Psychology 193H (Walle): Literature Reviews

Selected Resources

For titles in the UC system, use the UC-eLinks button to initiate a Reqest for the title.

Writing Literature Reviews: A Guide for Students of the Social and Behavioral Sciences
print, UC system
Conducting Research Literature Reviews: From the Internet to Paper
print, UC system
Doing a Literature Review in Health and Social Care: A Practical Guide
ebook, UC Merced
Systematic Approaches to a Successful Literature Review
print, UC system
Health Sciences Literature Review Made Easy: The Matrix Method

About the Literature Review

The Literature Review
Concise tips from Professor Nancy Rivenburgh at the University of Washington, The Graduate School
The Literature Review: A Few Tips on Conducting It
by Dena Taylor at the University of Toronto, Health Sciences Writing Centre

Literature Reviews: An Overview for Graduate Students

We have highlighted some sections which may be of particular interest.

Research is about telling a story -- a professor's prespective (2:12 - 3:08)
Different types of literature review -- e.g. in a thesis or dissertation (3:48 - 4:13)
So what's involved in reviewing the literature? (7:00 - 8:46)

* produced by NC State University Libraries (~10 minutes)

Literature Review Examples

Irwin, M. R. (2015). Why sleep is important for health: a psychoneuroimmunology perspective. Psychology, 66(1), 143.

Hofmann, W., Friese, M., & Wiers, R. W. (2008). Impulsive versus reflective influences on health behavior: A theoretical framework and empirical review. Health Psychology Review, 2(2), 111-137.

Finding Literature Reviews

Locating an in-depth review related to your topic of interest, can be a good first step to finding relevant information. Look for literature reviews limiters in various databases.

ScienceDirect/SciVerse
Advanced Search > Journals tab > Review article (found under Limit by document type)

Web of Science This link opens in a new window
Provides access to multiple science and social science databases: Arts & Humanities Citation Index (1975 - present), Social Sciences Citation Index (1956 - present), Science Citation Index (1900 - present), Conference Proceedings Citation Index-Science (1990 - present), and Conference Proceedings Citation Index-Social Science & Humanities (1990 - present). Also includes Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI).
PsycINFO
1806 - present. The PsycINFO database contains citations to articles in over 1,300 professional journals, conference proceedings, books, , and dissertations in psychology and related disciplines. Most citations include abstracts.
PubMed This link opens in a new window
1951 - present. Includes more than 22 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. PubMed facilitates searching across several NLM literature resources including MEDLINE, PubMed Central, and Bookshelf. Citations may include links to full-text content from PubMed Central and Bookshelf. MEDLINE articles are indexed with MeSH (Medical Subject Headings). Use Get it at UC to locate the full text when not otherwise available.