What Is a Literature Review? | Definition, Purpose, and Types
To put it in one line, a literature review is critically analyzing existing work to lay the foundation for future research. Basically, it helps us understand the progress we have made in a particular topic by acknowledging the existing work done on it.
It might seem like summarizing a particular topic from the first glance, but it is a bit more layered than that. A literature review also helps in highlighting the knowledge gap in a particular topic. To put it more precisely, it is the identity of your paper.
Here, you’ll understand the basics of a literature review and how you can implement one for your research.
What Is A Literature Review?
To understand the concept of a literature review, let us look at an example based on a specific research topic, such as “the impact of nutrition on brain development”. Research on such an important topic won't be done from scratch, so the purpose of the literature review is to align the already present knowledge for you. It also gives you an idea of how you can contribute to establishing the factual credibility of your research.
Literature review works as a defined way to assess a few critical points pertaining to research. The first and foremost is the update or the trend in the relevant field. It is the only way to assess if your research is in the correct lane.
Secondly, the highlighting of the gaps in a relevant field is important to move forward with the research. You can only make progress once you know where the unresolved questions lie. A literature review ensures you are caught up with the progress till now and well aware of the methodologies too.
Purpose Of A Literature Review If you think about it, a literature review is the sole reason we are making these amazing breakthroughs every other day. The core idea of a review is to bridge the gap between what is known and what isn’t, but there’s more to it than that.
- It is a planned way to bring in all the work done on the relevant topic under one umbrella. This helps you understand the progress made so far and the trends that shape the ultimate outcome of your research.
- It helps you understand what should be the ideal model for your study for a fruitful outcome.
- It gives an identity to your research and paves the way for you to enter the field of your study.
- Most importantly, it ensures the uniqueness of your research and helps confirm that your efforts have not already been attempted by someone else.
Types of Literature Reviews
There are many ways you can tell your story to establish your work. A literature review has multiple methodologies that you can choose to dictate your research. It is crucial for you to understand its types to assess the more suitable approach for your research.
1. Narrative Literature Review
This is the review that can be used in the initial stages of your research to understand the depth of your topic. It doesn't follow any regime and is a more descriptive review in nature.
A narrative review tells the story of your research and may conclude without any facts and figures. Even though it lacks in-depth study, it is perfect for grasping the general idea of the topic.
You can use a narrative review to talk about a topic that has historical significance. In fact, talking about the significance of any trend and its effects can also be a perfect fit for a narrative review.
2. Systematic Literature Review
As the name suggests, it is a rigid method of review where a mandatory structure is followed to understand the concept of your research topic. A systematic review follows a defined criterion for selecting the field of study and its evaluation. It is a completely unbiased presentation of your case, where you follow a protocol to assess the available data.
Its main spirit lies in the exclusion and inclusion criteria, determined by a set process that makes the review relevant, useful, and accountable. A review like this is used in situations where the outcome can have life-alerting implications.
For example, a topic like whether cannabis should be legalized for medical purposes or the effects of walking for a diabetic patient needs thorough research. You have to flip through a vast amount of data samples before making any bold claim, owing to the seriousness of the issue. Hence, an SLR is the perfect way to go in this case.
3. Meta-Analysis
Meta-Analysis of the literature review relies on statistical facts and figures to help put your point across. This type of analysis requires systematic data collection to establish a statistical framework. Then, the framework is used to dissect the quantitative figures, ensuring data-driven conclusions.
The main purpose of this analysis is to strengthen the authenticity of the claim made in the research and pave the way for evidence-based conclusions. It is a great way to identify trends, realize the research gaps, and reduce bias.
A topic like “Walking Helps in Reducing Diabetes” can be a great example for a Meta-Analysis literature review. By analyzing multiple studies on walking and blood sugar control in patients researchers can actually establish its functionality or effectiveness. Unlike a traditional literature review that only summarizes findings, a meta-analysis uses numerical data to support its conclusions, making it more reliable.
4. Scoping Literature Review
Scoping literature review is the concept of collecting everything that's been done on a given topic to understand the progress and the gaps. It’s more like a “broad exploration process”, giving you a clear picture from the top to the bottom, allowing you to progress with your work accordingly.
This kind of review follows a series of extensive steps which includes collecting the studies, organizing them, and figuring out trends to understand the state of the progress. A scoping review creates a clear map of existing knowledge, helping researchers decide where to focus next.
Consider the topic “The impact of AI in Academia”. A scoping review on this would explore how AI is used in learning, research, and overall academia. It would highlight benefits, challenges, and gaps, such as its long-term effects on education and academic integrity. This will help a reader not only understand the progress achieved so far but have an informed opinion on the topic.
However, since it broadly covers the topic at hand, you will have to compromise on the level of depth. Scoping literature reviews rarely dive deep into particular papers or niches as it increases the time required and the overall workload on the researcher. Plus, since it involves gathering knowledge from multiple resources, a scoping review is rarely conducted by a single person.
5. Integrative Literature Review
An integrative literature review is the best of both worlds. It combines the existing data with a detailed sense of storytelling to establish the research. It is a systematic approach of combining both quantitative and qualitative research to make the focal point.
One of the biggest advantages of opting for an integrative review style is you won't be restricted to a certain topic and can tell your story as you want. It goes beyond just the concept of theory and also implements tangible data for a holistic understanding.
A review like this is often implemented on a topic that requires inputs from various fields of study. It requires a multidimensional approach to get the point across. For example, a topic like the effect of meditation in treating anxiety can be a well fit for the integrative literature review.
Steps To Writing A Literature Review
Regardless of the type of review you choose, each of them has a certain flow. This ensures that the sanctity of your review is maintained.
- Topic Choice: You have to give an identity to your work by deciding on a topic. A clear research topic is the first way to decide the pathway of your work and help you shift your focus accordingly.
- Relevant Studies: Familiarize yourself with the relevant studies, including journal articles, books, conference papers, and dissertations to understand the knowledge gap.
- Organize Information: At this point, things tend to get messy; so make sure to have an organization system in place to establish a pattern.
- Verify Data and Conclude: Once your dataset starts showing a trend, it is time for you to verify the relevant data and start making your own observations.
Tips For Writing An Effective Literature Review
It’s important to understand that when writing a literature review, you are making a breakthrough and presenting new information. So, being limited to only vague opinions or assumptions is a strict no.
- You have to follow a systematic, organized structure to ensure that you’re not overlooking something important, and at the same time, know what you have covered.
- Your ability to criticize or appreciate the topic at hand is what makes it different from a simple summarization. So, in order to excel in writing a literature review, make sure you present your readers with various contradictory viewpoints too.
- Do not forget to cite your sources.
- Lastly, you really don’t have to overcomplicate your language to make sense. All you have to do is be clear with your facts and arguments, and that will do the job.
Conclusion
As you can see, writing a literature review is way more than summarization. It gives a lot of space for your readers to understand your viewpoint. Moreover, it is the only way to assess our progress and pave the way for something new.
It might seem like a tedious job (which it is), but if you stay focused and dedicate yourself to making a significant breakthrough, a literature review will be your best friend for further research.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Why is a literature review important in research?
A literature review is the only way to understand how far a particular topic has been researched. It helps to assess the knowledge gap and, at the same time, highlight the available resources on the topic.
2. What are the main purposes of conducting a literature review?
The main purpose of conducting a literature review is to understand the topic at hand. It also involves familiarizing ourselves with past work on the topic. It also keeps your work plagiarism-free, updated, and verified.
3. How do you start a literature review?
A proper literature review starts with identifying the problem and giving a route map to the readers on the approach.
4. What sources should be included in a literature review?
Any material that you have picked up, which has already been discussed, needs to be included in your literature review. You should always properly cite your work and credit fellow authors.
5. What common mistakes should be avoided in a literature review?
Missing out on the latest study and basing your facts on something that is not relevant to the topic can be the biggest mistake for your work.
6. How can a literature review identify research gaps?
The main purpose of a literature review is to identify research gaps. Once you have reviewed the existing research, you will be able to understand the current status of the work done. Additionally, you will be able to highlight the areas where further research needs to be conducted.
