A literature review is more than just finding resources (articles, books, web sites, etc) on a topic and putting them together. It is an in-depth evaluation of previous research. Avoid potential bias by examining all sides and points of view on your topic.
What is a literature review? (From Nina Exner and Donald Bradsher, NC A&T U.)
A literature review is a "review" of "the literature" on a topic. What does that mean?
- In this case, "Review" usually means an overview summarizing major parts and bringing them together to build a picture of what's out there. Different fields of study (and different professors) will have different standards on whether a review is supposed to be more of a straightforward summary or if it is supposed to have a deep analysis and discussion.
- "The Literature" means the major writings - especially scholarly writings - on the topic. Depending on your field "the literature" can include all sorts of things: journal articles, books, published essays, government reports, and so on. The main thing is that "the literature" is the body of scholarly, professional information that is used by professionals and scholars working on that topic area
So a literature review is a summary of previous research on a topic.
Literature reviews can be a subsection of something bigger or can stand alone:
- As a subsection, literature reviews are usually put in early in the larger work. They tend to be after the Introduction but before the Methods section or any in-depth discussion and analysis of the issue. They may be incorporated into a Background section, or can come just before or after the Background. Examples of literature reviews as a sub-section include:
- A component in a larger research project or paper
- A chapter in a thesis or dissertation
- A mandatory section if you want to write and publish a scholarly journal article
- The analysis of existing research performed before a research proposal
- A component in the background or justification when applying for grant money
- Or it can be a stand-alone bibliographic essay:
- A literature review assigned for class on its own, to understand and write up current research on a topic
- An analytical essay synthesizing an annotated bibliography into a formal paper
- A "review article" that you write to publish in a scholarly journal
You may have already written a "research paper" that was really a literature review! Many "library research" assignments are actually simplified literature reviews. So you've probably done one before and you shouldn't be intimidated!
