Biomedical Engineering: Literature Reviews

The below information serves as a starting point for understanding the place of literature reviews for students. The purpose of a literature review is to provide a critical written account of the current state of research on a selected topic. Literature Reviews:

• Identify areas of prior scholarship
• Places each source in the context of its contribution to the understanding of the specific issue, area of research, or theory under review.
• Describes the relationship of each source to the others that you have selected
• Identifies new ways to interpret, and shed light on any gaps in, previous research
• Points the way forward for further research.

There are many different situations where you might write a literature review, each with slightly different expectations; different disciplines, too, have field-specific expectations for what a literature review is and does. In engineering, you should look at examples from your own discipline and talk to professors and your librarian to make sure you are approaching the project in the correct way.

A literature review can: 

1. Be the Introduction in a journal article, conference paper, other scholarly article, or white paper. While a more formal literature review usually falls after the introduction, the resources found can also inform the introduction. The information in these need to cover scholarship that is important to the issue you are writing about and include key sources that informed your research. It also may include technical information. 
2. In a class, a lit review may have been assigned to help a student familiarize themselves with a topic and with scholarship in their field, find gaps in existing research, or develop a theoretical framework. 
3. For a graduate thesis, similar to introductions in a journal article, the information needs to cover scholarship that is important to your thesis, include key sources that informed your research, contextualize your theoretical framework, and ground your methods. It too may also may include technical information. 

There are also formal literature reviews, that are more commonly referred to as Knowledge Synthesis. These can include formal literature reviews such as Systematic Reviews, Scoping Reviews, Rapid Reviews, and others. Choosing the right and most appropriate methodology is important, and if you have any questions reach out to myself about which makes the most sense for your needs.