Literature Reviews

How to Write an Effective Literature Review

Sonia Mart´ ınez

Associate Professor Mechanical and Aerospace Enginering University of California, San Diego soniamd@ucsd.edu

IDEA Student Center and Gordon Leadership Center Grad Talk Main source: “Literature Review” from the Asian Inst. of Technology

What is a Literature Review? Types of Literature Review sources Context of a Literature Review Questions that a LR should answer A bad example of a Lit

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What is a Literature Review? Types of Literature Review sources Context of a Literature Review Questions that a LR should answer A bad example of a Literature Review A good example of a Literature Review Summary References

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What is a Literature Review? Types of Literature Review sources Context of a Literature Review Questions that a LR should answer A bad example of a Lit

What is a Literature Review?

It is a critical description of the literature relevant to a particular research A Literature Review (LR) should never be just a list of previous work contain the works that you consulted in order to develop your research provide justification/background for the research undertaken:

– The LR guides the reader to understanding the contribution of the work by pointing out the shortcomings/gaps of the state of the art – If you leave this task to the reader, your paper may be rejected

What is a Literature Review? Types of Literature Review sources Context of a Literature Review Questions that a LR should answer A bad example of a Lit

Types of Literature Review sources

Journal articles (surveys, research papers). Provide technical up-to-date information (last 2 years) about a research topic. Books. Recent research monographs can be useful in your literature review. Do not include citations of textbooks not in your LR, but you can use them in later sections of your paper. Conference proceedings. They provide information about the latest/unpublished research....