Most often associated with science-oriented literature, such as a thesis, the literature review usually precedes a research proposal, methodology and results section. Its ultimate goal is to bring the reader up to date with current literature on a topic and forms the basis for another goal, such as the justification for future research in the area.

A good literature review is characterized by: a logical flow of ideas; current and relevant references with consistent, appropriate referencing style; proper use of terminology; and an unbiased and comprehensive view of the previous research on the topic. It helps with all types of assignments as well.

According to Cooper (1988) "a literature review uses as its database reports of primary or original scholarship, and does not report new primary scholarship itself. The primary reports used in the literature may be verbal, but in the vast majority of cases reports are written documents. The types of scholarship may be empirical, theoretical, critical/analytic, or methodological in nature. Second a literature review seeks to describe, summarize, evaluate, clarify and/or integrate the content of primary reports".

External links

• The Literature Review: A Few Tips On Conducting It (University of Toronto)
• Literature Review (Language Center, Asian Institute of Technology). Includes discussion about common traps and vicious circle.
• Literature Reviews (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
• How to Write a Literature Review (UCSC)
• The literature review (Deakin)
• review of literature (UW-Madison)
• The Literature Review (Central Queensland)
• How to do a Literature Review (North Carolina A&T State library)
• Literature Reviews (UNC Libraries)

Further reading

• Cooper, H. (1998). Synthesizing Research: A Guide for Literature Reviews.
• Cooper, H.M. (1988): The structure of knowledge synthesis - Knowledge in Society, vol. 1, pp, 104-126.
• Dellinger, A. (2005). Validity and the Review of Literature. Research in the Schools, 12(2), 41-54.
• Dellinger, A. B. & Leech, N. L. (2007). Toward a Unified Validation Framework in Mixed Methods Research. Journal of Mixed Methods Research, Vol. 1, No. 4, 309-332.
• Galvan, J.L. (1999). Writing Literature Reviews.
• Hart, C. (1998). Doing a Literature Review.