Literature Reviews

The research literature you collect on your topic culminates in your literature review.  In order to gain a sense of how it is written, you can help yourself by examining those previously written by experts in the field.  Two of the main examples in the field of education are publications called Review of Research in Education and the Review of Educational Research published by the American Educational Research Association.  Since the Review of Research in Education is not indexed in the usual places, such as ERIC and Education Full-Text, it is highlighted here.  The other, Review of Educational Research, is indexed in the education databases and specific references to individual articles can be found more readily.

There are two ways to locate the individual chapters in the annual publication, Review of Research in Education.  Older, full-text volumes appear in JSTOR and can be searched through the JSTOR search interface.  The other way to locate the individually authored chapters is to search with Scopus.  More recent indexing is available in Scopus and, once specific references are located, the chapter can be obtained in the print version (LB 1028 R454) maintained by the library.  A few good examples are chapter 3 in volume 28 for 2004 and chapters 3 and 5 in volume 29 for 2005.  These will provide you with a sense as to what is necessary for a substantial literature review.