Introduction
As an academic, researcher or student engaging in research and academic writing, a literature review is an essential aspect of creating a high-quality research or academic paper. Conducting a literature review helps to provide a solid foundation for your research and academic writing, by identifying relevant background information, discussions, theories and debates on a particular subject. In this article, we’ll explore what literature review is, its importance in academic writing and research methodology, and how to conduct a thorough literature review.
The Importance of Literature Review in Academic Writing
A literature review refers to a summary and critical analysis of different scholarly articles, journals, books or other works related to a particular topic. Its major purpose is to identify gaps or arguments in the literature that enables you to provide a new contribution to the existing knowledge. In academic writing, literature review is often placed at the beginning of a research paper, thesis or dissertation and it works to:
-Provide a theoretical framework for your research question.
-Provide a summary of existing scholarship on a subject.
-Identify major areas of debate, disagreements among scholars or different arguments related to your topic of interest.
-Set the context for your research and situate your research questions within a specific framework.
Real-life examples demonstrate how literature review helps to frame and answer research questions and to identify research gaps, that your study has the potential to fill. For instance, if you are studying factors influencing employee satisfaction in a particular industry, literature review helps you to understand how other studies have conceptualized and measured employee satisfaction and to identify gaps in current research, before making any new contribution to the existing literature.
How to Conduct a Thorough Literature Review
Before you start writing, it is important to have a clear understanding of how to conduct a thorough literature review. Here’s a step-by-step guide.
1. Define your research question
The first step to conducting a thorough literature review is to clearly define your research question(s). A well-defined research question helps you to identify relevant literature and to narrow the scope of your literature review. For instance, if your research question is, “What are the challenges faced by women-owned enterprises in accessing finance?”, you will be focusing on the specific challenge of access to finance by women-owned enterprises.
2. Identify relevant sources
The second step is to identify relevant sources of literature. You can use databases such as Google Scholar, JSTOR, or your institution’s library search engine. In identifying relevant sources, it is essential to keep a record of search terms, keywords and phrases that you used in your search. Conduct searches on each keyword and phrase.
3. Evaluate the sources
The third step is to evaluate the sources of literature. This involves critically assessing the quality of the sources, based on relevance, reliability, accuracy, and credibility of the authors. Evaluate the methodology employed in each study, identifying the strengths and weaknesses of each study.
4. Synthesize the literature
The fourth step is to synthesize the literature by writing a summary of each article, highlighting the key concepts, arguments, and methodologies employed in each study. Synthesize the studies by identifying common themes, ideas, and approaches.
5. Write the review
The fifth step is to write the literature review by organizing the studies around the themes that you identified during the synthesis process. It is crucial to evaluate the sources and demonstrate how they contribute to answering research questions.
The Role of Literature Review in Research Methodology
Literature review is an essential aspect of research methodology used to assess the existing knowledge on a given subject. The literature review allows the research to take a critical look at past theories, ideas, and methods used by other scholars in the same field or studies. Depending on the research design of the study, the literature review can also help the researcher to identify the most appropriate research method.
There are different types of literature review which are used based on the research questions and the research design. These include systematic reviews, meta-analyses, narrative reviews, and scoping reviews. Each type of review has its specific structure and methodologies.
A systematic review is a type of review that assesses many studies on a subject. It requires a comprehensive search for relevant literature, critical evaluation of each study, and provides a narrative summary of the findings.
A meta-analysis, on the other hand, is the analysis of the results of several studies, often done if many studies have already been conducted on the subject. It involves integrating statistics from many studies to form a single conclusion about a particular subject.
On the flip side, the umbrella term “narrative review” describes all types of literature review with the sole aim of summarizing a particular subject and the findings of relevant studies.
Scoping review is a method of assessing the existing literature to determine the gaps and areas to focus on in future research. It is an excellent way of reviewing the literature on a very broad topic area.
Real-life examples demonstrate how literature review helps in the design of research methodology. For instance, a study exploring the factors that promote successful virtual team collaboration may require the use of a qualitative research method to collect data from the team members. A literature review will help you to identify similar studies that have used the qualitative method for similar research questions.
The Benefits of an Effective Literature Review
An effective literature review not only helps to identify research gaps but also benefits research in the following ways:
-It deepens your understanding of the subject area as you try to determine the “conversation” in the existing literature.
-It helps you to identify and eliminate competition to your research by identifying existing theories or methods that are redundant or have proven ineffective.
-It links your research to the existing literature and research questions, which gives validation to your research and supports your arguments or hypothesis.
-It provides an excellent method of communication for the researcher as it identifies the topics that require more research or those that need a new research approach.
Real-life examples demonstrate how literature review can provide the benefits of a thorough literature review. For instance, a well-done literature review on parental involvement in a child’s early education, may identify gaps in current research and identify other factors that are related to parental involvement, leading to the development of new research questions and insights.
Avoiding Common Mistakes in Literature Review Writing
Common mistakes in literature review writing include:
-Failing to provide a clear and concise research question.
-Inadequate or insufficient evaluation of sources.
-Failing to identify the relationship between the research questions and the sources.
-Failing to incorporate commentaries and reviews of the literature into the text of the review.
To overcome these common mistakes, it is important to have a clear understanding of the research questions and the sources of the literature and to organize the literature review, so that it is tied to the research questions.
Literature Review 101: A Beginner’s Guide
A literature review is an essential aspect of academic writing and research methodology. It is a critical summary and analysis of various scholarly works on a particular topic that helps to provide a theoretical framework and background for research questions and hypotheses. A literature review is comprised of an introduction, main body and conclusion. It works to provide a summary of existing scholarship on the subject and identify gaps in current research.
The Dos and Don’ts of Writing a Literature Review
DO:
-Start with a clear research question(s).
-Be systematic in identifying and evaluating sources.
-Organize the literature around specific themes and topics.
-Demonstrate how the sources contribute to answering specific research questions.
-Provide critique and commentary of the literature.
DON’T:
-Use irrelevant sources of literature.
-Provide a summary of each article instead of a critical evaluation.
-Use the literature review to showcase your knowledge of the literature without demonstrating how it is relevant to the study.
-Use the literature review to promote your own research without context into existing research.
Conclusion
In this article, we have explored what literature review is, its importance in academic writing and research methodology, and how to conduct a thorough literature review. We have also discussed the role of literature review in research methodology, the benefits of an effective literature review, common mistakes to avoid in literature review writing. Finally, we provided a beginner’s guide to literature review, and a list of dos and don’ts when writing a literature review. We hope that with this information, you can start conducting an effective literature review for your research or academic paper.
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