What is literature review and Purpose of doing literature review

1. What is Literature Review

A literature review is “the selection of available documents (both published and unpublished) on the topic, which contain information, ideas, data and evidence written from a particular standpoint to fulfill certain aims or express certain views on the nature of the topic and how it is to be investigated, and the effective evaluation of these documents in relation to the research being proposed” (Hart, 1998 , p. 13).

Literature review is a written synthesis of journal articles, books, and other documents that summarizes and critiques the past and current state of information about a topic, organizes the literature into subtopics, and documents the background for a study (Creswell & Plano 2010)

Therefore, a literature review identifies, evaluates and synthesizes the relevant literature within a particular field of research.

1. The research effort is positioned relative to existing knowledge and builds on this knowledge.

2. You can look at a problem from a specific angle; it shapes your thinking and sparks useful insights on the topic of your research.

3. You do not run the risk of “reinventing the wheel”, that is, wasting effort on trying to rediscover something that is already known.

4. You are able to introduce relevant terminology and to define key terms used in your writing. This is important because the same term may have different meanings, depending on the context in which it is used. Definitions will also help you to give structure to your essay, article or report .

5. You obtain useful insights of the research methods that others have used to provide an answer to similar research questions. Knowledge of the research methods used by others allows you to replicate existing research, which will help you to relate your research findings to the findings of others.

6. The research effort can be contextualized in a wider academic debate. In other words, it allows you to relate your findings to the findings of others.

Therefore, a critical review of the literature helps you to become familiar with relevant knowledge related to the problem that they aim to solve.