A literature review (or lit review, for short) is an in-depth critical analysis of published scholarly research related to a specific topic. Published scholarly research (the "literature") may include journal articles, books, book chapters, or conference proceedings.
A solid lit review must:
When a professor asks that you find scholarly articles on a topic for a research paper, it can be confusing to know where to start, how to find them, and how to tell what counts as a scholarly article. The tutorials on this page are all about how to find scholarly, or peer-reviewed, articles in the library "databases."
Below are videos that answer the questions: What is a journal and peer-reviewed article? What are the library databases? And, how do I search in a database?
In this video, you will learn how to evaluate the difference between scholarly journals and other kinds of periodicals, and how to describe the peer-review process.
Length: 1:24
In this video, you will learn what a database is (vs. a website or search engine), and how to evaluate which database may be best suited for your own research.
Length: 1:23
In this video, you will learn how to create and use keywords based on your research topic to search in an academic database.
Length: 1:28
This button provides direct links from the NEIU Libraries' databases to online full-text articles, when available. If the full text of an article is not available online, request a copy of the article through WorldShare interlibrary loan.
Or search for a specific journal by Title or ISSN.