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A note from Gary
Why I created this literature review template generator
In the units I teach, assessment often required students to perform a systematic literature review. It can be challenging to communicate effectively with students how a PRISMA systematic review, for example, differs from an independent review. A literature review matrix is a great way to get students to actively engage in thematic analysis, reinforcing the need to critically assess the corpus (body of literature) by theme, topic, or variable. The student creates a table (often as an Excel spreadsheet), with each study occupying a row. Then the student reads each study and fills pertinent information into the columns. For example, if a study used Grounded Theory as a methodology, this would be entered in the ‘Methodology’ column.
One issue is that students are often short on time; for example, if a student has a corpus of 25 studies, it is time-consuming to create a matrix with just the basics, such as publication year and authors. They could spend that time comparing and contrasting the studies and gaining a deeper understanding of each study. As such, the downloadable literature matrix from this tool is designed to speed up the mundane aspects by automating the information that doesn’t add significant value (such as entering the publication year for each study). The student then fills in the remaining data for each study, such as methodology and sample size, highlighting the thematic analysis required in many academic literature reviews.
I've found very positive results from my students using this template generator. I find the literature reviews students create are far more focused on thematic analysis. Students are producing better literature reviews and report spending less time on mundane data entry.
Please let me know how you've used this tool.
Regards
Gary
