Proposel

How to carry out a literature review for a dissertation or research paper

By Margaret Adolphus

1. The Purpose Of The Literature Review

All literature reviews should be more than a mere description of the current state of knowledge of an area, and should critically evaluate the theoretical positions and research studies, drawing attention to major debates. This is particularly true for a research dissertation or paper, which should go one step further by using the review to situate the author's own contribution to knowledge.

The literature review has been described as a "report of primary scholarship" (Cooper, 1988) and "an interpretation and synthesis of published work" (Merriam, 1988, quoted by Murray, 2002). The two key words here are scholarship and synthesis: a literature review relates particular research to the a wider field.

There are two main purposes of a literature review:

1. To show awareness of the present state of knowledge of a particular field. Not just who has written what, but the main empirical research, theoretical positions, controversies, and breakthroughs as well as links with other related areas of knowledge.

2. To provide a foundation for the author's research. The process of reviewing the literature should provide, according to Steane (2004: p. 124), a rationale for the choice of problem to be investigated and the methodology selected. It should help the researcher define a hypothesis or a research question, and show how answering the question will contribute to the body of knowledge. Analysis of the literature can also help provide a particular theoretical lens, support the argument, or identify gaps.

Examples

In their article, "Accounting change in central government", Gomes et al. justify their study of Portuguese public sector accounting on the basis that European public sector accounting is less explored than that in the private sector, and particularly little is known about Portuguese double-entry bookkeeping....