How Long Should a Literature Review Be: How Many Articles Should Be in a Literature Review?

If you’ve ever written a literature review, you know how stressful it can be. Organizing your thoughts, finding relevant sources, and ensuring they’re all correct and your writing is up to professional standards are some of the pressures you face.

In all this pressure and confusion, one of the most common questions about writing a literature review is, “How long should it be?” In this blog post, we’ll answer that question, and several other questions about writing literature reviews, such as “How many articles should be in a literature review?” and “Tips on Writing a Good Literature Review.”

How Long Should a Literature Review Be

Generally, a literature review’s length varies from a few pages to an entire chapter. There is no universally accepted length because it depends on the paper type, topic, and amount of research needed.

For example, dissertations and thesis papers require a thorough and well-researched review of over 20 pages or an entire chapter. In contrast, typical essay assignments have a short literature review of a few pages.

Also see: Where do you put your name on an essay?

Essentially, it means you can write as much as you need to for your audience to understand the relevant research and see the current information regarding the topic. Additionally, from the literature review, your readers will understand the background information and the gaps that necessitates your present paper and if it is worth reading.

If you are unsure of how long your review should be, it is best to keep it detailed and long but, at the same time, short and informative. However, in most cases, your professor or the rubric instructions will always specify how long the review should be. Therefore, check the guidelines; if there is none, you can determine its length depending on the topic, word count limit, and paper type.

How Many Articles Should Be in a Literature Review?

Even though there is no specific set number of articles to include in the literature review, experts recommend having 8-10 pieces for an 8,000-word review. Additionally, if your dissertation is between 12,000-15,000, you can have up to 20 articles.

Generally, the number of articles in a literature review depends on your paper’s length. As with any other essay, the more substantive details you include will make for a longer piece. The number of articles should generally be between 10 and 20, but always seek your professor’s guidance if unsure.

Additionally, this section should include both primary and secondary sources. Primary sources are original research articles, books, or other works written by people who participated directly in the research. Secondary sources are books, articles, and other works discussing primary research studies’ results.

Tips on Writing a Good Literature Review

Writing an effective literature review takes time and patience, but the rewards are outstanding such as getting better grades and convincing your readers to read and take action. Here are some tips to employ if you want to write a good literature review.

1. Narrow and define the topic but broaden the search area

A literature review’s purpose is to provide the foundation for your research by highlighting what has been written about your chosen topic. It also gives the reader an overview of all relevant research on the subject from published sources.

Thus, it should be comprehensive, objective, and well-organized. And these three are unachievable if you do not focus on a single area and broaden where you do the research. Narrowing your topic and increasing areas of conducting research helps you find more information and provide value.

Additionally, with a specific topic, your audience will be defined; thus, your paper will be more valuable and helpful to readers. Also, consider what aspect of the topic interests you and your readers most and focus on that part of the literature review. For example, if you are writing about how the internet influences people’s decision-making process, start by reading everything you can find about this subject.

2. Research profoundly and follow relevant citations in articles you find

A literature review entails combing past information. This means deep research and presenting relevant data and statistics on your chosen topic.

One way to conduct deep research is by following citations of the relevant articles you find. This will help you find more information about the topic and enrich your literature review.

The two ways of following citations include looking at an article’s reference list and opening them. Alternatively, you can look at articles citing a paper you initially found.

How Do You Write a Literature Review Quickly?

Writing a literature review quickly is a vital skill in education and research. However, this can be difficult to accomplish if you’re new to writing literature reviews. But it’s not impossible with proper planning.

The first step is to develop an outline for the literature review. This involves brainstorming your topic and deciding what aspects of the topic you will include. Additionally, it entails looking through sources and deciding which to use and which to discard. Doing this will cut your time significantly because you will know what your review will include and what not to include.

After developing the outline, it is time to research based on the outline and topic aspects. This will help you avoid wasting time doing unnecessary research. It will also help you to focus on quality research based on your topic’s breakdown.

With these two steps, it is time to settle for the actual writing, and it will be quick if you have comprehensively carried out the previous two steps. Start by introducing your topic and backing it up with relevant sources, from the most solid to the least. However, remember to follow your outline if you want to finish the section quickly.