How is Literature Review different from Literature Mapping?

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In your academic career, you constantly come across literature reviews. Literature reviews are necessary for completing your dissertation or research paper. But, literature review and literature mapping are not the same. Every research project starts with a literature review which tries to create a space for that research. It identifies gaps in the study and covers those parts which are not yet covered. A literature review requires utilizing search engine tools such as Google Scholar to find the relevant literature for your topic. Once you identify the useful literature pertinent to your case, it is best to visualize it. A literature map is a visual picture of the literature you have specified. It groups the literature and depicts your study’s contribution to the existing literature. In a nutshell, literature mapping positions your study within the larger body of research.

This article aims to differentiate between Literature Review and Literature Mapping. Let us discuss in detail that what both concepts entail. 

What is a Literature Review?

Once you finalize your topic, you start looking for the relevant literature. A Literature review has the following objectives:

• Survey of the available literature in the chosen area of your study
• Illuminates how knowledge has evolved in the selected area of your study
• Highlights the work done so far
• Sheds light on the emerging ideas 
• Synthesis of the information gathered from the literature into a summary
• Critical analyses of the information gathered
• Identifying gaps in the current knowledge
• Highlighting the limitations in theories and opinions
• Underlines the unexplored or under-researched areas
• Make a position for your study that how your research will address this gap

A literature review demonstrates to your readers that you have a thorough understanding of your subject. It shows that you are aware of the recent developments in your field of study. It provides a rationale for conducting your research. It tries to situate your study within the larger body of available research. Literature review exhibits to your readers that you are familiar with the body of knowledge. PhD dissertation writing help experts suggest that it makes your work more credible. A thorough literature review summarizes prior research and establishes links to your project. It shows that you have an in-depth understanding of your subject and provides a preamble to your study.  

What is Literature Mapping?

Literature Mapping has the following objectives:

• Organizes the relevant literature 
• Enables you to grasp your contribution to the existing literature
• It helps the researchers to visualize the impact of their study

Literature mapping is a visual summary of the work completed by others. It is usually represented in figures. PhD dissertation writing help experts suggest hierarchically making the map. The hierarchical structure could be a top-down display of literature that enlists your proposed study at the end. You can also use flowcharts to present the literature, and on the right-end side, you could place your study. Series of circles are also useful for literature mapping. You can put the relevant literature in the circles and intersect them to demonstrate overlaps. It could be useful to indicate the gaps in the study and make a place for your research. In essence, a literature map is a graphical presentation of existing research about a topic that provides an overview. 

Now, the question arises of how to make an effective literature map. The experts suggest the following methods for literature mapping:

• Make a hierarchical structure of relevant literature
• Place your topic in the box at the top of the hierarchy
• Organize the subtopics if there are any into different categories as per the relevant studies
• Label the boxes to describe the type of studies in the box
• Put references to major citations in each box 
• Make extra boxes for subtopics since your main topic can branch out to several sub-topics
• It must have qualitative, quantitative and mixed-method studies
• After organizing the literature in a diagram, connect the relevant studies with your proposed research to create a springboard for your research

Conclusion:

Thus far, we have highlighted the differences between Literature review and literature mapping. A literature review is a critical evaluation of the existing body of knowledge, but it requires planning. The first task of the researcher working on a research project is to organize the literature. Literature mapping is a useful tool to conduct a literature review. First, find the relevant literature to your proposed field of study. Conducting a literature review in a haphazard manner can be daunting and time-consuming. If you are short in time and need professional help, then you can get PhD dissertation writing help. They have experts who can provide quality content efficiently and effectively.

Making a literature map may come across as challenging and time-consuming. It takes some time to make a map and locate literature within it. But, once you organize the relevant literature and create a visual display, it helps a lot in the literature review. So, the next time you have to write a research paper, you should first consider making a literature map.