example literature reviews

example literature reviews

The Art of Writing Literature Reviews: A Comprehensive Guide for Researchers

1. Introduction to Literature Reviews

The main aim of this article is to provide the quality and structure recommends literature overview for researchers who have less experience with carrying and performing literature review. In addition, researchers can get a better grasp about traditional principles in literature review and utilize them to our advantage. During a master or doctorate program comes out as publishing the first research. When new essays are delivered, students start a systematic literature description. Nonetheless, novices in the region can confront many issues when looking to obtain as much information on a hypothetical theme thought as necessary to carry out a powerful literature review or a paper. A comprehensive report consists of a summary regardless of the many sources if a slip is not implemented.

A literature review is a comprehensive summary of the ideas, issues, concepts, debates, and principles that are in the scholarly literature around a particular subject. Literature reviews differ from other reviews because they conduct a broad, interdisciplinary analysis of the topic, covering the entire range of the phenomenon and the angles of the subject that prompt scholarly inquiry. Literature reviews address specific questions like, “What are the main points discovered or the hypothesis used to be compared about your subject?” “What are the most debated aspects and what is the situation there?” “How well studied is this topic?” “What are the connections between the points and how do they fit into the bigger picture of common focuses or ideas?” “What are the main inclinations in the studies about your question?”

2. Key Elements of a Literature Review

Body. Body should include: theoretical background information about the relevant topic, studies in the related literature that is performed in the context of the relevant.

Introduction. The literature review starts with an introduction. In this section, the importance of the research subject should be underlined, the motivation of the research should be explained, and the organizational structure in the following sections should be exposed. A problematic issue in the literature reviews is not including a restricted list of the signals about the importance of the problem, a wider set of signals of a problem, or not giving signals of a problem at all.

The literature review is the key element of a literature review. Most of the time, the readers, after having thoroughly read the whole document, would be able to tell about the quality of the remaining of the presented work. The first and the most important pitfall is a poor structure. Some researchers consider the amount of the gathered sources and dive into data analysis. However, the first step is to have a clear bird’s eye view on the information that will be analyzed in order to determine what it is that is sought. A typical literature review includes introduction, body, and conclusion. If there is no specific rule or guidance, in order to ensure the whole document makes sense, these main topics can be supported with sub topics.

3. Strategies for Conducting a Literature Review

3.1.1 Define the objectives and scope of the review: There are several aims or purposes of literature review. A review may provide a historical perspective, discuss contemporary policy issues, current public management practices, or critique new methodologies, as well as new legal and regulatory developments. Klassen et al. gave a strategic overview of the environmental strategies adopted by management within the global supply chain. Sinclair provides a reflective and personal view on environmental accounting. Selecting the objectives and scope of the literature review must not be arbitrary, i.e., they must be driven by the research questions being addressed. For example, the preceding paragraph refers to the work of Klassen et al., and Sinclair descriptive and reflective overviews were relevant to the work undertaken in the thesis. Therefore, the work of Klassen et al. and Sinclair were included in the literature review.

Reviewing the literature presents a critical step in the research process. It defines the underlying philosophy and methodological approach pursued by the researcher, as well as the rigor expected from the undertaking. However, reviewing the literature is an exacting enterprise. For example, merely undertaking a cursory or arbitrary search will not necessarily yield an ideal selection or representative sample of literature. It therefore becomes imperative for the researcher to exert control when collecting literature. How can this be achieved?

4. Writing and Structuring a Literature Review

Writing a literature review is a coherent essay, which provides original ideas and sustains an argument based on both a clear and precise understanding of what has been learned thus far. This does not imply that you have not contributed new knowledge from the very start of your research. Rather, it suggests a review of what has been studied thus far, to identify what questions remain unresolved and where other researchers have made notable contributions. Hence, the importance of systematic research – particularly literature review – is your endeavor to make a contribution.

In the previous chapter, you gained some initial familiarity with translating your interest and problem into a systematic literature review. After clear comprehension of how the literature review contributes toward knowledge building, the purpose of the current chapter is to guide you in developing your literature review. Thus, this chapter builds on Chapter Two and focuses on techniques involved in writing, structuring, and developing a unique literature review.

5. Common Pitfalls to Avoid in Literature Reviews

Beginners should concentrate on their first milestone, which is to define the topic of interest and refine it, accompanied by a review of existing research and creative examination of a relationship among the addressed studies. They must also observe and discuss the preliminary results to verify their worth and create a clear definition of the final review. This phase marks the time to begin investigating research articles and processing them, saving them in databases and PDF formats, and making reports or categories. Next, students will be concerned with review design, operation, and coordination to build their review while working as a group. Subsequently, the review must be completed and written. Finally, the research methodology must also be written in accordance with the literature review. The sophistication of the writing process must be gradually raised across these last two major phases, integrating the opinions gathered and ensuring writing time. In the academic setting, overviews specifically require strenuous care and often strict guidelines.

The literature review is an intellectual exercise and a component of a research project, defined in terms of its purpose and scope. Beginners may regard it as a motionless part of research, performed as an obligatory academic duty to satisfy requirements. This chapter has been written to spur greater interest and enthusiasm for literature reviews among those academicians aiming to produce resulting literature reviews. They may possess an awareness of lesser gains in preparing a poor-quality literature review component, yet do not have the slightest idea of how to get started and remain lost when taking the first steps of selecting the research topic. Many existing literature review guides only provide brief introductions to the literature review and barely address other important stages such as how to organize and manage collected research articles.