This document provides guidance on conducting a literature review. It discusses the goals of a literature review such as answering research questions and identifying knowledge gaps. The document recommends formulating objectives and hypotheses before searching literature databases. It provides tips for searching databases like Web of Science and Scopus as well as organizing and evaluating search results. Examples of literature review structure and potential questions for a review on MOF fiber preparation are also presented.

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Prof. Bulat Kenessov

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Questions
• Why is a literature research needed
• What difficulties do you have when doing a literature
research

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Goals of a literature research
• To answer specific research questions
• To check hypotheses
• Learn something
• Find problems and knowledge gaps

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Recommendations
• Try not to start experiments before doing a literature
research
• In most cases, literature research will provide answers
to available questions
• There is a huge amount of information in a scientific
literature

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Process
• Formulate goal, questions and hypotheses
• Make a search of literature sources
• Systematize collected sources and information
• Critically evaluate each source
• Write a review, formulate conclusions

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Examples of questions
for literature research
• What are the advantages of SPME fibers based on MOFs?
• What methods can be used to prepare MOF-based fibers?
• What methods are simplest?
• What methods allow preparing best MOF-based fibers?
• What are the known problems of preparing MOF-
based fibers? How can these problems be solved?

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Structure
• Importance of a wide field/topic
• Importance of a narrow field/topic
• Available knowledge in a narrow field
• Problems and knowledge gaps in a narrow field
• Conclusions and goal statement for experimental
research

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Sources
• Research articles and reviews
• Books
• Patents
• Conference proceedings
• Other sources

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Literature search
• Databases
Web of Science
Scopus
SciFinder (CAS)
• Libraries and other databases of literature

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Web of Science
(webofscience.com)
• One of the oldest databases (since 1997)
• Have most reliable indexes (SCIE, SSCI, AHCI)
• Allows searching in patents (Derwent Innovations Index)
• Used for calculation of Journal Impact Factor (JIF)
• National subscription is active in Kazakhstan

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Web of Science

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Most important search methods
• Topic or title
• Author(s)
• Organization(s)
• Cited references or citations

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WoS search results

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Scopus
(scopus.com)
• Good alternative to Web of Science
• Almost same search tools
• Dubious journals can be difficult to identify
• National subscription is active in Kazakhstan

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Scopus

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Scopus search results

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SciFinder
(scifinder.cas.org)
• Largest database for chemistry
• Contains database of chemical reactions and properties
• No subscription in Kazakhstan and KazNU
• Members of American Chemical Society have access

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Google Scholar
(scholar.google.com)
• Free database
• Simple interface
• Quick search
• Very large coverage

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Google Scholar

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Directory of Open Access Journals
(doaj.org)
• Free database
• Only open access journals are indexed

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Recommendations for searching
• Find one article very close to your topic of study
• Read only titles and abstracts
• Immediately save found sources (use Mendeley)
• Do only searching at this stage
• Spend at least 2-3 days for search only

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Work with a collected sources
• Separate sources
On importance
On topics and questions
• Read all abstracts, look at figures
• Read only most valuable articles, make sure you
understand them correctly

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Mendeley
• Free reference manager
• Saving results of searching sources
• Structuring documents
• Quick addition and analysis of your comments
• Automatic formatting and generation of lists of
references
www.mendeley.com

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Optimal sequence for reading article
• Title and abstract
• Figures
• Conclusion
• Results and discussion
• Experimental part and Introduction (if required)

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Recommendations
• Do not leave important things unclear
• Look for variables (use figures)
• Check the evidences for each statement
• Immediately add important information to the table

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Table with important information
Conclusion Argument(s)
Strength of
arguments
(1-5 scale)
Problems
Nitrogen dioxide is the most
dangerous ambient air pollutant
in Almaty
Ratio of NO2
concentration to the
threshold value is the
highest
3
Threshold values
are not best
indicators of toxicity
Lifetime of benzene in ambient
air is 7 days
Plot of benzene
concentration in ambient
air over time
5
Reproduced by
many scientists
Optimum temperature of
benzene hydrogenation is 70
degrees C
Plot “reaction yield = f
(reaction temperature)”
3
1) Only for Pt
catalysts;
2) Only for 10 bar
pressure
Extraction time 30 min provides
highest sensitivity of phenol
detection in water by SPME-GC-
MS
Plot peak area = f (extr
time); increase of ex time
over 30 min does not lead
to the increase of a
reponse
4
S/N is better
indicator than peak
area

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Tables with comparison
(methods, technologies, products)

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Literature review
Importance of a wide field (big problem)
Existing problems of the narrow field
Possible solutions of the narrow problem(s)
Conclusion and the goal of study
Existing solutions of the big problem
Problems of existing solutions
Attempts of solving these problems

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Example 1
• Air pollution in Almaty results in major losses
• The problem exists because of inefficient decisions
• Inefficient decisions are caused by the lack of data
• Air analysis is very expensive and cannot be afforded
• Analysis of VOC by standard methods is most expensive

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Example 1 (continued)
• There are following alternatives to stand. methods: …
• The best alternative is SPME because …
• The problem of SPME is poor accuracy (VS stand. meth.)
• There are following approaches to improve accuracy: …
• Accuracy can be improved by … because …
• The goal of our study was to test this hypothesis

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Example 2
• Baikonur cosmodrome is important for the country
• The fuel used in rockets is highly toxic
• The population is concerned about possible health risks
• The health risk values are not available
• The exact risk values have to be established

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Example 2 (continued)
• There is a methodology, which can be used for risk
assessment because …
• The methodology requires monitoring pollutants in …
• The analytical methods are available for the pollutants
• This study is aimed at estimating risks

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Useful videos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ews2LPOY1s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VE3ADZvoUY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCu-obYMFsE

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Activate remote access to WoS
• Register your account at webofscience.com
• Log in from PC with an access to WoS (e.g., connected
to KazNU network)
For Scopus, institutional e-mail is needed (@kaznu.kz or
@edu.kaznu.kz)

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