How to Conduct a Literature Review
BAE/DAS/GENAG 582 - NRES Capstone Spring 2026
What Is a Literature Review?
- A structured summary and analysis of existing research about a question of interest
- Shows:
- What is known (e.g., impacts, mechanisms, trends)
- What is debated or uncertain
- Where the knowledge gaps are
- Helps you:
- Justify management or policy recommendations
- Design your own study or monitoring plan
Focusing Your Question
- Start broad → narrow with the 4 Ws:
- What (stressor/intervention) – e.g., land retirement, grazing, prescribed fire
- Where (place/ecosystem) – e.g., Kansas CRP grasslands, Great Plains watersheds
- Who/what biota – e.g., grassland birds, pollinators, stream invertebrates
- When (timeframe) – e.g., post‑enrollment, last 20–30 years
- Example focusing:
- Broad: “CRP and wildlife”
- Focused: “Effects of Conservation Reserve Program grasslands on grassland bird richness in north‑central Kansas since 2000”
Literature Review vs Background & Synthesis vs Summary
Literature review
- Organized by themes (e.g., “effects on water quality”, “effects on wildlife habitat”)
- Compares and contrasts multiple studies
- Explicitly identifies gaps and uncertainties
Background paragraph
- Short, mostly descriptive overview
- Less critical or systematic
Stronger synthesis
- Don’t just list: “Smith (2015) found… Jones (2018) found…”
- Instead:
- “Most studies find that wider riparian buffers (>30 m) reduce nitrate loads more effectively than narrow buffers (<15 m) (Smith 2015; Jones 2018; Lee 2020), especially in clay‑rich soils. However, in steep catchments, hydrologic bypass can limit their effectiveness (Garcia 2021).”
Where and How to Search
- Google Scholar (scholar.google.com)
- Fast discovery, powerful “Cited by” trails
- Subject databases (via your library)
- Web of Science / Scopus
- CAB Abstracts / AGRICOLA
- Environment Complete, GreenFILE, etc.
- Grey literature (carefully evaluated)
- Government: USDA, NRCS, USGS, EPA, Kansas state agencies
- Major NGOs: The Nature Conservancy, WWF, etc.
Smarter searching in Google Scholar
- Combine key concepts:
"Conservation Reserve Program" AND Kansas AND "water quality"
"CRP" AND "grassland birds" AND "Great Plains"
- Use filters:
- Since year (e.g., ≥ 2010)
- Sort by date as well as relevance
- Use “Cited by” to find more recent, related work
Evaluating Sources
For each item, ask:
- Type & quality
- Peer‑reviewed article? Technical report? Policy brief?
- Reputable agency, journal, or NGO?
- Methods
- Field experiment, observational study, model, meta‑analysis?
- Is design appropriate (replication, controls, time span, spatial scale)?
- Relevance
- Similar ecosystem, region (e.g., Great Plains vs. other biomes)?
- Comparable management context (e.g., CRP vs other set‑aside programs)?
- Recency & coverage
- Mix of foundational and recent studies
Using a Reference Manager & Taking Notes
Why use Zotero, Mendeley, etc.?
- Store PDFs and citations in one place
- Tag and group articles by ecosystem, stressor, method, region
- Automatically format references (APA, AAG, journal styles)
Basic workflow
- Save items from Google Scholar/databases with browser connector
- Attach the PDF
- Add tags like:
CRP, water-quality, grassland-birds, Kansas
Good notes for each study
- Full citation
- Research question / objective
- Study design (field vs. model, temporal & spatial scale)
- Major findings (direction &, if possible, magnitude of effects)
- Limitations (short time span, single watershed, etc.)
- Your comment: How does this inform your CRP question?
Organizing by Themes & Typical Structure
Organize by themes, not by paper
- By mechanism – e.g., how CRP affects runoff vs. habitat structure
- By scale – plot‑level vs. watershed‑ or landscape‑scale studies
- By dimension – land use, water quality, wildlife responses
- By type of evidence – field experiments, monitoring, modeling, meta‑analysis
Typical structure of an environmental lit review
- Introduction
- Define the environmental problem/context
- Narrow to your specific question
- Thematic body sections
- Historical land use / disturbance context
- Effects on physical environment (soil, hydrology, water quality)
- Effects on biota (species richness, abundance, key taxa)
- Management and policy implications
- Synthesis & gaps
- Consistent patterns
- Conflicting results (and possible reasons)
- Under‑studied ecosystems, taxa, or scales
Common Pitfalls & Quick Checklist
Common pitfalls
- Topic still too broad (“climate change and biodiversity”)
- Ignoring key agency/technical reports
- Ignoring methods and scale when comparing studies
- Over‑quoting; under‑paraphrasing
Checklist
Assignment Overview & Topic Selection (Step 1)
Literature Review Assignment – Overview
- Initial phase of your scientific research
- You will later extend this work in your group project by:
- Refining a problem statement
- Collecting and analyzing data
- Testing hypotheses and developing conclusions
- For now: Focus on what is already known about your topic
Step 1: Select Your Topic
- Choose a topic related to your group research project
- Coordinate with your instuctors, mentors, and team members
- Good strategy: each student reviews one aspect (e.g., land‑use, water quality, or wildlife dimension of CRP in Kansas)
- Deliverable: short typed description (≤ 1 page) of your subject area
Steps 2–3: Search & Annotated Bibliography
Step 2: Conduct a Literature Search
- Goal: find the 10 most relevant scholarly sources on your topic
- Focus on peer‑reviewed research articles (plus key books/monographs)
- Use library databases and Google Scholar; most generic web pages are not suitable
Step 3: Prepare Annotated Bibliographies
- Minimum of 10 articles that you found and read
- Each annotation (1–3 paragraphs) should include:
- Purpose and research question
- Methods and study area
- Key results and conclusions
- Your personal comments (connection to your project)
Steps 4–5: Write the Review, Final Product & Citation Style
Step 4: Write the Literature Review
- Introduction: introduce topic and how you organize the literature
- Body: organized by themes, concepts, chronology, or methods
- Summary: brief synthesis plus 2+ possible future research questions linked to your findings
Step 5: Prepare the Final Product
- Title page
- Distinct section headings (Introduction, Thematic Sections, Summary/Future Research)
- Figures/maps if helpful, with proper captions and citations
- Bibliography including your 10 annotated articles plus any additional key sources
Annotated Bibliography Examples
See examples from past students on Canvas:
Annotated Bibliography Examples
When reviewing the examples, notice:
- How the citation is formatted at the top
- The level of detail in the annotation (1–3 paragraphs)
- How students synthesize purpose, methods, results, and conclusions
- Personal comments connecting the paper to their research question
- Use of key graphics or tables (when included)