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.
Sample search from the main page Library Search
"review of the literature" OR "literature review" OR "systematic review"
AND "journalism" OR "mass media"
Sample search in EBSCO
( "global news" OR "foreign correspondents" OR "foreign press" OR "world news" OR "international news" OR "foreign news" OR "international journalism" )
AND ( "review of the literature" OR "literature review" OR "systematic 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.