What is a literature review?

A literature review is a critical analysis of the literature, or research, related to a specific topic or research
question. Here are some of the ways it has been described:

(Clare & Hamilton, 2003, p. 8)

(Bell, 1999, p. 93)

(Manalo & Trafford, 2004, p. 45)

A literature review might be one of the following:
A stand alone review article

Review articles provide an overview of recent research focused on an issue or problem.

Review articles are often published in academic journals.
A section or chapter of a research proposal or research report

A research proposal or report will usually include a literature review near the beginning of the document
(often as a separate chapter) to provide a context and rationale for the research.

This early stage literature review is, of course, not the only place in a research report that literature is
discussed. All research reports will incorporate the literature into other sections as well (e.g.
introduction, method, discussion). In some disciplines, the literature cannot be easily separated from
the research being reported on and will be incorporated seamlessly throughout the whole document.

What is the purpose of a literature review?

In terms of what a literature review text tells a reader, all types of literature reviews have some similar
purposes. The key purpose that distinguishes an early stage literature review from other kinds of
reviews is its role as a justification for the proposed research:

Print version

1.

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Literature review process

Step 1: Select a topic

Select a topic you can manage in the timeframe you have to complete your project.
Establish your research questions and organize your literature into logical categories
around the subject/topic areas of your questions. Your research questions must
be specific enough to guide you to the relevant literature.

Make sure you understand the concept of broader and narrower terms. The
narrower your topic, the easier it will be to limit the number of sources you need to read in
order to get a good survey of the litearture.
Step 2: Identify the most relevant sources on your topic
Use a variety of resources - locate books, journals, and documents that contain useful
information and ideas on your topic. Internet sites, theses & dissertations, conference
papers, ePrints and government or industry reports can also be included. Do not rely
solely on electronic full-text material which is more easily available. Reference sources
such as dictionaries can assist in defining terminology, and encyclopaedias may be
useful in introducing topics and listing key references.

Literature review process - an overview

Step 3 : Search and refine

Unisa has a number of databases that provide full text access to articles, that allow you
to refine your search to peer reviewed journals. These are scholarly journals which go

through a rigorous process of quality assessment by several researchers or subject

specialists in the academic community before they are accepted for publication.
Use the And, Or, Not operators, Wildcards and Logical Brackets when searching in the databases. For instance, you can
use And to narrow your search while the operator OR expands your search. Not, on the other hand,helps to exclude irrelevant
information in your search results. Please click here for more information on searching.

How do I write a literature review?

See the chapter below for a helpful overview of the literature review process, especially
the sections on how to analyse the literature you have gathered and how to write up your
literature review:
Literature Reviews and Bibliographic Searches. 2006. In V. Desai, & R. Potter
(Eds.), Doing Development Research. (pp. 209-222). London, England: SAGE
Publications, Ltd. Available at: http://0dx.doi.org.oasis.unisa.ac.za/10.4135/9781849208925.n22 (A student will be prompted
at some stage for his/ her student number and myUnisa password. A staff member will be
prompted at some stage for his/ her Unisa Network username and login password).
This book is available in the Sage Research Methods Online database.
Step 4 : Read and analyse
Group the sources into the themes and sub-themes of your topic. As you read widely
but selectively in your topic area, consider what themes or issues connect your sources
together.

Do they present one or different solutions?

Is there an aspect of the field that is missing?
How well do they present the material and do they portray it according to an appropriate
theory?
Do they reveal a trend in the field?
A raging debate?
Pick one of these themes to focus the organization of your review.
Step 5 : Write the literature review
You can organize the review in many ways; for example, you can center the
review historically (how the topic has been dealt with over time); or center it on
the theoretical positions surrounding your topic (those for a position vs. those against,
for example); or you can focus on how each of your sources contributes to your
understanding of your project.
Your literature review should include:

an introduction which explains how your review is organized.

a body which contains the headings and subheadings that provide a map to show the
various perspectives of your argument. In other words the body contains the evaluation of
the materials you want to include on your topic.

a summary.
Credits
Some of the information on this page is indebted to the sources below:
Caldwell College Library
Monmouth University Library
The American College of Financial Services
University of Cape Town Libraries
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The purpose of a literature review
Conducting a lit review is a means of demonstrating the authors knowledge about a
particular field of study, including vocabulary, theories, key variables and phenomena,
and its methods and history. Conducting a literature review also informs the student of
the influential researchers and research groups in the field (Randolph, 2009).
Literature reviews:

report on knowledge and ideas that have been established on a particular topic,
including their strengths and weaknesses while they allow you to discover the agreed
academic opinion on the topic while at the same time letting you find out the disagreeme
nts on the same subject.
position your research project within the body of literature and to provide perspective for
the reader.
demonstrate your knowledge of the subject area.
determine what each source contributes to the topic.
understand the relationship between the various contributions, identify and (if
possible) resolve contradictions, and determine gaps or unanswered questions.
justify your choice of research design; for instance, your choice of qualitative over
quantitative approaches, or your method of data analysis.
clarify how your work will fill in a gap in the scholarly literature.
Writing a literature review also allows you to:

gain expertise in the ability to scan the literature on a particular topic efficiently, and
hone your skills in identifying and analysing unbiased and valid data on various topics or
fields of study.

Source: Randolph, JJ. 2009. A guide to writing the dissertation literature review. Practical
Assessment, Research & Evaluation. 14 (13): 1-13
A literature review is meant to help you to ...

Source: Hart, C. 1998.

Doing a literature review: releasing the social science research imagination.
London: Sage. p 27

Video clips from the internet

Click on the links below for video clips on how to write literature reviews:

The Literature Review

Literature Reviews: an overview for graduate students
Literature Review in 5 min