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Finding Scholarly Articles: Home

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What's a Scholarly Article?

Your professor has specified that you are to use scholarly (or primary research or peer-reviewed or refereed or academic) articles only in your paper. What does that mean?

Scholarly or primary research articles are peer-reviewed , which means that they have gone through the process of being read by reviewers or referees  before being accepted for publication. When a scholar submits an article to a scholarly journal, the manuscript is sent to experts in that field to read and decide if the research is valid and the article should be published. Typically the reviewers indicate to the journal editors whether they think the article should be accepted, sent back for revisions, or rejected.

To decide whether an article is a primary research article, look for the following:

  • The author’s (or authors') credentials and academic affiliation(s) should be given;
  • There should be an abstract summarizing the research;
  • The methods and materials used should be given, often in a separate section;
  • There are citations within the text or footnotes referencing sources used;
  • Results of the research are given;
  • There should be discussion   and  conclusion ;
  • With a bibliography or list of references at the end.

Caution: even though a journal may be peer-reviewed, not all the items in it will be. For instance, there might be editorials, book reviews, news reports, etc. Check for the parts of the article to be sure.   

You can limit your search results to primary research, peer-reviewed or refereed articles in many databases. To search for scholarly articles in  HOLLIS , type your keywords in the box at the top, and select  Catalog&Articles  from the choices that appear next.   On the search results screen, look for the  Show Only section on the right and click on  Peer-reviewed articles . (Make sure to  login in with your HarvardKey to get full-text of the articles that Harvard has purchased.)

Many of the databases that Harvard offers have similar features to limit to peer-reviewed or scholarly articles.  For example in Academic Search Premier , click on the box for Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals  on the search screen.

Review articles are another great way to find scholarly primary research articles.   Review articles are not considered "primary research", but they pull together primary research articles on a topic, summarize and analyze them.  In Google Scholar , click on Review Articles  at the left of the search results screen. Ask your professor whether review articles can be cited for an assignment.

A note about Google searching.  A regular Google search turns up a broad variety of results, which can include scholarly articles but Google results also contain commercial and popular sources which may be misleading, outdated, etc.  Use Google Scholar  through the Harvard Library instead.

About Wikipedia .  W ikipedia is not considered scholarly, and should not be cited, but it frequently includes references to scholarly articles. Before using those references for an assignment, double check by finding them in Hollis or a more specific subject  database .

Still not sure about a source? Consult the course syllabus for guidance, contact your professor or teaching fellow, or use the Ask A Librarian service.

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General Article Databases

Databases are collections of thousands of articles (and often book chapters, book reviews, conference proceedings, dissertations, and other items) organized by subject. The Libraries have hundreds of databases covering every academic discipline. Some are multi-disciplinary , covering a broad range of subjects and including popular and scholarly sources, and others are subject-specific , and include scholarly and specialized articles.

The following multi-disciplinary databases are good places to start your research:

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  • Google Scholar This link opens in a new window Search across many disciplines and sources including articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions, from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities and other web sites. more... less... Lists journal articles, books, preprints, and technical reports in many subject areas (though more specialized article databases may cover any given field more completely). Can be used with "Get it at UC" to access the full text of many articles.

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Browse our journals, browse our books, perilous networks: risk and maritime news in the merchant of venice, manuscript precedents for editorial practices in john benson’s poems: written by wil. shake-speare. gent, the surreal technics of andré breton and gilbert simondon, état présent lgbtq+ studies, humanities in the time of covid: the humanities coronavirus syllabus, li qingzhao and ecofeminism: body and language, intimacy: an alternative model for literary translation, porosity and the transnational: travelling theory between naples and frankfurt (walter benjamin, asja lacis and ernst bloch), encyclopaedic autobiography in roland barthes’s roland barthes (1975) and amy krouse rosenthal’s encyclopedia of an ordinary life (2004), “in de affica soil”: slavery, ethnography, and recovery in zora neale hurston’s barracoon: the story of the “last black cargo”, event, trauma, and ethics in wing tek lum’s the nanjing massacre, aphra behn: portraiture and the biographical account, the style of the old english metrical charms, the luster of studying contemporary publishing, literature and publishing, 1945–2020, ‘surrealism found me’: british surrealism and encounter, anti-narratives of slavery in colson whitehead’s the underground railroad, narratives of displacement: on embodied experience of migration in ulitskaya, lindén, and palei, jennifer egan, new sincerity, and the genre turn in contemporary fiction, mixed feelings, writing white: martha collins’s poetry of collective memory, on the parenthesis in t. s. eliot’s the cultivation of christmas trees, the hawks and the doves: raptors and rapture in the poems of thom gunn and ted hughes, discovery of zobel’s lost wartime short story: ‘bo-bo-bo-o’ or ‘up yours, hitler’, compare and contrast the relationship between voice, space, and forms of intimacy in two or more of the films studied on this unit, an anonymous caesurae uersuum and aldhelm’s de metris : a common source, the etymology of ‘girl’: two more ideas, illuminated caxtons and the trade in printed books, annotated copies of early editions of johnson's dictionary : a preliminary account, affect theory, modern literature, new literatures, women and books in the seventeenth century, oscar wilde’s world literature, transported, what made milton, ‘a profit to people’, introduction: placing early modern criticism, répétition planétaire, introduction: 26 april 1564, a room of one’s own, woolf’s “little book on poetry”, affiliations.

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Articles, Books, and . . . ? Understanding the Many Types of Information Found in Libraries

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Scholarly Books (Monographs)

Anthologies, dissertations.

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Books are, well, books . Everyone knows about books! But there are actually a variety of types of books, and knowing what type of book you're reading will determine how you use it. See below for some common types of books... and note that reference books have their own page.

Physical Media

Books can be in paper or online; both types are listed in the Library Catalog . See our E-books guide if you're specifically looking for online versions. Do be aware that e-book licenses aren't shared by libraries. (Otherwise the publisher would only be able to sell one copy!) So you can only use e-books that UCLA has subscribed to.

Scholarly Sources

See below for how to identify scholarly books , also known as monographs . Non-scholarly books are usually referred to as "popular press books."

Primary or Secondary Sources

Most books are considered secondary sources, especially since they take a few years to write and get published. Some exceptions include:

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  • Sources are cited, and the work includes a bibliography or list of references.
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  • Reviewed in peer-reviewed journals .

When in doubt, ask your professor or TA whether a specific source is acceptable.

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  • UC Library Search - Course Reserves Books put on Course Reserve by your professor are found in UC Library Search under the Course Reserve tab, listed by title, instructor, or course number.

Anthologies are a cross-over example. They're books that contain articles (chapters). Anthologies may be collections of articles by a single author, or collections of articles on a theme from different authors chosen by an editor. Many anthologies reprint articles already published elsewhere, but some contain original works.

Anthologies are rarely peer-reviewed, but they still may be considered scholarly works, depending on the reputation of the authors and editors. Use the same criteria listed for scholarly books .

Of course, reprints of articles originally published in peer-reviewed journals retain their "scholarly" status. (Note that most style manuals have special rules for citing reprinted works.)

Master's theses are usually only available at the institution where they were written. They may be requested on interlibrary loan.

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A literature review surveys prior research published in 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 used in researching a particular topic and to demonstrate to your readers how your research fits within existing scholarship about the topic.

Fink, Arlene. Conducting Research Literature Reviews: From the Internet to Paper . Fourth edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, 2014.

Importance of a Good Literature Review

A literature review may consist of simply a summary of key sources, but in the social sciences, a literature review usually has an organizational pattern and combines both summary and synthesis, often within specific conceptual categories . A summary is a recap of the important information of the source, but a synthesis is a re-organization, or a reshuffling, of that information in a way that informs how you are planning to investigate a research problem. The analytical features of a literature review might:

  • Give a new interpretation of old material or combine new with old interpretations,
  • Trace the intellectual progression of the field, including major debates,
  • Depending on the situation, evaluate the sources and advise the reader on the most pertinent or relevant research, or
  • Usually in the conclusion of a literature review, identify where gaps exist in how a problem has been researched to date.

Given this, the purpose of a literature review is to:

  • Place each work in the context of its contribution to understanding the research problem being studied.
  • Describe the relationship of each work to the others under consideration.
  • Identify new ways to interpret prior research.
  • Reveal any gaps that exist in the literature.
  • Resolve conflicts amongst seemingly contradictory previous studies.
  • Identify areas of prior scholarship to prevent duplication of effort.
  • Point the way in fulfilling a need for additional research.
  • Locate your own research within the context of existing literature [very important].

Fink, Arlene. Conducting Research Literature Reviews: From the Internet to Paper. 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2005; Hart, Chris. Doing a Literature Review: Releasing the Social Science Research Imagination . Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1998; Jesson, Jill. Doing Your Literature Review: Traditional and Systematic Techniques . Los Angeles, CA: SAGE, 2011; Knopf, Jeffrey W. "Doing a Literature Review." PS: Political Science and Politics 39 (January 2006): 127-132; Ridley, Diana. The Literature Review: A Step-by-Step Guide for Students . 2nd ed. Los Angeles, CA: SAGE, 2012.

Types of Literature Reviews

It is important to think of knowledge in a given field as consisting of three layers. First, there are the primary studies that researchers conduct and publish. Second are the reviews of those studies that summarize and offer new interpretations built from and often extending beyond the primary studies. Third, there are the perceptions, conclusions, opinion, and interpretations that are shared informally among scholars that become part of the body of epistemological traditions within the field.

In composing a literature review, it is important to note that it is often this third layer of knowledge that is cited as "true" even though it often has only a loose relationship to the primary studies and secondary literature reviews. Given this, while literature reviews are designed to provide an overview and synthesis of pertinent sources you have explored, there are a number of approaches you could adopt depending upon the type of analysis underpinning your study.

Argumentative Review This form examines literature selectively in order to support or refute an argument, deeply embedded assumption, or philosophical problem already established in the literature. The purpose is to develop a body of literature that establishes a contrarian viewpoint. Given the value-laden nature of some social science research [e.g., educational reform; immigration control], argumentative approaches to analyzing the literature can be a legitimate and important form of discourse. However, note that they can also introduce problems of bias when they are used to make summary claims of the sort found in systematic reviews [see below].

Integrative Review Considered a form of research that reviews, critiques, and synthesizes representative literature on a topic in an integrated way such that new frameworks and perspectives on the topic are generated. The body of literature includes all studies that address related or identical hypotheses or research problems. A well-done integrative review meets the same standards as primary research in regard to clarity, rigor, and replication. This is the most common form of review in the social sciences.

Historical Review Few things rest in isolation from historical precedent. Historical literature reviews focus on examining research throughout a period of time, often starting with the first time an issue, concept, theory, phenomena 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 to identify the likely directions for future research.

Methodological Review A review does not always focus on what someone said [findings], but how they came about saying what they say [method of analysis]. Reviewing methods of analysis provides a framework of understanding at different levels [i.e. those of theory, substantive fields, research approaches, and data collection and analysis techniques], how researchers draw upon a wide variety of knowledge ranging from the conceptual level to practical documents for use in fieldwork in the areas of ontological and epistemological consideration, quantitative and qualitative integration, sampling, interviewing, data collection, and data analysis. This approach helps highlight ethical issues which you should be aware of and consider as you go through your own study.

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 to collect, report, and analyze data from the studies that are included in the review. The goal is to deliberately document, critically evaluate, and summarize scientifically all of the research about a clearly defined research problem . Typically it focuses on a very specific empirical question, often posed in a cause-and-effect form, such as "To what extent does A contribute to B?" This type of literature review is primarily applied to examining prior research studies in clinical medicine and allied health fields, but it is increasingly being used in the social sciences.

Theoretical Review The purpose of this form is to examine the corpus of theory that has accumulated in regard to an issue, concept, theory, phenomena. The theoretical literature review helps to establish what theories already exist, the relationships between them, to what degree the existing theories have been investigated, and to develop new hypotheses to be tested. Often this form is used to help establish a lack of appropriate theories or reveal that current theories are inadequate for explaining new or emerging research problems. The unit of analysis can focus on a theoretical concept or a whole theory or framework.

NOTE : Most often the literature review will incorporate some combination of types. For example, a review that examines literature supporting or refuting an argument, assumption, or philosophical problem related to the research problem will also need to include writing supported by sources that establish the history of these arguments in the literature.

Baumeister, Roy F. and Mark R. Leary. "Writing Narrative Literature Reviews."  Review of General Psychology 1 (September 1997): 311-320; Mark R. Fink, Arlene. Conducting Research Literature Reviews: From the Internet to Paper . 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2005; Hart, Chris. Doing a Literature Review: Releasing the Social Science Research Imagination . Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1998; Kennedy, Mary M. "Defining a Literature." Educational Researcher 36 (April 2007): 139-147; Petticrew, Mark and Helen Roberts. Systematic Reviews in the Social Sciences: A Practical Guide . Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 2006; Torracro, Richard. "Writing Integrative Literature Reviews: Guidelines and Examples." Human Resource Development Review 4 (September 2005): 356-367; Rocco, Tonette S. and Maria S. Plakhotnik. "Literature Reviews, Conceptual Frameworks, and Theoretical Frameworks: Terms, Functions, and Distinctions." Human Ressource Development Review 8 (March 2008): 120-130; Sutton, Anthea. Systematic Approaches to a Successful Literature Review . Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publications, 2016.

Structure and Writing Style

I.  Thinking About Your Literature Review

The structure of a literature review should include the following in support of understanding the research problem :

  • An overview of the subject, issue, or theory under consideration, along with the objectives of the literature review,
  • Division of works under review into themes or categories [e.g. works that support a particular position, those against, and those offering alternative approaches entirely],
  • An explanation of how each work is similar to and how it varies from the others,
  • Conclusions as to which pieces are best considered in their argument, are most convincing of their opinions, and make the greatest contribution to the understanding and development of their area of research.

The critical evaluation of each work should consider :

  • Provenance -- what are the author's credentials? Are the author's arguments supported by evidence [e.g. primary historical material, case studies, narratives, statistics, recent scientific findings]?
  • Methodology -- were the techniques used to identify, gather, and analyze the data appropriate to addressing the research problem? Was the sample size appropriate? Were the results effectively interpreted and reported?
  • Objectivity -- is the author's perspective even-handed or prejudicial? Is contrary data considered or is certain pertinent information ignored to prove the author's point?
  • Persuasiveness -- which of the author's theses are most convincing or least convincing?
  • Validity -- are the author's arguments and conclusions convincing? Does the work ultimately contribute in any significant way to an understanding of the subject?

II.  Development of the Literature Review

Four Basic Stages of Writing 1.  Problem formulation -- which topic or field is being examined and what are its component issues? 2.  Literature search -- finding materials relevant to the subject being explored. 3.  Data evaluation -- determining which literature makes a significant contribution to the understanding of the topic. 4.  Analysis and interpretation -- discussing the findings and conclusions of pertinent literature.

Consider the following issues before writing the literature review: Clarify If your assignment is not specific about what form your literature review should take, seek clarification from your professor by asking these questions: 1.  Roughly how many sources would be appropriate to include? 2.  What types of sources should I review (books, journal articles, websites; scholarly versus popular sources)? 3.  Should I summarize, synthesize, or critique sources by discussing a common theme or issue? 4.  Should I evaluate the sources in any way beyond evaluating how they relate to understanding the research problem? 5.  Should I provide subheadings and other background information, such as definitions and/or a history? Find Models Use the exercise of reviewing the literature to examine how authors in your discipline or area of interest have composed their literature review sections. Read them to get a sense of the types of themes you might want to look for in your own research or to identify ways to organize your final review. The bibliography or reference section of sources you've already read, such as required readings in the course syllabus, are also excellent entry points into your own research. Narrow the Topic The narrower your topic, the easier it will be to limit the number of sources you need to read in order to obtain a good survey of relevant resources. Your professor will probably not expect you to read everything that's available about the topic, but you'll make the act of reviewing easier if you first limit scope of the research problem. A good strategy is to begin by searching the USC Libraries Catalog for recent books about the topic and review the table of contents for chapters that focuses on specific issues. You can also review the indexes of books to find references to specific issues that can serve as the focus of your research. For example, a book surveying the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict may include a chapter on the role Egypt has played in mediating the conflict, or look in the index for the pages where Egypt is mentioned in the text. Consider Whether Your Sources are Current Some disciplines require that you use information that is as current as possible. This is particularly true in disciplines in medicine and the sciences where research conducted becomes obsolete very quickly as new discoveries are made. However, when writing a review in the social sciences, a survey of the history of the literature may be required. In other words, a complete understanding the research problem requires you to deliberately examine how knowledge and perspectives have changed over time. Sort through other current bibliographies or literature reviews in the field to get a sense of what your discipline expects. You can also use this method to explore what is considered by scholars to be a "hot topic" and what is not.

III.  Ways to Organize Your Literature Review

Chronology of Events If your review follows the chronological method, you could write about the materials according to when they were published. This approach should only be followed if a clear path of research building on previous research can be identified and that these trends follow a clear chronological order of development. For example, a literature review that focuses on continuing research about the emergence of German economic power after the fall of the Soviet Union. By Publication Order your sources by publication chronology, then, only if the order demonstrates a more important trend. For instance, you could order a review of literature on environmental studies of brown fields if the progression revealed, for example, a change in the soil collection practices of the researchers who wrote and/or conducted the studies. Thematic [“conceptual categories”] A thematic literature review is the most common approach to summarizing prior research in the social and behavioral sciences. Thematic reviews are organized around a topic or issue, rather than the progression of time, although the progression of time may still be incorporated into a thematic review. For example, a review of the Internet’s impact on American presidential politics could focus on the development of online political satire. While the study focuses on one topic, the Internet’s impact on American presidential politics, it would still be organized chronologically reflecting technological developments in media. The difference in this example between a "chronological" and a "thematic" approach is what is emphasized the most: themes related to the role of the Internet in presidential politics. Note that more authentic thematic reviews tend to break away from chronological order. A review organized in this manner would shift between time periods within each section according to the point being made. Methodological A methodological approach focuses on the methods utilized by the researcher. For the Internet in American presidential politics project, one methodological approach would be to look at cultural differences between the portrayal of American presidents on American, British, and French websites. Or the review might focus on the fundraising impact of the Internet on a particular political party. A methodological scope will influence either the types of documents in the review or the way in which these documents are discussed.

Other Sections of Your Literature Review Once you've decided on the organizational method for your literature review, the sections you need to include in the paper should be easy to figure out because they arise from your organizational strategy. In other words, a chronological review would have subsections for each vital time period; a thematic review would have subtopics based upon factors that relate to the theme or issue. However, sometimes you may need to add additional sections that are necessary for your study, but do not fit in the organizational strategy of the body. What other sections you include in the body is up to you. However, only include what is necessary for the reader to locate your study within the larger scholarship about the research problem.

Here are examples of other sections, usually in the form of a single paragraph, you may need to include depending on the type of review you write:

  • Current Situation : Information necessary to understand the current topic or focus of the literature review.
  • Sources Used : Describes the methods and resources [e.g., databases] you used to identify the literature you reviewed.
  • History : The chronological progression of the field, the research literature, or an idea that is necessary to understand the literature review, if the body of the literature review is not already a chronology.
  • Selection Methods : Criteria you used to select (and perhaps exclude) sources in your literature review. For instance, you might explain that your review includes only peer-reviewed [i.e., scholarly] sources.
  • Standards : Description of the way in which you present your information.
  • Questions for Further Research : What questions about the field has the review sparked? How will you further your research as a result of the review?

IV.  Writing Your Literature Review

Once you've settled on how to organize your literature review, you're ready to write each section. When writing your review, keep in mind these issues.

Use Evidence A literature review section is, in this sense, just like any other academic research paper. Your interpretation of the available sources must be backed up with evidence [citations] that demonstrates that what you are saying is valid. Be Selective Select only the most important points in each source to highlight in the review. The type of information you choose to mention should relate directly to the research problem, whether it is thematic, methodological, or chronological. Related items that provide additional information, but that are not key to understanding the research problem, can be included in a list of further readings . Use Quotes Sparingly Some short quotes are appropriate if you want to emphasize a point, or if what an author stated cannot be easily paraphrased. Sometimes you may need to quote certain terminology that was coined by the author, is not common knowledge, or taken directly from the study. Do not use extensive quotes as a substitute for using your own words in reviewing the literature. Summarize and Synthesize Remember to summarize and synthesize your sources within each thematic paragraph as well as throughout the review. Recapitulate important features of a research study, but then synthesize it by rephrasing the study's significance and relating it to your own work and the work of others. Keep Your Own Voice While the literature review presents others' ideas, your voice [the writer's] should remain front and center. For example, weave references to other sources into what you are writing but maintain your own voice by starting and ending the paragraph with your own ideas and wording. Use Caution When Paraphrasing When paraphrasing a source that is not your own, be sure to represent the author's information or opinions accurately and in your own words. Even when paraphrasing an author’s work, you still must provide a citation to that work.

V.  Common Mistakes to Avoid

These are the most common mistakes made in reviewing social science research literature.

  • Sources in your literature review do not clearly relate to the research problem;
  • You do not take sufficient time to define and identify the most relevant sources to use in the literature review related to the research problem;
  • Relies exclusively on secondary analytical sources rather than including relevant primary research studies or data;
  • Uncritically accepts another researcher's findings and interpretations as valid, rather than examining critically all aspects of the research design and analysis;
  • Does not describe the search procedures that were used in identifying the literature to review;
  • Reports isolated statistical results rather than synthesizing them in chi-squared or meta-analytic methods; and,
  • Only includes research that validates assumptions and does not consider contrary findings and alternative interpretations found in the literature.

Cook, Kathleen E. and Elise Murowchick. “Do Literature Review Skills Transfer from One Course to Another?” Psychology Learning and Teaching 13 (March 2014): 3-11; Fink, Arlene. Conducting Research Literature Reviews: From the Internet to Paper . 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2005; Hart, Chris. Doing a Literature Review: Releasing the Social Science Research Imagination . Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1998; Jesson, Jill. Doing Your Literature Review: Traditional and Systematic Techniques . London: SAGE, 2011; Literature Review Handout. Online Writing Center. Liberty University; Literature Reviews. The Writing Center. University of North Carolina; Onwuegbuzie, Anthony J. and Rebecca Frels. Seven Steps to a Comprehensive Literature Review: A Multimodal and Cultural Approach . Los Angeles, CA: SAGE, 2016; Ridley, Diana. The Literature Review: A Step-by-Step Guide for Students . 2nd ed. Los Angeles, CA: SAGE, 2012; Randolph, Justus J. “A Guide to Writing the Dissertation Literature Review." Practical Assessment, Research, and Evaluation. vol. 14, June 2009; Sutton, Anthea. Systematic Approaches to a Successful Literature Review . Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publications, 2016; Taylor, Dena. The Literature Review: A Few Tips On Conducting It. University College Writing Centre. University of Toronto; Writing a Literature Review. Academic Skills Centre. University of Canberra.

Writing Tip

Break Out of Your Disciplinary Box!

Thinking interdisciplinarily about a research problem can be a rewarding exercise in applying new ideas, theories, or concepts to an old problem. For example, what might cultural anthropologists say about the continuing conflict in the Middle East? In what ways might geographers view the need for better distribution of social service agencies in large cities than how social workers might study the issue? You don’t want to substitute a thorough review of core research literature in your discipline for studies conducted in other fields of study. However, particularly in the social sciences, thinking about research problems from multiple vectors is a key strategy for finding new solutions to a problem or gaining a new perspective. Consult with a librarian about identifying research databases in other disciplines; almost every field of study has at least one comprehensive database devoted to indexing its research literature.

Frodeman, Robert. The Oxford Handbook of Interdisciplinarity . New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.

Another Writing Tip

Don't Just Review for Content!

While conducting a review of the literature, maximize the time you devote to writing this part of your paper by thinking broadly about what you should be looking for and evaluating. Review not just what scholars are saying, but how are they saying it. Some questions to ask:

  • How are they organizing their ideas?
  • What methods have they used to study the problem?
  • What theories have been used to explain, predict, or understand their research problem?
  • What sources have they cited to support their conclusions?
  • How have they used non-textual elements [e.g., charts, graphs, figures, etc.] to illustrate key points?

When you begin to write your literature review section, you'll be glad you dug deeper into how the research was designed and constructed because it establishes a means for developing more substantial analysis and interpretation of the research problem.

Hart, Chris. Doing a Literature Review: Releasing the Social Science Research Imagination . Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1 998.

Yet Another Writing Tip

When Do I Know I Can Stop Looking and Move On?

Here are several strategies you can utilize to assess whether you've thoroughly reviewed the literature:

  • Look for repeating patterns in the research findings . If the same thing is being said, just by different people, then this likely demonstrates that the research problem has hit a conceptual dead end. At this point consider: Does your study extend current research?  Does it forge a new path? Or, does is merely add more of the same thing being said?
  • Look at sources the authors cite to in their work . If you begin to see the same researchers cited again and again, then this is often an indication that no new ideas have been generated to address the research problem.
  • Search Google Scholar to identify who has subsequently cited leading scholars already identified in your literature review [see next sub-tab]. This is called citation tracking and there are a number of sources that can help you identify who has cited whom, particularly scholars from outside of your discipline. Here again, if the same authors are being cited again and again, this may indicate no new literature has been written on the topic.

Onwuegbuzie, Anthony J. and Rebecca Frels. Seven Steps to a Comprehensive Literature Review: A Multimodal and Cultural Approach . Los Angeles, CA: Sage, 2016; Sutton, Anthea. Systematic Approaches to a Successful Literature Review . Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publications, 2016.

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Three-in-ten Americans now read e-books

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Americans are spreading their book consumption across several formats. The share of adults who have read print books in the past 12 months still outpaces the share using other forms, but 30% now say they have read an e-book in that time frame.  

A line graph showing that print books continue to be more popular than e-books or audiobooks

Overall, 75% of U.S. adults say they have read a book in the past 12 months in any format, whether completely or part way through, a figure that has remained largely unchanged since 2011, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted from Jan. 25 to Feb. 8, 2021. Print books remain the most popular format for reading, with 65% of adults saying that they have read a print book in the past year.

While shares of print book readers and audiobook listeners remain mostly unchanged from a Center survey conducted in 2019, there has been an uptick in the share of Americans who report reading e-books, from 25% to 30%.

Pew Research Center has studied how Americans read books for years. For this analysis, we surveyed 1,502 U.S. adults from Jan. 25 to Feb. 8, 2021, by cellphone and landline phone. The survey was conducted by interviewers under the direction of Abt Associates and is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, education and other categories. Here are  the questions, responses and methodology used  for this analysis.

Americans read an average (mean) of roughly 14 books during the previous 12 months and the typical (median) American read five books in that period, according to the survey. These figures are identical to 2011 , when the Center first began conducting surveys of Americans’ book reading habits.  

A pie chart showing that a third of Americans say they read both print and digital books in the past year

Despite growth in certain digital formats, it remains the case that relatively few Americans only consume digital books (which include audiobooks and e-books) to the exclusion of print. Some 33% of Americans read in these digital formats and also read print books, while 32% say they read only print books. Just 9% of Americans say they only read books in digital formats and have not read any print books in the past 12 months.

Demographic differences in book reading in 2021 are similar to the patterns seen in past Center surveys . For example, adults who have a bachelor’s or advanced degree are more likely to be book readers than those who have only attended some college and those with a high school education or less, and adults ages 18 to 29 are more likely to read books than those 65 and older. At the same time, patterns of book consumption among a few groups changed since 2019. Some examples:

Adults with lower incomes – The share of adults with an annual household income of less than $30,000 who have listened to an audiobook has increased 8 percentage points since 2019 (22% vs. 14%).  

Urban adults – The share of American adults living in urban communities who say they have read a book in any format in the previous 12 months grew from 75% in 2019 to 81% now – an increase of 6 percentage points.

The table below covers how different groups reported their reading habits in the survey.

A bar chart showing that college graduates are especially likely to say they read books in any format

Note: Here are  the questions, responses and methodology used  for this analysis. This is an update of a post by Andrew Perrin originally published Sept. 1, 2016.

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Michelle Faverio is a research analyst focusing on internet and technology research at Pew Research Center .

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Andrew Perrin is a former research analyst focusing on internet and technology at Pew Research Center .

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Literature research guide.

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To Search the resources and databases linked on this guide from your laptop, you'll need to enter your CRUZ ID and Gold Password when prompted.

Go to Unpaywall.org  and install the browser extension. This extension will alert you when there is an accessible version of the paper.

Another alternative is to install the campus VPN for more reliable access. Login so that you can access PDF attachments and ebooks from behind paywalls.

  • VPN Client Installation Use this secure and reliable login to access the Library's resources. You will need to install the VPN and login with your CRUZ ID and Gold Password. Use Ask Us to let us know if something isn't working.

Literature Databases

  • MLA International Bibliography (1926-current) This link opens in a new window Database contains citations for articles, books, and book chapters in literature, languages, linguistics, and folklore. Compiled by the Modern Language Association.
  • ABELL This link opens in a new window Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature indexes monographs, periodical articles, critical editions of literary works, book reviews and collections of essays published worldwide from 1920 onwards with links to the full text of 61 journals.
  • SciELO (Scientific Electronic Library Online) This link opens in a new window Full text journal articles available to all users through Open Access. This database includes all the major disciplines. Represents Spanish, Portuguese, or English languages and Latin America and Spain.
  • Index Islamicus This link opens in a new window Indexes literature on Islam, the Middle East and the Muslim world. Includes journals articles, proceedings, monographs, book chapters, and book reviews, 1906 to present.

Scholarly ebooks

  • ACLS Humanities E-Book This link opens in a new window This is a digital collection of over 5,400 seminal books (ebooks) in the humanities and related social sciences. These titles are presented in collaboration with more than 120 publishers and Michigan Publishing. Books in the HEB collection have been recommended and reviewed by scholars and constituent learned societies of the American Council of Learned Societies. HEB is now hosted on the Fulcrum platform.

Multi disciplinary databases

  • Web of Science This link opens in a new window Multidisciplinary database of scholarly articles. Searches citation indexes in Arts and Humanities, Social Science, and Science. Includes "cited by" feature and allows sorting by citation count.
  • UC Library Search This link opens in a new window This searches across all 10 UC Library collections and beyond. Sign in using your CruzID Gold in order to find: books, e-books, articles, journals, films, maps, and more.
  • Google Scholar This link opens in a new window Database covering many disciplines and sources: articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions, from academic publishers, professional societies, and online repositories. Use Eduroam (on campus), or the VPN (off-campus) to access full-text of UCSC subscribed content.
  • JSTOR This link opens in a new window This database includes the full text of journals starting with their very first issue and eBooks and eChapters. Note, current issues are not available in JSTOR. Consult the journals list for information on years of coverage. For wider coverage of a topic, consult the database best suited to your discipline .
  • Project MUSE This link opens in a new window Full text articles of 400+ peer-reviewed journals from Johns Hopkins University Press.
  • Periodicals Archive Online This link opens in a new window Arts, humanities, and social sciences – full-text scholarly journal archives. The contents is indexed in Periodicals Index Online
  • WorldCat (FirstSearch) This link opens in a new window This is the FirstSearch version: A union catalog, it enables you to search the holdings of libraries across the country and internationally. Catalogs generally contain: books, journal titles, sound recordings, movies, newspapers and so on.

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Anthropology

Journal articles, encyclopedias, research methods and writing guides, anthropology periodicals.

  • Archaeology
  • Native American Studies
  • Forensic Anthropology
  • Library Catalog Search by topic or title.

Look for books written or edited by scholars and experts in anthropology. These are great for overviews on a topic as well as guidance for methods and procedures. They will often lead you to other experts and literature on the topic.

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To search beyond the WCU collection, use the drop-down box in the Library Catalog to select WNCLN, which includes ASU and UNCA. Or you can use the link below. 

  • WNCLN Catalog Searches the WNCLN Network (ASU, UNCA, WCU). You can request print items for delivery to WCU via the ABC Express Service.
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To search beyond the WNCLN Network, try WorldCat or FirstSearch. You can request articles and books via our Interlibrary Loan service.

  • WorldCat This link opens in a new window Records of books, media, manuscripts cataloged by libraries throughout the world. Includes manuscripts written as early as the 12th century.
  • FirstSearch This link opens in a new window Great resources for advanced researchers to find books from thousands of libraries worldwide and request through interlibrary loan.

Anthropologists often share new discoveries via peer-reviewed articles in scholarly journals. You can find these via databases such as the ones listed on this guide, including the one-search. Be sure to limit to peer review (or scholarly/peer-reviewed). Scholarly articles are written for other experts, so are less likely to include introductory materials.

How to find scholarly, peer-reviewed journal articles in Anthropology:

Try the EBSCO Quick Search Box below, or one of the other recommended search tools.

  • Library OneSearch The main search box on the library's homepage, the OneSearch will reveal a list of books, articles, book chapters, and more on your topic. Use the refine options to limit to full text and peer-reviewed.
  • JSTOR This link opens in a new window A great interdisciplinary resource for scholarly journal articles and some book chapters. JSTOR often does NOT include the most recent 4-5 years of a scholarly journal. Make sure you use other databases to find more recent articles.
  • Google Scholar This link opens in a new window Google Scholar is a web search engine that finds scholarly literature, including papers, theses, books, and reports. By searching Google Scholar from the library’s webpage, you will have free linked access to the library’s subscription holdings. Other links from Google Scholar may prompt you to pay for articles, but DO NOT PAY for articles. We will help you get the articles you need.
  • Other Anthropology Databases
  • Find a specific journal title

Use these to find background information, to get topic ideas. Entries will point you to key resources and scholars in the discipline. 

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  • Chicago Citation Style Quick Guide Quick reference from the Chicago Manual website.
  • Using Zotero Guide Zotero is a tool for managing citations and creating bibliographies. It is especially helpful for big projects and sharing references with colleagues on group projects.

General Interest (i.e., non-scholarly)

  • Smithsonian
  • National Geographic Use Gale's Biography in Context for access to current NG content.

Scholarly Journals (Peer-reviewed)

  • American Anthropologist
  • Current Anthropology Scholarly journal
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Young adult books on display in Foyles bookshop.

More than a quarter of readers of YA are over the age of 28 research shows

Report commissioned by HarperCollins shows that uptake in YA fiction in older readers is due to behavioural changes described as ‘emerging adulthood’ or delaying ‘adult’ life

Young adult fiction such as The Hunger Games, A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder and the Heartstopper graphic novels might be aimed at teenagers – but new research has shown that more than a quarter of readers of YA in the UK are over the age of 28.

Research commissioned by publisher HarperCollins, in collaboration with Nielsen Book, the UK book industry’s data provider, suggests that a growing number of adult readers have been reading YA fiction since 2019. According to the report, 74% of YA readers were adults, and 28% were over the age of 28. The research suggests this is due to behavioural changes described as “emerging adulthood”: young people growing up more slowly and delaying “adult” life. The feelings of instability and “in-betweenness” this can cause has led to young adults seeking solace in young adult fiction – and for some these books remain a source of comfort as they grow older.

I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L Sánchez.

YA is “just another genre to enjoy” for 34-year-old video games producer and author Amy Jones. “I know there’s an idea of YA as being ‘fluffy’ or not as worthy to read as adult fiction, but I disagree – while there are, like there are in any genre, examples of badly written or poorly plotted YA, there are also total masterpieces – Fangirl, I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, The Hate U Give, A Wrinkle in Time, these are all books that tackle deeply important issues such as identity, growing up, racism, family and grief, and are beautifully written,” she said.

Twin Crowns by Catherine Doyle and Katherine Webber.

Katherine Webber Tsang, author of the bestselling Twin Crowns YA fantasy series, along with her co-writer (and sister-in-law) Catherine Doyle, said she has both adult and teenage fans. “I like to say that the Twin Crowns series is for everyone aged 13 and up,” she said. “At a recent signing, a mother and her teen daughter said they both love reading the Twin Crowns books and that the series had brought them closer, which was so lovely to hear!”

According to HarperCollins’ report, the association between reading for pleasure and wellbeing is reflected in the growing popularity of young adult books, “with readers of all ages increasingly turning to YA as a source of comfort, nostalgia and self-care”.

Literary travel blogger Julia Mitchell said reading has “frequently given [her] the strength to keep on going when life is difficult.

“Young adult literature helps with this in particular”, added the 29-year-old. “I find these stories easy to immerse myself in and there’s much to learn, even though the characters are younger than me.”

Jones thinks there are two reasons why YA could be classed as “self-care”. The first is that it is “often more accessible than a lot of adult fiction due to being written specifically for slightly younger readers, so reading for pleasure when you’re tired or stressed becomes less taxing.” The second is that “YA books are often heavily plot-driven, so as a form of escapism they’re perfect”.

The research also showed that 29% of 14- to 25-year-olds “strongly think of themselves as a reader”, with many of these young people choosing to build an identity around books online, on platforms such as TikTok and Instagram. Of the young people surveyed who answered “very true” to the statement “I think of myself as a reader” 40% described themselves as “very happy”. In contrast, 21% of those who did not think of themselves as readers described themselves as “very happy”.

Alison David, consumer insight director at HarperCollins, said the research “suggests wellbeing comes from more than the act of reading (relaxation, escapism, the content itself). The psychology of being a reader is enormously powerful.”

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Katherine Webber Tsang.

Webber Tsang said she has noticed that it has become more “cool” for young people to call themselves a reader. “I think the fact that readers have so many opportunities to connect with each other online, and to attend events where they can meet each other and also the authors, means that they are more likely to feel proud of being a reader,” she said.

Although most of the young people surveyed said they recognised and experienced the benefits of reading, the research showed that only 16% of 14-25s read daily or nearly every day for pleasure. Boys between the ages of 14 and 17 were more likely to be disengaged from reading, with 38% saying they rarely or never read for pleasure. Over half of both boys (55%) and girls (63%) said they had too much schoolwork to read books for fun. Cally Poplak, managing director of HarperCollins Children’s Books and Farshore, noted that while it is “really encouraging” to see that young people have a positive attitude towards books, “the vast majority of young people are not reading every day.

“How do we tackle this contradiction that today’s young people, who are already being referred to as the ‘anxious generation’ know reading is good for them, but still aren’t picking up books?” she added.

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Advertisement

high school class

Positive climate boosts high school grades, study finds

The UCR study also found that a strong sense of ethnic identity contributed to better self-esteem

books articles research

A study led by a UC Riverside graduate student has found that Latino high school students achieve higher grades when they perceive a more positive school climate and when they have a stronger sense of self-esteem.

Jaqueline Digher

Published in the Journal of Hispanic Higher Education, the study also found that a strong sense of ethnic identity contributed to better self-esteem. It suggests that supportive and inclusive school environments contribute to academic success.

“There's kind of a domino effect of climate having a predictive effect on self-esteem, and self-esteem then influencing grade point average,” said Jaqueline Dighero , the lead author of the study and a doctoral candidate in UCR’s School of Education.

The researchers found a statistically significant increase in grades when students felt good about the school environment and had a better sense of self-esteem. For instance, a C+ student could go up to a B-.

The study was based on detailed surveys of 300 Latino 9th- and 10th-grade students attending a public high school in Southern California and an examination of the participants’ grade transcripts.

The study recommends that schools address institutional and individual factors to improve the educational experiences of Latino students and hence improve school climate and academic success.

Schools should foster supportive and inclusive environments that promote students’ emotional well-being and academic engagement; provide opportunities for students to explore and celebrate their ethnic identities; work to reduce biases and ensure equitable treatment of minoritized students; and address systemic barriers to their academic success, the authors assert.

Dighero said institutional barriers include teaching and administrative staff who are mostly white and Eurocentric curriculums that give advantages to white students from upper-class backgrounds. School districts should recruit more minority staff, and teachers should receive training to make their lessons more culturally relevant to their students, such as lessons on Chicano, Black, and Asian American history, art, and literature, they said.

class

“Inclusion training isn’t necessarily happening in K-12 education,” Dighero said. “It is more of a thing at the university level. Some teachers may say, ‘Oh, but I don't know how to be inclusive. I don't know how to include curricula from different backgrounds.’”

More inclusive curricula also benefit low-income white students because standard white English is based on the language of upper-middle-class and elite white families, Dighero said.

“It is not necessarily how white folks with low-income backgrounds also speak. Exclusive curriculums are not only affecting racially and ethnically marginalized people but also poor white students,” Dighero said.

Dighero also encourages school field trips to cultural centers and museums, such as the Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture in Riverside.

Dighero’s paper is titled “Predicting Academic Success Using a Critical Approach: The Impact of Campus Climate, Ethnic Identity, and Self-Esteem Among Latinx High School Students.” It is co-authored by Ilene N. Cruz, a master’s degree candidate, and Gabriela Chavira, a psychology professor, both at Cal State Northridge.

(Header photo/Getty Images)

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Book cover, Climate Anxiety and the Kid Question by Jade S. Sasser, associate professor at UC Riverside. (Photo Courtesy of Jade S. Sasser)

BOOKS: ‘Climate Anxiety and the Kid Question’

Book bans, threats and cancellations: Asian American authors face growing challenges

Book banning attempts have reached record highs in recent years.

Samira Ahmed, an author of young adult and middle-grade literature, never expected to hire security for events, travel under an alias or face cancellations at schools and libraries.

Ahmed told ABC News she faces threats and book bans over her novels – including “Internment” and “Hollow Fires” – which have caused a firestorm of criticism for tackling complex issues about race, oppression and politics.

“People are afraid of what might be said if my books are being taught,” said Ahmed. “My books deal with issues of race and Islamophobia and adults making terrible decisions that they impose on children.”

PHOTO: Author Samira Ahmed said she writes her stories for a younger version of herself, who did not see herself represented in literature.

Titles highlighting Asian American cultures have been targets among the long and growing inventory of books singled out by critics, prompting concerns about representation in literature.

Book-banning efforts have been on the rise in recent years , putting pressure on authors, librarians and educators.

The American Library Association recorded 4,240 unique book titles that were targeted for removal or restriction in schools and libraries across the U.S. in 2023, topping the previous record of 2,571 unique titles in 2022.

About 47% of the titles targeted were by or about the LGBTQ community and/or people of color, the new data showed.

“They're saying to young people, ‘stories of people who look like you don't deserve a space on our shelf, they are not worthy,’” said Ahmed. “It's identity erasure, and so it's obviously disheartening, but it's also really infuriating.”

MORE: Books allegedly tossed in the trash at NYC school sparks investigation

PHOTO: Author Samira Ahmed said she's faced event cancellations, book banning attempts and more because of controversy surrounding her books.

Critics have called for the removal of books like Ahmed’s, Grace Lin’s “A Big Mooncake for Little Star” and Hena Khan’s “Under My Hijab.”

Advocates for restrictions against certain books, including groups like Moms For Liberty, argue that they weed inappropriate or "objectionable" content -- including violence, sexual conduct or anti-American sentiment -- out of classrooms to protect children.

Some say libraries and educators have begun to “soft ban” these books as well, declining to order the books to avoid controversy in the future.

When Lin found her book on a list of “objectionable materials” to be removed by a local district school board, she was stumped.

The story is inspired by her daughter, who ate many moon cakes at a Moon Festival celebration and got really upset when the moon cakes were all gone: “That became the inspiration for ‘A Big Moon Cake For Little Star,’ which is simply about a girl who cannot resist eating a moon cake – a very, very big moon cake.”

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She continued, “The only political statement that it makes is that the main character is Asian … To realize that there are people, fellow citizens, who believe that we should not be the heroes in stories is very, very disheartening.”

PHOTO: Grace Lin attends The 67th National Book Awards Ceremony & Benefit Dinner, Nov. 16, 2016, in New York. Lin's “A Big Mooncake for Little Star,” a children's book about mooncakes, appeared on a list of alleged objectionable material.

Khan's "Under My Hijab" is a picture book that captures a young girl admiring the women in her life who wear hijabs and answering questions about how and why women wear them. It also is intended to "showcase the women and girls who do wear it is just as accomplished and professional and athletic and outdoorsy, and capable of doing anything."

Khan, who is on the board of the nonprofit advocacy group We Need Diverse Books, said that it's disheartening to celebrate an increase in diverse voices at the same time as pushback against these voices appears to be increasing.

Representation for people of color has been steady over the years – books for children and teens that have Asian representation are up from an estimated 2.9% in 2002 to 11.7% in 2023, according to research by the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Cooperative Children’s Book Center.

Growing efforts to restrict books from libraries and schools threaten this progress, authors say.

"It does ultimately harm the kids that these books are intended for, and all children who really should have the freedom to read anything they want," Khan said. "It's unfortunate that the cries of a few, you know, a small minority is taking away the rights of the rest of us to read widely and freely."

MORE: School culture wars push students to form banned book clubs, anti-censorship groups

PHOTO: Author Hena Khan doubles as an advocate for diversity in children's and young adult literature.

When Lin published her first book in the 1990s she was immediately thrust into the “diverse author” role for writing about her family and her experiences as a Taiwanese-American.

“I really embraced it as more and more people and families came up to me and said: ‘I've looked so long to find a book just like you made right here. I've looked so long to find a book that has a child in it that looks like my child.’”

Ahmed wrote a new story called “This Book Won’t Burn” to confront the realities of what it means to restrict books that center on people of color, she says. She said she writes her stories for a younger version of herself, hoping to offer young adults a story about what they might be feeling or experiencing in their lives – offering them the language to help them understand these issues and help them feel less alone.

PHOTO: Samira Ahmed

“When you're saying 500 books have to be pulled from the shelves because of ‘content’ – when that content is merely the existence of say, a queer character, or a black or brown or indigenous character – that’s saying that our identities are controversial,” said Ahmed.

“Our identities are absolutely not controversial,” Ahmed said. “We exist in this world. And we have a right for our stories to be heard.”

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Chemical Communications

Uncovering tetrazoles as building blocks for constructing discrete and polymeric assemblies.

Metal-organic self-assembly with flexible moieties is a budding field of research due to the possibility of the formation of unique architectures. Tetrazole, characterised by four nitrogen atoms in a five-member ring, exhibits immense potential as a component. Tetrazole offers four coordination sites for binding to the metal centre with nine distinct binding modes, leading to various assemblies. This review highlights different polymeric and discrete tetrazole-based assemblies and their functions. The meticulous manipulation of stoichiometry, ligands, and metal ions required for constructing discrete assemblies has also been discussed. The different applications of these architectures in separation, catalysis and detection have also been accentuated. The latter section of the review consolidates tetrazole-based cage composites, highlighting their applications in cell imaging and photocatalytic applications.

  • This article is part of the themed collection: CC 60th Anniversary Authors Collection

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S. Dey, M. Aggarwal, D. Chakraborty and P. S. Mukherjee, Chem. Commun. , 2024, Accepted Manuscript , DOI: 10.1039/D4CC01616E

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  29. Uncovering tetrazoles as building blocks for ...

    Metal-organic self-assembly with flexible moieties is a budding field of research due to the possibility of the formation of unique architectures. Tetrazole, characterised by four nitrogen atoms in a five-member ring, exhibits immense potential as a component. Tetrazole offers four coordination sites for bin CC 60th Anniversary Authors Collection