What is a Literature Review and Why is it Vital?
- Learniverse GLOBAL
- 2023년 8월 8일
- 2분 분량
What is a Literature Review and Why is it Vital?
A literature review is a comprehensive survey of scholarly articles and other resources relevant to a particular topic or research question. Its main objectives are to:
Offer a Background: It outlines foundational theories and crucial concepts related to the topic.
Situate Your Study: It places your investigation within the broader scope of what's already understood about the topic.
Pinpoint Research Gaps: It helps in identifying unexplored areas or unsolved queries.
Ensure Originality: It ensures your research isn’t a repetition of previous studies.
Set Standards: It introduces prevalent methods, techniques, and conclusions in the domain.
Key Steps in Crafting a Literature Review:
Identify Your Goal: Understand your primary aim before diving into the literature.
Literature Search: Utilize scholarly platforms like Google Scholar, JSTOR, and more, experimenting with different keyword combinations.
Choose Quality Sources: Prioritize sources based on their relevance, credibility, methodology, and publication date.
Structure Your Content: Categorize your findings based on themes, controversies, or methodologies.
Go Beyond Summarizing: Instead of mere recaps, delve into an analytical and interpretative overview of the literature.
Draft the Review: Present it logically, starting with a broad perspective, narrowing down to specific works, and concluding with identified gaps or disputes.
Acknowledge Original Authors: Ensure you correctly cite the scholars and works you reference.
Categories of Literature Reviews:
Narrative Review: Gives a broad outline of a topic without focusing much on the research methodologies.
Systematic Review: An exhaustive, structured approach to gather and assess information. It may also involve a meta-analysis, which aggregates results from various studies to offer a summarized insight.
Scoping Review: Offers an initial assessment of the volume and nature of the available literature. Its goal is to comprehend the kind and volume of research proofs.
Meta-analysis: A statistical method that amalgamates results from multiple studies to draw a collective conclusion.
Meta-synthesis: Pools results from qualitative research to formulate new theories or interpretations.
State-of-the-Art Review: Analyzes the present-day literature on a topic to identify groundbreaking works or cutting-edge developments.
In essence, a well-executed literature review not only lists prior research but critically assesses it, highlighting the importance and context of the researcher's current undertaking.