Nurse Anesthesia

What is a Literature Review?

A literature review is a means of demonstrating an author's knoweldge about a particular field of study, including vocabulary, theories, key variables and phenomena, and its methods and history. Conducting a literature review also informs the student of the influential researchers and research groups in the field.

Randolph, Justus J. "A Guide to Writing the Dissertation Literature Review." Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation 14.13 (2009): 1-13.

What is the Purpose of a Literature Review?

• distinguishing what has been done from what needs to be done
• discovering important variable relevant to the topic
• synthesizing and gaining a new perspective
• identifying relationships between ideas and practices
• establishing the context of the topic or problem
• rationalizing the significance of the problem
• enhancing and acquiring the subject vocabulary
• understanding the structure of the subject
• relating ideas and theory to application
• identifying the main methodologies and research techniques that have been used
• placing the research in a historical context to show familiarity with state-of-the art developments

Hart, Chris. Doing a Literature Review: Releasing the Social Science Research Imagination. London: Sage Publications, 1998, p.27.

Books about Literature Reviews & Thesis Writing