How Do I Conduct a Literature Review?
Step 7: Analyze What You Have Found
The idea here is to read carefully through the items you have found and take notes on what you learn in relation to your research question(s). Be sure to record along with your notes the full bibliographic citation of the item using a format approved by your adviser. You might find it helpful to use a software tool such as EndNote to
help automate and manage the process of searching and documenting what you have found.
It is in this step that you must pay close attention to the assumptions, objectives, methods, data, findings/claims, and conclusions made by the authors. How does this work contribute to the body of knowledge in relation to my research question(s)? Are the results reasonable? Does the data support the conclusions? Have the authors estimated the uncertainty in their measurements?
