How should I organize my literature review? 

Is there a citation management program that I can use?

Last Updated: Jan 13, 2025     Views: 16

Literature reviews are typically organized thematically. This means structuring your review around distinct themes or key concepts that emerge from the research literature. Each section of your review focuses on analyzing and discussing findings related to a specific theme rather than presenting information chronologically or by author.

You will need to identify sub-topics to group and organize your sources into themes. Also note that some sources may appear in multiple sections, and some will only appear once. Citation management software can help you organize your references in folders. Doctoral students have two options for citation management, PowerNotes and RefWorks.

PowerNotes is managed through CDS and is not part of the library. Use RefWorks to manage, gather, store, and share your research. It's ideal for doctoral students completing their dissertation research but can be helpful to students at any level who wish to store their research long-term. For information and tutorials on using RefWorks, see our RefWorks Toolkit.


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