Literature review

A literature review is a text of a scholarly paper, which includes the current knowledge including
substantive findings, as well as theoretical and methodological contributions to a particular topic.
Literature reviews are secondary sources, and do not report new or original experimental work. Most
often associated with academic-oriented literature, such reviews are found in academic journals, and are
not to be confused with book reviews that may also appear in the same publication. Literature reviews are
a basis for research in nearly every academic field. A narrow-scope literature review may be included as
part of a peer-reviewed journal article presenting new research, serving to situate the current study within
the body of the relevant literature and to provide context for the reader. In such a case, the review usually
precedes the methodology and results sections of the work.

Producing a literature review may also be part of graduate and post-graduate student work, including in
the preparation of a thesis, dissertation, or a journal article. Literature reviews are also common in
a research proposal or prospectus (the document that is approved before a student formally begins a
dissertation or thesis).

Shields and Rangarajan (2013) distinguish between the process of reviewing the literature and a finished
work or productknown as a literature review.[5]:193–229 The process of reviewing the literature is often
ongoing and informs many aspects of the empirical research project. All of the latest literature should
inform a research project. Scholars need to be scanning the literature long after a formal literature
review product appears to be completed.

A careful literature review is usually 15 to 30 pages and could be longer. The process of reviewing the
literature requires different kinds of activities and ways of thinking.[6] Shields and Rangarajan (2013) and
Granello (2001) link the activities of doing a literature review with Benjamin Bloom’s revised taxonomy
of the cognitive domain (ways of thinking: remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating,
and creating).[5][7]

The first category in Bloom's taxonomy is remembering. For a person doing a literature review this would
include tasks such as recognition, retrieval and recollection of the relevant literature. During this stage
relevant books, articles, monographs, dissertations, etc. are identified and read. Bloom’s second
category understanding occurs as the scholar comprehends the material they have collected and read. This
step is critical because no one can write clearly about something they do not understand. Understanding
may be challenging because the literature could introduce the scholar to new terminology, conceptual
framework and methodology. Comprehension (particularly for new scholars) is often improved by taking
careful notes. In Bloom’s third category applying the scholar is able to make connections between the
literature and his or her larger research project. This is particularly true if the literature review is to be a
chapter in a future empirical study. The literature review begins to inform the research question, and
methodological approaches. When scholars analyze (fourth category in Bloom's taxonomy) they are able
to separate material into parts and figure out how the parts fit together. Analysis of the literature allows
the scholar to develop frameworks for analysis and the ability to see the big picture and know how details
from the literature fit within the big picture. Analysis facilitates the development of an outline (list). The
books, articles and monographs read will be of different quality and value. When scholars use Bloom’s
fifth category evaluating they are able to see the strengths and weaknesses of the theories, arguments,
methodology and findings of the literature they have collected and read.[7] When scholars engage
in creating the final category in Bloom's taxonomy, they bring creativity to the process of doing a
literature review. In other words, they draw new and original insights from the literature. They may be
able to find a fresh and original research question, identify a heretofore, unknown gap in the literature or
make surprising connections. By understanding how ways of thinking connect to tasks of a literature
review, a scholar is able to be self-reflective and bring metacognition to the process of reviewing the
literature.