Types of Literature Reviews
A literature review can be stand-alone (literature review, review of literature) as its own article or source or part of a research article, usually in introduction or directly after. Sometimes they are not labelled “literature review” within the article, but they include integrated citations or in-text citations. Here is an example of a scholarly article that has the literature review after the introduction. A literature review is not an annotated bibliography. To learn more about annotated bibliographies, check out the UNCG Libraries Module on Annotated Bibliography.
Example of a literature review within an article. Article citation:
Spence, P. R., Westerman, D., Edwards, C., & Edwards, A. (2014). Welcoming our robot overlords: Initial expectations about interaction with a robot. Communication Research Reports, 31(3), 272–280. https://doi.org/10.1080/08824096.2014.924337
Annotated Bibliography:
- Comments on the relevance and quality of the information
- Sources are analyzed separately
- The source is indicated at the beginning of each section
- Sources are listed alphabetically in an annotated list
Literature Review:
- Establishes a relationship between different sources and highlights gaps in knowledge
- Information from different sources are analyzed together in a cohesive narrative
- The sources are listed at the end of the document, as a bibliography through an in text citation
- Sources are integrated together according to relevance
Difference between an Annotated Bibliography and and Literature Review
There are different types of literature reviews. A systematic review is a literature review that follows a rigorous process to find all of the research conducted on a topic and then critically appraises the research methods of the highest quality reports. These reviews track and report their search and appraisal methods in addition to providing a summary of the knowledge established by the appraised research. Other reviews that are similar to a systematic review are integrative reviews, meta-analysis, scoping reviews, mapping review, and a rapid review. For a full list of all the review types, plus detailed definitions and differences, go to the Temple University Libraries Reviews Research Guide.
UNCG Libraries Systematic Review Guide
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