✦Research · 12 recordsLiterature review

Literature reviews sprawl because searching feels productive and never finishes. This makes the search a bounded project with its own deadline, and treats synthesis as writing rather than as something that happens once enough has been read.

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The whole plan, before you install it

Goal

A review that argues rather than lists Month 3

Organised by claim, not by paper, and finished on a date.

Search, with a stopping rule Week 5

Bounded, because searching feels productive and never ends.

  • Write the search terms and the inclusion rule downDo firstDay 4
  • Run the searches and build the listWeek 3
  • Stop searching on the date, whatever the list looks likeDo firstWeek 5

Read and synthesise Month 3

Written as I go, grouped by claim rather than by source.

  • Group what I have by the claims being madeDo firstWeek 6
  • Draft the argument, not the summariesMonth 2
  • Name the gap the review is pointing atMonth 3

Routines

  • Read and note two papersdaily
  • Write up the week's readingweekly
✦ It comes with a note

By claim, not by paper

A per-paper pile is easy to build and very hard to write from. Grouping by the claims being made means the structure of the review emerges from the notes instead of being imposed at the end.\n\nThe stopping rule matters more than it looks. New sources stop changing the shape of the argument a while before that feels true.

✦ Questions

Literature review, answered.

When new sources stop changing the shape of the argument, or when the deadline arrives — whichever comes first. The plan sets a date because the first condition can be true for a while before it feels true.
No. Writing the synthesis as you go is what reveals which gaps matter, and a review written entirely at the end tends to be a list of summaries rather than an argument about what the field currently believes.
By the claims being made rather than by paper. A per-paper pile is easy to build and hard to write from; grouping by claim means the structure of the review emerges from the notes instead of being imposed afterwards.
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