Literature Reviews: Common Errors made When Conducting a Literature Review (January 23, 2015)
Credo Reference
We consider Credo Reference our academic Google. This is a good resource to use for background information. Credo will assist you in finding:
1. Research questions to your conclusion
2. Relevant sources
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Credo's Reference explanation of the Literature Review
Importance of a Literature Review
A literature review is important because it:
- Explains the background of research on a topic.
- Demonstrates why a topic is significant to a subject area.
- Helps focus your own research questions or problems
- Discovers relationships between research studies/ideas.
- Suggests unexplored ideas or populations
- Identifies major themes, concepts, and researchers on a topic.
- Tests assumptions; may help counter preconceived ideas and remove unconscious bias.
- Identifies critical gaps, points of disagreement, or potentially flawed methodology or theoretical approaches.
- Indicates potential directions for future research.
A Literature Review is NOT
... an annotated bibliography in which you summarize each article that you have reviewed. A literature review goes beyond basic summarizing to focus on the critical analysis of the reviewed works and their relationship to your research question.
Not a research paper where you select resources to support one side of an issue versus another. A lit review should explain and consider all sides of an argument in order to avoid bias, and areas of agreement and disagreement should be highlighted.