Mathematics & Statistics (UNH Durham): Literature Reviews

Zotero

Zotero is a free, open source bibliographic management tool that operates as an extension of the Firefox browser.   Zotero allows the collection of citations to any kind of material and automatically formats bibliographies in almost any style.  Zotero also has many search, tagging, and note taking features.  Visit the Zotero quick start guide to learn more. 

EndNote

EndNote is another option, offered through the Web of Science database.  It enables users to collect, organize, and format citations the Web of Science database and other ISI products and to input citations to any other outside matrials.  To register, go into the Web of Science database and click on "EndNote" at the top of the screen.  Endnote accounts can be accessed from any computer at the institution or off-campus through VPN. 

The goal of a comprehensive literature review is to find all the relevant publications on a topic and to then summarize and synthesize that information. A literature review can help you find areas where further research is needed, narrow a research topic, or determine if a thesis question is unique.

The major resources for finding math education literature are different from those that have been developed to cover the literature of pure & applied mathematics and statistics, so there are separate resource lists, below. Ask your librarian if you have questions about where and how to search.

A short video about the why, what, and how of literature reviews (<10 min.):

"Literature Reviews: An Overview for Graduate Students" -- from the North Carolina State University Libraries.

Note for students:  this is a general description.  The type and comprehensiveness of your literature review is determined by your particular assignment and goals. 

There are different ways that you can access the ERIC database.  Here are two of them:

• Direct link to the ERIC site: The home site of the Education Resources Information Center contains the most comprehensive information about ERIC. Here you will find background information on what the collection includes, the journals that are indexed and their coverage years, a non-journal source list (grey literature and books from hundreds of organizations producing education-related material), the Thesaurus that you can search or browse by category, and videos on using ERIC. The RSS feed feature helps you keep up-to-date with new content available from several predefined sources and topics, or, you can create a customized feed for new content matching your own pre-defined criteria as it is added to ERIC.
• ERIC on EBSCOhost: EBSCOhost also provides access to the ERIC database. One advantage of searching ERIC through EBSCOhost's Academic Search Premier is that you can search simultaneously across ERIC and other Ebsco databases by clicking on the “choose databases” feature located on the search interface.