literature review in research

literature review in research

The Importance of Literature Review in Research

1. Introduction

Today, we are living in a world that is so fast that we cannot even imagine. In this fast world, in every field of knowledge, we have to research whether it is in the technical field or any other field. This is so because every day new information is added in the particular field, so old information becomes outdated and knowledge needs to be refreshed. This means new research needs some substantial base of existing knowledge to go further, as anything that stands without its base is weak. So the importance of literature review in research is paramount.

Today, it is very important for researchers and research students to have a sound knowledge about what is going on around their research area. Thus, doing reviews of literature which helps to identify particularly what a specific research has already done, where are its limitations and what are its future possibilities is an important element in any research done today. Though it seems like a simple task, doing a literature review requires a good deal of research and organizational skills. The literature review goes on to explain the importance of literature review in the research process.

Literature review is an important part of any research because it helps to identify the scope of works that have been done so far in the research area. It also identifies the limitations of works already done because while dealing with the problems that have not been solved so far, it helps to save time as well as aids in finding the solution to that problem by conducting the research.

2. Purpose of Literature Review

A quality literature review is extremely important for the written presentation of any research. It is often a part of the introduction to an essay, research report, or thesis. It’s a systematic, explicit, and reproducible method for identifying, evaluating, and synthesizing the existing body of completed and recorded work produced by researchers, scholars, and practitioners. There are a number of reasons why review of the research literature is an essential part of academic scholarship. The first is simply that one cannot do effective research without using a body of existing work to make the research both relevant and novel. Any research project that is undertaken without an adequate review of the literature is almost certainly doomed to failure. This is because there is almost no chance that an investigation is needed, or that the results of the study will be seen as significant. While it is possible that unearthing an obscure and esoteric unmet need is the basis for a project, it is really not the way to bet. And if such a lack of a prior body of work is due to an unmet need than it is almost certain that in investigating said need, the researcher will be re-inventing someone else’s wheel. All of this is verging on the unethical as it is an inappropriate use of time and money human or material. Finally, with no literature to contextualize the work and show its importance, it will be difficult to convince the layman that the project is important to our understanding or will in some other way be of some use.

3. Methods for Conducting Literature Review

As already mentioned, it is possible to improve the quality of a literature review without actually conducting extra research. This can be achieved through a more advanced and thorough review of the research area. This means critically evaluating previous research, possibly developing new insights or a new theoretical framework for the research, and looking for a ‘hook’ that may mean the review is publishable (e.g. synthesizing new insights that might lead to new research in the field). While these approaches are more common in postgraduate and staff research, it is not uncommon to find Masters or undergraduate dissertations that use such methods to good effect. It needs to be stressed that a quality review aims to use the findings of existing research to develop new insights. This is an important aspect of the review process.

4. Benefits of Literature Review in Research

The importance of literature review for a research is highly vivid from all above stated points. International and reputed journals are always a great source of materials to be reviewed. The advantage with journals is that it is model publication comprising various activities, events, interviews and discussion. Thus by reviewing each article or paragraph written in the journal one can extract the required information and compile them to make best out of it. The process is a time taking aspect but by using a focused approach and identifying the qualifications of various authors this particular stint can help a researcher draw rich dividends. Another advantage is sorting the issues, themes, debates and various views being provided in the journals all over. This task can never be a possibility if a researcher is not following the journal issues every week. Thus literature review will help to filter and portray what actually the events are and there has been no change of the subjective is and when the information was gathered. The most important of it all is that compiling too much of information available and sorting to the relative contents. This it self is a kind of job explaining the authenticity of a research and the value add it has in a particular field.

5. Conclusion

Importance of literature review in research is an explored topic of study. The procedure for conducting the literature review and the purpose for the importance is to be extensively researched. The conclusion is the most important part of the study. Here, the findings of the work are recapitulated and all the queries are answered in the best possible way. Solutions for the topic and future recommendations for the betterment in the same field are to be given in the conclusion part of a literature review. Coming to the conclusion part of my study regarding the importance of literature review in research, I would re-emphasize the procedures and its methodology in a nutshell. The crux of the paper lies in the first sentence of the conclusion, regressing over the success of the study is gauged by the number of people who have actually used it. Success is in terms of finding a wealth of knowledge on the selected topic, developing skills in locating and evaluating resources, analyzing and synthesizing information on the topic, and drawing inferences. Above all, this literature review discussed the available evidence on the topic of the importance of literature review in research. This can help the coming generations and new researchers to get an idea of the underlying concept and the merits of conducting a literature review.