Literature Review and Its Importance in Research

A literature review in a research is a critical discussion and summary of scholarly articles, research papers, literature that is relevant to particular area or topic under study.

Literature survey or literature review is important in research with following major considerations:

1. Understand the research problem being studied
2. Reveal any gaps that exist in the literature
3. Identify areas of prior research to prevent duplication of effort and avoid incidental plagiarism
4. Demonstrate the preparedness to complete the research
5. Sharpen the research focus

• Place the relevance of the research in a larger context
• Compare and contrast with other prior research 

   6. Create a rapport with research audience and build a sense of trust in the research

   7. Depending on the area of specialization, a literature review can take several forms as follows: 

• Argumentative review 
• Integrative review 
• Historical review 
• Methodological review 
• Systematic review 
• Theoretical review 

   8. Demonstrate the credibility of the research
   9. Offer comprehensive overview and guide the direction where the research is headed
 10. Justify the proposed methodology of the research