Searching the Chemical Literature: a Brief Guide to a Comprehensive Literature Review (with particular reference to analytical chemistry)
Abstract
A literature review yields good knowledge of prior work on a topic and is essential to efficient working and publication of current work in a fair and transparent manner. There have been many advances in access to the literature in recent years and it appeared timely to the authors to offer some up-to-date guidance. Thus, a brief systematic four-stage process is outlined in order to produce a comprehensive, transparent and accurate review of all relevant earlier work prior to any discussion of claims of originality of concepts or of applications in publications of recent research findings.
