You are on page 1of 8

Title: Mastering the Art of Literature Review: Your Ultimate Guide

Welcome to our comprehensive guide on understanding literature reviews and harnessing the power
of credible sources to craft a compelling narrative. Whether you're a seasoned academic researcher or
a student embarking on your first literature review, navigating the vast sea of scholarly articles,
books, and other resources can be a daunting task. However, fear not! We're here to demystify the
process and equip you with the tools you need to excel in your academic endeavors.

What is a Literature Review?

A literature review is a critical analysis of existing literature on a specific topic or research question.
It serves several key purposes, including:

1. Providing a comprehensive overview of existing knowledge and research in a particular field.


2. Identifying gaps, inconsistencies, or areas for further investigation.
3. Contextualizing your own research within the broader scholarly conversation.
4. Demonstrating your understanding of the relevant literature and theoretical frameworks.

Sources of Literature

When embarking on a literature review, it's essential to cast a wide net and gather information from
diverse sources. These may include:

1. Academic Journals: Peer-reviewed journals are a goldmine of scholarly research and are often
the first port of call for literature reviews.
2. Books: Books provide in-depth coverage of specific topics and can offer valuable insights
into theoretical frameworks and methodologies.
3. Conference Proceedings: Conference papers can offer the latest research findings and
emerging trends in your field.
4. Dissertations and Theses: These documents provide comprehensive analyses of specific
research topics and can serve as valuable sources of information.
5. Government Reports and Policy Documents: These sources can offer valuable data and
insights into government policies, regulations, and initiatives related to your research topic.
6. Online Databases: Utilize online databases such as PubMed, JSTOR, and Google Scholar to
access a vast array of scholarly literature.

Challenges of Writing a Literature Review

While literature reviews are invaluable tools for advancing knowledge and understanding in a
particular field, they can also present significant challenges. Some common hurdles include:

1. Information Overload: With so much information available, it can be challenging to sift


through the vast array of literature and identify the most relevant sources.
2. Synthesizing Complex Ideas: Literature reviews require the synthesis of complex ideas and
concepts from multiple sources, which can be a daunting task.
3. Avoiding Bias: It's essential to approach the literature review process with an open mind and
avoid biases that may influence your interpretation of the literature.
4. Time Constraints: Conducting a thorough literature review takes time and effort, and tight
deadlines can add pressure to the process.

Why Choose ⇒ StudyHub.vip ⇔?


At ⇒ StudyHub.vip ⇔, we understand the challenges of writing a literature review and are here to
assist you every step of the way. Our team of experienced writers specializes in crafting high-quality
literature reviews that are meticulously researched, well-written, and tailored to your specific
requirements.

With our expert assistance, you can:

1. Save Time: Let us handle the time-consuming task of searching for and synthesizing relevant
literature, allowing you to focus on other aspects of your research.
2. Ensure Quality: Our writers are highly skilled in academic writing and adhere to the highest
standards of quality and integrity.
3. Meet Deadlines: We understand the importance of meeting deadlines, and our team works
efficiently to deliver your literature review on time, every time.
4. Gain Insights: Our literature reviews are not just summaries of existing literature but provide
insightful analyses and critical evaluations that demonstrate your understanding of the topic.

Don't let the challenges of writing a literature review hold you back. Contact ⇒ StudyHub.vip ⇔
today and take the first step towards crafting a literature review that will impress your peers and
advance your academic career.
This is the situation when you are asked to investigate the existing state of research on your issue and
then analyze and synthesize your results. Do I need to provide any definitions or background
information. What are the key concepts and how are they defined. Do a quick scan of the titles and
see what seems relevant, then search for the relevant ones in your university’s database. Does the
research use established frameworks or take an innovative approach. To inform your methodological
choices and help you source tried and tested questionnaires (for interviews ) and measurement
instruments (for surveys ). Stancanelli, P. Weisberg, and X. Xu for insights and discussions, and to P.
Bourne, T. Matoni, and D. Smith for helpful comments on a previous draft. There are a number of
different situations where you might write a literature review, each with slightly different
expectations; different disciplines, too, have field-specific expectations for what a literature review
is and does. Move them around if you decide that (a) they ?t better under different headings, or (b)
you need to establish new topic headings. Those papers can be used only as a reference material and
should be properly cited in any academic work. Lit reviews can take many different organizational
patterns depending on what you are trying to accomplish with the review. Use the bibliographies and
references of research studies you find to locate others. So, what exactly is the purpose of the
literature review. It covers the materials needed for the main objects of research. Do I need to
include any background information or definitions. A good starting point could be to look at some
examples, depending on what kind of literature review you’d like to write. While focus is an
important feature of a successful review, this requirement has to be balanced with the need to make
the review relevant to a broad audience. Be explicit, and use high-quality guidance and standards for
review conduct and reporting (e.g., CEE Guidance) (PRISMA or ROSES) Reviewers may wind up
with the wrong evidence for the subject at hand due to selection bias (containing studies that are not
typical of the evidence base) and a lack of comprehensiveness (an inadequate search approach). Last
Updated: Jan 4, 2024 10:52 AM URL: Have a language expert improve your writing Run a free
plagiarism check in 10 minutes, automatically generate references for free. Really agreed. Admirable
effort thank you for this beautiful well explained recap. If you have found some recurring central
themes, you can organise your literature review into subsections that address different aspects of the
topic. So, it is first of all vital to define what a literature review is. How to Subscribe to The Airtel
Premier Connect Plan Through The Simplest Way. Check out Scribbr’s professional proofreading
services. I would love to engage my study under your guidance from the beginning to the end.
Thematic review: A thematic review of literature is organized around a topic or issue, rather than the
progression of time. Funding Statement This work was funded by the French Foundation for
Research on Biodiversity (FRB) through its Centre for Synthesis and Analysis of Biodiversity data
(CESAB), as part of the NETSEED research project. This allows you to organize your thoughts and
discoveries into a logical totality. What are the similarities, what are the differences. Literature
reviews at postgraduate level should be evaluative and not merely descriptive.
The topic sentences of each paragraph should indicate the main points of your literature review.
Facebook Instagram RSS Twitter Site Links Home Finance Celebrity Education Gist Example of
NYSC Update Scholarship Health Politics Relationship Sports Technology World News The latest
Menstrual Cycle Phase: Understanding Its Essential 4 Phases and Durations. A literature review
may be a stand alone work or the introduction to a larger research paper, depending on the
assignment. In this post, I’ll show you exactly how to write a literature review in three
straightforward steps, so you can conquer this vital chapter (the smart way). You should also look
for the major concepts, conclusions, theories, arguments etc. In addition to this, from the writer’s
point of view, the purpose of literature review is to have the validity of the research paper that no
one can duplicate the originals writings and if it is needed to use that research paper for another
research, it must to acknowledge the writers name as references in the journals or articles. Thank you
for a very useful literature review session. This is, after all, one of the main purposes of the literature
review process (i.e. to familiarise yourself with the current state of research in your field). A
literature review tells your readers what others have researched on your topic and helps to
demonstrate why your topic is both original and essential to the field of research. The introduction
should clearly establish the focus and purpose of the literature review. Then tighten it up and submit
it to your supervisor. On the one hand, if you take several years to choose, several other people may
have had the same idea in the meantime. A discussion of your knowledge about the topic under
study A discussion of your knowledge that is supported by the research literature. The literature
review gives you a chance to: Demonstrate your familiarity with the topic and its scholarly context
Develop a theoretical framework and methodology for your research Position your work in relation
to other researchers and theorists Show how your research addresses a gap or contributes to a debate
Evaluate the current state of research and demonstrate your knowledge of the scholarly debates
around your topic. Try to analyze patterns, turning points and key debates that have shaped the
direction of the field. What you include in each depends on the objective of your literature review.
Long story short, this chapter is a pretty big deal, which is why you want to make sure you get it
right. I have an amazing supervisor but one also knows they are super busy. There are various ways
to organize your literature review: Chronological method: Writing in the chronological method means
you are presenting the materials according to when they were published. A good literature review
does not just summarize sources. Make sure to read the abstract to find out whether an article is
relevant to your question. Undertaking a Literature Review: A Step-by-Step Approach by Patricia
Cronin. The carefully examined examples can be like a treasure with multiple tips. Embed Host your
publication on your website or blog with just a few clicks. Your literature review should be guided
by your central research question. As such, primary documents are those that have directly
contributed to the field of research or a research area. For example, if you are reviewing literature
about inequalities in migrant health outcomes, key themes might include healthcare policy, language
barriers, cultural attitudes, legal status, and economic access. You should chase down and use the
reference if the reference author links to another source whose thoughts are relevant or fascinating.
Should it be noted down as verbatim or paraphrased. You also have the option to opt-out of these
cookies.
This lays a solid basis for the rest of your paper. This may be necessary to some extent, but in this
case a focused review would only deal in detail with those studies at the interface between
epidemiology and the spread of ideas. Should I summarize, synthesize or offer a critique of the
sources. It can be helpful to make an annotated bibliography, where you compile full citation
information and write a paragraph of summary and analysis for each source. I wish everybody good
luck with writing a review of the literature. Ensure you understand the research topic inside out, or
else seek clarifications. It may benefit you to get support from a literature review writing service to
obtain a complete, professional literature review formatted in APA style as a guideline to show you
the right way to review any and all research sources included in it. Refine your second draft and get
a layman’s perspective on it. It’s needed to give potential readers an overview of the writing content,
helping to decide whether their research determines it. Many government agencies and businesses
commission or conduct research. Having known the importance of the literature review in research
work, it is pertinent that great attention is paid to all the issues raised to have a good literature
review. If this is not going beyond the requirements of writing a sample of literature review, why not.
Are there any gaps in the research that need to be filled. Give your interpretation of how and why
certain developments occurred. With reviews, the usual subdivision of research papers into
introduction, methods, results, and discussion does not work or is rarely used. Newspapers b.
Interviews c. Magazines d. Music e. Court proceedings and records f. Novels g. Stories h.
Photographs i. Memoirs j. Letters Differences between the primary source of literature review and
secondary source of literature review: Primary source of literature review presents fresh and first-
hand information while the secondary source of literature review gives second-hand information.
Make sure to select appropriate source material, which means using academic or scholarly sources,
including books, reports, journal articles, government documents and web resources. ?? If you’re
unsure about how to tell if a source is scholarly, take a look at our guide on how to identify a
scholarly source. Usually you will need to synthesize research rather than just summarizing it. You
might argue for the relevance of a specific theoretical approach, or combine various theoretical
concepts to create a framework for your research. Use a citation manager, such as EndNote as the
repository for your citations. Experiences can be from what we see, the things we hear and what we
say to people. Furthermore, they provide information on which researchers are active in specific
fields, which can be useful for tracking down their other work. Write an instruction to yourself in
your own words, stating clearly what you need to do. This article has been adapted into lecture slides
that you can use to teach your students about writing a literature review. Dr. Mark Matthews Student
Learning Development Finding your way in the woods. Armed with one of the world’s largest in-
house editing teams - with over 1400 native English editors and publication experts who cover 1200
subjects - we provide high-quality English paper editing services to academic, publishing, and
pharmaceutical communities. He holds the esteemed positions of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and
Director at Freemanbiz Communication and Writers King LTD, demonstrating his leadership and
expertise in the field. SciSpace GPT: Choose the Best GPT for Research Literature Review and
Theoretical Framework: Understanding the Differences Types of Essays in Academic Writing An
official website of the United States government The.gov means it’s official. What challenges does
this research paper pose to the existing theory What are the possible contributions or benefits it adds
to the subject domain. The three-step process. STEP 1. Analyse the topic. Read the question carefully
at least three times.
While you probably already have a decent base of this from your research proposal, you need to
expand on this substantially in the dissertation or thesis itself. Bolin TD, Wong S, Ult GC, Crouch
R, Engelman JL and Riordan SM. If your paper does not depend entirely on references, then it will
be short. So, make sure you take a serious and a diligent approach to working on the paper. For you
to identify the gap(s) in the literature and then use this as justification for your own research topic.
Roles of the literature in research (Fig. 6.1). The entire basis of the research Source of: ideas on
topics for research information on research already done by others methodological or theoretical
ideas. When starting from scratch, reviewing the literature can require a titanic amount of work.
There are so many issues in contemporary science that you could spend a lifetime of attending
conferences and reading the literature just pondering what to review. To cite a literature review in
APA style, you need to provide the author's name, the title of the article, and the year of publication.
Debates, conflicts and contradictions: where do sources disagree. Most valuably, it tells you how
many times each article has been cited, which gives you an idea of how credible (or at least, popular)
it is. The goals and objectives of the research question determine what goes inside these three
sections. The reader is thus provided with a coherent background to the current study. Thank you for
a very useful literature review session. Cite this Scribbr article If you want to cite this source, you
can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the
citation to our free Citation Generator. Depending on the length of your literature review, you can
combine several of these strategies (for example, your overall structure might be thematic, but each
theme is discussed chronologically). Five key themes were found in the literature: poor
communication can lead to various negative outcomes, discontinuity of care, compromise of patient
safety, patient dissatisfaction, and inefficient use of resources. Give the name of the film Prominent
stars and their roles Basic setting Type of film If it is based on a book. For example, linkages to or
disagreements with other theories, questions raised but unanswered, shortcomings or limitations, and
so forth. Structure your sections by themes or subtopics, not by individual theorists or researchers.
The chances are high that someone will already have published a literature review ( Figure 1 ), if not
exactly on the issue you are planning to tackle, at least on a related topic. As with any academic
writing, these references are the building blocks of the article, so if the article is relevant to your
topic, there’s a good chance a portion of the referenced works will be too. Literature reviews are
most commonly found in theses and dissertations. Personality Factors as Related to Stresses among
Parents of Mentally Sub-Norm. It is often assigned as part of the research process for a paper.
Literature sources may also be grouped based on similar arguments or conclusions. This is mind
blowing, the detailed explanation and simplicity is perfect. We’ve written a step-by-step guide that
you can follow below. This can be especially helpful for students or scholars getting into a new
research area, or for directing an entire community of scholars toward questions that have not yet
been answered. Systematic review This form consists of an overview of existing evidence pertinent
to a clearly formulated research question, which uses pre-specified and standardized methods to
identify and critically appraise relevant research and collect, report, and analyze data from the studies
included in the review.
Videos Tutorials about Literature Reviews This 4.5 minute video from Academic Education
Materials has a Creative Commons License and a British narrator. If you have the opportunity,
discuss your topic with your professor and your class mates. 2. Decide on the scope of your review
How many studies do you need to look at. Student B: After studying residents and staff from two
intermediate care facilities in Calgary, Alberta, Smith (2000) came to the conclusion that except for
the amount of personal privacy available to residents, the physical environment of these institutions
had minimal if any effect on their perceptions of control (autonomy). For example, if you are
reviewing literature about inequalities in migrant health outcomes, key themes might include
healthcare policy, language barriers, cultural attitudes, legal status, and economic access. When it is
just a chapter, sources should equal the total number of pages in your article's body. The goal of the
Lit Review is not to list as many books, papers, and reports as feasible. If you’re working with Grad
Coach, this is a good time to have your Research Specialist review your chapter. Until you go to the
library and research all the sources you read and then look over your writing for references to which
sources you borrowed information from, the only way to figure out where your information came
from is to spend time at the library tracking down all the sources you referenced. In this post, we
discussed common issues with Literature search services methods, provided examples for each, and
offered practical solutions for mitigating them. A literature review is a document or section of a
document that collects key sources on a topic and discusses those sources in conversation with each
other (also called synthesis ). Where has significant research taken place, and who has done it. We
hope this guide has helped you answer several key questions you have about writing literature
reviews. The topic must at least be: interesting to you (ideally, you should have come across a series
of recent papers related to your line of work that call for a critical summary), an important aspect of
the field (so that many readers will be interested in the review and there will be enough material to
write it), and a well-defined issue (otherwise you could potentially include thousands of
publications, which would make the review unhelpful). Literature Reviews as Ways of Hearing the
Conversation. Every time you visit an article page, it provides you links to related papers. A full
review will have the advantage of more freedom to cover in detail the complexities of a particular
scientific development, but may then be left in the pile of the very important papers “to be read” by
readers with little time to spare for major monographs. Salzman, J. P. (1996). Primary attachment in
female adolescents: Association with. It is often written as part of a thesis, dissertation, or research
paper, in order to situate your work in relation to existing knowledge. It can be helpful to make an
annotated bibliography, where you compile full reference information and write a paragraph of
summary and analysis for each source. In addition to this, from the writer’s point of view, the
purpose of literature review is to have the validity of the research paper that no one can duplicate the
originals writings and if it is needed to use that research paper for another research, it must to
acknowledge the writers name as references in the journals or articles. In the sciences, for instance,
treatments for medical problems are constantly changing according to the latest studies. Writing the
literature review: A practical guide Available 3rd floor of Perkins Writing literature reviews: A guide
for students of the social and behavioral sciences Available online. These are frequently used in Lit
Reviews since they offer concise, up-to-date information. The main reason is that most of the time
the students end up writing a literature review that is just a summary. If your lit review is a
standalone piece, the introduction and conclusion take up more space and give you a place to discuss
your goals, research methods, and conclusions separately from where you discuss the literature itself.
Give a thorough overview of each theme, integrating source data, and conclude with a summary of
the current state of knowledge then suggestions for future research based upon your evaluation of
what is lacking in the literature. It is often assigned as part of the research process for a paper. Make
sure to read the abstract to find out whether an article is relevant to your question. This way, by the
time you have read the literature you selected, you will already have a rough draft of the review.
Sometimes individuals must meet them adequately, understand the difficulties and determine their
main priorities, deciding what to examine and how to start writing.
Like any other research paper, the literature review format must contain three sections: introduction,
body, and conclusion. This type of review is common in technological and scientific fields but can
be applied to any discipline. Should I summarize, synthesize or critique sources. It is mandatory to
procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website. Also, because textbooks are
designed for teaching rather than research, they are unlikely to be effective in your Lit Review. You
could also use a reference manager like Paperpile to automatically save, manage, and cite your
references. Does the study help me understand the topic better. Those who will read this example of
literature review will understand in which way they should move to continue investigating the topic.
Since you have background information and knowledge in the topic, you will spend less time on the
preparation and reading to understand the background information itself but will be more
concentrated on analyzing and reviewing the sources. Common complaint; could’t find anything in
the literature that is related to their studies can’t find exactly the same topic. Embed Host your
publication on your website or blog with just a few clicks. Alternatively, what you can do is you can
start by reading the abstract and then decide whether that source is relevant to your research or not.
Because books take longer to publish than journal articles, they are typically out of date. As such,
primary documents are those that have directly contributed to the field of research or a research area.
Share this with friends WhatsApp Tweet Telegram Email Related Tags literature review apa
literature review apa example literature review apa format literature review definition Literature
review example literature review example apa literature review format literature review outline
literature review template Previous article Things to do and avoid in 2023 Next article List of
Essential items to buy during Lockdown IGBAJI U.C. Igbaji Ugabi Chinwendu, from Cross River
State, Nigeria. The literature review gives you a chance to: Demonstrate your familiarity with the
topic and scholarly context Develop a theoretical framework and methodology for your research
Position yourself in relation to other researchers and theorists Show how your dissertation addresses
a gap or contributes to a debate You might also have to write a literature review as a stand-alone
assignment. This is his 4th edition published in Boston, MA by Pearson Education, Inc. The right
choice depends on your topic, research objectives and research questions, which we discuss in this
article. As you’re doing your research, create an annotated bibliography ( see our page on the this
type of document ). It’s also a good idea to take advantage of the help your school’s librarians can
offer. Diet Pyramid: Understanding Its Essential 7 Principles And Impact on Cardiovascular Health.
While demonstrating the continuity of knowledge, the literature review also identifies areas that
demand more inquiry and serves as a starting point for future research. How are they different?) and
show how it relates to your work (what is its relationship to your methodology?). Templates for
Writing Thesis Statements This template provides a two-step guide for writing thesis statements. I
am at a stage where I need to start writing my one. So rather than trying to fetch every detail, you
have to analyze and decide which research sources resemble closest and appear relevant to your
chosen domain. In this contribution, I share ten simple rules I learned working on about 25 literature
reviews as a PhD and postdoctoral student. A ready-made example of literature review helps to
know how to get started properly without straggling with irrelevant information and searching
through tons of unnecessary materials. The sample consisted originally of 1001 random psychology
students at a college, but. Literature reviews are designed to provide an overview of sources you
have explored while researching a particular topic, and to demonstrate to your readers how your
research fits within a larger field of study.” Simply put, a literature review can be defined as a
critical discussion of relevant pre-existing research around your research question and carving out a
definitive place for your study in the existing body of knowledge.

You might also like