Summarising papers has two stages: summarising one paper, and laying several summaries side by side. Mixing the two leaves both half done. This article takes them in order.
Summarising one paper
For each paper, write these six fields. Do not write more.
| Field | What goes in it | Length |
|---|---|---|
| Reference | Authors, year, journal | One line |
| Question | What this study set out to answer | One sentence |
| Method | What was studied, and how | One or two sentences |
| Result | What was found | One or two sentences |
| Limits | The limits the authors themselves state | One sentence |
| Relevance | How it bears on your own work | One sentence |
Do not write a long summary. Carefully restating a paper takes as long to reread as the paper itself, and the paper is more accurate. The point of a summary is not having to go back.
The last field matters most. A summary without it gives you nothing months later. Write whether you agree, whether you are borrowing the method, or whether it is a comparison case.
Laying them side by side
Once you have about ten, build a table: papers as rows, aspects as columns.
Pick the aspects that fit your question. These five are common.
- Population or subject
- Period the data covers
- Method
- Main result
- Direction of the conclusion (supports, contradicts, conditional)
The table shows you where the field disagrees. When two papers answer the same question differently, look at what differs: the population, the period, or the method.
Explaining that difference is your literature review section. It reads far better than introducing papers one at a time.
From the table to prose
Write it up in this order.
- What is agreed. “Most studies report that…”
- Where it splits. “Others, however, report…”
- Why it splits. “This difference may follow from the age ranges studied.”
- What is missing. “None of these studies addresses…”
- Where your work sits. “This study addresses that by…”
Steps 4 and 5 are where you justify your own work. Steps 1 to 3 exist to get you there. A review that stops at step 3 will come back from your supervisor.
Three common failures
Ordering by paper. Introducing papers one by one, in reading order or by year, hides the relationships. Organise by aspect instead.
Giving every paper equal space. Papers close to your work deserve depth; distant ones deserve a line. Space signals importance.
Omitting limits. Every paper has them, and the authors state them. Picking them up is how you justify your own study.
Where to keep them
Summaries in a paper notebook cannot be re-sorted. Use a spreadsheet, or a place where the notes stay attached to the paper.
In Litlas you can attach notes to the papers you save, so the summary and the paper sit together and going back to the source is one click. Following the citation graph lets you gather the ten papers for your table in the same place. The free plan needs no card and works right away.
Next
The wider structure of a review is covered in organising a literature review, and the reading that comes first is in reading a paper in three passes.