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Construction Management

Find journal articles, books, videos, maps, and more on construction management.
 

What is a Literature Review?

A Literature Review is an account of what has been published on a topic by accredited scholars and researchers.  When writing a literature review, your goal is to determine the current state of knowledge about a particular topic by asking, "What do we know or what do we not know about this topic?"  In writing the literature review, your purpose is to convey to your reader what knowledge and ideas have been established on a topic, and what their strengths and weaknesses are. 

A literature review should:

  • include an overview of the subject, issue, or theory under consideration

  • group sources into categories and concepts (in support or against a particular position)

  • present connections between the sources

  • draw conclusions about those works that make the greatest contribution to the understanding and development of your subject

A full-length, stand alone literature review could be arranged like this:

Introduction

  • An introductory paragraph that provides an overview of the subject, issue, or theory under consideration

  • Additionally, you can also add a description of how you found sources and how you analyzed them for inclusion and discussion in the review (See below for tips on searching for information).  

Body

  • The body should group sources into categories and concepts (in support or against a particular position) and present connections between the sources.

  • Summarize and synthesize your sources: Give an overview of the main points of each source and combine them into a coherent whole.

  • Analyze and interpret: Don’t just paraphrase other researchers – add your own interpretations where possible, discussing the significance of findings in relation to the literature as a whole.

  • Critically Evaluate: Mention the strengths and weaknesses of your sources.

Conclusion

  • Summarize the key findings you have taken from the literature and emphasize their significance

  • Address any gaps in the literature, what is missing, what work still needs to be done?  

If you are doing a literature review as part of a research paper, typically your literature review will be shorter and will be just one section in your research paper.  It should, however, contain the same elements above, and the introduction and conclusion sections will be shorter.   

Searching for Information

Tips on Searching for information found in the library at Minnesota State University, Mankato: 

  • First, Identify main concepts or breaking down the topic into its component parts.

    • Take your research topic and pull out the main concepts.

    • List search terms = Identify terms or phrases you can use to search for information. For each main concept, identify synonyms and related terms, both narrower and broader

    • Use quotation marks around any words you want to search as a phrase.  Example: "sustainable construction".  

    • Combine search terms with AND and OR

      • AND will retrieve sources containing all the words. Use AND to combine your main concepts.  Example: sustainable AND construction AND materials will bring back results that have with all three words.

      • OR will retrieve sources containing either term, broadening your search. Use OR to combine synonyms or related terms.  Example: "sustainable building materials" OR "sustainable construction materials" will bring back results that have either the phrase sustainable building materials or the phrase sustainable construction materials.  

      • NOT will retrieve sources that do not include the term.  Example: building NOT skyscraper will bring back results that do not include the term skyscraper. 

    • Use an asterisk (*) to match zero or more characters at the end of a work.  Example: sustain* will bring back results that have words like sustainability, sustainable, sustaining, and sustain.  
       
  • Next, try a search using MavScholar.  Our Guide to MavScholar has many helpful tips on working with results and searching within MavScholar. 
     
  • Evaluate your search results.  Some things to think about include:
    • Is the source a review article or an original research article?  
      • Review Article = overview of original research
      • Research Article = report on original research conducted
    • Who is the author?  What are their credentials?
    • Is the article scholarly and peer-reviewed?  
    • What is the date of the article?  
       
  • Revise and Redo your search.
    • What else do you need to know about your topic that you did not find?
    • Look at the abstract, description, subjects or table of contents of the item.  Do you see any other keywords that you can use in a search?  
    • Look at the bibliography or reference list to find other relevant items.  
    • Try a search in ScienceDirect rather than MavScholar.  
       
  • Cite your sources.
    • Use APA to create a citation for your source.  Our APA Style Guide can help you properly format the citation.
    • Use a Citation Manager to help you keep track of your citations.  

Examples of Full Length, Stand Along Literature Review on Construction Management Topics

Examples of Literature Reviews Incorporated into a Research Paper on Construction Management Topics

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