What exactly is a literature review?

The literature review is a written overview of major writings and other sources on a selected topic. Sources covered in the review may include scholarly journal articles, books, government reports, Web sites, etc. The literature review provides a description, summary and evaluation of each source.

A literature review establishes familiarity with and understanding of current research in a particular field before carrying out a new investigation. Conducting a literature review should enable you to find out what research has already been done and identify what is unknown within your topic.

The purpose of a literature review is to gain an understanding of the existing research and debates relevant to a particular topic or area of study, and to present that knowledge in the form of a written report. Conducting a literature review helps you build your knowledge in your field.

To determine what exists in the scholarly literature. To identify possible gap(s) in the scholarly literature for further research. To inform the research topic, theory (if applicable), and associated methodology. To compare/contrast against findings resulting from the current study.

Just like most academic papers, literature reviews also must contain at least three basic elements: an introduction or background information section; the body of the review containing the discussion of sources; and, finally, a conclusion and/or recommendations section to end the paper.

Over the years, numerous types of literature reviews have emerged, but the four main types are traditional or narrative, systematic, meta-analysis and meta-synthesis.

The length of a literature review varies depending on its purpose and audience. In a thesis or dissertation, the review is usually a full chapter (at least 20 pages), but for an assignment it may only be a few pages. There are several ways to organize and structure a literature review.

In general, undergraduate students will usually be required to use somewhere between 5 and 20 sources; graduate students typically will need between 20 and 40. However, the number can vary greatly, so always read your requirements and ask your professor.

Your literature review, like any other document, should contain an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. Your introduction should clearly explain the overall research topic and the depth of the information to be presented; it often also explains the types of sources that will be used.

What is a literature review? In short, a dissertation literature review provides a critical assessment of the sources (literature) you have gathered and read surrounding your subject area, and then identifies a “gap” in that literature that your research will attempt to address.

Do not write in the first person (no I or we). Single space after all punctuation. This is APA format.

Basically the length of the literature review is dependent on the dissertation length. For instance, a dissertation that is 15000 words has a literature review of about 5000 words. However, sometimes you may be asked to do a short abstract/ proposal of up to 300 words.

To sum up, writing a dissertation within a week is certainly possible. It just requires a lot of planning and a bit of professional help. By adopting such a mixed strategy, you will be able to beat any time constraints.

A PhD thesis must not exceed 80,000 words, and will normally be over 60,000 words. This word limit includes footnotes and endnotes, but excludes appendices and reference list / bibliography. Figures, tables, images etc should be counted as the equivalent of 150 words for each page, or part of a page, that they occupy.

There is no set length for a literature review. The length largely depends on your area of study. However, I have found that most literature reviews are between 40-60 pages.