A literature review provides an overview of the scholarly information published to date on a specific topic, summarizing and synthesizing the ideas presented. At the undergraduate level, a literature review differs from a research paper in that no new primary research is presented. At the graduate level, literature reviews often constitute a chapter of a thesis or dissertation and provide an intellectual context for the author's own research.
A systematic review is a comprehensive type of literature review that synthesizes research on a particular question often using data.
The literature review differs from an annotated bibliography: it is a narrative document that synthesizes the sources consulted to develop a conclusion. An annotated bibliography deals with each resource in turn, describing and evaluating the source in a single paragraph.
For the full Library Guide on Literature Reviews: Literature Reviews
Sample search from the main page Library Search
"review of the literature" OR "literature review"
AND Title contains: "online social" OR "online dating" OR "mobile apps"
Sample search in EBSCO
("online social" or "online dating" or "mobile apps") in the TI Title AND ("review of the literature" OR "literature review")
Note: It is not enough to simply summarize the research literature. You need to demonstrate that you understand the relevance and significance of the publications you reviewed and how they relate to each other.