define literature review

define literature review

The Importance of Literature Review in Research

1. Introduction

The importance of a literature review is giving the reader insight into the background of research and what has been done so far, as well as the knowledge related to the topic. According to Cooper (1988), a literature review is producing a written summary of the chosen topic from reliable information and to be interpreted as an overview of data. This is supported by Jesson et al (2011), which states that the function of the literature review is to provide a case argument on the nature of the situation and the problem to the reader. This situation arises so that the reader can save time and want to know where previous solutions were given for the problem. With the literature review, readers will receive an understanding of the research context, what has been studied, and what the researcher wants to study.

The meaning of literature review has revolved around the importance of it. Many have misunderstood and were still confusing it with research method. According to Aveyard (2014), literature review can be conducted at any stage of research from the beginning to the end. What is a literature review? Which part of research is it? How important is a literature review in research? These are the questions that often cross a researcher’s mind. According to Ridley (2007), a researcher does not need to stress out to differentiate between literature review, research method, and research methodology. What a researcher needs to focus on is how to integrate all the literature contents into the research effectively. This statement is supported by Randolph (2009), which states that a good literature review can become an important framework for the research. According to the explanation above, the writer can conclude that a literature review is an intense study about the previous work in a field using online materials. A researcher needs to get a wide point of view and integrate various information from multiple sources. This is important so that a researcher does not appear to be ignorant and the information obtained is valid.

2. Purpose of Literature Review

The Importance of a Systematic Review A vast amount of research can be found in published reports and documents. Conducting a thorough literature review can be a time-consuming and labor-intensive process, and the temptation is often to conduct a truncated review and move on with the actual research study. Doing this can leave you with a large amount of information, and often much of it will not be in a form that is useful for your research. A narrow-focused question such as “what are the effects of children being born after the death of a sibling” may only find a small amount of direct qualitative information on the subject, but a large amount of related material from which inferences can be drawn. This can easily become unmanageable, and it is often difficult to discern what should go into your research data. As well, there will be a large quantity of material that is irrelevant or only partially relevant to your question. Without a systematic approach, this can produce a biased review, which may have a detrimental impact on your results. By following a methodical and transparent process, a literature review can be completed in a way that will produce a high-quality, relevant piece of work, and provide a firm starting point for the research study.

A literature review is an account of what has been published on a topic by accredited scholars and researchers. In writing the literature review, your purpose is to convey to your reader what knowledge and ideas have been established on a topic, and what their strengths and weaknesses are. As a piece of writing, the literature review must be defined by a guiding concept (e.g. your research objective, the problem or issue you are discussing, or your argumentative thesis). It is not just a descriptive list of the material available, or a set of summaries.

3. Steps in Conducting a Literature Review

The literature review is the basis of all scientific research. It represents the foundation of all literary products. In writing a literary product, it is in the form of a thesis, dissertation, research project, or an article or synthesize the result of a research. The literature review is an evaluative report of information found in the literature related to their selected area of study. The review should describe, summarize, evaluate and clarify this literature. It is not a simple task as flipping the books and journals and review it in written. Published materials such as books, journals, magazines and articles is wide open and thus the more structured and systematic in the review will be more sufficient. The review should be well written with a logical progression from one topic or arguments to others. This will be more convincing in the reader’s mind. The obtained information should be directly relevant to the research and its methodology. While the published research for some topics rapidly become outdated, the review must ensure the reader that the information is important and valid. The literature review also plays an important role in justifying a research project. By showing what is already known won’t be sufficient to impress the reader. By identifying what is not known or what is imprecise are important to let the reader know that the individual has understood the problem. This will create a gap between the understanding of the problems which then leads to the necessity of the research. It will provide a firm foundation for the significance of the research.

4. Benefits of Literature Review

The literature review was conducted to examine the effectiveness of telehealth care on diabetes and quality of life. A comprehensive search strategy was used, critical appraisal of located literature performed, and the findings were evaluated in terms of the quality of the available evidence across disciplines. The findings of the review suggest that the use of telehealth care to manage diabetes can improve support, education, behavioral change, and specialist monitoring in an accessible and convenient environment. There is evidence to suggest that telehealth interventions can improve glycemic control, blood pressure, quality of life, and reduce the amount of adverse events suffered by patients with diabetes. This therefore may potentially slow down progression of the condition and reduce healthcare cost in the long term. While there is evidence for positive changes, more high-quality research is needed to support the implementation of telehealth care for diabetes. This type of support for patients with diabetes should be recommended for further development and research into the cost effectiveness and the potential to change traditional ways of managing healthcare for people with diabetes. This recommendation equates to the authors understanding the importance of implementing telehealth care to improve the quality of life for people with diabetes. The review helped enable the team to define the support and effectiveness of various telehealth interventions to manage diabetes, this was used to aid a decision on which trials and administrative structure will best guide the transition from the current to the ideal model of healthcare for current diabetes patients at the study site and the surrounding community.

5. Conclusion

The literature review is a fundamental building block and foundation for substantial research. A good literature review provides a base for the research you are conducting and enables you to find a pathway to where your research networks and how it will connect to past research in the similar field. It is a requirement for any research in order to prove that your own research is viable. Literature review is essential when you are given new research to undertake in order to fully understand the field in which you are conducting the research. At all ends without a literature review your research is in a loss and has no direction as you end up not being able to connect it to previous research and compare our results. With not being able to compare your research to its past counterparts the value of your new research in questioned and the importance of your research can be heavily made. With a well done literature review it will enable you to avoid creating a research project that is similar to one previously done with being able to compare and contrast results from each article reviewed. Essentially the literature review is crucial to any research left it be to identify the best practices in processing the research, making connections and comparisons; so that you do not aim less than what has already been accomplished or even repeat what is already around today. Also to access and appraise the present information so that you’re always making a valid point and lastly to prepare the reader and to provide documentation on the past and how you are intend to connect the past with the present in the research you are aiming to accomplish. Without any question all these are fundamental in achieving a successful research and having to not recreate something that has already been done.