literature review latex

LaTeX Ninja'ing and the Digital Humanities

The verb "to ninja" means "to act or move like a ninja, particularly with regard to a combination of speed, power, and stealth." latex adventures, demystifying digital tools for humanists, one tutorial at a time., preparing your literature review and excerpting: my workflow in latex.

It’s Halloween and while for me, this is a holiday which usually pretty much passed me by unnoticed, I know that many of you probably care and celebrate. So I thought: What topics in Academia or academic writing especially are spooky? The honest anwer is probably: Way too many. But one stood out in particular and that’s the dreaded part of the writing process which lends itself to procrastination like no other: The literature review and excerpting process. Without it, not a lot of writing can happen (except maybe if you start working on a case study or use our Article Outline Template to sharpen your argument). So anyway, I thought this counts as a sufficiently scary activity for Halloween 😉

Info: I think I might end up not having proper code formatting in this post. Sorry for the inconvenience but it seems that the backtick on my keyboard is broken and WordPress has long since removed the keyboard shortcut for formatting something as code (why did you do that to me?).

How do you do your literature review and excerpting?

The actual reason I had this post in the pipeline already is this: Recently I was asked by my friend the LaTeX Noob how I prepare my literature review and excerpt literature more generally. Did I use something like Citavi? Absolutely not! I don’t even know what that would look like, to be perfectly honest. All my writing process happens in simple plain LaTeX documents. I don’t personally believe in fancy-schmancy writing suites like they seem to have become popular (for example Scrivener ). I get the idea, it’s supposed to bring order into the mess. But honestly, how better to create order than by simplifying? And what’s simpler than a plain text document? My personal favourite academic writing software is and will always be LaTeX! But I now realize it doesn’t seem to be obvious to everybody how you can use LaTeX for every single step of the process. So let me give you a glimpse into my personal workflow. Whether something like that would work for you is a different question and I’m sure other people have different workflows entirely (let me know in the comments, I would love to know!).

Creating a set of quotes

I usually start a plain .tex file for each article I’m trying to write. There I copy or type down quotes from literature I’m using or digesting for this piece of writing. This document will usually contain more literature than I actually end up using. I also copy down stuff I find accidentally which I deem potentially useful for a future publication even when it’s not needed for now. I make sure to put all direct quotes into quote enviroments, so I don’t get confused who wrote what (was that me summarizing the content of the article or is this a direct quote?). I put it in the exact format I will be needing in the final article. I make sure to give a cite key even when I haven’t made a proper bib file yet (see subheading below on that topic). And I make sure to quote the exact range of pages or page the quote is from. I also make sure to give a heading or subsection title to each quote, so I can find them again quickly in my file contents outline (for exampe in TeXMaker or Overleaf). This section or subsection is usually one common theme or even named after a subsection of my future article, so I already know where I will likely need it. The subsection is a title of the pubication or the main argument this can be used to back up.

This is what it can lool like:

Usually, I work with this only in a .tex file. But if I find myself with lots of quotes but don’t already have a clear picture where I’m going with in the article or section I will be writing, I copy this text material (which doesn’t have proper LaTeX document structure of its own!) into a real LaTeX document (with \begin{document} and all), compile it as a PDF and print it out to read it again, so I can decide if I actually want or need this material in my article.

Curating a master cites document

Another thing I came up with for myself is to have a document which I call the “footcites” document because it’s just a `.tex` document which consists of a collection of footcites I often use. Whenever I create a new footcites which I think I might want to reuse in a later publication to quickly back up sth with a citation without actually discussing it much, I add it to this list.

Let me give you an example to see what such cites look like. Like I said, this is basically so I have some quick citations to back up sth or to give background on a topic for which I’m not intending to go into detail any further:

Those can be much longer, include page numbers if it’s to back up a more narrow detail argument, etc. But you get the gist. Just collections of what to cite for which topic. Since this footcites doc has become pretty large already, they are – of course – ordered by means of sections and subsections so I can quickly find the cites I need. Another advantage to having a pile of papers cluttering your room is also that this file is searchable. So even if my headings system fails me, I can usually still find citations quickly without having to think much about which papers were the most important ones to cite on a particular topic.

For the sake of completeness, I just wanted to add that I do use some printed out documents. Especially for some articles I want to reflect on deeply, I need to print them out and read them offline. This not only reduces potential distractions and screen time, it’s also essential for me to think clearly and actually take in and digest the arguments of a paper. I use different colour highlighters (pastel ones usually) and a pen to make notes on the paper and note down the main arguments of the paper (main topic, hypthesis, main argument, conclusion) along with my own reservations about it, if there are any. This analogue reading process can happen in the evenings when I don’t want to use screens anymore or in the early mornings. Or even at a café (it activates diffuse mode thinking which can be essential for creativity!)

Don’t forget to summarise the most important of those new references into the „cites“ document to have them available for quick citing in the style of „on topic XY, see..“ later (see workflow below in the following subsection).

Making sure everything’s cited and creating the bibliography

Some people excerpt on paper but there are multiple reasons why I wouldn’t recommend that: Mostly the fact that I’ve seen many people forget what the page was they were excerting from or not taking down proper notes on the bibliographical reference and then your excerpt is practically useless (or at least requires lots of extra work if you manage to find the page again). I’m also afraid I might produce accidental plagiarism when excerpting. Making a document with all my quoted text passages in quote environments ensures that I have a record of what exactly the original wording of the passages I used was. Thus I’m in less danger of accidentally plagiarizing without being aware of it. Also, everything is already cited so there’s no immediate danger of not knowing where your quotes came from.

But this means you need some self-discipline to always copy down the citiation and decide on a cite key while making this excerpt. I only sometimes create the .bib files at this stage. Usually I just copy down the information to be cited into a new .bib file without formatting (just copy from the metadata page of a publication as is) and then come back later to put them all neatly into their little bib items. This can take a long time if you have lots of new literature but can be done while you’re watching TV. I usually have my typical bib entries prepared in a way which allows for quick copy and paste. I keep this document from which I copy+paste the entry which is needed and then use copy+paste to fill it in.

I don’t usually approve of auto-downloading stuff as bib files. I find that the resulting bib entries tend to be very irregular if they come out alright at all. I prefer to do this by hand and so I have full control over the data consistency of my bib library. If you know of any really good foolproof way to auto-download bibs in a satisfactory manner, please let me know!

These are the prepared bib items I use:

Working with plain text documents might feel weird and chaotic at first

I get it, working with plain text documents might seem daunting at first. But that’s probably because you aren’t used to it. Ultimately, I find that plain text just takes away all the clutter. You really don’t need more than plain text and a simple but sturdy system. For me personally, that’s the one I have just shown to you. I also love the fact that I can put information into the comments and thus, keep some thoughts I think worthy of not throwing out just yet. But nobody sees them! (Ok, let’s be honest, this means I can never share my academic writing .tex files with anybody because some of those comments can be… angry 😉 )

But honestly, once you get used to working in a WYSIWYM editor (as opposed to the WYSIWYG editors like MS Word), it’s not a big deal. I actually sometimes get in trouble with the LaTeX compiler because I’m so used to the LaTeX environent as a my writing environment that I hardly ever compile. Then I realize I have introduced an error some time hours or even days ago and no clue where to go looking for it… Maybe don’t copy that part of my process 😉

Post-production: Submitting your text to a journal (possibly not in LaTeX format)

After the writing is done, for journal or conference proceedings which don’t allow or even ask for LaTeX submission (had this for the first time this year with two of my publications and absolutely loved not having the extra work of converting to MS Word! – Cheers to HistoCrypt and CHR !), I usually convert to MS Word using Pandoc .

In order for this to be possible without big danger of losing info, I make sure to use LaTeX as software for WRITING only, not for typesetting. No special effects please. They will likely get lost in the pandoc transformation ( learn how I do it here ). Also, you might have to reformat the bibliography. But I think, overall, this works well for me. It means I have all my writing in LaTeX format, I have all the bibliography in the format I need and can reuse without any extra work in monograph projects.

This might not seem like the best possible approach to you but I like it that way and you do get used to it. Until I had figured out this process, it seemed like a chore. But once you have done it multiple times, it really isn’t a big deal anymore. I hope this helped someone (especially maybe people who aren’t just to working in LaTeX and wonder what it would look like to have your whole writing workflow in LaTeX).

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Latex template and python code for generating nice literature review documents

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  • CAREER FEATURE
  • 04 December 2020
  • Correction 09 December 2020

How to write a superb literature review

Andy Tay is a freelance writer based in Singapore.

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Literature reviews are important resources for scientists. They provide historical context for a field while offering opinions on its future trajectory. Creating them can provide inspiration for one’s own research, as well as some practice in writing. But few scientists are trained in how to write a review — or in what constitutes an excellent one. Even picking the appropriate software to use can be an involved decision (see ‘Tools and techniques’). So Nature asked editors and working scientists with well-cited reviews for their tips.

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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-03422-x

Interviews have been edited for length and clarity.

Updates & Corrections

Correction 09 December 2020 : An earlier version of the tables in this article included some incorrect details about the programs Zotero, Endnote and Manubot. These have now been corrected.

Hsing, I.-M., Xu, Y. & Zhao, W. Electroanalysis 19 , 755–768 (2007).

Article   Google Scholar  

Ledesma, H. A. et al. Nature Nanotechnol. 14 , 645–657 (2019).

Article   PubMed   Google Scholar  

Brahlek, M., Koirala, N., Bansal, N. & Oh, S. Solid State Commun. 215–216 , 54–62 (2015).

Choi, Y. & Lee, S. Y. Nature Rev. Chem . https://doi.org/10.1038/s41570-020-00221-w (2020).

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How to Draw a Literature Survey Taxonomy Tree in Latex

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  • How to Draw a Literature Survey Taxonomy Tree in Latex

2 minute read

I was trying to draw a taxonomy like tree where the child nodes are aligned to the right rather than bottom. It is for drawing a literature survey alike tree, which looks like following:

literature-survey-tree-taxonomy-in-latex

To draw a taxonomy tree like this, first, we need the following packages:

Now, here’s the code that produces this output. You can also check out the output in this overleaf project .

There are a few node styles defined earlier in the code. However, I am using only the basic , xnode, and tnode styles. you can change the designs of the node by changing the parameters like align , fill , etc.

Then under the \begin{forest}...\end{forest} environment, all you need to do is create a python list-alike array of contents, where you put child nodes as a nested list.

You can also check out my other post: Draw a Taxonomy Tree in Latex using Tikz for Publication .

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

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.

Literature review guide

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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.

Open Google Slides Download PowerPoint

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

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

Research bias

  • Optimism bias
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  • 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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McCombes, S. (2023, September 11). How to Write a Literature Review | Guide, Examples, & Templates. Scribbr. Retrieved February 22, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/dissertation/literature-review/

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LaTeX forum ⇒ Graphics, Figures & Tables ⇒ Literature review table Topic is solved

Literature review table.

Post by ujjwal_11138 » Sun Mar 28, 2021 9:35 pm

User avatar

Post by Stefan Kottwitz » Mon Mar 29, 2021 6:05 am

Literature review table   Topic is solved

Post by ujjwal_11138 » Mon Mar 29, 2021 6:20 pm

Post by rajirazee » Tue Jul 27, 2021 1:26 am

Post by rajirazee » Tue Jul 27, 2021 1:27 am

ujjwal_11138 wrote: literature review.JPG How can I make this table in latex beamer? please help

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Grad Coach (R)

What’s Included: Literature Review Template

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

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

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

The cleanly-formatted Google Doc can be downloaded as a fully editable MS Word Document (DOCX format), so you can use it as-is or convert it to LaTeX.

PS – if you’d like a high-level template for the entire thesis, you can we’ve got that too .

FAQs: Literature Review Template

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What structural style does this literature review template use?

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

Does this template include the Excel literature catalog?

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

How long should the literature review chapter be?

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

Can I include literature that contradicts my hypothesis?

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

How do I avoid plagiarism in my literature review?

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

Do you have an example of a populated template?

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

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

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

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

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

Can Grad Coach help me with my literature review?

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

Free Webinar: Literature Review 101

RevTeX 4.2 Template and Sample

Template for American Physical Society (APS) and American Institute of Physics (AIP) journals, including Physical Review Letters, Physical Review A-E, Physical Review X, Reviews of Modern Physics, Applied Phyiscs Letters, using the ReVTeX 4.2 document class .

RevTeX 4.2 Template and Sample

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Duke University Libraries

Literature Reviews

  • Getting started

What is a literature review?

Why conduct a literature review, stages of a literature review, lit reviews: an overview (video), check out these books.

  • Types of reviews
  • 1. Define your research question
  • 2. Plan your search
  • 3. Search the literature
  • 4. Organize your results
  • 5. Synthesize your findings
  • 6. Write the review
  • Thompson Writing Studio This link opens in a new window
  • Need to write a systematic review? This link opens in a new window

literature review latex

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literature review latex

Definition: A literature review is a systematic examination and synthesis of existing scholarly research on a specific topic or subject.

Purpose: It serves to provide a comprehensive overview of the current state of knowledge within a particular field.

Analysis: Involves critically evaluating and summarizing key findings, methodologies, and debates found in academic literature.

Identifying Gaps: Aims to pinpoint areas where there is a lack of research or unresolved questions, highlighting opportunities for further investigation.

Contextualization: Enables researchers to understand how their work fits into the broader academic conversation and contributes to the existing body of knowledge.

literature review latex

tl;dr  A literature review critically examines and synthesizes existing scholarly research and publications on a specific topic to provide a comprehensive understanding of the current state of knowledge in the field.

What is a literature review NOT?

❌ An annotated bibliography

❌ Original research

❌ A summary

❌ Something to be conducted at the end of your research

❌ An opinion piece

❌ A chronological compilation of studies

The reason for conducting a literature review is to:

literature review latex

Literature Reviews: An Overview for Graduate Students

While this 9-minute video from NCSU is geared toward graduate students, it is useful for anyone conducting a literature review.

literature review latex

Writing the literature review: A practical guide

Available 3rd floor of Perkins

literature review latex

Writing literature reviews: A guide for students of the social and behavioral sciences

Available online!

literature review latex

So, you have to write a literature review: A guided workbook for engineers

literature review latex

Telling a research story: Writing a literature review

literature review latex

The literature review: Six steps to success

literature review latex

Systematic approaches to a successful literature review

Request from Duke Medical Center Library

literature review latex

Doing a systematic review: A student's guide

  • Next: Types of reviews >>
  • Last Updated: Feb 15, 2024 1:45 PM
  • URL: https://guides.library.duke.edu/lit-reviews

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Literature Review: Conducting & Writing

  • Sample Literature Reviews
  • Steps for Conducting a Lit Review
  • Finding "The Literature"
  • Organizing/Writing
  • Chicago: Notes Bibliography

Sample Lit Reviews from Communication Arts

Have an exemplary literature review.

  • Literature Review Sample 1
  • Literature Review Sample 2
  • Literature Review Sample 3

Have you written a stellar literature review you care to share for teaching purposes?

Are you an instructor who has received an exemplary literature review and have permission from the student to post?

Please contact Britt McGowan at [email protected] for inclusion in this guide. All disciplines welcome and encouraged.

  • << Previous: MLA Style
  • Next: Get Help! >>
  • Last Updated: Jan 18, 2024 9:21 AM
  • URL: https://libguides.uwf.edu/litreview

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COMMENTS

  1. Literature Review Template

    A template latex file for keeping notes on literature reviews. Includes a glossary and biblatex integration

  2. Preparing your literature review and excerpting: My workflow in LaTeX

    How do you do your literature review and excerpting? The actual reason I had this post in the pipeline already is this: Recently I was asked by my friend the LaTeX Noob how I prepare my literature review and excerpt literature more generally. Did I use something like Citavi? Absolutely not!

  3. GitHub

    master README MIT license Latex Literature Review Template Literature review template in latex. This template is from my qualification exam proposal I wrote for my dissertation while a graduate student at UC Davis. I has been cut down in a few places, and some what extensively commented Files structure

  4. literature review table in beamer

    3 i am trying to create something like this - a literature summary review. I am quite new to latex and struggle quite a bit with tables. How can i create something similiar to the example? My table has 12 columns and 6 rows My environment \documentclass {beamer} % % Choose how your presentation looks.

  5. Bibliography management in LaTeX

    Introduction. When it comes to bibliography-management packages, there are three main options in LaTeX: bibtex, natbib and biblatex. This article explains how to use the biblatex package, to manage and format the bibliography in a LaTeX document.biblatex is a modern option for processing bibliography information, provides an easier and more flexible interface and a better language localization ...

  6. colelordmay/literature_review_template_latex

    This is a LaTeX template to put together large/maintainable literature review documents. I've included two examples from one of my lit review documents. I'm unsure of the legality here, so I picked two old papers. Normally I also have a subfolder "papers" with all of the pdfs included. Additionally included is the "sort.py" file.

  7. How to create classification taxonomies for Literature Review using Latex?

    How to create classification taxonomies for Literature Review using Latex? Ask Question Asked 8 years, 5 months ago Modified 8 years, 5 months ago Viewed 5k times 5 I have to make a literature review taxonomy for my final thesis, highlighting the salient features of each paper referred, its categories etc.

  8. How to Write a Scientific Journal Article Using Overleaf

    How I Use Overleaf for Academic Writing for Scientific Journal and Conference ArticlesI've been using Overleaf for 3 years now for all of my academic writing...

  9. How to Write Article Introduction and Literature Review in Latex

    Do you want to learn how to write an article introduction and literature review in Latex? Watch this video tutorial and follow the steps to create a professional and well-structured document using ...

  10. Literature Study report template

    Patricia Lago Last Updated 6 months ago License Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 Abstract This document represents the template of the final report structure for the course Literature Study at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands. It is based on the 'acmart proceedings template'.

  11. How to write a superb literature review

    The best proposals are timely and clearly explain why readers should pay attention to the proposed topic. It is not enough for a review to be a summary of the latest growth in the literature: the ...

  12. Template/class systemic literature review

    document classes - Template/class systemic literature review - TeX - LaTeX Stack Exchange Template/class systemic literature review Ask Question Asked 7 months ago Modified 7 months ago Viewed 185 times 0 I'm looking for a template (or a class) to write a systematic literature review in Public Health Sciences.

  13. Literature Review Writing and Introduction to Overleaf

    This video is a beginner's guide to writing reviews that are both critical and brilliant

  14. How to Draw a Literature Survey Taxonomy Tree in Latex

    In academic writing, a literature survey is an essential component for presenting a comprehensive review of a topic. A taxonomy tree can be used to visually represent the relationships between different papers, authors, and themes in the field. In this blog post, I will show how to draw a literature survey taxonomy tree in LaTeX, which is a powerful tool for typesetting high-quality scientific ...

  15. How to Write a Literature Review

    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 Step 3 Step 4 Step 5

  16. Literature review table

    Literature review table Board index LaTeX Graphics, Figures & Tables LaTeX forum ⇒ Graphics, Figures & Tables ⇒ Literature review table Topic is solved 5 posts • Page 1 of 1 ujjwal_11138 Posts: 4 Joined: Sun Mar 28, 2021 9:31 pm Literature review table Postby ujjwal_11138 » Sun Mar 28, 2021 9:35 pm literature review.JPG

  17. Free Literature Review Template (Word Doc & PDF)

    The core/body section The conclusion /summary Extra free resources Each section is explained in plain, straightforward language, followed by an overview of the key elements that you need to cover. We've also included practical examples and links to more free videos and guides to help you understand exactly what's required in each section.

  18. RevTeX 4.2 Template and Sample

    Abstract. Template for American Physical Society (APS) and American Institute of Physics (AIP) journals, including Physical Review Letters, Physical Review A-E, Physical Review X, Reviews of Modern Physics, Applied Phyiscs Letters, using the ReVTeX 4.2 document class.

  19. LaTeX Double reference Section for Systematic Literature Review

    1 I need to add an Appendix Section to my paper with the list of selected paper in my systematic literature review. I can create the reference Section but I am not able to create a section for the selected study. This is what I need to create: References [1] N.Surname, N.Surname. "paper 1" ... [2] N.Surname, N.Surname. "paper 2" ...

  20. Getting started

    What is a literature review? Definition: A literature review is a systematic examination and synthesis of existing scholarly research on a specific topic or subject. Purpose: It serves to provide a comprehensive overview of the current state of knowledge within a particular field. Analysis: Involves critically evaluating and summarizing key findings, methodologies, and debates found in ...

  21. PDF LITERATURE REVIEWS

    2. MOTIVATE YOUR RESEARCH in addition to providing useful information about your topic, your literature review must tell a story about how your project relates to existing literature. popular literature review narratives include: ¡ plugging a gap / filling a hole within an incomplete literature ¡ building a bridge between two "siloed" literatures, putting literatures "in conversation"

  22. literature review slide in beamer

    This is because citing in a slide is not a good practice. Nobody will go back and forth during your talk. If your slides will be read offline then still it causes disruption. Having a name and a year is sufficient. Then optionally you can have a bibliography at the end which beamer already supports. - percusse.

  23. Literature Review: Conducting & Writing

    Have you written a stellar literature review you care to share for teaching purposes? Are you an instructor who has received an exemplary literature review and have permission from the student to post? Please contact Britt McGowan at [email protected] for inclusion in this guide. All disciplines welcome and encouraged.

  24. tabu

    The .tex document is also available for everyone to see the actual code used. I will simply copy here two of the examples in the document using mainly just array, booktabs and dcolumn: \documentclass[a4,portrait,semrot]{seminar} \usepackage[T1]{fontenc} \usepackage[utf8]{inputenc} \usepackage[ngerman]{babel}