The literature review

It is important to demonstrate and critically analyse your understanding of the literature within your chosen field of study or research. The chapter highlights the different types of literature reviews: the traditional literature review versus the systematic literature review. The literature review is often essential in establishing what is known about a subject area, and by association what is not yet known, allowing you to understand and explore gaps in knowledge by appraising, encapsulating, comparing, contrasting, and correlating scholarly books, research articles, reports and various other sources of information. This chapter provides guidance on undertaking a literature review by highlighting the key stages of the process: selecting a topic, searching the literature, reading and reviewing the literature, critiquing the literature, evaluating the literature, and finally writing the literature review. The aim of this chapter is to offer a clear, concise and structured way of undertaking a literature review to establish your theoretical framework and methodological focus.