According to the APA, 7th Edition (2020), literature review articles provide narrative summaries and evaluations of the findings and theories within a literature base. The literature base may contain qualitative, quantitative or mixed methods research. Literature reviews may capture tends in the literature.
In a literature review, the authors should
- define and clarify a problem;
- summarize previous investigations to convey the state o the research;
- identify relations, contradictions, gaps and inconsistencies in the literature, and
- suggest next steps in solving the problem.
This is often done as an introduction to one's own research - the problem stated becomes your research question, and after reviewing and summarizing the existing research and state of the topic, you can continue to develop that topic and take it into the future!
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