The Role of Literature Review in Dissertations

A literature review forms the nucleus of the research. It looks over the scholarly articles, books, systematic scientific research sources like scientific journals, dissertations, conference proceedings, and other resources relevant to the area of research. It also provides context for any research project by examining previous research. The past existing literature helps us to evaluate our position in the study currently.

It familiarizes the researcher to the extent of data in the field. Now, it is up to the researcher that he wants to pursue the reported research with new perspectives, but he must be knowing the past research in the field prior to moving forward. The literature review provides an intellectual context for the dissertation providing opposing views of other researchers about the topic with authentic facts and figures.

Reviewing the literature is an iterative process that helps to make the researcher familiar with the new research methods and the relevant theories that may be applicable to the work. It also helps to find a gap in the literature or an issue in the existing research (Maggio, et al., 2016).

The literature review in a dissertation informs the reader that the researcher is a well-informed scholar that has expertise and knowledge in the field.

It provides readers with a perfect and extensive understanding of scholarly research in the field.

The literature review is not a comprehensive history of the topic but a way to provide the reader with an overview of the reported research that has preceded the study.

As far as the dissertation is concerned, it is a detailed, substantial, and lengthy piece of work that must be back with a number of academic resources to make the research credible.

A well done literature search can add most to the dissertation. It should be at least ≥ 20 pages to convince the committee members that a significant research survey has done on the research topic.

Literature Review Helps to…

·        Primarily scrutinize to spot gaps or possible errors in the published research.

·        Generate new ideas and perspectives.

·        Discover the existing knowledge and work that relates to your topic.

·        Increase knowledge and provide information in the research field.

·        Avoid bias.

·        Justify the research as being noble.

·        Convince the committee members that the research student is liable to communicate the literature to the proposed research.

·        Demonstrate to the supervisory committee that the students have a sufficient understanding of the published research related to the topic of the dissertation.

·        Convince the committee by providing evidence that the research is original and contributes to the field.

Another important aspect while doing a literature survey is a critical thinking strategy. It is something more than just reading and summarizing the literature. Every research builds on existing data in order to establish facts and succeed in new conclusions. Precise knowledge on a topic is important for analysis, adding worth to the sphere (Adolphus, n.d.).

The literature review validates the study by providing relevant data. Also, establish the researchers' expertise and entails such areas that need further investigation. It aids the field researchers by providing a start line for more advanced future analysis.

References

Maggio, L.A., Sewell, J.L, and Artino, A.R. (2016). The Literature Review: A Foundation for High-Quality Medical Education Research. Journal of Graduate Medical Education, 8(3). 297–303. doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.4300%2FJGME-D-16-00175.1

Adolphus, M. (n.d.). How to... carry out a literature review for a dissertation or research paper. https://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/archived/research/guides/methods/literature2.htm