Literature Review Sources – How to do literature review for your thesis or dissertation?

A critical review of the literature is necessary to help you to develop a thorough understanding of ,and insight into,previous research that relates to your research questions and objectives. Your review will set your research in context by critically discussing and referencing work that has already been undertaken,drawing out key points and presenting them in a logically argued way ,and highlighting those areas where you will provide fresh insights. It will lead the reader into subsequent sections of your project report.

There is no correct structure for a critical review, although it is helpful to think of it as a funnel in which you start at a more general level prior to narrowing down to your specific research question(s) and objectives.

Literature sources can be divided into three categories:primary ,secondary and tertiary.In reality, these categories often overlap. Your use of these resources will depend on your research question(s) and objectives. Some may use only secondary and tertiary literature. For others,you may need to locate primary literature as well.

When planning your literature research you need to:

• Have clearly defined research question(s) and objectives;
• Define the parameters of your search ;
• Generate keywords and search terms;
• Discuss your ideas as widely as possible

Techniques to help you in this include brainstorming and relevance trees .

• Your literature search is likely to be undertaken using a variety of approaches in tandem. These will include
  • Searching using tertiary sources and internet ;
  • Following up reference in articles you have already read;
  • Scanning and browsing secondary literature in your library.
• Once obtained, the literature must evaluated for its relevance to your research questions and objectives using clearly defined criteria .This must include a consideration of each item’s currency. Each item must be read and noted. Bibliographic details,a brief description of the content and supplementary information should also be recorded.
• Care should be taken when writing your literature review not to plagiarise the work of others.