Literature Review

What is a Literature Review?

A thorough and comprehensive examination of the research and/or theory relevant to a topic. A literature review analyzes and integrates scholarly research and theory in an organized, prose fashion.

Purpose of a Literature Review

As a means of disseminating information to scholars in a particular discipline the literature review has four purposes:

to describe work done on a specific area of research
to evaluate this work
to identify areas of controversy in the literature
to formulate questions that need to be addressed further

Components of a Literature Review

The works that make up the literature review fall into three categories:

General theoretical literature
- This literature establishes the importance of your topic/research. These sources generally define abstract concepts, discuss the relationships between abstract concepts, and include statistics about the problem being investigated. Landmark and classic articles are also included.

Literature on related topic areas
- These sources identify general themes that run throughout the literature. For example, a database search on the topic of student cheating will find articles on cheating and gender, cheating related to age, and cheating and academic achievement.

Literature specific to your research focus
- This literature is highly relevant. The sources isolate the issues and highlight the findings you expected when you articulated your research question or formulated your hypothesis.

Structure of a Literature Review

The literature review consists of the introduction, the body, and the conclusion.

In the Introduction

· Define the problem or state the thesis.

· Identify overall trends in what has been published on the topic. Identify conflicts in theory, methodology, evidence, conclusions and gaps in research and new perspectives on the topic.

· State the reason for reviewing the literature; explain the criteria to be used in analyzing and comparing the research articles; explain why certain literature is or is not included.

In the Body

· Describe the articles or documents in detail.

· Group articles together according to types, such as case studies, reviews, empirical studies, or according to the conclusions of the authors, or the specific purposes or objectives.

· Compare and evaluate the articles or documents.

In the Conclusion

· Summarize the major contributions of the significant articles or documents to the topic under review.

· Evaluate the current state of the research for the topic under review. Explain inconsistencies in theory or conclusions, gaps in research, and point out issues that need to be studied further.

· Provide insight into the relationship between the topic under review and the larger discipline of which it is a part. Provide implications of the studies or documents discussed for the profession or discipline at large.