eChapter Name: Review and Citations
9789358874365
eBook Name: AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION: FUNDAMENTALS AND FACTS
by P. Jaisridhar
The Review of literature is a systematic, explicit and reproducible method of identifying, evaluating and synthesizing the existing body of a completed and a recorded work produced by researchers, scholars and practitioners. The Review of literature is also a resource paper which includes the current knowledge including substantive findings as well as the theoretical and the methodological contributions to a particular topic. These are available mostly in academic and scholastic journals.
Review of literature provide the basics for research in nearly every academic f ield. This chapter is an extensive survey of all past studies relevant to the field of investigation which gives knowledge of what others have found out in the related field of study. In any scientific investigation or research, a comprehensive presentation of the review of literature is a statutory requirement.
The aim of review of literature is to highlight what has been done so far in the field of interest and how our findings are related to earlier research.
Its main functions are to develop a better understanding of the problem to be investigated, delineate a new area of study and avoid unnecessary duplication, decide on the tools and techniques to be adopted including developing some new ones and also to relate the present study with the previous ones by finding out the areas of agreement and disagreement.
The review of literature may
(a) Indicate the following by providing referential inputs – Approaches, Methods, Variables used, Statistical procedure, Expected results.
(b) Provide theoretical background to the study.
(c) Help to justify how the findings are related to the body of knowledge in the f ield of research.
(d) Establish a link between what we have proposed to study and what has already been found. It helps us to refine the research methodology.