How to Write a Mini Literature

Review
Five simple rules

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC37
15443/?report=classic

Pautasso M (2013) Ten Simple Rules for Writing a Literature Review. PLoS Comput Biol 9(7): e1003149.
doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1003149
2013 Marco Pautasso.
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use,
distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Adapted by: Cheryl Allaire

INTRODUCTION

Reviewing the literature requires the ability to

multi-task
finding and evaluating relevant materials
synthesizing information from various
sources
thinking critically
paraphrasing, evaluating, and having
citation skills.
Here are five simple rules.

RULE 1

Define a Topic and Audience

How to choose which topic to review? The

topic must at least be:
interesting to you
an important aspect of the field
a well-defined issue (otherwise you could
potentially include thousands of
publications, which would make the
review unhelpful).

RULE 2

Search and Re-search the

Literature
After having chosen your topic and audience, start by
checking the literature and downloading relevant papers.
Five pieces of advice here:
keep track of the items you use
use a paper management system (e.g., RefWorks, index
cards, word dump document)
seek other articles using the reference lists of your
chosen articles
use different keywords and database sources (e.g.,
Google Scholar, JSTOR, Medline, Web of Science)

RULE 3

Take Notes While Reading

Write down interesting pieces of

information
insights about how to organize the review
thoughts on what to write

Be careful when taking notes

use quotation marks if you are copy verbatim
from the literature
paraphrase in the final draft
include the citation of the article

RULE 4

Choose the Type of Review You Wish to Write

Focus on materials of the last few

years
Make the literature review for a wide
audience
Include broader implications of the
topic to make it relevant to other
disciplines

RULE 5

Be Critical and Consistent

A good review
summarizes
identifies methodological problems
points out gaps.
After someone reads your literature review,
he or she should know
major achievements on the topic
main areas of debate
remaining research questions on the topic

RULE 5

Be Critical and Consistent

A good review
summarizes
identifies methodological problems
points out gaps.
After someone reads your literature review,
he or she should know
major achievements on the topic
main areas of debate
remaining research questions on the topic