REVIEW OF LITERATURE

REVIEW OF LITERATURE
A

literature review is an account of what has been published on a topic

by accredited scholars and researchers.

Review

of Literature is to analyze critically a segment of a published

body of knowledge through summary, classification, and comparison of
prior research studies.

literature review is an evaluative report of information found in the

literature related to the selected area of study. The review should
describe, summarise, evaluate and clarify this literature. It should
give a theoretical base for the research and help the researcher
determine the nature of the research. Works are peripheral should be
looked at critically.

The

researcher should undertake extensive literature survey connected

with the problem as it is very essential to know whether the defined
problem has already been solved, status of the problem, techniques
that are useful to investigate the problem and other related details.

For this purpose, the abstracting and indexing journals and published
or unpublished bibliographies are the first place to go to.
Academic journals, conference proceedings, government reports,
books etc., must be tapped depending on the nature of the problem.
Similar studies, if any, should be carefully studied and efforts
should be taken so as not to repeat the same problem.
Gaps if any in the earlier studies should be addressed in the current
study.
A literature review must do these things
be

organized around and related directly to the thesis or research

question you are developing
synthesize
identify

results into a summary of what is and is not known

areas of controversy in the literature

formulate

questions that need further research

SOURCES OF LITERATURE REVIEW

Primary Literature are usually in the form of scholarly articles published in

reputed journals which are peer reviewed.
Secondaryliterature include reference books, textbooks and review
articles.
More emphasis should be given to Primary literature.

Grey literatureis a term used to describe such things as government

reports, reports from short-term consultancies, internal planning documents
etc. Conference proceedings and theses also come into this category. Grey
literature is rarely peer-reviewed, is rarely found in regular academic
libraries, and copies can be very difficult to obtain. It is best to avoid the
grey literature. Any worthwhile information in the grey literature is likely
to be published by its authors in the primary literature eventually.

Web sitesother than those associated with mainstream academic literature.

Huge quantities of information and misinformation can be found on the
Internet. Appendix 1 discusses this in more detail.

SOURCES OF LITERATURE REVIEW

Journals which publish abstracts of papers published in

various journals,

Review articles related to the topic chosen,

Journals which publish research articles,

Advanced level books on the chosen topic,

Proceedings of conferences, workshops, etc.,

Thesis and dissertations of research scholars on the topic

chosen

Scholarly Articles in newspapers & Magazines

Internet

e- journals and e-books

IMPORTANCE OF REVIEW OF LITERATURE

It enables researchers to discover what is already known and

dealt with by the other researchers that can be tied to the
topic under study.
It provides evidence that, the researcher has read adequate
relevant literature and is aware of the current state of
knowledge on the subject.
It enables researchers to place research questions in the
context of previous works in the area.
It provides information about research design and methods to
use and give examples of instruments to employ in the study.
It enables researchers to explain and justify the research
design procedures adopted in the study.
It gives researchers ideas about how to classify and present
data.

OBJECTIVES OF LITERATURE REVIEW

sharpen the problem, reformulate it or even leads to defining other closely

related problems, Clarity of ideas can be acquired through study of
literature.
get proper understanding of the problem chosen,
acquire proper theoretical and practical knowledge to investigate the
problem,
show how the problem under study relates to the previous research studies
to ensure that the proposed study has not previously been performed and
reported and avoid duplication of same work.
identifying the gaps in the earlier similar studies which the researcher
wishes to fill up. The details of already published work need to be clearly
described and gaps in the existing level of knowledge should be identified
and it should be clearly brought out in the synopsis that how proposed
study is going to fill up these gaps.
help us design methodology for the present work.