Conducting Literature Reviews

3 lessons · 65 min

What you will learn

• Organise sources by theme
• Synthesise rather than summarise
• Identify a defensible gap

Lessons

• 1. The synthesis matrix
• 2. Finding a real gap
• 3. Systematic and scoping reviews

The synthesis matrix

Put sources in rows and themes or variables in columns. Fill each cell with what that source says on that theme. Reading down a column shows where studies agree, disagree, or have not looked.

Write paragraphs from columns, not rows. A paragraph that discusses one study at a time is a summary; one that compares several on a theme is synthesis.

Example

Summary: “Smith (2019) found X. Lee (2021) found Y.” Synthesis: “Studies of urban schools report X (Smith, 2019; Ali, 2020), whereas rural samples show Y (Lee, 2021), possibly reflecting differences in access.”

Exercise

Download the literature review matrix template and fill it for five sources.