Academics · Study Skills

Read twenty studies.
Write about three ideas.

A literature review is not a list of summaries; it is an argument about what a body of research shows. Record each study with its design, sample, findings and limits, and tag it with a theme. The organizer groups the studies by theme and flags small samples, abstract-only reading and replications that change the story.

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Included with the Caveat Academy pass and Whole-school licenses. Or get it in the Study skills kit, $29 for 21 items.

Your studies

The worked example uses two real studies on laptop and longhand note-taking: the 2014 original and a 2021 replication. Saved on this device only.

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What you get

Academics · Study Skills$5

What you finish with
A record per study: authors, year, question, design, sample size, participants, findings, theme, limitations, relevance and five reading checks. Counts each study’s age; groups studies by theme in the side panel; flags abstract-only reading, small samples, older studies, replications and reviews.
Who it is for
High school students in research or capstone courses, AP Research and IB extended essay students, and undergraduates writing their first literature review.
Format
Browser organizer with a saved record per study. Prints one study, every study in a table or a blank sheet; downloads a spreadsheet (.csv); exports and imports a file.
Access
$5 one-time, yours on every device you sign in on; the tool opens once you are signed in with it. Included with the Caveat Academy pass and Whole-school licenses. Also in the Study skills kit ($29) and the Academics Suite pass ($149), and 1 more bundle. Everything you type stays in this browser; nothing is sent to Caveat.
Where it lives
The Study Skills space in Caveat Academics.
Support
Questions about access, an order or a correction: team@caveatacademic.com.

How to use it

  1. Add each study as you read it, method and results included.
  2. Write the findings in your own words.
  3. Tag it with a theme, reusing the same words.
  4. Note limitations and relevance.
  5. Write one paragraph per theme from the side panel.

Add a study

From list to synthesis

Organize by idea, not by authorA summary listStudy 1 found this. Study 2 found that.Reads like an annotated bibliography.A synthesisTheme first: what the studies showtogether.Where they agree, conflict and why.What no one has tested yet.Organize by idea, not by authorA summary listStudy 1 found this. Study 2 found that.Reads like an annotated bibliography.A synthesisTheme first: what the studies show together.Where they agree, conflict and why.What no one has tested yet.
The theme field turns the list into a synthesis: group the studies, then write a paragraph per theme.

Replications matter

The 2014 finding that longhand notes beat laptop notes was widely reported. A direct replication in 2021 found the same difference in how notes were taken, but no reliable difference in learning. A review that cites only the first study gets the field wrong.

Design and sample

Randomized experiments can show cause; correlational studies show association. Small samples swing more from chance. Record both, and weigh the studies accordingly when they disagree.

Sources

  1. Mueller, P. A., and Oppenheimer, D. M. (2014). The pen is mightier than the keyboard: advantages of longhand over laptop note taking. Psychological Science, 25(6), 1159 to 1168.
  2. Urry, H. L., et al. (2021). Don’t ditch the laptop just yet: a direct replication of Mueller and Oppenheimer’s (2014) study 1 plus mini meta-analyses across similar studies. Psychological Science, 32(3), 326 to 339.
  3. Galvan, J. L., and Galvan, M. C. (2017). Writing Literature Reviews (7th ed.). Routledge.
  4. University of North Carolina Writing Center. Literature reviews (writingcenter.unc.edu).

The two example studies are real; the summaries, themes and checks are a student’s made-up notes. Nothing you type is sent to Caveat. Support: team@caveatacademic.com.