No!  Literature review is not a qualitative research method.

Actually,  literature review is related to preparing conceptual foundation or theory building and becomes the basis of hypotheses formulation.

Literature review is neither qualitative nor quantitative method, but a review of related works in the field of study which can fall under qualitative design or quantitative design. It serves as an argument for research study to problem to be properly analyzed. The premise of literature review is on the understanding that knowledge is an incremental exercise. Therefore, in your case you used content analysis, literature review cannot be counted as a research method.

In meta analysis, you carry out a literature review from past journals and draw conclusions. In that case, one could say the literature review is part of your research design.

The following papers and link should be helpful to your understanding/clarification of a literature review: 

• Baker, M. J. (2000). Writing a Literature Review. The Marketing Review, 1, 2, pp. 219-247.
• Cronin, P., Ryan, F. and Coughlan, M. (2008). Undertaking a literature review: a step-by-step approach. British journal of nursing, 17, 1, pp. 38-43.
• Denney, A. S. and Tewksbury, R. (2013). How to write a literature review. Journal of Criminal Justice Education, 24, 2, pp. 218-234.
• Kowalczyk, N. and Truluck, C. (2013). Literature reviews and systematic reviews: what is the difference? Radiologic technology, 85, 2, pp. 219-222.
• Randolph, J. J. (2009). A Guide to Writing the Dissertation Literature Review. Practical Assessment, Research and Evaluation, 14, 13, pp. 1-12. 
• https://www.researchgate.net/post/Starting_a_literature_review-questions_about_analysis2/2 

Dear Beryl,

Review of related literature is a requirement for every robust research whether qualitative or quantitative study approach because it is the review of related literature that offers a solid theoretical foundation for the research. A researcher creates the academic vacuum his/her research is intended to fill by craftily reviewing the related literature, justifying the need and essence of the research.

On the other hand, research methodology shows the exact approaches that a researcher uses in answering the research questions that drive the study or can aid in providing the answer to the problem of the research. Thus, the related literature, cannot be said as a research instrument.

However, a researcher can extensively analyze some important documents, scholarly articles, journal and book publications to complement the findings generated from the use of data collecting instruments like interview, observation or questionnaire. This is aimed at triangulating the findings or providing a different lens or perspectives to validate the findings from the other instrument. This is known as document analysis. It can be counted as a research instrument or method in this case as have been vividly discussed in the following journal publications:

1. Hefferman, C., Qualitative Research Approach, [Online] Available: http://www.explorable.com, 2013 (Accessed 2 August 2016).

2. Bowen, G. A., Document Analysis as a Qualitative Research Method, Qualitative Research Journal, 2009, Vol. 9, No. 2.

All the best. Thanks.

                                                      Dickson Adom

"Literature review" is always part of anyone's research, and so is never counted as "Method". Only if your research method is "library research" or "systematic literature review" will you have 100% of your thesis being a review of the literature.

In other cases, like yours, only one chapter (about 1/7th) of your thesis is taken up by your literature review. The other 6/7ths would be take up by _your_ research (statement of problem, choice of method, expert interviews, the derived data, your processing and analysis of it, and your discussion and conclusion).

It would seem to me that you have made the fundamental error of including everything that you happen to have read into your review.

What you need to do sometime is to cut it down by a factor of four. When you get around to doing this, you will only include material that supports your thesis-theme.

No!  Literature review is not a qualitative research method.

Actually,  literature review is related to preparing conceptual foundation or theory building and becomes the basis of hypotheses formulation.

I do agree with Dr. Ian Kennedy. Thank you very much sir for your clarification.

Regards, Emad

Beryl hsu,

I also agreed with Dr Kundu. literature review is related to preparing conceptual foundation.

A literature review is a universal, essential, integral part of all qualitative, quantitative and mixed method research.

Is literature review a qualitative research method?

Literature review is not a qualitative research method.  Literature review is a prerequisite regardless whether you are embarking on a quantitative or qualitative research.  Typically a dissertation based on qualitative research includes the following sections:

Literature reviews is not a method, but a part of your dissertation or paper where, as other participants stated, you go through different papers and works about topic of your interest. Based on this review you build theoretical foundations for your hypothesis, research questions or interview questions and similar. Later in your discussion or conclusion parts you should also be able to refer to some points you wrote in your literature review. Reader of you literature review should be able to have an insight into what was written about the certain topic, what are the missing aspects and gaps in the literature and you should introduce your research with the aim to fulfill this gaps or to contribute to the overall knowledge on researched topic.

 I agree with Mr Adom's response that you may consider some documents, manual, notes etc. which you maybe found during your literature review or in any step of your research to be regarded as document analysis which ca be a part of data collection and analysis in the method part.  As for dissertation structure you should definitely refer to Mr Han Ping Fung's response.

Good luck with your work!

Meta Analysis may be  but literature review is about main part of your research work or dissertation and but If your research or dissertation is about critiquing theoretical literature on a given topic, in this case the literature review Can be considered in this case a fresh attempt rather than a research methodology

I agree with the aforementioned posts about the literature review being part of your study (theoretical framework etc,) as opposed to being a method itself. Your methodology sounds like a Delphi study to me. Is it? If so, the literature review is extremely important and should be rather lengthy too. Best of luck!

Dear Beryl

I agree with several of my colleagues. Literature review is not a research method. The interview to experts certainly is. The objective of developing a chapter devoted to literature review is to identify possible gaps. Your research goals are largely related to filling those gaps (if your contribution will be theoretical.) Subsequently, the selection of research methods is related to the tools that will serve to collect data and achieve your goals.

Later the review of the literature will serve you to contextualize your conclusions.

By the way, the phrase to be used is "research methods", not "methodology", since the methodology is the study of research methods.

Greetings and good luck in your research.

Jorge

A literature review is only ever a preparatory stage to theory development, although too often it appears to replace theoretical development. I would rather like to to see the concept of literature review dropped for a more scientifically rigorous idea of theoretical analysis. In most areas there is now such a voluminous quantity of literature one cannot begin do it justice. I would much rather people developed a clear theoretical perspective from which too select and then analyse a specific body of literature to test an hypothesis. This provides clarity and focus and an higher level of academic discipline rather than just reading around a lot of literature, which often produces a somewhat (intellectual) scatter-gun effect and direction-less work.

You are conducting the literature review in order to show your committee your command of the subject matter, to provide the background to your readers so that they can understand your study, and to develop and justify your study including its methods.  

If you were conducting a literature review in order to analyze it then it could be part of your study.  Your methodology would in this case probably be content analysis.  An example of this would be if you analyzed the literature for changes in methodology over time.

Nope!

The question is like asking "Are socks, shoes?" Nope. They are two different things but they go together well and the one fits nicely into the other. Indeed socks are important and necessary, just like a literature review. See Joyce Morris' response and I would add, not only does it show your command of the subject matter, it provides a synopsis of what is known about the subject, adapted to the level of thesis of course.

A literature review is not  a qualitative research method. It helps you to show the possible studies done so far in the field you are interested in and highlight the existing gaps in that area. Furthermore, it also help you to justify the purpose of your study and formulate possible hypotheses for your research. Good luck!!!

Literature review is just part of the process of building a context and basis for a research exercise and can not be considered as a qualitative research method. it is universal for and research undertaking...

I agree with all the experts who said that literature review is not a qualitative research method. A literature review is the first stage of research. It is used to learn what has been done in the  field in which a researcher wants to contribute.. Here is what we teach our students and scholars. The first task of the researcher is  to summarize the  researches done in the field of study. This leads to the second task . The second and most important  of the researcher is to determine the research gap, i.e., areas not covered in the extant literature. This can only be done if the researcher has thoroughly reviewed the literature previously.It is only after uncovering the research gap that a researcher can choose the area in which he can contribute.For example , I did two Major Research Projects  which were sponsored by the University Grants commission, New Delhi, India. While applying for both these projects In both these projects , I did a thorough literature review and uncovered the research gap. In my first project, "Change& Continuity in Student Radicalism"(2007-2009), I showed that no systematic research was done on student radicalism in the twenty-first century.In fact, in this study I compared by own findings of my Ph.d. thesis "Students & Radical social change"(1991) with that of the project and showed in the project report how there has been  change and continuity in student radicalism.Both these works have been published .(See Anirban Banerjee :"Students & Radical Social Change, The University of Burdwan,Burdwan  2003;Anirban Baerjee:"Change & continuity in student Radicalism ", Levant Books, Kolkata, 2015). In the mean time, I applied for the Indo-Hungarian Educational Exchange Programme in 2010.Here also I showed through a survey of literature that there was no research on student radicalism in contemporary Hungary. I was awarded project and went to Corvinus University in Hungary to do an exploratory study on student radicalism in Hungary.The study has now been published online . (See Anirban Banerjee:"student Radicalism in Hungary:A survey of Corvinus University Students " in Society Today :An Interdisciplinary Journal of Social Sciences) After the so called "paribartan" in which the Left Front government was ousted from power in West Bengal,(2011), student radicalism took a new turn .I showed through a review of literature that there is a research gap in the study of student radicalism and I was awarded the project. The project is now complete and is open to public viewing.(See Anirban Banerjee:"Student Radicalism in Post Left Bengal "  posted in Research Gate) .The main findings have also been published (See Anirban Banerjee:Student Radicalism:Post Left Bengal " in Rajasthan Journal of Sociology , Vol.8.2016). In one of my lectures to teacher participants of a Refresher Course , I taught them how to apply for a UGC Research Project .There I also laid emphasis on survey of literature .(See Anirban Banerjee:"Doing a UGC Project:A Guide For Researchers" in Samaj-Tattva , Vol.17.Issue 1.June 2011, also communicated online at academia.edu ) .The objective of this discussion is to show the utility of the review of literature. But review of literature is neither a qualitative nor a quatitative method of study.

ANIRBAN BANERJEE

Professor of Sociology,

The University of Burdwan

Golapbag, Burdwan 713104,

Burdwan (East)

West Bengal,

INDIA

Literature review is not really a methodology, it is a rather plodding exercise that can be both pointless and endless unless circumscribed by a disciplined theoretical framework and a clear methodology, both of which require a well thought out hypothesis, which brings one back to theory, again. Without that you do not know what you are looking for in your interviews or how to interpret what you find.

Would it not be a methodology if one conducted a historical review of biographies (auto) to juxtapose with government policy of the era then used information discovered to support intergenerational trauma of today?

I totally disagree with above responses. it is significant to understand in which context are we referring to literature review as one of the research method. Research methodology and design clarifies a plan of collecting data either qualitative or quantitative. Now, how will I go in the field and conduct actual research if I have not familiarise myself with what is written down about the theme that I research. Basically, I will start collecting written materials about the theme from various scholars. All those materials they will be gathered and regarded as raw, then I will have to analyse and interpret in line with my study to have a clear perspective before I go in the field. Such materials cannot just be readily available, meaning I have to collect hence I will regard literature review as one of the data collection tool. Finally, gathering literature does not end it takes place throughout research process!!!

@ Mxolisi Moyake  -- A literature review is always an unstated (and ongoing) part of your research. It is not reported under "Methods" unless you are only doing library research and for you then data = references.

The Literature review does however appear as an activity in your schedule of work, as an ongoing process, throughout your research project, whether you do library research or go and do lab or field research.

Dear Beryl Hsu,

I agree with scientists in this thread above me, however I have noticed that you said "more than a half of length of my dissertation is written about literature review".  That is something to think about? is that normal in your department? did you ask this question to find justification for the situation? Anyway in many departments is unacceptable to have 50%  literature of dissertation. You need probably to seek advice from close friend in your  department.

Good luck

Aly R Abdel-Moemin

Writing 'literature review' as a methodology for one's research is not necessary unless the work done is only a review-based study.

Many contributors have mentioned literature review as part of the process of expounding theory and developing hypothesis.  I just wanted to note two things.  First, that this is not the case in research taking more of an inductive approach.  In that context, the literature review situates the research question in the current body of knowledge and helps the researcher refine the question, but is not part of hypothesis development (indeed don't Glaser & Strauss recommend avoiding literature review before entering the field in Grounded Theory?)

Second, Beryl's question suggests to me that she might be looking in the literature for data similar to that from her 'expert interviews', after all, experts write.  So she may have two slightly different relationships with an existing body of knowledge: establishing where her research 'sits' (Literature Review); and investigating expert opinions that already exist on the topic of interest (literature as data - as people have mentioned 'library research').  She may choose to put these in different chapters to help the reader.

The Literature review is part of the process as you have to explain in your dissertation where you acquired the information from and  to state where the gaps are missing in the literature to balance out your research. Interviews may be part of your approach, but you have to review grounded research on your topic. That means you have to combine the classics with current information to present a wholesome paper or body of literature which is applicable to your study  when you defend your paper.

Hi Beryl,

As others have said, a literature review is not a research method. It is a review of the literature.

Take care to make these two things (methodology and literature review) distinct in your writing. It doesn't matter what proportion of your dissertation is methods or how much is literature review, as long as it makes sense in the context of the question you are exploring.

I would suggest keeping the two distinct and, in your findings or discussion, try to contrast and compare the two. How did the interview findings reflect the literature? Perhaps more importantly: in what ways were your interview findings different? And why might that be? Once you get it straight how these two things are different you can work out the overall narrative of the dissertation.

Best of luck,

Paul

Semantics aside, difficulty to look at review based studies as stand alone research seems to be side effect of the almost hegemonic subscription to positivism. Below given two pieces suggest that evidence based studies and synthesis studies have been accepted to be valid, stand alone (or as a component of a study) research for quite some time now.

Chalmers, I., Hedges, L. V., & Cooper, H. (2002). A brief history of research synthesis. Evaluation & the health professions, 25(1), 12-37.

Grant, M. J., & Booth, A. (2009). A typology of reviews: an analysis of 14 review types and associated methodologies. Health Information & Libraries Journal, 26(2), 91-108.

I agree with Ian.

A content analysis is a pure qualitative research method. It is a detailed and systematic examination of the contents of a specific material for identifying configurations or subjects. It is usually performed on different forms, e.g. communications, journals, books, reports, electronic and printed media and recorded human interactions.

This in fact happens at the stage of literature review!

I agree with what other colleagues have suggested. It becomes a method when you use documentary research as a method of collecting your data. See this: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.454.5260&rep=rep1&type=pdf

In order for a researcher to undertake a study, you need to know what has been done in that field. Literature review thus forms a foundation for your study. It enables you to understand the current situation and the ideal situation of a given context with respect to the problem. From the literature review you can then identify what has been done and what is left for you to study. You will definitely not study everything but identify a niche for your contribution. Literature review is a research tool applied in qualitative and quantitative approaches.

Actually no! Literature review is not qualitative research. A literature review surveys books, scholarly articles, and any other sources relevant to a particular issue, area of research, or theory, and by so doing, provides a description, summary, and critical evaluation of these works in relation to the research problem being investigated.

I think Gabriel Faimau Ylber Limani, Ashish and Peter Jackson actually understand your concerns better. It may be an issue of semantics, but analyzing the content of scientific publications on a topic can be considered as a method, depending on the research question you want to answer, and distinctly from the literature review that merely establishes a theoretical basis for your work. In practical terms, when examiners are evaluating your work, they will be scandalized if all this analysis is presented in your literature review chapter which will be disproportionately bloated and cause imbalances in your final presentation. I may therefore admit that such a review of literature, analysis of content, documentary review, or library research, etc. is part of your method. However, it is better to use the other terms so as to avoid the possible confusion.

Dear ,

First , do your analysis and then modify your literature review depending on the themes e,merging in the course of data analysis

Literature reviews can serve different purposes. In general, a literature review is necessary to identify a research gap. As a researcher you must refer to the research work done before in that particular domain and based on that you must justify why there is more research needed. In natural and social science, you use a literature review in addition to own ideas for building a hypothesis (see Bernard Nassiuma 's answer) which you validate later with your own empirical research results. In design and engineering science you use a literature review to support problem definition and formulation and again to prove that there is a research gap.

You can do a literature review intuitively exploratory or systematically. A systematic literature analysis (as suggested for example by Webster+Watson or Kitchenham) is recommended if you have a clear question in mind. Doing a systematic literature analysis needs rigorous and consistent documentation of your research process. Outcome of your systematic literature review is a quantitative description of the literature identified and a qualitative description of the concepts and their interrelations. You may use some text analysis method for identifying concepts or categories for your model (qualitative) and count the frequency within text (quantitative) to indicate the relevance in the literature examined. In some cases systematic literature reviews are used to document the state of research in a certain field by quantifying the research papers related to a certain topic and identify most important contributors, problems, timely development and so on ..

Literature review can be a methodology itself but I don't think it is your case as you are doing it as part of the process of constructing your thesis.

We use literature review as methodology when it has an objetive in itself. We can do an integrative review, a qualitative systematic review and many others.

Regarding systematic review see for example: https://wiki.joannabriggs.org/display/MANUAL/Joanna+Briggs+Institute+Reviewer's+Manual

Regarding Integrative review, see for example:

Article Integrative Review: Concepts And Methods Used In Nursing

I believe that the answer provided by Cassia Baldini Soares is the most accurate. Literature reviews are qualitative when used as a research method or design. However, a research paper that is either qualitative or quantitative can have a literature review that addresses a specific research gap.

interesse

Considering the steps within the literature review process, one could say that a literature review is more of a qualitative method than quantitative. This is because of the steps below:

• Create a broad research idea
• Perform the search for related literature
• Apply a selection criteria base on pre-define attributes (e.g. language, period of publication, etc.)
• Select literature which meets the criteria
• Review the selected literature.

All the listed steps above are qualitative.

However, some researchers prefer to do a systematic review and content analysis which they also term as literature review. Where this is the case, some additional steps for the content analysis (e.g. meta analysis of target population, application of some statistical techniques, etc.) may be applied. In this case the method for the literature review becomes both qualitative and quantitative.

no. literature review cant be part of your methodology section as others have suggested.

I think the question below may help bring some clarity to this topic:

"What is the difference between a research paper and a review paper?"

It dependes on the type of literatura review. If it has a level of systematization some authors consider as an empirical study. Take a look on Article A typology of reviews: An analysis of 14 review types and as...

Literature review can not be seen as a qualitative research method. We do literature review to keep abreast with existing knowledge available in respective areas of focus and research methodologies used. it is a basis of research. This can apply to both qualitative and quantitative research paradigms.

indeed literature review in certain situations can be the distinct research method depending on the topic regardless of whether the research is quantitative or qualitative.

Neither literature review or interview is research method. Interview schedule is a research instrument used for data collection. If literature review has been used to answer some research questions, then it can be regarded as one of research instruments just like interview schedule. Your study seems to have used qualitative research approach, using interview schedule and literature as research instruments. My take.

Library Research:

(i) Analysis of historical recording of notes..., etc.

(ii) Analysis of documents..., etc.

Represent pure qualitative research method (literature review)

Baraka An approach is not a method. Qualitative is a group of methods. What do you consider a method?

It would be better if you wrote your research question (s)?

In any academic research, review of related literature usually serve as a basis upon which lacuna to be filled is identified by the researcher. In the light of this, both theoretical and empirical information are accessible under literature review. However, literature review is not a qualitative method but fundamental and pertinent position in research process. In terms of research instruments, we have both qualitative-key informant interview (KII), Observation, Indepth interview etc and quatitative-questionnaire. In conclusion, literature review is not a qualitative research method but an approach in research process

It can be a data collection tool. Here you have a) an image that you can use to represent your data collection process and data analysis process for the literature review, b) a quotation that explains how to state the lit. review as a data collection tool, and c) the link where this information was obtained, therefore you can search deeper.

a) image attached

b) "Therefore, the information that the literature reviewer collects to inform a literature review represents data. Thus, it stands to reason that the literature review process can be viewed as a data collection tool—that is, as a means of collecting a body of information pertinent to a topic of interest. As a data collection tool, the literature review involves activities such as identifying, recording, understanding, meaning-making, and transmitting information" read more and get ideas on how to support that the Literature review is another data collection tool.

c) https://study.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/Onwuegbuzie%20%26%20Frels.pdf

Article Literature review as a research methodology: An overview and...

I thought you confused the terminology in your question. I am late with the journal because your question was two years ago. At least the journal can help future researchers that may have the same question. :)