How Long Should a Literature Review Be for a Research Paper
How to write the literature review of your research paper
Many researchers struggle when information technology comes to writing literature review for their research paper. A literature review is a comprehensive overview of all the knowledge available on a specific topic till date. When you decide on a inquiry topic, usually the first pace you lot take in the direction of conducting research is learn more than nearly the previous inquiry published on the topic, and this eventually translates into literature review when you write your inquiry paper. Literature review is one of the pillars on which your research idea stands since it provides context, relevance, and background to the research trouble yous are exploring.
Types of literature review
Literature reviews can be categorized as experimental and theoretical. Experimental literature review basically refers to surveying all the information available on a item topic and critically analyzing the gaps that need to exist worked upon. In this sense, information technology essentially forms the first experiment of whatsoever enquiry project. The more all-encompassing the review, the more precise and systematic the research projection volition be. Therefore, information technology is i of the most critical parts of ane's inquiry.
Theoretical literature review essentially involves two steps:
- Surveying and critically reading the existing literature: this step is commonly referred to as experimental literature review.
- Summarizing and actually penning down the gist of your review in an organized manner: this is known equally theoretical review.
Literature review could be a part of a dissertation or inquiry article and a stand-lone literature review. Let us look at this in more than item.
Literature reviews for dissertation/research article
Every research report/ thesis/enquiry article begins with an introduction to the topic of enquiry. This forms the literature review for the commodity. The master purpose of the review is to introduce the readers to the need for conducting the said inquiry. A literature review should begin with a thorough literature search using the chief keywords in relevant online databases such as Google Scholar, PubMed, etc. Once all the relevant literature has been gathered, it should be organized as follows:
- Background literature about the broad enquiry topic to innovate the readers to the subject.
- Contempo progress on the study topic which can exist organized thematically or chronologically. Ideally, separate themes should be discussed in a chronological manner to describe how enquiry in the field has evolved over time and to highlight the progress in the field.
- The review should include a comparison and contrast of dissimilar studies. Discussing the controversial aspects helps to place the chief gaps that demand to be worked upon. This is essential for defining the trouble statement of the study and highlighting the significance of the research under question.
- One time a problem argument has been defined, the strengths and pitfalls of other studies that accept tackled the trouble statement should be discussed. This is important for outlining the need and novelty of the research.
A literature review should not be a mere recounting of all the bachelor information. It should be a disquisitional and analytical summary of the selected literature that guides the readers through the central theme of the research.
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Stand up-alone literature reviews
Literature reviews tin can besides be written as stand-lone articles. These are not different from the literature review sections described above; however, they are not followed by experimental data.
They basically fall into two broad categories: narrative reviews and systematic reviews.
one. Narrative reviews
These are theoretical discussions of relevant information on a particular topic and its critical assay. These are mostly qualitative in nature similar to the review sections of larger articles.
Narrative reviews are normally organized as follows:
Introduction that establishes the context of the field of enquiry and the topic of the review
Trunk is normally used for describing the different themes under the main topic past dividing them into different subheadings. This section compares and contrasts published studies and identifies gaps that accept not been addressed or have been unsuccessfully addressed.
Conclusions. This department differs slightly betwixt reviews which are part of research manufactures and narrative reviews. The department describes the master conclusions from assay of all the current studies and puts forth further avenues for enquiry. This section requires critical interpretation by the author such that the review adds value to existing literature. It should bring out ideas/hypotheses that can explain any discrepancies and provide solutions to existing problems.
2. Systematic reviews
On the other hand, systematic reviews follow a well-planned methodology to qualitatively or quantitatively analyze a defined number of studies. They usually focus on a single question and take clear study objectives that are worked upon in a systematic manner. These studies are based on a well-divers strategy unlike narrative reviews. Systematic reviews and narrative reviews are organized slightly differently. The details are described below:
Introduction: Systematic reviews begin with specific enquiry questions that are defined in terms of the samples and research outcomes to be studied.
Methods (only for systematic reviews): These studies have a comprehensive methodology that starts by narrowing downwards the literature for the review. Usually, specific inclusion/exclusion criteria are set based on the research questions and databases are searched based on these criteria. Once the sample studies accept been shortlisted, they are analyzed in detail.
Results: The results section for these studies involves comprehensive data analysis to determine the significance of the study outcomes. Systematic reviews tin be accompanied with Meta-analysis which involves statistical assay of the included studies to increase the power of the results.
Give-and-take: This department usually interprets the study data based on their weighted significance and the power of the results. The written report therefore provides strengthened results that are validated past the scientific rigor of the analytical method.
Before starting to write a review, it is important to determine what kind of review you desire to write and follow the appropriate fashion and guidelines. An effective literature review is of import for the complete life cycle of a research from defining the correct enquiry goals to correctly interpreting and presenting the research results.
If you wish to learn in more depth how to conduct literature search, bank check out this course designed exclusively for researchers: How to carry an constructive literature search and review.
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Writing a literature review requires you to read through and collate several research articles and literature sources. This tin become very confusing considering the large amount of publications that need to be organized. At that place is no set manner to do this as it will depend on your preference for reading printed articles or online resources. If you lot are old school and read printed manufactures improve, and so you should create a binder with all articles organized in this mode:
one. Alphabetically with the last proper name of the start author, or
two. Chronologically with the date of publication, or
three. Thematically with different themes organized chronologically
For the more tech-savy users, organization of literature either by year of publication or themes would be more platonic. Citing and creating a reference list in your manuscript tin can be done either manually or by using reference management tools like Endnote from Clarivate analytics. Endnote is an first-class way to shop your research library and import it into the manuscript in the format required by the journal.
The tips and guidelines in this postal service should assist you write your literature review with ease.
Related reading:
- A young researcher'due south guide to writing a literature review
- 5 Tips to write a great literature review
References:
- 5 Tips to write a not bad literature review
- Tips for effective literature searching and keeping up with new publications
- A young researcher'due south guide to writing a literature review
- Writing a Literature Review
- Systematic literature review X narrative review
- Systematic Reviews: What is a systematic review?
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Published on: Nov 29, 2018
Source: https://www.editage.com/insights/how-to-write-the-literature-review-of-your-research-paper
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