literature review abstract

literature review abstract

The Impact of Literature Review in Research

1. Importance of Literature Review

The accusation is often made that a research design, or an existing piece of research, does not take into account or set out to solve the specific problem. Literature review is an important part of every research, based on the fact that it provides the researcher a better understanding of what has already been done on the topic and what is already known. This not only reveals the already available work but also puts forward an opinion of what more can be done in what area that not many have discovered. Literature review culminates the research process as an output of researched work. There are many possibilities that a researcher hasn’t even thought of while they were designing their research. They can witness the alternatives and can change the whole scenario of the research. The findings of the alternatives can also be the prospective future to the existing work. This part is concluded on an assumption that the researcher has the best understanding of what the work has interpreted.

2. Steps to Conduct a Literature Review

5. Referencing – Proper citation must be provided in the review. This includes the author’s name, the publication year, the title, the place of publication, the publishing company, and the page number.

4. Developing the review – The selected material then needs to be organized in a meaningful way. The end result of a well-organized material is a clear and precise review.

3. Reviewing the literature – Evaluating the material followed by a careful reading of the selected material. Understanding the meaning, methodology, result, and the implication of the result.

2. Searching the literature – An extensive range of sources need to be searched for literature review. Various search engines can be used for this purpose.

1. Choosing a review type – This step simplifies the work of the researcher. It helps by focusing on the type of study to be conducted and also helps in searching specific material. Either a broad or a narrow type of review can be conducted.

A well-conducted literature review simplifies the work of the researcher and proves to be of great help in his/her research in many ways. Following are the steps that should be followed to achieve a successful literature review.

3. Common Challenges in Literature Review

One common problem is that the literature presented might not be sufficiently constructed to enable the interpretation that the results of a particular study will be influenced by a specific factor or, in the best case scenario, that the outcome of an earlier empirical study might be confirmed or refuted. This is actually a form of systematic bias that can be traced back to the research or to the way studies on a topic are selectively included or excluded. This has been termed “selective citation” and it has been noted that qualitative based literature reviews are more prone to this type of bias, thus the following proposed framework is specific to this type of review. So, to ensure that the results of a specific study can be evaluated in the context of an earlier piece of literature and to provide a more general approach for implementation of the proposed framework, it is essential that a clearly articulated research based on a focused question be established. This will enable the research to clearly identify the literature that is most important to the topic under study and help to determine or rule in/rule out, the presence of confounding variables regarding the relationships between independent and dependent variables stated in the hypothesized cause-effect model. Another common problem identified by the authors was the inability of a research report to provide a clear link between results of a study and the current state of the literature on a certain topic. This can be due to a variety of reasons and it may not necessarily be the fault of authors whose main focus is not providing a comprehensive review of a particular topic. For example, the results of a study may be provided in too succinct a manner with little regard to the reader who, to effectively make use of the research, requires an in-depth explanation into why, how and what the specific details of the study mean in the context of a current theory or a comparison with results from studies published in earlier literature. On other occasions, an author might have provided an in-depth explanation but misunderstood the current state of literature on the topic and thus drawn incorrect inferences regarding the implications of their results.

4. Strategies for Effective Literature Review

The main focus of the research was to find out the impact of the literature review on research. The articles were sought which specifically related to our topic. The inclusion and exclusion criteria were well defined. They were kept in view during the abstract and article review. They will also determine the type of studies and the articles to be reviewed. This will be further explained in the types of studies and the inclusiveness of the evidence collected.

Hand search references from the selected articles will also be conducted to isolate more stingy data.

Databases to be searched are well defined. Main databases will be MEDLINE, EMBASE, DATABASE OF ABSTRACT OF REVIEWS OF EFFECTIVENESS, Cochrane central register of controlled trials, ACP journal club.

Search strategy should be recorded or documented for future reference and peer review. The process of law and the decisions must be traceable. Documented search strategy will assist in the review process and will reduce chances of any duplication of efforts. Any flaws in the search strategy will be pointed out easily.

Database: Search strategy should be structured following a framework just like a research question. This specifies the population, intervention, comparison, and endpoints. This will give a more efficient and comprehensive search of the literature. Controlled vocabulary should be used where available. Synonyms and alternative terms should also be used.

5. Conclusion

In conclusion, literature review can be a creative and productive learning exercise for the author. Reading other researchers’ viewpoints on your topic area will allow you to engage with other research ideas and begin to identify your own perspective on the topic. Step two of the literature review is the most crucial stage. This is the best opportunity to discover a research area which is suitable, interesting, and has not been explored. What actually counts is not what other people have said about the research area, but what has been left out or uncovered. The process of identifying a gap is a creative act involving the use of imagination to isolate what is known from what is not known about the research topic. What we have provided is a comprehensive framework on how to undertake this task in a highly effective and efficient manner.

Structured literature review is valuable to the academic and research communities by guiding future research directions, identifying research opportunities, contributing new knowledge to a specific area, and providing evidence-based results in a given area. Systematic and integrative reviews are the most widely used in the area of marketing. At the same time, there is relatively little methodological work being undertaken which focuses on the area of literature review. This is particularly surprising given the fundamental importance of literature review to the development of new knowledge in academia. This paper has outlined what we believe to be the first attempt at a comprehensive and systematic methodological framework for literature reviews. We articulate that this framework is critical for all literature reviews irrespective of type and that adopting this framework will build a much stronger platform to develop new knowledge. We have demonstrated this through the execution of a literature review which follows this framework.