Literature Review In Social Research

Many most fresh researchers and even some experienced ones consider the task of literature review as the most challenging task in the research process. However, this can be one of the most interesting and simplest duties if well approached with the needed resources and skills. Literature reviews are relevant prior to or after qualification in any academic endeavor either as partial fulfillment of a study or as a key step in the research process. It therefore requires the desire, attitude and commitment to develop the expertise for conducting compelling and successful literature reviews. Though some may regard the exercise as a simple summary of the sources, it requires special technical design to combine the summary and synthesis. It also requires topic selection skills, improved literature search and retrieval talents as well as analysis and synthesizing abilities. Proficient data collection and report writing abilities also enable the researcher to complete the task within limited time.

res publication, 2012

Literature review and research findings are two of the important elements in every social research report. The literature review enables the researcher to showcase past efforts on the current research and how the current research differs from the past. Research findings on the other hand are the outcome of the researcher's efforts in providing solutions to research problem(s). This paper examines the two sections as a continuum activity in social research with a view to identifying the logical and philosophical connections between them. The paper utilized secondary data in its investigation, and content analysis in data analysis. The paper argues that, an openminded, and comprehensive but relevant literature review would show the researcher the essential variables which must be observed in the resolution of research problems. Besides, it also enriches the ability of the researcher in providing systematic and coherent interpretation of research findings. Undergraduates projects were randomly selected from Departments in the faculties of Management, and Social Sciences of the University of Abuja. While a few of undergraduates projects examined demonstrated genuine efforts in the literature review, in most cases the research findings are not connected with issues generated in the review. It is recommended among others that research lecturers and supervisors should bring the attention of their students to the nexus between these two independent, but interrelated aspect of social research report.

Writing a literature review is one of the more mysterious parts of writing in the social sciences. This brief guide is designed to help explain the process of writing a literature review-and explain what a literature review is, and what it isn't.

• Learning outcomes • The nature of a literature review • Identifying the main subject and themes • Reviewing previous research • Emphasizing leading research studies • Exploring trends in the literature • Summarizing key ideas in a subject area • Summary A literature review is usually regarded as being an essential part of student projects, research studies and dissertations. This chapter examines the reasons for the importance of the literature review, and the things which it tries to achieve. It also explores the main strategies which you can use to write a good literature review.

This article offers support and guidance for students undertaking a literature review as part of their dissertation during an undergraduate or Masters course. A literature review is a summary of a subject field that supports the identification of specific research questions. A literature review needs to draw on and evaluate a range of different types of sources including academic and professional journal articles, books, and web-based resources. The literature search helps in the identification and location of relevant documents and other sources. Search engines can be used to search web resources and bibliographic databases. Conceptual frameworks can be a useful tool in developing an understanding of a subject area. Creating the literature review involves the stages of: scanning, making notes, structuring the literature review, writing the literature review, and building a bibliography .

Cognition

Literature review or research synthesis is an essential component in research field. Novice and student researchers usually take it as a required burden in research, and present haphazardly under sub-topics in research. There is the problem of application and correlating LR with their studies. The main purpose of this paper is to present introduction of LR/research synthesis, its functions and methods in research. LR/research synthesis consists of searching relevant literature, discussing the findings and evidence, correlating the individual studies, interpreting critically, and synthesizing them to build an argument for future research. It is a review article based on qualitative research, but not based on primary data. This paper contributes to answer the questions of writing a LR or synthesis paper, and becomes a useful reference material to novice and student researchers of higher education.

A review of related literature is the process of collecting, selecting and reading books, journals, reports, abstracts and other references materials. A literature review is a systematic explicit and reproductive method for identifying, evaluating and interpreting the existing body of recorded work produced by researcher’s scholars and practitioners. According to Best J.W (1986) “A brief summary of previous research and writing of recognized experts provides evidences that the researcher is familiar with what is already known and with what is still unknown and untested”. The related literature shows the way to the sources of significant ideas, theories & hypothesis and valuable information regarding problems & evaluation of current practices and empirical researches. The present paper will be helpful for students, teachers and young researchers to know more about the meaning of the review of literature, objectives of review of literature, sources and nature of review of literature, ...

This article offers support and guidance for students undertaking a literature review as part of their dissertation during an undergraduate or Masters course. A literature review is a summary of a subject field that supports the identification of specific research questions. A literature review needs to draw on and evaluate a range of different types of sources including academic and professional journal articles, books, and web-based resources. The literature search helps in the identification and location of relevant documents and other sources. Search engines can be used to search web resources and bibliographic databases. Conceptual frameworks can be a useful tool in developing an understanding of a subject area. Creating the literature review involves the stages of: scanning, making notes, structuring the literature review, writing the literature review, and building a bibliography.

Research papers follow this same general outline as they begin with an introduction and identification of a research question, present the literature review, identify and explain the theory and hypotheses guiding the research, describe the research methods, present the results, and discuss the findings of the research.