How to Get Help

Library Resources

The Libraries can help you identify resources you can use to find sources for your literature review. You can consult with a librarian in your subject area to discuss the scope of your review and strategies for finding, evaluating, and keeping current with sources. Librarians are also available to consult in other areas of the research process, such as publishing and sharing your research, data management, and copyright.

• Science & Engineering Librarians
• All Subject Librarians
• Research Guides
• Library Help page
• Library Research Tutorials for help on conducting research, accessing library resources, and using library services

Libraries staff welcome your questions and look forward to working with you!

Writing Center Resouces

The Writing Center can help you brainstorm, draft, and revise your literature review. Currently enrolled UW-Madison students can meet with a Writing Center instructor by scheduling an appointment online.

• Virtual Meetings
• Written Feedback
• Graduate Writing Groups
  • Structured time for goal-setting, community-building, and getting words on the page. Graduate students from all UW programs and disciplines are welcome.
• Writer’s Handbook
  • Definitions, descriptions, and examples of writing topics from grammar and punctuation to mind mapping and reverse outlining
• Chat service

The Writing Center staff look forward to working with you!

Lesson Resources & Links

Lesson 1: What is a Literature Review

• Sutton, A., Clowes, M., Preston, L. and Booth, A. (2019). Meeting the review family: exploring review types and associated information retrieval requirements. Health Info Libr J, 36: 202-222.
• Additional Resources:
  • UW-Madison Ebling Library for Health Sciences: Systematic Reviews Research Guide
  • Yale Library: Systematic Review Types and Evidence Synthesis: Review Types
  • Book Chapter: Cleophas T.J., Zwinderman A.H. (2017) Meta-analysis in a Nutshell. In: Modern Meta-Analysis. Springer, Cham.

Lesson 2: Reviewing the Literature: Fundamental Research Skills

• Library Research Tutorials
  • Finding Article Databases
  • Searching Databases
  • Searching the Library Catalog
• UW-Madison Library Databases
  • Web of Science
  • Scopus
  • Google Scholar
  • Other UW-Madison Library Databases: by subject coverage
  • Other UW-Madison Library Databases: by content type
• Finding U.S. federal grant awards
  • NIH RePORTER
  • Current Research Information Service: CRIS
  • Research Spending & Results: Research.gov
• Staying Current
  • Steenbock Library: Keeping Current
  • Ebling Library Research Guide: Current Awareness & RSS
  • BrowZine
  • Literature Search Log (Excel spreadsheet)
  • Evidence Analysis Log (Excel spreadsheet)
• UW-Madison Libraries Citation Managers

Lesson 3: Composing the Review: Fundamental Writing Skills

• Writing summaries (annotated bibliographies)
• Finding and using citation managers
• Annotating PDF documents
• Outlining
• Mind-mapping
• Freewriting
• Reverse outlining
• Editing for clear, concise sentences