literature review on mind map

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Literature Review: A Self-Guided Tutorial

Using concept maps.

• Literature Reviews: A Recap
• Peer Review
• Reading the Literature
• Developing Research Questions
• Considering Strong Opinions
• 2. Review discipline styles
• Super Searching
• Finding the Full Text
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• Citation Management
• Annotating Articles Tip
• 5. Critically analyze and evaluate
• How to Review the Literature
• Using a Synthesis Matrix
• 7. Write literature review

Concept maps or mind maps visually represent relationships of different concepts. In research, they can help you make connections between ideas. You can use them as you are formulating your research question, as you are reading a complex text, and when you are creating a literature review. See the video and examples below.

How to Create a Concept Map

Credit: Penn State Libraries ( CC-BY ) Run Time: 3:13

• Bubbl.us Free version allows 3 mind maps, image export, and sharing.
• MindMeister Free version allows 3 mind maps, sharing, collaborating, and importing. No image-based exporting.

Mind Map of a Text Example

Credit: Austin Kleon. A map I drew of John Berger’s Ways of Seeing in 2008. Tumblr post. April 14, 2016. http://tumblr.austinkleon.com/post/142802684061#notes

Literature Review Mind Map Example

This example shows the different aspects of the author's literature review with citations to scholars who have written about those aspects.

Credit: Clancy Ratliff, Dissertation: Literature Review. Culturecat: Rhetoric and Feminism [blog]. 2 October 2005. http://culturecat.net/node/955 .

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Literature Reviews

• Getting Started
• Choosing a Type of Review
• Developing a Research Question
• Searching the Literature
• Searching Tips
• ChatGPT [beta]
• Documenting your Search
• Using Citation Managers
• Concept Mapping
• Concept Map Definition

MindMeister

• Writing the Review
• Further Resources

Additional Tools

Google slides.

GSlides can create concept maps using their Diagram feature. Insert > Diagram > Hierarchy will give you some editable templates to use.

Tutorial on diagrams in GSlides .

MICROSOFT WORD

MS Word can create concept maps using Insert > SmartArt Graphic. Select Process, Cycle, Hierarchy, or Relationship to see templates.

NVivo  is software for qualitative analysis that has a concept map feature. Zotero libraries can be uploaded using ris files. NVivo Concept Map information.

A concept map or mind map is a visual representation of knowledge that illustrates relationships between concepts or ideas. It is a tool for organizing and representing information in a hierarchical and interconnected manner. At its core, a concept map consists of nodes, which represent individual concepts or ideas, and links, which depict the relationships between these concepts .

Below is a non-exhaustive list of tools that can facilitate the creation of concept maps.

www.canva.com

Canva is a user-friendly graphic design platform that enables individuals to create visual content quickly and easily. It offers a diverse array of customizable templates, design elements, and tools, making it accessible to users with varying levels of design experience. 

Pros: comes with many pre-made concept map templates to get you started

Cons : not all features are available in the free version

Explore Canva concept map templates here .

Note: Although Canva advertises an "education" option, this is for K-12 only and does not apply to university users.

www.lucidchart.com

Lucid has two tools that can create mind maps (what they're called inside Lucid): Lucidchart is the place to build, document, and diagram, and Lucidspark is the place to ideate, connect, and plan.

Lucidchart is a collaborative online diagramming and visualization tool that allows users to create a wide range of diagrams, including flowcharts, org charts, wireframes, and mind maps. Its mind-mapping feature provides a structured framework for brainstorming ideas, organizing thoughts, and visualizing relationships between concepts. 

Lucidspark , works as a virtual whiteboard. Here, you can add sticky notes, develop ideas through freehand drawing, and collaborate with your teammates. Has only one template for mind mapping.

Explore Lucid mind map creation here .

How to create mind maps using LucidSpark:

Note: U-M students have access to Lucid through ITS. [ info here ] Choose the "Login w Google" option, use your @umich.edu account, and access should happen automatically.

www.figma.com

Figma is a cloud-based design tool that enables collaborative interface design and prototyping. It's widely used by UI/UX designers to create, prototype, and iterate on digital designs. Figma is the main design tool, and FigJam is their virtual whiteboard:

Figma  is a comprehensive design tool that enables designers to create and prototype high-fidelity designs

FigJam focuses on collaboration and brainstorming, providing a virtual whiteboard-like experience, best for concept maps

Explore FigJam concept maps here .

Note: There is a " Figma for Education " version for students that will provide access. Choose the "Login w Google" option, use your @umich.edu account, and access should happen automatically.

www.mindmeister.com

MindMeister  is an online mind mapping tool that allows users to visually organize their thoughts, ideas, and information in a structured and hierarchical format. It provides a digital canvas where users can create and manipulate nodes representing concepts or topics, and connect them with lines to show relationships and associations.

Features : collaborative, permits multiple co-authors, and multiple export formats. The free version allows up to 3 mind maps.

Explore  MindMeister templates here .

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Literature Reviews

• What is a Literature Review?
• Concept Mapping
• Writing a Proposal
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Concept map example: Chocolate Purchasing Factors

What is concept mapping.

Concept Maps are a way to graphically represent ideas and how they relate to each other.

Concept maps may be simple designs illustrating a central theme and a few associated topics or complex structures that delineate hierarchical or multiple relationships.

J.D. Novak developed concept maps in the 1970's to help facilitate the research process for his students. Novak found that visually representing thoughts helped students freely associate ideas without being blocked or intimidated by recording them in a traditional written format.

Concept mapping involves defining a topic; adding related topics; and linking related ideas

Use Bubbl.us or search for more free mind-mapping tools on the web.

More Examples of Concept Maps

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• Library Guides

The Literature Review

• The Literature Review Toolbox

The Literature Review: The Literature Review Toolbox

• Primary and secondary sources
• Searching the literature
• Grey literature
• Organising and analysing
• Systematic Reviews

On this page

• The Literature Review Toolbox - library workshop
• The Literature Review Toolbox - handout
• Organising your literature in Endnote

Mind-mapping tools

Web content management tools.

• Using NVivo 10 for Wimdows for your literature review  

EndNote and NVivo for the literature review

NVivo can help you organise, manage and write your literature review. NVivo is a powerful tool to use when doing a qualitative analysis of your literature.

• Endnote and NVivo for the literature review_transcript

Organising your literature in EndNote

Keywords - You should separate your keywords with either a semi colon (;), backslash (\), or a carriage return (enter) and place each one on a separate line.

Notes - The Notes, Research Notes, and Abstract fields can each hold up to 64,000 characters, which is equivalent to about 16 pages of text. Use the Notes field to store personal reminders, such as the location of a quotation in a book or the quotation itself. Use the Abstract field for a brief description of the contents of the work.

Change Fields - An efficient way to add text to the above fields is to do a batch change using Change/ Move/Copy Fields. This can be found by clicking on ‘Tools’. This function can be especially helpful when you’re finding resources for your literature review and want to add to the results as you find them. For instance, you can use this technique to add text to the Name of Database field – i.e. Scopus – exported on 11/05/17. 

Searching  - You can search your entire Endnote Library for the keywords or notes that you have added. You can limit your search to particular fields in your reference or to the text within all the PDFs or to the sticky notes you’ve added to your PDFs. You can even search for text within a single reference.

Groups  - Grouping options include:

Custom Groups – you create and name these groups and have to add references to them manually.

Smart Groups – you set up the search criteria for this type of group and it will dynamically update itself as existing references are edited or new references are added to the library.

Annotating PDFs - You can not only attach a PDF to a reference as way of organising your files you can also annotate these PDFs. 

Create a template  - You can adjust your reference style to incorporate a literature review template for the purposes of your analysis (as discussed in the Organising and analysing section of this guide). The Library has created a customised 5-item literature review template style for VU APA, which is available for you to download via our Endnote guide . This 5-item template includes:

• Research question 
• Scope 
• Methodology
• Theoretical framework
• Major findings (such as gaps you notice that require further research or investigation)

If you'd like to learn how to create your own customised set of criteria, either attend a Literature Review Toolbox workshop, or consult the handout attached on this page.

Mind-mapping (or concept-mapping), whether aided by the use of a tool or not, is a great way to help you get a clear picture of your research area for your literature review. Put simply, a mind-map is a diagram that makes connections between ideas, arguments and concepts. A mind-map can be created using a pen and paper, or you can use an tool to create an online one. There are many online tools for mind-mapping to choose from such as iMindMap , TheBrain , Lucidchart and Xmind . Functionality to look out for when choosing the best mind-mapping tool for you includes:

• Mind mapping
• Brainstorming
• Note-taking
• Organising notes
• Attachments
• Hyperlinking
• Charts, figures etc

As a researcher, you are expected to read exhaustively on your topic, and this includes web content. Some web content such as grey literature may be included in your literature review, while others may come in the form of academic blogs and review articles that help inform your background knowledge of the topic. Either way, the seemingly never-ending barrage of web content can be overwhelming if not managed properly. Web content management tools such as Diigo and Delicious are great for this:

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• Literature review toolkit for policy studies

Literature review toolkit for policy studies: Concept mapping

Why create a concept map.

A concept map is a visualization of key idea in your research and the relationships between them. To create a concept map, pick out the main concepts of your topic and brainstorm everything you know about them, drawing shapes around your concepts and clustering the shapes in a way that's meaningful to you. How can this help?

• Helps you pull back to see the broader concepts at play.
• Can help identify the subject-based tool where literature can be found. 
• Helps clarify both what you already know and where you have gaps in your knowledge.

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LITERATURE REVIEW SOFTWARE FOR BETTER RESEARCH

“This tool really helped me to create good bibtex references for my research papers”

Ali Mohammed-Djafari

Director of Research at LSS-CNRS, France

“Any researcher could use it! The paper recommendations are great for anyone and everyone”

Swansea University, Wales

“As a student just venturing into the world of lit reviews, this is a tool that is outstanding and helping me find deeper results for my work.”

Franklin Jeffers

South Oregon University, USA

“One of the 3 most promising tools that (1) do not solely rely on keywords, (2) does nice visualizations, (3) is easy to use”

Singapore Management University

“Incredibly useful tool to get to know more literature, and to gain insight in existing research”

KU Leuven, Belgium

“Seeing my literature list as a network enhances my thinking process!”

Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium

“I can’t live without you anymore! I also recommend you to my students.”

Professor at The Chinese University of Hong Kong

“This has helped me so much in researching the literature. Currently, I am beginning to investigate new fields and this has helped me hugely”

Aran Warren

Canterbury University, NZ

“It's nice to get a quick overview of related literature. Really easy to use, and it helps getting on top of the often complicated structures of referencing”

Christoph Ludwig

Technische Universität Dresden, Germany

“Litmaps is extremely helpful with my research. It helps me organize each one of my projects and see how they relate to each other, as well as to keep up to date on publications done in my field”

Daniel Fuller

Clarkson University, USA

“Litmaps is a game changer for finding novel literature... it has been invaluable for my productivity.... I also got my PhD student to use it and they also found it invaluable, finding several gaps they missed”

Varun Venkatesh

Austin Health, Australia

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The effect of implementing mind maps for online learning and assessment on students during COVID-19 pandemic: a cross sectional study

Amany a. alsuraihi.

Physics Department, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, 21589 Saudi Arabia

Associated Data

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available as additional files.

In Saudi Arabia, the sudden shift from conventional (in-person) to online education due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic affected teaching and assessment methods. This research aimed to assess the effectiveness of mind maps in this regard, measure students’ reactions to certain educational environment-related changes caused by the pandemic, and identify skills that students perceived they gained through mind mapping.

This study employed a non-intervention (cross sectional) design. Participants were King Abdulaziz University students from two medical physics courses (second and fourth level). Data were collected twice (after the first and last mind mapping assignments), and responses were analyzed using a paired t-test. Overall student results were compared against overall student performance in the previous term using chi-squares test hypothesis testing. The data were collected and analyzed using SPSS software.

The results of the paired t-test showed no significant differences between students’ mean satisfaction in both surveys. Nevertheless, students’ responses revealed their satisfaction with using mind maps. Moreover, students believed that they gained skills like organizing and planning, decision making, and critical thinking from the mind map assignments. The chi-squares test (Chi-square = 4.29 < x 0.05 , 4 2  = 9.48 and p -value = 0.36 > 0.05) showed no differences in students’ grade distribution between the two terms of 2020 (pre- and post-COVID-19 pandemic) despite the change in assessment style post-pandemic commencement.

Conclusions

Mind mapping can be adapted as an online teaching and assessment method. Additionally, student support and education institution-level effective communication can reduce stress during challenging times.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12909-022-03211-2.

On January 7, 2020, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was identified as the cause of a cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan, China [ 1 ]. Since then, millions of people globally have been infected with COVID-19, and many families have been affected. To protect against the rapid spread of the virus, the World Health Organization recommends that people should maintain social distancing, wear masks, and practice good hygiene at all times. On March 8, 2020, following these recommendations, the government of Saudi Arabia closed educational institutions, including universities and schools at all levels, to control the spread of COVID-19 and protect the population. Hence, to maintain the safety of students and school staff while continuing to provide education, the Saudi Ministry of Education [ 2 ] made a sudden switch from conventional in-person education to virtual online education via different platforms. For instance, King Abdulaziz University began using the Blackboard platform. Support including workshops, necessary learning materials, and helplines were provided to ensure a smooth transition. However, many exams and quizzes were cancelled, and lecturers were directed to assess students' progress using other methods.

In the education field, and specifically in medical education, many learning strategies and tools have been designed to enhance students’ learning experiences, such as case-based teaching [ 3 ], role playing [ 4 ], problem-based learning, discussion groups [ 5 ], didactic learning [ 6 ], concept maps [ 7 ], and mind maps [ 8 ]. Both concept maps and mind maps are excellent learning tools to enhance students’ abilities to formulate concepts, analyze data, as well as connect ideas and understand the relationships between them. They both involve visual knowledge reconstruction, are easier to follow and engage with than verbal and written scripts, and provide an interactive learning method for students. However, they have certain differences. Concept mapping has a top-down structure that begins with the main concept/idea and branches out into sub-concepts/ideas, which are enclosed in circles or boxes. Association phrases and arrows are used to demonstrate the relationship between them. The structure could be hierarchical, non-hierarchical or data-driven. Some of the drawbacks of using concept maps are their limited extensibility, low memorability due to the level complexity of certain concepts, and the medium to high level of difficulty, as it requires expertise and training to master concept maps [ 9 , 10 ].However, mind maps are easier to grasp, encourage creativity, enhance engagement, promote ownership of ideas, and involve both brain hemisphere [ 9 ]. While Eppler’s study [ 9 ] shows that combining more than one visual mapping method can be of more benefit than using individual techniques, Martin Davies [ 10 ], who studied both concept maps and mind maps, claims that the choice of mapping technique depends predominantly on the aim and purpose of its use. Therefore, in the present study, mind mapping was chosen as an online learning and group assessment tool in two medical physics courses during the sudden changes brought about by the pandemic. This occurred approximately during the mid-second term, Spring 2020.

Literature Review

The mind mapping technique was developed by Buzan [ 11 ], based on a theory inspired by da Vinci’s notes, and by scientists such as Galileo, Feynman, and Einstein. A mind map starts with the main topic represented as an image at the center of the page, then the subtopics branch out and are placed onto curved lines. A keyword or image is included on each branch to represent ideas. These ideas continue to branch out as far as is required by the subject. Furthermore, connection lines, codes, and symbols are used to connect ideas, highlight important concepts, and stimulate creative thinking [ 11 , 12 ]. Many studies have explored the benefits of Buzan’s technique for teaching and learning, such as retaining information, organizing thoughts, and developing critical-thinking skills (e.g., reasoning, decision-making, and problem-solving) [ 11 , 12 ]. In a study conducted with elementary school teachers [ 13 ], teachers agreed that using mind maps in education would stimulate students’ creativity, enhance learning and memorization, and serve as a tool to assess students’ degree of comprehension for the topics being taught. Moreover, Ellozy and Mostafa [ 14 ] studied the feasibility of using a hybrid concept comprising mind mapping strategies among first-year students at the American University in Cairo and found that their technique enhanced students’ critical-thinking and reading comprehension skills, ability to engage in visualization, and imagination during learning and communicating ideas. Further, it was useful as an assessment tool for teachers to evaluate students’ systematic thinking [ 14 ]. Wu and Wu [ 15 ] showed that using mind mapping in medical education improved nursing students’ critical-thinking abilities and stimulated their eagerness to learn during their internship. This supported the findings of a previous study [ 8 ] that investigated the effectiveness of mind mapping as an active educational tool in a Nursing Management course to enhance students’ critical-thinking skills; the students’ scores were found to have improved. Mind maps were named as a factor contributing to the high-achieving medical students’ educational success [ 16 ]. Mind maps have also been used to enhance health education of patients and improve psychological well-being in cancer patients [ 17 ]. Chen [ 17 ] developed a mind map-based life review program (MBLRP), which is conducted through several sessions for the life review aspect (from childhood to adulthood, their cancer experience, and then a summary session of the life experience). Sessions use mind maps, videos and photos. Results show that the MBLRP is a promising intervention to promote psychological wellbeing among patients, while being enjoyable, feasible, and easily accepted. Another study done by Tan et al. [ 18 ] concluded that mind mapping can improve the effectiveness of health education and guidance for patients with lung cancer who were undergoing chemotherapy, where the level of perceived control improved symptom distress; the longer the period of health education, the better the effect. Yang et al. [ 19 ] investigated the effectiveness of using mind mapping as a health education tool for children with cavities who were in extended care, as well as their parents. The results show an increase in child and parent compliance with health education, which is evident from an increase in cavity knowledge and more follow-up visits to the dentist. Mind map have also proven effective as a language learning material for students; for example, Petrova and Kazarova [ 20 ] discussed the feasibility of using mind maps as a teaching and learning tool in foreign language acquisition, as it helps students to be independent learners and solve diverse problems. Kalizhanova et al. [ 21 ] created a trilingual e-dictionary using a mind map program for high school students, to teach them biological terms in Kazakhstan. Furthermore, Alahmadi’s [ 22 ] study showed a significant improvement in vocabulary acquisition by students who used mind maps as a learning strategy for English language vocabulary as a second language. Mind maps were also used in science and engineering as educational material, learning exercises, and a critical thinking tool for collaborative and independent learning. Gagic et al. [ 23 ] used mind maps to teach physics to primary school students; results showed an increase in student achievement and a decrease in the mental effort necessary to study physics, when compared to conventional teaching and learning methods. In the teacher education program for mathematics, Araujo and Gadanidis [ 24 ] have developed a theory to promote mathematical and pedological knowledge construction by applying an online collaborative mind mapping exercise to two educational courses: computational thinking in mathematics education and mathematics teaching methods. In a study conducted by Allen et al. [ 25 ], mind maps were used in flipped learning activities in a chemistry lab, which included students with special needs. Students were reflective on their learning, collaborative with their peers, and engaged with each other during the activity. This enhanced their critical thinking, deepened their knowledge, and strengthened their interpersonal skills. In the field of engineering, Lai and Lee [ 26 ] show that mathematical engineering students’ achievement levels increased by using mind maps, while their cognitive load reduced. Hence, using effective learning and teaching techniques like mind maps reduces students' cognitive load. Chen et al. [ 27 ] have studied the collaborative behavior of engineering students while doing brainstorming activities using mind maps. Their study analyzed the change in students’ behavior during mind map tasks and issues that arose to implement in the design of digital mind map tools. Selvi and Chandramohan [ 28 ] have used mind mapping technique in collaborative tasks for a mechanical engineering course, which increased students' academic achievement and motivation to learn. Here, using mind maps in collaborative and interactive learning settings enhanced students’ ability to recall technical terms. To the author’s knowledge, mind maps have not yet been investigated in a medical physics course. However, previous studies done on mind maps for medical, science, and engineering courses showed that they are on the same level as medical physics courses in terms of their cognitive load. Hence, it should be a suitable learning and assessment tool during the pandemic. Therefore, this study aims to assess the effectiveness of mind mapping as a learning and assessment tool for medical physics students, while under stress from the COVID-19 pandemic and while experiencing the related educational mode changes. Accordingly, the following were assessed:

• Student satisfaction with the provided information on mind mapping and associated course assignments.
• Effects of changing the assessment style due to switching from on campus to online classes in relation to students’ satisfaction.
• Student satisfaction with using mind maps as a learning tool and student perceptions of the skills gained from the assignment.

To evaluate these objectives, this study developed two online surveys (Surveys 1 and 2) It hypothesized that students could improve satisfaction by practicing mind maps and that academic achievement would be unaffected by the pandemic compared to previous pre-pandemic commencement results. This study could set the basis for future studies when adapting mind maps as an online learning and assessment method and presenting a measure for students’ satisfaction and perception on the technique.

During the online teaching period from March through the end of April 2020, three mind map assignments, one set of critique questions, and two surveys were given to students in two different courses as an alternative teaching and assessment method. These three assignments covered important topics in both courses, as the grading system was changed by the Ministry of Education due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, mind mapping assignments were chosen as an alternative, to enhance students’ learning and memorizing and for use as an assessment tool. Performing this assignment as part of a group in such sudden and stressful circumstances could help students acquire soft skills, such as conflict resolution and time management. Moreover, results of total students’ achievement in these courses in the second term were compared with students’ achievement level in the first term of 2020, prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, using hypothesis testing.

The sample chosen for the study was the cluster sampling from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Jeddah City, King Abdulaziz University, Department of Physics, Female Campus. Participants were medical physics students. The sample includes only female students, as the female and male campuses are separated at Saudi Arabian Universities. The study was conducted with female students enrolled in two separate medical physics courses taught by the author of the study: 1) health physics, a second-level introductory course, and 2) magnetic resonance and medical imaging (MRI), taught to fourth-year students. The sample of the study was 55 students in total, from both courses. Students were verbally informed that 1) survey participation would be voluntary, 2) responses would be anonymous, and 3) non-participation would not affect their course grades, as no identifying information would be collected. Thus, participation was considered to imply consent.

Assignments

To perform the mind mapping assignments, students were first assigned randomly to groups of 3–6 students using the Blackboard system. There were 11 students in the MRI course; thus, students were divided into 3 groups. There were two classes for the health physics course, one with 14 students and one with 30 students, who were divided into 3 and 5 groups, respectively. Thus, 55 students in total were given three mind map assignments that covered the most important course topics. Each mind map covered a section of the course that students had already completed.

All mind mapping assignments were posted on Blackboard with instructions for guidance. Students also participated in a short session in which the assignments were explained, with an emphasis on the resources provided to assist them and the grading style (rubric). Students were directed to engage in self-learning on the Blackboard platform by using the different posted YouTube video instructions and resources in Arabic and English on how to create a mind map. Students were also given the freedom to choose and download one of the three online mind mapping software apps: MindMaster [ 29 ], MindMeister [ 30 ], and XMind [ 31 ]. Online materials on how to use each tool were also posted for students on Blackboard.

Based on concept map assessment criteria published online, the author designed a mind map rubric to assess students’ accomplishments (see Appendix A in Additional File 1 ; [ 32 , 33 ]). After each mind mapping assignment, students received feedback on their work on Blackboard based on the rubric.

After these assignments were completed, a fourth assignment was posted for students on Blackboard. This assignment included mind maps that the students had worked on in each course: 23 for the health physics course, 8 for the MRI course, and a set of 3 questions. The mind maps with the highest scores were excluded from this assignment. Students were directed to choose a mind map that they did not work on and answer the three critique questions. The questions were as follows: “Does this mind map include all ideas and concepts related to the subject? If not, state what is missing? State only one aspect that is missing;” “What are the aspects that you like most about the mind map (e.g., in terms of ideas, links and connections used, supporting evidence, information used);” and “Provide at least one suggestion to improve this mind map.” The motivation behind this assignment was to encourage students to constructively critique their peers’ work. Therefore, there were no wrong answers to 2 out of the 3 questions, unless students failed to spot their peers’ mistakes regarding missing information on the mind map. The results of this assignment are not shown in this paper.

To address study objectives, a survey was distributed online to students in both courses after the first assignment (Survey 1), Appendix B in Additional File 1 . It was divided into three main sections: student satisfaction with the information regarding mind mapping and associated assignments; effects on students regarding the change in assessment style due to COVID-19 control measures and the transition to online education; and student satisfaction with using mind maps as a learning tool and the skills gained from the assignment. Responses to the questions in each section were rated on a five-point Likert scale ranging from “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree.” Additionally, an extra question on the skills students believed they acquired when working on their assignments was included.

After submitting the last assignment, the same survey was posted for students again with an extra open-ended question: “After finishing all three mind mapping assignments, what do you think are the positive and negative aspects of the assignments?” “Do you have any suggestions about them?” (Survey 2). This was done to compare students’ responses from both surveys and measure changes in their perceptions regarding mind mapping through their openly shared views on the assignments.

Statistical analysis

To address the research questions, students were asked to complete a survey after the first assignment and again after the last. The data collected from students for first survey S1 is available in Additional file 2 while the data collected from the second survey S2 is available in Additional file 3 . Students’ responses to the two surveys were then compared, as were their achievement levels in the first term before the COVID-19 pandemic and the second term after the pandemic began. The data for students’ academic achievement in first and second term can be found in Additional file 4 . Both Survey 1 (S1; N = 53 students) and Survey 2 (S2; N = 45 students) had one independent variable—medical physics students (health physics and MRI). However, the dependent variable for S1 represented students’ answers related to the survey’s objectives, while for S2, they represented students’ answers related to the survey’s objectives and to an open-ended question. To measure the internal consistency of the survey items, Cronbach’s Alpha was used. It creates a measure of reliability for the survey items and how closely related a set of items within a group are. Factor analysis was used to test the validity between the survey questions in subsites. If the value is less than the absolute value of 0.4, it is inconsistent and saturated. This analyses the relationships between the set of survey questions that are grouped per survey aim (subset), to determine whether the participant’s responses on different questions per survey aim (subsets) relate more closely to one another than to other survey questions [ 34 ].

Responses to positively worded questions were collected and coded as follows: strongly agree = 5, agree = 4, neutral = 3, disagree = 2, and strongly disagree = 1. However, to maintain consistency, for Questions 1 and 2 in the second section of the survey (Appendix B in Additional File 1 ), the negatively worded questions were taken into consideration, and responses to these were reverse coded. The survey data were analyzed using the SPSS software package. Frequencies (N), percentages (%), means (M), and standard deviations (SD) were used to analyze the response. Responses to the open-ended question from S2 were low (only 19 response) and hence not statistically significant. Therefore, the coding technique was used, and similar answers were added into the same category. Answers were categorized as positive, negative, and in the form of suggestions for mind mapping assignments.

The means of both surveys' first and second objectives were tested for their significance of difference using a paired samples t-test. Finally, a chi-squared test was used to determine any statistically significant differences between student achievement levels in the first term (pre-COVID-19 pandemic) and the second term (post-COVID-19 pandemic commencement).

Responses from the questionnaires of S1 and S2—which were provided prior to the final exams after students submitted all assignments and were given feedback on their work and scores based on the rubric—were analyzed. Cronbach’s alpha was 0.829 and 0.775 for S1 and S2, respectively, indicating a relatively high internal consistency for both surveys. Table ​ Table1 1 show the result of factor analysis for both surveys S1 and S2. Results show good internal validity values, except for Question 6 in S1, while showing good internal validity for S2. This could be due to the sample size, as the larger the sample size, the better the statistical power, which reflects on factor analysis values [ 34 ]. As shown in Table ​ Table2, 2 , the highest responses for S1 and S2 were from the health physics course, which made up 81% and 80% of the responses, respectively. The remaining 19% and 20% responses in S1 and S2, respectively, were from the MRI course students. This similarity in results was expected, as more students were registered for the health physics course.

Factor analysis with principle component analysis for Survey 1 and 2

Number of responses in survey 1 and 2

S1: Survey 1, S2: Survey 2, MRI – JAR: Magnetic Resonance and Medical imaging course, course code: JAR, HP: Health Physics Course, course’s codes: GAR and IAR

Table ​ Table3 3 provides detailed information on the mean, standard deviation, and trend for responses to each question regarding student satisfaction with the information provided to them about mind mapping and the associated course assignments in S1 and S2. The overall mean frequency for responses in S1 and S2 was 3.38 and 3.53, with a trend of “neutral” and “agree” responses, respectively. Thus, students indicated overall satisfaction with the information provided about mind mapping and the associated course assignments in S2. Additionally, S2 results showed that 60% of students had not been previously trained on mind mapping (Q1), while 26.7% of students had used mind maps in their studies before. Regarding the usefulness of the supporting information provided (Q2) and recommended instructional videos (Q3), 66.7% and 57.8% of students found this to be useful, respectively, while only approximately 4% and 18% did not, respectively. Most students (73.4%) agreed that the assessment method (rubric) the instructor provided was clear (Q4), while 13.4% did not understand the assessment method.

Student satisfaction with information provided about mind mapping and assignments

S1: Survey 1; S2: Survey 2

Table ​ Table4 4 provides detailed information on the responses to each question regarding the effects of changing the assessment style due to COVID-19 control measures and switching from on-campus classes to online virtual classes and students’ satisfaction levels. S1 and S2 results show a mean score of 3.06 and 2.98, respectively, indicating a generally neutral response.

The effect of changing assessment styles due to COVID-19 spread control measures and the transition to online education on students’ satisfaction

* To maintain consistency with analysis as reverse coding in Likert scale for Q1, Q2 was used with negative wording ("not stressful" here). S1: Survey 1; S2: Survey 2

As shown in Table ​ Table5, 5 , student satisfaction with using mind maps as a learning tool and the skills they gained from the assignments had a mean frequency of 3.75 and 3.56 in S1 and S2, respectively, with a general trend of “agree” responses; this reflects a consensus among students regarding their satisfaction with using mind maps as a learning tool. In S1 and S2, approximately 64% and 53.4% of the students agreed that using mind maps was beneficial to their learning in and understanding, while only 15% and 9% believed it was not, respectively (Q1). Furthermore, 69% of students agreed that working on the mind maps helped them recognize and identify themes in the lectures, while 9% did not in both S1 and S2 (Q2). In addition, when students were asked if using mind maps helped them gain a deeper understanding of the subject they were studying, 59% in S1 and 58% in S2 agreed that it was beneficial to them, while 21% in S1 and 18% in S2 did not find it useful (Q3). Regarding working on the mind mapping assignment in groups, 51% and 42% of students agreed they had gained new skills, compared to 26% and 31% who were not satisfied with their group in S1 and S2, respectively (Q4). However, when students were asked if they would continue using mind maps in their studies in S1 and S2, 68% and 60% stated they would, while only 19% and 16% reported they would not, respectively (Q5).

Students’ satisfaction with using mind maps as a learning tool

Figure  1 summarize students’ responses in S1 and S2, regarding the skills they perceived themselves as gaining by participating in the mind mapping assignments. Student responses in both surveys suggested that the top skill gained was organizing and planning (S1: 30%; S2: 27%), followed by decision-making skills (S1: 18%; S2: 22%). However, in S1, the proportions of students who gained problem-solving (13%) and persuasion and influencing skills (12%) were almost equal, followed by 11% of students gaining critical thinking skills. Conversely, in S2, nearly an equal proportion of students perceived gaining critical-thinking (14%) and problem-solving (13%), followed by 9% of students gaining persuasion and influencing skills. Finally, student responses in both surveys reported that conflict-resolution (S1: 9%; S2: 8%) and feedback (S1: 7%; S2: 7%) skills were gained the least.

Bar chart representing students’ perceptions in Survey 1 and 2 regarding each skill gained during their group work on the mind mapping assignment

In the open-ended question added to S2, students reported the following responses regarding the assignments: 1) positive aspects: they learned new skills, better understood the course, learned in groups, and gained independent learning skills while studying; 2) negatives aspects: shorter submission deadlines, difficulty in group-work for some students, and challenges in identifying key concepts; 3) improvements suggested: allowing students to choose their group members and providing a practice session for students before the first assignment is posted on Blackboard. Figure  2 shows the improvements in students’ results across all three mind maps.

Improvements in students’ average scores out of 12 in both courses with each assignment

Students’ satisfaction with mind map assignments and comparison of students’ academic achievement in the current (after COVID-19 pandemic started) and previous term (before COVID-19 pandemic)

The paired samples t-test showed no significant difference between students’ mean satisfaction in S1 and S2. This indicated a lack of post-S2 improvement in students’ satisfaction. For the first objective, a paired samples t-test was performed on students’ average satisfaction in S1 (M = 3.38, SD = 0.85) and S2 (M = 3.53, SD = 0.81), with information regarding mind mapping and associated course assignments. However, no significant differences were found in students’ satisfaction. For the second objective, students’ average responses regarding the effect of changing assessment styles and the transition to online education on students’ satisfaction were compared between S1 ( M = 3.06 , SD = 0.92) and S2 (M =  2.98 , SD = 0.95 ) S2, and the results indicated no significant differences in students’ satisfaction for this objective. Similarly, no significant differences were found for the third objective, between students’ responses regarding satisfaction with using mind maps in S1 ( M = 3.74 , SD = 0.95) and S2 ( M = 3.56 , SD = 0.77 ) .

Figure  3 shows a normal distribution for students’ grades in the first and second semesters in both the health physics and MRI courses. The result of a chi-squares test shows that there are no differences in students’ grade distribution between the two term of year 2020, before and after COVID-19 pandemic started. Hence, chi-square = 4.29 < x 0.05 , 4 2  = 9.48 and p-value = 0.36 > 0.05 support hypothesis H 0 , where H 0 means no relationship between students’ academic achievement and term, where grades are independent of the term, while H 1 posits there is a relationship between student academic achievement and term, where grades are dependent on the term.

Grade distribution for students in the two courses during the first and second terms in the academic year 2019–2020

This study investigated the use of mind maps as a learning and assessment tool for medical physics students at KAU under the stress of the COVID-19 pandemic and a sudden switch in teaching mode from on-campus to online classes. Two surveys, one directly after the first mind map assignment and the other just before the final exam, were distributed to students, to assess student satisfaction with the information provided on mind mapping and the associated course assignments, effects of changing assessment styles due to COVID-19 control measures, switching from on-campus classes to online classes, student satisfaction levels, student satisfaction with using mind maps as a learning tool, and the skills gained from the assignments.

The findings showed no significant differences between surveys for students' mean satisfaction scores. This could be due to the sudden changes and control measures that were implemented by the Ministry of Education during the COVID-19 pandemic, as explained above; hence, the study was conducted over a short period, during the second half of the second term of 2020. Moreover, most students had no prior experience with mind maps, and only 19% of the students who conducted the survey (survey S1) said that they learnt and used mind maps before this course. Furthermore, the study was conducted with a limited number of students. However, by comparing the results of students’ responses to each of the surveys’ objectives, we were able to gain a deeper insight. Hence, although students were not initially certain about the usefulness of the information provided, as they completed more assignments, they became more skilled in using mind maps and could make clearer judgments. This confirms that the mind map is a powerful tool that can be easily adapted when suitable guidance is provided, and results can be seen over a short period of time. This is in line with the findings of previous studies [ 15 , 35 ], which compared memory retrieval and critical-thinking in medical students using mind mapping and standard note-taking techniques. Although there were no differences in the results between the two methods, students did not use mind mapping before participating in the study, which indicates that mind mapping is a robust learning technique.

The mean response was neutral in both surveys regarding the effects of changing assessment styles due to COVID-19 control measures, switching from on-campus to online classes and student satisfaction levels. Students were unable to decide if they agreed or disagreed that the sudden changes were stressful. Moawad [ 36 ] studied student responses to academic stress from online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study found that the main source of stress stemmed from uncertainty about exams and assignment changes. These issues were addressed at our university almost immediately after switching to online teaching platforms; there was tremendous support and prompt strategies and polices were provided in response to the pandemic to maintain effective education for students. Student support included short online courses on how to use Blackboard, support for students with special needs, and online academic and psychological counseling, with reassuring messages provided to students on university social media platforms [ 37 ].

In both surveys, students were satisfied with the use of mind mapping as a learning tool. This finding confirms that it is an effective learning tool that can improve students’ comprehension and information retrieval skills in medical education [ 5 , 15 ], enhance learning and vocabulary recall [ 38 ], and improve writing in English [ 22 ]. Colors, images, and connections are all used in the learning process, which in turn increase students’ motivation to learn [ 39 – 41 ]. Moreover, students’ responses to the open-ended questions in both surveys regarding skills they perceived themselves as acquiring during group work on the mind mapping assignments showed that organizing, planning, and decision-making skills were acquired most frequently, while critical-thinking skills came in third. All these skills are crucial for students’ academic achievement. Abdulghani et al. [ 16 ] reported that high-achieving medical students perceived prioritization, time management, and mind mapping as factors that contributed to their academic success. Furthermore, the present study shows that the more the students complete mind map assignments, the more improvement there is in their grades for mind maps. This indicates that continuous application of the mind mapping technique can improve students’ learning, which is reflected in their grades and achievements. Students’ perceptions of the advantages of using mind maps, such as enhanced learning and comprehension, were similar to the results of previous studies by Wickramasinghe et al. [ 41 ], Erdem [ 42 ], and Wu and Wu [ 15 ].

However, some students thought that mind mapping was time consuming and felt that they needed more time, while others thought that identifying the main concept was challenging and there were concerns regarding low grades. These concerns were examined by Erdem [ 42 ] in a study focused on university students’ perceptions on the use of mind mapping as a lifelong learning tool, which suggested that as students continue to develop mind maps, they become faster and more skilled, creative, and imaginative. Some students thought that working with mind maps in a group was an opportunity to learn, while others thought it was a disadvantage. While Stokhof et al. [ 40 ] concluded that shared mind map activity enhances students’ learning and critical thinking, Jones et al. [ 39 ] suggested varying students’ mind mapping activities and allowed students to work on mind maps according to their preferences—individually in or out of class or with groups—could maximize student engagement, thereby improving their learning goals.

Despite the circumstances of the second term in which the COVID-19 pandemic began and education and lifestyle changes were enforced as preventive measures, there are no significant differences in students’ grade distributions between the two terms of the year 2020 (before and after the COVID-19 pandemic began). This is in alignment with a study done by Elsaid [ 43 ], whose results showed no significant difference despite this sudden switch. The study also compared students’ grade distribution for the two-learning models in the developing country, taken before the pandemic (face-to-face learning model) and after the COVID-19 pandemic (online learning model). This is also confirmed by studies comparing the performance of online learners with conventional (face-to-face) learners before the pandemic started [ 44 , 45 ]. Moreover, another study by Gonzalez et al. [ 46 ] conducted on Spanish university students showed a significant improvement in students’ performance during the COVID-19 pandemic, despite the teaching model changes. The students believed to be motivated to change their time management habits during studying and learning strategies and improving their independent learning performance to adapt to the uncertainties that came with the pandemic, thus ensuring that their academic advances which back as an improvement in their performances. However, conflicting outcomes were reported in other studies. This is evident in a recent study done by Giusti [ 47 ] on Italian students’ perspectives regarding distance learning and its impact on their psychological health and academic performance. The study showed that the negative impact of online education on students is related to psychological factors, such as anxiety and depression. This is due to lack of social interaction, technical, and economic factors. This in turn reflects negatively on students’ performance. The lack of network availability, suitable network coverage and educational platforms, online educational support from courses’ instructors, virtual interaction with colleagues and instructors, efficient online course content, online support and training on the provided online platforms, and financial support for students are also key factors that are reported to affect students’ performance [ 48 , 49 ]. Adapting a strategic and swift switch to online education could mitigate the dramatic effect that could arise because of sudden and extreme situations, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, to sustain educational support for students, King Abdulaziz University KAU managed to successfully implement an online model where thousands of classes were conducted weekly with the help and support of the Deanship of e-Learning and Distance Education. As a result, AI-Youbi et al. [ 37 ] proposed the KAU Pandemic Framework that integrates five pillars of strategic adoption of the social media platform (Twitter): social media governance, social media resilience, social media utilization, decision-making capabilities, and institutional strategies, which help provide flexible and sustainable education and learning overtime. Twitter was used throughout the pandemic time to communicate with the KAU community regarding administrative issues, educational sustainability, and community responsibility. Hence, KAU could communicate all regulations and changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic and at the same time, attend to students needs by providing helplines for student enquires, the supply of free laptops for students in need, online academic advice, psychological support, and online support for disabled students and students with autism. Furthermore, there were many activities organized for community support, such as raising awareness of COVID-19 and safety measures through workshops and infographics.

The study aimed to measure the effectiveness of mind mapping as a learning and assessment tool for female medical physics student during the pandemic. Hence, students’ satisfaction were also considered by conducting two surveys measuring: the learning material on mind maps and associated course assignments provided, changing the assessment style due to the sudden switch from face-to-face to online learning models, and using mind maps as a learning tool. Students were also asked about their overall experience and skills that they perceived to have gained from the mind map assignments. Although results show no significant difference between students’ mean satisfaction in both surveys, students’ responses showed consistency regarding their satisfaction with using mind maps. The results of the present study indicate that mind-mapping is a powerful learning tool that, if practiced and mastered by students, could enhance their learning outcomes and improve their critical-thinking and soft skills. However, our number of participants was limited. The sample only included two courses that were taught for second- and fourth-year female medical physics students of a Science faculty in KAU. Future studies could include a longitudinal analysis over a longer period. They should also include the effect of some learners’ demographic and academic variations, such as gender, age, degree, and GPA. It is worth expanding the study to include other courses for medical physics within the same institute, and expanding it to compare different subjects within the same faculty, thus improving the scope of the results. Moreover, future collaborative research across institutes could help assess regional differences.

The results also show that the sudden switch in educational settings, from conventional to online due the COVID-19 pandemic, didn’t negatively affect students’ grades. In challenging situations such as these, well-established communication between educational institutions and students is believed to ease students’ stress regarding the effects of changes on their grades and future. For future research, it might be worth involving students in a variety of mind mapping activities—individually in or out of class or with groups—to explore differences in their learning preferences and how this can affect learning experiences.

This study did present certain limitations. First, although students were given the option to choose software programs, some software had limited features, which could cost students money or time when they must learn a new software program. Therefore, to overcome this difficulty, it is recommended that students are provided with one software program that is supported by the educational institution. Second, although students were provided with materials and a short session to explain mind mapping, some students still reporting difficulties in understanding the technique. Thus, it is recommended that students are offered a practice session and a mock mind mapping assignment to ensure that they understand the process fully. To maximize students’ learning experience, it is also suggested that a discussion session be provided, where students can present their work to their peers in class and discuss their ideas and suggestions for improvements. Finally, this study was performed in a limited context; hence, it is recommended that this method be applied to future research using different courses and over a longer period to monitor changes in students’ achievements.

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Editage ( www.editage.com ) for English language editing.

Abbreviations

Authors' contributions.

The design of the work, collection, and interpretation of data were performed by the author of this manuscript.

Not applicable.

Availability of data and materials

Declarations.

This study was performed in line with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. Approval was granted by the affiliated Institutional Review Board (Unit of Biomedical Ethics and Research Committee; reference number: 645–20 [Non-intervention; cross-sectional]). The surveys used in this study were online surveys. Students who participated in these surveys were informed verbally that their responses would be anonymous and non-participation would not affect their grades. Hence, participation contained informed consent. The consent statement was as follows: "Dear students, survey participation is voluntary. Your responses will remain anonymous, and non-participation will not affect your course grades, as no identifying information will be collected. However, your participation will help improve the assignments and your opinion would be appreciated and taken into consideration."

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher's Note

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Creating a Comprehensive Literature Review Map: A Step-by-Step Example

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A literature review is an essential component of any academic research paper or thesis. IT involves examining existing literature, scholarly articles, books, and other sources related to your research topic. A literature review map acts as a visual representation of the concepts, studies, and theories that have been covered in the literature. In this article, we will guide you through the process of creating a comprehensive literature review map, step-by-step, to help you structure and organize your literature review effectively.

Step 1: Define Your Research Topic

The first step in creating a literature review map is to clearly define your research topic. Be specific and narrow down your focus to ensure that you have a manageable scope for your literature review. Take into consideration the research objectives or guiding questions that will shape your review.

Step 2: Identify Relevant Keywords

Once you have defined your research topic, identify the keywords and search terms that are most relevant to your study. Brainstorm a list of potential keywords that are commonly used in the literature related to your topic. These keywords will help you locate relevant sources during your literature search.

Step 3: Conduct a Thorough Literature Search

Using databases and search engines specific to your field of study, begin conducting a thorough literature search using the identified keywords. Take note of the key articles, books, and studies that are relevant to your research topic. In this step, IT is important to evaluate the credibility and quality of the sources to ensure that you are referring to reputable and reliable information.

Step 4: Read and Analyze the Literature

After collecting a substantial number of sources, carefully read and analyze each one. Highlight key concepts, methodologies, and findings that are relevant to your research. As you progress, make notes or annotations to help you remember important details and connections between different sources.

Step 5: Organize the Literature

Now that you have read and analyzed the literature, IT ‘s time to organize the information into a coherent structure. One effective way to do this is by using a literature review map. Start by creating categories or themes based on the concepts or theories that emerge from the literature. Group together similar ideas or findings to create a visual representation of the interconnectedness of the sources.

Step 6: Create the Literature Review Map

With your categorized information, you can now create the literature review map. This can be done using software such as Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, or dedicated mind mapping tools. Start with your main research topic in the center and branch out with subcategories based on the themes or concepts identified earlier. Connect relevant sources to each subcategory, illustrating how they contribute to the overall understanding of your research topic.

Step 7: Revise and Refine

Review your literature review map for coherence and completeness. Ensure that all the key sources are accurately placed within the appropriate category or subcategory. Check for any gaps in your coverage and make sure that the map represents a comprehensive overview of the literature on your research topic.

Q: How many sources should I include in my literature review map?

A: The number of sources you include will depend on the requirements of your research and the depth of analysis you aim to achieve. However, IT is generally recommended to thoroughly examine a range of sources, including both seminal texts and recent publications, to ensure a well-rounded and comprehensive literature review.

Q: How do I determine the credibility of the sources for my literature review?

A: Evaluating the credibility of your sources is crucial to ensure that you are basing your review on reputable information. Consider the author’s qualifications, the credibility and reputation of the publishing outlet, the presence of citations within the article, and the overall coherence and consistency of the research findings.

Q: Can I use a literature review map for disciplines outside of the humanities and social sciences?

A: Absolutely! While literature reviews are commonly associated with humanities and social sciences, they are applicable to any academic field. Whether you are conducting research in the sciences, engineering, or any other discipline, a literature review map will help you organize and present the relevant scholarly literature specific to your research topic.

By following these step-by-step guidelines, you can create a comprehensive literature review map that will serve as a valuable tool throughout your research. Remember to regularly update and refine your map as you progress in your studies. A well-organized literature review will not only demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of the field, but also provide a solid foundation for your own research and contribute to the wider scholarly conversation.

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While literature reviews are part of just about every single scholarly manuscript, I thought I’d put together a collection of blog posts that I have been writing to teach my students how to undertake a literature review. This page links all the posts associated with how to write a solid literature review, from searching for information, to assembling a mind map.

How to map a new body of literature or a new field of scholarship. My students and research assistants often come to me and ask me “ how do I systematically delve into a field that is not even mine ” or “ how do I go about learning about an entire new body of works that I have not looked at before? ” This blog post attempts to answer these questions by offering a systematic process of mapping (based on a combo of AIC Content Extraction + Conceptual Synthesis Excel Dump and mind-mapping techniques).

6 questions and answers on depth and breadth of literature reviews

This post compiles six questions I often get asked (such as “how many sources should my literature review have?” and “when should I start writing?”) when undertaking a literature review.

How to write an annotated bibliography

As I have written before, there are differences between literature reviews, banks of rhetorical precis, conceptual synthesis matrices and annotated bibliographies. Of these, the annotated bibliography is one of the most underrated scholarly outputs. It helps the reader get a lay of the land of which scholarly works are available out there, and it also enables a researcher to veer into specific pathways of research. This post describes how I write my annotated bibliographies, as well as a few examples.

Writing a literature review assignment (for students, RA) and providing guidance on how to conduct a LR (for instructors)

In this blog post, I explain the importance that supervisors’ guidance on how to write a literature review has, and I showcase a few ways in which a LR can be conducted, with an example of my interactions with one of my doctoral students.

Moving from Having Read All The Things to Writing Paragraphs of Your Literature Review In this blog post, I walk through the reading, scribbling, highlighting, note-taking, systematizing, mind-mapping of the literature and then, through the process of writing paragraphs that can be used in a literature review.

What are the differences between banks of rhetorical precis, conceptual synthesis matrices, annotated bibliographies and literature reviews?

When doing research, we read a lot of material. I use a systematic approach to constructing banks of rhetorical precis, to building worksheets with a conceptual synthesis, to creating an annotated bibliography, and all these are intermediate steps to constructing a literature review. This post of mine offers a few suggestions on how to go about creating an annotated bibliography, writing a literature review, and using project products such as banks of rhetorical precis and databases of citations to improve your research pipeline production.

Making your research “dialogue” with other scholars’ in your literature review

This blog post shows how we can situate our work within the broader landscape of scholarly literatures.

Writing a literature review based on the Cross-Reference column of the Conceptual Synthesis Excel Dump (CSED)

This post explains how we can use one of the key columns in my Conceptual Synthesis Excel Dump (CSED) spreadsheet method, the Cross-Reference one, to write the literature review section of a paper.

From review of the literature to mind map of the field In this blog post, I show how one can, from a published literature review, create a mind-map of a field of study. This is the reverse process of the one I outline on this blog post ( going from readings to mind map to full paragraphs of the literature review ).

How to write synthetic notes of readings (books, journal articles, reports, book chapters) This post explains how I write my own synthetic notes. These notes are more detailed than a rhetorical precis, but less extensive than a memorandum. One can generate an annotated bibliography by collecting and systematizing these synthetic notes into a single document.

How to undertake a literature review

Once you know how to write an annotated bibliography, how to summarize journal articles, books and book chapters, you can now easily turn to creating full-fledged literature reviews. Since the literature review is a critical document that not only lists scholarly works but also makes judgments about their relevance, it’s an important scholarly product, and one that students and faculty need to know how to do. In this post, I share my own process for doing a literature review.

Mind-mapping as a strategic research and teaching tool

I use mind maps as tools to create a broad overview of a field of research, or to map ways in which my thinking should be going, or to create new research projects, or also to describe the different ways in which themes and topics are interconnected. This post describes how I use mind-mapping with a detailed description of MindJet’s MindManager 2017 (which is a paid, proprietary mind-mapping tool).

How to write a systematic review, a scoping review, a meta-analysis While I write about the mechanics of writing a literature review, I don’t really write about systematic, scoping or narrative reviews, or meta-analyses. BUT in this blog post I link to resources I found and articles that explain how to write those types of reviews.

Writing effective memorandums

One of the biggest challenges I have found in my career is teaching my students how to assemble information and preserve it in a way that makes sense for their own purposes. One of the most powerful tools to synthesize data and information is the memorandum. In this post I explain how I write my own memorandums, linking to a chapter on memos and diagrams from a well-known qualitative research methods textbook.

Using the rhetorical precis for literature reviews and conceptual syntheses

I am more of a fan of long-form, detailed, extensive memoranda when doing research or conducting a literature review. Nevertheless, I wanted to find out how do other professors teach the rhetorical precis (a much shorter version of a memo). The rhetorical precis allows me to do precisely this.

How to do a literature review: Citation tracing, concept saturation and results’ mind-mapping One of the first questions my students ask me is “Professor, how do I go about finding scholarly articles that might be useful for my literature review?” This blog post intends to answer this question. In the blog post, I focus on the technique of finding relevant citations (citation tracing), making sure your literature review search is extensive enough (concept saturation) and mapping the results to make sense of how they relate to each other (results mind-mapping).

Forward citation tracing and backward citation tracing: Searching through the literature. I wrote this blog post to complement the one on citation tracing, concept saturation and mind-mapping of results, and here I explain how to do forward and backward citation tracing.

My #AcWri Strategies: Write reflective memos

Touted by some scholars as a “game changer”, this method allows you to synthesize ideas from a journal article, a book, a book chapter, by summarizing and including specific quotes that you can cite. Creating memorandums and storing them in your computer’s hard drive or on the cloud (e.g. on Evernote) allows you to have text ready that you can swiftly insert into your papers’ literature review (or in the Excel synthetic dump described below).

Synthesizing different bodies of work in your literature review: The conceptual synthesis Excel dump technique

This is a method I’ve been using for many years to assemble my literature review. What I do in this technique is write a memorandum for each book, article, book chapter I read, and then dump the contents into an Excel worksheet. This method allows me to have specific quotes handy and at the ready, and to see when I haven’t reached sufficient concept saturation.

My own workflow: Strategically reading and summarizing the literature

One of the first questions I get when my students need to write a literature review is – how do I make the time to Read All The Things? They need to balance coursework, labwork, research, fieldwork, etc. While I loved doing my comprehensive exams when I was doing my PhD because I had the time to read everything, as a professor on the tenure-track, it’s hard for me to block enough time to read. So what I do now is I read more strategically. Depending on the work I am doing, I choose what to read and to which depth. I don’t attempt to read everything, but I triage what I read and assess what needs much more time to process and comprehend and what can be quickly skimmed. In this post I explain my process.

Highlighting and note-taking on journal articles, book chapters and books as a mode of engagement

When doing a literature review, or writing a paper, you’ll probably need to summarize articles, books, and book chapters. I usually engage with content by highlightingn and scribbling on the margins. This post explains my rationale.

Color-coding your highlighting when reading articles and book chapters

Related to the previous post, I use different colors of highlighters to mean different ideas and degrees of relevancy. This post explains my color coding.

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By Raul Pacheco-Vega 11:00 pm

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Thank you so much for these essays! These are enormously helpful for a first-year PhD. Really appreciate that you invest precious time and energy in writing these during your busy academic life.

Continuing the Discussion

[…] one over Twitter prompted me to reflect, first of all, if the structure of my Resources page and Literature Reviews subpage was not clear enough (I have written A TON of blog posts on the topic of reviewing the […]

[…] are many ways to approach a literature review (here Raul Pacheco-Vega gives an excellent overview), but here I just want to introduce a useful way of reviewing and summarising what you learn from a […]

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How to Master at Literature Mapping: 5 Most Recommended Tools to Use

This article is also available in: Turkish , Spanish, Russian , and Portuguese

After putting in a lot of thought, time, and effort, you’ve finally selected a research topic . As the first step towards conducting a successful and impactful research is completed, what follows it is the gruesome process of literature review . Despite the brainstorming, the struggle of understanding how much literature is enough for your research paper or thesis is very much real. Unlike the old days of flipping through pages for hours in a library, literature has come easy to us due to its availability on the internet through Open Access journals and other publishing platforms. This ubiquity has made it even more difficult to cover only significant data! Nevertheless, an ultimate solution to this problem of conglomerating relevant data is literature mapping .

Table of Contents

What is Literature Mapping?

Literature mapping is one of the key strategies when searching literature for your research. Since writing a literature review requires following a systematic method to identify, evaluate, and interpret the work of other researchers, academics, and practitioners from the same research field, creating a literature map proves beneficial. Mapping ideas, arguments, and concepts in a literature is an imperative part of literature review. Additionally, it is stated as an established method for externalizing knowledge and thinking processes. A map of literature is a “graphical plan”, “diagrammatic representation”, or a “geographical metaphor” of the research topic.

Researchers are often overwhelmed by the large amount of information they encounter and have difficulty identifying and organizing information in the context of their research. It is recommended that experts in their fields develop knowledge structures that are richer not only in terms of knowledge, but also in terms of the links between this knowledge. This knowledge linking process is termed as literature mapping .

How Literature Mapping Helps Researchers?

Literature mapping helps researchers in following ways:

• It provides concrete evidence of a student’s understanding and interpretation of the research field to share with both peers and professors.
• Switching to another modality helps researchers form patterns to see what might otherwise be hidden in the research area.
• Furthermore, it helps in identifying gaps in pertinent research.
• Finally, t lets researchers identify potential original areas of study and parameters of their work.

How to Make a Literature Map?

Literature mapping is not only an organizational tool, but also a reflexive tool. Furthermore, it distinguishes between declarative knowledge shown by identifying key concepts, ideas and methods, and procedural knowledge shown through classifying these key concepts and establishing links or relationships between them. The literature review conceptualizes research structures as a “knowledge production domain” that defines a productive and ongoing constructive element. Thus, the approaches emphasize the identity of different scientific institutions from different fields, which can be mapped theoretically, methodologically, or fundamentally.

The two literature mapping approaches are:

• Mapping with key ideas or descriptors: This is developed from keywords in research topics.
• Author mapping: This is also termed as citation matching that identifies key experts in the field and may include the use of citations to interlink them.

Generally, literature maps can be subdivided by categorization processes based on theories, definitions, or chronology, and cross-reference between the two types of mapping. Furthermore, researchers use mind maps as a deductive process, general concept-specific mapping (results in a right triangle), or an inductive process mapping to specific concepts (results in an inverted triangle).

What are Different Literature Mapping Methods?

The different types of literature mapping and representations are as follows:

1. Feature Mapping:

Argument structures developed from summary registration pages.

2. Topic Tree Mapping:

Summary maps showing the development of the topic in sub-themes up to any number of levels.

3. Content Mapping:

Linear structure of organization of content through hierarchical classification.

4. Taxonomic Mapping:

Classification through standardized taxonomies.

5. Concept Mapping:

Linking concepts and processes allows procedural knowledge from declarative information. With a basic principle of cause and effect and problem solving, concept maps can show the relationship between theory and practice.

6. Rhetorical Mapping:

The use of rhetoric communication to discuss, influence, or persuade is particularly important in social policy and political science and can be considered a linking strategy. A number of rhetorical tools have been identified that can be used to present a case, including ethos, metaphor, trope, and irony.

7. Citation Mapping:

Citation mapping or matching is a research process established to specifically establish links between authors by citing their articles. Traditional manual citation indexes have been replaced by automated databases that allow visual mapping methods (e.g. ISI Web of Science). In conclusion, citation matching in a subject area can be effective in determining the frequency of authors and specific articles.

5 Most Useful Literature Mapping Tools

Technology has made the literature mapping process easier now. However, with numerous options available online, it does get difficult for researchers to select one tool that is efficient. These tools are built behind explicit metadata and citations when coupled with some new machine learning techniques. Here are the most recommended literature mapping tools to choose from:

1. Connected Papers

a. Connected Papers is a simple, yet powerful, one-stop visualization tool that uses a single starter article.

b. It is easy to use tool that quickly identifies similar papers with just one “Seed paper” (a relevant paper).

c. Furthermore, it helps to detect seminal papers as well as review papers.

d. It creates a similarity graph not a citation graph and connecting lines (based on the similarity metric).

e. Does not necessarily show direct citation relationships.

f. The identified papers can then be exported into most reference managers like Zotero, EndNote, Mendeley, etc.

2. Inciteful

a. Inciteful is a customizable tool that can be used with multiple starter articles in an iterative process.

b. Results from multiple seed papers can be imported in a batch with a BibTex file.

c. Inciteful produces the following lists of papers by default:

• Similar papers (uses Adamic/Adar index)
• “Most Important Papers in the Graph” (based on PageRank)
• Recent Papers by the Top 100 Authors
• The Most Important Recent Papers

d. It allows filtration of results by keywords.

e. Importantly, seed papers can also be directly added by title or DOI.

a. Litmaps follows an iterative process and creates visualizations for found papers.

b. It allows importing of papers using BibTex format which can be exported from most reference managers like Zotero, EndNote, Mendeley. In addition, it allows paper imports from an ORCID profile.

c. Keywords search method is used to find Litmaps indexed papers.

d. Additionally, it allows setting up email updates of “emergent literature”.

e. Its unique feature that allows overlay of different maps helps to look for overlaps of papers.

f. Lastly, its explore function allows finding related papers to add to the map.

4. Citation-based Sites

a. CoCites is a citation-based method for researching scientific literature.

b. Citation Gecko is a tool for visualizing links between articles.

c. VOSviewer is a software tool for creating and visualizing bibliometric networks. These networks are for example journals, may include researchers or individual publications, which can be generated based on citation, bibliographic matching , co-citation, or co-authorship relationships. VOSviewer also offers text mining functionality that can be used to create and visualize networks of important terms extracted from a scientific literature.

5. Citation Context Tools

a. Scite allow users to see how a publication has been cited by providing the context of the citation and a classification describing whether it provides supporting or contrasting evidence for the cited claim.

b. Semantic Scholar is a freely available, AI-powered research tool for scientific literature.

Have you ever mapped your literature? Did you use any of these tools before? Lastly, what are the strategies and methods you use for literature mapping ? Let us know how this article helped you in creating a hassle-free and comprehensive literature map.

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Literature Review Map Template

Editable literature review map template to visualize the connections and associations between things. Organize your ideas

You can easily edit this template using Creately's mind mapping software . You can export it in multiple formats like JPEG, PNG and SVG and easily add it to Word documents, Powerpoint (PPT) presentations, Excel or any other documents. You can export it as a PDF for high-quality printouts.

• Flowchart Templates
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Related Templates

Mind Map Gallery conducting literature reviews

conducting literature reviews

A mind map about conducting literature reviews.

• Recommended to you

Conducting Literature Reviews

the goal of rigor

define internal validity as the extent to which the review represents accurately the phenomena it is intended to describe or explain

define objectivity as the extent to which a review’s findings are determined by the objects of the inquiry and not by the researchers’ biases and values

define external validity as the extent to which the findings have applicability in other contexts

Types of Literature Review

Narrative reviews

summarize previously published research on a topic of interest

Developmental reviews

provide a research community with new conceptualizations, research models, theories, frameworks or methodological approaches

Cumulative reviews

compile empirical evidence to map bodies of literature and draw overall conclusions regarding particular topics od interest

Aggregative reviews

bring together prior findings and test specific research hypotheses or propositions. By rigorously collating and pooling prior empirical data, aggregative reviews are particularly valued for providing evidence-based validations of pre-specified theoretical models and propositions.

Descriptive review

seek to determine the extent to which a body of empirical studies in a specific research area supports or reveals any interpretable patterns or trends with respect to pre-existing propositions, theories, methodologies or findings

Scoping reviews

attempt to provide an initial indication of the potential size and nature of the available literature on a particular topic

Meta-analysis

use specific data extraction techniques and statistical methods to aggregate quantitative data in the form of standard effect measures

Qualitative systematic reviews

attempt to search, identify, select, appraise, and abstract data from quantitative empirical studies to answer the following main questions

Umbrella reviews

a tertiary type of study that integrates relevant evidence from multiple systematic reviews (qualitative or quantitative) into one accessible and usable document to address a narrow research question

Theoretical reviews

draws on existing conceptual and empirical studies to provide a context for identifying, describing, and transforming into a higher order of theoretical structure and various concepts, constructs or relationships

Realist reviews

theory-driven interpretative reviews that were developed to inform, enhance, extend

or alternatively supplement conventional systematic reviews by making sense of heterogeneous evidence about complex interventions applied in diverse contexts in a way that informs policy decision making

Critical reviews

aim to critically analyze the extant literature on a broad topic to reveal weaknesses, contradictions, controversies, or inconsistencies

A Systematic Review of Scholarly Research on the Content of Wikipedia

Quality of Content

Comprehensiveness

Multidisciplinary and general

Medicine and health

Communication

Readability and Style

Reliability

Reliability assessment of Wikipedia

positive or equivalent evaluations

negative or inferior evaluations

verifiability: citing other sources

quality-related trends

Antecedents of Quality

Group characteristics

Editing patterns and processes

Featured Articles

Size of Wikipedia

Micro-Level Size Factors

Macro-Level Size Factors

serve as the background for an empirical study or as an independent, standalone piece that provides a valuable contribution in its own right

General procedure

Formulation the problem

This step requires authors to define the review's objective(s), provide definitions of key concepts and justify the need for a review article

Guidelines to Evaluate Standalone Literature Reviews

reviewed the reference lists of the abovementioned sources

selected those papers that offer practical or pragmatic guidelines on how to perform literature reviews

validated our list of papers using the backward and forward search techniques

carefully scrutinized each paper

reflected on the usefulness and necessity of each activity, or guideline, in the review process by questioning how it satisfied a specific purpose in terms of the study’s methodological rigor