Writing a Literature Review in Social Sciences

1) Understand what types of "literature" you need for your review

• Academic books, scholarly journal articles, conference papers, theses or dissertations
   
• Depending on the nature and focus of your research topic, you might also include:
  • Historical documents, policy documents, government publications, newspapers, professional (practitioner-oriented) books or magazine articles

2) Search most relevant databases in the topic field

• Use keyword searching and other advanced techniques to retrieve relevant materials
• Check Research Guides to the topic

3) Use citation databases (i.e., Web of Science) or Google Scholar for cited reference search 

• Know how to chain citations 
• Identify key authors and search for their publications

4) Create a log that documents how the literature search was conducted and what materials were read/scanned

• Use Search Log Template for an extensive search of the literature 
• An example of Search Log (topic: adolescent depression and attachment)

Click here for step-by-step instructions (w/screen shots) on how to find:

• Scholarly Journals 
• Theses or Dissertations 
• Cited References