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HDR Literature Review Plan

Manage your data

Managing your data is an incredibly important part of any research project, even your literature review. Deakin broadly defines research data as:

All data collected, observed, or created by researchers in the course of their work, for the purposes of analysis to produce original research results.

All researchers are responsible for managing their research data effectively under Deakin policies, and the Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research (2018).

It's a good idea to have a plan! Extensive information about research data management is available on the Manage Data website.


Data considerations

For the purposes of your literature review, consider these data questions, and plan what you will do:

  • Where will you store physical data for your review? eg. books, notes, other artifacts
  • Where will you store digital data for your review? eg. PDFs, notes, your Endnote library, your chapter drafts
  • Is your digital data backed up safely?
  • What would happen to your project if your laptop was lost or stolen?

Publishing your literature review

There is an increasing trend for researchers to publish high quality literature reviews as review articles. Such published review articles often follow a systematic search and review process and attract high citations.

When developing such high quality literature reviews, it is key to treat and manage the literature you've collected and analysed as your research data. 

Check out the Library's Systematic and systematic-like review toolkit for further information on systematic searching in order to publish your literature review, the guide provides information and step-by-step instructions on:

  • Selecting an appropriate literature review method
  • Conducting systematic and systematic-like reviews.