Engineering: The Literature Review Process

How to do a thorough literature review for a dissertation, thesis, applied project or grant application.

Have you completed each step in the process?

___ 1. Equipped my "tool box" with the following: (Chapter 3)

___ a. My library account is active and clear of fines/fees

___ b. I have registered for an ILLiad account so I can obtain materials not owned by the ASU Library

___ c. I am using a software package to manage my citations

___ d. I have devised a way to keep a record of what databases I've searched and how I've searched them.

___ 2. Composed a simple sentence or a PICO statement/question that describes my information need. (Chapter 4)

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___ 3. Determined which publications types will contain the information I need: (Chapter 5)

___ a. Background Information

___ b. Articles

___ c. Books

___ d. Conference Proceedings

___ e. Dissertations/Theses

___ f. Patents

___ g. Standards

___ h. Technical Reports

___ i. U.S. or International Government/Agency Documents

____ 4. Determined which resources/databases to use to find those publication types: (Chapter 5)

___ a. ABI/Inform

___ b. ACM Digital Library/Guide to Computing Literature

___ c. Compendex

___ d. Dissertations & Theses

___ e. Google Scholar

___ f. Inspec

___ g. Knovel

___ h. Library One Search

___ i. Patent databases

___ j. Science.gov

___ k. SciFinder

___ l. Sci-Tech Connect

___ m. Scopus

___ n. Synthesis

___ o. USA.gov

___ p. Worldcat

___ q. WorldwideScience.org

___ r. Other:

___ 5. Used different search strategies to retrieve information from the above resources/databases: (Chapter 6 )

___ a. Searched keywords using:

___ i. How I describe the concept(s)

___ ii. How authors in the field describe the concept(s)

___ iii. How the database describes the concept(s)

___ b. Re-searched resources/databases whenever new words/terminology were found

___ c. Searched for articles written by prominent authors in the field

___ d. Searched the citations, backwards and forwards, for the major articles in the field

___ e. Kept a record of what search strategies/words were used in each database and when

___ 6. Set up current alerting services for the major resources, databases, and journals in the field. (Chapter 7)

List which resources and what type of alert:

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___ 7. Created a matrix for the important points mentioned in your readings. (Chapter 8)

___ a. Sorted matrix by each column to find patterns and commonalities

___ b. Decided on the groupings to use in the review

___ 8. Created an outline for the review containing: (Chapter 9)

___ a. Introduction

___ b. Groupings

___ c. Conclusion