Literature Review - Step by Step Guide For Graduate Students | Prof. David Stuckler

Summary

Professor David Stuckler's video offers a comprehensive guide to conducting a literature review, emphasizing the importance of understanding the current state of knowledge in a field. He outlines a five-step process, starting with an initial search on Google Scholar, followed by the STRIP method for extracting key information. Stuckler then advises on developing a conceptual framework and using the PEER system for structured writing. Finally, he suggests writing the conclusion and introduction last, ensuring a clear, organized review that can pave the way for further research.

Takeaways

• 📚 A literature review is essential for graduate students, forming the foundation for research proposals, theses, and dissertations.
• 📝 The literature review offers a snapshot of key concepts and gaps in knowledge in a specific field, helping identify areas for contribution.
• 🔍 Start by diving into Google Scholar to identify and download the most relevant articles in your field as a foundation.
• ✂️ Use the 'strip method' to extract key information from each article, focusing on what the authors did, found, and suggested for future research.
• 🧠 Begin to develop a conceptual framework from the gathered articles, organizing studies based on common themes, debates, or chronological order.
• 📈 The 'snowball method' can help expand your research by chasing references from key studies to find more relevant papers.
• ✍️ When writing, use the PEER system for clear paragraph structure: Point, Example, Explain, and Repeat to support your main ideas.
• 🔗 Create a structured backbone for the review, summarizing each study’s main findings and organizing evidence in a logical framework.
• 🔚 Write the conclusion before the introduction, summarizing findings, discussing limitations, suggesting future research, and addressing policy implications.
• 🎯 Finally, craft an engaging introduction that explains the importance of the topic, highlights key gaps in knowledge, and introduces the structure of your review.

Q & A

What is the purpose of a literature review in academic research?

A literature review brings together key concepts, findings, and debates in a particular field of study. It provides a snapshot of the current state of knowledge and helps identify gaps, areas of debate, and potential areas for further contribution.

Why is it important to structure your literature review?

Structuring a literature review helps organize your findings, making it easier to compare and contrast different studies, highlight gaps in the literature, and present the current state of research in a coherent and logical way.

What is the first step to take when starting a literature review?

The first step is to dive straight in by conducting a search on Google Scholar or similar platforms. This will give you an overview of the key contributions in your field. You should download relevant papers and begin summarizing them in a document.

What is the 'strip method' mentioned in the video?

The 'strip method' involves going through each paper, pulling out key points, and organizing them in a document under each citation. This helps extract essential information about the findings, methodology, and relevance of each paper to your topic.

How can you start developing a conceptual framework for your literature review?

You can develop a conceptual framework by analyzing your findings and organizing the papers based on themes, such as studies that support a causal relationship versus those that do not. Chronological, thematic, or methodological approaches can help guide this process.

What is the 'snowball method' for expanding your literature search?

The 'snowball method' involves looking at the references in the papers you've already reviewed. By following the citations in key studies, you can discover additional relevant research to include in your literature review.

What is the PEER system and how is it used in academic writing?

The PEER system stands for Point, Example, Explain, Repeat. It is used to structure paragraphs in academic writing by first making a point, supporting it with examples, explaining the significance of the evidence, and reinforcing the main idea.

Why should you write the conclusion of your literature review before the introduction?

Writing the conclusion first allows you to summarize your findings and the gaps in the literature, which then provides a clearer direction for writing the introduction. The introduction requires more creativity and energy, so tackling it last can make the writing process more efficient.

What should be included in the conclusion of a literature review?

The conclusion should recapitulate your main findings, address limitations of the reviewed literature, suggest areas for future research, and, if applicable, provide implications for policy or practice based on the evidence presented.

How should you structure the introduction of a literature review?

The introduction should start with a paragraph explaining why the topic is important and why it is being discussed now. The second paragraph should highlight gaps or debates in the literature, and the third should explain what specific aspects the review will address to fill those gaps.

Outlines

00:00

🎓 Introduction to Literature Reviews

In this introductory paragraph, Professor David Stuckler explains the importance of doing a literature review correctly for graduate students. He contrasts the frustrations of doing it wrong with the ease and enjoyment of getting it right. The paragraph highlights how a well-executed literature review can pave the way for a successful research proposal, thesis, or PhD dissertation. Stuckler shares his extensive experience in publishing over 350 academic articles and mentoring graduate students. He promises to outline common pitfalls and share a secret tip to help viewers complete their literature review both efficiently and effectively.

05:00

📚 What is a Literature Review?

This paragraph compares a literature review to catching up with an old friend after many years, explaining that a literature review helps provide an overview of key concepts, debates, gaps in knowledge, and contributions in a specific research field. It acts as a snapshot of the current state of knowledge in that area, helping the researcher understand the field's landscape and identify where they can make contributions. The section sets the stage for a step-by-step guide to conducting a literature review.

10:01

🔍 Step 1: Dive into Google Scholar

The first step involves jumping into the research process by using Google Scholar to identify key papers in your field. Stuckler advises starting with a search for relevant topics, downloading 10-15 pertinent papers, and organizing them in a Word document. This initial research helps identify the most cited and influential studies, giving the researcher an overview of the topic. He emphasizes that the researcher should not overthink the initial stage and should instead start getting familiar with the content by reading and summarizing these papers.

15:03

✂️ Step 2: The Strip Method

In this step, Stuckler introduces the 'strip method,' which involves combing through downloaded papers and extracting key points and findings. The researcher should summarize what the authors did, what they found, and any significant quotes or contradictory evidence. This process helps organize information in a way that avoids plagiarism and provides a structure for further writing. The paragraph highlights the importance of identifying themes and organizing papers based on the type of evidence or argument they present.

📑 Step 3: Develop a Conceptual Framework

The third step focuses on creating a conceptual framework, which is the backbone of the literature review. Stuckler explains different ways to organize this framework, whether by chronology, themes, individual vs. population-level evidence, or problem-to-solution structure. He emphasizes that while there’s no one-size-fits-all approach, a researcher will naturally start seeing patterns as they strip out information from the papers. This structure helps guide the rest of the review process and shapes the analysis of the literature.

🔗 Step 4: Snowball Sampling and Final Search

This paragraph explains the 'snowball method,' where the researcher traces the references in the papers they’ve already read to find more relevant studies. This process helps expand the scope of the review by identifying additional papers that may be significant but weren’t caught in the initial Google Scholar search. Once the snowball method is complete, the researcher should have a comprehensive list of studies to work with and can move on to writing up the literature review.

📝 Step 5: The PEER Writing Structure

Stuckler introduces the PEER method for structuring paragraphs in academic writing: Point, Example, Explain, and Repeat. Each paragraph should start with a clear topic sentence (the Point), followed by evidence or examples to support that point. Next comes an explanation of why the evidence supports the point, and finally a reiteration or link back to the main argument. He uses the topic of inequality and health to demonstrate how this structure is applied, showing how to organize evidence and avoid confusion in the writing process.

📘 Writing the Conclusion and Introduction

This section discusses the proper order for writing the conclusion and introduction. Stuckler advises writing the conclusion first, summarizing key findings, addressing limitations, and suggesting future research or policy implications. The introduction, which is often the hardest part to write, should come last. It should capture the reader’s attention by explaining the significance of the review topic, identifying knowledge gaps, and presenting the research focus. Following this order prevents writer’s block and ensures a strong and cohesive literature review.

🚀 Final Thoughts and Invitation

In the concluding paragraph, Stuckler recaps the steps for conducting an effective literature review. He emphasizes that following the outlined process will save time and lead to a high-quality review. He also offers personal coaching through a one-on-one accelerator session for students who need extra help with their academic writing. His aim is to assist students in overcoming obstacles, unlocking their potential, and accelerating their academic careers.

Keywords

💡Literature Review

A literature review is a comprehensive summary of previous research on a topic. It aims to provide an overview of the current state of knowledge, including key concepts, areas of debate, and gaps in research. In the video, the literature review is likened to catching up with an old friend, where you get a sense of the current state of affairs. The script emphasizes that doing a literature review correctly can save time and set a strong foundation for further research.

💡Traps and Pitfalls

Traps and pitfalls refer to common mistakes or difficulties that one might encounter while conducting a literature review. The script warns about doing a literature review the wrong way, which can lead to headaches, frustration, and wasted time. It suggests avoiding these by following the steps outlined in the video.

💡Research Proposal

A research proposal is a plan for a research project, often required in academic settings. The video suggests that doing a literature review correctly can pave the way for a research proposal by providing a solid foundation of existing knowledge and identifying areas for further exploration.

💡Thesis

A thesis is a statement or theory that is put forward as a premise to be maintained or proven. The script implies that a well-conducted literature review is crucial for a successful thesis as it helps in establishing the context and gaps that the thesis aims to address.

💡PhD Dissertation

A PhD dissertation is a comprehensive academic paper that demonstrates the author's expertise in a field. The video mentions that the skills and strategies for a literature review are also applicable to writing a PhD dissertation, indicating the importance of this skill in advanced academic work.

💡Google Scholar

Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text or metadata of scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines. The script recommends using Google Scholar for the initial search in a literature review to get up to speed with the top papers and contributions in a field.

💡Systematic Review

A systematic review is a type of literature review that follows a rigorous methodology to locate, appraise, and synthesize all relevant research studies on a specific research question. The video differentiates between a literature review and a systematic review, noting that the latter requires different techniques.

💡Conceptual Framework

A conceptual framework in a literature review provides a structure or a skeleton to organize the findings. The script describes how different papers can be grouped based on whether they find evidence of a causal link or just an association, serving as an example of developing a conceptual framework.

💡Snowball Method

The snowball method is a technique used in research to find relevant literature by following the citations or references within the papers that have already been identified as relevant. The video suggests using this method to expand the search for literature beyond the initial findings.

💡PEER System

PEER is an acronym for Point, Evidence, Explain, Repeat, which is a system for structuring academic writing. The video uses the PEER system to explain how to write a paragraph in a literature review, ensuring each paragraph makes one clear point with supporting evidence and explanation.

💡Conclusion

In the context of a literature review, the conclusion summarizes the findings, discusses limitations, and suggests directions for future research. The video provides a structure for writing conclusions, emphasizing the importance of being transparent about the limitations of the review.

💡Introduction

The introduction of a literature review sets the stage for the reader, explaining the importance of the topic and the gaps in knowledge that the review aims to address. The video suggests writing the introduction last, after the review has been synthesized, to ensure it effectively sets the context for the findings.

Highlights

The importance of doing a literature review correctly to avoid headaches and wasted time.

The potential benefits of a well-executed literature review for research proposals and academic work.

Introduction of Professor David Stuckler as an experienced academic with a proven track record in guiding literature reviews.

An analogy comparing a literature review to catching up with an old friend to understand its purpose.

The five-step process for conducting a literature review outlined by Professor Stuckler.

The necessity of diving straight into research using Google Scholar as the initial search tool.

The STRIP method for extracting key information from academic papers.

The importance of creating a conceptual framework as the backbone of the literature review.

The use of 'snowball sampling' to expand the literature search beyond initial findings.

The PEER method (Point, Example, Explain, Repeat) for structuring academic paragraphs effectively.

The structure of a conclusion in a literature review, including summarizing findings and addressing limitations.

The structure of an introduction in a literature review, setting the context and explaining the motivation for the review.

The value of completing the literature review before writing the introduction for a more coherent narrative.

The offer of one-to-one sessions with Professor Stuckler for personalized guidance on academic writing.

Transcripts

the literature review every graduate

student

has to do one at some point there's a

right and a wrong way

to go about it you do it the wrong way

you're in for headache

frustration and a lot of waste of time

you do it right

not only you're going to have a whole

lot more fun but your life's going to be

easier and it's going to pave the way

for your research proposal

thesis or even phd dissertation so

you're going to want to watch this video

in full

because i'm going to explain what this

literature review is

i'm going to share with you common traps

and pitfalls not to fall into

and by the end of it if you watch in

full you're going to have a

step to by step guide for

doing your review why should you listen

to me

i'm professor david stuckler i'm coming

to you from my office

in milan at bocconi university and i've

published over 350 articles

in academic journals and i have mentored

and trained

hundreds of graduate students to do

literature reviews

and they have had amazing results so

stick around to this video in full

because i'm also going to drop in a

secret tip that i wish i knew

as a graduate student that's going to

help you get your literature review done

not only well but fast

so let's go ahead and dive straight in

the first question

we need to address is what is a

literature

review and the best way to think about

this is a bit like

if you're going to have coffee with an

old friend be a friend you haven't seen

in 5

10 years you got a lot to catch up on

and so in the course of this

conversation

your friend is probably going to bring

you up to speed with things that have

been going on in his or her life

friendships relationships what's going

on with work

and by the end of this conversation

could

could take a half an hour could take you

an hour you're gonna have a pretty good

sense

of how your friend's doing you may have

a deep sense what

her her hopes his or her hopes are what

dreams are

what things are going well what things

are not going so well

and this is just like a literature

review

because what a literature review is

gonna do for you in your field is going

to bring together

what are the key concepts

on your topic in your field it's going

to effectively

give you a snapshot of the state of

knowledge

the state of the art in the field that

you're doing a review on

and importantly well it may not always

be directly put out there but it could

be you're going to uncover what are the

gaps

in that area what are the areas of

debate and what are the potential

areas of contribution so that's what a

literature review

is let's go into five steps

for how to do it now there's an

overarching theme

a challenge you're going to have to

overcome

at some stage to be effective and that's

finding structure if you already know a

little bit about your topic

you may already have in mind a structure

for your literature review

but if not don't worry we're going to

get there

so the very first step what you're going

to want to do

in your literature review is dive

straight

in i think sometimes my students

get stuck they don't know what to do and

spit paralysis by analysis they're

overthinking

at this stage you need to learn more you

need to get your feet wet

and your hands dirty so how do you go

about doing that well

you're gonna go straight in to google

scholar

and you're going to do a search now uh

if you're doing a systematic review

that's a different kettle of fish and

it's a

different area and takes different

techniques click in the link below i've

got a different video on how to do a

systematic review for a literature

review

google scholar is fine and what it's

going to do especially in this initial

search

is it's going to bring you right up to

speed with what are the top papers

and contributions in your field so i've

just popped in here inequality and

health

to have a quick look and what you can

see here

is a series of the top sided papers

that could be recent they could be less

recent but you can always filter it here

on this left sidebar

and this is going to be a starting point

i'm assuming that you know

very little about your topic to begin

with and so what you're going to want to

do

is you want going to want to download

these papers you can click on the pdf

links here

if you can't find it you can sometimes

click on all 31 versions

as in this example go and find a pdf

download all these on your computer and

you're going to read through these

and you're going to start summarizing

them in a word document so i would take

the first 10 to 15 that look relevant

for your topic

download them and then you are ready for

step two so step two

is what i call the strip method

because now that you've gone through and

started to mine articles in your initial

search

you're gonna strip out key information

in content from it and by strip i mean

you're gonna do this in a relatively

violent fashion let me show you an

example so here you can see what i've

done for each of the papers in our

initial search

i've taken the citation and i've lined

them up in a word document

then what i'm going to do but now you've

downloaded your pdfs

is i'm going to take the pdf and i'm

going to look alongside it here

i'm going to go carefully through the

pdf and i'm going to start stripping out

key points and information so for

example

i look here in the abstract and i can

see a key

point here that is relevant and is a

summary finding from this paper now

don't

worry this is going to look messy it's

going to be ugly

we're going to clean it up later but do

always make sure you have the citation

in here because we do not want to risk

plagiarism and that is why we are

especially why we are lining things up

in this way

so you're going to go through each paper

and things that are relevant

to the points that this paper make

you're going to carefully come through

and you're going to highlight pull it

out strip it and start

lining it up in each of these paper

headings

so to give you a little more detail

before going on to the next step

what you want to do now is with the

evidence that you've stripped

you want to start suturing it together

and

explaining it you want to make sure you

cover for each of these papers

what the authors did what they found

and possibly what they suggest for

future research so

for example here this study i looked at

closely and found it was a systematic

review

of the of how inequality

impacts health their key conclusion

was that they found evidence

that they argued was a causal link so

you're going to go through write this up

and you might even take a quote directly

from the paper

now putting quotes around it to again

avoid

any risk of plagiarism and uh they also

have an explanation for why some studies

found different results which they said

here

that uh the other studies some

studies found opposite results which

they explained

by the way it was measured the inclusion

of mediating variables

and some other factors so their overall

conclusion

was that narrowing gaps in inequality

will improve the health and well-being

of populations so what you want to do

you want to say what the authors did

what they found any key quotes or

evidence that you think is relevant

highlighting those and any contradictory

information that might be relevant

continuing with the same

example what i'm starting to see

emerge is that structure

that i was looking for that breaks apart

these articles i'm seeing that some

authors

are finding evidence that there is a

causal link other

authors like this paper here found that

there is no direct link

so this is an important observation that

you want to make along the way

because this is going to help you when

you write up

what you found on your literature review

to summarize your articles

so you may now proceed to your next

step which is developing a conceptual

framework and this is the framework

that's really going to be the

backbone or the skeleton of your paper

and that is a step that you want to get

to from your

initial search so there are different

ways

you can start to find this structure

conceptual framework out of your initial

search

here i found an example of some papers

found evidence of a causal link

other papers found that there was

association

but not causation and so i'll probably

proceed

in this literature review to summarize

those two

separately but they're different ways to

go depending on your area one way is

chronological

this might especially apply in history

reviews another way might be to go from

papers that describe the problem

to papers that test or characterize

solutions to that problem

another common one that many of my

students have done is summarize the

evidence

at the individual level and then move to

summarizing evidence in the literature

at a population level

another might be to break up by key

themes

look there is no one-size-fits-all

solution to what conceptual framework

is right for you now you may know going

in at the very beginning if you already

have experience

but if not you're going to want to do

this

first two steps of your initial search

then stripping out information

lining up those articles and start to

see the structure

emerge that's right for you now at this

stage that you have decided on your

structure

it is a point at which you can finish

your search

so you may want to go into google

scholar

and put in additional terms but you may

also want to do

what i call a snowball method and this

snowball sampling essentially goes from

takes a paper that

you you've already looked at i'm going

to continue with the example we just had

and when you find now a paper that found

causal evidence or it could be describes

a problem or solution or whatever

framework that you've got

you can go down and you can chase up

these references

so for example here i'm particularly

interested

in uh some contradictory evidence and so

this study here

found that there was no relation in when

they looked at the elderly so

i'm going to click here and i'm going to

go to this reference i'm going to go

look up this study i'm going to download

it and i'm going to add it to my list

of papers and i'm going to start

threading it in to that conceptual

framework i'm going to map these studies

in lining them all up so once you've

done these steps you've completed the

search for your literature

you're now ready to start writing up and

i wanted to introduce you to the fourth

step

i call it peer and this is the system

that was taught to me as a graduate

student and i've since taught it to

my graduate students i've had great

success with it and it basically tells

us the anatomy of a paragraph

and that's called peer point example

explain repeat and i'm gonna go through

how you can use this guide to make sure

your academic writing is on

point so let's go through a concrete

example continuing with a theme of

inequality and health you'll see what

i've begun to do in the document

is create that backbone that skeleton

here

highlighting in italics evidence for

causal link where i'm going to place

all the studies making this case now you

may further break this down

into subsections in this case you might

want to look at

those studies as a sub theme looking at

inequality and physical health or those

studies looking at inequality and mental

health

whatever's pertinent to your topic for

the sake of an example

here i want to show you how the peer

system works in practice

so each paragraph should make

one big point and that's captured

and encapsulated in the first sentence

sometimes called the topic sentence

and this is going to lay out it's going

to make it easier for your reader

because they're going to know what

they're going to get from this paragraph

right away at a glance

several studies found that inequality

had a causal relationship with ill

health

that is your point of this paragraph

what comes next is the e part

the evidence or examples of bear system

so now i'm including a discussion

of the studies that fit into this

category

for example wilkinson and pickett uh

found this

jamison and colleagues found this that

is your example

or your evidence third component appear

explain uh

why did they conclude that there was a

causal relationship here

and you want to have a explanation that

goes along and accompanies this example

in this case i point out a few of these

studies

that these authors argued that the

evidence met

common criteria for causality such as

temporality strength of association

specificity

it's just an example this is gonna vary

depending on your field

then finally you're gonna have a

repeating

or linking point the r in pier

which is again coming back to your

conclusion that

these authors concluded there's a strong

case for causality

you may even refine your statement

uh saying that for causality when

looking at broad geographic

areas and i clearly can't spell so

this is the anatomy using peer

of what a good paragraph should look

like each paragraph

making one clear point

now after you've done this you'll have

filled out

the main findings the main points of

your literature review

you're going to get to the very last

steps

and that is the conclusion and

introduction

and notice i put it in that order for a

reason that's because

the introduction is the hardest part to

write it

is the the part that takes more

creativity

and more energy and i see so often

students actually do this the opposite

they start with the introduction

they get stuck they bang their head

against the wall they feel frustrated

and they waste a lot of time until they

get to a deadline and then it's a crisis

point and they panic um if you follow

these steps that's not going to happen

to you

so what you want to do is that by this

point you've summarized all your studies

using the peer system and you're going

to write the conclusion next

now the conclusion follows a very common

structure

and below i've even created an outline

document

that you can use when you write your

literature review

no matter what field you're in and it's

going to send out the key

things the key ingredients a conclusion

should have

an introduction should have and what the

review itself should have

so generally the conclusion is going to

start

off with a statement that

summarizes and recapitulates what you

found

the next thing the conclusion is going

to do is go into

limitations these limitations could be

your review itself

perhaps you couldn't find certain papers

uh perhaps

some of those papers really there

weren't a lot on your topic

it could also be include what the papers

found were limitations of the evidence

itself

that maybe the evidence was full of weak

research or maybe there was a big gaping

hole

in the research that wasn't really

covered

that is going to be an important area to

address in the future study limitations

is really

an important area for you to fend off

criticism

when people grade you by saying hey look

i'm gonna put all my cards on the table

this is what's weak about what i did and

what was weak in this body of evidence

that i reviewed

uh so that is the spirit of full

transparency and that's gonna help you

get a better grade and it's also gonna

give you a direction

for your future work in this area so

that limitation section

is incredibly important don't overlook

it the next part of your conclusion

again following the structure is you're

going to if

applicable to your field make

suggestions for future research

and you may make suggestions also for

policy

or actions to be taken based on the

evidence that you found so if you've

done this right in your conclusion

you're gonna have a four part structure

where you're going to reset your

findings

you're going to talk about the

limitations of the work

that you reviewed you're going to move

into what are the implications for

researchers and the future of the field

and what are the implications

for policy practice action if any

if that's relevant finally let's turn to

the introduction

the part that is the hardest to put

together

now you can see far

because you've put all the papers

together you synthesize them

you've summarized them you're now in a

good position

to put it all together and that's what

the introduction

needs to do the very first paragraph of

your introduction

is a paragraph about why are we having

this conversation

now you want to bring your reader in and

excite them tell them why is it

important

what is the big debate what is all the

fuss about often this is why are you

doing this review in the first place why

are you even passionate

about it the first paragraph needs to

explain why are we having this

conversation now

continuing with the inequality and

health theme it could be

there are widespread concerns that

rising inequality

is causing people to die avoidably and

suffer

uh you may want to put that right up

front

to bring a reader into the debate the

second paragraph of your introduction

is going to be uh what are some of the

gaps

in in knowledge what what are some of

the debates the areas that are contested

for example now that i've completed the

conceptual framework

i can actually foreshadow that and

preempt it in the introduction by saying

well there's debates about whether

there is actually a causal relationship

between inequality and health often

these gaps that you set up in the second

paragraph of the introduction

are gonna plant the seed for the

conceptual framework that's gonna

come later not always but often the

third part of your introduction

is really just going to set out what you

specifically

honed in to look at to plug that gap

it's really setting up the motivation

for why you did your literature review

um

again if you take these steps

start to finish i guarantee that you are

going to do

a fantastic literature review in an

efficient

period of time if you found this video

valuable

and you're struggling with your academic

writing you feel stuck

or you don't know what to do click the

link below to schedule a one-to-one

accelerator session with me i've helped

hundreds of students just like you to

overcome obstacles

unleash their potential and fast track

their academic and graduate careers

look forward to seeing you then