examples of a literature review

examples of a literature review

The Importance of Literature Reviews in Research

1. Introduction

Literature reviews were often found in the introductory chapter of the thesis or research, where it gives the history of the past research been done by other researchers. Nowadays, literature reviews can be published as a stand-alone article. The intent of the author(s) is to provide a guide on choices to be made by the future researchers, in other words, it is a guide for the selection of articles to be used for an analytical review. This article discusses how to organize and write a literature review and a few tips on conducting it. This article is the best for anyone wishing to know how to write an effective literature review, whether as a stand-alone article or as part of a thesis. With this article, the future researchers gained their guide and easily find a reference for their research. With the guide, they can produce the most effective literature review and it indirectly will give a great impact on their research.

2. Purpose of a Literature Review

Satisfaction is very closely related to the topic of the research. If a person is investigating an area of research, it is presumably the topic has interested them. A literature review will help you to identify if there is sufficient information on the topic, and it can also give you information on whether your research question has come up or is answerable in the past. This sort of information is invaluable as it can stop you wasting time and effort on an area that has already been addressed or where there is no information available. A literature review also helps to validate a research question. If there is no information available on a particular topic, then there is either a good reason for this, or the topic is so new that information has not yet been published. A detailed literature review will allow you to consider what area of research has the best potential to serve as a topic.

So, a literature review is a detailed account of a publication on the subject by accredited scholars and researchers. It is a summary and synopsis of a particular area of research, allowing anybody reading the paper to establish why you are pursuing this particular research. A good literature review expands on the reasons behind selecting a particular research question. It recap the what, why, and how. Not only does a literature review summarise the knowledge of a particular area of research, but it also summarises the knowledge of a good research question. Satisfaction and implementation are two things necessary for successful research, and a literature review will give evidence that the question is worth pursuing and also that a particular method is the best way to answer the question.

3. Steps to Conduct a Literature Review

1. How will I conduct the review? It is a good idea to decide in advance on what sources you are going to use for your literature search. In other words, this means you will need to define key terms that will help you find a selection of material to review. At this stage it might involve basic keywords, Boolean search strings and a few useful articles that are ‘key’ reading in the area. It is of course important to keep an open mind, and flexibility is an important part of the search process. You may decide that changing your terms, looking in different areas or broadening your scope will yield surprising results. Flexibility can be more systematic too. You might, for example, decide to exclude certain pieces of work after reading the abstract, basing your selection on clear inclusion and exclusion criteria.

4. Examples of Literature Reviews

In the example of a literature review at the beginning of an article (Sherwood, 2003), the author has constructed a question out of a very complex collection of investigations on a particular topic. Then he has written the question in such a way as to elicit different methods of discussion and response from the various studies, which amount to different modes of validation of a particular sort of understanding. As the studies are listed and summarized, the various validity claims they make are noted, from the concluding works towards the beginning. This helps to construct a sort of taxonomy of understanding. At the end of the review, there are some very clear implications, and there is a very keen understanding of what it is that a reader would want to know in order to understand the issues and the validity of the author’s work. This example has convincingly demonstrated certain methodological and theoretical strictures and has done so in a manner which is very engaging for the reader. Another good example was reported in the England paper from which we took our very first example. It would make this report overlong to tell the whole story but one of the most important points was the reflection done on the teaching of mathematics in the introduction and conclusion. This amounted to an exercise in reflexivity concerning the review itself. At the end of this exercise the author could say what would make a perfect review. This is of course very subjective, but for the approach the author was taking it was a very creative way of reaching a high level of precision in the review. The example of the mathematics teaching has already been exceeded by the teaching of qualitative synthesis to physicians. The topic of teaching within the medical profession clearly includes some very serious methods concerns for medical research and it is not inconceivable that a similar reflection could be done with a fruitful result. This is just one of many very important issues that qualitative and quantitative synthesis have yet to resolve with discussion and consensus.

5. Conclusion

In conclusion, literature reviews are immensely important in research. Research in the sense of taking an existing idea and examining it. Whether it is exploring a new concept, or seeing if an established method will produce different results, research is the foundation of any scientific pursuit. And a literature review is an excellent way to dig up necessary information in regards to your research on a given subject. A good review should cover the last 10-15 years and can be done in various ways, such as a simple summary of the given material, or a more thorough synthesis of the materials in question. What is most important is that the review utilizes the most current practices in the given area of study and the reviewer proves this through his method whether the material is qualitative or quantitative. Cascio is correct in stating that there is no hard and fast method to gauging the utility of a research study. However, given that the majority of research is a response to a question, it is wise to assess our confidence that we addressed the question due to the ample number of times that research is abandoned or done incorrectly. Through the assessment of the five dimensions of utility, a thorough literature review will lead the researcher to make the most informed decision as to whether his research idea is truly worth pursuing.