Outline. Sentence outline keyed to the literature cited. Final draft. Council of Science Editors Format with twenty primary sources cited. The review should include a minimum of twenty primary sources from the scientific literature. Additional primary, secondary, or tertiary sources may be used for additional background if needed. The literature review is NOT a summary of twenty scientific articles or a regurgitation of their findings. Your literature review paper should be a synthesis of existing research on a top ic where you, the author, have a clear voice and perspective in the paper. It should have some sort of thesis, and the primary scientific articles should serve as evidence or examples that support your thesis. Some articles you include may contradict or confuse you thesis, in which case you need to explain or discuss them in the process of defending your thesis.
Your literature review may:
• Summarize and synthesize evidence for and against an unresolved hypothesis
• Evaluate the pros and cons of a methodology in biology or medicine
• Place each work in the context of its contribution to the understanding of the subject under review
• Describe the relationship of each work to the others under consideration
• Identify new ways to interpret, and shed light on any gaps in, previous research
• Resolve conflicts amongst seemingly contradictory previous studies •
