Literature review

A literature review is a text of a scholarly paper, which includes the current knowledge including substantive findings, as well as theoretical and methodological contributions to a particular topic. Literature reviews use secondary sources, and do not report new or original experimental work.

Types

Most often associated with academic-oriented literature, such as a thesis, dissertation or a peer-reviewed journal article, a literature review usually precedes the methodology and results section although this is not always the case. Literature reviews are also common in a research proposal or prospectus (the document that is approved before a student formally begins a dissertation or thesis). Its main goals are to situate the current study within the body of literature and to provide context for the particular reader. Literature reviews are a basis for research in nearly every academic field. The main types of literature reviews are: Evaluative Review, Exploratory Review, and Instrumental Review. A systematic review is a literature review focused on a research question, trying to identify, appraise, select and synthesize all high quality research evidence and arguments relevant to that question. A meta analysis is typically a systematic review using statistical methods to effectively combine the data used on all selected studies to produce a more reliable result.