what is literature review in research

what is literature review in research

The Importance of Literature Review in Research

1. Introduction

In today’s society, the novel and the film are both widely consumed by the public. The majority of the readers would prefer the novel as they have different views and opinions on what exactly happens in the story. However, there are more people who choose to watch the film instead because they feel that it’s not as time-consuming compared to reading a novel. Without them knowing it, they are missing out on many of the details that are found in the novel. There are no doubts that a film that is based on a well-written novel would have a certain degree of triumph, but that movie will never be the novel. Of course, there are some exceptions, for instance, for children who can’t read or the visually impaired. But for others, watching the movie is just a way to cut corners on a good story. This is where the importance of a literature review in the novel falls in. A good movie could spin off from a bestseller but would turn out to lack substance because the movie does not fully encompass the details of the novel.

2. Purpose of Literature Review

Understanding what you are researching and building your case for it becomes much easier with a good understanding of what others have done. The clearer your understanding of the terrain, the easier it is to understand what direction you want to go in with your own research, and eventually how you want to end your dissertation. The goal is always to end a dissertation with a sense of completeness and closure. A good literature review can also help you to know something is up and coming in a field. It would be terrible if you invest all this time and effort into a research project, only to find that someone else was doing very similar work and has just published it. Going parallel with someone is frustrating and it may be best to identify to this other person your findings and perhaps come to some sort of collaboration. The feedback you may get from others can be an essential tool in modifying and improving the quality and feasibility of your research. This will help achieve the ultimate goal of any research project: addressing a problem and producing new knowledge for the improvement of something.

Why do I need to review what others have written? I mentioned earlier the process of becoming an expert in a field. In the process, you may realize that your dissertation topic does not fit in with the current evidence, or that all the evidence points to it being done already. Literature reviews also provide a solid background for a research paper’s investigation. Comprehensive knowledge of the literature of the field is essential to you if you forward a new idea for publishing. This may be a bit off the topic, since a published article is not a dissertation (but sadly most of us know that the pressure to publish is becoming increasingly important in order to maintain academic positions).

3. Process of Conducting a Literature Review

This author has found it useful to take the following approach to assessing the literature: Full understanding of the literature – Where the full understanding of the literature is required the relevant piece of research, having a strong understanding of the literature is important. When this is the case, the author should aim to do a comprehensive review. A comprehensive review should entail the systematic investigation that encompasses the in-depth examination of the subject or research problem and partly involves delving into the past worked carried out by others. This type of review should aim to attract other researchers to an understanding the piece of work and its worth.

The literature review process is multifaceted with several sub-steps. Generally, these steps include the following: – Deciding the topic – Although this step might seem like the first step, it’s actually more of a concurrent step. However, it is very important to have a general idea in mind before doing some preliminary research. – Selecting resources – In this step, the researcher uses a mental map from the topic to identify potential resources, types of resources (e.g. primary, secondary), and the search strategy, free from the constraints of time and access. – Reviewing the literature – This is the most ambiguous step of the literature review. The literature has to be closely examined using a number of tactics (e.g. classical and brainstorming approaches) from different angles. This might involve doing a number of mini-reviews on several topics or doing a more extensive review on a narrow range of subjects. – Assessing the literature – This step is critical to the direction of the literature review and, most importantly, the later stages of the research. Unable to assess the literature can result in significant time loss.

4. Benefits of Literature Review in Research

Through examining the literature, I could find the facts about consumer behavior in a realistic setting, the process itself of knowing something from the literature, and understanding consumer behavior in the process of buying. This would impact my purchase pattern using a grounded approach and help me find a newer theory using a constructivist approach.

I have been studying consumer behavior problems through experiments conducted in a laboratory. The experiments have been providing new knowledge, but when viewed from the perspective of a lot of errors and the cost to the consumers in a real setting, it would be more effective to study using qualitative methods.

Thirdly, examining the research methodology used in a study. It could save time and cost for a study in the future. By knowing the advantages of writing an ideal literature, it could give a spirit and new hope for researchers to conduct a professional study, especially for individuals or agencies who have not had a lot of research experience.

Secondly, providing a theoretical basis for research. It could be a window for new alternatives for old problems.

First, framing a research problem. By knowing the results of the literature study, the hypothesis could be clearer, and partly the findings have been made from the literature.

In conducting research, usually the discussion of the literature review is the longest field. This includes framing the problem, investigating the theory, and subject analysis. There are three advantages when writing to discuss the literature.

5. Conclusion

In conclusion, up-to-date literature on healthcare service is an essential need to have a good clinical practice. It is because the knowledge and skills will increase the confidence and ability of a person in giving services to the client or patient. Reviewing literature must be done continually to upgrade the level of knowledge for giving the best service. It is also seen that a lot of healthcare centers only apply the training and knowledge after getting complaints about errors that occurred in the process of giving service to the client. This is done after getting a warning or punishment. As explained before, punishment or warning is a negative reinforcement and is not effective in increasing motivation to change behavior. Reading literature should be done after becoming a professional healthcare provider. It is intended to find solutions for the problems that occur in practice and to increase expertise in a particular field. The high cost of sending someone to education and training of healthcare funded by the government is better understood and practiced by following the instructions of healthcare based on literature. This will be effective and efficient in avoiding mistakes in giving the service. However, this still requires time and hard work to change the mindset on the use of instructions in healthcare based on literature. From several aspects, reviewing literature has a positive impact on the knowledge and skills of healthcare providers and will improve the process of giving care to the client.