About the Program Get Started Research Courses Student Awards Information for Faculty Research Scholars Research Resources

LITERATURE SEARCH

The literature review is a cornerstone of the research project. Reading about research done by others ensures you have a thorough understanding of the topic, can help you identify potential areas where further research is needed, provides ideas on how to structure your research, and allows you a forum for which to compare your work to the work of others. Literature searches can be time consuming, so it is imperative that you know the best ways to access this type of information, and that you organize and record your findings for future referencing.

Slides:

[PPT Slides] Literature Search and Bibliography

FAU Libraries Guide to Scholarly Information Resources

Where should you look for primary literature?

Discipline-specific Journals
- Filter journals by subject area on Scopus
- View the relative prestige of journals by discipline using the SCImago journal rank (SJR) indicator

Scholarly Literature Databases; for example, here are a few recommendations:

Note: remember to log in via your institution to access the full text of articles.

Readings on the research process and literature review:

Bhattacherjee, A. (2012). Social Science Research: Principles, Methods, and Practices – Chapter 3 Overview of the Research Process.

'The literature review: its role within research' from Andrew Booth, Diana Papaioannou, and Anthea Sutton, Systematic Approaches to a Successful Literature Review (SAGE, 2012), pp.1-16.

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Getting Started with Zotero citations and reference management software

Guidance on the Annotated Bibliography Template

Example template modified for APA style:

Lastname1, F., & Lastname2, F. (Year). Title of article in sentence case. Name of Journal, volume#(issue#), startpage–endpage. https://doi.org/xx.xxx/yyyy

1. What was the main question/goal of the paper?
2. What was their main finding?
3. What impact does this paper have on the discipline/field?