How long should a lit review be in a research paper?

20 pages

What role does a literature review play in a research paper?

The role of the literature review Your literature review gives readers an understanding of the scholarly research on your topic. In your literature review you will: demonstrate that you are a well-informed scholar with expertise and knowledge in the field by giving an overview of the current state of the literature.

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

Research articles, sometimes referred to as empirical or primary sources, report on original research. 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.

How do you know if a journal is primary or secondary?

Primary refers to the fact that it is written by the person who did the research, not a secondary source (like a journalist summarizing the study results for their paper, or a literature review summarizing the research others have done on a topic).

How do you know if a source is secondary?

Anything that summarizes, evaluates or interprets primary sources can be a secondary source. If a source gives you an overview of background information or presents another researcher’s ideas on your topic, it is probably a secondary source.

How do you know if something is peer reviewed?

You will need to look at the journal information to find out if the articles it publishes are peer-reviewed. If the article is from a printed journal, look at the publication information in the front of the journal. Here it should tell you if the articles are peer-reviewed.

How do you tell if an article is a literature review?

The literature review section of an article is a summary or analysis of all the research the author read before doing his/her own research. This section may be part of the introduction or in a section called Background.

Is a literature review a scholarly source?

In this context, the “literature” refers published scholarly work in a field. Literature includes journal articles, conference proceedings, technical reports, and books. A literature review can also be a short introductory section of a research article, report or policy paper that focuses on recent research.

What should a literature review look like?

Just like most academic papers, literature reviews also must contain at least three basic elements: an introduction or background information section; the body of the review containing the discussion of sources; and, finally, a conclusion and/or recommendations section to end the paper.