Remember that a "literature review is a systematic examination of the scholarly literature about one’s topic. It critically analyzes, evaluates, and synthesizes research findings, theories, and practices by scholars and researchers that are related to an area of focus." (Efron and Ravid 2018)
Unlike an annotated bibliography that just lists sources, a literature review is specifically organized to connect your sources together. Here are a few suggestions on how to organize a literature review and why you may do so. You can organize a literature review by:
- Chronology or in order they were published: if your topic uses sources from different disciplines and/or time periods, it may make sense to connect them chronologically in order to show the progression of research or common themes across disciplines. For example: a literature review about the inequities faced by the unhoused population in Los Angeles may include scholarly articles and research studies on job loss and home insecurity first (earliest published source) then newspaper articles on an increase in the unhoused population then a city council bill to criminalize those living in public spaces (last published source).
- Trend, issue, or theme: if you have sources that all explore a similar direction, argument, or problem, you can show their relationship to one another in the literature review. For example, a literature review about assistive technology helping students with disabilities may include sources by what disability was being treated, and then present the history of using assistive technology to treat that particular disability in chronological order. (From Lesley Guide to Literature Review)
- Methodological or by research methods used: group and connect sources that use similar or the same methods to conduct research. For example, a literature review on cleft palate surgeries for children in Asia may compare medical techniques fusing the cleft tissues.
- Publication: connect sources written in conversation with one another within a single journal or across journals in a discipline
You can also organize your literature review by influential theories, authors or writers, research that is contested or disagreed with, or from broad to specific in relation to your topic.
Watch this short video (3:44) for other ways to organize your sources in a literature review.