When a student is preparing to write a dissertation, a common question is what to include in literature review chapters. The answer is to include a thorough discussion of all of the prior research and literature in the field that sets the stage for the student's own dissertation topic. In other words, the state of existing research, in literature review.
As the student has studied research in the field through his or her coursework, he or she has likely seen research in literature review in each of the research papers he or she has studied. The research in literature review is usually discussed early in the paper or dissertation, just after the introduction. All of the related research that has been undertaken in similar topics will be discussed in literature review along with a report of each previous researcher's findings.
The student interested in literature review construction should know that since it will be necessary to thoroughly study the literature to prepare for conducting the research and writing the dissertation, the contents that will be in literature review be available to the student without further work. It will only be a matter of organizing the prior research and creating a well-written discussion and interpretation of the literature in literature review.
If the student still needs to gather literature for the literature review, consulting the references section of each research paper he or she has read should point to relevant background research that may be relevant to the student's topic. The student can also search the university library's contents via online search or in person through the research librarian. The materials that will belong in literature review will be prior dissertations and research articles published in the leading scholarly journals within the student's field of interest. The student should be especially open to searching for articles published by his or her advisor or by others in his or department, as these might be relevant in literature review as well.
