Media Arts & Design: COMM 3067: Science Fiction Film and Television

Your literature review becomes an essential link in your research project: 

• The literature review provides the reader with all the important background information needed to understand your project
• It places your project as one link in a chain of research that is developing knowledge in your field. To understand where you are going, it is important to understand what came before you
• It demonstrates to the reader that you are aware of up-to-date and important knowledge on your topic
• It may also be used to justify or provide a rationale for your research question, your research framework or your methodology

An annotated bibliography

• In an annotated bibliography the writer presents a summary and critical evaluation of each article or scholarly resource one by one
• There is little or no connection made between the various articles or resources

An essay

• In an essay you are given a topic to discuss or a question to answer and the writing is organised around responding to that topic or question
• The essay progresses in a linear way, where you present your first point, followed by an explanation which is supported by the literature
• You then move on to the second point and so on
• In an essay the literature has a supporting role; whereas, in a literature review it is the literature itself which is the subject of discussion

The body of your literature review will be organised in a way that best suits your topic

• Historically/chronologically - If you are looking at the evolution of a concept or practice overtime or evaluating whether a concept from 20 years ago holds up today, then a historical or chronological organisation might be appropriate
• Research questions - Some writers organise their literature review around the research questions
• Themes - A very common way to organise the literature review is according to key themes which emerge from the literature in relation to your topic

Databases

The Library collection does not list everything we have access to. Try a database when you are not finding relevant results in the collection or if you want to restrict your results to a specific discipline, topic area or material type.

Here is an example within ProQuest Central. Proquest Central is a multidisciplinary database covering 160 subject areas including film, media, screen and cultural studies. Ensure you only use references from this database that are from the relevant subject areas as you may find a reference from an unrelated subject area that seems relevant but might not be appropriate to include in your literature review.

Example Advanced Search

• Put a different concept on each line
• Use OR to connect any similar terms (synonyms)

• Tip: Use the Find it button to locate full text articles

Google Scholar

Try Google Scholar to find scholarly information. An advantage of Google Scholar is that it provides access to the full text of many UniSA scholarly (academic) articles if you connect via the link above or from the Library home page.

The Advanced search option gives more flexibility when you search. To access it, select the hamburger menu (three lines) in the top left corner of Google Scholar. This menu will appear once you do an initial search in Google Scholar.

Here is an example:

BrowZine

BrowZine™ allows you to easily access and browse journals available online via UniSA. Access via Library homepage > Journals.

For your literature review, it is important that your references are from relevant sources. Within BrowZine, from the left-hand menu you can filter down to Arts and Humanities > Film and Media Studies to browse through Film and Media Studies journals. 

Identifying key scholars on your topic

• Step 1:

• Perform a library collection search on your chosen topic

• Step 2:

• If you find a good reference, take a note of the author and scroll down the page to find the item record details

• Step 3

• Select the author link. This will search the library collection for other references by this author. As you continue your search, take note of names which appear alongside that author such as co-authors. You may want to look at other references by these authors, too.

• Step 4:
• Look for authors that have been cited within the items you retrieve from the library collection as well as the dates of their major works.  

  Task: Follow the steps above to find information on the author within this journal article 

• Lead the reader through your ideas and understandings
• Have clear sections and subsections to your literature review
• Ensure that each paragraph has one clear idea
• Use sign posting, transitioning and linking language to connect ideas and to move from one paragraph to the next

• Summarise the main focus of the literature review
• Highlight the gap in the literature
• Make a connection between your literature review and your research questions