Literature Review - Step by Step Guide For Graduate Students | Prof. David Stuckler
Summary
TLDRProfessor 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
- đ A literature review is essential for graduate students, forming the foundation for research proposals, theses, and dissertations.
- đ The literature review offers a snapshot of key concepts and gaps in knowledge in a specific field, helping identify areas for contribution.
- đ Start by diving into Google Scholar to identify and download the most relevant articles in your field as a foundation.
- âïž Use the 'strip method' to extract key information from each article, focusing on what the authors did, found, and suggested for future research.
- đ§ Begin to develop a conceptual framework from the gathered articles, organizing studies based on common themes, debates, or chronological order.
- đ The 'snowball method' can help expand your research by chasing references from key studies to find more relevant papers.
- âïž When writing, use the PEER system for clear paragraph structure: Point, Example, Explain, and Repeat to support your main ideas.
- đ Create a structured backbone for the review, summarizing each studyâs main findings and organizing evidence in a logical framework.
- đ Write the conclusion before the introduction, summarizing findings, discussing limitations, suggesting future research, and addressing policy implications.
- đŻ 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
đ 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.
đ 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.
đ 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.
âïž 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.
đ 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 thereâs 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.
đ Step 4: Snowball Sampling and Final Search
This paragraph explains the 'snowball method,' where the researcher traces the references in the papers theyâve 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 werenât 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.
đ 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.
đ 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 readerâs attention by explaining the significance of the review topic, identifying knowledge gaps, and presenting the research focus. Following this order prevents writerâs block and ensures a strong and cohesive literature review.
đ 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.
Mindmap
Keywords
đĄLiterature Review
đĄTraps and Pitfalls
đĄResearch Proposal
đĄThesis
đĄPhD Dissertation
đĄGoogle Scholar
đĄSystematic Review
đĄConceptual Framework
đĄSnowball Method
đĄPEER System
đĄConclusion
đĄIntroduction
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
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