How to write the literature review of your research paper
A literature review is a critical summary of all the published works on a particular topic. It can be included in a research paper or be published as a standalone article. It is a type of review article, along with systematic reviews and meta-analyses, that provides an overview or critical assessment of existing literature in a field. It identifies trends and research gaps in existing literature.
There are two commonly used approaches to writing a literature review: chronological and thematic. The chronological approach describes each work in succession starting with the earliest available information and grouped together and discussed in order of their publication date. The thematic approach organizes and discusses existing literature based on themes or theoretical concepts that are important to understanding the topic.
A literature review typically includes an introduction that sets context, a section on methods, and the body of the literature review which is structured based on the chosen organizational model. The introduction provides information about the field of study, the relevance of the chosen topic, and the focus of the literature review. The methods section describes the criteria used to select sources or the way in which the information has been presented. The body of the literature review includes the discussion of the selected literature and analysis of the existing knowledge on the topic.
A literature review is an overview of all the knowledge that has been published on a specific topic up to the present day. It is an important aspect of a research paper as it provides context, relevance, and background information on the research problem being explored. There are two types of literature reviews: experimental and theoretical.
Experimental literature reviews involve surveying all the information available on a topic and analyzing the gaps that need to be addressed. It is considered the first experiment of any research project, and the more extensive the review, the more precise and systematic the research will be.
Theoretical literature reviews involve two steps: surveying and critically reading existing literature, and summarizing and organizing the information in an organized manner. Literature reviews can be a part of a dissertation or research article, or they can be stand-alone articles. Stand-alone literature reviews fall into two categories: narrative reviews and systematic reviews. Narrative reviews are qualitative in nature and provide a theoretical discussion of relevant information on a topic, while systematic reviews are more quantitative and provide a systematic analysis of literature on a topic.