Literature Review
17 Best Literature Review Tools For Efficient Papers
Explore the 17 best literature review tools to streamline research and create efficient, high-quality papers.
Aug 16, 2024
You’ve spent hours, maybe even days, doing a literature search for your research paper. You’ve gathered a heap of studies, articles, and books. Now, it’s time to write your paper. But when you open your document and read through your research, you can’t help but feel overwhelmed. How will you organize this information and pull together your literature review? Sound familiar? If so, you’re not alone.
Literature reviews and their associated tasks, like writing and organizing, stress out tons of students and researchers alike. The good news is that literature reviews don’t have to be daunting. This guide will offer valuable insights into literature review tools and how they can help you write efficient research papers and get unique study material with AI.
One valuable tool you can use to achieve your literature review objectives is Otio's AI research and writing partner. This powerful software can help you organize your research, write your literature review, and get fantastic study material to breeze through your following literature review.
Table of Contents
What is A Literature Review?
A literature review summarizes published information on a particular topic. It can focus on research within a specific time frame or be a simple summary of existing sources. However, it typically has an organizational pattern combining summary and synthesis. A summary recaps the important information from a source.
In contrast, a synthesis reorganizes that information. It may combine existing information with new findings, give a new interpretation of existing material, or trace the intellectual progression in the field, including primary debates. Depending on the situation, literature reviews may evaluate the sources and advise the reader on the most pertinent.
Structure of A Literature Review
The introduction of your literature review sets the stage. It defines your topic and provides an appropriate context for reviewing the literature. Next, it establishes your reasons for reviewing the literature. Here, you’ll explain your point of view. The introduction also explains the organization of the review. This means you’ll outline the sequence of how the review will unfold. Finally, the introduction states the scope of the review.
This means you’ll define what is included and what isn’t included. For example, if you were reviewing the literature on obesity in children, you might say something like: There are many studies on obesity trends in the general population. However, since this research focuses on obesity in children, these will not be reviewed in detail and will only be referred to as appropriate.
What Comes Next? The Main Body of a Literature Review
Your literature review's middle or main body does most of the heavy lifting. This is where you organize the literature according to common themes. You’ll also provide insight into the relation between your chosen topic and the broader subject area, e.g., between obesity in children and obesity in general. Finally, the main body moves from a general, more comprehensive view of the reviewed literature to the specific focus of your research.
Finish Strong: The Conclusion of a Literature Review
The conclusion of your literature review summarizes the essential aspects of the existing body of literature. It also evaluates the current state of the literature reviewed, identifies significant flaws or gaps in existing knowledge, and outlines areas for future study. Finally, the conclusion links your research to existing knowledge.
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How To Write A Literature Review In 4 Simple Steps
Define Your Research Scope
Outline the focus of your literature review. What research question will your literature review help to define? Are there any specific number of sources that your review should include?
Identify the Literature
Start by searching broadly. Literature for your review will typically be acquired through scholarly books, journal articles, and/or dissertations. Develop an understanding of what is out there, what terms are accurate and helpful, etc., and keep track of it with citation management tools.
Critically Analyze the Literature
A critical analysis of the literature collected around your topic is key to your literature review. The analysis will explore relationships, significant themes, and any vital gaps in the research expressed in the work. Read and summarize each source to analyze authority, currency, coverage, methodology, and relationship to other works.
Categorize Your Resources
Divide the available resources that pertain to your research into categories reflecting their roles in addressing your research question. Possible ways to categorize resources include organization by chronology, theme methodology, and theoretical/philosophical approach.
Regardless of the division, each category should be accompanied by thorough discussions and explanations of strengths and weaknesses, value to the overall survey, and comparisons with similar sources. You may have enough resources when You've used multiple databases and other resources (web portals, repositories, etc.) to get a variety of perspectives on the research topic. The duplicate citations are showing up in a variety of databases.
17 Best Literature Review Tools For Efficient Papers
1. Otio: Your AI Research and Writing Partner
Researchers, students, and knowledge workers today face the daunting challenge of content overload. Anyone can create content online with a button, and this problem will only worsen. Otio solves this problem by providing researchers with one AI-native workspace. It helps them go from the reading list to the first draft faster. Here’s how it works:
1. Collect a wide range of data sources, from bookmarks, tweets, and extensive books to YouTube videos.
2. Extract key takeaways with detailed AI-generated notes and source-grounded Q&A chat.
3.. Create draft outputs using the sources you’ve collected.
Along with this, Otio also helps you write research papers/essays faster. Here are our top features that researchers love: AI-generated notes on all bookmarks (Youtube videos, PDFs, articles, etc.), Otio enabling you to chat with individual links or entire knowledge bases, just like you chat with ChatGPT and AI-assisted writing.
Let Otio be your AI research and writing partner — try Otio for free today!
2. Science Open: An Open Alternative to Paywalled Research
If you want to perform a literature search without paying for Web of Science or Scopus, or if you are tired of the limited functionality of the free Google Scholar, check out ScienceOpen. This scientific search engine is freely accessible with a visually appealing and functional design. Search results are clearly labeled for the publication type, number of citations, altmetrics scores, etc., and allow for filtering. You can also access citation metrics, i.e., display which publications have cited a certain paper.
3. Semantic Scholar: AI for Research
Semantic Scholar is a powerful tool for researchers looking to access and analyze scholarly literature. This tool is designed to leverage AI and semantic analysis to enhance research and unlock valuable insights from academic papers. Semantic Scholar is a go-to platform for researchers seeking in-depth exploration of scholarly literature.
4. Research Rabbit: Researching Papers Made Easy
Research Rabbit is an AI-powered app that helps researchers find, organize, and analyze research papers. It is a free tool that anyone can use, regardless of their research experience. Research Rabbit uses AI to scan the web for relevant scholarly articles. The AI-based tool also allows you to save and organize articles in your library.
To use Research Rabbit, you first need to create an account. Once you have created an account, you can start searching for research papers. You can search by keyword, topic, or author. Once you have found the papers you are interested in, you can add them to your collections. Collections are a way to organize your research papers. You can create as many collections as you need.
5. Rayyan: Accelerate Systematic Reviews
Rayyan is an AI-powered app that helps researchers conduct systematic literature reviews. A systematic literature review is a comprehensive research process that involves identifying, evaluating, and synthesizing all the available research on a particular topic.
Rayyan helps you work quickly through even your most significant reviews. It lets you deduplicate, screen, and organize references, collaborate with your team, and generate reports. You can use Rayyan to import references from various sources, apply inclusion and exclusion criteria, assign labels and ratings, and export your data for further analysis.
6. SciSpace: The Research Paper Reading Assistant
SciSpace is an AI-powered literature review tool that excels in helping users find, read, and comprehend research papers. With a repository housing over 270 million research papers, SciSpace offers an extensive collection to explore. The key highlight of SciSpace is its AI research assistant, Copilot, which provides explanations, summaries, and answers as users navigate research papers.
7. The Lens: Search Literature and Patents
The Lens is a tool that allows you to search for scholarly literature and patents! Millions of patents from over 95 jurisdictions can be searched. The Lens is run by the non-profit social enterprise Cambia. The search engine is free to use for the public, though charges occur for commercial use and to get additional functionality.
8. Scholarcy: Your Automated Reading Assistant
Scholarcy is an AI-powered app that can help you with your academic reading. It can
automatically summarize articles, create flashcards, and generate bibliographies. Scholarcy can also help you find related research and identify essential article information.
To use Scholarcy, you first need to create an account. Once you have created an account, you can add articles to your library. Additionally, you can add academic papers from various sources like Google Scholar, PubMed, and your library. Once you have added scholarly articles to your library, you can use Scholarcy’s features.
To summarize an article, simply click on the “Summarize” button. Scholarcy will then generate a summary of the article in a few seconds. Scholarcy is a valuable tool that can help you with your academic reading. If you are looking for a way to save time, improve your understanding, and increase your productivity, Scholarcy is an excellent option.
9. Elicit.org: Streamline Your Research Workflow
Elicit.org is a top choice for researchers looking to streamline the process of extracting, organizing, and synthesizing information from various sources. By enabling efficient data analysis, Elicit.org empowers users to delve deeper into their academic pursuits and uncover valuable insights.
10. Citation Gecko: Visualize Citation Networks
The literature search tool Citation Gecko is an open-source web app that makes it easier to discover relevant scientific literature than your average keyword-based search engine for research papers. It works like this: First, you upload about 5-6 “seed papers.”
The program then extracts all references in and to these seed papers and creates a visual citation network. The nodes are displayed in different colors and sizes depending on whether the papers cite a seed paper or are cited by it and how many. You can discover new papers relevant to your scientific literature search by combing the citation network. You can also increase your citation network by including more seed papers.
11. Scite AI: Analyze Citations to Find Relevant Research
Scite.Ai stands out as a popular literature review tool that transforms the research process for scholars. With its innovative citation analysis feature, Scite.Ai enables researchers to evaluate the credibility and impact of scientific articles. By providing valuable insights, researchers can make informed decisions when incorporating scientific articles into their work.
12. Lateral: Find Research and Write Better Papers
Lateral is an AI-powered app that can help you with your academic research. It can help you find relevant research, organize your findings, and write better papers. Lateral uses artificial intelligence to analyze research papers and identify key concepts, relationships, and trends.
This information can then be used to help you find relevant research, organize your findings, and write better papers. It helps you organize, search, and save information from collections of articles. You can import articles from various sources, create tags and notes, and use natural language queries to find specific information in your collections. You can use Lateral to manage your literature review workflow, keep track of your sources and citations, and access your information anytime and anywhere.
13. DistillerSR: A Trusted Literature Review Tool
DistillerSR is a reliable literature review tool trusted by researchers for its user-friendly interface and advanced search capabilities. With DistillerSR, researchers can quickly identify relevant studies from multiple databases, saving time and effort in the literature review process.
14. Consensus AI: Find Research Answers Quickly
If you are looking for a way to quickly and easily find answers from scientific research, you might want to try Consensus AI, a new search engine that uses artificial intelligence to extract and distill findings directly from peer-reviewed studies. Consensus AI is a powerful tool that can help you find evidence-based answers from scientific research quickly and easily. You can also use various features to refine your search and explore more options. Consensus AI can help you save time and effort in finding reliable information from scientific research.
15. RAx: The Reading Assistant for Researchers
It is an AI-powered reading assistant that helps you organize, annotate, and collaborate on your research. It helps you fine-tune your literature search, generate summaries, highlight and compare ideas, and share and discuss literature with your team. You can use RAx to create different projects for your research topics, import articles from various sources, annotate them with notes and comments and get personalized suggestions for further reading.
16. Sysrev: AI for Literature Review Screening and Collaboration
Sysrev is an AI-powered tool for article review, screening, collaboration, and data extraction. By leveraging machine learning, Sysrev facilitates the exploration of academic publications, abstracts, and PDF documents. The platform is free and supports public and Open Access projects exclusively.
17. Read by QXMD: Stay Updated on Research in Your Field
Read By QXMD is a versatile literature review tool that is available in an app or browser window. This tool lets users create a daily personalized feed with new research papers on chosen topics or journals. With Read, users can access openly accessible articles with a single click, making it easy to stay up-to-date with the latest research in their field.
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What Are The 4 Methods of Literature Review?
Narrative Review: Research's Storyteller
Narrative reviews weave a well-structured account that reads like a cohesive story, providing a comprehensive overview of a specific research topic. These reviews often incorporate historical context and offer a broad understanding of the subject matter, making them valuable for researchers looking to establish foundational knowledge of their area of interest. They are handy when a historical perspective or a broad context is necessary to comprehend a field's current state of knowledge.
Systematic Review: The Gold Standard of Literature Reviews
Systematic reviews are renowned for their methodological rigor. They involve a meticulously structured process that systematically selects relevant studies, extracts comprehensive data, and synthesizes their findings. This systematic approach minimizes bias and subjectivity, making systematic reviews highly reliable and objective. They are considered the gold standard for evidence-based research as they provide a clear and rigorous assessment of the available evidence on a specific research question.
Meta-Analysis: The Power of Numbers
Meta-analysis is a powerful method for researchers who prefer a quantitative and statistical perspective. It involves the statistical synthesis of data from various studies, allowing researchers to draw more precise and generalizable conclusions by combining data from multiple sources. Meta-analyses are especially valuable when the aim is to quantitatively measure the effect size or impact of a particular intervention, treatment, or phenomenon.
Scoping Review: An Early Exploration Tool
Scoping reviews are invaluable tools, especially for researchers in the early stages of exploring a topic. These reviews aim to map the existing literature, identify gaps, and help clarify research questions. Scoping reviews provide a panoramic view of the available research, which is particularly useful when researchers are starting exploratory studies or trying to understand the breadth and depth of a subject before conducting more focused research.
Supercharge Your Researching Ability With Otio — Try Otio for Free Today
Researchers today face more challenges than ever when it comes to literature reviews. The shift from qualitative to quantitative research in academic circles has increasingly emphasized data collection and analysis. Literature reviews, once considered a mere summary of existing knowledge on a topic, are now considered essential for identifying knowledge gaps and informing subsequent research.
Today, literature reviews can involve extensive data collection from diverse sources, including academic journals, repositories, social media, podcasts, books, websites, and more. The problem? There is so much content that conducting a thorough literature review has become a gargantuan task. Otio is designed to help researchers lighten the load when collecting and organizing existing knowledge on a topic.
Otio: Your AI Research Assistant in the Age of Overload
Research has never been easy. But today, the volume of existing content on any given topic can be overwhelming. To make matters worse, the tools available to researchers are often fragmented, complex, and manual. This means knowledge workers, researchers, and students can navigate these cumbersome processes independently. Otio is designed to help researchers tackle literature reviews, lighten the load, and get on with their original research.
Otio Collects Data From Diverse Sources
Otio helps researchers collect various data sources, from bookmarks, tweets, and extensive books to YouTube videos. With Otio, you can organize your research quickly - before you even read a single article.
This AI-native research tool helps you to go from the reading list to the first draft faster. Along with this, Otio also helps you write research papers/essays faster. Here are our top features that researchers love: AI-generated notes on all bookmarks (Youtube videos, PDFs, articles, etc.), Otio enables you to chat with individual links or entire knowledge bases, just like you chat with ChatGPT, as well as AI-assisted writing.
Let Otio be your AI research and writing partner — try Otio for free today!
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