What is a Literature Review?
The Literature review is a vital part of the research process. You will gain important insights, knowledge, and awareness; you are setting the stage for a better-designed study and can improve your chances of obtaining significant results. Therefore, it is worth the time and effort to do it right!
Reviewing the literature involves:
- locating
- analyzing
- synthesizing
- interpreting
previous research and documents (periodicals, books, abstracts, etc.) related to your study area.
A thorough and intensive review of the literature enables you to do the following:
- Focus the purpose of your study more precisely;
- Develop a conceptual or theoretical framework that might be used to guide your research;
- Identify key variables for study and suggest relationships among them if you are completing a quantitative study. If you are conducting a qualitative study, identify the concepts and topics you plan to study;
- Uncover previous research similar to your own that can be meaningfully extended;
- Determine the relationship of your topic relative to current and past studies;
- Form a basis for determining the significance of your study;
- Uncover questionnaires or tests previously validated (please see Measurement and Evaluation tab of this research guide for more on this);
- Link your findings to previous studies. Do your findings support or contradict them?
The Literature review can be organized in a number of formats. Three of the most common are:
- Historical Format -- Where the review is organized chronologically. This is preferred when focus is on the progression of research methods or theories, or a change in practice over time.
- Conceptual Format -- Review is organized according to relevant concepts and/or theories.
- Methodological Format -- Where literature review structure mimics that of an empirical paper (introduction, method, results, etc.). Most often used in meta-analytic reports.
