What is a Literature Review Dissertation?

What is a literature review dissertation, or systematic review as it is increasingly being called? This is a question I go over repeatedly with students. And it is fair to say that the name is confusing. What is the difference between a literature review dissertation and a literature review in a dissertation?

Ok, first, every dissertation will have a literature review. Sometimes this is combined with the introduction, sometimes it stands alone, but every one will, or should, include a review of the literature in the field — a literature review. Having a literature review does not mean that this is a literature review dissertation. 

I know this is confusing, but stick with me. 

A literature review dissertation is one that uses a literature review instead of quantitative or qualitative data collection. It still uses data, but this research data is drawn from the literature. This type of data — data collected by someone else — is referred to as secondary data. When the data is collected by you, this is primary data or research. 

A literature review dissertation will also include a literature review section, although this will often be combined with the introduction. See the table below for how this works out in the outline.

Literature Review Dissertation	Qualitative Method. Dissertation	Quantitative Method. Dissertation
Introduction	Introduction	Introduction
Literature review (may be combined with the intro.)	Literature review	Literature review
Methodology	Methodology	Methodology
Findings (may be combined with the discussion)	Findings (may be combined with the discussion)	Findings (may be combined with the discussion)
Discussion	Discussion	Discussion
Conclusion	Conclusion	Conclusion

See how, in the table above, the structures are pretty much the same. But, in the literature review dissertation approach, because the data is also drawn from the literature, your literature research phase will also involve data collection, rather than this being a separate undertaking. 

The way this is resolved is that whilst the overall literature review will — in all three types — provide an overview of the research in the field and potentially lead to outlining a research gap, the literature being considered in the findings/discussion sections in the literature review dissertation will be a relatively small number of studies undertaking primary research and comparing their findings. Essentially, their findings stand in for the primary findings you would have gathered with the other approaches, but they fulfil the same purpose in the different research types. 

There are various advantages to a literature review approach. It is often used in fields where ethical considerations mean it is too difficult to gather primary data, such as social work or health care settings. Literature review dissertations also allow for a much wider level of data collection because you may ultimately be discussing the findings from, for example, five researches, each of which conducted interviews with 20 people, meaning your data set includes 100 interviews — something no three-month dissertation project can achieve. 

The types are different and serve different purposes. So choosing what works best for you will depend on the aims of your project as well as the stipulations of the institution.

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