Strengthening Your
Literature Review
A microorganism is an organism so small that people cannot see them with the naked eye.
Microorganisms can be harmful and useful organisms.
Has a Point of View
A
literature review
should provide
making sense of
different approaches
findings from prior
work.
concepts
new insights by integrating multiple strands
the authors
relate articles
to their research questions
a description of relevant articles that
have been published in the past
A strong literature review
makes a contribution in itself.
is the outcome of a creative
process
Motivates Your
Research Question
Harmful microorganisms include fungi, bacteria, protozoa, etc.
They cause several diseases in human beings, animals, and plants, which can even lead to death.
The harmful microorganisms not only can damage the human body, but also the food we eat.
great researches
motivated by a
“real-world” issue
think about what your reviewers
and readers will value.
be as specific as possible
Literature review needs
to be
What diseases can they cause?
shaped by your research
questions
focused your questions
what your going to ask.
you need to be
clear
Doing a literature
Give examples of how the spread of harmful organisms can be prevented.
maintain a wide and up-to-date
understanding of your subject area
It is
Give examples of how harmful organisms can spread.
essential to have interesting and
relevant research questions
Identify arguments about why it is
an important gap to fill.
motivated by a gap
Signals a Fit Between
the Research and the Journal
Research about the main characteristics of the microorganisms and give examples!
To build on existing
conversations.
authors should familiarize themselves
with at least the last 2 years of articles
for a Journal
be useful
A focused review on a specific topic
cite previous
articles
published in the journal.
your paper needs to be relevant
to the area of specialty
literature review
is a key element in this process
positioned at
the start of an article and so
not only are important in themselves
frames
an article by positioning
it against past research
Is Well Written
only some of your readers
will be expert in your particular topic
and, indeed, your entire paper)
before you submit it to a journal
to check whether
your ideas are clear and
well constructed.
It is helpful to have another
scholar read over your
literature review.
you need to have a clear logical
progression when you are laying
out your arguments
A frequently used structure
contrast those to studies that have
different findings
is to group studies with
the same findings
You need to think about the extent to which you are
going to portray prior research as complementary
the methods section
content of your paper’s literature
review are mutually dependent
has a relatively prescribed
structure and content
The literature review
is a difficult part of a paper to
write
Covers Recent Research
Microorganisms help in the production of many food items, making medicines, keeping the environment clean, in manufacturing, and in research.
new knowledge in their paper
Microorganisms have a role in waste disposal, agriculture, and nutrient recycling.
Give examples of these types.
signal that the authors are up to date in the topic
If you have presented your paper
at several conferences
Give examples of bacteria used in the pharmaceutical industry.
and your ideas can seem stale.
your original reference list is likely to be 3 or
4 years out of date
Make
sure you do
a new literature
it
has already gone through a review
process at a previous
journal
It is unfortunately too common
Give examples of Microorganisms in food production.
have
with only a handful of articles published
in the past 5 (or even 10!) years.
Covers Past Research
Thoroughly
There are five types of microorganisms. Out of these five, four can be free-living or parasitic.
There is one that can be only parasitic since it always reproduces inside other living things.
After enumerating them, click on the flags below to mark the ones which can be free-living and the ones that cannot.
can be free-living
only parasitic
The coverage
You need to include the
definitive
on a topic and also the articles
that are relevant to your narrow
research questions
If you are
studying something like succession
for example, an
exhaustive reference
list
would be overwhelming and
drown out the
rest of your paper
if a reviewer identifies some key articles
That being said, it is not
desirable to be exhaustive
It
detracts from your authoritativeness
as a subject expert
ls to reviewers how well you know
this body of past research.
Defines Your Key Research Constructs
Name the study of microorganisms.
Subtopic
the exceptions
are when a paper is focused on
construct development
the definitions
there will be
Your reviewers and readers
are aware of
this
alternative, and sometimes inconsistent,
definitions in past work.
should be linked
you have investigated in your
research
empirically
conceptually
