Publication record
- Original publication period
- July–December 2025
- Digitized / uploaded online
- August 10, 2026
The digitization/upload date records when this file was added to the website; it is not the article's original publication date.
Abstract
A literature review is often taught as a preliminary collection of sources, yet its more important function is to construct a defensible research problem. This conceptual article reframes reviewing as an architecture of claims, relationships, and unresolved questions. It distinguishes six review purposes and proposes a workflow for delimiting the problem space, retrieving and evaluating evidence, coding claims, synthesizing relationships, and converting tensions into research questions.