Literature Reviews: Detailed Instructions for Students

It is sometimes assumed that writing a literature review implies reviewing a literature work, in terms of its summary with a little bit of critique. Well, such assumption is substantially limited in its definition, and definitely does not reflect the most common usage of the term literature reviews. In that regard, this article provides an explanation of literature reviews, outlining the main steps in conducting one of its types, i.e. research literature reviews.

Overview

Generally, literature reviews refer to two types of works, the first one is an independent paper that might have many purposes, the most common of which is integrating and criticizing the works of others. The second type of literature reviews implies using the review as a part of a research, in which the literature review is a brief overview of the theoretical framework that introduces a new study in the research.

The overview in that regard is focusing only on literature related to particular subjects, which the new study will address. In that sense, one of the purposes of literature reviews is identifying the gap in literature, which the new study will attempt to compensate.

The Process

The process of writing a research literature review can be divided into the following steps:

• Identify and select the research question.
• Use bibliographic databases to select the references for the literature review.
• Identify themes and sub-topics, based on which the review will be divided.
• Discuss the work based on the chosen theme or the sub-topic, making sure that the discussion addresses the main ideas in the selected field, describing controversial aspects, and identifying gaps in knowledge. 
• Conclude the review with a summary of the findings of the review, relating the identified gaps in knowledge to the established research question and the purpose of the study.