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How to Read and Comprehend Scientific Research Articles

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Paragraph Structure Review- Research Paper

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Q. What's the difference between a research article and a review article? - LibAnswers

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Review articles, sometimes called literature reviews or secondary sources, synthesize or analyze research already conducted in primary sources. They generally summarize the current state of research on a given topic.

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Your trustworthy essay writing service | Homeworkfor.me

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If you need cheap essays or other assignments, you have found the best place to get help. With Homeworkfor.me, you will get high-quality and timely help. Trust us with your grades, and we won't let you down!

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Chapter 3

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Chp 3 Poor English language proficiency and its impact on fresh graduates’ employability rate in Mala

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Chapter 1 & 2

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Poor English language proficiency and its impact on fresh graduates' employibility rate in Mala

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Viva voce, or simply called viva, is the most anticipated stage of your research postgraduate study because this is the stage where you will defend your research work under the intense scrutiny of several examiners, which may include examiners from outside your university, even from overseas universities. These examiners will determine if your work is credible, important, scientifically robust, and worth the level of your study (Master or PhD). Most of all, your examiners will determine if your research have adequately extended the frontier of knowledge.

A successful viva is the final major hurdle of your postgraduate study, after which, and providing you do all the corrections as recommended by the examiners, you will at long last be awarded the coveted Master or PhD degree.

Viva is an oral examination different from a written or take-home exam where for the latter, you can delay or research further before answering any difficult questions. In your viva, however, you have no such options. Consequently, you must thoroughly understand your work and be able to convince to your examiners on your expertise, confidence, intelligence, competency, and maturity in your research work.

There is no universal operating procedure for conducting a viva. Different universities will conduct their viva differently, but regardless of the exact viva procedure in your university, you will find that all universities share several commonalities with one another in several respects. Your viva will have examiners who will critically examine your work. Your viva will require you to do a short oral presentation of your research prior to your examination. And most importantly, the criteria on what determines a successful viva candidate are very similar across all universities.

I have been a university lecturer at Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) for many years and have participated in many vivas. My postgraduate students too have undergone their vivas, and I am glad to report none of my students under my main supervision have faltered in their vivas. All of them have successfully graduated.

This blog article is to share my experience with you on how to prepare and survive your viva in local Malaysian universities.

Your internal and external examiners

There are two types of examiners: internal and external. Internal examiners are people from within your university, whereas external are those from outside your university. External examiners can also be from a foreign university. Some universities make it mandatory that external examiners be those who are attached with a foreign university, whereas some are more flexible: allowing external examiners to be appointed from another local university.

For my university, UPM, Master's students will have one internal examiner and one external examiner, where the external examiner can either be from a local or foreign university. For PhD students, they will have two internal examiners and one external examiner, and the external examiner must only be from a foreign university. Your main supervisor selects your viva committee, but the final selection requires approval from the faculty level, then the university graduate school before formal appointments can be made.

To succeed in your viva, you must convince your examiners that: 1) your thesis is your own work (plagiarism and data fabrication are very serious offenses that can return to haunt you even years after your graduation), 2) you understand what you have done and written, 3) you are aware where your work sits in relation to the wider research field, 4) your work is of sufficiently high standard (in terms of scientific rigor and writing maturity), and 5) you can defend your work in response to the examiners' questions.

What some students fail to fully realize is your examiners will evaluate your research strictly based on your written thesis and face-to-face interaction (question and answer) with you during your viva. Your examiners will not contact you or any members of your supervisory committee prior to your viva to obtain further explanation or to clear up any confusion about your work.

What this means is your thesis must robust enough as a standalone defense that adequately explains the problem and justification of your work, the purpose of your work, how you carried out your work to meet your work's objectives, your results and interpretation of those results, and the significance of your work to the body of knowledge, as well as to the society.

Consequently, do not submit a shoddily prepared thesis, thinking you would be able to explain any shortcomings or confusions during your viva. Your examiners, reading your shoddy thesis, will not be kind in their evaluation of your work. I have witnessed such students who, because they were in a hurry to return home, submitted a shoddy thesis, only to almost fail their viva. One PhD candidate, ignoring my warning that his thesis was not ready, still submitted his subpar thesis. Unsurprisingly, his viva committee was merciless in their evaluation of his work. Although he was very, very fortunate to receive an "Accepted with Major Revisions" outcome from his viva committee, he, at the end, still failed his PhD because he was unable to make the corrections as demanded by his viva committee. His required thesis corrections were just too much for him to handle, as they would require a deep overhaul of his work methodology, analysis, and reinterpretation of results.

Some universities make it a confidential affair on the appointment of your viva examiners. But if your university allows even you to suggest possible candidates to be your examiners-or if the appointment of your viva committee is not confidential, then I recommend that you find out as much as you can about the research background and the current research of your examiners.

Read up on the publications of your examiners (even if they are not directly related to your work) to determine their research interests. This will help you anticipate the kind of questions your examiners would likely ask you. Finding out their research interests would also help you identify specific areas in your work that would strongly draw interest from your examiners; thus, these areas would likely be more rigorously examined by them.

Are external examiners more critical or stricter than internal examiners? Not always. Internal examiners can examine your work in a more rigorous manner than your external examiners. But do not be surprised, if during your viva, you find that it is the other way around. In other words, treat both your internal and external examiners as equals, that no one is automatically more lenient or stricter simply on the basis of being appointed as the internal or external member in your viva committee.

Lastly, you should not contact any of your examiners before your viva such as to get tips or hints on their questions or even to get their overall impression on your work.

Your oral presentation

Just before the Q & A (question and answer) session begins in your viva, you will be required to make an oral presentation in front of your viva committee for usually 20 to 30 minutes.

The purpose of this oral presentation is to highlight the problem and justification of your work, the objectives of study, how your work was conducted (methodology), key findings and your interpretation of them, and finally, the conclusions.

Keep your oral presentation to the allocated time. Do not exceed the time, or try to speak fast (or flash the slides forward too fast for the examiners to read) just to keep your presentation within the time. As a rule of thumb, one slide takes an average of one minute to present, so a 20-minute presentation means you need no more than 20 slides in total. As usual, practice your presentation prior to your viva, preferably also in front of your supervisory committee to obtain their feedback.

You do not have to present all your findings in this oral presentation, merely the key findings or those that are most important and interesting. There is no need to have a separate literature review section in your presentation but to incorporate this section as you discuss your results. For instance, as you present your study's results, you can cite references or discuss previous studies that support your results and your interpretation of them.

One common mistake among postgraduate students is to present the conclusion of their study as if it is a summary or an abstract. The conclusion section is the "take home message" from your work. One way to present a conclusion section during your viva is to imagine trying to succinctly answer a news reporter on live TV who is sticking a microphone at your mouth and asking you, "What did you find out, and why should we care?"

Although examiners often wait until you have finished your oral presentation before asking you any questions, some examiners may interrupt you to seek further clarification or give their comments on any of your slides. Expect to be interrupted during your presentation; there are no rules that examiners must stay quiet during your oral presentation.

Know your thesis, Please

The days leading up to your viva date are crucial. Use this time to mentally prepare yourself and to reacquaint yourself with your own thesis.

I find it irritating when viva candidates sometimes behave as if their thesis had been written by someone else. These candidates, for instance, forget about what they had written or forget the location of some text excerpt, equation, figure, table, or chart in their thesis.

Some viva candidates even become surprised by what they had written or become perplexed by their own written explanation in their thesis.

Of course, no one expects you to have a photographic memory of your thesis, but at least, please be aware of what you have written and generally know what is located where in your thesis. Of all people, you the author of your thesis should be most familiar with your own written word!

Supporting documents and note-taking

Bring your notebook (laptop) into the viva room. Ensure your notebook contains all the necessary supporting documents (such as photos of your work or results, articles, saved web sites, etc.). Depending on where the discussion leads to during your viva, you might find it most useful to show one or more of your saved supporting documents to your examiners.

Other than your laptop, you should also bring a pen and scratchpad for taking down comments, suggestions, and corrections from your examiners. Your notes will ensure you do not inadvertently forget any corrections or improvements your examiners want you to do for your thesis. Even if you have an outstanding memory capacity, jot down the comments from your examiners to at least show them that you are treating their comments as important and useful.

Question and answer (Q & A)

Whatever questions your examiners ask you, their questions are intended to evaluate you based on the following nine main areas:

1. Is the problem of study clear and important?

2. Are the study's objectives clear, achievable, and sufficient?

3. Are the methods used sufficient?

4. Are the results clear, sufficient, and important?

5. Can the results be explained clearly and sufficiently?

6. Have the study's objectives been achieved?

7. Is the scientific work robust/rigorous?

8. Is the level of work sufficient for the awarded degree?

9. Are the presentation of work and writing in thesis adequate?

In other words, to pass your viva, your examiners must be convinced by the following:

1. that your research problems are clearly identified and important

2. that your research objectives are adequate and correct

3. that you have used the correct methodologies

4. that you have correctly interpreted your results

5. that your research objectives have been achieved

6. that your research scope and workload are sufficient for your awarded degree

7. that the presentation of work in your thesis is clear, understandable, correct, accurate, professional, and follow all formatting guidelines

8. that your work is original

Anticipate the questions your examiners could ask you. Be honest with yourself. Identify weaknesses in your study and prepare good answers on why and how these weaknesses exist. No research is perfect, but it is important to identify the weaknesses in your research and understand how they impact the validity of your work.

Examine your research methodology. Why did you use this particular method to measure a given parameter? Why this particular method and not another, for example? Why did you design your experiment in such a way? Justify your research design, even if it was based on an accepted or standard method. Deeply understand your methodology, in particular of your statistical analysis and design. Why the large error bars?

Examine your research results too. Do your results make sense, and are your results dependable? Can you explain the observed trends in a scientifically robust manner? Do your results agree with previous studies? If not, can you explain why? And how do your results answer your research objectives?

If you have published any papers about your research during your postgraduate study, consult the feedback from your paper reviewers or referees. Their feedback is immensely useful because these are the types of questions, comments, criticisms, and suggestions you could be asked during your viva too.

As discussed earlier, knowing who are your examiners will be beneficial to you, so you can better anticipate their questions and pinpoint areas in your work that would likely be more intensely examined.

How to receive questions and answer them

The mood during your viva is extremely important. You want a cordial, diplomatic, and conducive viva environment. You want a discussion but not a heated one.

Some viva candidates can adopt a "siege mentality" especially under the intense questioning by their examiners. So, these viva candidates become confrontational, angry, or impatient at their examiners. But even examiners cannot entirely be faultless. Some examiners, due to their personalities, can appear aggressive, authoritarian, or confrontational, even if that was not their intention. If you encounter such a personality, relax. Do not be offended or become confrontational; you will only make things worse for yourself. Instead, take a relaxed, thoughtful, and non-confrontational response to such personalities, and you will often find the viva discussion rebalances itself back into a more diplomatic tone.

Be confident, eager, and enjoy the opportunity to share your work to the examiners. Receive any questions gladly, without being defensive or offended. Do not rush to answer the questions, but take time to consider before answering. Do not take any criticism, comments, suggestions, or feedback about your work as a personal attack. No research, even if carried out by a world-renowned scientist, is free of weaknesses or faults. No research is perfect or complete such that no more suggestions can be offered to improve it.

Realize that your examiners, rather than being your taskmasters or saboteurs, are actually your impartial evaluators to help improve your research work. You will find that your examiners' comments, criticisms, and suggestions will add value to your work. Your examiners can give you a deeper insight of your work or make you realize of other possibilities that could explain your research results. Your examiners may offer suggestions of additional or more detailed data analysis that add value to your research.

If you do not know the answer to a question, it is best that you just admit it - but then still try to answer it based on your most intelligent guess. Your examiners will respect your effort. Avoid lying, being evasive, or "talking in circles".

If you have difficulty answering any question, avoid blaming the whole world and everyone else except yourself. Avoid blaming your supervisors, university, data, resources, or situation. You need to show competency, intelligence, and maturity in your work. So, merely blaming others or your situation for your work difficulties, especially without showing sufficient problem-solving efforts, will not reflect kindly on you.

Also avoid giving common excuses like "this is beyond the scope of my study", "this problem occurs in all studies", or "it's like that" without first giving a convincing argument to support such excuses.

Handle misunderstandings or misinterpretations

So, what happens if you think your examiners have misinterpreted or misunderstood your work? Do not be so quick to blame your examiners. You need to ask yourself first: "Was my explanation clear in my thesis?" Some misunderstandings or misinterpretations can occur due to unclear, misleading, or even missing explanations on your part. You of course did not intend it as such, but before blaming your examiners, you need to re-look at your thesis to evaluate if their misunderstandings or misinterpretations were caused by you.

Of course, your examiners are not perfect. Your examiners may misunderstand some aspects of your work due to their careless reading or simply because of their absent mindedness. This can happen if they are reading a thesis on a large, multi-faceted research work. Your examiners often do not read your thesis in a single continuous session. They may, for instance, have read your chapters 1 to 3 two weeks ago, chapter 4 one week ago, and only complete reading your thesis this week. Some facts you had earlier written could have been forgotten by the examiners.

Whoever fault it is, it is important to explain well to your examiners to clear up any misunderstandings or misinterpretations. If your writing was indeed unclear, then merely explain you would rewrite that section of text. If your examiners had read your work wrong, then kindly explain their mistake.

Outcome of your viva

Your examiners will complete their evaluation of your thesis and your ability to defend your work and then decide to give you one of the following viva outcomes: 1) Accepted with distinction, 2) Accepted with minor modifications, 3) Accepted with major modifications, 4) Oral re-examination (Re-viva voce), 5) Re-submission of thesis, 6) Re-submission of a PhD thesis as a Master's, or 7) Fail/reject.

Different universities will have slightly different viva outcomes than that presented here. One local Malaysian university has an additional viva outcome: Accepted with moderate modifications.

Whatever the set of viva outcome your university offers, you must aim for either viva outcomes (1), (2), or (3). It is important that your viva receives the "Accepted" outcome. This means there are only corrections to be done on your thesis before you would be awarded your degree (provided of course you satisfactorily do the corrections according to the examiners' recommendations). You need to consult your university on the exact definition for each of the viva outcome, and I would not discuss them here.

All other viva outcomes ( i.e., those without the "Accepted" outcome) are bad, really bad, because they involve a very major re-work of your study and a re-sit of your viva. It could also mean a downgrade of the offered degree (instead of a PhD, you would be awarded a Master for your work) or, the worst outcome, you fail.

If your viva is one of those with the "Accepted" outcome, you would be given some time to make the corrections. Again, consult your university on exactly the time limit given ( i.e., different universities set different time limits). Stay within the time limit given to make your corrections.

Do not pick and choose which corrections to do - all recommended corrections must be done. Read the examiners' reports for the list of corrections to make, as well as check the examiners' copies of your thesis. The latter is because your examiners will also write along the margins inside your thesis on the corrections you need to do.

You can see or contact any of your examiners to resolve issues like contradictory corrections suggested by two or more examiners or unclear corrections or comments. If you disagree with the corrections, you need to give your reasons for your disagreement, but again, as discussed earlier, you need to ask yourself first if your writing, explanation, or presentation was unclear, leading to that misunderstanding.

Failing your viva - but only if you want to!

You might be surprised to learn that failing your viva is actually pretty difficult - unless you intentionally, ill-advisedly, or recklessly want to.

Before you even submit your thesis for examination, your supervisors must collectively agree that your thesis and research work are able to hold up to the intense scrutiny of your viva. In other words, you only head into your viva with your supervisory committee's blessings. If they feel your research work are not up to the standard of your degree, you would not be given their permission to head into your viva.

So, do not "arm-twist" or "emotionally blackmail" your supervisory committee into letting you head into your viva despite their objections or reservations about your viva readiness. Unfortunately, there are some problematic or stubborn viva candidates who do this: for whatever reasons, adamantly convince their supervisory committee to allow them to head into their viva - and this is where these viva candidates face a torrid time during their viva, with some even failing or unable to make the recommended corrections.

But for most postgraduate students, their viva, though nerve-wrecking, often left a good memorable experience because their vivas had allowed them to share and discuss their work with their examiners in a cordial and professional manner.

It is normal to be nervous going into your viva. But your nerves are good. They keep you alert and ready for questions coming your way. As you grow in confidence during your viva, you will find yourself relax and even enjoy the discussions about your work.

interview with one viva student

To end my article, here's a brief and simple video interview with one of my Master's student, Abba Nabayi, who recently went for his viva on April 5, 2016 at Uni. Putra Malaysia.

The following video is just prior and after Abba's viva.

References

1. "How to defend your dissertation" video series by Dr. Marche

2. "Your viva voce exam" by Uni. of Leicester

3. "The viva voce exam" by Uni. of Sheffield

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Preparing and surviving your Master's or PhD's viva voce (oral exam) in Malaysian universities - Christopher Teh

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Viva voce, or simply called viva, is the most anticipated stage of your research postgraduate study because this is the stage where you will defend your research work under the intense scrutiny of several examiners, which may include examiners from outside your university, even from overseas universities.

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Current Issues in Hospitality and Tourism

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Globally the hospitality and tourism industry is evolving and undergoing radical changes. The past practices are now advancing through the rapid development of knowledge and skills acquired to adapt and create innovations in various ways. Hence, it is imperative that we have an understanding of the present issues so that we are able to remedy problems on the horizon.

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FAZLEEN NOORHUDA BINTI ABDUL MAJID 05 24

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Academia.edu is a platform for academics to share research papers.

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LibGuides: English 101 (Roth): Outline & Thesis Statement

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LibGuides: English 101 (Roth): Outline & Thesis Statement

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LibGuides: How to Write a Good Essay: Step 3: Form a Thesis & Essay Outline

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LibGuides: How to Write a Good Essay: Step 3: Form a Thesis & Essay Outline

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Research Guides: Research Process: A Step-by-Step Guide: 4b. Outline the Paper

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Research Guides: Research Process: A Step-by-Step Guide: 4b. Outline the Paper

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how to write an outline for your research paper

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How to create an outline for your research paper

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What is the first step of research paper writing? Preparing an outline for the paper. If you have a research outline ready before writing, you will be able to effectively organize and present all the information and ideas you collected during your research.

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Writing and Introduction to a Research Paper

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Writing an Introduction to a Research Paper

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Introduction Paragraph:How to write a perfect introduction

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Introduction Paragraph: How to Write a Perfect Introduction Paragraph for Your Essay

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How to write a literature review

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How to write literature review like a pro

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Working on a dissertation or any other writing assignment is not only about finding useful sources; it is a complex and tiring process. One will not be able to write a good literature review without studying and analyzing the material. This process takes a lot of time and efforts from the student. The one will have to consecrate information on the research topic collected within your scientific area.

How to write a literature review for a dissertation, scientific article, any another assignment so that it covers all aspects of your research and is compliant with all writing requirements? It is easy. Literature review writing will not be a problem for you if you have ever worked on similar tasks. However, due to strict requirements for postgraduate scientific works and literature review format, students have many questions concerning principles of writing and the main rules to be followed. These should be cleared out.

If you want to know everything about literature review writing - from assignment description to effective approaches of handling the task, keep reading the post. We will answer all your questions and provide you with an example of how a winning literature review should look like.

What Is a Literature Review?

What is a literature review; how to work on a task; what are prerequisites to a good paper? A literature review is a document that reflects the degree of student's knowing the subject of research. This piece of writing introduces the degree of its relevance, points to strengths and weaknesses of the problem being under study. It is all-in-one information source. Researching on literature and analyzing relevant materials is undoubtedly the most difficult stage of writing a dissertation. That's why it is important to follow checklist and work on a task step by step.

If you do not have a dissertation writing strategy to use, we have a plan of action that will ease the writing process:

Prepare a full description of turning points to the development of scientific thought within the framework of the chosen study, its areas;

Identify the "area" of your research in relation to other scientific fields;

Make critical analysis of findings of predecessors on the selected problem;

Prepare full summary of specific tasks / elaborate a plan for their solution.

Literature review is an important part of the dissertation or any other academic assignment requiring both literature and scientific research. It is an important part being evaluated first. Based on how you manage literature review writing, members of the higher attestation commission can evaluate how effectively you have coped with the problem and whether you have found a way to solve it.

There are no rules on what literature and material to use as sources in your paper. The popular majority of students use information from latest journal publications, abstracts, and online books that relate to the topic being under study. The main idea behind using scientific literature is developing a thesis statement with references to publications and researchers.

Use sources smartly. In order to most select sources for literature review conveniently and effectively, pay special attention to:

electronic libraries;

electronic catalogs / repositories;

databases with scientific publications;

scientometric databases.

Virtually all above resources have an option of advanced search, which will help you find researched information efficiently.

How to Make Things Easier?

Literature review writing is a laborious process; it requires a lot of time, an all-out effort, in-depth understanding of the topic, analytical thinking. If you lack anything from the above list, the risk of you accomplishing poor literature review is high. It is impossible to become a writing guru overnight. However, having a plan and following it step-by-step can make things easier.

Having developed an in-depth plan, you will not only spend less time collecting material but also will be able to qualitatively complete this work. Apart from the number of sources, a literature review plan should reflect the following criteria:

The nature of sources (analytical/ comparative);

The size of the current paper;

A precise wording of the topic that will narrow the circle of your search for the right sources;

Terms of paper registration, which should comply with all requirements.

To write a good literature review, it is important to decide on your plan of action. It should be a guide to collecting the necessary information that is to cover every single aspect of your project.

General Recommendations for Literature Review Writing

A prerequisite to preparing a good literature review is to write an informative intro with a smooth transition to the topic of the paper revealed within the paper body. You should select the main message and form it in a thesis statement. Besides, a conclusion is a "must have." In it, you will once again return to words of the introduction and summarize analyzed material.

When working with sources, pay attention to a commonality of authors' views on the problem, the lack of accurate information about something that will be useful to you. Try to fill out the gap with info searched for in other sources. Working with literature, you should give a good assessment of the source in terms of its relevance, accuracy, and evidence of the author's arguments. Otherwise, there is no sense in referring to the source.

When drafting the paper, do not plagiarise, but use your words. After writing the work, make sure that all the requirements in terms of paper structure, format, and contents are met. Pay attention to the logic within the text structure and smoothness of transitions from one paragraph to another. It is necessary to exclude from the final text jargon vocabulary and unknown terminology.

Use a Literature Review Example as a Source of Inspiration

If you find it difficult to write a literature review yourself, you have two options - order it from professional writers / get inspired by works of review writing gurus. Finding a literature review example is an effective approach to coping with the task. By studying works of other students, you can feel the format and style of a paper without paying a dime for it. Taking a look at works of professional writers, you can extend your scientific vocabulary and elaborate your own writing style. Use this opportunity.

There are thousands of online sources where you can find masterfully crafted literature reviews. No matter what topic you need to cover in your work, you will have plenty of samples to get inspiration from. Do not lose time! Start googling for a literature review example right now!

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Literature Review Writing - Become a Guru Overnight

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Working on a dissertation or any other writing assignment is not only about finding useful sources; it is a complex and tiring process. One will not be able to write a good literature review without studying and analyzing the material. This process takes a lot of time and efforts from the student.

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What is a literature review?

A literature review is an objective, concise, critical summary of published research literature relevant to a topic being researched in an article.

What the literature review does NOT do:

It does NOT reference and list all of the material you have cited in your paper.

Presenting material that is not directly relevant to your study will distract and frustrate the reader and make them lose sight of the purpose of your study.

Starting a literature review with "A number of scholars have studied the relationship between X and Y" and simply listing who has studied the topic and what each scholar concluded is not going to strengthen your paper.

A good literature review WILL:

Present a brief typology that orders articles and books into groups to help readers focus on unresolved debates, inconsistencies, tensions, and new questions about this research

Summarize the most relevant and important aspects of the scientific literature related to your area of research

Synthesize what has been done in this area of research and by whom, highlight what previous research indicates about a topic, and identify potential gaps and areas of disagreement in the field

Give the reader an understanding of the background of the field and show which studies are important-and perhaps highlight previous studies that contain errors.

Building Your Literature Review Bookshelf

One way to conceive of a literature review is to think about writing it as you would build a bookshelf. You don't need to cut each piece by yourself from scratch. Rather, you can take the pieces that other researchers have "cut" and put them together to build a framework on which to hang your own "books"-that is, your own study methods, results, and conclusions.

What does a good literature review contain?

The contents of a literature review are determined by many factors, including its precise purpose in the document, the degree of consensus with a given theory or tension between competing theories, the length of the article, the amount of previous studies existing in the given field, etc. The following are some of the most important elements that a literature provides.

A historical background for your research: Analyze what has been written about your field of research to highlight what is new and significant in your study-or how the analysis itself contributes to the understanding of this field, even in a small way. Providing historical background also demonstrates to other researchers and journal editors your competency in discussing theoretical concepts.

Current context in which your research is situated: Discuss central (or peripheral) questions, issues, and debates in the field. Because a field is constantly being updated via new work, you can show where your research fits into this context and explain developments and trends in research.

Discussion of relevant theories and concepts that provide the foundation for your research: For example, if you are researching the relationship between the ecological environment and human population in that environment, provide models and theories that focus on specific aspects of this connection to contextualize your study. If your study asks a question concerning sustainability, mention a theory or model that underpins this concept. If it concerns invasive species, choose material that is focused in this direction.

Introduce and define relevant terminology: In the natural sciences, the meaning of terms is relatively stable and straightforward. But if you present a term that is obscure or context-specific in a study, you should define the meaning of the term in the Introduction section (if you are introducing a study) or in the summaries of the given literature being reviewed.

Describe related research and show how your work expands or challenges this research or works to fill in gaps in the previous work: You can use the literature review as evidence of what works, what doesn't, and what is missing in the field.

Provide supporting evidence for a practical problem or issue that your research is addressing, showing its importance: Referencing related research establishes your area of research as reputable and shows you are building upon previous work that other researchers have deemed significant.

Types of Literature Reviews

Literature reviews can differ in structure, length, and amount and breadth of content included. They can range from the selective (a very narrow area of research or only a single work) to the comprehensive (a larger amount or range of works).

They can also exist as part of a larger work or stand on their own.

A course assignment is an example of a selective, stand-alone work. It focuses on a small segment of the literature on a topic and makes up an entire work on its own.

The literature review in a dissertation or thesis is both comprehensive and helps make up a larger work.

A majority of journal articles start with a selective literature review to provide context for research reported in the manuscript, which is the broader work for which the literature gives context; the literature review is often included in the introduction.

Some literature reviews are both comprehensive and stand as a separate work-the entire article analyzes the literature on a given topic.

Literature Reviews Found in Journals

The two types of literature reviews commonly found in journals are those introducing research articles (studies and surveys) and stand-alone literature analyses. They can differ in their scope, length, and specific purpose.

Literature Reviews Introducing Research Articles

The literature review found at the beginning of a journal article is used to introduce research related to the specific study and is found in the Introduction section, usually near the end. It is shorter than a stand-alone review because it must limit its scope to very specific studies and theories that are directly relevant to this study. Its purpose is to set research precedence and provide support for the study's theory, methods, results, and/or conclusions. Not all research articles contain an explicit review of the literature, but many do, whether it is a discrete section or indistinguishable from the rest of the Introduction.

The structure of a literature review for an article

When a literature review exists as part of an introduction to a study, it follows the structure of the Introduction itself and moves from the general to the specific-presenting the broadest background information about a topic first and then moving to specific studies that support your study, finally leading to your hypothesis statement. The literature is often indistinguishable from the Introduction itself-the literature is INTRODUCING the background and defining the gaps your study aims to fill.

The Stand-Alone Literature Review

The literature review published as its own article presents and analyzes as many of the important texts in an area of study as possible to provide background information and context for a current area of research or a study. Stand-alone reviews are an excellent resource for researchers when they are first searching for the most relevant information on an area of study.

These literature reviews are generally a bit broader in scope and can extend further back in time. This means that sometimes a scientific literature review can be highly theoretical, in addition to focusing on specific methods and outcomes of previous studies. In addition, all of its sections refer to the literature rather than detailing a current study.

In addition, this type of literature review is usually much longer than the literature review introducing a study. At the end of the review is a conclusion that once again explicitly ties all of these works together to show how this analysis is itself a contribution to the literature.

Steps for Writing Your Literature Review

So how do authors turn a network of articles into a coherent review of relevant literature?

It is not usually a linear process-authors often to go back and check the literature while reformulating their ideas. This also means you will not be writing the literature review at any one time, but constantly working on it before, during, and after your study is complete.

Here are some steps that will help you begin and follow through on your literature review.

Step 1: Choose a topic to write about-focus on and explore this topic.

Choose a topic that you are familiar with and highly interested in analyzing; a topic your intended readers and researchers will find interesting and useful; and a topic that is current, well-established in the field, and about which there has been sufficient research conducted for a review. This will help you find the "sweet spot" for what to focus on.

Step 2: Research and collect all of the scholarly information on the topic that might be pertinent to your study.

This includes scholarly articles, books, conventions, conferences, dissertations and theses-these and any other academic work related to your area of study is called "the literature."

Step 3: Analyze the network of information that extends or responds to the major works in your area; select the material that is most useful. Use thought maps and charts to identify intersections in the research and to outline important categories; select the material that will be most useful to you review.

Step 4: Describe and summarize each article-provide the essential information of the article that pertains to your study.

Determine 2-3 important concepts (depending on the length of your article) that are discussed in the literature; take notes about all of the important aspects of this study relevant to your topic being reviewed.

For example, in a given study, perhaps some of the main concepts are X, Y, and Z. Note these concepts and then write a brief summary about how the article incorporates them. In reviews that introduce a study, these can be relatively short. In stand-alone reviews, there may be significantly more texts and more concepts.

Step 5: Demonstrate how these concepts in the literature relate to what you discovered in your study or how the literature connects the concepts or topics being discussed.

In a literature review intro for an article, this information might include a summary of the results or methods of previous studies that correspond and/or confirm to those sections in your own study. For a stand-alone literature review, this may mean highlighting the concepts in each article and showing how they strengthen a hypothesis or show a pattern.

Discuss unaddressed issues in previous studies. These studies that are missing something you address are important to include in your literature review. In addition, those works whose theories and conclusions directly support your findings will be valuable to review here.

Step 6: Identify relationships in the literature and develop and connect your own ideas to them-this is essentially the same as step 5, but focused on the connections between the literature and the current study or guiding concepts or arguments of the paper, not only on the connections between the works themselves.

Your hypothesis, argument, or guiding concept is the "golden thread" that will ultimately tie the works together and provide readers the importance they wouldn't have had outside of your literature review.

Your review will not only cover publications on your topics, but will include your own ideas and contributions. By following these steps you will be telling the specific story that sets the background and shows the significance of your research and you can turn a network of related works into a focused review of the literature.

In addition to these guidelines, authors can also learn what is important to include in a literature review by reading as many of them as possible. The more reviews one reads in the context of an article, the better one understands the specific demands for literature in a given study.

Wordvice Resources

Additional Resources

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A literature review is an objective, concise, critical summary of published research literature relevant to a topic being researched in an article. It does NOT reference and list all of the material you have cited in your paper.

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Why should we care about research design? | What makes a strong research proposal? | 10 steps to good research design | Writing your dissertation, thesis or grant application | Further reading |

Watch the video

You can watch the video of a lecture I gave as part of the APECS Webinar series here:

Ten Steps to Good Research Design from APECS Webinars on Vimeo.

Why should we care about research design?

If you're an undergraduate or masters student, you will need to undertake a significant piece of independent study. Your dissertation will form a large part of your degree, and it is important that it is correctly put together. Your dissertation or piece of independent research has important added value and has many 'learning outcomes'. No matter what you go on to do in your later career, being able to put together a proposal, argue its merits, and design a project, will be valuable skills that you are likely to rely on.

PhD students should consider research design early in their first year. The way that you design and plan your research will have significant implications for the success of your project. Although you will probably write the introduction to your thesis last, a well-designed research project should first work through these steps right from the start.

You may also be writing small grant proposals for awards and fellowships to attend conferences or pay for fieldwork. Nowadays, grant writing is a significant part of my job, and I spend a lot of time writing applications for money. So, good research design is important and a vital part of your skills toolbox, and a few successful small grants on your CV is a must for anyone considering an academic career.

The scientific methodology that you use underpins your entire project, and flawed assumptions or a flawed methodology will result in a questionable integrity of your results. Poor scientific methodology can also mean that you are liable to have biased results.

What makes a strong research proposal?

What is research? There are varied definitions, and they include:

'a systematic investigation to discover facts or collect information' (Collins Gem English Dictionary, 1992)

'a detailed study of a subject, especially in order to discover (new) information or reach a (new) understanding' (Cambridge Dictionaries online, 2008)

'a process of investigation leading to new insights effectively shared' (REF consultation document, 2009)

A key factor in all of these definitions is the focus on new and original facts, information andunderstanding.

Strong research proposals must skilfully combine and blend a 'Big Question', with wide implications, impact and importance, with a novel approach and a sound methodology. Good proposals will have a unique question or a new method, and the methods and study area will be appropriate. Finally, good proposals will achieve closure by bringing their proposal full circle, demonstrating how their outputs and deliverables will feed back into the 'Big Question'.

It is very important that you consider, as a starting point, whether your research is achievable. Research projects can provide us with varying amounts of information, and vary in size from small to large projects. Different problems are suitable for people to tackle at different stages of their careers (cf. Alon, 2009). Is your project of a suitable difficulty for you to tackle, and does to add enough to our body of knowledge?

The best proposals are appropriate to the career stage and time available of the person concerned. They are concise, clear and complete - not asking to do too much. They have a strong rationale and a wider justification, with a Big Question clearly situated within this. The rationale and wider justification should clearly demonstrate the importance and impact of the 'Big Question'. Finally, the best proposals are novel, but not too novel. 'Me-too' science is likely to not be funded - but so is large, speculative science, that is likely to have unachievable aims and targets.

Whether you are writing a proposal or a thesis or dissertation, you should follow these steps for good research design. You should also take a look at my blog post, " Climate Change Skeptics ", which also talks about research design.

10 steps to good research design

Below, I have put together a list of 10 steps for you to think about when designing a research project. Follow these steps for good research design, and for writing a good grant application or introduction to your dissertation or thesis. Of course, I have only covered this topic briefly here; there are many further resources that you can look at that discuss research design in more detail.

It goes without saying that your teacher or supervisor is the real expert here and they should be consulted at every step of the way. Make use of their years of training and expertise. Discuss your ideas with them, and where you want your research to go. The joy of research is that you get to decide what to do and how to do it. But you should check with your supervisor that your methods are appropriate, that your research is relevant (and hasn't been done before!), and that it is achievable within your timeframe.

Step 1. Why are you doing this research?

The first phase of your research design is to decide what you are doing, and why you are doing it. Many people become so immersed in their project, they cannot see the wood for the trees, and assume that everybody knows why their work is important. This is not the case; you need to be able to explain to non-specialists the importance of your work. Your examiner will be looking to see that you understand the relevance. Whether you are writing a proposal or an introduction to your thesis, you should start with a rationale.

Grants are awarded competetively on the basis of their relevance and importance. Papers are only published if they are relevant. The rationale is probably one of the most important parts of your research design, and you skim over it or ignore it at your peril.

Step 2. Identify the key unknowns

Once you have decided on the broad area of your research project, and you have established a good rationale and reason for undertaking it, you need to read up on previous work. What are the key unknowns and key research questions? What gaps can my research project fill? Write a 'Wider Justification' where you explore previous work, but where you identify gaps in knowledge.

If you are doing a PhD or MSc dissertation, you should expect to spend a considerable amount of time at the start of your research project reading the available literature. Make a list of research questions and key unknowns as you come across them. This is a vital step to becoming an expert in your area.

Finally, this stage is imperative to make sure that your research has not already been done!

The best projects are novel, but not too novel (which is risky and difficult - see the graph by Alon, 2009, above), and should avoid 'me-too' science. Don't just jump on the bandwagon because everyone else is doing it. Your project must have clearly defined research questions. Equally, large, speculative science is unlikely to get funded.

Step 3. What is your aim and what are your objectives?

Once you have worked out a rationale for your research, you need to decide on an aim. This is the most important part of your research design, and it should address the key unknowns identified in Step 1 above. Ideally, you should be able to express your aim in one sentence, e.g.,
Aim: to reconstruct the glacial history of the NE Antarctic Peninsula on centennial to millennial timescales.
Your objectives should help you to achieve your aim. You can identify, typically, 3-5 objectives that will each bring you a step closer to your achieving your aim. Ideally, each objective should be associated with research questions so that you are always trying to achieve something new and original. This will also keep your research focussed and on the right lines.

Good aims and objectives usually have the following characteristics:

Specific, achievable and feasible

Clear sense of deliverables

Specific, clear, over-arching research question

Realistic about methods and timescale available

Use words like Compare, determine, characterise, explain, quantify, interpret, measure

Alternatively, poor aims and objectives typically have the following characteristics:

Vague, broad, unspecified titles

No hypothesis or research question

Overambitious and not realistically achievable

Step 4. What hypotheses are you testing?

For reasons that are covered in more detail in this blog post, as scientists, we need to test hypotheses. These hypotheses should be indentified by your analysis of previous work and key unknowns. We work within a Research Programme: this means that there are key things that we hold to be true (evolution, plate crustal movement, basic processes of glacier movement), and that there are areas that are continuously under development and being questioned (details of past glacier history). You need to write one or two hypotheses that you will test. A good scientist should attempt to falsify her hypotheses. Your hypotheses should be based on the literature, your identification of the key knowns and unknowns, and should move the science forward.

Step 5. Identify the key deliverables.

What are the key outcomes and deliverables of your research going to be? The deliverables should use words such as, understanding, quantification, conceptual, process, analysis, characterisation, determination. For example:

An improved understanding of process XX

Glacier velocity maps

Process-based conceptual models of process YY

Quantification of ZZ

Analysis of glacier fluctuations over time (glacier outlines submitted to GLIMS)

These deliverables should enable you to test your hypotheses and achieve your aim. They should be specific and achievable, and help you achieve closure with your 'Big Question'.

Step 6. Identify key resources

What resources will you need to complete this research project? Will you need to do fieldwork, and if so, for how long? Will you need any specific computer resources, packages, programmes, remotely sensed images, computer codes?

Step 7. Timeframe for research

Your research design should incorporate a realistic assessment of the time committments for each objective. Write a Gantt Chart (you can just do this in Excel or on paper!) that outlines each objective and the amount of time you have available. Work out in detail how much time each objective will take you, and be realistic about whether it is achievable in your time available. Typically, students underestimate the amount of time a specific objective will take them, so be cautious in your estimation.

Step 8. Draw up a work-flow model

Once you have worked through the steps above, you are ready to put it together into a coherent workflow model. I think these should be included in all dissertations and grant applications, as they clearly set out how the different objectives fit together.

Write the aim at the top, and then the hypotheses beneath it. Include your resources or inputs below this. Then, each in a separate box, outline each objective and the key deliverables associated with this objective. Finally, at the bottom, give your end result; e.g., hypotheses accepted or refuted; a general model or process XX; quantification of YY. This makes it very clear how your research project will fit together, what you will achieve, and how it fits with your aims and hypotheses.

The workflow model should illustrate your deliverablesand thus provide closure for your 'Biq Question'.

Step 9. Risks and risk mitigation

If you are planning on doing fieldwork, you will need to do a risk assessment and clearly identify hazards and how you will mitigate or prevent them. But you should also be aware of more general risks; do you have the relevant knowledge? Are the resources that you need available? Will the costs change? Risks could include:

Unreliable exchange rates

Wildlife hazards (polar bears?)

Weather (hot / cold / blizzards)

Environmental hazards and disposal of waste

Equipment failure

Not being able to obtain key datasets

Access to field areas

Step 10. Undertake your research!

Now that you have spent some time carefully planning your research, you are ready to begin. You are going to research something that is important, interesting, and something that you will enjoy. You have written a good research plan, and know that your work is relevant to society and other scientists. Have fun!

Evaluate your work as you go, and be prepared to change your methodology or objectives as you go along, if you find something is not feasible or too difficult. In fact, you may find that your work needs to go full circle if your methods do not work or it turns out to not be feasible! So, your final research design might look something like the figure opposite...

Always remember Occam's Razor: In the case of several competing hypotheses, the one that makes the fewest assumptions is most likely to be true.

Writing your dissertation, thesis or grant application

Now that you have done some excellent research design, you're already well on your way to a top grade! So go off and complete your research. Write up your dissertation or thesis, but write your introduction last. Your introduction should follow something like the outline below (although your supervisor, teacher or advisor will give you more advice that is relevant to your project).

If you are writing a grant application, then the format should be similar to that below (check the application details carefully as they might be specificied), but you should include a timeframe for research as well.

1. Rationale for the research. Why the work is important.

2. Key unknowns and research questions.

3. State aim, hypotheses and objectives clearly and succinctly.

4. Show the Progamme of Research or Workflow Model.

5. Go into each objective in more detail. Pepper them richly with research questions. Be clear about the resources and timeframe available.

6. You may want to include a section on risks and risk mitigation, a wider justification of the work, and for grant applications, why it might benefit you personally.

7. If you are writing a dissertation or thesis, you might want to give an outline of your thesis chapters here.

Grant applications in particular will need a careful justification or resources. You will need to account for every penny requested! Think carefully through all the things that you will need to cost in.

Further reading

Here are some excellent articles to help you on your way.
Alon, 2009. How to Choose a Good Scientific Problem. Molecular Cell. Erren et al., 2007. 10 simple rules for doing your best research. Computational Biology. Schwartz 2008. The importance of stupidity in scientific research. Journal of cell science.
Rhoads and Thorn 1996. The Scientific Nature of Geomorphology.

Article by Bethan Davies.

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Why should we care about research design? | What makes a strong research proposal? | 10 steps to good research design | Writing your dissertation, thesis or grant application | Further reading | You can watch the video of a lecture I gave as part of the APECS Webinar series here: Ten Steps to Good Research Design from APECS Webinars on Vimeo.

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