LIBRARY
DBA 701 Doctoral Success Lab: Literature Review
Intro
A Literature Review establishes the connection between your proposed research and existing research; it surveys for the reader the scope of existing research, and then explains how the proposed dissertation research expands upon or adds new information to the knowledge base. It reviews previous studies, analyzes gaps, and outlines a research agenda. " A literature review therefore helps us to appreciate something of the sequence and growth of knowledge. As we survey the previous research on a subject, we may be able to identify areas which have not yet been investigated. These might suggest topics for future research projects, and also might suggest a particular focus or train of thought for our present dissertation" (Oliver, Paul, 2012).
Recommended Resources
Writing Literature Reviews by ISBN: 9781351858915Publication Date: 2017-04-05This useful guide educates students in the preparation of literature reviews for term projects, theses, and dissertations. The authors provide numerous examples from published reviews that illustrate the guidelines discussed throughout the book. New to the seventh edition: Each chapter breaks down the larger holistic review of literature exercise into a series of smaller, manageable steps Practical instructions for navigating today's digital libraries Comprehensive discussions about digital tools, including bibliographic and plagiarism detection software Chapter activities that reflect the book's updated content New model literature reviews Online resources designed to help instructors plan and teach their courses (www.routledge.com/9780415315746).
Literature Reviews Made Easy by ISBN: 9781617351914Publication Date: 2010-10-01This book is designed to help you achieve one specific goal. It's not designed to give you the philosophies of conducting research. It's not designed to give you a background in a specific academic discipline or a specific topic. It's not designed to give you theory. It's designed specifically to instruct you in the practicalities of the writing process used to create strong, thorough, and potentially bulletproof literature reviews. This book is the culmination of years of research experience. It's also the culmination of several years of teaching writing and critical thinking to doctoral students. Although it began as a tool for doctoral students, it has been expanded to be useful for everyone from senior high school students through doctoral candidates working on developing their first literature review or a larger literature review than they normally develop. It has been created for everyone from academics to new business entrepreneurs with good ideas who are trying to write their first reviews to support the new idea they're proposing.
Keep in Mind
A literature review is not simply a survey of one author or researcher after another; there needs to be a selection process with some criteria in place to determine which articles, dissertations, thesis, etc., to include and exclude in the review.
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Your Literature review should have a planned structure to it; one which is clearly evident to the reader, whether the structure is topical, date-oriented, or uses some other framework
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It should NOT strictly consist of summaries
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It should reflect your ability to analyze and discuss others' research
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It will probably need to be organized using sections and subheadings
- It will usually cover key research and areas which have been important, as well as trends indicating future importance in the field of study
- OWL Purdue on Literature ReviewsTake a look at another brief description provided by the Online Writing Lab of Purdue Univ.
Different kinds of literature reviews
Literature Review Section of a Research Article
Every research article has a section dedicated to describing the background of the topic and how the research ties in with previous studies.
See the pdf file labeled servant leadership article for an example.
Literature Review Article
An article that has been written that reviews or systematically organizes all of the literature on a certain topic within certain limitations is called a literature review. These articles are sometimes labeled as a review of the literature or other ways. These articles can be great resources for locating information and more resources but are not considered empirical research.
See the example labeled literature review article.
Literature Review Chapter in a Dissertation
From the ProQuest Dissertation database search for a dissertation on a topic that interests you and read the literature review chapter.