Struggling to start your PhD literature review? You’re certainly not alone! In this video I’ll show you how to start strong, avoiding the common feelings of overwhelm and procrastination that blight many a doctoral student’s early literature review attempts!

PhD literature reviews are very different from the literature reviews you may have done for your bachelor's or master’s degree. They’re more extensive – both in scope and in depth – and this can make them feel impossible at times!

Students often make a start, only to find themselves drowning in a sea of academic literature a couple of weeks later, not sure what’s relevant and what isn’t, and where to draw the line between what absolutely should be included in their literature review, and what absolutely shouldn’t.

Starting strong is the key to avoiding these literature review dramas!

In this video, I’ll walk you through how to begin your literature review. We’ll start by identifying some specific literature review questions – so you know exactly what you need the literature to do for you, avoiding tangents and rabbit holes! Then we’ll go through the process of identifying keywords and key phrases to use in your literature searches, the importance of keeping track of them, and how to use Boolean operators in your searches – don’t worry – I’ll explain it all.

Throughout the video, I’ll use an example PhD research project, “Mid-Career Social Workers Experiences of Professional Development: Balancing “the job” with climbing the career ladder.” This will help you see how you can implement the advice I’m sharing with you, as far too much of the PhD literature review advice out there is completely abstract!

Please share your thoughts and questions in the comments, I would love to hear from you!

Chapters
0:00 – 1:46 Introduction and overview
1:47 – 4:40 Be intentional – go in with literature review questions
4:41 – 6:51 Identifying literature review search keywords and key phrases
6:52 – 7:26 Set up a system to organise your literature searches and review
7:27 – 9:12 Starting your literature search
9:13 – 9:30 Starting your literature review
9:31 – 10:40 Recap and conclusions

// Other helpful videos //
ADVANCED Literature Review    • How to do a literature review that's ...  
How many literature review headings to include    • Literature Review Questions Answered ...  
Literature review insider secrets – from a professor with 20 years experience    • The PhD Literature Review | Three thi...  
How to structure your literature review    • How to structure your literature revi...  
STOP chasing a wordcount in your literature review    • Literature review writing - stop chas...  

// 25 FREE Literature Review Template Sentences! //
Grab my free Cheat Sheet, with 25 literature review template sentences, great for smashing through writer’s block! https://www.thedegreedoctor.com/25-li...

// PhD Survival Guides //
Get step-by-step help with my PhD Survival Guides, they walk you through each stage of the social sciences PhD journey – for title and introduction, to discussion and conclusion. Check them out here: https://www.thedegreedoctor.com/phd-s...