How to Perform a Literature Review

When conducting research, it is essential that you include the literature review section. This is a survey section where one has to include scholarly sources such as these, journals and books that cover the topic under study. This section provides an overview of the concepts and findings that relate to the research problem. When coming up with a literature review, do not focus on summarizing the sources. Rather, you should interpret them and provide critical analysis.

As you pursue your course, no doubt that you will come across several research papers that will require you to give a literature review. You can choose to do it on your own if you have time. However, sometimes you may be too committed, so you can pay someone to write a literature review as you do the other sections. This is the best way to deal with it since there are online experts who are willing to help you in writing your paper.

If you are a college student, you should consider the following steps while performing a literature review for your research paper:

Select a Topic and Define the Research Question

This is the initial stage where the research question will guide the entire literature review. The research question should not be too broad or too narrow. It should be standard and manageable. Note down some relevant terminologies that you anticipate n your study. They will help you later while conducting searches for the sources. You can present your topic to the professor and discuss it before you can continue.

Establish the Scope

Choosing a topic is not enough. You should ascertain how far your research will address the topic since you cannot cover everything. In this case, consider factors like how many years the research should cover, how comprehensive it should be and the number of studies you need to look at. Depending on the assignment, you will also establish the number of sources that you will use.

Choose the Databases to Use

This step enables you to list down the databases from which you will find your sources. It gives you an opportunity to pick credible institutions that have carried out researches before. You can engage library staff here who have the expertise of identifying trustworthy sources. They will also recommend some strategies to use in selecting research guides.

Conduct Searches for Literature

Under this step, you need to do the following:

• Sample the research papers from the sources and review their abstracts to save some time.
• Note down the searches from each database so that you use them later if there is a need.
• Use references and bibliographies of the papers that you already have to find others.
• You must consult your supervisor to ensure that you are not missing out on any details about the paper.
• Use online tools such as RefWorks to help you track your references and citations.

Review of Literature

Note that literature review is an analytical process, so you need to establish the following along your analysis:

• Get back to your research question and interrogate what the authors were seeking to achieve.
• Find out the funding process that was used to generate the source, and whether it has an influence on the research findings.
• Do the sources have properly analyzed literature reviews. Find out if the variables, results and conclusions are credible.
• Lastly, ensure that the authors have the credentials to conduct research work.

Final Word

Conducting a literature review is the basis for research because it gives a background of the topic. It proves your research question and the possibility of having successful research. While performing a literature review, always aim at correcting mistakes that were done before because it is a critical process. This will enable you to generate a better research paper in the end.