Who are you, literature review?
The primary purpose of a literature review
What is synthesizing existing knowledge to establish what is known, unknown, and worthy of further study?
A higher education expert researching dimensions of belonging amongst international faculty begins with these.
What are key concepts and search terms.
This describes when researchers disagree (based on evidence) whether student belonging improves retention.
What is a conflicting findings gap.
Also accepted: Conflicting evidence, or results gap.
Committee Member #3 says, "Most of these sources are over 20 years old..."
What is lack of current scholarship.
Usually concludes most doctoral literature reviews.
What is re-visitation of themes, gaps, implications, direction of your study.
A literature review should do this rather than summarize studies one at a time, not unlike a book report.
What is break down essential components of multiple studies to visualize where they related in context, methodology, or findings to a non-expert audience.
Also acceptable: What is synthesize findings across studies.
These come in handy when an emerging topic may not have much in the way of related literature at this point.
What is synonyms and related terminology / fields of study.
Describes when virtual reality interventions are well studied in fields like medicine, but rarely are studied in technical community colleges.
What is a population gap.
Also accepted: Environmental gap, setting gap.
Helpful friend says, "You define engagement five different ways, and the literature defines it another five ways".
What is conceptual inconsistency.
Also accepted: Disconnection, lack of conviction, lack of clarity.
An organizational approach that usually produces a tighter, more accessible, and focused review.
What is organizing by themes.
This common mistake makes a literature review sound like a robot wrote it. Beep boop.
What is article title, article author, article finding, article critique. Overview with no real breakdown.
A savvy researcher documents databases, dates, and search strings by doing this.
What is maintaining a search audit trail.
When most studies of Generative AI use surveys of students, but few explore the documents and policies of colleges and universities.
What is a methodological gap.
Innocent loved one you asked to read your work says, "Where is that theory you were talking about the other day? Is it in here?"
What is lack of clear theoretical connection.
A clear sign that you have left the planning, outlining, and reading phase and are ready to begin writing.
What is thematic saturation.
Also accepted: What is I have enough across key concepts in this area of research that I am ready to make connections.
This quality distinguishes a doctoral literature review from an annotated bibliography.
What is careful reading, intentional approach to organization, and purposeful critique.
This article repeatedly appears in reference lists and foundational discussions on the topic.
What is the seminal research / researcher in the field.
When researchers agree that more data would aid policymakers deciding on college closures, but know less about which data (or models) would inform early warning systems.
What is a knowledge gap.
Also accepted: Data gap, Evidence gap.
Committee Member #1 says, "This reads like several separate papers on a similar topic taped together".
What is lack of connective tissue.
Also accepted: Lack of synthesis. "Show don't tell".
These build connective tissue and reveal patterns across populations, methodologies, environments, and stretches of time.
What are synthesis statements.
Also accepted: What are major takeaways, areas of consistency, areas worth exploring more in the future.
You need this in order to make connections between your introduction and research questions.
What is identification and justification of the research gap(s).
You discover a perfect article but is behind a $49 dollar paywall.
What is a doctoral student's version of a jump scare.
Research gaps should emerge from this, rather than curiosity / personal experiences / hunches alone.
What is evidence from the literature that we have expertly curated then organized to open a gap that we will successfully fill with awesome research.
You reading your work aloud to yourself, "My gap, research questions, and theory aren't connected enough to the literature".
What is poor alignment between the literature review and research problem.
Also accepted: What is look back at the groundwork laid in the introduction.
You have just opened your 67th browser tab and cannot remember why...
What is writing a literature review.