There are various kinds of literature reviews. The type you select is determined by your research strategy and design. When writing a literature review. It is important to keep in mind that this third layer of knowledge is frequently cited as “true,” despite having only a vague relationship to the previous studies and secondary literature reviews.
Even though literature reviews intended to provide a summary and interpretation of relevant sources you have investigated, there are several strategies for doing so depending on the type of analysis underlying your study. Overall it is a daunting task that requires sample time to complete but many students hire Mba dissertation writing service to get rid of this situation.
This blog offers literature review help UK based that discusses what literature review is, why it is important to write in research studies and its types with their specific usage.
Definition of literature review
A literature review looks at books, academic articles, and any other sources pertinent to a certain topic, field of study, or theory and then provides an overview, summary, and critical analysis of those works in order to address the research problem being investigated. Literature reviews are prepared on the basis of the sources you have used while researching a specific topic and to show your audiences how your research fits into a larger field of study.
The Importance of a Thorough Literature Review
A literature review is simply a summary of important sources, but in the social sciences, a literature review typically follows an organizational structure and combines summary and synthesis, frequently within particular conceptual categories.
A summary is a brief overview of the source’s important information, whereas a synthesis is a reorganization or reshuffling of that information to inform how you intend to address the research problem. It is use to strengthen any thesis or dissertation by conducting an investigation on the research question (dissertationwritinghelp, 2022).
The purpose of a literature review
- Consider each piece of work in light of what it has to say about the research issue under consideration.
- Describe how each work relates to the others being consider.
- Determine new approaches to interpreting prior research.
- Highlight any gaps in the literature.
- Resolve apparent contradictions between previous studies.
- Identify prior scholarship areas to avoid duplication of effort.
- Point the way to completing a research need.
- Consider where your own research fits into the body of previous research.
Types of Literature Reviews
It’s crucial to consider knowledge in a particular field as having three layers. Researchers carry out first, published primary studies. The second type of review is one that summarizes and offers new interpretations based on and often expands beyond the previous studies. Third, there are informal perceptions, conclusions, opinions, and interpretations that become part of the field lore.
It’s important to keep in mind that when writing a literature review, this third layer of knowledge is frequently cited as “true” even though it frequently only has a tenuous connection to published studies and secondary literature reviews.
There are a variety of approaches you could take depending on the type of analysis supporting your study. Literature reviews are designed to give an overview and synthesis of relevant sources you have examined.
Argumentative Review
This type of literature review examines literature strategically in order to support or refute an already established argument, deeply integrated assumption, or intellectual problem in the literature. The goal is to create a body of writing that promotes an opposing viewpoint. Given the significant nature of some research in social sciences (e.g., immigration control and educational reform), argumentative approaches to literature analysis can be a valid and significant form of discourse. However, when used to make synopsis claims like those found in systematic reviews, they can introduce bias problems.
Integrative Review
Considered be a type of research that integrates the reviews, critiques, and syntheses of representative literature on a subject to produce fresh frameworks and viewpoints. The body of literature consists of all articles that address similar or related research questions or hypotheses. Regarding clarity, rigor, and replication, a very well integrative review maintains the same benchmarks as primary research. The social sciences typically use this type of review the most.
Scoping Review
As the name implies, a scoping literature review is use to determine the scope or coverage of a body of research on a specific topic. The scoping reviews are helpful for analyzing new information when it is not yet clear what additional, more specific questions can be raised and beneficially addressed by a more focused systematic review (Munn et al., 2018).
Historical Review
Few things stand apart from historical evidence. Historical reviews are center on examining research over time, frequently beginning with the first time a topic, idea, theory, or phenomenon appeared in the literature and then following the topic’s development within a discipline’s scholarly output. The goal is to explain research in order to demonstrate familiarity with cutting-edge advancements and to identify likely future research directions.
Methodological Review
A review focuses on how someone said something [method of analysis] rather than what they said [content]. This method provides a framework of understanding at various levels (theory, research approaches, substantive fields, and data collection and analysis techniques). It allows researchers to draw on a wide range of knowledge ranging from conceptual to practical documents for use in research work in the areas of ontology and epistemology consideration, primary and secondary data collection integration, interviewing, sampling, data collection, and data analysis techniques.
Systematic Review
This form includes a summary of the available research that is relevant to a clearly stated research question, as well as data collection, reporting, and analysis from the studies that are part of the review. The research is identified and critically evaluated using pre-specified and standardized methods. Typically, it focuses on a single empirical question, often presented in a cause-and-effect format, such as “How much does A contribute to B?”
Theoretical Review
The goal of this type of literature review is to examine the data sets of a theory that has been gathered in relation to an issue, concept, theory, or phenomenon in a concrete manner. This form is frequently used to demonstrate a lack of adequate theories or to demonstrate that current theories are insufficient for explaining new and emerging research questions.
Reference list
DP., (2022). Chapter 2 literature review. Online Available at <https://dissertationwritinghelp.uk/chapter-2-literature-review/> [Accessed on 18th August 2022]
Munn, Z., Peters, M. D., Stern, C., Tufanaru, C., McArthur, A., & Aromataris, E. (2018). Systematic Review or scoping review? guidance for authors when choosing between a systematic or scoping review approach. BMC Medical Research Methodology, 18(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12874-018-0611-x
