How to Conduct a Literature Review

The Purpose of Literature Review

Literature review entails an investigation of previous and current research on subjects that are relevant or related to your study topic. This investigation encompasses published works by accredited researcher and scholars. In every research work, literature review is a requisite and it serves numerous roles that include:

a) It is important in conveying the existing knowledge and schools of thought about a particular topic. In this, literature review helps the researcher to relate pieces of available knowledge and information to the current research study.

b) It plays an important role in justifying the research by identifying existing knowledge gaps and available statistical knowledge about a particular topic. This is essential in avoiding cases of duplicating existing studies.

c) Literature review is critical in generating novel ideas for research. By identifying research gaps, it is possible for the researcher to point out new areas that require further research.

Features of a Good Literature Review

A credible research study is founded on a good literature review. The literature review should reflect the scope of the literature review by defining the areas the study should be confined within. As such, a good literature review should be characterized by some features that may encompass:

a) It should illustrate an in-depth understanding of the subject and topic under study. This can be realized through an expansive evaluation of past studies and knowledge in relation to the study topic.

b) It should illustrate a relationship between available statistical data and the topic under study. The literature review should demonstrate that there is adequate data to further the effective study and research of the research topic.

c) The literature review should demonstrate that the research topic the researcher intends to conduct research on has not previously been studied. It should be conducted in a particular criterion to illustrate that the research topic entails a novel idea.

d) Importantly, it should demonstrate specific research gaps that require to be addressed. The literature review should reflect the need to conduct the research study by exposing a specific research gap.

Steps in Conducting Literature Review

For literature review to be effective in its purpose, it should be conducted in a particular manner. This entails observing numerous steps that include:

a) Define the scope of the research topic: This involves determining the extent to which the research topic should encompass. In this, the researcher should ensure that the research topic is neither too narrow nor too broad.

b) Come up with a list of sources of your data: this entails determining the respective data bases to be utilized for the literature review.

c) Find out sources with relevant information: this step seeks to identify potential sources of importance data. A good approach towards this is by reviewing the abstracts of the potential sources.

d) Read through the sources and collect references: this focuses of identifying the relevant information and noting down their respective sources.

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Created on Dec 31st 1969 18:00. Viewed 0 times.

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