In planning your review, you might ask yourself the following questions:
- What is my central question or issue that the literature can help define?
- What is already known about the topic?
- Are there any gaps in the knowledge?
- What methods or problems were identified by others studying in the field and how might they impact your research? What further area of study have been identified?
- Is the scope of the literature being reviewed wide or narrow enough?
- Is there a conflict or debate in the literature?
- What connections can be made between the texts being reviewed?
- What sort of literature should be reviewed? Historical? Theoretical? Methodological? Quantitative? Qualitative?
- What criteria should be used to evaluate the literature being reviewed?
- How will reviewing the literature justify the topic I plan to investigate?
Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions by 
Conducting Research Literature Reviews by 
Engineering Research Methodology by 
So, You Have to Write a Literature Review by