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Your literature review should provide a broad overview of the research that is important to your study. This section of your thesis should begin with a few introductory paragraphs where you frame the research topic and its significance. To do this you will need to summarize all of the major relevant arguments on the research subject, highlighting the main issues and how the various schools of thought differ. If there are key terms to define the reader should do that here. This section should be organized thematically, so rather an discuss one source within a paragraph you would organize your paragraphs around themes or arguments within the literature. For example, if deterrence theory is important to your research (either it is the main theory in use, or parts of it are important to your research) you would discuss this concept using a variety of references that help demonstrate the scope of knowledge surrounding this theme.
The sources you use within your paper matter greatly to the overall credibility of your research. For this reason a majority of your sources should be coming from peer-reviewed articles, scholarly texts, or other appropriate sources an websites.
The literature review is NOT an annotated bibliography or a “laundry list” of reviewed articles. You should not be dedicating a paragraph or more to each source you consulted. Instead the literature review, should capture and synthesize the issues in the research topic. At the end of this review, you should explain how your study will fit into this larger body of research that has already been carried out. What research gaps will you help try and fill? What unanswered questions will you take into consideration? Are you looking at this question using a different theoretical lens? All of these questions are something that your literature review should answer. Ultimately you want to take time to remind readers of the importance of your research.
One thing to keep in mind as you proof read your literature review is that any information that is specific to your study’s findings should be discussed within the “Analysis & Findings” section of your thesis. Within your literature review you should be focused on discussing the following:
Prior research that has attempted to answer your question.
Prior research that is important to understanding your research question or topic area.
Prior research that explains your theoretical framework.
Prior research that uses your theoretical framework to answer a different research question (this shows how the theory has been utilized in the past and how it can be harnessed within your study).
How your theoretical framework will be used to help you answer your question (keep in mind that the theory(or theories) you use within your research do not have to be a perfect fit. In your findings and analysis section you would discuss how well it helps you answer your question).
Your literature review should be 12-18 pages in length and use Turabian “author-date” styles references throughout. The only sources that should appear on your reference list are those that you referenced within the literature review itself.
Abstract –
In 2015 the Islamic Republic of Iran signed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and agreed to limit their nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of sanctions by the international community. This agreement occurred fourteen years after the events of September 11, 2001. During this timeframe, numerous sanctions were imposed by the United States, United Nations and the European Union with the intent of impacting Iran’s nuclear ambitions. The purpose of this research was to evaluate if these sanctions did impact Iran’s nuclear program through analyzing what sanctions were implemented, how they were implemented when they were implemented and what they targeted. The impacts of the sanctions were compared against the desired outcomes established by the United States, United Nations, and the European Union in their sanctions policies. Finally, this paper concludes with recommendations on how to improve future sanctions programs.
References (A few references that you could use to do the literature review…not mandatory though):
Atashbar, Tohid. “Iranian Disease: Why a Developing Country’s Government did not listen to Economists’ Advices”, American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Vol 72 (3) July 2013.
Bolan, Christopher. “The Iranian Nuclear Debate: More Myths Than Facts”, The Parameters 43(2) (Summer 2013).
Clawson, Patrick. “U.S. Sanctions”, United States Institute of Peace, http://iranprimer.usip.org/resource/us-sanctions
Emerging Markets Monitor. “Iran: Second Ahmadinejad Term Bad News For Inflation”, Business Monitor International, 29 June 2009.
Esfandiary, Dina. “Assessing the European Union’s Sanctions Policy: Iran as A Case Study”, EU Non-Proliferation Consortium, Non-Proliferation Papers No. 34, December 2013.
Esfandiari, Haleh. Iran After the June 2005 Presidential Election, Woodrow Wilson International Center For Scholars: Middle East Programs (Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Summer 2005).
Gerami, Nima and Pierre Goldschmidt. The International Atomic Energy Agency’s Decision to Find Iran in Non-Compliance, 2002-2006, Center for the Study of Weapons of Mass Destruction (Washington, DC: National Defense University Press, December 2012).
Iran Sanctions Loophole Elimination Act of 2013. S 892, 113th Congress 1st Sess., (8 May 2013).
Iran Threat Reduction And Syria Human Rights Act of 2012. Public Law 112-158, 112th Congress, 1st Sess., (August 2012).
Jiang, Julie and Chen Ding. “Update on Overseas Investments by China’s National Oil Companies”, International Energy Agency, 2014.
Sanger, David. Confront and Conceal: Obama’s Secret Wars and Surprising Use of American Power (New York, NY: Random House Incorporated, April 2013).
LITERATURE REVIEW: WORKING THESIS TITLE
by
Name
In Partial Fulfillment
of
the
Requirement for the Degree
of
Master of Arts, Intelligence Studies
Month
2
014
American Public University System
Charles Town, WV
2
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
A literature review begins with a few introductory paragraphs (you should not use a subheading “Introduction” though, since this is assumed because it is found at the start of the section). In the introduction you need to frame your research topic and its significance, along with present the research puzzle that you are working to address. To do that you will need to summarize the major relevant arguments that occur within the literature on your research topic; you will need to highlight all major issues and also discuss how the major schools of thought on the issue differ. If there are any key terms that need to be defined, you should do this within your introduction as well. For example, within the social sciences this section is referred to as a “literature review” because it provides a broad overview of the research (previously completed) that is important to your study. A “literary review” on the other hand, is a common term used to describe an assessment of a novel. The introduction section should be around 2-3 pages in length.
Literature Review Body
The body of your literature review informs readers about what others have found in their own research on your specific research question (i.e. the extent of existing knowledge on your specific research question), discuss components of research that are particularly useful to your own study (along with a brief explanation of what is less relevant), and discuss how the particular study under review is unique from the research study that you are about to carry out. The body of your literature review must be organized by theme or method, or what makes sense to your particular project. To help you organize your notes, you have been provided with a literature review synthesis matrix. This tool will help you think critically about the overall flow of your literature review and should help highlight the key themes that are occurring across your topic area.
With respect to organizing a paragraph or two around a specific method, you might come to find within the literature that a study uses a method that would be of use to your research, but the topic under investigation has little relevance to your specific question. This is ok. For example if one were to carry out research which seeks to evaluate the success of a particular policy, you might find a few sources which carry out an assessment of a policy’s or organization’s effectiveness. Even though the policy or organization under review might have nothing to do with your research, you would discuss how the studies evaluation processes are of use to your research. The overall body of your literature review should be around 8-12 pages in length.
Use of Peer Reviewed Sources
A study is only as good as the sources that help back it up. In this regard it is important that the sources you pull from come from “peer-reviewed” material. “Peer-review” essentially means that prior to publication the article and contents have been properly vetted by subject matter experts.
For additional information on “peer reviewed” material check out the following helpful links from the Online Library’s LibAnswers:
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What does “peer reviewed” mean?
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How do I find peer reviewed journals or articles?
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Are books considered “scholarly” publications?
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Why aren’t websites like Wikipedia, blogs or Ask.com considered to be scholarly?
The following also present some thought provoking information on peer reviewed material:
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Whose Afraid of Peer Review?
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Science Magazine’s Open Access “Sting”
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Open Access Publishing Hoax: What Science Magazine Got Wrong
Finally, this URL is a more direct link to some helpful Library Course Guides:
http://apus.campusguides.com/librarysubjectguides
Theoretical Framework
Students often ask where there theoretical framework should be discussed within their theses. The confusion often stems from the fact that the theoretical framework is provided with its own section within the formal “Research Proposal.” However, your thesis is different from your research proposal as it integrates some of the information you provided in your proposal into a more robust and scholarly piece. Since the theoretical information used within your thesis helps to serve as a foundation for answering your research question, its best to integrate it within your literature review. This way you will be able to discuss how your use of theory might differ from what scholars have already attempted on the topic.
For additional questions on theory please see the
Theoretical Models (Using Theory)
section within the library. You might be able to answer some of your questions by checking out these links prior to reaching out to your faculty:
·
I am a grad student and need to learn what theories are used in my field/discipline. How do I do that?
·
I am a grad student doing a capstone thesis paper. What does it mean to “integrate theory and theoretical concepts” into my work?
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My graduate capstone professor tells me I have to “use theory” in my thesis project? What does she/he mean? Help!
Format
Much like the rest of your thesis, you may use subheadings (as has been done within this guide) to help you organize your literature review. Should you do so make sure that you are removing extra spaces between paragraphs and make them stand out using bold face type.
Conclusion
The conclusion of your literature review should summarize the primary “sense of the literature” and encapsulate where the existing research ends and where your study will start. This section should leave the reader with an understanding of the overall research gaps that your study aims to fill, and reiterate the overall importance of your work. The conclusion of your literature review should be around 2-3 pages in length.
References
On a separate page you will need to include your list of references completed in the Turabian “author-date” style.
The references should be in alphabetical order according to author last name. They should be single spaced, with one space between references, and should be formatted using the hanging indent style.
The only sources that should appear on this list are those that you have actually referenced within your literature review. These should include at least 20-25 sources, of which at least 15 or more are from peer reviewed material.
By the time you complete your research you should be referencing 50 or more sources, however to get to this point you will have read between 100-200 sources.
