PhD Courses in Denmark

Date(s) of the course: Week 41 (Monday October 6th, Wednesday October 8th, Friday October 10th), 2025

Time: Monday 9:00 - 15:00, Wednesday 9:00 - 15:00, Friday 9:00 -15:00. Self-study Tuesday and Thursday

Course description:

Conducting and writing a literature review is an important part of research projects and Ph.D. projects. A good literature review will summarize both what we know so far and what we need to know from future studies. Literature reviews can also be exceptionally time-consuming and difficult to carry out, especially for younger scholars. Therefore, it is vital that scholars follow a well-thought-out plan, are rigorous in their approach, and have a strategy for the dissemination of the review.

The course covers literature reviews at both theoretical and practical levels. The main focus is on the structured literature review. However, other forms of reviews will be discussed as well, and the course will be relevant for all PhD-students who will conduct a literature review. By attending this course, the participants will gain insight into the purpose of literature reviews for academic studies, and related pitfalls especially how to avoid spending too much time and the importance of knowing the target journal and audiences from the start. Through class lessons and discussions, the students will be introduced to a variety of different literature reviews.  Further, the students will get practical experience with the different tasks involved in conducting a literature review through group and individual exercises. These tasks include deciding on the focus of the review, setting inclusion criteria, searching for relevant material though search engines, databases, and in journals; analyzing and coding the papers, and finally how to document the results of the review and presenting these results in an academic paper.

The course takes place during a five-day period, with lessons and group discussions on the first, third and fifth day. The second and fourth day of the course are reserved for practical tasks: searching for papers (day two) and analyzing and coding papers (day four). On these days the participants will apply the presented techniques for their own research purposes.
 

Exam and learning goals:

At the end of the course, the students must write a brief plan (3 standard pages) for a literature review. Here the students must demonstrate the ability to:

• Briefly explain the purpose of literature reviews in academic studies in general, and describe how literature reviews are conducted within the student’s research area
• Present an outline for conducting and disseminating a literature review, and argue for key choices made, including:
  • An estimate for how long it will take to conduct the review, and the individual tasks
  • The focus of the literature review: Topic, research field and possible outlets
  • How and where the search for papers will be conducted, including the databases and journals where the search will be conducted, and the keywords used
  • Inclusion and exclusion criteria
  • The focus of the review: What will be analyzed, how and why
  • The presentation and publication of the review: Selecting a target outlet, and creating a brief outline for a manuscript following the guidelines of the selected outlet

The students will receive a pass or fail grade.

Prerequisites:

The course is opened to PhD Students and postdocs.

Programme:

Please visit the course page for information about the programme.

Amount of hours the student is expected to use on the course:

Preparation: 30 hours (reading and prepare presentation of Ph.D. project)

Participation: 30 hours (including self-study at the Royal Library)

Exam: Writing a plan for the literature review (25 hours)

How to sign up:

Students who wish to participate in the course must send an e-mail to Christian Madsen (chrm@itu.dk). The e-mail must include a brief cover letter (1 page) which presents their Ph.D. project, the research field the Ph.D. project is positioned towards, and ideas for a literature review. During the first day of the course the students will present their co-students’ projects to each other using these descriptions.

The deadline for signing up is: Friday September 5th.