This is a learning module that is part of a decision based learning app

1. LITERATURE REVIEWS:
PURPOSE & PRODUCTS

2. Definition:
• Literature Review:
• There are several types of literature reviews and each has specific purposes
and end productsa
• For the present purposes, we will consider two major divisions:
• Those that introduce or frame some original research to be presented
• Those that only collect and summarize or analyze the body of existing literature
a For more information see Grant & Booth, “A typology of reviews: An analysis of 14 review types and associated
methodologies,” Health Information and Libraries Journal, 26 (2009).

3. Four Common Products of Summarizing Reviews:
• Comprehensive Assessment of Knowledge Domain:
• Takes an exhaustive look at the literature
• Quantitative/Qualitative Assessment of Current Research:
• May use sampling techniques to look at a representative subset of the
literature, or may use a complete set of the literature
• Summary of other Reviews:
• This looks only at reviews and synthesizes multiple reviews together to
reduce large amounts of information to a more digestible amount
• Critical Review:
• Looks at the most influential sources in the domain
The intent of the review and its end product dictates how comprehensive the literature review should be

4. When to Stop Your Literature Review:
There are no hard and fast rules for when to stop your review but
consider the following:
• When the review seeks a comprehensive assessment:
• The review should progress until all sources are found that meet search
criteria; further criteria may be applied to determine which of the sources will
influence findings
• When the review seeks to identify significant contributions:
• The review should progress at least until all highly cited items are identified
• When the review seeks to frame new research:
• The review should progress until all key issues influencing the new research
are represented in their best light
• One rule of thumb is when themes begin repeating in the literature, you have
effectively represented the breadth of the knowledge domain

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