Literature Review Basics

Literature Review

• A literature review is an important part of research.
• It helps understand the subject, its significance, and how research has been done before.
• It guides the development of research questions.
• It's crucial to approach a topic with an open mind.
• Familiarize yourself with existing literature and theory.
• Aim to understand existing knowledge around a topic.
• Know what is already known, concepts and theories applied to a topic and key contributors to the topic.
• A literature review covers all aspects of a topic, not just one side.
• Start with primary and secondary data to review a topic.
• Be cautious when using online sources, as quality might be unknown.
• Check the sources' publication, citation rate and audience for reliability.
• Review the literature to learn what work has been done previously and by whom; find researchers with similar interests.
• Databases' steps generally include deciding on search terms, using databases, limiting dates of papers, reading abstracts and printing out full text.

Formulating Research Questions

• Reviews of the literature help form effective research questions.
• Identify potential methodological problems in research areas.
• A research study's statement of purpose (or research question), helps direct the process.
• Understanding the current status of a research problem's knowledge.

Maximizing Marks

• Use credible sources, like scholarly papers and journal articles.
• Critically evaluate your own study as if it were another study.

Reading and Reviewing Literature

• Understanding the research helps guide your own.
• Note important parts of the articles and look for weaknesses.
• Critically process everything, and look for ideas you can build on from the existing literature.
• Literature may be examined with competing or different theories.
• Research must be thorough to avoid plagiarism and ensure validity.
• Note when reading journals or articles to help with your general studying.

Types of Research

• Literature reviews can be done systematically or informally.
• Secondary sources include already published works; primary sources come from initial work.
• Quantitative research reports data in a numerical form while qualitative methods use narrative.
• Exploratory research examines an area with little-known information, while descriptive research describes a subject's characteristics.

Evaluating Claims and Research

• Is a claim valid? Analyze the sources and evidence given.
• Evaluate how well the sources can support the claim being made in the literature.

Research Methods

• Be clear about your approach, whether it’s a qualitative or quantitative study.

Explore the fundamentals of conducting a literature review in research. This quiz covers aspects such as the significance of existing literature, approaches to reviewing topics, and the importance of quality sources. Gain insights into developing research questions and understanding previous work in your field.