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Most doctoral students are novice researchers and may not possess the skills to effectively conduct a comprehensive review of the literature and frame a problem designed to conduct original research. Students need proper training and tools necessary to critically evaluate, synthesize and organize literature. The purpose of this concurrent mixed methods study was to determine if the use of a literature review software tool in an introductory research course resulted in improved quality of literature review scores as assessed by a criterion-based scoring rubric. During this study, the software tool was introduced to doctoral students in five sections of an 8-week introductory research course offered at one university located in the Southwestern United States. The quantitative component of the study consisted of comparing the literature review rubric scores of students who used the software tool to those who did not …