A&M-SA Research Guides: Literature Review Development Support: Determining What to Include/Exclude

Scope Challenge

The answer to this question depends on several factors, most of which are related to your topic

Broadness or narrowness of your topic:
- More focused topics can mean fewer resources to review.
Newness of your topic:
- New-to-the-field topics can mean less has been published so there may be fewer materials to reviews, but you may need to find resources published in other disciplines to pull from.
- New topics can be popular with researchers with many researchers trying to publish literature at the time you are doing your research. Such hot topics can generate a large amount of literature in a short time.
Theoretical framework(s):
- Are you referencing one theory or more than one theory?
- Referencing more than one theory can increase the amount of literature you need to review and include.
Other factors
- Your instructor or the overall program may have set expectations regarding amounts and types of literature sources required
- Journals may have specifications or limitations to consider if you are hoping
  to publish beyond the course/university.

Many library sites recommend that you come up with specific answers to the questions below as you are starting your review:

What exactly are you researching and writing about? Try to form succinct problem statements or research questions.
How comprehensive will your review be? Will it cover all relevant material, the most cited sources, or perhaps the most recent articles, etc. (Note: If you are referencing a theoretical framework, you may be needing to include older sources.)
How long will your review be? How many citations/references do you plan to include?
Are you focusing on types of research methods (qualitative, quantitative, etc.) or specific theories or frameworks?
Are you limiting your search to one discipline, or are you broadening your scope to include related disciplines and interdisciplinary research?
Will you only use sources in one language, or are you considering information written in other languages?

Go to Gale Onefile: Academic(Gale).
Under Search Options in the second level menu, select Topic Finder.
Enter keywords to describe your topic. See the bilingual education example pictured.
Select to view your results as Tiles or as a Wheel. A wheel visualization is shown in this box.
Sizes of sections indicate the numbers of publications that use the word or phrase.
Sections that are the same or a similar color show close relationships among words and phrases.
Research focus too broad? See the narrow sections of the wheel to add more specific keywords to your topic. [E.g., (English language educational programs AND schools) could be made more specific by adding Latino/Hispanic Americans AND parents.]
Research focus too narrow? Try using the wheel to identify broad topics and subject areas. Educational Programs indicates Education as a subject, while Language could be a second related broad subject.

Defining the Boundaries of Your Thesis Research Problem
Thesis Upgrade, a site and company that "offers practical research guidance" based in Ireland offers a strategy for keeping your literature review focused. The proposed strategy can also be applied to keyword searching of databases when you are looking for relevant articles and other sources.
Setting a Broad Scope
This page by the Writing Center at Walden University shows a broad scope for a literature review research topic related to possible working memory differences in boys with autism compared to their peers. It suggests the possible inclusion of research on many theories and related topics. Remember, you should think about time and resource limitations when deciding on the suitable scope for your review.