Literature Reviews
What is a Literature Review?
- Steps for Creating a Literature Review
- Providing Evidence / Critical Analysis
- Challenges when writing a Literature Review
- Systematic Literature Reviews
A literature review is an academic text that surveys, synthesizes, and critically evaluates the existing literature on a specific topic. It is typically required for theses, dissertations, or long reports and serves several key purposes:
- Surveying the Literature : It involves a comprehensive search and examination of relevant academic books, journal articles, and other sources related to the chosen topic.
- Synthesizing Information : The literature review summarizes and organizes the information found in the literature, often identifying patterns, themes, and gaps in the current knowledge.
- Critical Analysis : It critically analyzes the collected information, highlighting limitations, gaps, and areas of controversy, and suggests directions for future research.
- Establishing Context : It places the current research within the broader context of the field, demonstrating how the new research builds on or diverges from previous studies.
Types of Literature Reviews
Literature reviews can take various forms, including:
- Narrative Reviews : These provide a qualitative summary of the literature and are often used to give a broad overview of a topic. They may be less structured and more subjective, focusing on synthesizing the literature to support a particular viewpoint.
- Systematic Reviews : These are more rigorous and structured, following a specific methodology to identify, evaluate, and synthesize all relevant studies on a particular question. They aim to minimize bias and provide a comprehensive summary of the existing evidence.
- Integrative Reviews : Similar to systematic reviews, but they aim to generate new knowledge by integrating findings from different studies to develop new theories or frameworks.
Importance of Literature Reviews
- Foundation for Research : They provide a solid background for new research projects, helping to justify the research question and methodology.
Identifying Gaps : Literature reviews highlight areas where knowledge is lacking, guiding future research efforts.
- Building Credibility : Demonstrating familiarity with existing research enhances the credibility of the researcher and their work.
In summary, a literature review is a critical component of academic research that helps to frame the current state of knowledge, identify gaps, and provide a basis for new research.
The research, the body of current literature, and the particular objectives should all influence the structure of a literature review. It is also critical to remember that creating a literature review is an ongoing process - as one reads and analyzes the literature, one's understanding may change, which could require rearranging the literature review.
Paré, G. and Kitsiou, S. (2017) 'Methods for Literature Reviews' , in: Lau, F. and Kuziemsky, C. (eds.) Handbook of eHealth evaluation: an evidence-based approach . Victoria (BC): University of Victoria.
Perplexity AI (2024) Perplexity AI response to Kathy Neville, 31 July.
Royal Literary Fund (2024) The structure of a literature review. Available at: https://www.rlf.org.uk/resources/the-structure-of-a-literature-review/ (Accessed: 23 July 2024).
Library Services for Undergraduate Research (2024) Literature review: a definition . Available at: https://libguides.wustl.edu/our?p=302677 (Accessed: 31 July 2024).
Further Reading:
Methods for Literature Reviews
Literature Review (The University of Edinburgh)
Literature Reviews (University of Sheffield)
- How to Write a Literature Review Paper? Wee, Bert Van ; Banister, David ISBN: 0144-1647
- Next: Steps for Creating a Literature Review >>
- Last Updated: Sep 4, 2024 11:43 AM
- URL: https://library.lsbu.ac.uk/literaturereviews
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Literature Review Template. The fastest (and smartest) way to craft a strong literature review that lays a solid theoretical foundation and earns marks. Available in Google Doc, Word & PDF format. 4.9 star rating, 5000+ downloads. Download Now (Instant access)
We start off by discussing the five core sections of a literature review chapter by unpacking our free literature review template. This includes: The literature review opening/ introduction section. The theoretical framework (or foundation of theory) The empirical research. The research gap.
Examples of literature reviews. Step 1 - Search for relevant literature. Step 2 - Evaluate and select sources. Step 3 - Identify themes, debates, and gaps. Step 4 - Outline your literature review's structure. Step 5 - Write your literature review.
2. MOTIVATE YOUR RESEARCH in addition to providing useful information about your topic, your literature review must tell a story about how your project relates to existing literature. popular literature review narratives include: ¡ plugging a gap / filling a hole within an incomplete literature ¡ building a bridge between two "siloed" literatures, putting literatures "in conversation"
Step 1: Select the Ideal Literature. Start by locating all the existing research on your topic that could help answer your primary questions. Some strategies for this step include: Scanning Google Scholar - Google's academic search engine - for the articles that apply to your research. Use keywords for the best results.
The Seed Maps and Discover features of Litmaps have transformed my literature review process, streamlining the identification of key citations while revealing previously overlooked relevant literature, ensuring no crucial connection goes unnoticed. A true game-changer indeed! Ritwik Pandey.
As mentioned above, writing your literature review is a process, which I'll break down into three steps: Finding the most suitable literature. Understanding, distilling and organising the literature. Planning and writing up your literature review chapter. Importantly, you must complete steps one and two before you start writing up your chapter.
The best proposals are timely and clearly explain why readers should pay attention to the proposed topic. It is not enough for a review to be a summary of the latest growth in the literature: the ...
A literature review is a survey of scholarly sources on a specific topic. It provides an overview of current knowledge, allowing you to identify relevant theories, methods, and gaps in the existing research. There are five key steps to writing a literature review: Search for relevant literature. Evaluate sources. Identify themes, debates and gaps.
Our Literature Review Generator is an AI-powered tool that streamlines and simplifies the creation of literature reviews by automatically collecting, analyzing, summarizing, and synthesizing all the relevant academic sources on a specific topic within the parameters you define. It saves you additional time by highlighting themes, trends, and ...
A literature review is a surveys scholarly articles, books and other sources relevant to a particular. issue, area of research, or theory, and by so doing, providing a description, summary, and ...
6. Consensus. Researchers to work together, annotate, and discuss research papers in real-time, fostering team collaboration and knowledge sharing. 7. RAx. Researchers to perform efficient literature search and analysis, aiding in identifying relevant articles, saving time, and improving the quality of research. 8.
Conducting Your Literature Review. 3. A. literature reviewis an overview of the available research for a specific scientific topic. Literature reviews summarize existing research to answer a review question, provide the context for new research, or identify important gaps in the existing body of literature. We now have access to lots of ...
Literature reviews take time. Here is some general information to know before you start. VIDEO -- This video is a great overview of the entire process. (2020; North Carolina State University Libraries) --The transcript is included. --This is for everyone; ignore the mention of "graduate students". --9.5 minutes, and every second is important.
A literary review template is a type of written work that discusses published information about a specific subject matter. The length of the review doesn't matter. It can be as simple as a summary of sources or can be as long as several pages. An outline for literature review can also evaluate these sources and advise to the readers regarding ...
Demonstrate your knowledge of the research topic. Identify the gaps in the literature and show how your research links to these. Provide the foundation for your conceptual framework (if you have one) Inform your own methodology and research design. To achieve this, your literature review needs a well-thought-out structure.
Finalize your literature review faster with comfort. ATLAS.ti makes it easy to manage, organize, and analyze articles, PDFs, excerpts, and more for your projects. Conduct a deep systematic literature review and get the insights you need with a comprehensive toolset built specifically for your research projects.
Using MAXQDA as your literature review software enables you to employ a vast range of procedures for the quantitative evaluation of your material. You can sort sources according to document variables, compare amounts with frequency tables and charts, and much more. Make sure you don't miss the word frequency tools of MAXQDA's add-on module ...
Literature Reviews What this handout is about This handout will explain what a literature review is and offer insights into the form and construction of a literature review in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. Introduction OK. You've got to write a literature review. You dust off a novel and a book of poetry, settle
What kinds of literature reviews are written? Narrative review: The purpose of this type of review is to describe the current state of the research on a specific topic/research and to offer a critical analysis of the literature reviewed. Studies are grouped by research/theoretical categories, and themes and trends, strengths and weakness, and gaps are identified.
Download Free PDF. View PDF. Research Methodology Literature Literature Review. A literature review must be coherent, systematic and clear. The review of literature must stick to answering the research question and also there must be a justification of every argument using extracts and illustrations. It is essential that all.
The research, the body of current literature, and the particular objectives should all influence the structure of a literature review. It is also critical to remember that creating a literature review is an ongoing process - as one reads and analyzes the literature, one's understanding may change, which could require rearranging the literature ...
Template 4: Comprehensive Literature Review PPT Slide. Download this tried-and-true literature review template to present a descriptive summary of your research topic statement. The given PPT layout is replete with relevant content to help you strike a balance between supporting and opposing aspects of an argument.
Literature Review Catalogue. The smart way to collect and organise the sources you need to craft a comprehensive, high-quality literature review. Matrix available in Excel and Google Sheet format. 4.9 star rating, 5000+ downloads. Download Now (Instant access)
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