Writing a Literature Review in Social Sciences

In review articles you will find works that review, critique, and synthesize representative literature on a topic. It is a good place to learn about the topic and the most relevant publications on the topic. 

Review articles typically (but not always) contain the word "review" or "literature review" in their titles. 

To find review articles in social sciences literature, try

1. Google Scholar 
2. Article Databases, and/or 
3. Annual Reviews journal collection

Here we'll show you how to find review articles at the three search systems, using the same topic for the search.

• Topic: corporate social responsibility 

If the FSU Libraries does not have the journal, request an Interlibary Loan.

1) Go to Google Scholar

2) Enter a search keyword (or a phrase) and add intitle:review to the search statement.
          
            "Corporate social responsibility" intitle:review

For the above search statement, Google Scholar will retrieve web documents on the corporate social responsibility where the titles of the documents include the search term, review. 

There are many ways to limit your search to review articles. For example, 
1) At Business Source Complete database 

2) Enter the keywords and search in the "Title" field. If you are to conduct an extensive search on the topic, then do not limit your search to the "Title" field. 

3) Limit your search by Full-Text, Scholarly Journals, and References available. 

Or, some databases have a Methodology filter where you can limit the results by literature review. For example, at the APA PsycINFO (ProQuest) database, on the main search page, check the Literature Review or Systematic Review box at the Methodology block. 

1) The Annual Reviews database does not have a Business collection, but if you are looking for review articles outside of Business literature, this is a wonderful source to check out

2) At the "Annual Reviews " database, choose "Social Sciences" collection, then enter the search keywords to conduct a search. Because you are already searching a "review articles" database, you don't have to add a word "review" to your search statement