Literature Review

A literature review is a critical synthesis of existing scholarship on your topic. Its purpose is not to summarise everything published, but to organise what is known, evaluate how it was established, and show precisely where the gap sits that your study will address.

The difference between a weak and a strong review is synthesis. A weak review moves author by author, describing one study per paragraph. A strong one is organised thematically or by construct, groups studies that converge, explains why findings conflict, and builds an argument that leads inevitably to your research question.

Common approaches include the narrative review, the systematic review with a documented protocol and PRISMA flow diagram, the scoping review that maps a broad field, and bibliometric analysis for large literatures. Whichever you use, keep a search log of databases, keywords, date ranges and inclusion criteria — examiners ask how you found what you found.