A literature review is
a mandatory part of any research project
. It demonstrates that you can systematically explore the research in your topic area, read and analyze the literature on the topic, use it to inform your own work, and gather enough knowledge about the topic to conduct a research project.
Do all articles have a literature review?
Scholarly publications (especially peer reviewed articles)
will always include at least
a brief literature review in their introduction and discussion sections. Click here to learn how to find scholarly or peer reviewed articles. Theses and dissertations should include a detailed literature review.
Is a literature review required in a research paper?
When you write a thesis, dissertation, or research paper, you will have to
conduct a literature review to situate your research within existing knowledge
. The literature review gives you a chance to: Demonstrate your familiarity with the topic and scholarly context.
What a literature review requires?
Reviewing the literature requires the
ability to juggle multiple tasks
, from finding and evaluating relevant material to synthesising information from various sources, from critical thinking to paraphrasing, evaluating, and citation skills [7].
Why is literature review necessary?
Why do we do a literature review? … Reviewing the literature lets you see what came before, and what did and didn’t work for other researchers.
To demonstrate your understanding
, and your ability to critically evaluate research in the field. To provide evidence that may be used to support your own findings.
What are the disadvantages of literature review?
They may spend unnecessary time and resources on searching for the
reviews
. It is time consuming for the teachers to correct and provide feedback.
Literature reviews
require good supervision from teachers particularly for students who are inexperienced in this type of assessment.
What are the pros and cons of a literature review?
| Pros of systematic literature reviews Cons of systematic literature reviews | Bias is reduced by the use of a systematic method for selecting studies for the review. Often more time-consuming than other types of review. |
|---|
What a literature review is not?
A literature review is NOT:
is
a brief critical discussion about the merits and weaknesses of a particular book
. Book reviews of creative works are sometimes called literary reviews. Scholarly books are also reviewed by other scholars. Scholarly book reviews are often published in scholarly journals.
What is literature review and example?
1. A literature review is
a survey of scholarly sources that provides an overview of a particular topic
. It generally follows a discussion of the paper’s thesis statement or the study’s goals or purpose. *This sample paper was adapted by the Writing Center from Key, K.L., Rich, C., DeCristofaro, C., Collins, S.
What a literature review looks like?
A literature review discusses published information in a particular subject area, and sometimes information in a particular subject area within a certain time period. A literature review can be just a simple summary of the sources, but it usually has an
organizational pattern and combines both summary and synthesis
.
How do you tell if an article is a literature review?
The literature review section of an article is
a summary or analysis of all the research the author read before doing his/her own research
. This section may be part of the introduction or in a section called Background.
How many sources should a literature review have?
If your literature review is a stand-alone document
Example: A stand-alone literature review that has 10 pages of content (the body of the paper) should examine
at least 30 sources
. These are not hard and fast rules by any means.
How many articles should you read for a literature review?
Maybe – as a very rough and ready rule of thumb –
8-10 significant pieces (books and/or articles) for a 8,000 word dissertation
, up to 20 major pieces of work for 12-15,000 words, and so on. But use your judgement! Skim through the books and articles identified as potentially relevant.
How do you begin a literature review?
One common way to approach a literature review is
to start out broad and then become more specific
. Think of it as an inverted triangle: First briefly explain the broad issues related to your investigation; you don’t need to write much about this, just demonstrate that you are aware of the breadth of your subject.
What are the four major goals of a literature review?
To determine what exists in the scholarly literature. To identify possible gap(s) in the scholarly
literature for further research
.
To inform the research topic, theory (if applicable), and associated methodology
.
To compare/contrast against findings resulting from the current study
.
How a literature review is written?
The literature review is
a written overview of major writings and other sources on a selected topic
. Sources covered in the review may include scholarly journal articles, books, government reports, Web sites, etc. The literature review provides a description, summary and evaluation of each source.
