Q: How to write the literature review in a research paper?
Asked on Jul 21, 2019
1 Answer to this question
A literature review is a detailed analysis of literature related to a topic. It is written to evaluate the progress of knowledge in an area and to identify the gaps that have remained unaddressed. A literature review in a research paper forms part of the Introduction section and introduces the readers to the need for conducting the research.
A literature review should begin with a thorough literature search using the main keywords in relevant online databases such as Google Scholar, PubMed, etc. Once you have gathered the necessary literature, you can organize your literature review.
It must include:
- Background information to introduce the readers to the research topic
- Recent progress on the topic organized in a chronological or thematic order
- Comparison and contrast of different studies
- Detailed analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the previous studies that have tackled the same problem
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