Q: How many articles can be found in a literature review and where can they be found?

I guess you mean, how many articles to review for a literature review and where to look for them. So, let’s take your questions one by one.

Number of articles to include in a literature review

Actually, there is no defined number, because this would depend. It depends on your research question, how general or niche your topic is, and the scope of your study. For instance, if your field or topic is very specialized or it’s very new, there may not be enough studies to review. If your topic is very broad-based, you may wish to limit the scope of your study to keep the number of review articles within a manageable number. A golden tip, which actually goes for all search/research is: Stop your search/research when you keep getting the same answers. :-)

Sources of articles for a literature review

You can look on the net, scientific repositories such as DOAJ, or via scholarly platforms such as Google Scholar. Apart from that, you may use a literature search service such as the one we provide. Know more here: Literature Search

Hope that helps. For more information on performing a literature search and review, you may find the following articles useful:

• Tips for effective literature searching and keeping up with new publications
• A young researcher's guide to writing a literature review

All the best for your review!