CJPSFP

Literature Review Outline

I. Introduction a. Describe the overall topic that you have been investigating, why it is important to the field, and why

you are interested in the topic. b. Identify themes and trends in research questions, methodology, and findings. Give a “big picture” of

the literature. II. Theme A

a. Overview of characteristics of the theme (commonalities, differences, nuances) b. Sub-theme – narrow but grouped findings related to the theme

i. Study 1 (Research question(s), Methods/Participants, Related Findings) ii. Study 2 (Research question(s), Methods/Participants, Related Findings)

iii. Study 3 (Research question(s), Methods/Participants, Related Findings) c. Sub-theme – narrow but grouped findings related to the theme

i. Study 4 (Research question(s), Methods/Participants, Related Findings) ii. Study 5 (Research question(s), Methods/Participants, Related Findings)

iii. Study 6 (Research question(s), Methods/Participants, Related Findings) d. Etc., etc., etc. with other findings that fit Theme A; studies can be repeated if there are multiple

findings that fit under more than one theme. However, no need to re-write methods/participants in detail (just enough to remind the reader about the study).

i. Almost all literature reviews have a theory section. You should put one into your literature review, it is required.

III. Theme B – follow a, b, c, and so on from above.

IV. Keep repeating with themes—You do not want to make this section two long, but please make sure to fully

cover your topic.

V. Conclusion: An evaluation/critique of the existing literature.

a. What are the contributions of this literature to the field? b. What are the overall strengths? c. What are the overall weaknesses? d. What might be missing? e. What are some next steps for research? The next steps should explicitly address how to “correct” for

strengths, weaknesses, and gaps.

VI. References

• Make sure to use proper APA formatting. Information on APA can be found at https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_style_introduction.html.

• I am not setting a page requirement, but I can tell you that the shortest literature review I have ever done

was 8 pages and it had 25 sources.