific publications [1] . For example, compared to 1991, in 2008 three, eight, and forty times more papers were indexed in Web of Science on malaria, obesity, and biodiversity, respectively [2] . Given such mountains of papers, scientists cannot be expected to examine in detail every single new paper relevant to their interests [3] . Thus, it is both advantageous and necessary to rely on regular summaries of the recent literature. Although recognition for scientists mainly comes from primary research, timely literature reviews can lead to new synthetic insights and are often widely read [4] . For such summaries to be useful, however, they need to be compiled in a professional way [5] .

When starting from scratch, reviewing the literature can require a titanic amount of work. That is why researchers who have spent their career working on a certain research issue are in a perfect position to review that literature. Some graduate schools are now offering courses in reviewing the literature, given that most research students start their project by producing an overview of what has already been done on their research issue [6] . However, it is likely that most scientists have not thought in detail about how to approach and carry out a literature review.

Reviewing the literature requires the ability to juggle multiple tasks, from finding and evaluating relevant material to synthesising information from various sources, from critical thinking to paraphrasing, evaluating, and citation skills [7] . In this contribution, I share ten simple rules I learned working on about 25 literature reviews as a PhD and postdoctoral student. Ideas and insights also come from discussions with coauthors and colleagues, as well as feedback from reviewers and editors.

Rule 1: Define a Topic and Audience

How to choose which topic to review? There are so many issues in contemporary science that you could spend a lifetime of attending conferences and reading the literature just pondering what to review. On the one hand, if you take several years to choose, several other people may have had the same idea in the meantime. On the other hand, only a well-considered topic is likely to lead to a brilliant literature review [8] . The topic must at least be:

• interesting to you (ideally, you should have come across a series of recent papers related to your line of work that call for a critical summary),
• an important aspect of the field (so that many readers will be interested in the review and there will be enough material to write it), and
• a well-defined issue (otherwise you could potentially include thousands of publications, which would make the review unhelpful).

Ideas for potential reviews may come from papers providing lists of key research questions to be answered [9] , but also from serendipitous moments during desultory reading and discussions. In addition to choosing your topic, you should also select a target audience. In many cases, the topic (e.g., web services in computational biology) will automatically define an audience (e.g., computational biologists), but that same topic may also be of interest to neighbouring fields (e.g., computer science, biology, etc.).

Rule 2: Search and Re-search the Literature

After having chosen your topic and audience, start by checking the literature and downloading relevant papers. Five pieces of advice here:

• keep track of the search items you use (so that your search can be replicated [10] ),
• keep a list of papers whose pdfs you cannot access immediately (so as to retrieve them later with alternative strategies),
• use a paper management system (e.g., Mendeley, Papers, Qiqqa, Sente),
• define early in the process some criteria for exclusion of irrelevant papers (these criteria can then be described in the review to help define its scope), and
• do not just look for research papers in the area you wish to review, but also seek previous reviews.

The chances are high that someone will already have published a literature review ( Figure 1 ), if not exactly on the issue you are planning to tackle, at least on a related topic. If there are already a few or several reviews of the literature on your issue, my advice is not to give up, but to carry on with your own literature review,

The bottom-right situation (many literature reviews but few research papers) is not just a theoretical situation; it applies, for example, to the study of the impacts of climate change on plant diseases, where there appear to be more literature reviews than research studies [33] .

• discussing in your review the approaches, limitations, and conclusions of past reviews,
• trying to find a new angle that has not been covered adequately in the previous reviews, and
• incorporating new material that has inevitably accumulated since their appearance.

When searching the literature for pertinent papers and reviews, the usual rules apply:

• be thorough,
• use different keywords and database sources (e.g., DBLP, Google Scholar, ISI Proceedings, JSTOR Search, Medline, Scopus, Web of Science), and
• look at who has cited past relevant papers and book chapters.

Rule 3: Take Notes While Reading

If you read the papers first, and only afterwards start writing the review, you will need a very good memory to remember who wrote what, and what your impressions and associations were while reading each single paper. My advice is, while reading, to start writing down interesting pieces of information, insights about how to organize the review, and thoughts on what to write. This way, by the time you have read the literature you selected, you will already have a rough draft of the review.

Of course, this draft will still need much rewriting, restructuring, and rethinking to obtain a text with a coherent argument [11] , but you will have avoided the danger posed by staring at a blank document. Be careful when taking notes to use quotation marks if you are provisionally copying verbatim from the literature. It is advisable then to reformulate such quotes with your own words in the final draft. It is important to be careful in noting the references already at this stage, so as to avoid misattributions. Using referencing software from the very beginning of your endeavour will save you time.

Rule 4: Choose the Type of Review You Wish to Write

After having taken notes while reading the literature, you will have a rough idea of the amount of material available for the review. This is probably a good time to decide whether to go for a mini- or a full review. Some journals are now favouring the publication of rather short reviews focusing on the last few years, with a limit on the number of words and citations. A mini-review is not necessarily a minor review: it may well attract more attention from busy readers, although it will inevitably simplify some issues and leave out some relevant material due to space limitations. A full review will have the advantage of more freedom to cover in detail the complexities of a particular scientific development, but may then be left in the pile of the very important papers “to be read” by readers with little time to spare for major monographs.

There is probably a continuum between mini- and full reviews. The same point applies to the dichotomy of descriptive vs. integrative reviews. While descriptive reviews focus on the methodology, findings, and interpretation of each reviewed study, integrative reviews attempt to find common ideas and concepts from the reviewed material [12] . A similar distinction exists between narrative and systematic reviews: while narrative reviews are qualitative, systematic reviews attempt to test a hypothesis based on the published evidence, which is gathered using a predefined protocol to reduce bias [13] , [14] . When systematic reviews analyse quantitative results in a quantitative way, they become meta-analyses. The choice between different review types will have to be made on a case-by-case basis, depending not just on the nature of the material found and the preferences of the target journal(s), but also on the time available to write the review and the number of coauthors [15] .

Rule 5: Keep the Review Focused, but Make It of Broad Interest

Whether your plan is to write a mini- or a full review, it is good advice to keep it focused 16 , 17 . Including material just for the sake of it can easily lead to reviews that are trying to do too many things at once. The need to keep a review focused can be problematic for interdisciplinary reviews, where the aim is to bridge the gap between fields [18] . If you are writing a review on, for example, how epidemiological approaches are used in modelling the spread of ideas, you may be inclined to include material from both parent fields, epidemiology and the study of cultural diffusion. This may be necessary to some extent, but in this case a focused review would only deal in detail with those studies at the interface between epidemiology and the spread of ideas.

While focus is an important feature of a successful review, this requirement has to be balanced with the need to make the review relevant to a broad audience. This square may be circled by discussing the wider implications of the reviewed topic for other disciplines.

Rule 6: Be Critical and Consistent

Reviewing the literature is not stamp collecting. A good review does not just summarize the literature, but discusses it critically, identifies methodological problems, and points out research gaps [19] . After having read a review of the literature, a reader should have a rough idea of:

• the major achievements in the reviewed field,
• the main areas of debate, and
• the outstanding research questions.

It is challenging to achieve a successful review on all these fronts. A solution can be to involve a set of complementary coauthors: some people are excellent at mapping what has been achieved, some others are very good at identifying dark clouds on the horizon, and some have instead a knack at predicting where solutions are going to come from. If your journal club has exactly this sort of team, then you should definitely write a review of the literature! In addition to critical thinking, a literature review needs consistency, for example in the choice of passive vs. active voice and present vs. past tense.

Rule 7: Find a Logical Structure

Like a well-baked cake, a good review has a number of telling features: it is worth the reader's time, timely, systematic, well written, focused, and critical. It also needs a good structure. With reviews, the usual subdivision of research papers into introduction, methods, results, and discussion does not work or is rarely used. However, a general introduction of the context and, toward the end, a recapitulation of the main points covered and take-home messages make sense also in the case of reviews. For systematic reviews, there is a trend towards including information about how the literature was searched (database, keywords, time limits) [20] .

How can you organize the flow of the main body of the review so that the reader will be drawn into and guided through it? It is generally helpful to draw a conceptual scheme of the review, e.g., with mind-mapping techniques. Such diagrams can help recognize a logical way to order and link the various sections of a review [21] . This is the case not just at the writing stage, but also for readers if the diagram is included in the review as a figure. A careful selection of diagrams and figures relevant to the reviewed topic can be very helpful to structure the text too [22] .

Rule 8: Make Use of Feedback

Reviews of the literature are normally peer-reviewed in the same way as research papers, and rightly so [23] . As a rule, incorporating feedback from reviewers greatly helps improve a review draft. Having read the review with a fresh mind, reviewers may spot inaccuracies, inconsistencies, and ambiguities that had not been noticed by the writers due to rereading the typescript too many times. It is however advisable to reread the draft one more time before submission, as a last-minute correction of typos, leaps, and muddled sentences may enable the reviewers to focus on providing advice on the content rather than the form.

Feedback is vital to writing a good review, and should be sought from a variety of colleagues, so as to obtain a diversity of views on the draft. This may lead in some cases to conflicting views on the merits of the paper, and on how to improve it, but such a situation is better than the absence of feedback. A diversity of feedback perspectives on a literature review can help identify where the consensus view stands in the landscape of the current scientific understanding of an issue [24] .

Rule 9: Include Your Own Relevant Research, but Be Objective

In many cases, reviewers of the literature will have published studies relevant to the review they are writing. This could create a conflict of interest: how can reviewers report objectively on their own work [25] ? Some scientists may be overly enthusiastic about what they have published, and thus risk giving too much importance to their own findings in the review. However, bias could also occur in the other direction: some scientists may be unduly dismissive of their own achievements, so that they will tend to downplay their contribution (if any) to a field when reviewing it.

In general, a review of the literature should neither be a public relations brochure nor an exercise in competitive self-denial. If a reviewer is up to the job of producing a well-organized and methodical review, which flows well and provides a service to the readership, then it should be possible to be objective in reviewing one's own relevant findings. In reviews written by multiple authors, this may be achieved by assigning the review of the results of a coauthor to different coauthors.

Rule 10: Be Up-to-Date, but Do Not Forget Older Studies

Given the progressive acceleration in the publication of scientific papers, today's reviews of the literature need awareness not just of the overall direction and achievements of a field of inquiry, but also of the latest studies, so as not to become out-of-date before they have been published. Ideally, a literature review should not identify as a major research gap an issue that has just been addressed in a series of papers in press (the same applies, of course, to older, overlooked studies (“sleeping beauties” [26] )). This implies that literature reviewers would do well to keep an eye on electronic lists of papers in press, given that it can take months before these appear in scientific databases. Some reviews declare that they have scanned the literature up to a certain point in time, but given that peer review can be a rather lengthy process, a full search for newly appeared literature at the revision stage may be worthwhile. Assessing the contribution of papers that have just appeared is particularly challenging, because there is little perspective with which to gauge their significance and impact on further research and society.

Inevitably, new papers on the reviewed topic (including independently written literature reviews) will appear from all quarters after the review has been published, so that there may soon be the need for an updated review. But this is the nature of science [27] – [32] . I wish everybody good luck with writing a review of the literature.

Acknowledgments

Many thanks to M. Barbosa, K. Dehnen-Schmutz, T. Döring, D. Fontaneto, M. Garbelotto, O. Holdenrieder, M. Jeger, D. Lonsdale, A. MacLeod, P. Mills, M. Moslonka-Lefebvre, G. Stancanelli, P. Weisberg, and X. Xu for insights and discussions, and to P. Bourne, T. Matoni, and D. Smith for helpful comments on a previous draft.

Funding Statement

This work was funded by the French Foundation for Research on Biodiversity (FRB) through its Centre for Synthesis and Analysis of Biodiversity data (CESAB), as part of the NETSEED research project. The funders had no role in the preparation of the manuscript.

How to Write a Literature Review: Writing a Literature Review in APA Format

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Writing a Literature Review: General Guidelines

Table of contents

• 1 What Is a Literature Review?
• 2 What Is the Purpose of a Literature Review?
• 3 Steps in the Literature Review Process
• 4.1 Chronological
• 4.2 Thematic
• 4.3 Methodological
• 4.4 Theoretical
• 5 Literature Review Outline
• 6 Literature Review: Writing Tips

Writing a literature review for a research paper is an important stage in the academic research process. It entails doing a critical review of existing literature to provide a comprehensive overview of current knowledge on a certain issue. In this article, we will walk you through the important processes for writing an excellent literature review. We’ll discuss how to discover relevant literature, combine findings, and arrange your review to provide clear insights. Whether you’re a seasoned researcher or a first-time writer, this guide will give you essential advice and tactics for improving the quality and impact of your literature reviews.

What Is a Literature Review?

A literature review is a survey of key scholarly sources to do with a particular topic. It lists a number of important and relevant pieces of writing and, in doing so, gives the reader a summary of the topic’s current knowledge and debates. When writing a literature review, a student should do more than just summarise each individual source. They should analyze them closely and compare them with one another.

A key part of academic writing involves understanding what has been said and debated about the chosen topic. Once a student has done their research, they’re in a better place to write their research paper and put their point across. A good literature review should let the reader know what the salient points from the student’s research are.

What Is the Purpose of a Literature Review?

The purpose of a literature review is to show the reader what research has been carried out on the chosen topic in the past. When writing one, you’re aiming to bring the reader up to speed with other people’s research before sharing your own findings. You should summarise where the topic’s at right now before building on it with your research.

Another important purpose is to give more weight to a student’s key arguments. By listing and comparing some of the key sources, a student can give context to the main points in their research paper; they can even fill any gaps in certain areas that others haven’t yet managed to fill.

If you want to know how to write a literature review in a research paper, carry on reading. We’ll run you through the process of putting one together, and we’ll talk about some of the different approaches you can take in writing one.

Steps in the Literature Review Process

A literature review can make a Ph.D. dissertation, or any other kind of  research paper more convincing. For a review to be effective, it should be detailed and have substance but without overdoing it; in other words, it should be concise.

If you’re not sure how to write a literature review for a research paper, we’ll show you how in this section. Here are the main steps to take:

• Decide on your topic Your topic is the base on which you build your research. It also determines what research you carry out.
• Search for sources to include The sources you look at for your research paper should be authoritative and relevant. They should be scholarly in nature, though not all of them will be.
• Determine which ones are the most useful Look through your sources and think about how much each one adds to both the topic you’re exploring and the research you’re carrying out. Including all sources isn’t practical, so only choose the most appropriate and fitting ones.
• Identify where the research is currently at By reading other people’s research, you can get an idea of what the current thoughts and debates relating to your chosen topic area.
• Come up with a structure Literature reviews have quite simple structures. More information on these is given below. Think about how you want to present yours and how you’re going to arrange your findings.
• Write your literature review A well-written literature review gives the reader all the necessary information about each of the sources. It clearly explains how the sources are connected and what they contribute to the chosen topic.

It’s a good idea to come up with headings and subheadings and go from there. These are both important, and we’ll talk about them in more detail later on. During the planning process, they can help you come up with a definitive structure for your literature review and consolidate your thoughts.

You may want to pay someone to write a literature review for you. Many people who are struggling with literature reviews do this. They don’t hand in the work that someone else has done for them. Instead, they read through the other person’s work to get ideas and inspiration. Doing this can help people write their own literature review much more effectively.

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How to Structure a Literature Review

For this section, we’ll look at how to write a literature review. We’ll focus on the different approaches you can take according to the type of research you’re doing and how you wish to present it.

Chronological

Listing your sources in chronological order is perhaps the simplest approach to take. However, make sure you don’t just list the sources and summarise them. You should still try to establish some sort of connection between them. Highlight movements, patterns, and new ideas. Show the reader how scholarship on the topic has changed over time. You could even organize your sources into broad historical periods and have these as subheadings in the literature review, for example.

When writing a thematic literature review , you should organize your sources by theme. You should consider this approach if you’ve found multiple themes during your research. Create literature review subheadings for each theme that stands out to you. If you go for a thematic style, think about what your RRL subtopics are and what themes you would use to organize them.

Methodological

A methodological literature review is one whose sources involve the use of different research methods . You could have one source that’s numerical and involves graphs and statistics, for example, and another that’s entirely made up of written text. The subheadings in a literature review that’s methodological could focus on different types of research, focusing not so much on what has been researched but how it’s been researched. As a literature review subheadings example, you could therefore have one subheading for literary sources, another for numerical/graph-based data, and so on.

Theoretical

With a theoretical approach, the focus is on the body of theories relating to the topic that’s being discussed. The aim is to determine what theories there currently are, how they relate to one another, and how much they’ve been looked into.

These are just some of the different ways you can go about writing a literature review. The approach you take will depend on the nature of your review and the topic you’re looking at.

Writing a literature review can be an intimidating task to tackle, especially if you are not familiar with the literature in the field. Fortunately, there is a  paper writing service online that can help you create an outstanding literature review in no time. Our service is helpful for students, researchers, and others who need to compile a comprehensive and informative literature review.

Literature Review Outline

Writing a good outline for a literature review is important for your research paper. It helps you organize your thoughts and ideas and gives you a clear direction for the writing process.

An outline is not a formal document but rather an informal guide to assist you in organizing the information you want to include in your paper. The outline should be written in paragraph form, with each paragraph representing one major idea that will be expanded upon in subsequent paragraphs of the paper.

The main purpose of writing an outline is so that you can organize all of your sources in a way that will help you write a clear, concise essay. You just want to throw together quotes and facts without any order or reason. This will make it hard for the reader to follow along with what you are saying and make it appear that you have no idea what you’re talking about. This can result in a low grade for your paper and make it difficult for them to understand what is happening within the text.

• Introduction The introduction should include a brief summary of the literature that is being reviewed, including the general topic and your specific focus. You should also provide some background information on the topic to help the reader understand why it is important. You should not include any citations in this section, because you will do that later in the paper.
• Body The body is where you provide an overview of all the sources or literature, you have used for your paper. You should include an introduction to each source and a brief summary of what was found in each source. In addition to providing summaries, you should also describe how each source relates to your research question or hypothesis and then relate them back to each other if they are similar enough to be compared. Finally, you should explain how each source relates to one another in addition to explaining how they relate to your research question or hypothesis.
• Conclusion The conclusion should summarize your arguments throughout the paper and then tie all of these things together into one coherent argument that proves or disproves your hypothesis or research question in relation to other sources discussed throughout this paper (and/or).

Writing a literature review is an integral part of a successful research article or dissertation, as it helps to synthesize and connect the existing body of knowledge. To write your lit review relevantly, it is important to ensure that you include new information when constructing your review and connect existing ideas and themes. A useful literature review outline can provide a structure for expressing your views, allowing you to connect and organize your ideas consistently and effectively.

Literature Review: Writing Tips

When writing a literature review, it’s important to include all of the information your assignment requires. Sometimes, instructors will give you specific guidelines for how long your literature review should be and how many sources it needs to include. If they don’t, however, you’ll need to decide what works best for your situation.

A literature review outline will be the foundation of your paper. It will tell you what information is important and how to write it cohesively and logically. When writing, it’s important to only include facts backed up by evidence. This means that if you are writing about any research topic, there must be at least one piece of published work that backs up each claim or opinion you present.

If there isn’t a source supporting your writing, don’t put it in because it makes your paper seem like speculation or opinion rather than fact-based knowledge about the issue at hand. Another tip for writers is to write clearly and concisely so that readers can understand what they are reading quickly without having any difficulty following along from one point to another throughout the entire essay (or book).

Readers may get bored very quickly if they feel like they have to struggle through something too much before getting into where things go next. Therefore, proper grammar usage should also be kept while doing this type as well, so there are no mistakes left behind after editing later down the line during the publishing stage itself.

The following are the most important tips for writing a literature review:

• Make sure that each paragraph covers a single subject or idea.
• Start with a thesis statement, which should sum up the paper’s main idea in one sentence.
• Write each paragraph in a way that flows from one point to another logically and coherently.
• Include quotes and paraphrases from sources you have read in order to support your arguments and conclusions.
• Make sure that you use credible sources as evidence for your claims and arguments in your paper.

As well as learning how to write a literature review for a research paper, you’ll learn to be more productive and use your time more wisely. Writing services help you put together literature reviews more efficiently. They give you the opportunity to work with an experienced writer who can offer tips in writing RRL, help you with literature review formatting, and more. For example, you can even get things like literature review headings and subheadings so you can see how best to write your headings.

Remember that while the literature review isn’t the main part of a research assignment, it’s still significant. It’s important that you write it as best you can so that your research has more backing and will be taken more seriously.

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15 Literature Review Examples

Chris Drew (PhD)

Dr. Chris Drew is the founder of the Helpful Professor. He holds a PhD in education and has published over 20 articles in scholarly journals. He is the former editor of the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education. [Image Descriptor: Photo of Chris]

Learn about our Editorial Process

Literature reviews are a necessary step in a research process and often required when writing your research proposal . They involve gathering, analyzing, and evaluating existing knowledge about a topic in order to find gaps in the literature where future studies will be needed.

Ideally, once you have completed your literature review, you will be able to identify how your research project can build upon and extend existing knowledge in your area of study.

Generally, for my undergraduate research students, I recommend a narrative review, where themes can be generated in order for the students to develop sufficient understanding of the topic so they can build upon the themes using unique methods or novel research questions.

If you’re in the process of writing a literature review, I have developed a literature review template for you to use – it’s a huge time-saver and walks you through how to write a literature review step-by-step:

Get your time-saving templates here to write your own literature review.

Literature Review Examples

For the following types of literature review, I present an explanation and overview of the type, followed by links to some real-life literature reviews on the topics.

1. Narrative Review Examples

Also known as a traditional literature review, the narrative review provides a broad overview of the studies done on a particular topic.

It often includes both qualitative and quantitative studies and may cover a wide range of years.

The narrative review’s purpose is to identify commonalities, gaps, and contradictions in the literature .

I recommend to my students that they should gather their studies together, take notes on each study, then try to group them by themes that form the basis for the review (see my step-by-step instructions at the end of the article).

Example Study

Title: Communication in healthcare: a narrative review of the literature and practical recommendations

Citation: Vermeir, P., Vandijck, D., Degroote, S., Peleman, R., Verhaeghe, R., Mortier, E., … & Vogelaers, D. (2015). Communication in healthcare: a narrative review of the literature and practical recommendations. International journal of clinical practice , 69 (11), 1257-1267.

Source: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/ijcp.12686  

Overview: This narrative review analyzed themes emerging from 69 articles about communication in healthcare contexts. Five key themes were found in the literature: poor communication can lead to various negative outcomes, discontinuity of care, compromise of patient safety, patient dissatisfaction, and inefficient use of resources. After presenting the key themes, the authors recommend that practitioners need to approach healthcare communication in a more structured way, such as by ensuring there is a clear understanding of who is in charge of ensuring effective communication in clinical settings.

Other Examples

• Burnout in United States Healthcare Professionals: A Narrative Review (Reith, 2018) – read here
• Examining the Presence, Consequences, and Reduction of Implicit Bias in Health Care: A Narrative Review (Zestcott, Blair & Stone, 2016) – read here
• A Narrative Review of School-Based Physical Activity for Enhancing Cognition and Learning (Mavilidi et al., 2018) – read here
• A narrative review on burnout experienced by medical students and residents (Dyrbye & Shanafelt, 2015) – read here

2. Systematic Review Examples

This type of literature review is more structured and rigorous than a narrative review. It involves a detailed and comprehensive plan and search strategy derived from a set of specified research questions.

The key way you’d know a systematic review compared to a narrative review is in the methodology: the systematic review will likely have a very clear criteria for how the studies were collected, and clear explanations of exclusion/inclusion criteria. 

The goal is to gather the maximum amount of valid literature on the topic, filter out invalid or low-quality reviews, and minimize bias. Ideally, this will provide more reliable findings, leading to higher-quality conclusions and recommendations for further research.

You may note from the examples below that the ‘method’ sections in systematic reviews tend to be much more explicit, often noting rigid inclusion/exclusion criteria and exact keywords used in searches.

Title: The importance of food naturalness for consumers: Results of a systematic review  

Citation: Roman, S., Sánchez-Siles, L. M., & Siegrist, M. (2017). The importance of food naturalness for consumers: Results of a systematic review. Trends in food science & technology , 67 , 44-57.

Source: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S092422441730122X  

Overview: This systematic review included 72 studies of food naturalness to explore trends in the literature about its importance for consumers. Keywords used in the data search included: food, naturalness, natural content, and natural ingredients. Studies were included if they examined consumers’ preference for food naturalness and contained empirical data. The authors found that the literature lacks clarity about how naturalness is defined and measured, but also found that food consumption is significantly influenced by perceived naturalness of goods.

• A systematic review of research on online teaching and learning from 2009 to 2018 (Martin, Sun & Westine, 2020) – read here
• Where Is Current Research on Blockchain Technology? (Yli-Huumo et al., 2016) – read here
• Universities—industry collaboration: A systematic review (Ankrah & Al-Tabbaa, 2015) – read here
• Internet of Things Applications: A Systematic Review (Asghari, Rahmani & Javadi, 2019) – read here

3. Meta-analysis

This is a type of systematic review that uses statistical methods to combine and summarize the results of several studies.

Due to its robust methodology, a meta-analysis is often considered the ‘gold standard’ of secondary research , as it provides a more precise estimate of a treatment effect than any individual study contributing to the pooled analysis.

Furthermore, by aggregating data from a range of studies, a meta-analysis can identify patterns, disagreements, or other interesting relationships that may have been hidden in individual studies.

This helps to enhance the generalizability of findings, making the conclusions drawn from a meta-analysis particularly powerful and informative for policy and practice.

Title: Cholesterol and Alzheimer’s Disease Risk: A Meta-Meta-Analysis

Citation: Sáiz-Vazquez, O., Puente-Martínez, A., Ubillos-Landa, S., Pacheco-Bonrostro, J., & Santabárbara, J. (2020). Cholesterol and Alzheimer’s disease risk: a meta-meta-analysis. Brain sciences, 10(6), 386.

Source: https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci10060386  

O verview: This study examines the relationship between cholesterol and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Researchers conducted a systematic search of meta-analyses and reviewed several databases, collecting 100 primary studies and five meta-analyses to analyze the connection between cholesterol and Alzheimer’s disease. They find that the literature compellingly demonstrates that low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) levels significantly influence the development of Alzheimer’s disease.

• The power of feedback revisited: A meta-analysis of educational feedback research (Wisniewski, Zierer & Hattie, 2020) – read here
• How Much Does Education Improve Intelligence? A Meta-Analysis (Ritchie & Tucker-Drob, 2018) – read here
• A meta-analysis of factors related to recycling (Geiger et al., 2019) – read here
• Stress management interventions for police officers and recruits (Patterson, Chung & Swan, 2014) – read here

Other Types of Reviews

• Scoping Review: This type of review is used to map the key concepts underpinning a research area and the main sources and types of evidence available. It can be undertaken as stand-alone projects in their own right, or as a precursor to a systematic review.
• Rapid Review: This type of review accelerates the systematic review process in order to produce information in a timely manner. This is achieved by simplifying or omitting stages of the systematic review process.
• Integrative Review: This review method is more inclusive than others, allowing for the simultaneous inclusion of experimental and non-experimental research. The goal is to more comprehensively understand a particular phenomenon.
• Critical Review: This is similar to a narrative review but requires a robust understanding of both the subject and the existing literature. In a critical review, the reviewer not only summarizes the existing literature, but also evaluates its strengths and weaknesses. This is common in the social sciences and humanities .
• State-of-the-Art Review: This considers the current level of advancement in a field or topic and makes recommendations for future research directions. This type of review is common in technological and scientific fields but can be applied to any discipline.

How to Write a Narrative Review (Tips for Undergrad Students)

Most undergraduate students conducting a capstone research project will be writing narrative reviews. Below is a five-step process for conducting a simple review of the literature for your project.

• Search for Relevant Literature: Use scholarly databases related to your field of study, provided by your university library, along with appropriate search terms to identify key scholarly articles that have been published on your topic.
• Evaluate and Select Sources: Filter the source list by selecting studies that are directly relevant and of sufficient quality, considering factors like credibility , objectivity, accuracy, and validity.
• Analyze and Synthesize: Review each source and summarize the main arguments  in one paragraph (or more, for postgrad). Keep these summaries in a table.
• Identify Themes: With all studies summarized, group studies that share common themes, such as studies that have similar findings or methodologies.
• Write the Review: Write your review based upon the themes or subtopics you have identified. Give a thorough overview of each theme, integrating source data, and conclude with a summary of the current state of knowledge then suggestions for future research based upon your evaluation of what is lacking in the literature.

Literature reviews don’t have to be as scary as they seem. Yes, they are difficult and require a strong degree of comprehension of academic studies. But it can be feasibly done through following a structured approach to data collection and analysis. With my undergraduate research students (who tend to conduct small-scale qualitative studies ), I encourage them to conduct a narrative literature review whereby they can identify key themes in the literature. Within each theme, students can critique key studies and their strengths and limitations , in order to get a lay of the land and come to a point where they can identify ways to contribute new insights to the existing academic conversation on their topic.

Ankrah, S., & Omar, A. T. (2015). Universities–industry collaboration: A systematic review. Scandinavian Journal of Management, 31(3), 387-408.

Asghari, P., Rahmani, A. M., & Javadi, H. H. S. (2019). Internet of Things applications: A systematic review. Computer Networks , 148 , 241-261.

Dyrbye, L., & Shanafelt, T. (2016). A narrative review on burnout experienced by medical students and residents. Medical education , 50 (1), 132-149.

Geiger, J. L., Steg, L., Van Der Werff, E., & Ünal, A. B. (2019). A meta-analysis of factors related to recycling. Journal of environmental psychology , 64 , 78-97.

Martin, F., Sun, T., & Westine, C. D. (2020). A systematic review of research on online teaching and learning from 2009 to 2018. Computers & education , 159 , 104009.

Mavilidi, M. F., Ruiter, M., Schmidt, M., Okely, A. D., Loyens, S., Chandler, P., & Paas, F. (2018). A narrative review of school-based physical activity for enhancing cognition and learning: The importance of relevancy and integration. Frontiers in psychology , 2079.

Patterson, G. T., Chung, I. W., & Swan, P. W. (2014). Stress management interventions for police officers and recruits: A meta-analysis. Journal of experimental criminology , 10 , 487-513.

Reith, T. P. (2018). Burnout in United States healthcare professionals: a narrative review. Cureus , 10 (12).

Ritchie, S. J., & Tucker-Drob, E. M. (2018). How much does education improve intelligence? A meta-analysis. Psychological science , 29 (8), 1358-1369.

Roman, S., Sánchez-Siles, L. M., & Siegrist, M. (2017). The importance of food naturalness for consumers: Results of a systematic review. Trends in food science & technology , 67 , 44-57.

Sáiz-Vazquez, O., Puente-Martínez, A., Ubillos-Landa, S., Pacheco-Bonrostro, J., & Santabárbara, J. (2020). Cholesterol and Alzheimer’s disease risk: a meta-meta-analysis. Brain sciences, 10(6), 386.

Vermeir, P., Vandijck, D., Degroote, S., Peleman, R., Verhaeghe, R., Mortier, E., … & Vogelaers, D. (2015). Communication in healthcare: a narrative review of the literature and practical recommendations. International journal of clinical practice , 69 (11), 1257-1267.

Wisniewski, B., Zierer, K., & Hattie, J. (2020). The power of feedback revisited: A meta-analysis of educational feedback research. Frontiers in Psychology , 10 , 3087.

Yli-Huumo, J., Ko, D., Choi, S., Park, S., & Smolander, K. (2016). Where is current research on blockchain technology?—a systematic review. PloS one , 11 (10), e0163477.

Zestcott, C. A., Blair, I. V., & Stone, J. (2016). Examining the presence, consequences, and reduction of implicit bias in health care: a narrative review. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations , 19 (4), 528-542

• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ 101 Class Group Name Ideas (for School Students)
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How to Write a Literature Review

As every student knows, writing informative essay and research papers is an integral part of the educational program. You create a thesis, support it using valid sources, and formulate systematic ideas surrounding it. However, not all students know that they will also have to face another type of paper known as a Literature Review in college. Let's take a closer look at this with our custom essay writer .

Literature Review Definition

As this is a less common academic writing type, students often ask: "What is a literature review?" According to the definition, a literature review is a body of work that explores various publications within a specific subject area and sometimes within a set timeframe.

This type of writing requires you to read and analyze various sources that relate to the main subject and present each unique comprehension of the publications. Lastly, a literature review should combine a summary with a synthesis of the documents used. A summary is a brief overview of the important information in the publication; a synthesis is a re-organization of the information that gives the writing a new and unique meaning.

Typically, a literature review is a part of a larger paper, such as a thesis or dissertation. However, you may also be given it as a stand-alone assignment.

The Purpose

The main purpose of a literature review is to summarize and synthesize the ideas created by previous authors without implementing personal opinions or other additional information.

However, a literature review objective is not just to list summaries of sources; rather, it is to notice a central trend or principle in all of the publications. Just like a research paper has a thesis that guides it on rails, a literature review has the main organizing principle (MOP). The goal of this type of academic writing is to identify the MOP and show how it exists in all of your supporting documents.

Why is a literature review important? The value of such work is explained by the following goals it pursues:

• Highlights the significance of the main topic within a specific subject area.
• Demonstrates and explains the background of research for a particular subject matter.
• Helps to find out the key themes, principles, concepts, and researchers that exist within a topic.
• Helps to reveal relationships between existing ideas/studies on a topic.
• Reveals the main points of controversy and gaps within a topic.
• Suggests questions to drive primary research based on previous studies.

Here are some example topics for writing literature reviews:

• Exploring racism in "To Kill a Mockingbird," "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," and "Uncle Tom's Cabin."
• Isolationism in "The Catcher in the Rye," "Frankenstein," and "1984"
• Understanding Moral Dilemmas in "Crime and Punishment," "The Scarlet Letter," and "The Lifeboat"
• Corruption of Power in "Macbeth," "All the King's Men," and "Animal Farm"
• Emotional and Physical survival in "Lord of the Flies," "Hatchet," and "Congo."

How Long Is a Literature Review?

When facing the need to write a literature review, students tend to wonder, "how long should a literature review be?" In some cases, the length of your paper's body may be determined by your instructor. Be sure to read the guidelines carefully to learn what is expected from you.

Keeping your literature review around 15-30% of your entire paper is recommended if you haven't been provided with specific guidelines. To give you a rough idea, that is about 2-3 pages for a 15-page paper. In case you are writing a literature review as a stand-alone assignment, its length should be specified in the instructions provided.

Literature Review Format: APA, MLA, and Chicago

The essay format you use should adhere to the citation style preferred by your instructor. Seek clarification from your instructor for several other components as well to establish a desired literature review format:

• How many sources should you review, and what kind of sources should they be (published materials, journal articles, or websites)?
• What format should you use to cite the sources?
• How long should the review be?
• Should your review consist of a summary, synthesis, or a personal critique?
• Should your review include subheadings or background information for your sources?

If you want to format your paper in APA style, then follow these rules:

• Use 1-inch page margins.
• Unless provided with other instructions, use double-spacing throughout the whole text.
• Make sure you choose a readable font. The preferred font for APA papers is Times New Roman set to 12-point size.
• Include a header at the top of every page (in capital letters). The page header must be a shortened version of your essay title and limited to 50 characters, including spacing and punctuation.
• Put page numbers in the upper right corner of every page.
• When shaping your literature review outline in APA, don't forget to include a title page. This page should include the paper's name, the author's name, and the institutional affiliation. Your title must be typed with upper and lowercase letters and centered in the upper part of the page; use no more than 12 words, and avoid using abbreviations and useless words.

For MLA style text, apply the following guidelines:

• Double your spacing across the entire paper.
• Set ½-inch indents for each new paragraph.
• The preferred font for MLA papers is Times New Roman set to 12-point size.
• Include a header at the top of your paper's first page or on the title page (note that MLA style does not require you to have a title page, but you are allowed to decide to include one). A header in this format should include your full name; the name of your instructor; the name of the class, course, or section number; and the due date of the assignment.
• Include a running head in the top right corner of each page in your paper. Place it one inch from the page's right margin and half an inch from the top margin. Only include your last name and the page number separated by a space in the running head. Do not put the abbreviation p. before page numbers.

Finally, if you are required to write a literature review in Chicago style, here are the key rules to follow:

• Set page margins to no less than 1 inch.
• Use double spacing across the entire text, except when it comes to table titles, figure captions, notes, blockquotes, and entries within the bibliography or References.
• Do not put spaces between paragraphs.
• Make sure you choose a clear and easily-readable font. The preferred fonts for Chicago papers are Times New Roman and Courier, set to no less than 10-point size, but preferably to 12-point size.
• A cover (title) page should include your full name, class information, and the date. Center the cover page and place it one-third below the top of the page.
• Place page numbers in the upper right corner of each page, including the cover page.

Read also about harvard format - popular style used in papers.

Structure of a Literature Review

How to structure a literature review: Like many other types of academic writing, a literature review follows a typical intro-body-conclusion style with 5 paragraphs overall. Now, let’s look at each component of the basic literature review structure in detail:

• Introduction

You should direct your reader(s) towards the MOP (main organizing principle). This means that your information must start from a broad perspective and gradually narrow down until it reaches your focal point.

Start by presenting your general concept (Corruption, for example). After the initial presentation, narrow your introduction's focus towards the MOP by mentioning the criteria you used to select the literature sources you have chosen (Macbeth, All the King's Men, and Animal Farm). Finally, the introduction will end with the presentation of your MOP that should directly link it to all three literature sources.

Body Paragraphs

Generally, each body paragraph will focus on a specific source of literature laid out in the essay's introduction. As each source has its own frame of reference for the MOP, it is crucial to structure the review in the most logically consistent way possible. This means the writing should be structured chronologically, thematically or methodologically.

Chronologically

Breaking down your sources based on their publication date is a solid way to keep a correct historical timeline. If applied properly, it can present the development of a certain concept over time and provide examples in the form of literature. However, sometimes there are better alternatives we can use to structure the body.

Thematically

Instead of taking the "timeline approach," another option can be looking at the link between your MOP and your sources. Sometimes, the main idea will just glare from a piece of literature. Other times, the author may have to seek examples to prove their point. An experienced writer will usually present their sources by order of strength. For example, in "To Kill A Mockingbird," the entire novel was centralized around racism; in "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," racism was one of many themes.

Methodologically

As made obvious by the terminology, this type of structuring focuses on the methods used to present the central concept. For example, in "1984", George Orwell uses the law-and-order approach and shows the dangers of a dystopia for a social species.

In "Frankenstein," Mary Shelley exposes the character's physical traits as repulsive and horrifying, forcing him to suffer in an isolated environment. By showcasing the various methods used to portray the MOP, the writer can compare them based on things like severity, ethicality, and overall impact.

After presenting your key findings in the body paragraphs, there are 3 final objectives to complete in the essay's conclusion. First, the author should summarize the findings they have made or found, in other words, and briefly answer the question: "What have you learned?"

After discussing that information, the next step is to present the significance of the information about our current world today. In other words, how can the reader take the information and apply it to today's society? From that point, we finish off with a breadcrumb trail.

As the author, you want to leave the readers' trail of thought within the actual essay topic. This provides them with a means of further investigation—meaning that the reader may consider where the discussion will go next.

Writing an Outline for a Literature Review

Students often underestimate the importance of planning the structure of their papers in advance. However, this is not a wise approach. Having a rough APA literature review outline (or other style outlines) will not only help you follow the right format and structure but will also make the writing process simpler and help ensure that you include all of the important information without missing anything.

How to write a literature review outline: As you already know from the Structure section of this guide, every part of your literature review performs its own important role. Therefore, you should create your outline while keeping the general introduction-body-conclusion structure in mind and ensuring that each section meets its own objectives. However, it is important to remember that a literature review outline is slightly different from outlines of other types of essays because it does not provide new information. Instead, it focuses on existing studies relevant to the main topic. ‍

Here is a literature review outline example on the subject of the Ebola virus to help you get it right:

• Introduce the general topic. Provide background information on the Ebola virus: genome, pathogenesis, transmission, epidemiology, treatment, etc.
• Shape the main research question: What is the potential role of arthropods (mechanical or biological vectors) in the distribution of the Ebola virus?
• Methodology: For example, the information was searched through X databases to find relevant research articles about the Ebola virus and arthropods' role in its spreading. The data was extracted using a standardized form.
• Expected outcomes
• Overall trends in the literature on this topic: While the natural reservoir of the virus is still not known with certainty, many researchers believe that arthropods (and fruit bats, in particular) pay a significant role in the distribution of the virus.
• Subject 1: A brief overview of the particular piece of literature in general terms; an analysis of the key aspects of the study; a review of the research questions, methods, procedures, and outcomes; and an overview of the strong and weak points, gaps, and contradictions.
• Subject 2: A brief overview of the particular piece of literature in general terms; an analysis of the key aspects of the study; a review of the research questions, methods, procedures, and outcomes; and an overview of the strong and weak points, gaps, and contradictions.
• Subject 3:  A brief overview of the particular piece of literature in general terms; an analysis of the key aspects of the study; a review of the research questions, methods, procedures, and outcomes; and an overview of the strong and weak points, gaps, and contradictions.
• Indicate the relationships between the pieces of literature discussed. Emphasize key themes, common patterns, and trends. Talk about the pros and cons of the different approaches taken by the authors/researchers.
• State which studies seem to be the most influential.
• Emphasize the major contradictions and points of disagreement. Define the gaps still to be covered (if any).
• If applicable: define how your own study will contribute to further disclosure of the topic.

Hopefully, this sample outline will help you to structure your own paper. However, if you feel like you need some more advice on how to organize your review, don’t hesitate to search for more literature review outline examples in APA or other styles on the Web, or simply ask our writers to get a dissertation help .

Need Help With LITERATURE REVIEW?

Count on our literature review writing service to get it done! We will make your literature essay, we only need your paper requirements to save your precious time and nerves from writing it on your own!

How to Write a Good Literature Review

Whether you are writing a literature review within the framework of a large research project (e.g. thesis, dissertation, or other) or as a stand-alone assignment, the approach you should take to writing generally remains the same.

Whether you are writing a literature review within the framework of a large research project (e.g., thesis, dissertation, or other) or as a stand-alone assignment, the approach you should take to writing generally remains the same.

Now, as you know about the general rules and have a basic literature review outline template, let's define the steps to take to handle this task right with our service:

Step 1: Identifying the Topic

This is probably the only matter you may approach differently depending on whether your literature review comes within a research paper or a separate assignment altogether. If you are creating a literature review as a part of another work, you need to search for literature related to your main research questions and problems. Respectively, if you are writing it as a stand-alone task, you will have to pick a relevant topic and central question upon which you will collect the literature. Earlier in this guide, we suggested some engaging topics to guide your search.

Step 2: Conducting Research

When you have a clearly defined topic, it is time to start collecting literature for your review. We recommend starting by compiling a list of relevant keywords related to your central question—to make the entire research process much simpler and help you find relevant publications faster.

When you have a list of keywords, use them to search for valid and relevant sources. At this point, be sure to use only trusted sources, such as ones from university libraries, online scientific databases, etc.

Once you have found some sources, be sure to define whether or not they are actually relevant to your topic and research question. To save time, you can read abstracts to get general ideas of what the papers are about instead of the whole thing.

Pro Tip: When you finally find a few valid publications, take a look at their bibliographies to discover other relevant sources as well.

Step 3: Assess and Prioritize Sources

Throughout your research, you will likely find plenty of relevant literature to include in your literature review. At this point, students often make the mistake of trying to fit all the collected sources into their reviews. Instead, we suggest looking at what you've collected once more, evaluating the available sources, and selecting the most relevant ones. You most likely won't be able to read everything you find on a given topic and then be able to synthesize all of the sources into a single literature review. That's why prioritizing them is important.

To evaluate which sources are worth including in your review, keep in mind the following criteria:

• Credibility;
• Innovation;
• Key insights;

Furthermore, as you read the sources, don’t forget to take notes on everything you can incorporate into the review later. And be sure to get your citations in place early on. If you cite the selected sources at the initial stage, you will find it easier to create your annotated bibliography later on.

Step 4: Identify Relationships, Key Ideas, and Gaps

Before you can move on to outlining and writing your literature review, the final step is determining the relationships between the studies that already exist. Identifying the relationships will help you organize the existing knowledge, build a solid literature outline, and (if necessary) indicate your own research contribution to a specific field.

Some of the key points to keep an eye out for are:

• Main themes;
• Contradictions and debates;
• Influential studies or theories;
• Trends and patterns;

Here are a few examples: Common trends may include a focus on specific groups of people across different studies. Most researchers may have increased interest in certain aspects of the topic regarding key themes. Contradictions may include some disagreement concerning the theories and outcomes of a study. And finally, gaps most often refer to a lack of research on certain aspects of a topic.

Step 5: Make an Outline

Although students tend to neglect this stage, outlining is one of the most important steps in writing every academic paper. This is the easiest way to organize the body of your text and ensure that you haven't missed anything important. Besides, having a rough idea of what you will write about in the paper will help you get it right faster and more easily. Earlier in this guide, we already discussed the basic structure of a literature review and gave you an example of a good outline. At this workflow stage, you can use all of the knowledge you've gained from us to build your own outline.

Step 6: Move on to Writing

Having found and created all of your sources, notes, citations, and a detailed outline, you can finally get to the writing part of the process. At this stage, all you need to do is follow the plan you've created and keep in mind the overall structure and format defined in your professor's instructions.

Step 7: Adding the Final Touches

Most students make a common mistake and skip the final stage of the process, which includes proofreading and editing. We recommend taking enough time for these steps to ensure that your work will be worth the highest score. Do not underestimate the importance of proofreading and editing, and allocate enough time for these steps.

Pro Tip: Before moving on to proofreading and editing, be sure to set your literature review aside for a day or two. This will give you a chance to take your mind off it and then get back to proofreading with a fresh perspective. This tip will ensure that you won't miss out on any gaps or errors that might be present in your text.

These steps will help you create a top-notch literature review with ease! Want to get more advice on how to handle this body of work? Here are the top 3 tips you need to keep in mind when writing a literature review:

1. Good Sources

When working on a literature review, the most important thing any writer should remember is to find the best possible sources for their MOP. This means that you should select and filter through about 5-10 different options while doing initial research.

The stronger a piece of literature showcases the central point, the better the quality of the entire review.

2. Synthesize The Literature

Make sure to structure the review in the most effective way possible, whether it be chronologically, thematically, or methodologically. Understand what exactly you would like to say, and structure the source comparison accordingly.

3. Avoid Generalizations

Remember that each piece of literature will approach the MOP from a different angle. As the author, make sure to present the contrasts in approaches clearly and don't include general statements that offer no value.

Literature Review Examples

You can find two well-written literature reviews by the EssayPro writing team below. They will help you understand what the final product of a literature review should ideally look like.

The first literature review compares monolingual and bilingual language acquisition skills and uses various sources to prove its point:

The second literature review compares the impact of fear and pain on a protagonist’s overall development in various settings:

Both reviews will help you sharpen your skills and provide good guidelines for writing high-quality papers.

Get Help from an Essay Writer

Still aren’t sure whether you can handle literature review writing on your own? No worries because you can pay for essay writing and our service has got you covered! Boost your grades is to place an order in a few quick clicks and we will satisfy your write my paper request.

is an expert in nursing and healthcare, with a strong background in history, law, and literature. Holding advanced degrees in nursing and public health, his analytical approach and comprehensive knowledge help students navigate complex topics. On EssayPro blog, Adam provides insightful articles on everything from historical analysis to the intricacies of healthcare policies. In his downtime, he enjoys historical documentaries and volunteering at local clinics.

Literature Review

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• Sample Literature Reviews
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WTO / Education / 39 Best Literature Review Examples (Guide with Samples)

39 Best Literature Review Examples (Guide with Samples)

A literature review is a compilation of current knowledge on a particular topic derived from the critical evaluation of different scholarly sources such as books, articles, and publications, which is then presented in an organized manner to relate to a specific research problem being investigated.

It highlights the methods, relevant theories, and gaps in existing research on a particular subject. It can be both a summary and synthesis of information on a specific topic. A summary reiterates key information from scholarly sources, while synthesis is a new interpretation or combination of new and old material. 

As a synthesis, it can outline the intellectual progression of knowledge in a particular field or topic, which might involve stating key debates throughout the advancement period.  

Literature Review Examples

Purpose of Literature Review

Literature reviews have different purposes in scholarly articles, research papers, and books, depending on the discipline at hand. First and foremost, reviews are generally meant to showcase the extensive research carried out by an author on a particular topic and their findings, which will form the foundation of the research. It then summarizes the information to show the author’s familiarity with the topic in question.

The review also demonstrates the relationship between the topic being investigated and other topics that were under consideration. Finally, it outlines the gaps in the previous works of other scholars, which create areas of research.

Literature reviews provide a new interpretation of previous scholarly publications and aim to resolve conflicting studies done in the past. In addition, identifying existing gaps in a particular research area illustrates the starting point of the research.

Literature Review vs. Academic Research Paper

A research paper presents new ideas, arguments, and approaches toward a particular topic. The conclusions of a research paper will be based on the analysis and interpretation of raw data collected by the author and an original study. On the other hand, a literature review is based on the findings of other publications. Thus, the review highlights the author’s understanding of a topic based on the previously conducted research. It is part of a research paper.

Where, When, and Why

The need for a literature review in a publication will vary from one situation to the other and the field/discipline of research. These two factors determine what is expected from the lit review. For example, a scientific review will be more analytical on the methods and results of previous research. In contrast, a philosophical review will be more argumentative, highlighting the discrepancies and correspondences between scholars.

It can either be part of a publication or a stand-alone document. As part of a research publication, it is often placed after the introduction to the topic outlining knowledge about a particular topic and critical sources that formed the foundation of the research. As an individual document, it is prepared by students as part of course study to aid the students in familiarizing themselves with different topics in their field of study.

Lit reviews also guide students to help them synthesize theoretical methodologies and frameworks to adopt in academic research. As a publication, literature reviews are used to document existing information about a topic for readers (other scholars) to go through for whatever reasons they may have. Published studies are essentially helpful to new scholars getting into any field of research.

Types of Literature Review

Before looking into how to write a literature review, it is vital to understand the different types. The type will usually depend on the objective approach of the author.

Common types are:  

Argumentative review

An argumentative review is adopted when the research paper or publication is meant to take a contrarian viewpoint on a particular subject. The review analyses an existing argument, philosophical problem, assumption, or conclusion outlined in different studies with an objective to either support or oppose the argument. 

Integrative review

An integrative review integrates secondary data to develop new perspectives and frameworks on a topic. This is more prevalent in research that does not involve primary data. In addition, integrative reviews are more familiar with social sciences.       

Historical review

Historical reviews are used when scholars or authors place a particular idea, concept, theory, or research in a historical context. It examines the idea, theory, or issue from the first time it was discussed and outlines its evolution throughout a given period.  

Methodological review

Methodological reviews look at how a specific theory, concept, results, or findings were developed. Therefore, methodological reviews will analyze the different methods used by different scholars to arrive at conclusions or knowledge about the topic being investigated.

Some of the methods scholars use in different disciplines to obtain information are interviewing, sampling, practical experiments/data collection, research approaches, critical thinking, social experiments, etc.

Methodological reviews are hence used to discuss tested methods of research and ethics that a researcher should be aware of before undertaking their investigations.  

Systematic review

A systematic review is a more detailed and comprehensive review compared to other types of lit reviews. It highlights any existing research evidence associated with a clearly defined research problem or question. The evidence is collected, analyzed, and reported in a summarized but detailed manner. Systematic reviews are popularly presented as a cause-and-effect structure.

Theoretical review

A theoretical review delves into the different theories regarding a particular issue, challenge, concept, or theory. It identifies their inadequacy in explaining the issue or concept at hand. The review then identifies the relationships between the identified theories, and the degree of research done and poses novel hypotheses to be investigated.

Organization of a Literature Review

How an author organizes a literature review will depend on what they aim to achieve. As a consequence, there are multiple ways of organizing it which are discussed below:

Chronological 

A chronological format outlines knowledge on a particular topic based on when the scholarly source of information was published. Starting with the earliest followed up to the most recent chronological order. This format should be used if there is a clear chronological order in the development of the information; therefore, it will not be applicable in some cases. Instead, key turning points, patterns, and events that impacted the direction of the knowledge should be outlined.  

By publication

It can be organized in the scholarly publications reviewed by the author, scholar, or student. The by-publication format should only improve the review and facilitate what the author aims to accomplish. 

Scholars or students can adopt a dominant trend in research, such as history, developmental stages, steps involved in a process, etc.

Methodological

A methodological format is based on the methods used by the researcher. Thus, the order of contents in the lit review will depend on the method they will use to carry out their research, knowledge obtained from the first method appears first, and the rest of the information follows in the same order according to the methods used by the author.  

Literature reviews organized in a thematic format revolve around the subject being investigated in no order. It is, therefore, ordinarily up to the researcher or author to determine how they intend to outline the information. A thematic format will crossover from one period and publication to another, but can sometimes incorporate a chronological order.

Theoretical

Literature reviews organized in a theoretical format have their contents organized in an abstract framework established by the author to discuss different concepts, theories, and concepts and how they relate to the research at hand.

Additional sections

Depending on the objective, other sections do not fit under conventional lit review formats that one may need to add. Below are some of the sections that authors or students can include in the lit review:

• Current situation: The review can have information about the current state of things regarding the topic at hand to facilitate further understanding.
• History: Researchers can summarize the subject under investigation, literature, or concept if the review is not already in chronological format.
• Selection methods: Lit reviews are known to outline the methods or criteria used in selecting the way to present information and scholarly sources referenced in the review.
• Standards: it can also include the standards used in choosing the format to present information in the review and the scholarly literature used in the research.
• Further questions for research: The review can include questions emanating from the review and how the researcher will further explore their research to address the queries raised.

Literature Review Samples

Considerations Before Writing a Literature Review

Preparation is essential when it comes to writing. The objective should be to come up with a review that satisfactorily explores the topic being discussed. The following considerations are steps towards that if incorporated into the writing process:

Authors should seek clarification from mentors or supervisors before commencing the writing process. First, determine what is expected from the lit review. The type and number of sources to be used, the assignment (summarize, synthesize, or critique), and the type of information provided should be clear.

Find models

You should review literature from other authors in the same discipline and evaluate how those authors presented their lit reviews. Previous lit reviews can be used as guides that point authors in the right direction when writing their lit reviews.

Narrow your topic

It is always advantageous to narrow down the research topic to a specific area of research; that way, the number of sources can also be reduced. Even though conducting research will usually involve extensive research on all available materials about a particular topic, having a well-defined topic simplifies the task at hand.

Current sources

Determine if the research project or discipline ought to be based on the most recent findings or information. It is common for knowledge to become obsolete, especially in disciplines where discoveries and new inventions are made fast. If the lit review should be based on current knowledge, limit the sources to the most recent literature. Some disciplines will typically have a limit on how old the sources should be.  

How to Write a Literature Review (Expert Guide)

Once all pre-writing considerations have been taken into account, it is time to write the document. At this point, you should already be aware of what you wish to accomplish with the literature review, and the steps to writing an exemplary lit review are mentioned below:

Problem formulation

First and foremost, clearly define the topic (research area) to be investigated. For students, this will sometimes be given as an assignment. However, the research could be an academic project, which means that the author has to come up with the problem and define it themselves.

Search for relevant studies

Once the problem is clearly expressed, you should search for studies related to the topic, concept, theory, or idea and questions surrounding the topic. Most stand-alone lit reviews will generally attempt to answer a more concentrated question. On the internet, literature can be searched using keywords related to the research area. In addition to keywords, include vital variables such as synonyms and associated terms. The inclusion of Boolean operators and, or not, is also used to narrow down results to more specific publications.

Familiar sources for publications are:

• Google Scholar
• Library catalogue
• Econ lit (economics)
• Project Muse (humanities and social sciences)
• Inspec (physics, engineering, and computer science)
• Medline (life sciences and biomedicine)

Before selecting relevant studies, go through their abstract and determine if they fit the scope needed in the investigation. Use a list to note down any chosen works. Select landmark sources in the discipline.

Evaluation of sources/data

The next step is the evaluation stage. Evaluation involves a lot of reading. Evaluation can be done in two stages; overall skimming and thorough reading. During the second stage of this step, be critical, ask questions, and take many notes.

Some of the questions authors or researchers should ask themselves are:

• What is the author’s objective? What problem, concept, or theory are they putting across?
• What are the main concepts?
• What are the methodologies used by the author to arrive at the results and conclusions?
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of the results and conclusions?

Use credible sources. Most cited sources are preferred as they indicate their influence in the field. Also, keep track of the citations to be later incorporated.

Identify themes, debates, and gaps

While reading the sources, identify key patterns, themes, debates/arguments, and gaps in each literature. These elements help tie the literature to the topic under investigation. Look for consistent patterns, themes, questions, challenges, methods, and inconsistencies in the same. Consistencies present critical information for consideration, while inconsistencies present opportunities for research areas.

Outline the structure

Formatting is part and parcel of a well-written work. Selecting the structure should start by creating an outline with all the information that will go into the lit review, then consider the different types of structures and select the most suitable. Next, take the basic structure of the introduction, body, and conclusion into consideration and start work from there. 

Analysis and interpretation 

Lastly, perform an in-depth analysis and interpretation of the information obtained from the scholarly research and put it into writing. The summarized, synthesized, and critically evaluated information is then written down in well-structured paragraphs that follow the chosen structure. Transition words are used to draw comparisons, connections, and contrasts.

Format 

Ordinarily, a literature review will have three key components: introduction, body, and conclusion. These components should appear in the document in the following order:

Introduction

An introduction should inform the reader which topic is being studied. It gives the reader an overall idea of the purpose and focus of the document. The introduction lets the reader know beforehand the key things that will be highlighted in the document. Therefore, the introduction should be brief and precise.

The next item is the body, where the primary purpose of the lit review is fulfilled. The body should take critical information from all the sources used and comprehensively present them. This is where the author reports the extensive analysis and interpretation results that they gathered from all the sources they reviewed. The body should be categorized into themes, ideas, and concepts within the main topic.

Lastly, a summary of what the lit review entails should be provided as a conclusion. The critical points obtained from examining the sources should be written down and linked to the primary subject of the review. Key points are those that have the most outstanding contribution to the research.

Studies used should be screened based on provenance (author’s credentials or credibility), methodology, objectivity, persuasiveness, and value related to the topic at hand.

Guidelines for Writing a Literature Review

To improve the delivery of information, there are certain elements that authors can incorporate. They are:

Use evidence

The lit review’s findings, interpretations, and general contents should be based on actual evidence or credible literature. Using citations is evidence of authentic information.

Be selective

There will always be a lot of information available from the reviewed sources. Authors should therefore be selective and discuss the key points that focus on the topic. Not all information must be included in the review.  

Word-for-word quotes are acceptable. This is even more so if a critical point or author-specific terminology or knowledge cannot be paraphrased. Quotes should, however, be used sparingly.

Summarize and synthesize

The information obtained from the sources should be summarized, and the author should use it to synthesize new arguments, concepts, or ideas related to their research.

Keep your voice

The literature review should reflect the author’s voice as it is a review of other people’s works. This can be done by starting and ending the paragraphs with an original voice, ideas, and wordings.

Use caution while paraphrasing

Any paraphrased information should be conveyed accurately and in the author’s words. A citation must always be done, even when paraphrasing has been done.

Proofread before submitting or publishing. Go through the document a few times and make the necessary changes. The review should be within the applicable guidelines. Check for language and any other errors and edit accordingly.

Do’s and Don’ts for a Literature Review 

Every researcher wants to introduce their readers to a particular topic in an informative and engaging manner. Below are tips that can be used to this effect.

The following things should be opted by the researcher when writing a lit review:

• Find a focus: Authors should take a direction, idea, concept, or argument and stick to it. The information conveyed should then be made to align with the chosen point of focus. Thus, the review is not simply a list of analyzed sources, but a detailed summary of how different sources have a focal point (intertwined).
• Well-chosen sources: The quality of the information will, to a great extent, be determined by the quality of sources used. Therefore, take time to select suitable sources and more value will be added to the review.
• Create an annotated bibliography: Creating an annotated bibliography is recommended as one reads their sources. The bibliography keeps track of sources and takes notes. This information can be used when writing the final lit review.
• Synthesize research: Information obtained from the relevant studies should be combined to come up with new or original ideas. You should present a new domain based on previous sources’ knowledge, not just restating the information.
• Argumentative approach: Well-written literature reviews will often argue to support an author’s stance on a particular topic. The author can choose to address how the author’s work is filling a particular gap or support one of the scholar’s arguments and perception towards a particular topic. However, this argumentative approach will not work in all situations; it is usually discipline-specific. 
• Convey it to the reader: It should let the reader know the document’s main idea, concept, or argument. This can be done by including a simple statement that compels the reader to think precisely and know what to expect.
• Break out your disciplinary box: The research will often be multi-disciplinary. Literature reviews should then collect interdisciplinary information from multiple sources as they add novel dynamics to the topic under investigation. It should be noted that this does not imply that the researcher should substitute the literature from the topic’s discipline with that from other disciplines. This is usually an improvement strategy that adds substance to the review.
• Look for repeated patterns: Be attentive to pick out repeated ideas, findings, and concepts from different scholars as they will often illustrate agreed research dead-end or a scholarly conclusion.
• Don’t just review for content: When reviewing the literature, examine the content and other writing and presentation techniques. Look out for unique ways information has been presented, methods used, consistent citations, and non-textual elements such as graphs, and figures used to present information. In addition, the researcher identifies theories used to predict, explain, or understand phenomena within the discipline.
• Search Web of Science and Google Scholar: Conduct citation tracking about the leading scholars already identified in the search process. Scholars cited by multiple scholars outside the principal discipline will generally indicate that there are no new publications on the topic.

The following don’ts should be avoided:

• Do not select studies that are not directly related to the topic being investigated.
• Avoid rushing when identifying and selecting sources to use to research the problem.
• Avoid the use of secondary analytical sources. Instead, opt to use sources with primary research studies or data. Secondary analytical sources will often cite primary analytical sources; research should refer to them instead.
• Do not accept other scholarly findings, theories, or interpretations without critically examining and critiquing them.
• Researchers should not outline the search procedures used to identify scholarly sources for reviewing purposes.
• Avoid including isolated statistical findings without illustrating how they were arrived at using chi-squared or meta-analytic methods.
• Do not review studies that only validate the assumptions, stances, and concepts of your thesis; consider contradicting works with alternative and conflicting stances.

Frequently Asked Questions

It is written by researchers, authors, and students who must study literature to gather knowledge on a particular topic they are interested in.

It should be placed right after the introduction of the dissertation. It places the research in a scholarly context by summarizing existing knowledge on the particular topic.

Researchers and authors are not limited in terms of how many sources they can review. Students will usually have a given number of sources to review as an assignment. However, the number of sources referenced in a lit review will vary from one topic or discipline to the other. Some topics have a vast catalog of available sources, while others have minimal sources, especially emerging issues. It is, however, advised that each key point discussed should have at least 2-3 references/sources. For example, a 10-page lit review will have an average of 30 references.

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The organisational impact of agility: a systematic literature review

• Open access
• Published: 21 June 2024

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• Tien Nguyen   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-8046-060X 1 ,
• Cat Vi Le   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-9272-2216 2 , 3 ,
• Minh Nguyen   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-3842-2749 2 , 3 ,
• Gam Nguyen   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-9123-2063 2 , 3 ,
• Tran Thi Hong Lien   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-7755-638X 2 , 3 &
• Oanh Nguyen   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-0559-4923 2 , 3  

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This paper reviews the literature on agility and its relationship with organisational performance using a sample of 249 recent empirical studies from 1998 to February 2024. We find support for a relatively strong and consistent contribution of different aspects of agility to organisational performance. Our analysis highlights numerous salient issues in this literature in terms of the theoretical background, research design, and contextual factors in agility-performance research. On this basis, we propose relevant recommendations for future research to address these issues, specifically focusing on the role of the board of directors and their leadership in fostering organisational agility.

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1 Introduction

Since the “Manifesto for Agile Software Development” was declared in 2001 (Highsmith 2011 ), the Agility concept and methodologies have migrated from a narrow area of the IT industry to a wide range of organisational applications. Agility has often been associated with startups and small and medium-sized companies but has recently been extended to large corporations. Due to the volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) business environment combined with intense competition and threats from new startup radical growth, large firms are forced to change their status quo and their heavy and inflexible business and management models to quickly adapt to the rapidly changing environment. As such, embracing agility and leading with agility have become new norms and are essential for business survival (Rigby et al. 2016 ).

In recent years, the world economy has gone through unprecedented crises due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the tech and trade war between the US and China, the Ukraine-Russia war, and the most recent Gaza Strip conflict triggering the Red Sea marine crisis; this has intensified the need for organisations to develop more agile business models to weather environmental turbulence and economic downturns (McKinsey & Company 2020 ). Complexity and unpredictability are dominating rules, challenging traditional management methods that rely on well-order planning. As such, in today's business world, being agile is no longer optional—it is essential for a company to stay alive (Harraf et al. 2015 ).

The recent focus on organisational agility in both research and practice can also be tied to some common practices applied in both small and large companies. One example is the use of cross-functional teams with procedures such as SCRUM to work in harmony with customers and deliver what they expect in a timely and cost-efficient manner (Handscomb et al. 2019 ). Teams with members from different functions and disciplines work together to put customers first and respond swiftly to their requests, reducing the waiting time visible in hierarchal organisations. However, further research evidence is needed to examine whether and to what extent it is sufficient for such a practice to build organisational agility. This highlights the need for comprehensive literature reviews with scientific research insights to guide industry practitioners in the application of agile practices.

Organisational agility is often defined as the dynamic capability of an organisation to act and react to uncertainties and the ability to explore and exploit opportunities in the business environment (Overby et al. 2006 ; Roberts and Grover 2012 ). Since 2019, the number of publications on organisational agility in literature has increased notably. However, as this literature evolves, agility is conceptualised inconsistently. This is particularly problematic given that agility is a multidimensional concept that includes but is not limited to various aspects, such as manufacturing agility, strategic agility, supply chain agility, IT agility, marketing agility, and workforce agility (Walter 2021 ). Such disagreement among researchers regarding how agility should be defined and constructed has posed significant challenges for researchers and practitioners in this area moving forwards, making it difficult to build the literature upon previous findings, to generalise those findings in different contexts and to apply this concept in reality (Walter 2021 ). Thus, a comprehensive understanding of agility as an overarching concept, its antecedents, and its effects on organisational outcomes is needed (Walter 2021 ).

Agility is often considered beneficial to organisational performance. With a dynamic ability to weather rapid changes and turbulence, an agile organisation is believed to be in a better position to produce outcomes. However, some evidence shows that the organisational benefits of agility are dependent on a range of factors, including the types of agility and outcomes as the focus of interest and the conditions for agility to contribute to organisational outcomes (Wieland and Wallenburg 2012 ). For instance, agility is found to increase firm financial performance (Rafi et al. 2021 ) or boost innovation (Del Giudice et al. 2021 ). However, in their study, Chakravarty et al. ( 2013 ) found that only entrepreneurial agility—the proactive ability to anticipate and exploit market opportunities and challenges—can help achieve better financial performance, while such effects from reactive types of agility are not significant. Additionally, while researchers have devoted much attention to some aspects of agility, such as supply chain agility or strategic agility, other aspects of agility, such as workforce agility and marketing agility, are still underresearched (Ajgaonkar et al 2022 ; Gomes et al. 2020 ). This demonstrates the need for a comprehensive and systematic review of whether, how, and what agility can contribute to organisational outcomes.

Recent literature reviews in this area have elucidated how agility is measured, what contributes to agility and the impact of agility on organisational outcomes. However, these reviews either adopted a narrow focus on one aspect of agility, such as marketing agility, supply chain agility, or IT agility (Kalaignanam et al. 2021 ; Patel and Sambasivan 2021 ; Tallon et al. 2019 ), or failed to provide an in-depth analysis that focused exclusively on the contribution of agility to business outcomes (Walter 2021 ).

The lack of a consensus on the concept, measurements and association of organisational agility with critical business outcomes indicates the need for a systematic review of the literature to, first, bring together all different types of agility and examine their impact on different organisational outcomes; second, identify the intervening factors that affect this relationship; and third, provide implications for future research in this area. This paper addresses the abovementioned objectives with an overarching research question: What is the current status of the literature on organisational agility and organisational outcomes? Then, this question is broken down into five broad subquestions as follows:

How are organisational agility and organisational performance defined and measured?

What is the relationship between organisational agility and organisational outcomes?

Which theories are used to examine the relationship between organisational agility and organisational outcomes?

What are some possible mediators or moderators that affect the relationship between organisational agility and organisational outcomes?

What are the implications for future research on this topic?

To comprehensively review the literature on agility and organisational performance, this paper adopts the strategy of a systematic literature review to examine 249 empirical studies in this area from 1998 to February 2024. This paper makes two significant contributions to the literature in this field. First, it seeks to provide a comprehensive summary and a conceptual map of whether and how organisational agility affects organisational performance based on 26 years of empirical evidence on this topic. Second, it aims to identify the gaps in knowledge and propose possible directions for future research and practices in this area. The paper starts with an introduction of the research design, followed by a description of the research findings, and ends with a discussion and recommendations for future research.

2 Research design

This paper adopts the widely used systematic review methodology in literature review studies to collect and analyse data because it is comprehensive, transparent, evidence-based, and unbiased (Khan et al. 2003 ; Snyder 2019 ; Tranfield et al. 2003 ). Figure  1 explains the strategy and steps taken to conduct this literature review.

Systematic literature review strategy and procedure

Following Xiao and Watson ( 2019 ), Diaz Tautiva et al. ( 2024 ), Tranfield et al. ( 2003 ), the paper utilises a systematic strategy and review steps through the three main phases of (i) planning, (ii) data collection, and (iii) data extraction, synthesis, and reporting to ensure the replicability and transparency of the methodology and findings. In the planning phase, we formed the review framework by carefully crafting the research objectives and referring to existing systematic review frameworks. Through this process, we were able to determine the search criteria and the framework for data extraction and classification, as indicated in Fig.  1 .

The review framework is based on dimensions of agility, variable measurement, theoretical background, methodology, findings, and intervening factors, followed by a synthesis of a conceptual map (Walter 2021 ; Bhattacharjee and Sarkar 2022 ; Patel and Sambasivan 2021 ). This framework is well aligned with our research questions and objectives and is often used in other literature review papers (Walter 2021 ; Bhattacharjee and Sarkar 2022 ; Patel and Sambasivan 2021 ). By using this framework, we can then move to the next step, which involves identifying the knowledge gaps in the literature and proposing some directions for future research in the field.

Using the predetermined search criteria identified in the planning phase, we first conducted a general search on Web of Science, one of the largest coverage databases, and obtained a sample of 8107 papers. We used the filter function to include 1165 peer-reviewed articles that had full texts available, were written in English, and were published in the fields of business, economics, and management. Then, we screened the titles and abstracts and adopted further exclusion criteria, as shown in Fig.  1 . The final sample consists of 249 English peer-reviewed empirical articles on agility and organisational outcomes, with agility being one of the main variables of interest in studies that test the firm-level impact of agility in the business, economics, and management fields.

Three groups of coders performed the data extraction and grouping based on the predetermined criteria mentioned above. Discussion and moderation were conducted before each group carried out their tasks. The data were extracted into an Excel file and categorised into the following columns: article title, authors, year, journal, theories, sample size, sample type (cross-sectional or panel), independent variables, moderators and contextual variables, mediators, dependent variables, control variables, analytical approach, and findings.

3 Research findings

3.1 descriptive analysis.

Table 1 summarises some key features of our data. In this dataset, agility is either the primary independent variable or a mediator that links inputs to outcomes. We also included other recent literature reviews and conceptual papers in this field to support our data analysis. Thus, our final data consist of 249 empirical studies, 39 literature reviews and conceptual studies, and seven other relevant studies in this area.

Figure  2 presents the distribution of 249 empirical studies on agility and outcomes from 1998 to February 2024, with a sharp increase in the number of publications in recent years since 2017. This indicates researchers’ growing interest in this area and reflects a timely research response to recent environmental and societal changes (Joyce 2021 ).

Publications by year from 1998 to February 2024

Table 2 provides an overview of different subtopics in agility and organisational outcomes research and shows that supply chain agility, organisational agility, and strategic agility are the most researched topics in this area. Other aspects of agility run from manufacturing/operational to marketing, business process, customer, workforce, IT and digital, market capitalising, project management, leadership, intellectual, R&D, social media, and value creation.

3.2 Measuring agility

Table 3 elucidates how different types of agility are measured in the literature. There is no consensus on how agility should be defined and measured. As the most researched type of agility, supply chain agility has been captured based on one or multiple dimensions, such as customers, products, delivery, responsiveness to the environment, competitors, and partners (Mandal 2018 ; Charles et al. 2010 ), collaborative planning (Braunscheidel and Suresh 2009 ; Chiang et al. 2012 ), procurement/sourcing and distribution/logistics (Swafford et al. 2006 ). Other approaches to measuring agility focus more on organisational capabilities such as alertness, accessibility, decisiveness, swiftness, and flexibility (Gligor and Holcomb 2012 ) or internal processes such as network collaboration, information integration, process integration, customer demand responsiveness (Mirghafoori et al. 2017 ) or information sharing (Whitten et al. 2012 ).

Organisational agility has also been measured in different ways. While some pioneering studies consider organisational agility to be flexible (Sharifi and Zhang 1999 ), others reveal that organisational agility should be a broader concept (Vokurka and Fliedner 1998 ). Such a concept can be similar to organisational ambidexterity (Overby et al. 2006 ; Roberts and Grover 2012 ), can feature dynamic capability (Teece et al. 1997 ), or can represent an overall organisational framework (Doz and Kosonen 2008 ; Dyer and Shafer 1998 ). The three most popular dimensions of organisational agility—customers, operation and partnership—are drawn from the work of Tallon and Pinsonneault ( 2011 ). Other approaches capture the sensing capability and response capability of organisations (Overby et al. 2006 ) or have different focuses, including but not limited to internal capabilities (Sharifi and Zhang 1999 ), people (Pramono et al. 2021 ), business processes (Vaculík et al. 2018 ), or products and costs (Zheng et al. 2023 ).

Strategic agility is commonly measured based on strategic sensitivity, resource fluidity, leadership unity, or a combination of technology capability, collaborative innovation, organisational learning, and internal alignment (Clauss et al. 2021 ; Doz and Kosonen 2008 ). Another approach involves adopting the three key dimensions of agility from Tallon and Pinsonneault ( 2011 ) from a strategic perspective. Some other measurement approaches are presented in Table  3 .

Manufacturing agility has been examined as a system leveraged by a range of capabilities, including responsiveness, competency, flexibility and speed (Cao and Dowlatshahi 2005 ; Sharifi and Zhang 1999 ), or as an organisational competency (Jacobs et al. 2011 ). Some of the less popular types of agility, such as customer agility, are measured as customers’ sensing capabilities and customers’ response capabilities (Clauss et al. 2021 ; Doz and Kosonen 2008 ). Intellectual agility is captured as the level of business-related skills, the frequency of skills and knowledge updates, the perception of work tasks as a challenge or an opportunity to practice skills, and the willingness to apply alternative solutions when solving problems (Chen and Chiang 2011 ; Felipe et al. 2016 ; Sambamurthy et al. 2003 ).

Overall, the literature on agility offers a wide range of approaches to measuring organisational agility and other dimensions of agility. While traditional approaches such as those of Sharifi and Zhang ( 1999 ), Overby et al. ( 2006 ), or Tallon and Pinsonneault ( 2011 ) are widely used, the literature continues to evolve with newer and more innovative approaches to measure agility and its dimensions. On the one hand, it motivates researchers in this field to develop better and more comprehensive ways to capture agility. On the other hand, the lack of consistency in measuring agility makes it difficult for researchers to synthesise how agility and its dimensions are constructed and what organisations should focus on to be more agile. Thus, there is a lack of informed guidance for practitioners to build agility in their organisations.

3.3 Measuring organisational outcomes

Table 4 provides an overview of the various aspects of organisational outcomes and the ways in which they are measured. The literature indicates a wide range of organisational outcomes examined in the context of agility. Some popular approaches to measuring organisational outcomes include the use of a self-reported overall organisational performance indicator, the construction of a composite variable with multiple dimensions, or the use of multiple separate indicators to capture different aspects of performance, including but not limited to financial performance (accounting and market indicators), nonfinancial performance, environmental performance, operational performance and beyond (Kurniawan et al. 2021a , b ). Other aspects of organisational outcomes examined in the agility and organisational outcomes literature include supply chain performance, innovation, competitiveness, customer service performance, digital and technology performance, manufacturing and operation, sustainability, international performance, employees, marketing, and organisational capabilities.

The literature offers a diverse set of organisational outcomes in conjunction with agility. This allows researchers and practitioners to look at how agility affects organisations in different angles and layers from financial performance to organisational survival, operation, sustainability, capabilities, employee performance and well-being. However, methodologically, the literature reveals some flaws in measuring and constructing organisational performance. While the predominant use of composite variables helps capture an overall indicator of organisational performance, which eases the analysis process (Panda 2021 ), this approach lacks consideration of the separate impact of each aspect of performance, making it challenging to interpret the results and apply the findings to practice.

The literature also reveals that organisational outcomes are often measured as construct variables through reflective/self-report survey questions (Altay et al. 2018 ; Goncalves et al. 2020 ), which raises some concerns about data reliability and validity. Some other studies use quantitative variables based on secondary data (Gligor and Bozkurt 2021 ; Pereira et al. 2021 ) or examine both qualitative and quantitative performance variables. However, further tests should be adopted to ensure the consistency and congruence of these methods (Feizabadi et al. 2019 ; Gligor et al. 2020a , b ).

3.4 The use of theories in agility and organisational outcome research

Table 5 provides a summary of relevant theories in this area of research. Despite the wide range of theories available in this domain, the use of theories in empirical research in this sample is still inadequate. Out of 249 empirical studies, 141 (56.6%) adopt single or multiple theoretical approaches to build their argument of the contribution of agility to organisational outcomes. However, 109 (43.8%) studies in the dataset did not explicitly utilise relevant theories to support their hypothesis development. Given this lack of solid theoretical frameworks, these studies cannot develop a logical and established view of how or why agility improves organisational outcomes, which might threaten the rigour of their research design and the strength of their argument.

Furthermore, Table  5 highlights a wide range of theories incorporated in this research domain, with the dynamic capabilities perspective and the resource-based view being the most widely used theoretical background. These two theoretical frameworks are often combined to provide a comprehensive understanding of the relationship between agility and outcomes (Jabarzadeh et al. 2022 ; Mikalef and Pateli 2017 ). The dynamic capabilities perspective emphasises the importance of perceiving and seizing valuable growth opportunities and the ability to transform the organisation to fit with these opportunities (Teece et al. 1997 ). However, the dynamic capabilities perspective is criticised for its limited explanation of how and to what extent organisations should achieve the abovementioned purposes (Ambler and Wilson 2006). The resource-based view focuses on analysing the internal resources of the enterprise as well as linking internal resources with the external environment to foster innovation and create competitive advantage (Sambamurthy et al. 2003 ). However, similar to dynamic capabilities theory, the resource-based view still has limited practicality (El Shafeey and Trott 2014 ). Therefore, future studies on firm performance and agility should be based on a multitheoretical approach to obtain a more comprehensive view of this relationship (Doz and Kosonen 2008 ; Dyer and Shafer 1998 ).

3.5 The relationship between agility and organisational performance

Figure  3 summarises the findings of the relationship between agility and performance. Evidence from the current literature elucidates the positive impact of agility on organisational performance, with 219 (87.9%) studies confirming the positive impact of different forms of agility on organisational outcomes. Twenty-seven studies reported mixed effects between agility and organisational outcomes, 2 studies found no significant relationship between agility and organisational outcomes, and 1 study showed a negative impact of organisational agility on the continuity of innovation projects in organisations.

The impact of agility on organisational performance

Overall, relatively strong and consistent results support the contribution of organisational agility to organisational outcomes, including overall organisational performance (Stei et al. 2024 ), financial and nonfinancial performance (i.e., Rafi et al. 2021 ), innovation (i.e., Goncalves et al. 2020 ), sustainability ( i.e., Lopez-Gamero et al. 2023 ), competitiveness (i.e., Mikalef and Pateli 2017 ), digital and technology transformation ( i.e., Ly 2023 ), international performance ( i.e., Nemkova 2017 ), and employee job performance ( i.e., Chung et al. 2014 ).

However, some studies still report mixed effects of organisational agility on organisational outcomes. Several factors contribute to this mixed effect. First, it depends on the type of inputs and outcomes in the models where organisational agility serves as a mediator or a main independent variable. For example, even though organisational agility is found to enhance radical innovation, it does not help incremental innovation, even under technological turbulence, according to a study conducted by Puriwat and Hoonsopon ( 2021 ). Organisational agility has been shown to translate firm knowledge management into competitive advantage. However, by taking a closer look at different forms of knowledge management, Corte-Real et al. ( 2017 ) found that organisational agility serves as a mediator only for the relationship between exogenous knowledge management and firm competitiveness but not for that between endogenous knowledge management or knowledge sharing partners. Another study confirmed that knowledge management improves organisational agility, which in turn strengthens firm competitive advantage, but a similar positive mediating effect is not found for knowledgement and firm innovation (Salimi and Nazarian 2022 ).

Second, the impact of organisational agility on organisational outcomes is dependent on its dimensions . For instance, between the two types of organisational agility, entrepreneurial agility improves firm financial performance, while adaptive agility does not (Chakravarty et al. 2013 ). Additionally, El Idrissi et al. ( 2023 ) found that among the three dimensions of organisational agility—customer agility, operational agility, and partnering agility—only the first two help organisations to be more prepared for crises.

Third, the mixed effect of organisational agility on organisational outcomes is found under different contextual factors . For instance, the dynamics of the business environment facilitate the positive effect of organisational agility on firm financial performance but not on environmental performance or social performance (Khan 2023 ). Under a low to moderate level of industry competition, organisational agility positively mediates the impact of operational cooperation on the mass customisation of products and services. However, when competition is too intense, this mediating effect becomes negative (Sheng et al. 2021 ). Vaculík et al. ( 2018 ) found that under disruptive organisational changes, firms need to trade off short-term benefits for long-term performance. In such a situation, being more agile causes firms to abandon their current innovation projects and leads to greater possibilities of innovation project termination.

Supply chain agility has been found to improve organisational financial performance (DeGroote and Marx 2013 , Wamba and Akter 2019 ; Zhu and Gao 2021 ), competitive advantage (Alfalla-Luque et al. 2018 ; Chen 2019 ), commercial performance (Sturm et al. 2021 ), customer service (Avelar 2018 ), customer satisfaction (Gligor et al. 2020a , b ), supply chain performance (Baah et al. 2021 ; Wang and Ali 2021 ), and supply chain resilience (Naimi et al. 2020 ). However, in some specific situations, such as uncertain environmental conditions and supply chain disruptions, only supply chain flexibility—one of the three dimensions of supply chain agility—increases organisational performance, while the impacts of the other two dimensions (velocity and visibility) are not statistically significant (Juan et al. 2021 ). Another study showed that supply chain agility has no significant impact on performance (Wieland and Wallenburg 2012 ).

Strategic agility has been found to directly improve overall performance (Chan and Muthuveloo 2021 ; Kurniawan et al. 2020 ), project performance (Haider and Kayani 2021 ), technological performance (Pereira et al. 2021 ), competitive advantage (Hemmati et al. 2016 ), and innovation (Clauss et al. 2021 ). However, Reed ( 2021 ) shows that under environmental turbulence, firms that are more strategically agile experience lower financial performance.

Manufacturing agility and operational agility have been proven to increase competitiveness (Vázquez‐Bustelo et al. 2007 ), manufacturing performance (Awan et al. 2021 ), and market share (Ettlie 1998 ). However, Jacobs et al. ( 2011 ) found that the relationship between manufacturing and firm financial performance is not significant.

Strong evidence supports the contribution of other forms of agility to organisational outcomes (Abrishamkar et al. 2021 ; Asseraf et al. 2019b; Gupta et al. 2019 ; Ju et al. 2020 ; Roberts and Grover 2012 ). However, the positive contributions of these forms vary under certain conditions. Onngam and Charoensukmongkol ( 2023 ) highlighted that firms benefit more from social media agility when the organisational size is smaller and the dynamism of the business environment is lower. Sharif et al. ( 2022 ) found that market capitalising agility only mediates the relationship between knowledge coupling and firm innovation during business downsizing. Khan ( 2020 ) and Zhou et al. ( 2019 ) noted that marketing agility improves firm financial performance. However, when the market is turbulent, this positive effect becomes nonsignificant; when the complexity of marketing is heightened, higher marketing agility reduces marketing adaptation ability. Ngo and Vu ( 2021 , 2020 ) examined two dimensions of customer agility and found that while sensing capability helps organisations achieve superior financial performance, response capability does not.

Overall, the literature on the organisational impact of agility provides strong evidence to support such a positive and significant effect. However, in some cases, how and whether agility leads to higher outcomes is notably dependent on (i) certain environmental factors, (ii) different dimensions of agility and (iii) the types of organisational outcomes.

3.6 Intervening factors in organisational agility and outcomes relationship

Table 6 presents the use of intervening factors in agility and performance research. Agility is often treated as an important mediator linking organisational inputs to outcomes. This is reflected in 61.8% of the research in the dataset incorporating agility as a mediator in their models. For instance, organisational agility is considered a positive explanatory factor for the impact of technological capability and IT (Govuzela and Mafini 2019 ), corporate network management (Kurniawan et al. 2021a , b ), knowledge and intellectual resources management (Cegarra-Navarro et al. 2016 ), leadership capability (Oliveira et al. 2012b , a ), risk management culture (Liu et al. 2018 ), organisational learning culture (Pantouvakis and Bouranta 2017 ), strategic alignment (Hazen et al. 2017 ), promotion information analysis capability (Shuradze et al. 2018 ), organisational ambidexterity (Del Giudice et al. 2021 ), and dispute management (Yaseen et al. 2021 ) on organisational performance. This indicates the importance of conducting agility-performance research in an organisation's internal and external context to understand how agility plays out with other factors to predict organisational outcomes.

Table 7 presents the types of intervening factors examined in the literature on agility and organisational outcomes. The literature highlights that the organisational impact of agility is subjected to a wide range of moderating factors . As aforementioned, organisational agility tends to exert its strengths under adverse environmental conditions, such as volatile and complex environments (Clauss et al. 2021 ), high competitive pressure (Ahammad et al. 2021 ), and high demand for major technological change in the industry  (Ashrafi et al. 2019 ). Additionally, the impact of agility on organisational outcomes depends on external factors such as customer loyalty (Gligor et al. 2020b , a ) and industry type (Lee et al. 2016 ) or internal factors such as firm age  (Reed 2021 ), the adaptability of products and marketing (Asseraf et al. 2019a), the nature of work (Chung et al. 2014 ), information technology systems agility (Tallon and Pinsonneault 2011 ), and startup innovation sensitivity (Tsou and Cheng 2018 ).

Third, the literature also elucidates the mediators through which agility contributes to organisational outcomes. These include but are not limited to the following: new technology acceptance  (Chung et al. 2014 ), business model innovation (Mihardjo and Rukmana 2019 ), entrepreneurship and innovative behaviour development (Pramono et al. 2021 ), networking structure (Yang and Liu 2012 ) and market and social media analytics capability (Yang and Liu 2012 ). Similarly, supply chain agility is said to improve organisational performance through competitiveness (Sheel and Nath 2019 ), risk management (Okoumba et al. 2020 ), collaboration and re-engineering capabilities (Abeysekara et al. 2019 ), effectiveness, cost reduction (Gligor et al. 2015 ), and customer value and customer service (Um 2017 ).

The above analysis and the aspects that are mentioned in Sect.  3.5 stress the importance of studying the relationship between agility and firm performance in the context of both contextual factors and mediators. This highlights the need for future research to continue searching for factors that affect the contribution of agility to firm performance. Such comprehensive models will enhance our understanding of the relationship between agility and organisational performance and, as such, will significantly contribute to further developing this research area.

3.7 Research methodologies in the agility and firm performance literature

Table 8 presents a summary of popular research methodologies used in agility–organisational outcome research, with several notable findings as follows:

First, most studies in the sample use quantitative methods to examine the effect of agility on firm performance. Qualitative and mixed methods, although considered insightful and comprehensive (Truscott et al. 2010 ), have not been adequately utilised in this literature. Overall, the quantitative approach is appropriate for testing the causal effect between Agility (X) and OP (Y) in one or multiple regression models. However, the over-emphasis on causality testing without a proper investigation of the underlying reasons and insights using qualitative techniques might lead to imprecise findings and conclusions, which may create confusion and misunderstanding when applied to practice (Heyvaert et al. 2013 ).

Second, the research on agility and organisational performance mainly uses primary data from surveys and questionnaires to individuals and organisations at a specific timeframe. This approach is appropriate because, given the complexity of measuring agility, it is challenging and impractical for researchers to use proxy and secondary data for measurement. However, using a one-time survey has disadvantages in terms of reliability and generalisability, as the information collected only reflects the impact of agility on organisational performance at a specific time point. This reduces the generalisability of research findings to other contexts at different time points (Bartram 2019 ; Wooldridge 2010 ).

Third, the most popular analytical tool used in this literature is structural equation modelling (SEM)/PLS-SEM (Mikalef and Pateli 2017 ; Ramos et al. 2021 ), which includes bootstrapping techniques (Felipe et al. 2020 ; Gligor et al. 2019 ), followed by multiregression approaches for cross-sectional or panel data (Chen et al. 2014 ; Pereira et al. 2021 ). It is appropriate to use SEM for complex models with multilevel causal relationships. This method facilitates the examination of models with different pathways, including models with mediators and moderators, and provides suitable treatments for latent variables (Bollen 2014 ; Kline 2015 ).

Notably, there are two widely used methods in SEM: covariance-based SEM (CB-SEM) and partial least squares-based SEM (PLS-SEM). CB-SEM is often used in confirmatory research and factor-based models, while PLS-SEM is used in exploratory research and composite-based models (Dash and Paul 2021 ; Rigdon et al. 2017 ). However, the use of PLS-SEM is still debatable in the literature. PLS-SEM is criticised for its limited ability to examine complex and multidirectional causal relationships in SEM and its unproven assumptions (Antonakis et al. 2010 ). This leads to inconsistency in analytical findings and the ability to appraise model fit, especially for models based on small sample sizes (McIntosh et al. 2014 ; Rönkkö et al. 2016 ). Recent research in this area has emphasised that researchers must prioritise understanding their research question, the nature of the variables used, and the purpose of their research to consider the appropriate analytical method (Sarstedt et al. 2016 ).

4 Discussion and implications for future research

Using a dataset of 249 empirical studies from 1998 to 2024, this literature review paper has highlighted that agility is an essential predictor of organisational outcomes. Details about agility, firm performance, and the intervening factors of this causal relationship are summarised in Fig.  4 . The findings of this paper support our understanding of the relationship between agility and organisational performance and provide valuable implications for future research in this field, as indicated below.

A summary concept map of the agility and organisational outcomes relationship

4.1 Measuring agility

The literature shows that organisational agility is a matter of becoming rather than being (Alzoubi, et al. 2011 ; Harraf et al 2015 ). As analysed earlier, the literature on agility and firm performance has not provided a solid answer as to how and to what extent agility and its dimensions should be measured. For instance, Table  2 indicates that organisational agility can be measured with multiple instruments, including a firm’s internal capability, external partnership management, its proactiveness to sensing new opportunities, and its responsiveness to changes in the environment. This provides opportunities for future research to explore more extensive approaches to measuring agility based on the literature and explore how organisational agility and its dimensions could be improved (i.e., Ajgaonkar et al. 2022 ).

4.2 Theoretical background

Our analysis indicates that there is a wide range of theories available in the literature that provide explanations and justifications for the contribution of agility to organisational performance, with dynamic capability theory and resource-based theory being the two most widely used theories. The literature also highlights the growing use of multitheoretical approaches for a more extensive understanding of this relationship. Future research could explore new theories and simultaneously continue to incorporate multiple theories to examine the relationship between agility and firm performance.

4.3 Agility dimensions and their impacts on organisational performance

Our analysis indicates that organisational agility, supply chain agility, strategic agility, and manufacturing/operational agility are the most popular topics in the agility-firm performance literature, while the organisational impact of other types of agility, for instance, workforce agility, intellectual agility, leadership agility, and project management agility, are not thoroughly examined. This provides opportunities for future research to investigate these dimensions and their impact on organisational outcomes.

Another promising pathway moving forwards is leadership agility. While top managers and corporate boards are considered crucial for creating and promoting organisational agility, research on this topic is still scarce in terms of both quantity and quality (Lehn 2018 ). The existing corporate governance literature has emphasised the unparalleled contribution of boards of directors to organisational survival with their ability to link firms to external resources during economic uncertainties, crises, or bankruptcy (Haleblian and Finkelstein 1993 ; Hillman et al. 2009 ). To do so, boards needs to build their dynamic capabilities to create, strengthen, and adjust their internal resources to adapt to the external environment (Barreto 2010 ; Helfat et al. 2009 ). However, except for the work of Desai ( 2016 ) that examines the impact of board size and ownership structure on organisational flexibility and the work of Hoppmann et al. ( 2019 ) on the influence of the board on strategic flexibility, this area of research is still in its infancy. This gap in knowledge encourages future research to examine (i) the processes that allow boards to fulfil their role of facilitating changes and building agility capability in their organisation, (ii) the attributes and characteristics of boards that allow them to be more agile, and (iii) whether such agility can contribute to organisational agility, which translates to organisational outcomes.

Our literature review also indicates that agility can contribute to a wide range of organisational outcomes. However, there is still a lack of evidence on how agility affects outcomes in an orderly way running from the individual level to the group level to organisational level outcomes and how and whether the impact of agility on organisational outcomes might be different in the short, medium, and long term. Thus, it is strongly recommended that future research explore these possibilities to provide a more comprehensive and structured view of agility and outcome relationships.

4.4 Interactions and intervening factors

Our review indicates that many aspects of organisational performance benefit from agility. However, these benefits are likely to be dependent on a wide range of factors. This encourages future research to continue searching for intervening factors that have meaningful impacts on the agility–performance relationship. For instance, how and whether agility impacts organisational outcomes might depend on various factors: the type of organisation – small and medium-sized enterprises, public sector organisations, multinational enterprises, nonprofit organisations or domestic vs. international organisations; different stages of the organisational life cycle; and different types of organisational structure and culture (Harraf et al 2015 ).

Additionally, different types of agility may interact, and such interactions might affect organisational outcomes in different ways. This warrants further investigation to examine the effects of different types of agility on firm performance both separately and interactively (Gunasekaran et al 2019 ), for instance, the interactive effects of workforce agility and manufacturing agility on organisational performance.

4.5 Methodology

Our review shows that quantitative research is a primary approach in agility-firm performance research. However, the overreliance on causality might prevent researchers from understanding the underlying reasons why agility can translate to organisational outcomes and the dynamics behind this causal relationship. As such, future research should use a mixed method with both qualitative and quantitative approaches to first understand the organisational impact of agility at the surface level and, second, reveal the processes, dynamics, blockages, enablers and other organisational factors that explain the relationship between agility and organisational outcomes.

Additionally, our review indicates that there is still a lack of comparative research in this area. This provides some pathways for future research to investigate the effect of agility on firm performance in comparative settings. For instance, is the impact of agility on organisational outcomes different across different national cultures and institutional contexts?

Finally, our review highlighted the need for panel and time series data to examine the short-term, medium-term, and long-term effects of agility on organisational performance. We strongly recommend that future research develop more extensive datasets covering multiple periods to ensure that robust and rigorous studies are added to this literature.

4.6 Implications

The resulting concept model of this paper with antecedents, mediators, moderators, organisational outcomes and types of agility has multiple implications for industry practitioners.

First , organisational agility is constructed from several subcomponents corresponding to multiple business functions, such as the supply chain, strategy, manufacturing, marketing, workforce, IT and leadership. For an entire organisation to be agile, each and every function should be agile.

Organisations can utilise different avenues and practices to build capabilities that contribute to agility.

Second , agility promotes corporate outcomes through its impact on mediating actions. To realise the potential of agility, organisations should account for those mediating steps and outcomes in their implementation.

Finally , a strong finding of this literature review is the way in which the relationship between agility and outcomes is contextualised. As such, organisations should pay attention to both internal and external environments as contingent factors on agility and outcomes. For instance, agility seems to have the greatest impact in complex and volatile environments, so organisations should carefully consider the implementation of agility if they operate in relatively stable industries. Additionally, while startups in high-tech industries are initially agile, established businesses in stable industries are generally not agile. As such, for such businesses to achieve agility, they should consider factors such as firm size, IT infrastructure and their customer base.

5 Research contribution, limitations and conclusion

By answering the research question “ What is the current status of the literature on organisational agility and organisational outcomes?” in the above analysis, this study has provided a comprehensive picture of the current literature on the relationship between several aspects of agility and firm performance, with the former either as independent or as mediator variables. The review covers theories, measurements, relationship structure, methodology, and concepts of agility. Following Walter's ( 2021 ) systematic review of agility, our study has extended the scope of investigation and focuses specifically on the relationship between the two most important concepts of agility and performance that play a minor role in Walter’s OA conceptual map. Additionally, the paper has mapped out the organisational agility–performance relationship with antecedents, mediators and moderators, each with a specific list of dimensions for measurement, as sketched out in the subresearch questions. This conceptual map can guide future studies in establishing well-rooted research models.

With a limited number of empirical studies (249), a sharp increase since 2017, a few with archival data (while a majority with data from questionnaires and interviews), and a significant proportion of research without theories as background, agility performance appears to be an emerging research field in its immature phase. This point is strengthened by the fact that the reviewed articles are not in top theoretical management journals such as the Journal of Management and the Academy of Management Journal. Furthermore, theories of this relationship have not been explicitly developed to support quantitative studies for hypothesis testing. By highlighting this gap, this study opens a new road for researchers to establish theories for the agility–performance relation beyond what is currently borrowed from the strategic management field.

Our paper has several limitations. Our attempt to provide a comprehensive overview of agility and performance prevents us from examining this relationship in a specific country or industry context. In addition, although our dataset covers a long time frame from 1998 to February 2024, some of the most recent research may not be included in our review. Nevertheless, we believe that our findings underline both the importance of organisational agility and the worth viewing it in conjunction with other organisational aspects in predicting organisational performance. Furthermore, we hope that this study will inspire future investigations to move further in this literature.

In conclusion, organisational agility and its association with organisational performance have emerged as attractive research topics since 2017. Even though quantitative empirical studies account for most publications, a significant number of them lack a background theory and a consensus on measuring agility and its subcategories. This is detrimental to the value of the findings and intensifies the need for future studies to develop this immature field.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from Web of Science database for account holders. The data are available from the authors upon request.

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Understanding the contexts in which female sex workers sell sex in Kampala, Uganda: a qualitative study

• Kenneth Roger Katumba 1 , 2 ,
• Mercy Haumba 1 ,
• Yunia Mayanja 1 , 2 ,
• Yvonne Wangui Machira 3 ,
• Mitzy Gafos 2 ,
• Matthew Quaife 2 ,
• Janet Seeley 2 &
• Giulia Greco 2  

BMC Women's Health volume  24 , Article number:  371 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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Metrics details

Structural, interpersonal and individual level factors can present barriers for HIV prevention behaviour among people at high risk of HIV acquisition, including women who sell sex. In this paper we document the contexts in which women selling sex in Kampala meet and provide services to their clients.

We collected qualitative data using semi-structured interviews. Women were eligible to participate if they were 18 years or older, self-identified as sex workers or offered sex for money and spoke Luganda or English. Ten women who met clients in venues and outdoor locations were selected randomly from a clinic for women at high risk of HIV acquisition. Ten other women who met clients online were recruited using snowball sampling. Interviews included demographic data, and themes included reasons for joining and leaving sex work, work locations, nature of relationships with clients and peers, interaction with authorities, regulations on sex work, and reported stigma. We conducted interviews over three months. Data were analysed thematically using a framework analysis approach. The coding framework was based on structural factors identified from literature, but also modified inductively with themes arising from the interviews.

Women met clients in physical and virtual spaces. Physical spaces included venues and outdoor locations, and virtual spaces were online platforms like social media applications and websites. Of the 20 women included, 12 used online platforms to meet clients. Generally, women from the clinic sample were less educated and predominantly unmarried, while those from the snowball sample had more education, had professional jobs, or were university students. Women from both samples reported experiences of stigma, violence from clients and authorities, and challenges accessing health care services due to the illegality of sex work. Even though all participants worked in settings where sex work was illegal and consequently endured harsh treatment, those from the snowball sample faced additional threats of cybersecurity attacks, extortion from clients, and high levels of violence from clients.

Conclusions

To reduce risk of HIV acquisition among women who sell sex, researchers and implementers should consider these differences in contexts, challenges, and risks to design innovative interventions and programs that reach and include all women.

Peer Review reports

Introduction

Globally women who sell sex face a disproportionately large risk of HIV acquisition compared to the general population [ 1 , 2 , 3 ]. Among those at greatest risk are female sex workers (FSWs) in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) who are 13.5 times more likely to acquire HIV relative to the general population [ 3 , 4 ]. Research indicates that structural, interpersonal, and individual factors influence HIV prevention behaviour [ 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 ]. Structural factors are defined as the economic, social, political, organizational or other aspects of the environment in which women sell sex, and which might act as barriers to or facilitators of women’s HIV prevention behaviour [ 7 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 ]. Interpersonal factors are those which relate to risks or protective factors between women and their clients, or intimate partners [ 2 , 15 ]. Individual factors are those which relate to a woman’s individual attributes such as age of initiation into sex work, alcohol and other substance use, knowledge of HIV prevention, physical, and psychological attributes [ 6 , 15 ]. Together, the structural and interpersonal factors influence the contexts in which women who sell sex work. Several structural and interpersonal factors that influence condom use among sex workers have been identified, including zoning restrictions and regulation of sex work, how women join sex work, the location where sex workers meet and provide services to clients, experiences of violent relationships with clients, and harassment by authorities and police [ 7 ]. Stigma has also been identified as an important influence on the way sex workers work and as a contributor to their risk environment. Stigma increases the risk of HIV acquisition to sex workers, yet it is experienced in several forms at the individual, interpersonal and structural levels [ 14 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 ].

In Uganda, sex work is illegal and criminalised. Research that investigated the contexts in which women in Kampala sell sex has however shown that women join commercial sex work because of their disadvantaged backgrounds and restricted access to economic resources [ 11 , 20 , 21 , 22 ]. Mbonye et al. [ 11 ] showed that women providing services in outdoor locations like streets, alleys and parking lots faced more challenges than women providing services in indoor locations like nightclubs, bars, and lodges. These challenges included exposure to violence, stigma from the public, and visibility to police [ 11 , 23 ]. Kawuma et al. [ 20 ]reported in a more recent study that the places in which women sell sex in Kampala are fluid in that they move from one type of venue to another. All these studies also showed that women selling sex in Kampala faced violent relationships with both the police/authorities and with their clients [ 11 , 20 , 21 ].

It is however noteworthy that women included in these studies were participants from large epidemiological cohorts that recruited participants from low socio-economic settings, with little or no education, and who typically recruited their clients in physical locations, indoor or outdoor [ 11 , 23 ]. Women outside of these cohort settings, who have higher education, belong to higher socioeconomic status, and meet clients in spaces other than those identified in these studies have not been included in important HIV research, programming, and prevention efforts in Uganda to date. Research in the United Kingdom, USA, Australia, Japan, and India has reported the experiences of women who sell sex using internet websites and social media platforms [ 24 , 25 , 26 ]. These women also face risks, violence, and crime just like their peers who meet clients in physical locations like venues and streets [ 24 , 27 ]. Understanding the contexts in which women sell sex and the strategies that they use to advertise, meet, and provide services to their clients will help us to understand HIV risk among women by highlighting how structural, interpersonal, and individual factors interact to influence HIV transmission. In Kampala, earlier studies have reported on the contexts in which women recruiting and providing services in physical locations work, but there is still a gap in knowledge about the prevalence of client recruitment using online platforms, how women who recruit this way are organised, and how this strategy affects their risk of HIV acquisition. Understanding these gaps will improve our understanding of the structural determinants framework for HIV prevention among women selling sex in Kampala. This paper presents a more comprehensive understanding of the contexts in which women sell sex in Kampala by including women who have not been included in prior research studies and emphasizes the need to reach them and target intervention efforts to them. This aligns with the UNAIDS strategy of leaving no one behind and reaching the populations at the greatest need of care [ 28 ].

Study design, participants, and process

Twenty women from Kampala and surrounding suburbs were included in the study, using two sampling strategies. The first sample – the clinic sample – included 10 women sampled from a cohort of 4500 women who had been attending a clinic dedicated to women at risk of HIV acquisition including FSWs run by the Medical Research Council/ Uganda Virus Research Institute and London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (MRC/UVRI & LSHTM) Uganda Research Unit in Kampala [ 23 ]. Women who met clients in physical spaces like venues and outdoor locations had prior been recruited into the clinic through peers. The second sample – the snowball sample – included 10 women who met clients using online platforms including social media and websites such as Instagram. We identified one key informant who started the snowball recruitment as described by Heckathorn [ 29 ] and Rao et al. [ 30 ]. Women were eligible to participate if they were 18 years or older, self-identified as sex workers or offered sex for money and spoke Luganda or English. In our study, “women who meet clients” includes women actively recruiting clients, women searched out by clients, and women who are introduced to clients by peers, but meet using online spaces.

Data collection and management

An experienced female graduate social scientist (MH) made first contact with all women, planned interview appointments, administered the study information and consent process, and carried out in-depth interviews with them. For the clinic sample, we selected women from the cohort using a random number generator in Microsoft Excel to generate 10 random numbers within the range of 1 and 4,500 inclusive, which matched the women’s unique cohort identifiers. We invited women with the corresponding numbers to participate. To identify the seed for the snowball sample, the female social scientist (MH) used the Instagram search function to search through posts of women who offered mobile (in-house) massage services or sex for money. She used the keyword “massage” and the location filter set to “Kampala”. The results included both personal accounts and accounts for massage parlors. We considered the first personal account that appeared on the search results as the potential seed for our sample. The female social scientist (MH) contacted the first personal account via the Instagram chat function, providing information about the opportunity to participate in a research study. The owner of the personal account agreed to take part in the study. After her interview, the seed identified through Instagram identified other women and provided their contacts. The female social scientist (MH) then invited the potential participants to the study, and the snowball continued until 10 interviews were completed. We allocated participant numbers from A01 to A10 for those in the snowball sample, and B01 to B10 for those in the clinic sample. Interviews were carried out between September and October 2022.

We developed the interview guide from a literature review of the structural factors that influence HIV prevention for women who sell sex, and a review by Shannon et al. [ 6 ], which presented a framework for the structural drivers of HIV and the pathways through which they interact with interpersonal and individual behavioural factors. This framework expanded structural factors to include macro-structural factors such as legal, socio-political, cultural, economic, and geographic contexts in which women sell sex, sex work organisation which includes the organisational structure, community empowerment and collectivisation of sex work, and the work environment which includes the physical, social, economic and political features of the environments in which sex workers operate, such as violence, access to condoms and anti-retroviral therapy (ART), and venue policies [ 6 ]. Using this framework, we developed this guide specifically for this study, and included questions on how women joined and why they would leave sex work, how their work was organised including recruitment and where they provided services to clients, their relationships with clients and authorities, the illegality of sex work, and the stigma they experienced. A copy of this interview guide is included as an additional file (see Additional file 1). We collected basic demographics at the beginning of the interview, asking women about their age, number of children, level of education, if sex work was the main occupation, and if they used social media to meet men for sex work. These were summarised in MS Excel, and the corresponding frequencies presented as descriptive statistics. Recruitment logs with personal information were stored in a secure access-controlled cabinet separate from where interview notes, recorders and computers were kept. After obtaining informed consent from the participants, we audio-recorded interviews, then transcribed and translated them into English. The social scientist (MH) took notes to back up the recordings. We imported the transcripts, translations, and interviewer notes into NVivo 12 for data organisation and management.

Data analysis

We used framework analysis as outlined by Gale et al. [ 31 ] to analyse the qualitative data. This analytical approach involves developing a thematic structure for interpretation, under which individual codes can be grouped and compared [ 31 ].

A study team member checked five random transcripts in English for transcription accuracy, and all the 10 Luganda transcripts for translation accuracy. In the first step of the coding, both the first author and the social scientist (MH) coded four interviews independently using initial frameworks constructed both deductively using the review by Shannon et al. (2015) and inductively using themes arising from the interviews [ 3 ]. The two coders then met and consolidated their coding frameworks into a revised version, which the first author used to finalise coding of all the interviews. From the consolidated coding framework, we developed a framework matrix with the themes and subthemes as the columns, and the participants as the rows. We populated the cells of the matrix with both summaries and representative quotes from the data. We then analysed the data from each of the columns to generate analytical memos on prominent themes arising from the data. All the steps of the analysis were reviewed by two other co-authors.

Ethical considerations

This study was approved by the Uganda Virus Research Institute Research and Ethics Committee (GC/127/912), the Uganda National Council for Science and Technology (HS2386ES), and the ethics committee of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (28,175). We obtained written informed consent from all the respondents before data collection. We compensated the participants 20,000 Uganda shillings (UGX), (USD 5.5) for their time, and 20,000 UGX (USD 5.5) for their transport. We did not offer current participants any incentive to refer seeds and informed them that they would not face any penalties whatsoever if they did not refer any seeds. To contact new participants for the snowball sample, the qualitative researcher was provided with a partial name and a contact number, or with the new participant’s Instagram handle. The identity of the referring participant was not disclosed to new participants. The referring participant was not told which of the potential participants suggested by her eventually participated in the study. A copy of the script we used is included as an additional file (see Additional file 2).

Women in our study

Twenty women participated in the study, 10 in each of the clinic and snowball samples. Of the 20 included women, 12 met clients using online platforms. Of these 12, nine were from the snowball sample and three were from the clinic sample. We reached out to 26 women for inclusion in the snowball sample, eight of whom opted not to participate, six did not come for their appointments, and two did not respond. In the clinic sample, only one of the 10 women was not reachable and was replaced. While women from the clinic sample generally had less schooling and were predominantly unmarried, women from the snowball sample generally had high levels of education, had professional jobs or were students in training for professional jobs, were able to negotiate better prices for sex, and were able to avoid outdoor confrontation with police, authorities, and the public. Table  1 below gives details of women’s individual characteristics.

The contexts in which women sold sex

The prominent themes we identified in our study included: how the women organised their work, why and how they joined or would leave sex work, the relationships that they had with clients, authorities, family, and their peers, and the stigma they experienced. We present them in Table  2 below and explain them in detail in the sections that follow.

Reasons women joined sex work, and why they would leave

Women mentioned economic need as the main reason for joining sex work, and this was driven by the loss of parents, abandonment by partners, economic hardships due to the COVID-19 pandemic, inability to continue school due to lack of school fees, and costs like rent and food.

I joined sex work because of the hardship I was going through after my husband abandoned me and the children, he was not paying their school dues, and they had nothing to eat. So, I decided to devise means of survival. (Clinic sample, 23–25 years, B04).

Women remained in sex work because of economic responsibilities and no alternative sources of comparable income. For women who met clients in public spaces, these responsibilities included costs such as rent, school fees and food for themselves and their families. For women who met clients using online spaces, responsibilities included special costs such as maintaining their lifestyle and good aesthetics both on online platforms and the social scene. They included rent for expensive apartments, hairstyles, makeup, expensive clothing and phones, trips outside Kampala and Uganda, and keeping up appearances on the Kampala party scene.

At this point as much as the money you get from sex work is little if I decide to leave, I won’t be able to sustain myself or even be able to start another business since I will not have money. The situation is bad these days, so if I leave sex work, which other job am I going to do? (Clinic sample, 23–25 years, B04). The money that it comes with is not little money. This is like salaries that people get for months, and I am doing it for just one day. So, it becomes addictive, and you must keep up with the lifestyle that you have started so you must keep going back until you are somewhere that you want to be. (Snowball sample, 25–30 years, A04).

While all participants mentioned economic need as reason for joining or staying in sex work, some women joined sex work because of trauma from being abused as children. The pain that they harboured from this trauma kept them in sex work, even if they were not proud of their work. Regardless of how they joined sex work or where they met their clients, most women would leave sex work if they had major changes in their social or financial status, for example if they got married, achieved financial stability through stable alternative and comparable sources of income, or having a home that they own.

Oh well yeah one day I want to have a family settle down and have a husband and have kids so definitely there is no way I can be married to someone when I am still doing this kind of work. (Snowball sample, 25–30 years, A04).

How female sex work in Kampala was organised

Where women met clients and provided services.

Women discussed recruiting clients in public physical spaces, in private virtual online spaces, and through go-betweens. The public spaces were both outdoor and indoor. Outdoor public spaces included streets, alleys, and markets, while indoor public spaces included venues such as bars, pubs, cafés, offices, churches, malls, casinos, hotels, restaurants, massage parlours and lodges. Women also discussed the lack of privacy and the higher risks of police prosecution and arrests, attacks by thugs, robbery, and exposure to judgement by the society, in addition to meteorological challenges like cold, windy, and rainy weather.

The person who took me on the streets [a female friend], one time we were on the street and her [the friend’s] uncle was the one haggling with her. (Laughs). Those are the things that make us leave the streets. At least you go to [the clients’] places or at our [the woman’s] place it has no problem. (Clinic sample, > 30 years, B02).

Women discussed benefiting from security offered by the management of indoor public spaces, even if in some cases they were charged a fee to be allowed to work at these places.

The street is not good but at the bar they first check clients before entering, they do not allow them to enter with keys, knives and other things which is not done on streets. That is why you see that many people who work from streets die a lot, that is why the street near [a pub nearby] many people die from there…For the places, I told you like [a specific pub], it is safe, even if a client becomes chaotic, we are protected by the guards at the bars. (Clinic sample, > 30 years, B03.

The private virtual spaces mentioned by women were online platforms that can be accessed from their homes, or other private and protected places. They included social media applications (apps) and sites such as Snapchat, Instagram, Badoo, and dating websites. Women who met clients using these spaces were able to reach many clients, had more time between the first contact with a client and accepting to offer services to the client. This time allowed them to make decisions both about their perceived safety with clients and avoid potential violent clients, but also about HIV prevention. They earned more than their peers who met clients in public spaces, and they provided services mostly in hotels, in the clients’ homes, and sometimes in their homes.

The advantage of hotels is that you can easily get help in case of any problems, which you can’t get when you are in someone’s home because its already night and some people’s homes are fenced even if you shout no one can help. (Snowball sample, 25–30 years, A07). Well, the truth is there is a lot going on, on social media. When you get offers, it is up to you to take them or not. Social media things are so easy now. You can meet people; you can easily associate with people from different parts of the world. (Snowball sample, 25–30 years, A02).

Women who met clients in virtual spaces faced some challenges particular to their strategy of recruiting clients, for example cyber threats and their online accounts being hacked into, new clients who did not want to pay being extorting money from them, and old clients who traded women’s confidentiality for money.

Because I had so many people writing to me. They wanted to meet me. So, I felt like Instagram wasn’t a safe place for me. And by then people used to hack into accounts. (Snowball sample, 25–30 years, A01).

Some women relied on pimps or peers who acted as go-betweens procuring clients for them. These women were assured of a reliable flow of clients from middle and high socio-economic status; and of more security since the go-between knew which woman was with which client, and at what location. However, they were prone to exploitation since the go-between usually took a commission off the women’s pay, while some protected violent clients.

Well, first there are what they call pimps who usually have contacts of men. Some are like delegates who come to Uganda, or who want to take girls outside for meetings outside of Uganda. These pimps are always looking for sex workers you don’t even have to look for them. (Snowball sample, 25–30 years, A04).

As much as some women used only private online spaces, others had a primary space where they usually met clients, and one ‘filler’ space they would resort to in case they didn’t have enough clients from their primary space. For example, women from the clinic sample mostly relied on online spaces during day, but used go-between or went out to clubs and bars in the night. On the other hand, women from the clinic sample relied heavily on physical spaces to recruit their clients.

During the day you can be on your phone, but you must go to clubs at night. If you are in another country, you can’t just stay in the house and chat on phone, you must go outside and look for clients if you need money. (Snowball sample, 25–30 years, A07).

Women who met clients using online platforms provided services in indoor spaces like their own and clients’ homes, and in hotels, but never mentioned offering services in public outdoor spaces. On the other hand, women who met clients in public outdoor spaces like streets provided services in indoor spaces, but also in the outdoor spaces where they met the clients.

How women competed for clients

Women who met their clients in public spaces viewed their counterparts who met clients using online platforms to be in a higher income and of a higher socio-economic status. The latter women discussed that the former operated a more versatile, more mobile, and less exposing form of sex work which was able to attract a clientele of higher socio-economic status and higher paying. Among women who met clients in physical spaces, women who met clients using online platforms were referred to as bikapu (plural for kikapu ) sex workers. A kikapu is a large travel or shopping basket that can be carried anywhere at any time, and whose contents are known only to the owner.

There are sex workers whom you will never see seated in corridors waiting for clients or even see clients entering her house. But she is also at her home doing sex work. If a client calls her, she goes, services the client, and returns to her house. They are always called ‘bikapu’ sex workers. (Clinic sample, 25–30 years, B05).

The prices women charged, and how they negotiated with clients

It was clear from the interviews that women who met clients using online spaces charged more than women who met clients in public spaces. Among women who met clients in public spaces, the highest amount received for a sexual act was 100,000 UGX (USD 27), compared to 40,000,000 UGX (USD 10,767) for those who met clients using online spaces. The latter had a minimum reserve price of 250,000 UGX (USD 67), compared to no payment or providing sex on credit among the former. Moreover, those recruiting online had more time to negotiate prices and compare offers from clients before meeting clients physically, compared to the former, who usually negotiated with one client at a time and when they had already met physically.

I can even get 8 million shillings. The lowest I get in a month is 5,000,000 shillings [USD 1,356] but it’s usually between 8 and 15 million shillings [USD 2,170–4,069]. When people who live abroad are around in large numbers, I can get up to 15,000,000 UGX [USD 4,069]. (Snowball sample, 25–30 years, A06). There are those sex workers who cannot come to my place where I work, but they meet their clients using the internet and somehow charge more expensively than me. I cannot compete with them; I am cheaper because I charge from 5,000 UGX [USD 1.40] but those sex workers charge from 100,000 [USD 28] or 200,000 UGX [USD 54]. (clinic sample, > 30 years, B03). You can get a customer who runs away after getting the service as agreed. That is what they call ‘bidding farewell with a zip’ (okusibuza zip). It depends, there is when we work tirelessly and you get 30,000–50,000 shillings [USD 8.20–13.60] monthly, and between two to three thousand (54–81 cents) daily. (Clinic sample, 25–30 years, B01).

Moreover, women who met clients using online spaces discussed being offered substantial non-financial incentives in addition to cash payment. In most cases, these incentives, which included gifts and trips within and outside Uganda, supplemented the cash payment clients offered and influenced women’s decision to reconsider some clients that had been rejected because the initial payment offer was deemed unattractive.

The relationships women had with authorities, clients, and peers

Women faced violence from clients in form of physical, verbal, and sexual abuse such as rape, clients removing or tearing condoms intentionally, and even death threats.

For me a man almost killed me. We went into a room, and I told him the amount of money I wanted. He said he did not have it. I told him to let me get out, but he started strangling me. Then I accepted that he had robbed me. (Clinic sample, > 30 years, B02). Ah God (covers her face with her palms and shakes her head) it was so hard for me. He slapped me, did everything you can think of. My dear, I gave up and had to act soft because some clients need you to be submissive. So, you must act like you are enjoying whatever he wanted. (Snowball sample, 25–30 years, A06).

However, some women met friendly and supportive clients who treated them well, got them business connections and supported them financially in their personal lives.

I will not lie to you; he was taking care of me just like any other man takes care of what he loves. (Snowball sample, 25–30 years, A01). Women’s relationships with peers were usually characterised by jealousy, mistrust, hatred, and threats. They fought with each other verbally, physically, and spiritually with witchcraft. That said, there was evidence of friendships among women who met clients in physical spaces. For example, they could demand their peers’ release if they witnessed their arrest. First, a massage parlour has a lot of girls. So, there is that hatred that comes along. Then there is a risk of being bewitched by those girls at the parlour. (Snowball sample, 23–25 years, A08). Yes, there are sex workers who compete against each other. I don’t know how to explain this but sometimes your fellow sex workers might notice that you are getting a lot of customers then they go and bewitch you. (Clinic sample, 23–25 years, B04).

Women who met using online spaces worked in isolation and were in many cases not able to get help in cases where clients turned violent. And because sex work is illegal in Uganda, women had no legal support or protection from authorities. Instead, they were exploited sexually and financially by the authorities, abused, and violated. All our participants faced some form of violence, abuse and exploitation from police and authorities.

We are treated badly. Police officers also come and arrest you and sometimes even rape you. Sometimes when they arrest you and you don’t have money to give, they force you to have sex. (Clinic sample, 23–25 years, B04. They all want sex (laughs). The truth is I don’t want to say everybody is bad among authorities but it’s like they all want to get something [sex]. Of course, I don’t give them, but I am sure there are people who do. (Snowball sample, 25–30 years, A02).

Authorities only offered protection when they got sexual favours from women, and when women paid regular fees to them. Women working in private indoor spaces like pubs discussed being protected from clients that turned violent, by private guards stationed at these indoor spaces.

Women who met clients in physical spaces were more affected by the illegality of sex work compared to their peers who met clients using online platforms. The former discussed restrictions on the areas or times when they could work, being exposed to arrest by authorities, and public shame and ridicule. The latter women discussed not knowing any laws against sex work, and their work not being hindered in by any regulations. However, majority of the women discussed not being able to report to authorities or disclose to friends and family in cases where they had been raped, for fear of prosecution, ridicule, and stigmatisation.

Women’s experiences of stigma

Our participants experienced internalised stigma where they felt like disappointments to their families, and unworthy of some things or levels of achievement in life, such as good loving relationships respect, and leadership positions in society. Some women thought they would only be able to fit in society if they left sex work. Otherwise, they had to live with persistent guilt, shame, and embarrassment from doing sex work, and consequently keeping their work secret from friends, family, and society.

Then there is also that persistent guilt of letting down your family and them expecting better. I don’t know but it’s embarrassing, how do you even start telling someone that you are getting money from having sex with multiple people not even one. (Snowball sample, 25–30 years, A07).

Women experienced stigma when they were shunned by their family and friends, health workers, local leaders, and the communities in which they live and work. They were pushed to operate in secrecy because they feared the stigma they would face if exposed. Women who met clients in public outdoor spaces like streets were most affected because they were more exposed to the public while working, and to arrests by authorities.

Banvuma [They insulted me]. I remember my mum told me I decided to go out and embarrass the family, yet they have degrees and masters. It was really bad. I never got invited to any family function. Ever since then I became a reject, and you know you can tell when you are rejected by how people look at and talk to you. (Snowball sample, 25–30 years, A01). Yes, from the neighbours one of them can see you or in a way find out that you do sex work. Then she comes and tells another person that you are a sex worker. Then they spend the whole day gossiping about you. (Clinic sample, 25–30 years, B05).

Women discussed not being able to get licences since their work is illegal, and not being able to report in cases where clients violated them. They were exposed to discrimination because they had no legal or structural backing for them to work or to be protected against violence, attacks, and exploitation.

We present the contexts in which women selling sex in Kampala met and provided services to their clients. Our participants met clients in physical spaces including venues and outdoor locations and using online spaces that included social media applications and websites. Earlier studies also found that women who sell sex in Kampala recruit clients in venues and outdoor locations like those we presented [ 11 , 17 ]. Our study goes a step further and highlights that some women met clients using virtual online spaces like social media platforms and websites. While this finding is new to literature on Uganda, it is consistent with studies carried out in other settings, where sex workers recruiting clients using online platforms like social media and websites were identified [ 24 , 25 , 27 ]. similarly to their peers who recruit clients from physical spaces, women who recruit clients using online platforms are also high-risk population, yet they have not been targeted in HIV prevention efforts. There is need for inclusion of women who recruit clients using online platforms in HIV prevention interventions.

We assert that women selling sex in Kampala work in settings where sex work is illegal and criminalised, and because of this they are forced to endure harsh treatment; they face violent and abusive clients; they are arrested, abused, and exploited by authorities; and they experience jealousy and violence from their peers, and stigma from society. It is known that sex work is illegal in Uganda, that women who sell sex have violent relationships with both clients and authorities, and that women selling sex get no legal protection [ 17 , 21 ]. Our findings are consistent with other studies in this respect. We go further and highlight the larger extent to which the illegality of sex work was felt by women who met clients in physical spaces compared to those who met clients using online platforms. This stresses the continued need for support to women who face violent relationships, and to create safe spaces for women selling sex.

We also show that women who met clients using online platforms had more time to engage and negotiate with the clients before meeting them physically, were able to generate a pool of potential clients and consequently had less pressure to find clients. These women also seemed to have better education and income compared to their peers who met clients in physical spaces. Despite these apparent individual level advantages, we show that in many ways women selling sex faced similar pressures at the structural and interpersonal levels and faced similar risks with regards to HIV acquisition.

All our participants faced challenges that are similar and consistent with those identified in earlier studies [ 11 , 17 , 20 , 21 , 23 ]. These challenges were sustained by gaps in structural, social, and interpersonal support with regards to HIV prevention. For example, all study participants were either unable or unwilling to obtain support from authorities in situations where they were abused, exploited, or violated by clients or authorities. Women who met clients using online platforms faced some challenges specific to them because of their client recruitment strategy. First, they had to deal with cybersecurity threats like their social media accounts being hacked into and being exposed on the online platforms where they met clients. The damage caused by such negative exposure would be amplified by information on these platforms being easily and affordably accessible to very many people simultaneously. Secondly, they were threatened with exposure and reputational harm by clients who did not want to pay for services. This further increased their already high costs of operation. In terms of risk, most women who met clients using online platforms were unable to get immediate help in case a client turned violent because they mostly provided services to clients in their homes (both the clients’ and women’s) and in hotels. These women were exposed to high levels of violence that was potentially fatal from clients, and yet they did not readily access the needed services because they were pushed to operate in secrecy due to fear of stigma, judgement, and prosecution. This was exacerbated by the fact that they were mostly university graduates with professional jobs and were therefore very secretive and protective of their involvement in selling sex. Women’s experiences of stigma were consistent with what has been found in the literature (Beattie et al., 2023; Cruz, 2015; Fitzgerald-Husek et al., 2017; Ruegsegger et al., 2021; Seeley et al., 2012). It is still interesting to note that our participants across the samples faced stigma in similar ways and that most were ashamed of their work. Even women who met clients using online platforms were unable to report clients because they feared the prosecution by authorities or judgement by society that would come with being exposed. Provision of safe structural and social environments that support and protect women who sell sex as they carry out their work is necessary. Additionally, interventions to reduce stigma for women who sell sex are still very important but should target the more secretive and protective women who recruit clients using online platforms.

While access to health care for women who sell sex has improved over the years, these improvements in access have been identified among women who sell sex and have been included in research studies. This includes women in the clinic sample of our study, who mostly meet clients in physical spaces. Access to health care and HIV prevention services for women who meet clients using online platforms has not been systematically recorded. Yet, our results show that women who meet clients using online platforms face similar and even more challenges than their peers who meet clients in physical spaces. While the common challenges that all women face, including stigma and violence are barriers to health care access [ 32 , 33 , 34 ], the additional challenges that women who meet clients using online platforms face could be additional barriers for access to health care. This calls for continued efforts to address the common challenges but also highlights the need for specific interventions to improve access to health care among women who meet clients using online platforms. Our findings on how women joined sex work or would leave are consistent with published literature. Earlier research showed that women joined due to economic need, or because of earlier traumatic experiences of sexual abuse, and they would leave if they achieved economic stability [ 16 , 21 , 35 ]. This further highlights the importance of continued efforts to empower all women, and protect them from sexual violence, regardless of their level of education, status of work, and where they recruit or provide services to their clients.

Women who met clients using online platforms were hard to reach for us as a research team, and we assume that it will be hard for other researchers, health service providers and policy to reach them effectively. In fact, most women who we contacted to be part of the snowball sample (16 of 26) did not participate in the study, and those who accepted did so with caution. The spaces in which our participants provided services were identical to those reported in the literature, i.e., in indoor venues and outdoor locations [ 11 , 17 , 20 ]. We however highlight the fact that women who met clients using online spaces always provided services in indoor spaces and never in public outdoor spaces. Intervention efforts that target women recruiting clients in venues and in outdoor spaces will therefore miss women who recruit using online platforms. To increase their access to health care, to support services, and to the HIV prevention services they need, research and policy makers need to generate innovative strategies that will reach and engage women recruiting clients using online platforms.

Strengths and limitations

We used the framework analysis method. This method can neither handle highly heterogeneous data nor pay attention to the language of the respondents and how it is used [ 31 ]. We could therefore have missed some heterogeneity in women’s individual, interpersonal, or structural factors because of our choice of data analysis method. Moreover, we based our initial interview guide and coding framework on structural factors identified in the literature. Even though we used some inductive coding to complement the initial deductive framework, results from a similar study using a fully inductive approach would make an interesting comparison. We neither used complex theories nor sought to develop theory derived from the data but used robust framework analysis techniques to generate the major themes related to the structural factors that affect the sexual and reproductive health of women selling sex in Uganda. Despite these limitations, we present important results that could be applicable to women selling sex in Uganda, and other similar settings.

Over half of women in our study met their clients using online platforms and faced additional specific challenges and risks by recruiting their clients using online platforms. Regardless of where they met their clients, our participants worked in environments that exposed them to high risk of acquiring HIV. To reduce risk of HIV acquisition among women who sell sex, researchers and implementers should consider these differences in contexts, challenges, and risks, and design innovative interventions and programs that reach and include all women selling sex in Kampala.

Data availability

The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Abbreviations

Female Sex Worker

Low and Middle Income Country

Human Immunodeficiency Virus

Anti-Retroviral Therapy

Uganda Shillings

United States Dollars

COrona VIrus Disease of 2019

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to all the participants for their time and information, the entire UPTAKE consortium from which this work drew, Rachel Kawuma and Andrew Ssemata for the support on qualitative data analysis, and the MUL study site team for the invaluable support, thank you.

This work was supported by the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) [grant number CSA2018HS-2525]. This work was conducted at the MRC/UVRI and LSHTM Uganda Research Unit which is jointly funded by the UK Medical Research Council (MRC) part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) under the MRC/FCDO Concordat agreement and is also part of the EDCTP2 programme supported by the European Union.

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London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK

Kenneth Roger Katumba, Yunia Mayanja, Mitzy Gafos, Matthew Quaife, Janet Seeley & Giulia Greco

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KRK: Conceptualization, formal analysis, investigation, methodology, project administration, writing - original draft, writing - review & editing. MH: Investigation, writing - review & editing. YM: Funding acquisition, project administration, writing - review & editing. MG: Funding acquisition, supervision, validation, writing - review & editing. YWM: Funding acquisition, writing - review & editing. MQ: Conceptualization, funding acquisition, methodology, supervision, validation, writing - review & editing. JS: Methodology, supervision, validation, writing - review & editing. GG: Conceptualization, methodology, supervision, validation, writing - review & editing. All authors read and approved the final version.

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Katumba, K.R., Haumba, M., Mayanja, Y. et al. Understanding the contexts in which female sex workers sell sex in Kampala, Uganda: a qualitative study. BMC Women's Health 24 , 371 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12905-024-03216-7

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ENGL 151.S01: Introduction to English Studies

Tuesday and Thursday, 11 a.m.-12:15 p.m.

Sharon Smith

ENGL 151 serves as an introduction to both the English major and the discipline of English studies. In this class, you will develop the thinking, reading, writing and research practices that define both the major and the discipline. Much of the semester will be devoted to honing your literary analysis skills, and we will study and discuss texts from several different genres—poetry, short fiction, the novel, drama and film—as well as some literary criticism. As we do so, we will explore the language of the discipline, and you will learn a variety of key literary terms and concepts. In addition, you will develop your skills as both a writer and researcher within the discipline of English.

ENGL 201.ST1 Composition II: The Mind/Body Connection

In this section of English 201, students will use research and writing to learn more about problems that are important to them and articulate ways to address those problems. The course will focus specifically on issues related to the mind, the body and the relationship between them. The topics we will discuss during the course will include the correlation between social media and body image; the efficacy of sex education programs; the degree to which beliefs about race and gender influence school dress codes; and the unique mental and physical challenges faced by college students today. In this course, you will be learning about different approaches to argumentation, analyzing the arguments of others and constructing your own arguments. At the same time, you will be honing your skills as a researcher and developing your abilities as a persuasive and effective writer.

ENGL 201.S10 Composition II: Environmental Writing   

Monday/Wednesday/Friday 1-1:50 p.m.

Gwen Horsley

English 201 will help students develop the ability to think critically and analytically and to write effectively for other university courses and careers. This course will provide opportunities to develop analytical skills that will help students become critical readers and effective writers. Specifically, in this class, students will:

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Students will prepare writing assignments based on readings and discussions of essays included in "Literature and the Environment " and other sources. They may use "The St. Martin’s Handbook," as well as other sources, to review grammar, punctuation, mechanics and usage as needed.

ENGL 201.13 Composition II: Writing the Environment

Tuesday and Thursday 9:30-10:45 a.m.

Paul Baggett

For generations, environmentalists have relied on the power of prose to change the minds and habits of their contemporaries. In the wake of fires, floods, storms and droughts, environmental writing has gained a new sense of urgency, with authors joining activists in their efforts to educate the public about the grim realities of climate change. But do they make a difference? Have reports of present and future disasters so saturated our airwaves that we no longer hear them? How do writers make us care about the planet amidst all the noise? In this course, students will examine the various rhetorical strategies employed by some of today’s leading environmental writers and filmmakers. And while analyzing their different arguments, students also will strengthen their own strategies of argumentation as they research and develop essays that explore a range of environmental concerns.

ENGL 201 Composition II: Food Writing

S17 Tuesday and Thursday 12:30-1:45 p.m.

S18 Tuesday and Thursday 2-3:15 p.m.

Jodi Andrews

In this composition class, students will critically analyze essays about food, food systems and environments, food cultures, the intersections of personal choice, market forces and policy and the values underneath these forces. Students will learn to better read like writers, noting authors’ purpose, audience organizational moves, sentence-level punctuation and diction. We will read a variety of essays including research-intensive arguments and personal narratives which intersect with one of our most primal needs as humans: food consumption. Students will rhetorically analyze texts, conduct advanced research, reflect on the writing process and write essays utilizing intentional rhetorical strategies. Through doing this work, students will practice the writing moves valued in every discipline: argument, evidence, concision, engaging prose and the essential research skills for the 21st century.

ENGL 221.S01 British Literature I

Michael S. Nagy

English 221 is a survey of early British literature from its inception in the Old English period with works such as "Beowulf" and the “Battle of Maldon,” through the Middle Ages and the incomparable writings of Geoffrey Chaucer and the Gawain - poet, to the Renaissance and beyond. Students will explore the historical and cultural contexts in which all assigned reading materials were written, and they will bring that information to bear on class discussion. Likely themes that this class will cover include heroism, humor, honor, religion, heresy and moral relativity. Students will write one research paper in this class and sit for two formal exams: a midterm covering everything up to that point in the semester, and a comprehensive final. Probable texts include the following:

• The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Middle Ages. Ed. Alfred David, M. H. Abrams, and Stephen Greenblatt. 9th ed. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2012.
• The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Sixteenth Century and Early Seventeenth Century. Ed. George M. Logan, Stephen Greenblatt, Barbara K Lewalski, and M. H. Abrams. 9th ed. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2012.
• The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century. Ed. George M. Logan, Stephen Greenblatt, Barbara K Lewalski, and M. H. Abrams. 9th ed. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2012.
• Gibaldi, Joseph. The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 6th ed. New York: The Modern Language Association of America, 2003.
• Any Standard College Dictionary.

ENGL 240.S01 Juvenile Literature Elementary-5th Grade

Monday, Wednesday and Friday noon-12:50 p.m.

April Myrick

A survey of the history of literature written for children and adolescents, and a consideration of the various types of juvenile literature. Text selection will focus on the themes of imagination and breaking boundaries.

ENGL 240.ST1 Juvenile Literature Elementary-5th Grade

Randi Anderson

In English 240 students will develop the skills to interpret and evaluate various genres of literature for juvenile readers. This particular section will focus on various works of literature at approximately the K-5 grade level. We will read a large range of works that fall into this category, as well as information on the history, development and genre of juvenile literature.

Readings for this course include classical works such as "Hatchet," "Little Women", "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" and "Brown Girl Dreaming," as well as newer works like "Storm in the Barn," "Anne Frank’s Diary: A Graphic Adaptation," "Lumberjanes," and a variety of picture books. These readings will be paired with chapters from "Reading Children’s Literature: A Critical Introduction " to help develop understanding of various genres, themes and concepts that are both related to juvenile literature and also present in our readings.

In addition to exposing students to various genres of writing (poetry, historical fiction, non-fiction, fantasy, picture books, graphic novels, etc.) this course will also allow students to engage in a discussion of larger themes present in these works such as censorship, race and gender. Students’ understanding of these works and concepts will be developed through readings, research, discussion posts, exams and writing assignments designed to get students to practice analyzing poetry, picture books, informational books and transitional/easy readers.

ENGL 241.S01: American Literature I

Tuesday and Thursday 12:30-1:45 p.m.

This course provides a broad, historical survey of American literature from the early colonial period to the Civil War. Ranging across historical periods and literary genres—including early accounts of contact and discovery, narratives of captivity and slavery, poetry of revolution, essays on gender equality and stories of industrial exploitation—this class examines how subjects such as colonialism, nationhood, religion, slavery, westward expansion, race, gender and democracy continue to influence how Americans see themselves and their society.

Required Texts

• The Norton Anthology of American Literature: Package 1, Volumes A and B Beginnings to 1865, Ninth Edition. (ISBN 978-0-393-26454-8)

ENGL 283.S01 Introduction to Creative Writing

Steven Wingate

Students will explore the various forms of creative writing (fiction, nonfiction and poetry) not one at a time in a survey format—as if there were decisive walls of separation between then—but as intensely related genres that share much of their creative DNA. Through close reading and work on personal texts, students will address the decisions that writers in any genre must face on voice, rhetorical position, relationship to audience, etc. Students will produce and revise portfolios of original creative work developed from prompts and research. This course fulfills the same SGR #2 requirements ENGL 201; note that the course will involve a research project. Successful completion of ENGL 101 (including by test or dual credit) is a prerequisite.

ENGL 283.S02 Introduction to Creative Writing

Jodilyn Andrews

This course introduces students to the craft of writing, with readings and practice in at least two genres (including fiction, poetry and drama).

ENGL 283.ST1 Introduction to Creative Writing

Amber Jensen, M.A., M.F.A.

This course explores creative writing as a way of encountering the world, research as a component of the creative writing process, elements of craft and their rhetorical effect and drafting, workshop and revision as integral parts of writing polished literary creative work. Student writers will engage in the research practices that inform the writing of literature and in the composing strategies and writing process writers use to create literary texts. Through their reading and writing of fiction, poetry and creative nonfiction, students will learn about craft elements, find examples of those craft elements in published works and apply these elements in their own creative work, developed through weekly writing activities, small group and large group workshop and conferences with the instructor. Work will be submitted, along with a learning reflection and revision plan in each genre and will then be revised and submitted as a final portfolio at the end of the semester to demonstrate continued growth in the creation of polished literary writing.

• 300-400 level

ENGL 424.S01 Language Arts Methods grades 7-12  

Tuesday 6-8:50 p.m.

Danielle Harms

Techniques, materials and resources for teaching English language and literature to middle and secondary school students. Required of students in the English education option.

AIS/ENGL 447.S01: American Indian Literature of the Present 

Thursdays 3-6 p.m.

This course introduces students to contemporary works by authors from various Indigenous nations. Students examine these works to enhance their historical understanding of Indigenous peoples, discover the variety of literary forms used by those who identify as Indigenous writers, and consider the cultural and political significance of these varieties of expression. Topics and questions to be explored include:

• Genre: What makes Indigenous literature indigenous?
• Political and Cultural Sovereignty: Why have an emphasis on tribal specificity and calls for “literary separatism” emerged in recent decades, and what are some of the critical conversations surrounding such particularized perspectives?
• Gender and Sexuality: What are the intersecting concerns of Indigenous Studies and Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies, and how might these research fields inform one another?
• Trans-Indigeneity: What might we learn by comparing works across different Indigenous traditions, and what challenges do such comparisons present?
• Aesthetics: How do Indigenous writers understand the dynamics between tradition and creativity?
• Visual Forms: What questions or concerns do visual representations (television and film) by or about Indigenous peoples present?

Possible Texts

• Akiwenzie-Damm, Kateri and Josie Douglas (eds), Skins: Contemporary Indigenous Writing. IAD Press, 2000. (978-1864650327)
• Erdrich, Louise, The Sentence. Harper, 2021 (978-0062671127)
• Harjo, Joy, Poet Warrior: A Memoir. Norton, 2021 (978-0393248524)
• Harjo, Sterlin and Taika Waititi, Reservation Dogs (selected episodes)
• Talty, Morgan. Night of the Living Rez, 2022, Tin House (978-1953534187)
• Wall Kimmerer, Robin. Braiding Sweet Grass, Milkweed Editions (978-1571313560)
• Wilson, Diane. The Seed Keeper: A Novel. Milkweed Editions (978-1571311375)
• Critical essays by Alexie, Allen, Cohen, Cox, King, Kroeber, Ortiz, Piatote, Ross and Sexton, Smith, Taylor, Teuton, Treuer, Vizenor, and Womack.

ENGL 472.S01: Film Criticism

Tuesdays 2-4:50 p.m.

Jason McEntee

Do you have an appreciation for, and enjoy watching, movies? Do you want to study movies in a genre-oriented format (such as those we typically call the Western, the screwball comedy, the science fiction or the crime/gangster, to name a few)? Do you want to explore the different critical approaches for talking and writing about movies (such as auteur, feminist, genre or reception)?

In this class, you will examine movies through viewing and defining different genres while, at the same time, studying and utilizing different styles of film criticism. You will share your discoveries in both class discussions and short writings. The final project will be a formal written piece of film criticism based on our work throughout the semester. The course satisfies requirements and electives for all English majors and minors, including both the Film Studies and Professional Writing minors. (Note: Viewing of movies outside of class required and may require rental and/or streaming service fees.)

ENGL 476.ST1: Fiction

In this workshop-based creative writing course, students will develop original fiction based on strong attention to the fundamentals of literary storytelling: full-bodied characters, robust story lines, palpable environments and unique voices. We will pay particular attention to process awareness, to the integrity of the sentence, and to authors' commitments to their characters and the places in which their stories unfold. Some workshop experience is helpful, as student peer critique will be an important element of the class.

ENGL 479.01 Capstone: The Gothic

Wednesday 3-5:50 p.m.

With the publication of Horace Walpole’s "The Castle of Otranto " in 1764, the Gothic officially came into being. Dark tales of physical violence and psychological terror, the Gothic incorporates elements such as distressed heroes and heroines pursued by tyrannical villains; gloomy estates with dark corridors, secret passageways and mysterious chambers; haunting dreams, troubling prophecies and disturbing premonitions; abduction, imprisonment and murder; and a varied assortment of corpses, apparitions and “monsters.” In this course, we will trace the development of Gothic literature—and some film—from the eighteenth-century to the present time. As we do so, we will consider how the Gothic engages philosophical beliefs about the beautiful and sublime; shapes psychological understandings of human beings’ encounters with horror, terror, the fantastic and the uncanny; and intervenes in the social and historical contexts in which it was written. We’ll consider, for example, how the Gothic undermines ideals related to domesticity and marriage through representations of domestic abuse, toxicity and gaslighting. In addition, we’ll discuss Gothic texts that center the injustices of slavery and racism. As many Gothic texts suggest, the true horrors of human existence often have less to do with inexplicable supernatural phenomena than with the realities of the world in which we live. 

ENGL 485.S01: Undergraduate Writing Center Learning Assistants 

Flexible Scheduling

Nathan Serfling

Since their beginnings in the 1920s and 30s, writing centers have come to serve numerous functions: as hubs for writing across the curriculum initiatives, sites to develop and deliver workshops and resource centers for faculty as well as students, among other functions. But the primary function of writing centers has necessarily and rightfully remained the tutoring of student writers. This course will immerse you in that function in two parts. During the first four weeks, you will explore writing center praxis—that is, the dialogic interplay of theory and practice related to writing center work. This part of the course will orient you to writing center history, key theoretical tenets and practical aspects of writing center tutoring. Once we have developed and practiced this foundation, you will begin work in the writing center as a tutor, responsible for assisting a wide variety of student clients with numerous writing tasks. Through this work, you will learn to actively engage with student clients in the revision of a text, respond to different student needs and abilities, work with a variety of writing tasks and rhetorical situations, and develop a richer sense of writing as a complex and negotiated social process.

Graduate Courses

Engl 572.s01: film criticism, engl 576.st1 fiction.

In this workshop-based creative writing course, students will develop original fiction based on strong attention to the fundamentals of literary storytelling: full-bodied characters, robust story lines, palpable environments and unique voices. We will pay particular attention to process awareness, to the integrity of the sentence and to authors' commitments to their characters and the places in which their stories unfold. Some workshop experience is helpful, as student peer critique will be an important element of the class.

ENGL 605.S01 Seminar in Teaching Composition

Thursdays 1-3:50 p.m.

This course will provide you with a foundation in the pedagogies and theories (and their attendant histories) of writing instruction, a foundation that will prepare you to teach your own writing courses at SDSU and elsewhere. As you will discover through our course, though, writing instruction does not come with any prescribed set of “best” practices. Rather, writing pedagogies stem from and continue to evolve because of various and largely unsettled conversations about what constitutes effective writing and effective writing instruction. Part of becoming a practicing writing instructor, then, is studying these conversations to develop a sense of what “good writing” and “effective writing instruction” might mean for you in our particular program and how you might adapt that understanding to different programs and contexts.

As we read about, discuss and research writing instruction, we will address a variety of practical and theoretical topics. The practical focus will allow us to attend to topics relevant to your immediate classroom practices: designing a curriculum and various types of assignments, delivering the course content and assessing student work, among others. Our theoretical topics will begin to reveal the underpinnings of these various practical matters, including their historical, rhetorical, social and political contexts. In other words, we will investigate the praxis—the dialogic interaction of practice and theory—of writing pedagogy. As a result, this course aims to prepare you not only as a writing teacher but also as a nascent writing studies/writing pedagogy scholar.

At the end of this course, you should be able to engage effectively in the classroom practices described above and participate in academic conversations about writing pedagogy, both orally and in writing. Assessment of these outcomes will be based primarily on the various writing assignments you submit and to a smaller degree on your participation in class discussions and activities.

ENGL 726.S01: The New Woman, 1880–1900s 

Thursdays 3–5:50 p.m.

Katherine Malone

This course explores the rise of the New Woman at the end of the nineteenth century. The label New Woman referred to independent women who rebelled against social conventions. Often depicted riding bicycles, smoking cigarettes and wearing masculine clothing, these early feminists challenged gender roles and sought broader opportunities for women’s employment and self-determination. We will read provocative fiction and nonfiction by New Women writers and their critics, including authors such as Sarah Grand, Mona Caird, George Egerton, Amy Levy, Ella Hepworth Dixon, Grant Allen and George Gissing. We will analyze these exciting texts through a range of critical lenses and within the historical context of imperialism, scientific and technological innovation, the growth of the periodical press and discourse about race, class and gender. In addition to writing an argumentative seminar paper, students will complete short research assignments and lead discussion.

ENGL 792.ST1 Women in War: Female Authors and Characters in Contemporary War Lit

In this course, we will explore the voices of female authors and characters in contemporary literature of war. Drawing from various literary theories, our readings and discussion will explore the contributions of these voices to the evolving literature of war through archetypal and feminist criticism. We will read a variety of short works (both theoretical and creative) and complete works such as (selections subject to change): "Eyes Right" by Tracy Crow, "Plenty of Time When We Get Home" by Kayla Williams, "You Know When the Men are Gone" by Siobhan Fallon, "Still, Come Home" by Katie Schultz and "The Fine Art of Camouflage" by Lauren Johnson.