When conducting a literature review a researcher must have three quite distinct skills. He or she must be
Portions of this LibGuide have been borrowed from LibGuides at the following colleges and universities:
A literature review surveys published information (books, scholarly articles, and other documents) relevant to a particular issue, area of research, or theory. The "literature" of a literature review refers to any collection of materials on a topic.
Sometimes a literature review is a brief summary of those sources, but more commonly it is a summary and a synthesis. A synthesis can be a reorganization of the information to provide a new interpretation, make comparisons between old and new information, or track the intellectual progression of an idea or concept. A literature review can also provide an evaluation of the sources in order to advise readers on their relevance or importance.
Here are a few types of Literature Reviews often used in undergraduate research:
Generally speaking, a literature provides an overview of the significant literature published on a topic. For researchers of all levels and disciplines, a literature review can:
Comprehensive knowledge of the literature of the field is essential to most research papers.