What is Literature Review and Why do I need such?

Literature review
A literature review or narrative review is a type of review article. A literature review is a scholarly paper, which
includes the current knowledge including substantive findings, as well as theoretical and methodological
contributions to a particular topic.
A literature review may consist simply of a summary of key sources. It usually has an organizational pattern and
combines both summary and synthesis, often within conceptual categories.
The Following Features of Good Literature Review:
 Gives a new interpretation of old material or combine new with old interpretations,
 - Traces the intellectual progression of the study,
 - Depending on the situation, evaluate the sources and advise the reader of the research on the most
pertinent or relevant research, or
 - Usually in the conclusion of a literature review, identifies where gaps exist in how a problem has been
researched to date.
5 Purposes of Literature Review
McMillan and Schumacher (1984) who identified five purposes of the literature review.
A literature review allows you to:
 1. Define and limit a problem If your literature review is part of a larger research project, the literature
review helps to identify the parameters of a study. Most research areas are broad: a literature review
allows identification of key issues within a broad research area so that a definition of an area of interest
can be pursued.
 2. Place your study in perspective. The purpose of academic research is to push out and add to the
current body of knowledge within a particular field. Unless you are aware of the work of others, you
cannot build upon an established foundation. A literature review allows the researcher to say: “The
work of A, B, and C have discovered this much about my question; the investigations of D have added
this much to our knowledge. I propose to go beyond D's work in the following manner.‖
 3. Avoid unintentional replication of previous studies Sometimes it is appropriate to replicate a previous
study, but this should be done intentionally and for a particular purpose. A literature review helps you to
make informed choices about a research topic within a scholarly context.
Criteria in Selecting, Citing, and Synthesizing the Related Literature
Different Elements of a Typical Research Literature
1. Journals are published in issues at regular intervals usually weekly, monthly or quarterly. Because of the
regularity of publication they are also known as periodicals or serials. This regularity means that each new
issue contains articles that describe the latest research findings; this is a distinct advantage over other
publication media such as books that take longer to produce and update. There are basically two main
types of journal: 1) Research journals are published peer reviewed articles; 2) Professional journals are
 published articles on professional issues, service developments, the use of research findings in practice
and some short research articles.
2. Theses and dissertations are very detailed and comprehensive accounts of research work. They are usually
submitted for a higher degree at a university. Like reports their publicity and distribution may be very
limited.
3. Conference proceedings comprise brief summaries of research work presented at conferences. A more
detailed and complete account of the work may appear at a later date in a journal article, report or thesis.
Researchers often use conferences to present preliminary findings of their work.
4. Books and textbooks generally provide comprehensive overviews of a particular subject. In doing so they
may refer to, sometimes extensively, the research literature found in journal articles, reports, conference
proceedings or theses. They are not usually used to present new research findings. There are, however, a
few exceptions to this and some very important and influential research findings have been published in
book format.

Types of Literature
Wallace and Wray (2006, p.92) have provided a simple categorization system to help students identify the
literature they have. They describe how the literature students encounter tends to fall into one of five categories:
1) Theoretical; 2) Research; 3) Empirical; 4) Practice; and 5) Policy.
Theoretical literature
-describes expected or anticipated relationships about the way things happen. For example, there was a time
when there was a theory that the world was flat. Then, with increased knowledge, scientists were able to work
out that this was not the case and the theory was disproven. In health and social care, theories are often
generated in response to evidence that has been gathered and interpreted. A theory is developed that is then
refined or refuted when further evidence is obtained.
Research literature
-Generally refers to a report of a systematic investigation that has been undertaken in response to the need to
answer a specific question, for example: ―How long do people tend to remain in a precontemplative stage when
anticipating behavior change or, indeed, is there any evidence that everyone goes through a pre-contemplative
stage when anticipating behavior change?‖ These questions can only be answered by observing what happens in
the real world, rather than in a theory. Research studies are generally undertaken according to an accepted
scientific method, which involves defining a research question, identifying a method to carry out the study,
followed by the presentation of results, and finally a discussion of the results.
Empirical Research
-is a research that is undertaken through the observation and measurement of the world around us. It studies the
use of observation, experience or experimentation to collect new data. Data can be collected in a variety of ways;
for example by questionnaire, interview, direct management, and observations. Such papers tend to be organized
into sections, beginning with a research question, followed by the results and finally a discussion and conclusion.
Practice literature
-is written by practitioners about their field of expertise. This can come in many different forms— expert opinion,
discussion papers, debate, information from websites, patient information leaflets, and reports of good practice.
Students might find some overlap between research and practice literature; that is, a lot of health and social care
research is undertaken in the practice setting. The way to distinguish between research and practice literature is
to look for evidence of an explicit and systematic research study that has a well described method by which the
investigation or study has been carried out. If no such method exits, then literature is likely to be practice
literature.
Policy literature
- tells practitioners how to act in a set of circumstances. Policies and guidelines can be written from a given set of
circumstances. Policies and guidelines can be written from a local or national perspective, or in some cases
international. In an ideal context, policy is based on the results or research evidence. The research on a particular
topic is reviewed and policy and guidelines are written that are based on these findings. Therefore when students
review a policy, it is useful to explore the basis on which it is written in order to find out the extent to which the
policy is based on current research findings.

List of Steps in Writing Literature Review

Developing a Systematic Approach to Searching for Literature
 This is vital for students undergoing literature review. It should be done in a systematic way ensuring that
they search for relevant texts on their topic.
 A systematic searching strategy contains the following: 1) Look for the type of literature that will address
the review question; 2) Create search terms that are valid and important to the search; 3) Using inclusion
and exclusion criteria, search for literature using the search terms through all relevant databases; 4) Fill in
the electronic search by looking for the frequently cited journals as well as the reference list of the journal
articles. This approach renders a chance of looking for the maximum amount of literature. This will avoid
cherry-picking‘ the literature and entering the first appropriate literature that comes across.
Identifying the Literature that will Address Students Review Question
 This is vital for students undergoing literature review. It should be done in a systematic way ensuring that
they search for relevant texts on their topic.
 A systematic searching strategy contains the following:
1) Look for the type of literature that will address the review question; 2) Create search terms that are
valid and important to the search; 3) Using inclusion and exclusion criteria, search for literature using the
search terms through all relevant databases; 4) Fill in the electronic search by looking for the frequently
cited journals as well as the reference list of the journal articles. This approach renders a chance of looking
for the maximum amount of literature. This will avoid cherry-picking‘ the literature and entering the first
appropriate literature that comes across.
 Alternatively, if students are interested in exploring peoples‘ experience of not using this kind of gasoline,
students need to have an approach for detecting this particular literature rather than examining into
related but more general literature that does not address students research question.
  Students need to develop a strategy for managing the literature so that they can identify quickly literature
that is directly related to their research question. Clear and well defined inclusion and exclusion criteria
will ensure that students do not get sidetracked with data that are not strictly relevant to their review.
Setting appropriate criteria assists students in keeping their study Focused.

The main rationale for settling their inclusion and exclusion criteria is: 1) to give clear information about their
submitted review; 2) to focus on their literature searching.
Students should be reminded that when thinking about inclusion and exclusion criteria, think about the dates that
are relevant for their review. The discussion on how inclusion and exclusion criteria add structure and focus to
students‘ review and enable them to set clear boundaries as to what is included and excluded from their review.
How to write a concise review of related literature
 Doing the review of related literature is not the usual enumeration of references. Presentation of the data
gathered should be by topic based on the given objectives of the research. The literature should not be
too detailed or brief. Text should be based on the current edition of the American Psychological
Association (APA), Modern Language Association of America (MLA) or the Chicago Manual of Style and
other standards relevant to one‘s discipline.
Summarizing a Research information in a table
 Fill the Date/ Main Purpose of Kind of Providing the Provide Strength
Author the Paper study/information Conclusion/s and limitations

Morse To explore the Questionnaire All the general Purposive

Outcomes Based study education Sampling of
(2016)
Education views preferred studets
of general campus-based
education schools
teachers

Dioquino To express Expert Opinion School-based Anecdotal

opinion on system opinion only
(2016)
student life integration into
the community

Using concept mapping in creating a literature review

 Students can make use of concept maps for analyzing and describing the literature review process.
Concept maps can be used in three inter-related ways namely, to extract and summarize the important
points, to synthesize and organize information obtained from multiple sources.
 Concept mappings have been suggested as one of the tools that can help in making sense of information
while conducting a literature review (Carnot 2006; Rowley and Slack, 2004). Rowley and Slack (2004),
propose that concept mapping can be a useful way of identifying key concepts in a collection of
documents or a research area‖ (p.8).
 They suggest that concept maps can be used as a tool to ―…identify additional search terms during the
literature search, clarify thinking about the structure of the literature review in preparation for writing
the review and understand theory, concepts and the relationships between them‖ (Rowley and Slack
2004).
 What is more important, representing information in concept maps will provide a tool for potentially
seeing the interconnections between areas that were not previously apparent (Novak 1984). Thus, this
way, concept maps can be useful in creating coherence to the actual writing of the literature review.
How to use a concept map to extract and summarize important ideas in an article
An example of a concept map is shown below. Students may have difficulty sorting their ideas but with the use
of concept maps it will be easier. A student‘s usual reaction in doing research is: -I do not know how to
generate the ideas of the articles.‖ Concept mapping will help students in extracting important ideas. It will also
minimize their concern relating to the issue of extracting information from a source.