If you are not provided with a topic for your lit review, one strategy to find ideas is to browse recent issues of journals such as Psychological Bulletin or Applied Psycholinguistics for review articles.
Review articles are an excellent source of information for someone beginning to research a topic. They are considered a secondary source because they deliver a historical overview of past research on a topic and provide a way to identify leading researchers -- and literature -- in the particular area.
Suggestions:
- Start broad, then narrow or focus your topic as you become more informed.
- Choose a current topic.
- Choose a topic that piques your interest.
Another option for discovering topics or maintaining current awareness is to browse a few top journals in the field. To the right of this page, we have listed just a few of the journals in the areas of cognitive linguistics, or cognitive psychology more broadly. If you want to determine the rank of a journal amongst its peer group, search for the journal title in Journal Citation Reports.
