A literature review (also known as a review article) provides readers with an up-to-date and comprehensive survey of research within a clearly laid-out topic area (Penrose and Katz 1998). Because thousands of research articles are published every month — even within the primary literature which is the focus of most literature reviews — the topic of a review must be tightly focused or the task of gathering, organizing and summarizing information becomes unmanageable.
Emphasis in a literature review is generally on the results of research rather than the opinions of the authors (Penrose and Katz 1998). But a review should do more than simply summarize what has been found, it should summarize trends in research, illustrate patterns across or conflicts between related studies, and suggest directions for future research (Penrose and Katz 1998). Note that the emphasis is not on critiquing individual papers, but surveying the field as a whole.
No standard format is available for literature reviews, but Penrose and Katz (1998) suggest the following general approach:
Introduction setting out the topic and its importance, and previewing how the review will be organized.
Main body summarizing all relevant papers, and organized to reflect natural subtopics within the review topic. One common way of organizing information is chronologically, but it is generally better to emphasize recent research directions (Penrose and Katz 1998).
Summary conclusion reiterating the major trends and directions for the future.
Tables can also help organize information within a review. They can be used by the writer to help sort and group papers which relate to one another, and can also be included in the final review to help readers quickly see the same patterns.