Performing a literature review

Advice home > specific types of writing > the literature review: a few tips on conducting ble pdf is a review of the literature? Literature review is an account of what has been published on a topic by accredited scholars and researchers. In writing the literature review, your purpose is to convey to your reader what knowledge and ideas have been established on a topic, and what their strengths and weaknesses are. As a piece of writing, the literature review must be defined by a guiding concept (e. It is not just a descriptive list of the material available, or a set of s enlarging your knowledge about the topic, writing a literature review lets you gain and demonstrate skills in two ation seeking: the ability to scan the literature efficiently, using manual or computerized methods, to identify a set of useful articles and al appraisal: the ability to apply principles of analysis to identify unbiased and valid studies. Literature review must do these organized around and related directly to the thesis or research question you are size results into a summary of what is and is not fy areas of controversy in the ate questions that need further yourself questions like these:What is the specific thesis, problem, or research question that my literature review helps to define? Literature review is a piece of discursive prose, not a list describing or summarizing one piece of literature after another. Instead, organize the literature review into sections that present themes or identify trends, including relevant theory.

Conducting a literature review in research

You may be able to write a paragraph or so to introduce the focus of each handout and many others are available in writing in the health sciences: a comprehensive g advice home > specific types of writing > the literature review: a few tips on conducting ble pdf is a review of the literature? You may be able to write a paragraph or so to introduce the focus of each handout and many others are available in writing in the health sciences: a comprehensive ting a literature ting a literature review: is a literature review? 2005, mann 's research diary: tried and true strategies for effective undergraduate updated jun 16, l university ilr library are many resources available on the internet and in print to help you conduct a literature review. Guide to library research at cornell literature review: a few tips on n by dena taylor, director, health sciences writing centre, and margaret procter, coordinator, writing support, university of to write a literature sity library, university of california, santa writing center, university of research methods sage research methods (srm) is a research tool supported by a newly devised taxonomy that links content and methods terms. Catherwood , ny 14853-3901website / blog :facebook pagetwitter ts:economics, human resources, labor & library a-z ting a literature in conducting a literature ting a literature ts of conducting a literature in conducting a literature y of the ture review tutorial (american university library). In conducting a literature ting a literature review involves using research databases to identify materials that cover or are related in some sense to the research topic. In some cases the research topic may be so original in its scope that no one has done anything exactly like it, so research that is at least similar or related will provide source material for the literature review. While a discovery tool can be invaluable for quickly finding a multitude of resources on nearly any topic, there are a number of considerations a researcher should keep in mind when using a discovery tool, especially for the researcher who is attempting a comprehensive literature discovery tool works with every database subscribed to by a library.

While this might be of only minor concern for a researcher looking to do a fairly limited research project, the researcher looking to do a comprehensive review of the literature in preparation for writing a master's thesis or a doctoral dissertation will run the risk of missing some materials by limiting the search just to a particular library's discovery system. Master's and doctoral candidates should take care to notice if their library's discovery tool automatically limits to available materials and broaden the scope to include all materials, not just those the foregoing in mind, a researcher might start a search by using the library's discovery tool and then follow up by reviewing which databases have been included in the search and, more importantly, which databases have not been included. The purpose of these two systems is to enable a researcher to determine what research has been cited over the years by any number of researchers and how many times it has been ating an effective search strategy -- key to performing an effective literature review is selecting search terms that will effectively identify materials that are relevant to the research topic. For example, terminology that is used frequently in psychological literature might not be as effective in searching a human resources management database. Brainstorming the topic before launching into a search will help a researcher arrive at a good working vocabulary to use when probing the databases for relevant materials are identified with the initial search, the researcher will want to keep track of other terminology that could be of use in performing additional searches. Abstracts of articles located in the initial search on mainstreaming will uncover related concepts such as inclusion and help a researcher develop a better, more effective vocabulary for fleshing out the literature addition to searching using key concepts aligned with the research topic, a researcher likely also will want to search for additional materials produced by key authors who are identified in the initial searches. As a researcher reviews items retrieved in the initial stages of the survey, he or she will begin to notice certain authors coming up over and over in relation to the topic. A review of the reference lists for each of the items identified in the search will also help to identify key literature that should be ng the materials and composing the review -- in many cases the items identified through the library's databases will also be available online through the same or related databases.

The thorough researcher will make sure that all the key literature has been retrieved and read thoroughly before proceeding too far with the original end result of the literature review is a discussion of the central themes in the research and an overview of the significant studies located by the researcher. This discussion serves as the lead section of a paper or article that reports the findings of an original research study and sets the stage for presentation of the original study by providing a review of research that has been conducted prior to the current study. As the researcher conducts his or her own study, other relevant materials might enter into the professional literature. It is the researcher's responsibility to update the literature review with newly released information prior to completing his or her own ng the initial search -- most research projects will take place over a period of time and are not completed in the short term. During this time, it will be important for the researcher to periodically review the research that has been going on at the same time as his or her own research. Review, literature survey, original research, research, survey of the gift to the carpenter library ensures success. Please join us in making a by @ g carpenter sity of north nville, fl us (904) us (904) d by in current sity homeuniversity a-zmaps and the university us on us on us on t learning development▼ d in your a literature a literature a printer-friendly pdf version of this guide, click study guide explains why literature reviews are needed, and how they can be conducted and reported. Focus of the study guide is the literature review within a dissertation or a thesis, but many of the ideas are transferable to other kinds of writing, such as an extended essay, or a is a literature review?

A literature review:Situates your research focus within the context of the wider academic community in your field; reports your critical review of the relevant literature; andidentifies a gap within that literature that your research will attempt to some extent, particularly with postgraduate research, the literature review can become a project in itself. The process of conducting and reporting your literature review can help you clarify your own thoughts about your study. It can also establish a framework within which to present and analyse the reading your literature review, it should be clear to the reader that you have up-to-date awareness of the relevant work of others, and that the research question you are asking is relevant. You will also need to be ready to answer them in a viva if you will be having is important that your literature review is more than just a list of references with a short description of each one. You need to demonstrate to your reader that you are examining your sources with a critical approach, and not just believing them need to be actively involved in interpreting the literature that you are reviewing, and in explaining that interpretation to the reader, rather than just listing what others have interpretation of each piece of evidence is just that: an interpretation. In this case the ‘whole’ will be your structured review of relevant work, and your coherent argument for the study that you are ng a synthesis is, in effect, like building interpretation upon interpretation. It is essential to check that you have constructed your synthesis well, and with sufficient supporting to review the small-scale writing projects, the literature review is likely to be done just once; probably before the writing begins. With longer projects such as a dissertation for a masters degree, and certainly with a phd, the literature review process will be more are three stages at which a review of the literature is needed:An early review is needed to establish the context and rationale for your study and to confirm your choice of research focus/question;as the study period gets longer, you need to make sure that you keep in touch with current, relevant research in your field, which is published during the period of your research;as you prepare your final report or thesis, you need to relate your findings to the findings of others, and to identify their implications for theory, practice, and research.

This can involve further review with perhaps a slightly different focus from that of your initial applies especially to people doing phds on a part-time basis, where their research might extend over six or more years. You need to be able to demonstrate that you are aware of current issues and research, and to show how your research is relevant within a changing and students in your area can be good sources of ideas about where to look for relevant literature. You can then begin your process of evaluating the quality and relevance of what you read, and this can guide you to more focussed further and procter of the university of toronto have some useful suggested questions to ask yourself at the beginning of your reading:What is the specific thesis, problem, or research question that my literature review helps to define? This can be particularly useful if you find a review article that evaluates other literature in the field. This will then provide you with a long reference list, and some evaluation of the references it searching of electronic literature search can be 100% comprehensive, as the match between search terms and the content of articles will never be perfect. It is therefore probably worth allocating some time to sitting in the library, with issues from the last year or two of the most relevant journals for your research topic, and reviewing them for anything of r et al. As you review the references, remember to be a critical reader (see study guide what is critical reading? A record of your search strategy is useful, to prevent you duplicating effort by doing the same search twice, or missing out a significant and relevant sector of literature because you think you have already done that search.

Is also important to see the writing stage as part of the research process, not something that happens after you have finished reading the literature. You are part way through your reading you can have a go at writing the literature review, in anticipation of revising it later on. For example, a study of the performance of a clinical team working in gerontology might involve reading literature within medicine; nursing; other allied healthcare specialties; psychology; and sociology; as well as perhaps healthcare policy; and patients’ experiences of healthcare. Decisions need to be made about where to focus your reading, and where you can refer briefly to an area but explain why you will not be going into it in more task of shaping a logical and effective report of a literature review is undeniably challenging. Some useful guidance on how to approach the writing up is given by wellington et al (2005:87):“it should be framed by your research must relate to your must be clear to the reader where it is going: keep signposting along the er possible, use original source material rather than summaries or reviews by in control, not totally deferent to or ‘tossed about by’ previous selective. It is probably best to treat it as a research project in its own in a dialogue with the literature, you are not just providing a summary. Most disciplines, the aim is for the reader to reach the end of the literature review with a clear appreciation of what you are doing; why you are doing it; and how it fits in with other research in your field. It is important to keep the focus on your study, rather than on the literature (wellington 2005).

There may be specific guidance on structure within your department, or you may need to devise your es of ways you might structure your literature review are:Chronologically; although be careful not just to list items; you need to write critically, not just descriptively;by theme; this is useful if there are several strands within your topic that can logically be considered separately before being brought together;by sector e. It needs to reach the logical conclusion that your research is a good there is a key article or book that is of major importance to the development of your own research ideas, it is important to give extra space to describing and critiquing that piece of literature in more depth. Similarly, if there are some studies that you will be referring to more than to others, it would be useful to give them a full report and critique at this well as using tables to display numerical data, tables can be useful within a literature review when you are comparing other kinds of material. This will be just as important when there is limited existing research in your area, as when there is an ing your you have a first draft of your literature review it is possible for you to assess how well you have achieved your aims. London:icating your research,Succeed in your a literature h for academic mental atics help al development planning (pdp).